| |  | MEDIA WINNER:
Yamiche Alcindor
PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor is today's winner for her continued unflappable presence in the White House Press Corps. She's been a target of petty, dismissive remarks from President Donald Trump on multiple occasions but never loses her cool or appears to hold a grudge, remaining cool and professional.
On Tuesday, Alcindor battled White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, initially refusing to ask a question while another reporter was speaking — but then interrupted later on to request that she be allowed to ask her question.
McEnany had originally called on Alcindor after dismissively responding to a question from McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers. Alcindor refused to speak as Chambers pressed McEnany to more fully answer her question. McEnany answered and then attempted to call on another reporter, as Alcindor interjected.
“You called on me, can I please go?” asked Alcindor. McEnany replied that Alcindor hadn't asked her question when she was called on, and Alcindor responded she didn’t want to “speak over another reporter” and asked, “Do you not want to answer my question now that I wasn’t being rude to another reporter?”
A few minutes later, The Boston Globe’s Jess Bidgood was called on and deferred to Alcindor to allow her to ask her question.
Alcindor has a track record of asking tough but not unfairly combative questions of the Trump administration -- questions to which the American public need to hear the answers, such as the status of coronavirus testing or details about the reopening of schools.
Tuesday's briefing was an example of this as well as Alcindor and other members of the White House Press Corps showing professionalism and respect to each other. 6.5.0 |
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 | MEDIA LOSER:
Mercedes Schlapp
It takes a special talent to get shredded by not one, but two cable news hosts on the same afternoon, but that's just what Trump 2020 campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp managed to accomplish on Tuesday.
The first Schlapp-down, err, slap-down came courtesy of CNN's Brianna Keilar, who called her out over the president's hypocrisy regarding mail-in voting.
For weeks, Trump has railed against mail-in ballots, claiming (without proof) that they will lead to widespread fraud and undermine the validity of the election. However, this week he suddenly did a 180 degree turn and said mail-in voting was "safe and secure" in the crucial swing state of Florida.
The two women sparred for several minutes, the conversation getting increasingly heated as Schlapp attempted to defend the president's position, until Keilar finally cut her off in a frustrated outburst, “This is just pointless, okay? This is pointless. I get it, you’re just saying a bunch of crap. Okay? You’re saying a bunch of crap.”
A few hours later, Schlapp went to what she probably hoped would be a friendlier environment: Fox News. but unfortunately for her, that would not be the case. Host Sandra Smith pressed Schlapp on Trump's unsubstantiated claims that mail-in voting increases voter fraud, and Schlapp didn't have any better answers than she had a few hours prior on CNN.
“Where’s the evidence of this [voter fraud]?” Smith asked. “You were challenged multiple times on that today and you did not come up with evidence of that, and quite frankly, there is strong evidence to the contrary.”
"He's flipped on Florida!" said Smith.
One cable news humiliation is bad enough, but Schlapp had several hours to prepare some sort of answer and avoid a second one. It's professional malpractice that she failed to do so. 6.5.0 |
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| A historic anniversary Maria Bartiromo celebrated the 25th anniversary of her historic first report from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. Today she's a fixture on Fox Business Network, which aired a special simulcast with Fox News Channel of her glass-ceiling-shattering moment back in 1995.
Bartiromo has been open about the challenges she faced as a 27-year-old journalist, not only one of the youngest but one of the very few women on the floor at the time. In her own words, she survived -- and thrived -- by being "sharp-elbowed" and working hard to make sure that she "knew [her] stuff."
In a frank and open column published yesterday, Bartiromo offered advice that's helpful for any young journalist seeking to establish themselves: "Humility goes a long way and you need to know what you don't know. No one is expecting you to have answers for everything. It's okay not to know something. It's even more okay to ask questions.”
Congrats to Maria Bartiromo on this anniversary, and best wishes for continued professional success.
Troubling scenes in Beirut
There was a massive explosion at the harbor in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 50 and injuring several thousand more. Trump was criticized for "spitballing" that the cause was a "terrible attack," and investigations are continuing. A live BBC Arabic interview shows the shocking moment of the explosion.
Testing is still a problem Trump can keep saying that the pandemic will soon be "going away," but so far, it looks like it will continue to be a problem for the near future -- and one of the biggest problems is the inability in many areas to get quick results from tests.
Fox News' Brian Kilmeade pressed the president on this issue, asking why the rest of the country can't have the advantage of rapid turnaround tests that the people who work in his administration are able to have. Watch their exchange here.
No, seriously, testing is a problem
Axios' Jonathan Swan rightfully got praise for his interview with Trump, and followed it up with several media appearances about the experience. His chat with MSNBC's Ali Velshi is worth watching, including his comments about how "stunning" it is that this many months in, the president is still "expressing ambivalence" over the value of testing," and has failed to implement a better program with quicker results.
Swan's appearance with CNN's Brianna Keilar was also illuminating, going over why he thought Trump was focused on the overall number of tests instead of other metrics more helpful for containing this pandemic, and other reactions to the blockbuster interview.
This is not okay.
The pandemic has Americans very stressed out, from the worries about vulnerable loved ones to fears of losing jobs -- or financial stress for jobs already lost -- not to mention the general stir craziness that's settled in after so many months cooped up at home. But some people are taking out their fears and frustrations on the very people working hard to free us from this nightmare. Several public health officials appeared on MSNBC Wednesday morning to describe the harassment and threats they've received. One woman was contemplating getting home security because she felt so unsafe.
Dr. Anthony Fauci continues to get very ugly threats, and some trolls are even harassing his daughters now.
We believe our readers are more enlightened and intelligent than the average person wandering around the internet, so this message probably isn't for you, but please don't do this. Don't send that mean email or nasty tweet. It won't make the pandemic end any earlier and just makes the job harder for all those people working long hours to find some answers.
A Win for Wallace
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace took a victory in overall viewers in her regular MSNBC time slot amid the news that the network is preparing to expand Wallace's show to two hours.
On Monday, Wallace pulled 1.56 million viewers at 3 p.m., second to Fox's Bill Hemmer's program with 1.61 million. In the demo, Wallace placed second to CNN with 263,000 viewers on MSNBC and 304,000 on CNN.
Get the numbers, and where (if anywhere) the other networks made the top spots from Mediate+!
Not Gonna Happen
Trump said recently that he'd like to officially accept the Republican nomination for president on the White House lawn. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had a big ol' bag of NOPE for that idea, calling it "very wrong," a "diversion," and "not serious thinking."
"It won't happen, let's put it that way," said Pelosi.
Doctor LeBron?
Sometimes pollsters get sick of asking the same questions over and over and try to come up with new issues to poll, sometimes to gain new insights, and sometimes perhaps just for the fun headlines.
Whatever the reason, the latest Politico/Morning Consult poll asked respondents if they'd be more or less likely to take a coronavirus vaccine if they were encouraged by various people, including some predictable figures like Trump and Fauci, but also celebrities like LeBron James, Tom Brady, and Oprah Winfrey. 6.5.0 |
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| Yo, Semites!
Trump has a special talent for going viral on social media, a one-man trending topic factory, and Tuesday was no exception.
His butchered pronunciation of the name of Yosemite National Park (that's "yoh-SEM-i-tee," in case you didn't know) made the park's moniker a trending topic on Twitter and spawned countless jokes at the president's expense.
Check out the video of the president's remarks, as well as some of the funniest tweets we found.
A little trivia for you: according to Yosemite's website, the park is named after a Native American tribe that used to live in the area, but before that the region was called "Ahwahnee" -- which means "big mouth." |
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