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Wednesday, June 2, 2021

 JUNE 2, 2021
WEDNESDAY
 
PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS
 

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. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/west-virginia-vaccine-lottery-guns-trucks-cash/
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. 

First published on June 2, 2021 / 1:24 PM 
© 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. 
 

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. 

https://theintercept.com/2021/05/24/ap-associated-press-emily-wilder/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter
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.” 

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:Ken Klippenstein
Ken Klippenstein
ken.klippenstein@​theintercept.com
@kenklippenstein

 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/01/ap-editor-digs-emily-wilders-clear-bias/
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:

 emily wilder
@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.” 

Read more:
*Erik Wemple: How the AP wronged Emily Wilder
*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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