WEDNESDAY
I’M GLAD TO SEE
LOCAL PEOPLE STEPPING UP TO ENCOURAGE VACCINATIONS, BUT THIS STORY FEELS KINDA
SAD, ALL IN ALL. I WONDER IF PEOPLE REBELLED TO THIS EXTENT AGAINST THE
SMALLPOX VACCINE. I HAVE TENDED TO SEE THIS KIND OF THING AS A MATTER OF LOGIC,
AND WELL OUTSIDE THE REALM OF POLITICS, BUT THAT WAS BEFORE TRUMPISM. NOW IT
ISN’T ABOUT WHAT IS SAID, BUT ABOUT WHO SAID IT. EX-PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
BEGAN THE REFUSAL TO ACCEPT VACCINATION OR TO WEAR A MASK AS HIS OWN LITTLE
SOCIAL MOVEMENT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. MAYBE IT JUST HAS TO RUN ITS’ COURSE.
IT IS THE LOGIC
OF DOMINANCE, AND VIRTUE IS FOLLOWING THE LEADER. DID YOU EVER WONDER WHY SUCH
GAMES AS “MOTHER, MAY I” AND “FOLLOW THE LEADER” ARE TAUGHT TO ALL CHILDREN? IT
IS TO CONTROL THEM. WHAT FRIGHTENS ME IS HOW MANY AMERICANS ARE ACTUALLY IN THE
TRUMP CAMP EVEN AFTER THE DISASTROUS EPISODE AT THE CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6. THERE
ARE PEOPLE WHO STILL DEFEND HIM. I DO WONDER, HOWEVER, WHAT THOSE FOLKS
ACTUALLY DO BELIEVE, IN TERMS OF PRINCIPLES AND IDEAS. HOW DO THEY JUSTIFY
THEIR ACTIONS?
IT IS OBVIOUS
TO SOME OF US THAT WHITE SUPREMACY AND CULTURAL TRIBALISM IN GENERAL IS AT THE
CENTER OF THE TRUMP PHENOMENON, A SOCIAL CHOICE THAT MOST PEOPLE WOULD NOT
ADMIT TO HOLDING, BUT IT IS DOMINANT YET IN SOME PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. MAYBE CRUELTY
IS LIKE A GROWTH OF BACTERIA. IT JUST ISN’T POSSIBLE TO GET RID OF ALL OF THEM,
AND THEY ARE SO VERY SMALL. DISINFECTANT KILLS MANY OF THEM, BUT THOSE THAT
SURVIVE JUST BREED AND DIVIDE AND MUTATE IN CRACKS AND CORNERS, WHILE WAITING
TO POP OUT INTO THE OPEN AGAIN.
West Virginia's COVID vaccine incentives include guns, trucks and cash
BY KATE GIBSON
UPDATED ON: JUNE 2, 2021 / 3:34 PM / MONEYWATCH
VIDEO – ELAINE
QUIJANO REPORTS, US OFFICIALS PUSH FOR CONTINUED VACCINATIONS, 08:11 MIN.
West Virginia
is expanding its incentives to encourage residents get vaccinated against
COVID-19, with the state later this month starting weekly lottery drawings
offering cash, trucks, guns and scholarships to those who've received at least
one immunization shot.
Starting June
20, West Virginia will give out $1 million and other prizes each week up until
Aug. 4, when two grand prizes of nearly $1.6 million and $580,000 will be
announced, according to state officials.
Other prizes
include two new custom-outfitted trucks, 25 weekend getaways to local state
parks, five lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, five custom hunting rifles
and five custom hunting shotguns. Two full four-year scholarships to any
institution in West Virginia will also be awarded to vaccinated 12- to
25-year-olds.
"The
prizes to me are secondary to the fact that we're trying to save your
life," West Virginia Governor Jim Justice told a Tuesday news conference
at which he detailed the blitz of coming incentives and made an impassioned
case for getting vaccinated.
"All of
our hospitalizations, all of all our our ICU units, all of our deaths, for the
most part, are all people that have not been vaccinated. I don't know how it
gets any simpler than that," the Republican governor said.
"These
vaccinations are amazingly safe and they'll protect you — I don't know how in
the world people are sitting on the sidelines still saying, no, I'm not going
to do one, I'm not going to do it," Justice continue. "Then they go
off and they travel, and then there is absolutely what I would say is a lot of
'sad singing and slow walking,' and that's what goes on at a funeral."
Acknowledging
that some might question the practice of essentially bribing people to get
immunized against a deadly virus, the governor indicated that logic dictates he
do whatever works.
"If you
step back and think, now why in the world would you have to give away something
to get somebody vaccinated. Unfortunately it's the way of the world in a lot of
situations," Justice reflected. "The faster we get them across the
finish line, the more lives we save."
The state also
has a financial incentive to get more resident vaccinated. "If the tab
just keeps running, the cost is enormous, the testing costs are enormous, the
hospital costs are enormous," he said.
All West
Virginians who have received one immunization shot are eligible, but must
register to enter the lottery.
Vaccine
sweepstakes
West Virginia
continues to offer the choice of a $100 gift card or $100 savings bond to those
between ages 16 and 35 as part of an effort unveiled in late April to convince
younger residents to roll up their sleeves.
The lottery has
West Virginia joining other states and businesses trying to give hesitant
Americans a reason to get vaccinated against a virus that has killed nearly
600,000 Americans. Kroger, the nation's biggest supermarket chain, last week
said it would give $1 million to five
customers and free groceries for a year to another 50 to encourage more
Americans to get vaccinated.
Ohio recently
reported a spike in the count of those getting vaccinated after its governor
said the state would award $1 million to five vaccinated residents, prompting
West Virginia's Justice to quip about one of the states bordering his: "I
can't stand for Ohio to be ahead of us in anything."
In fact, West
Virginia lags not only Ohio but also most of the country when it comes to
vaccination rates, ranking 45th among the 50 states, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ahead of only Mississippi, Alabama,
Louisiana and Wyoming, the percentage of West Virginians 18 and older who've
received a first shot on Tuesday stood at 49.2%, while that tally came to 56.9%
in Ohio, the CDC found. Highest among the states is Vermont, at 82%.
"Why would
I take a chance?"
Nearly 2,800
West Virginians have died of COVID, with five people dying of the infection
since last Thursday, and 571 new positive cases reported in the state in the
last 24 hours, the governor relayed. West Virginia's daily positivity rate is
4%, with 4,550 active cases, the state's lowest count since Oct. 27, 2020.
"The good numbers are driven from the standpoint of we continue to get
people vaccinated," Justice said.
Of the 207 West
Virginians currently hospitalized with the virus, 81 are in intensive care, and
in all probability none were vaccinated, Justice said. The same could be said
for those who've died, he added. Knowing all that, "Why would I take a
chance with my family or myself?"
As of Tuesday,
75% of West Virginians 50 and older had received at least one shot, and 51.2%
of eligible residents 12 years and older had received their first shot,
according to the state. Recent outbreaks had 14 nursing home residents becoming
ill with COVID, all of them unvaccinated, according to the state's chief
coronavirus health official, Dr. Clay Marsh.
VIDEO –
COMPANIES ALLOWED TO REQUIRE COVID VACCINATIONS, 05:32 MIN.
Illinois
Governor J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday hinted the state could soon follow the lead
of states dangling vaccination rewards, with little more than half of Illinois
residents fully immunized.
"There are
a lot of different incentives out there, and I hope people take advantage of
them," Pritzker told an unrelated news conference in Peoria, according to
the Chicago Sun-Times. "We're looking forward to potentially doing a
vaccine lottery, as you've heard about in other states."
Lawmakers in
Illinois recently approved a budget that includes up to $7 million in prizes
for vaccinated adults and as much as $3 million in scholarships for those
younger than 18.
HERE IS A STORY
FROM LAST WEEK ABOUT MANAGEMENT AT AP NEWS FIRING A REPORTER OVER HER ACTIVITY
AGAINST ISRAELI PERPETUAL WARFARE WITH THE PALESTINIANS. THE STATEMENT IS MADE HEREIN
THAT AP NEWS HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO THE RIGHT, POLITICALLY. I CERTAINLY HAVE USED
THEIR STORIES. I’LL TRY TO CHECK THEM CAREFULLY FROM NOW ON. ONE HUNDRED AP STAFF
MEMBERS HAVE SIGNED AN OPEN LETTER PROTESTING THE FIRING OF WRITER EMILY WILDER.
A WASHINGTON POST STORY ON WILDER’S SITUATION AND FIRING FOLLOWS THIS.
AP, IN LEAKED MEMOS, DOING DAMAGE CONTROL WITH STAFF: “YOU WILL HAVE A VOICE”
The signature of outgoing Associated Press Executive Editor Sally Buzbee is conspicuously absent from the memo sent over the weekend.
Ken Klippenstein
May 24 2021, 7:23 p.m.
PHOTOGRAPH -- A
microphone of the Associated Press (AP) is seen in Hong Kong on Dec. 31, 2020.
Photo: Chan Long Hei/Sipa USA via AP
THE ASSOCIATED
PRESS sent a memo to the news agency’s editorial staff this weekend about its
controversial decision to fire a young staff reporter, Emily Wilder,
following a conservative campaign to have her removed over her college activism
regarding Israel-Palestine. The memo, obtained by The Intercept, assured
staffers that “we hear you” and “you will have a voice,” then goes on to stand
by the decision. “We did not make it lightly,” the memo notes. Signed by 10
senior executives, one signature is conspicuously absent: AP’s Executive
Editor Sally Buzbee.
On Monday, Buzbee
insisted to NPR that she had no involvement in the decision, saying that
she had already handed over day-to-day operations after accepting a new job
at the Washington Post. Buzbee’s first day as the Post’s executive
editor will be June 1.
Two AP
staffers, who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity to avoid
professional reprisal, said that Buzbee’s distancing from the issue reflects
how controversial the firing is — both within the news agency and beyond. (Lauren
Easton, a spokesperson for AP, declined to comment on why Buzbee did not
sign the memo.)
“Sally doesn’t
want the controversy directly attached to her name,” one of the AP staffers
speculated.
IMAGE -- A memo
sent from AP senior executives to the staff. Image Obtained by The Intercept
Wilder, a
22-year-old who graduated from Stanford University last year, joined AP as a
news associate earlier this month. Last week, she became the target of Stanford
College Republicans who deemed her an “anti-Israel agitator” in a
Twitter thread, pointing to her membership in student organizations like Jewish
Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as a
Facebook post mocking Sheldon Adelson, the late Republican billionaire
and ardent defender of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The tweets
were later amplified by right-wing news outlets and even Republican Sen. Tom
Cotton. The campaign targeting Wilder came after she tweeted criticism
of news coverage of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
An AP editor
assured Wilder that she would not be fired for her old posts on social media, Wilder has
said. Then she was fired on Thursday for violating the news agency’s social
media policy. Citing a company policy of not commenting on personnel
matters, AP has declined to specify what rules Wilder violated, except to say
that she was terminated “for violations
of AP’s social media policies during her time at AP.”
The firing has
become a major controversy within the news agency. On Monday, over 100 AP
staffers publicly condemned the firing in an open letter, saying that the
organization was bowing to a “smear campaign.” In response to the letter,
AP said, “The Associated Press looks forward to continuing the conversation
with staff about AP’s social media policy.”
This afternoon,
the union representing Washington Post reporters tweeted, “Solidarity with
the staff of the @AP and Emily Wilder. We hope management provides swift
answers on her termination and clarifies the newsroom’s social media
practices.” (This is the first tweet the Washington Post Guild has
issued since welcoming Buzbee’s hiring on May 11.)
One AP staffer
told me that while there’s a “spectrum” of opinion on whether Wilder
violated any rules, “all concur that firing blew up in management’s face.”
Wilder issued a
statement on Saturday saying, “I am one victim to the asymmetrical enforcement
of rules around objectivity and social media that has censored so many
journalists — particularly Palestinian journalists and other journalists of
color — before me.”
In an
interview, Wilder said she remains frustrated with the challenge of defending
herself against violations that AP says took place but refuses to specify.
“What’s most unfair is that they refused to explain what tweet was
problematic or exactly what policy I violated,” Wilder told me. “I’m not
sure how I am supposed to understand, learn, or defend myself if they can’t
tell me what I did wrong.”
Wilder also
said that she would gladly grant AP permission to release personnel information
that might provide insight into her alleged infraction.
Asked about
Wilder inviting her former employer to publicly specify how she violated
the social media policy, Easton, the AP spokesperson, said, “Though AP
generally refrains from commenting on personnel matters, we have confirmed
Emily Wilder’s comments on Thursday that she was dismissed for violating AP’s
social media policy during her time at AP.”
On Monday afternoon, Brian Carovillano, AP’s managing editor, sent staff another memo outlining new efforts for “expanding the conversation taking place about AP’s approach to social media.” That memo, also obtained by The Intercept, describes plans to establish “group conversations” among AP’s reporters to discuss social media guidelines “in a collaborative, deliberative way,” starting next week. A committee, the memo says, will review ideas produced by these conversations and “bring the best of them forward by September 1.”
IMAGE – 3 PAGE
MAY 24TH MEMO TO STAFF, PDF IS AVAILABLE AT: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20788050-ap-memo-52421.
The memo also
alludes to concerns staffers have that AP’s social media are applied
unfairly to minority groups: “One of the issues brought forward in recent days
is the belief that restrictions on social media prevent you from being your
true self, and that this disproportionately harms journalists of color, LGBTQ
journalists and others who often feel attacked online. We need to dive into
this issue.”
“More kumbaye bullshit,” an AP staffer said of the new memo. “We have management that is woefully late in the understanding of disinformation and amplification on Twitter.”
Ken Klippenstein
ken.klippenstein@theintercept.com
@kenklippenstein
Opinion: AP editor digs in on Emily Wilder’s ‘clear bias’
Opinion by
Erik Wemple
Media critic
June 1, 2021 at 7:18 p.m. EDT
PHOTOGRAPH –
ROOM WITH AP LOGO, (Hiro Komae/AP)
Associated
Press Managing Editor Brian Carovillano on Sunday defended the wire
service’s controversial decision to fire Emily Wilder, a 22-year-old staffer
who had come under fire from some conservatives for being a member of Students
for Justice in Palestine while attending Stanford University. “Emily Wilder
was let go because she had a series of social media posts that showed a clear
bias toward one side and against another, in one of the most divisive and
difficult stories that we cover anywhere in the world,” Carovillano told Brian
Stelter, host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” “It was a difficult decision. It
was not an easy decision. And it was not a personal decision, and we wish
her all the best.”
Carovillano’s
well wishes come off looking a bit disingenuous considering the circumstances:
The AP fired Wilder two weeks ago, while she was working as a so-called news
associate at the AP’s Western U.S. bureau, after the Stanford College
Republicans raised concerns about her. Though the AP said it didn’t
penalize Wilder for her work in college, it did tell Wilder in its dismissal
letter that the campaign against her prompted a probe of her social media
conduct. Five days before Wilder’s dismissal, an Israeli airstrike destroyed
the Gaza Strip building containing AP offices. She tweeted about the
conflict, including this riff on media coverage:
@vv1lder
“objectivity” feels fickle when the basic terms we use to report news implicitly stake a claim. using “israel” but never “palestine,” or “war” but not “siege and occupation” are political choices—yet media make those exact choices all the time without being flagged as biased
7:34 PM · May 16, 2021
In a previous
statement sent to the Erik Wemple Blog last week, the AP stopped short of
accusing Wilder of “clear bias,” suggesting instead that Wilder’s posts were
her opinion: “Because we’re a global news organization, we recognize that
expressing opinion in one part of the world can compromise our ability to
report a story in another. It can limit our access to sources and information.
In some cases it could endanger our journalists on the ground. So we do our
best to protect against even the perception of bias.”
As we’ve noted
on previous occasions, the difference between opinion and bias matters a lot to
news organizations. Everyone has opinions — on food, on politics, on family,
whatever. Biases, though, are something different; they result from a
“failure to suppress your opinions” when you’re called upon to be fair. That
duty falls on journalists, of course, as well as citizens who serve on juries.
Based on the
AP’s explanations, it found Wilder biased after working with her for just 16
days. In an interview last week, Wilder said she was eager to comply
with the company’s hardcore newsgathering rules. In response to feedback from
editors, she said, she removed “Black Lives Matter” from her Twitter bio. (She
restored it after her dismissal.) Carovillano told Stelter that the sort of
bias demonstrated by Wilder could have affected the organization’s output: “If
you’re a news associate in Phoenix, and there is a protest, an anti-Israel
protest, an anti-Palestine protest, you’re probably the person that the AP is
going to go and send out to cover that,” said Carovillano.
We asked the AP
if there were any complaints about Wilder’s tweeting that came to the attention
of the wire service independently of the attacks from the Stanford College
Republicans. Spokeswoman Lauren Easton responded, “Yes.” “AP provided
extensive social media coaching to Emily Wilder beginning on her first day”
noted Easton. Wilder told us last week that she didn’t know about other
concerns regarding her tweets.
As The Post’s
Jeremy Barr reported, AP leaders told staffers in a town hall meeting last
week that they’d made mistakes in the Wilder case, but they were careful in
qualifying them: “mistakes of process, and not of outcome,” Carovillano said
in the meeting.
“We failed to
see that our efforts to move the conversation beyond Emily’s firing and
quickly focus on discussions of AP’s social media policies would be seen as
cruel and dismissive of what the staff was experiencing, and what you had
experienced in the past,” said Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace in
that meeting. “We didn’t see the connection between the attacks that Emily
suffered online and the experiences that many of you have had. We didn’t
anticipate that our own handling of the situation would be seen as an
indication that we don’t have our staff’s back.”
Now the AP is
reviewing its social media guidelines as well. A town hall meeting, a
top editor on CNN and a potential revision of a key set of standards — that’s a
lot of commotion over a couple “mistakes of process.”
*Erik Wemple: Jake Tapper backs criticism of colleague Chris Cuomo
*Alyssa Rosenberg: Hey conservatives, this is why liberals don’t believe you care about free speech
*Micheline Maynard: Those $300 pandemic checks aren’t the only reason restaurant employees might not want to go back to work
*James Downie: Senate Republicans know they chose cowardice in killing a Jan. 6 investigation. They just proved it.
Opinion by Erik Wemple
Erik Wemple, The Washington Post's media critic, focuses on the cable-news industry. Before joining The Post, he ran a short-lived and much publicized local online news operation, and for eight years served as editor of Washington City Paper. Twitter
END OF JUNE 2
WEDNESDAY
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