THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2021 

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Don Lemon

CNN's Don Lemon visited the Baton Rouge, Louisiana hospital where he was born to report on the state's Covid-19 crisis, and he interviewed multiple patients and doctors.

Only about 38% of Louisianans have been vaccinated, compared to about 50% nationwide. Lemon described the hospital as "bursting at the seams," which the Chief Medical Officer attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant infecting unvaccinated people.

Lemon is vaccinated and has been a vocal supporter of the vaccines on his show. But he made sure to conduct his interviews with the Covid patients with empathy. He commented later on that he recognized that lectures and badgering wouldn't convince people to get vaccinated, so he was hoping showing the human side of this virus would help. 

He did ask the patients about why they hadn't been vaccinated, and had very thoughtful conversations with them how the unvaccinated weren't necessarily partisan hardliners, but were cautious or dealing with hectic schedules.

The patients ending up urging viewers to get vaccinated. “I think everybody ought to try to get it,” one previously vaccine-hesitant woman told Lemon.

It's a vitally important topic, and Lemon handled it with professionalism and heart.

MEDIA LOSER:
Tucker Carlson

Your friendly neighborhood Mediaite newsletter correspondent doesn't actually like selecting Fox News' Tucker Carlson as the Loser of the Day. There's a certain amount of outlandishness interwoven with cable news, outrage draws attention, attention drives up ratings, and Carlson is frequently the King of the Ratings.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and on Thursday night Carlson ignored Uncle Ben's wise words and instead used the power of his top-rated show to mock a sexual assault survivor's very reasonable concerns.

Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told CNN’s  Dana Bash that she not only feared for her life during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, she was worried she might be raped.

"Get a therapist, honey," Carlson sneered, mocking the congresswoman's fears as "crazy."

It wasn't crazy at all. Violent mobs are unpredictable, and there's been extensive coverage of how Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress escaped the rioters with only moments to spare. If the mob had caught up with them, it's reasonable to say it would have inflamed them further, so that even former President Donald Trump's belated calls for calm may not have ended the rioting.

Ocasio-Cortez's worries that day were valid, and Carlson's misogyny was just pathetic.

The A-Block

Wait, what?

There's been a lot of chatter about the media missing Trump, because his chaotic nature spawned a seemingly-endless supply of story content. Sometimes, however, the media itself becomes the story -- and that's not always a good thing.

Internal emails revealed that Fox News tried to book Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) a whopping 113 times during a four month period -- with their messages often accompanied by a heaping dollop of flattery.

An OAN guest claimed that the Covid-19 vaccine made her magnetic, and proceeded to attempt to demonstrate this new superpower live on air with host Dan Ball, who bizarrely seemed to be convinced by her antics.

News broke Thursday that anchor Rachel Maddow was considering leaving MSNBC, but Mediaite's Joe DePaulo was highly skeptical she'd vacate her comfortable spot at the network.

Rudy Giuliani admitted that he lied to Fox News hosts. Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin penned a column pondering how Fox should react.


In Other News...

'That Makes No Sense': Fox News Reporter Grills Pentagon Spox Over Claim That Sending 3,000 Troops to Afghanistan Won't Delay Aug. 31 Pullout

LSU Won’t Require Students to Get a Covid Shot But They Did Vaccinate Their Mascot Mike the Tiger

Rand Paul Says He Filled Out Disclosure Paperwork on Wife's Controversial Stock Buy, But Literally Forgot to Press Send

JUST IN: Biden's FDA Authorizes Covid Booster Shots for Millions of Americans

Must See Clip

Some good ol' fashioned nostalgia

Baseball fans got a treat Thursday evening, as the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox met up for a game, but this wasn't just any game.

They were playing in Iowa. In the middle of a cornfield. James Earl Jones narrated the introduction. Kevin Costner threw out the first pitch. And the players entered the field by emerging from the tall rows of corn. If it sounds like something out of Hollywood, that's because it was.

Major League Baseball had been heavily promoting their Field of Dreams reboot game, and for once, the reality matched -- if not exceeded -- the hype.

Besides the star-studded pregame, the game itself was a thriller, with home runs disappearing into the cornfields and an incredible ninth inning finish. "Absolutely awesome," tweeted Kirk Herbstreit, "from start to a heroic finish."

Links We Like

The GOP Is Playing Itself
- Jim Swift, The Bulwark
‘They Should Have Been Watching’: Suicides Rise in Texas Prisons During Pandemic
- Keri Blakinger, The Marshall Project
Conservatives Are Asking You To Disbelieve Your Own Eyes
- Steven Greenhut, Reason
Don’t Be a Schmuck. Put on a Mask.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Atlantic
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