| | MEDIA WINNER: The Atlantic's David Zweig The Atlantic’s David Zweig took aim Thursday at the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that all children over two years old wear masks in schools in order to protect against Covid-19, describing the study behind the policy as “very shaky science.” The recommendation stems from a September 2021 Arizona study, which found that schools without mask mandates had 3.5 times more outbreaks than schools that did. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky first cited the study while a guest on CBS’s Face the Nation on September 26th and has continued to cite the “3.5 times more likely” stat repeatedly while promoting the recommendation. To research his article, Zweig spoke with nine experts in the field, and noted that the “study’s methodology and data set appear to have significant flaws," including detection bias, amount of actual days in class, the definition of “outbreak,” and the type of schools surveyed. There was a scientific consensus about the protective benefits of masks in general, but not so much for schools, he wrote, citing the higher age recommendations from European health authorities and the World Health Organization. The Biden administration's CDC promised to "follow the science," Zweig argued, but on this topic they seemed to be doing the opposite. "Dubious research has been cited after the fact, without transparency, in support of existing agency guidance." |
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| MEDIA LOSER: Bill Simmons Bill Simmons is apologizing over an impression done on his podcast earlier this week of Joel Embiid by former ESPN employee Jackie MacMullan. Embiid was born in Cameroon was discovered at a basketball camp as a teenager and encouraged to move to the United States. He played basketball for the University of Kansas before leaving early to enter the NBA draft, ultimately being selected as the third overall pick in 2014 by the Philadelphia 76ers. He missed nine games this year due to a bout with Covid-19. In the segment from The Bill Simmons Podcast, which can be heard here, MacMullan imitates Embiid from a recent interview, including mimicking his accent. “That’s a good Embiid impression,” Simmons said in reaction. Social media did not agree it was "good," with a torrent of posts calling the impersonation, as well as Simmons' response to it, racist. Embiid himself liked and shared several tweets with clips from the podcast, but Simmons still deleted the podcast and uploaded an edited version with the impression of Embiid deleted. “Just a heads up Jackie MacMullan and I talked about Joel Embiid on my podcast,” Simmons said. “She did a quick impression of Joel. We realized afterwards it could be taken the wrong way. It was a little too late so as a result we uploaded an edited version as soon as we could. We apologize about that.” |
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| 'Intended to Avoid the Truth' On Thursday, a Delaware state judge denied a motion to dismiss filed by FOX News Media in its defense against a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems regarding Fox News' coverage of the 2020 election. The lawsuit notably asked for $1.6 billion in damages, and detailed conspiracy theories and misinformation promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies as they attempted to claim that the election had been stolen due to widespread fraud. Dominion Voting Systems, as well as another election technology company, Smartmatic, were the targets of many of these conspiracies and claims. Aaron Keller at Mediaite's sister site Law & Crime has a detailed analysis of the judge's order, including specific defenses asserted by Fox that the judge rejected, an explanation of the legal doctrines at issue, and a full copy of the ruling. Fox's motion to dismiss argued that its journalists were merely covering "both sides" of the story, but the judge found that theory unpersuasive. Specifically, the judge noted that Dominion had repeatedly attempted to provide factual corrections to Fox's claims, but Fox did not include this contrary evidence in their reporting. The judge ruled that the Complaint had adequately set forth facts that Fox's reports were false, and from that, "the Court can infer that Fox intended to avoid the truth." FOX News Media issued a statement defending their 2020 election coverage and stating that the network "remain[ed] committed to defending against this baseless lawsuit and its all-out assault on the First Amendment.” The ruling is “a major legal blow to Fox News," said CNN's New Day co-host John Berman on Friday morning's show. “This also sets up the potential for top Fox personalities to have to testify under oath in the case.” A number of media observers, including CNN's Reliable Sources and New York Times media columnist Ben Smith, viewed the ruling -- and the now-looming discovery process -- as turning up the pressure on Fox to settle. In Other News... Mitch McConnell Shows Support for 1/6 Committee: ‘The Public Needs to Know’ What Was Behind That ‘Horrendous Event’ LISTEN: Trump Claims the NY Times ‘Hates Israel’ Despite ‘Jewish People that Run the NY Times‘ Newsmax Host Suggests Tucker Carlson Defends Putin ‘Under Duress’ from ‘Liberal Bosses’ at Fox News Anti-Vaxxer RFK Jr. Busted for Holiday Party Urging Vaccinations, Blames Wife Cheryl Hines 6.5.0 |
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'I really just want to play golf all the time and fish' On the latest episode of The Pat McAfee Show, NBA Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley offered a refreshingly blunt confession: he gets so many requests to participate in charity events that he just lies and says he's busy. “I’m really not that busy because I really just want to play golf all the time and fish,” Barkley said. “Everybody’s charity is important, but I can’t do it all! I want to have some time to be a normal person and play golf and fish. I understand charity is important,” Barkley added. “But you’re only one person, and I’m not going to work 365 days a year.” Can't really blame the guy. Watch here. |
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