Georgia Williams here, still filling in for Betsy while she’s on her vacation. Most of the news today is, understandably, about the recent events in Dallas and the fallout thereof.
Evan McMorris-Santoro explains what we’re all thinking today:
social media
so worthwhile when news breaks
so worthless for working through what breaking news “means”
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) July 8, 2016
Over at NBC, Brian Williams was the face of the network for much of the night as his MSNBC coverage was looped through to the main network. A lot of people aren’t happy with how he handled the job, including the Washington Examiner. Repeated references to the fact that JFK was also killed in Dallas irritated viewers, as did his speculation about the motives and fallout for the shooting. One Twitter user summed it up pretty well:
If you played a drinking game tonight, taking a shot every time Brian Williams mentions JFK tonight, you would have died hours ago.
— Jaret (@fog_warning) July 8, 2016
The New York Post is taking incredible amounts of flak for today’s cover that claims there is a “civil war” happening in the US.
Friday’s cover: 4 cops killed in Dallas tragedy https://t.co/NpUskqqtLtpic.twitter.com/tlqx0P721y
— New York Post (@nypost) July 8, 2016
The cover was printed before the standoff between Dallas police and the shooter had been resolved. As Business Insider said, “The situation is messy, chaotic, fluid, and unresolved…Yet the Post delivered [an] instant verdict.” One user summed up why exactly the headline was so unprofessional and reckless:
@nypost That seems like race baiting. No evidence protesters had anything to do with attacks on police
— Mama’s Got A Gun (@MamasGotAGun) July 8, 2016
@bdd4@nypost Sad state of affairs when a “newspaper” tries to rouse hatred between Americans #UnitedWeStand
— Mama’s Got A Gun (@MamasGotAGun) July 8, 2016
On the other end of the spectrum is Trevor Noah on The Daily Show with a great monologue on how it’s possible to be both pro-cop and pro-black:
If you’re thinking that the current day/week/month/year has resembled a dumpster fire, you’re not alone… the phrase has been tossed around liberally recently, to say the least. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is skipping the Republican convention in order to watch some with his kids (they’re more popular than either Trump or Hillary apparently). HuffPo gives us a brief history of the phrase. It has been used so much that the editor-in-chief of Gawker emailed staff yesterday saying, “the predominance in recent weeks of the phrase ‘dumpster fire’ or its variations used to describe the Trump campaign has moved me to issue [an edict on usage]: Please avoid using any variant of ‘dumpster fire,’ ‘garbage fire,’ or ‘trash fire’ to describe bad things.” (h/t Politico‘s Media newsletter).
Speaking of dumpster fires, the Rio Olympics are less than two months away, and have suffered widely publicized setbacks, but NBC is still optimistic about the network’s health during the Games. The Hollywood Reporter details some of the issues plaguing the upcoming Games, including a lack of funding and widespread violent crime in the Brazilian city and talked to several industry insiders who believe that the problems will not affect NBC, who has exclusive rights to broadcast the Games in the US. Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie is skipping the games due to her pregnancy and the presence of the Zika virus in Brazil.
Also, it’s been 217 days since Hillary Clinton last held a press conference. Her most recent one was on December 4 last year.