THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2020  

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Colin Kaepernick

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick never lacks for press. But in the last few weeks there has been an marked increase in talk about the unsigned player, and buzz about both his activism and his career.

So much so, in fact, that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell this week said he not only supports Kaepernick's return to the NFL, he encourages teams to consider signing him.

“If he wants to resume his career in the NFL, then obviously it’s gonna take a team to make that decision,” Goodell said. “I welcome that, support a club making that decision and encourage them to do that.”

In perhaps surprising agreement, President Donald Trump, too, expressed his support for the player, who Trump has attacked in the past for his kneeling protest against police brutality, returning to the league.

“If he deserves it, he should,” said Trump. “If he has the playing ability. He started off great, and then he didn’t end up very great…He was terrific in his rookie year, I think he was very good in his second year and then something happened, so his playing wasn’t up to snuff.”

“The answer is, absolutely I would,” the president continued. “As far as kneeling I would love to see him get another shot but obviously he has to be able to play well. If he can’t play well, I think it would be very unfair.”

With the media mentioning his nationally significant protest against police brutality, brining up his name in the current effort across states and government on that national problem, he's very much in the spotlight.

And with Trump and Goodell chiming in, it's safe to say Kaepernick has been winning in the media lately.

MEDIA LOSER:
Brandon Straka

Pro-Trump activist Brandon Straka, who became a star in the MAGA set after appearing in a video denouncing his former liberal views and starting the #WalkAway campaign to encourage other liberals to abandon the same, is in the news this week for getting kicked off a plane.

In 2018, Straka sealed his permanence on the MAGA scene when he claimed to have been denied service at a store after being recognized. "I was refused service because they said it was for 'alt right' purposes" he wrote.

That tweet went majorly viral, and Straka was subsequently defended by big names like actor James Woods and even former governor Sarah Palin.

This week, it isn't about retail recognition but airplane access, after he was booted off an American Airlines flight over a spat with crew members for his refusal to wear a face mask.

Straka was flying to Seattle to visit the “Capitol Hill Organized Protest” (CHOP) zone. He immediately went to Twitter to blast the airline.

"I was just removed from my flight for not wearing a mask. 1st time this has happened," he said. "When I pointed out this wasn’t a law I was removed."

Political reporter for The New York Times Astead Herndon happened to be on the same flight, and recorded video of the incident.

Straka told Mediaite: "I wasn’t trying to send a message to anyone.” But when describing what condition prevented his wearing it, he sarcastically said "Sanity."

Profiting from the pretext by getting buzz, and profiting from masks on his website. He may have won some clicks but that's a loser by any definition.

The A-Block

Bolton Bolton Bolton Bolton

A series of reports on John Bolton’s upcoming book published Wednesday afternoon, revealing shocking anecdotes and moments that the former national security adviser observed while working for President Donald Trump.

Here are 11 of those insane revelations.

For example, Trump spent months trying to get an autographed Elton John CD delivered to Kim Jong Un.

Also, Bolton says Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping that building more "concentration camps" for Uighur Muslims was a good plan.

Bolton Bolton Bolton

Bolton did an interview Wednesday night with ABC News and had a lot more to say, including that Vladimir Putin believes he can play Trump like a fiddle. Oh, and he said Trump is "unfit' for office and totally incompetent.

Bolton Bolton

Naturally the many details from the book released already have caused a media bonanza. CNN's Jake Tapper said some of what was revealed about Trump's alleged actions are "obscene."

FBN's Lou Dobbs, on the other hand, thinks the obscenity is Bolton writing it, and he called him "petty and vindictive" for it.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes joined the two angles, finding Bolton "odious" and "duplicitous" for not testifying about how obscene Trump's actions were instead of writing a book about it.

And Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace split the difference, saying it's damaging but won't ultimately make a big difference.


And finally, Bolton

On Fox & Friends, Brian Kilmeade frets that "bitter" Bolton is helping Joe Biden's campaign. On Twitter, President Trump played the this-is-a-loser-who-I-fired card.

That card comes out a lot actually. Like, a LOT. In fact, we have a list.

It's all the people who Trump hired and then fired and then destroyed on Twitter.

Fox's Edge

Fox News edged out CNN across the 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. daypart on Tuesday in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic, thanks in part to the strong performance from Outnumbered, which offered live coverage of President Donald Trump’s Rose Garden speech and signing ceremony of a police reform executive order.



According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox’s noon-day program bested all other shows through the morning and early afternoon hours on Tuesday, pulling in 335,000 in the demo and 2.09 million overall viewers. That helped the network win a narrow victory in the daytime demo. 

It was close in demo. But not in overall ratings...

"Polls are fake, just like the reporters and the news"

President Trump lashed out when confronted with polling that shows Joe Biden beating him in battleground states by saying that “The polls are fake!” and repeatedly asserting that “in my polls, we’re ahead!”

Demonic

Rev. Al Sharpton warned that police will continue acting in a “demonic fashion” if officers are convinced “they’ll walk out of court” in cases of police brutality. His comments came moments after it was announced Garrett Rolfe, the Atlanta cop who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in a Wendy’s parking lot, will face 11 charges including felony murder.

Delete This

The number of Americans searching for a way to delete their old Twitter posts hit a 52-week high in the first week of June, according to Google data.

New Yorkers led the nation in searching for “how to delete old tweets,” according to data from Google Trends, followed by Texas and Florida. California came in fourth, despite holding the second-highest position in the all-time rankings — which began in November 2009.

Mediaite's Rudy Takala has the story, and the data. Assuming he doesn't delete it.

Late Night Bolton

Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers shared some of the revelations detailed in Bolton's book and mocking Trump's attempts to silence it.

“According to Bolton, Trump’s ignorance is near-bottomless. Apparently, Trump didn’t seem to know that Britain was a nuclear power and asked if Finland were part of Russia. Now, you can understand his confusion there, because under President Trump, it feels like we’re kind of part of Russia," said Colbert.

The rest had plenty of Bolton quips too.

 

Must See Clip

'So This Exists'

A video of performers waiting in line at President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma has gone viral on Twitter. The harmless group of teenage girls and a man in a MAGA hat holding a speaker as they sang about Trump had blue check Twitter making up band names.

Watch the performance, read the jokes, laugh or get outraged. It's all good.

Links We Like

Refuse the mob. Stop the Great Unraveling
- via Commentary
Look at the facts in the Rayshard Brooks case. The George Floyd killing was different.
- via USA Today
‘Cream of Wheat’ owner to launch ‘immediate review’ of brand after racism accusations
- via Rolling Stone
Black people are tired of trying to explain racism
- via Washington Post
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