Extra, Extra
Press Box: “Last week, as Christiane Amanpour celebrated her 40 years at CNN, she issued a challenge to her fellow journalists in the US by describing how she would cover US politics as a foreign correspondent. ‘We have to be truthful, not neutral … I would make sure that you don’t just give a platform … to those who want to crash down the constitution and democracy.'” Margaret Sullivan: With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways. Meanwhile, Meet the Press kicked off the Kristen Welker era with a(nother) horrible Trump interview. Even NBC itself fact-checked the interview — because so many people watch these interviews and then go back to do more research. Thank god the ghost of Tim Russert had Bills game to distract him on Sunday.
+ Line Backer: “On the tape, Blanchard continues with her onboarding script. She asks for King’s call-back number, her address, any details about how to find her apartment, and she also asks her to make sure the door is unlocked, to set out Narcan on her coffee table if she has any, and to make sure any pets she might have are locked away someplace safe. This protocol is designed to ensure that if EMS is called, they can get to the caller as quickly as possible, since survival can be a matter of seconds.” Slate: The Woman on the Line. “You hear my voice change? I knew she was going to overdose … It’s a sixth sense you develop when you do these calls. Within about five minutes, I know I’m going to have to call EMS.”
+ On Brand? BBC: Russell Brand is facing accusations of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse over a seven-year period. “The accusers, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Russell Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.” Meanwhile, “In recent years Brand has largely disappeared from mainstream media but has built up a large following online with videos mixing wellness and conspiracy theories.”
+ Bump and Grind: “Considering the costs of a pandemic, it’s hard to imagine that we could overinvest in preparing for new infectious threats, related to this virus or others: in the U.S. alone, *covid*’s economic toll could reach fourteen trillion dollars by the end of the year—a sum approaching the G.D.P. of China. And yet the public and political will to confront contagion seems to have evaporated and, at times, transmuted into hostility to the very idea that we should do so. More than half the states have recently taken steps to restrict the authority of public-health officials, and opposition to well-established immunization requirements for childhood diseases has surged.” Dhruv Khullar in The New Yorker: The Covid Bump. “Can we make progress on a problem when so few seem to care?” Here’s some pretty amazing Covid-related news for anyone who has lost a cat to FIP. COVID Drugs Are a Miracle Cure for Cats.
+ Firestarter: After a predictable and justified backlash, Drew Barrymore has halted her talkshow until after the Hollywood strikes end. (It’s pretty remarkable she thought this could go any other way.)
+ Crossing the Line: How fully has the NFL embraced gambling? NYT: There’s a sports book inside the Washington Commanders’ stadium.
