Monday was not a good day for prima donnas posing as journalists on cable television. Both Tucker Carlson at Fox and Don Lemon at CNN lost their jobs.
Some may question mentioning the two men in the same breath because Carlson is by far the worst of the lot, given the size of his audience and his insistence on telling lies and spreading dangerous conspiracy theories.
Lemon’s failings were less egregious. He was a practitioner of the “raised eyebrow” school of communication, where his condescending brand of smug sarcasm replaced straight news reporting to a degree I, for one, could not stomach. His sexist attitudes on the air and (allegedly) behind the scenes were also a problem for CNN.
So I’m glad to see them both go, although they will no doubt find new venues to return to the airwaves before long.
If the mass media companies are ever going to regain any sort of credibility with the American publIc, they have to eliminate propagandists and return to hiring actual journalists to report the news. According to Gallup, “Just 16% of U.S. adults now say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers and 11% in television news.”
I believe phony journalists like Carlson and Lemon are one part of that problem, though there are many other factors as well.
Clearly, there is much work to be done. But getting rid of some of the pretenders is, IMHO, a good start.
LINKS:
Biden announces 2024 reelection bid: ‘Let’s finish this job’ (AP)
Tucker Carlson pushed out at Fox News (CNN)
Carlson was negotiating new contract when Murdoch fired him (Independent)
Fox Corp.’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation charges is eye-popping, but a Columbia University professor estimates that Fox, after a tax write-off, will incur about three-fourths of the settlement amount. The network though faces more potentially costly legal challenges ahead, including a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic. [AP]
Don Lemon fired from CNN (NBC)
DA says indictment announcement coming this summer in Trump probe (Atlanta J-C)
Jeff Shell, the chief executive of NBCUniversal, is departing the company after admitting to “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.” [AP]
Florida at Center of Debate as School Book Bans Surge Nationally (NYT)
Disney begins largest wave of layoffs, targeting thousands at ESPN, Parks, and other divisions (CNN)
SEAL Team 6, Army special forces rescue US diplomats in Sudan; aid workers urged to 'shelter in place' (USA Today)
European nations, China and others from around the world raced to extract thousands of their citizens from Khartoum during an apparent lull in fierce fighting between the army and a paramilitary force. (Reuters)
McCarthy’s authority is on the line as debt ceiling crisis mounts (CNN)
‘We will pass it': McCarthy whipping debt limit bill (Politico)
Cities reviving downtowns by converting offices to housing (AP)
Supreme Court deals blow to oil companies by turning away climate cases (NBC)
Too many people have access to the US government's closest secrets and a central entity should oversee the classification process, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said, addressing leaks of documents in an online chat group. (Reuters)
ChatGPT's 'accomplishment engine' is beating Google's search engine, says AI ethicist (ZDNet)
Anyone can now use Snapchat's 'My AI' chat bot and the memes about 'horrifying' messages have arrived (Insider)
AI Isn't Going to Reinvent the Alphabet Anytime Soon (Wired)
I’m about to graduate from law school. Will AI steal my job? (The Hill)
How we all became AI's brain donors (Axios)
How to defend against the rise of ChatGPT? Think like a poet. (WP)
Berkeley researcher deploys robots and AI to increase pace of research by 100 times (Interesting Engineering)
Chinese Censorship Is Quietly Rewriting the Covid-19 Story (NYT)
Supreme Court to decide if First Amendment stops government officials from blocking social media critics (CNN)
YouTube, the jewel of the internet (Financial Times)
The U.S.’s $42.5 Billion High-Speed Internet Plan Hits a Snag: A Worker Shortage (WSJ)
As Russians plot against Chad, concerns mount over important U.S. ally (WP)
A California journalist documents the far-right takeover of her town: ‘We’re a test case’ (Guardian)
Russia’s economy can withstand a long war, but not a more intense one (Economist)
China’s Got Afghan Fever, Again — Nothing says forever like the promise of Afghanistan’s mineral riches. (FP)
How Did the Chess Pieces Get Their Names? (Atlas Obscura)
Scientists discover why sea urchins are dying off from US to the Caribbean (Guardian)
Woman Knows To Stay Away From Certain Parts Of Own Psyche At Night (The Onion)
Elon Musk Falls Below Clarence Thomas on List of World’s Richest People (New Yorker)
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