THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2022

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper

The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper took a break from trolling Americans and traveled north to Ottawa to confront truckers protesting vaccine requirements for drivers who cross the border.

“Three weeks ago, north of the border, a new kind of protest emerged,” Klepper said on Thursday’s episode. “So I traveled to Ottawa, expecting to find some Canada nice, but their messaging was a bit more coarse. These trucks shut down businesses and made roads impassable.”

To recap, Canadian anti-vaxxers have been protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates that were put in place last month, causing supply-chain disruptions and shutting down roads.

Well versed in confronting protesters, Klepper went on to speak to some of the truckers who have paralyzed Canada’s capital city by turning it into a gridlock.

“We don’t live in Germany. We don’t live in Nazi Germany. Those days are over,” said one protester. “'Show me your papers' don’t happen anymore. That’s a freedom that everyone should have.”

Klepper pushed back, asking if “the Germany comparison” was a “stretch here in Canada,” prompting the protester to simply say, “No.”

Klepper's point was a valid one, as we have seen an appalling trendiness of Holocaust comparisons in recent years. Here's a good rule of thumb: if genocide is actually happening or people are being rounded up and put in concentration camps (like the situation with the Uyghurs in China), then it's possible a Nazi analogy won't be totally off-base. Otherwise, just don't go there.

He might be a correspondent on a Comedy Central show, but Klepper made a serious and important point with this story.

MEDIA LOSER:
The Washington Post

The Washington Post issued a correction on Thursday regarding how they described the views of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas in a story on the apparent influence Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) has over President Joe Biden as he decides who he will nominate for the Supreme Court.

The trouble came in how the Post framed a quote from Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS). “If you know that a person has been vetted by Jim Clyburn, you know that person won’t go to the court and end up being a Clarence Thomas,” said Thompson.

The Post added onto the quote a comment that the mention of Thomas was "referring to the Black justice whose rulings often resemble the thinking of White conservatives."

After getting buried in an avalanche of online criticism, the Post added a clarification to the article: "A previous version of this story imprecisely referred to Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinions as often reflecting the thinking of White conservatives, rather than conservatives broadly. That reference has been removed."

This wasn't a hastily-written post on some random blog, or even an op-ed on the Post's opinion page, but an article presented as a straight news piece with two reporters' bylines attached and presumably multiple editors involved to approve the story pitch, vet the article, copy-edit, and finalize for publication. 

All those people were on board with suggesting a Black judge can't have conservative views without being viewed as thinking like White people. News flash: Black people are just that -- people. Some are liberal. Some are conservative. Some have zero interest in politics. That's all fine.

The Post's "clarification" was good, but it's an embarrassment that ridiculous phrase ever got published in the first place. 

The A-Block

"Kids go to prison for dime bags longer"

A judge on Friday sentenced Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer who was convicted of both first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the 2021 traffic-stop fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Given the 58 days she has already served behind bars, Potter will serve 16 months in prison followed by serving the remainder of her sentence on supervised release.

Prior to the sentencing, Wright’s mother gave a teary and emotional statement to the Hennepin County District Court Judge Regina Chu, calling on the judge to impose the maximum sentence 15 years behind bars and/or a $30,000 fine.

“I can’t give the defendant sympathy,” said Katie Wright. Other members of Wright's family, including the mother of his young son, also took the stand to argue for a harsh sentence, with most calling for the legal maximum. 

Chu declined to apply any aggravating factors to the sentence, saying that prosecutors had failed to meet the burden of proof and Potter was "extremely remorseful."

The light sentence met with swift and vocal outrage from progressives on social media. "Kids got to prison for dime bags longer than Kim Potter will serve for murdering a young man," wrote one Twitter user. "This is a f*cking disgrace," was another's take. 

Wright's parents broke down in tears outside the courtroom as they spoke to reporters, clearly devastated by the sentence


In Other News...

'I Was Angry': Black Teen Who Cops Roughed and Cuffed in NJ Mall Fight with White Teen Speaks Out to CNN

Russian TV Head Fawns Over ‘Wonderful’ Tucker Carlson, Publicly Encourages Putin to Agree to Interview with Fox News Host

WATCH: Ted Cruz Falsely Claims Biden Wants To 'Give Crack Pipes To Minorities To Destroy Minority Communities'

Donald Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka Must Testify in NY Attorney General’s Investigation, Judge Rules

HALL: Fox News Stops Covering Hillary Spying on Trump Story After Spending All Week Attacking Media For Ignoring It

Must See Clip

"That was crazy, man!"

A live feed of planes trying to land at London’s Heathrow airport on an unbelievably windy day riveted viewers on both sides of the Atlantic for hours.

The stream, which broadcast on a YouTube channel called Big Jet TV, was Twitter's favorite distraction Friday morning, as hundreds of thousands checked in to watch planes navigating landing at Heathrow while being battered by winds as high as 122 miles per hour. 

A major part of the appeal is Big Jet TV's operator and host, Jerry Dyer. His colorful commentary is an absolute treasure as he cheers on the planes and their intrepid pilots. 

Check out the adventures in aviation here.

Links We Like

What can actually convince vaccine skeptics to get their shots
- Dylan Scott, Vox
It’s Not ‘The’ Ukraine: The country is much more than a sphere of influence.
- Franklin Foer, The Atlantic
Pamela Moses 'Requested a Jury Trial.' So She Got 6 Years in Prison.
- Billy Binion, Reason
The Bones of the Blogosphere: What’s the right way for a blog—or a newsletter—to die?
- Addison Del Mastro, The Bulwark
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