THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021 

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
John Berman

CNN’s John Berman pressed CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on the recently updated mask guidelines, questioning “why the hell” vaccinated people are stuck paying the price for those avoiding the shot.

“With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others,” Walensky said on Wednesday’s New Day. “But with the delta variant, we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring over the last couple of weeks, in those outbreak investigations, we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections, that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.”

Berman then questioned why those who have taken their shots need to mask up, asking, “You can understand the frustration in those of us who are vaccinated saying, ‘Why the hell do I have to pay the price for this?'”

Dr. Walenksy answered, and Berman continued to question her at length, asking things that people actually want to know the answer to. CNN's Kaitlan Collins did the same during Tuesday's briefing when asking about masks in schools. 

One of the tasks for a journalist - a frequently overlooked task - is to ask questions that people want to hear answered by officials, not just the questions that the interviewer believes makes them look savvy or informed.

This was a good job by Berman.

MEDIA LOSER:
Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk, the pro-Trump activist, is under fire after calling Olympic champion Simone Biles a “sociopath” for withdrawing from the gymnastics team finals.

In her final vault at the Tokyo games, Biles stumbled. Former US gymnastics Olympian Laurie Hernandez said it looked like she “got lost in the air.” She received a low score for the vault.

“I knew that the girls would do an absolutely great job and I didn’t want to risk the team a medal,” she said, “because they’ve worked way too hard for that.”

“I’ll usually persevere and push through things, but not to cost the team a medal.”

Kirk, apparently under the belief that Biles could have mailed it in and still earned Team USA a gold medal, focused on a different part of her explanation: “This Olympic Games I wanted to do it for myself, and I was still doing it for other people, so that just hurts my heart badly, that doing what I love has been taken away from me to please other people.”

“Yeah that’s the point Simone Biles,” Kirk said. “You’re representing your nation you selfish sociopath. Are you kidding me?”

Believe it or not, the insane rant actually went on from there.

And while other bad takes from folks like Daily Wire's Matt Walsh and perennial bad take-ist Piers Morgan drew their share of outrage, it was Kirk who really took it to the top of the bottom.

He gets the gold medal in the Loser Olympics.

The A-Block

Fanone Hits Back

Officer Michael Fanone hit back at Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham after the Fox News prime time hosts mocked and ridiculed his testimony before a Congressional Select Committee investigating the Capitol attacks on January 6th.

Fanone revealed during Tuesday’s hearing that he’d been “left with psychological trauma and emotional anxiety after having survived such a horrific event.” He also testified that he was beaten unconscious on that day and thought he would be left for dead. Carlson aired a portion of his testimony, then, coming out of it, laughed at the Capitol Police officer’s experience.

Ingraham did a hacky “Angle Awards,” deriding the raw emotion on display throughout the hearing. She gave “Best Performance in an Action role” to Officer Fanone for his impassioned testimony calling out Republicans downplaying the riot.

Appearing on CNN’s New Day Wednesday morning, co-anchor John Berman asked his guest what it was like to watch Fox News hosts making fun of his testimony before Congress and a curious nation of cable news viewers.

Citing previous experience testifying in court, Officer Fanone revealed that he “always felt most comfortable when defense attorneys resorted to theatrical tactics because I knew that they no longer had facts to support their argument, and so they had to insult me, insult my appearance, or, you know, try to chip away at my credibility.”

Fanone then added, “but this case, the facts are the facts. They were supported by hundreds of hours of videotape, evidence, eyewitness testimony, they’re undisputable,” before pivoting back to Fox News hosts, saying “so if they want to disparage me or call me a member of Antifa or talk about my neck tattoos, I couldn’t care less.”

He then connected the political “entertainment” often described as news or news analysis leading to tragedy.

It's another example of gripping testimony from Officer Fanone.

Between Berman's win, Brianna Keilar's takedown of Piers Morgan, and Officer Fanone's Fox response - not to mention this devastating clips montageNew Day really had quite a day.



In Other News...

Nancy Pelosi Calls Kevin McCarthy "A Moron' for Opposing Mask Mandate

FLASHBACK: MSNBC Hosts Questioned Vaccines and Derided Trump’s ‘Obsession’ With Them’

Mayor de Blasio Announces NYC is Now Paying $100 for People To Get Vaccinated - VIDEO

WATCH: Democratic Congressman Gets CRINGE in Viral Speech About ‘FERCalicious’ Summer

Must See Clip

"Very Disheartening!"

Susan Sarandon appeared at a protest against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez outside the New York Democrat’s office in the Bronx on Monday, where Sarandon said the crowd was “losing hope” in her.

An announcement for the event said “progressive candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran on being activists fighting for change,” but claimed they didn’t do enough to slip the relevant legislative provisions into Covid-19 relief proposals.

Sarandon was not unclear about her disappointment with "the squad, and especially AOC"!

‘I’m Not Going to Fake Objectivity’: Dan Abrams Talks His New Show
and Explains Why He’s Returning to Cable News

Links We Like

As Virus Cases Rise, Another Contagion Spreads Among the Vaccinated: Anger
- Roni Caryn Rabin, New York Times
For Many, Pandemic-Related Anxiety Had Let Up. Then The Delta Variant Happened.
- Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News
Rewriting Jacob Blake: When The Paper Of Record Distorts The Record
- Jeryl Bier, The Dispatch
The Radical Courage of Simone Biles
Eren Orbey, New Yorker
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