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25 Apr, 9 tweets, 9 min read
Rick Scott of Florida voted to overturn the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania. Sunday he will be on @ThisWeekABC with @GStephanopoulos, the most prestigious platform @ABC can bestow. What does the new president of ABC News, @KimGodwinTV, think about that? Hat tip, @MattNegrin
Number of questions @GStephanopoulos asked @SenRickScott about his vote to overturn election results in Pennsylvania: zero.

Number of gestures toward that kind of accountability: also zero.

@ABC News policy appears to be amnesty.

He did ask about this:
Time to put the question directly to news executives and show hosts at the major networks: What is the policy — and what is your thinking — about featuring on air those who voted to overturn results of the 2020 election? graphics.reuters.com/USA-TRUMP/LAWM…

It will help them and us to know.
Some options for major networks re: Republicans who voted to overturn the election.

1. Politics moves on and so are we: amnesty
2. Invite and confront: televised accountability
3. Report what they're doing but no platform on air
4. Decide not to decide, hope it dies down
5. ...
Media reporters who can get the responsible parties on the phone: over to you! @Brianstelter @grynbaum @farhip @sarafischer @dbauder @davidfolkenflik @katie_robertson @davidzurawik @joepompeo @sulliview @oliverdarcy @sarahellison @maxwelltani @ErikWemple cc @jimwindolf
Every time I post on this topic, people ask me: who watches the Sunday shows any more? (Usually they add: "I quit long ago.") TV audience is not huge: between 3 and 5.5 million a week. Revenues are modest. In 2019, Meet the Press brought in $26 million for NBC.
The reason I attend to the Sunday shows is not that they have a big audience or cultural imprint. Rather, they crystallize consensus practice in journalism, and display in miniature its relationship to the political class. These are things I study and write about. So I watch.
I have been writing about these weaknesses in the Sunday show format for 11 years: publicnotebook.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/dav… Recently the journalism profession itself has taken up the cry, as with this @NYTmag piece: "How the Trump Era Broke the Sunday-Morning News Show." nytimes.com/2021/02/11/mag…
For leadership in holding accountable public officials who joined in the Big Lie and the attempt to de-certify the election, don't look to @GStephanopoulos or @chucktodd. Look to @witfnews in Harrisburg, PA, a public broadcaster who has figured it out: witf.org/2021/01/28/cou…

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Jay Rosen Profile picture
17 Apr
"Swiss Billionaire Is Said to End His Bid for Tribune Publishing." Hansjörg Wyss was part of a serious offer for the major newspaper chain that could have prevented it from being sold to the hedge fund Alden Global Capital. nytimes.com/2021/04/17/bus…
The Times story says Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss saw the Chicago Tribune as a national newsroom, like the Times or the Post, but in doing his due dilgience discovered it was not to be. Too expensive.

This makes little sense to me. Who would have encouraged that illusion?
In retrospect this quote from Wyss should have given us more pause. “...the combination of giving enough money to a professional staff to do the right things and putting quite a bit of money into digital will eventually make a very profitable newspaper.” nytimes.com/2021/03/27/bus…
Read 4 tweets
Jay Rosen Profile picture
22 Feb
"When in doubt, draw a distinction."

Not sure where he got it, but in grad school one of my teachers told me that. Some of the best advice I ever received.

This THREAD is about some of the key distinctions I draw on to do my work. If you're into that kind of thing.😎

Ready? 1/
For distinctions to do work, the terms have to be sufficiently close that prying them apart clears space for thought.

If I write, "bending is not the same as breaking," well, who said it was? That one is going nowhere. But "naked is not the same as nude" is an idea with legs. 2/
These notes about some of the distinctions I draw in order to do my work were written under the influence of two masters of the form: the French critic Roland Barthes, and the political philosopher Hannah Arendt, known for her striking distinctions— such as labor vs. work. 3/
Read 27 tweets
Jay Rosen Profile picture
17 Feb
The Baltimore Sun said it will soon be acquired by a non-profit formed by businessman and philanthropist Stewart Bainum Jr. that would operate the Sun for the benefit of the community. It's part of a hedge fund's deal to buy Tribune Publishing. baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz…
Could be good news, but a lot is still unknown. The Sun said the sale is not a completely done deal. It's unclear what the connection is to an earlier effort by Baltimore philanthropists, businesspeople and the union representing journalists to buy the Sun and make it non-profit.
On top of that, and as someone will no doubt say in a few minutes, there is nothing magic about turning non-profit. The phrase you will soon hear: non-profit is a tax status, not a business model. Meaning: you still need revenue greater than expenses. Big challenges ahead.
Read 8 tweets
Jay Rosen Profile picture
26 Jan
I read the transcript of the full 90-minute interview. Count me surprised that Margaret Brennan did not ask Deborah Birx: what would have led you to say this about Trump?

“He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data."

cbsnews.com/news/full-tran…
Leave aside that it contradicts everything we know about the man. "He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature" is a strange statement because Birx in the interview says several times she had almost no interaction with Trump. So how would she know he'd become Mr. Science?
Another impression from the CBS interview. Birx seems to me an example of a public servant caught in an intensely political position who convinced herself that to succeed she had to be as un-political as possible, as against mastering the politics, too. It could never work. But..
Read 6 tweets
Jay Rosen Profile picture
24 Jan
Rand Paul just gave a master class in how the Big Lie — election denialism — exploits the "both sides" rule set in journalism. "Was the election stolen?" @GStephanopoulos asked. There was no second question. They fought all the way through. Rand kept saying: hear the other side!
A clip of Rand Paul using the platform of ABC News to continue the Big Lie, with plenty of pushback from George Stephanopoulos, which in turn led to — stop me if you've heard this —"liberal bias." ABC News: what are you doing here? What end is served?
After all, @ABC, there is an alternative to asking Big Lie denialists "was the election stolen?" followed by hand-to-hand combat around every "just raising questions" maneuver they have in stock for you today.

Just call the question closed and move on. As an organization.
Read 9 tweets
Jay Rosen Profile picture
19 Jan
"An Anti-Racist Future." A VERY challenging open letter from public radio employees calling for reform. The tone: all patience is gone.

"We hope to tear down public radio in order to build it back up. We don’t critique our industry because we hate it, but because we love it..."
"White supremacist culture and anti-Blackness shape the policies, norms, and standards of public radio. They determine whose opinions are valued, whose voices are heard, whose stories are told and taken seriously, who is promoted, and whose resume never gets a second glance."
"It’s time for a new kind of journalism: anti-racist journalism." celesteheadlee.medium.com/an-anti-racist…
Read 6 tweets

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