Cable news ratings; CNN's new show; MSNBC's Hassan demands answers from Biden WH; Rogan's litter box fantasy

Mehdi Hasan grilled White House chief of staff Ron Klain about President Joe Biden’s remarks on the pandemic, asking if it was fair to say it was “over” when so many people were still dying from Covid-19 and dealing with long Covid.
In a September interview, 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley asked Biden if the pandemic was over, to which the president replied, "We still have a problem with Covid. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over."

The Mehdi Hasan Show host asked Klain to explain Biden’s comments Tuesday.

“Around 11,000 Americans died in the past month from Covid, hospitalizations ticking up, hundreds of people still dying every day, long Covid affecting 1 in 5 people who got Covid, according to the CDC,” said Hasan.
“How can your boss, the president, say the pandemic is over?”
Klain replied that Hasan was taking Biden “out of context,” pointing out that “the next sentence he said after that was that we have a lot more work do to on Covid.”

“But the pandemic is not over?” Hasan interjected. “Just to be clear, you’re accusing me of taking him out of context. Is the pandemic ‘over’ or not?”

Klain confirmed the fight against Covid-19 was ongoing, yet failed to mention the pandemic, prompting Hasan to ask again.
After another back and forth, Hasan argued Biden was sending “mixed messaging” saying the pandemic was “over,” pointing out America’s “abysmally low” booster rate.
Good on Hasan for pressing Klain on the topic, especially as the nation has "one of the worst booster rates in the Western world."

Joe Rogan admitted he had no proof to back the claim that a litter box was installed in a school for a student who "identifies as an animal."
Rogan pushed the debunked theory in an October episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, which featured former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
He told Gabbard that a litter box was installed in a school where his friend's wife works "because there is a girl who’s a furry" attending the institution.
Rogan failed to name the school or his friend and there has never been any evidence that a school deployed litter boxes for students.
The host addressed the story again in a recent podcast episode featuring author Michael Shermer -- this time revealing he had no proof.
After Shermer called the notion of litter boxes in schools an "urban myth," Rogan confessed he had some clarifying to do.
“I don’t think they actually did it," he admitted. "I think there was discussions about doing it because there was one particularly wacky mother, but there is — it doesn’t seem that there’s any proof that they put a litter box in there."
Rogan has pushed conspiracy theories on his show numerous times. The theories he entertained regarding the coronavirus and its vaccines and treatments got Neil Young and other artists to remove their music from Spotify.
More recently, Rogan touted the notion that drug dealers would sneak “rainbow fentanyl” into trick-or-treating candy during an episode with Dr. Phil. Not one single story confirmed this happened anywhere in the U.S. this Halloween.