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Jake Tapper
CNN's Jake Tapper had a good get and great interview on Wednesday when he sat down with George Conway for a rare in-studio exchange.
The long interview, which crossed a commercial break, was on the topic of the impeachment trial, and Conway savaged the attorneys for President Trump.
Trump’s lawyers," Conway said, "were dissembling, distorting and even lying.”
Conway specifically singled out Pat Cipollone as having crossed lines that would result in discipline were this a courtroom rather than the senate. Tapper asked Conway what he thought, as a conservative, about the GOP “going against these basic rules that you consider to be important,” and Conway unleashed. At one point, Tapper did bring up wife and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway because, well, how could he not? It resulted in a "silent pause" moment as Conway replied that was noticeable. A hesitation in who exactly he was about to describe. Awkward, as it can only be.
Tapper's interview stands in contrast to some of the less measured, less news-generating content that other CNN folks (see Media Loser for today) have put out, and that makes it its own media win for today. It was analysis and opinion from a credible guest brought out by a good interviewer.
The excellent Conway sound bites? Those were just the cherry on top. 6.5.0 |
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 | MEDIA LOSER:
Joe Lockhart
CNN political analyst and former Clinton White House communications director Joe Lockhart has had a weird 24 hours or so. And it's been a weird week (see today's Must-See clip) — so that's saying something.
It started with what can only and forgivably be called an "OK Boomer" moment - and indeed was called that repeatedly - when he tattled on Ted Cruz for his own tweeting during the impeachment trial, saying phones weren't allowed so how could Cruz be doing it?
"Did he sneak a phone in. Is he willing to go to prison? Or is the tweet from someone other than Cruz," Lockhart said, tagging Twitter's Jack Dorsey.
Naturally people, ahem, explained about scheduled tweets and having a staff.
Today, Lockhart drew much bigger criticism for a made-up story. He tweeted he "overheard" Fox News-dependent GOP Senators freaking out to one another, having never heard the evidence until now. "If half the stuff Schiff is saying is true, we're up shit's creek," he fake quoted them.
After a huge number of retweets and likes, the CNN analyst admitted that "Ok maybe I made up the convo, but you know that's exactly what they're thinking." Then later, he added "Everyone relax. This is satire." The explanations had considerably less exposure.
It came out looking both tone deaf and hacky, and prompted a lot of backlash and critical reactions. 6.5.0 |
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Impizzazzment
Day Two of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump had a little more zest, it seemed. Or at least, one would think so listening to reporters reacting to it throughout the day.
There was positive swooning over the case presented by Rep. Adam Schiff.
CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called Schiff’s performance “dazzling” for example. MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson called the speech historic. And CNN’s Wolf Blitzer called the speech “very powerful and forceful,” and “a very strong case.”
Check out the reactions here. But don't over-swoon, we care about your well-being.
No YOU'RE a Flower!
Of course, not everyone required a fainting couch and smelling salts. On Fox News (surprise!), The Five's Jesse Watters came up with a brand new insult for Schiff after his "Spartacus" moment: rotten dandelion.
In fact the whole Five crew went in on it.
Also on Fox, anchor Chris Wallace had his own criticism of Schiff, albeit more substantive, measured, and on-topic than the dandelion thing.
Standards in Reporting -- AND Opinion
The New York Times has been under fire a lot in the last year or two from the left (and since the day it first published from the right) over a variety of issues. Perhaps in reaction to that, though not admittedly in reaction, the paper is expanding its standards department.
Matthew Kassel reports for Mediaite that the paper is "substantially expanding its standards department, according to a newsroom memo composed by executive editor Dean Baquet, managing editor Joe Kahn and editorial page editor James Bennett."
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the expansion is that Corbett will now also oversee the opinion department as well as the newsroom, Kassel explains here.
Not Quite Finished
Hillary Clinton was not quite done criticizing Bernie Sanders and his supporters with her declaration this week that "no one likes" the Vermont Senator. So on Wednesday she opened up another can of fightin' words.
Kudos
Kristen Welker was recipient of presidential kudos on Wednesday in Davos. NBC's PR department shared a clip of the moment.
In other news from Davos, President Trump weighed in on @kwelkernbc joining #WeekendTODAY: “By the way, congratulations on your show. They made a very wise decision.” In Welker fashion, she responds, “Thank you very much. We invite you for an interview whenever you’re available.”
'Utterly Inexcusable'
The White House is coming under intense, bipartisan criticism for issuing press credentials to TruNews — a far-right outlet which has a history of blatant, repeated, loud, and overt anti-Semitism. It's appalling.
You just have to read this to believe it. |
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| Calm Down
Democratic front-runner and former Vice President Joe Biden has had his share of odd media moments over the years, a trend that shows no signs of coming to an end.
In the latest, he had a somewhat bizarre response to a reporter who asked him about his feud with fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.
We don't want to spoil it for you, but suffice it to say the word "why" was repeated many times. By Biden in the video and, we're sure, some of his supporters watching the odd reaction.
Check it out here. |
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