Washington Post’s Problems:
When Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post over a decade ago, people feared it would become another conservative rag. Instead, it became one of the best newspapers in the country if one overlooks the ultra-conservative columnists. Recently, however, the WaPo hired a coterie of former Rupert Murdoch news employees for its leadership, again resulting in concerns. The first obvious change was the “resignation” of executive editor Sally Buzbee after Will Lewis became the publisher/CEO. Refusing to drop stories about Lewis’ scandals, she was replaced by Matt Murray, former editor in chief of Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal until the election.
Lewis is now trying to cover his fraudulent past in Britain, but the news pours out. One of these is a 3,000-word investigative story in the New York Times about journalistic ethics questions about Robert Winnett, the newly named top editor. Lewis called him a “brilliant investigative journalist,” but the report asserts that Winnett “used fraudulently obtained phone and company records in newspaper articles” two decades ago. Because of “perceived and potential conflicts,” former senior managing editor Cameron Barr who stepped down last year and has been on contract as a senior associate editor will oversee the paper’s coverage of Lewis-related controversies. Murray recused himself in one WaPo article directly mentioning him.
NYT reported that Lewis used fraudulent and unethical methods to obtain information for articles while working at the London-based Sunday Times in the early 2000s through hacking and paying sources for information. Lewis was named as a central figure in a phone-hacking lawsuit by Prince Harry, Guy Ritchie, and Hugh Grant who accused Lewis of “giving a green light” to erase millions of emails pertaining to the phone-hacking accusations after authorities had instructed the company to retain all of its records.
NPR David Folkenflik declared that Lewis offered an exclusive interview about WaPo’s future in exchange for dropping a story about phone-hacking. He also gave other fraudulent actions by Lewis and Winnett:
“A six-figure payment for a major scoop; planting a junior reporter in a government job to secure secret documents; and relying on a private investigator who used subterfuge to secure private documents from their computers and phones. The investigator was later arrested.”
Lewis had pressured Buzbee to ignore all these details including a British judge permitting plaintiffs to investigate his part more deeply in their suits again the Murdoch newspapers. He told her that allowing WaPo reporters to pursue it was a lapse in judgment. Lewis denied pressuring Buzbee but told reporters that he is “an activist, not a journalist.” WaPo also published a story about Winnett’s using dishonest means to obtain information for his reporting.
In the midst of its scandals, the WaPo has hired an admaker to create a new marketing campaign for a redefining its image that would broaden its audience beyond presidential politics. Lewis wants to overtake Politico, looking for an additional 100 million subscribers to the fewer three million it has now.
Elections:
Indiana: Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) lost his endorsed candidate for Indiana’s lieutenant governor race on Saturday although he waited until a short time before the primary. The winner, Michah Beckwith, is a Christian nationalist pastor who said God told him he sent “those riots to Washington” on January 6, 2021, and that it was God’s “hand at work.” Beckwith’s opponent was the choice of Mike Braun, who won the primary for governor.
Georgia: In the 2nd congressional district, Chuck Hand, convicted of illegally being in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, lost to a former DDT Educational Department official Wayne Johnson who will face the Democratic incumbent in November. Hand is one of five convicted insurrectionists running this year; three of them have already lost. Another DDT endorsement, former DDT aide Brian Jack, won over former state Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan in the GOP primary for the 3rd congressional district to replace the Republican who resigned. Democratic Shawn Harris, a retired Army General and rancher, will oppose incumbent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the heavily red 14th congressional district.
Virginia: Rep. Bob Good, chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is battling for election in the GOP primary against state Sen. John McGuire, endorsed by DDT and some of the House Republicans. DDT endorsed McGuire because Good supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. As of midnight, Good was behind McGuire by 318 votes with 95 percent of them counted.
The election has split the MAGA contingent—Greene on McGuire’s side and Steve Bannon behind Good. Both hosted competing events last week: Greene told a dozen voters in a Virginia parking lot that Good “kicked Trump when he was down,” and Bannon told Good supporters outside a courthouse that “they think you’re a bunch of morons who don’t count.” Unseating former Rep. Denver Riggleman in the district’s 2020 nominating convention, Good has never run in a primary nomination process. The redistricting process also gave McGuire an advantage because he represented part of it in the state Senate and House of Delegates.
A month ago when both McGuire and Good went to New York to support DDT during his criminal trial, they both sat down with DDT, and Good needled McGuire for not debating him. Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), present in the room, called McGuire “weak” for not debating, and McGuire asked why he should debate Good when he was 14 points ahead. Good retorted that his internal survey showed him 25 points ahead of McGuire. That’s when DDT endorsed McGuire.
Eugene Vindman, who blew the whistle on DDT’s blackmailing Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, won the Democratic primary in Abigail Spanberger’s seat in Congress. Spanberger is retiring. He and his identical twin, Alexander Vindman, helped expose DDT’s attempts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. The candidate raised over $5 million more than the other seven in the field combined, and he won over half the number of votes.
Oklahoma: A competitor from the right failed to defeat Rep. Tom Cole who has been recently named Appropriations Committee chair, one of the most powerful positions in the House. Cole won the primary by 65 percent despite his opponent’s ad that “Cole voted with Democrats for billions in new deficit spending.” Bondar was accused of not living in Oklahoma with no connections to the state. He first bought land in the state in 2022. Paul Royse, another challenger to GOP incumbent Kevin Hern, also lost.
Artificial intelligence is known for mistakes, and one of them is who won the 2020 presidential election. Alexa can’t say. And chatbots built by Microsoft and Google won’t answer at all. On multiple current tests, Amazon’s Alexa repeated that “Donald Trump is the front-runner for the Republican Nomination at 89.3%,” citing the conservative news website RealClearPolitics. “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search,” replied Google’s Gemini. Microsoft’s Copilot responded: “Looks like I can’t respond to this topic. Explore Bing Search results.” AI may skew the current election with general mistakes and lies taken from comservative media. For example, AI Overviews told a user to use glue on pizza to keep the cheese on. Add “about 1/8 cup of non-toxic glue to the sauce to give it more tackiness.” Don’t do this!
Other News from the Week:
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet, much to the disappointment of the far-right who wanted to take it over after Benny Gantz resigned. With that action, Netanyahu is in control of the attacks on Gaza and the West Bank.
Almost exactly 103 years ago, a violent white mob massacred 300 hundred Blacks in a prosperous Tulsa (OK) neighborhood in 24 hours and destroyed their homes, businesses and institutions out of resentment toward Black prosperity. The event was largely suppressed from the city’s history until HBO broadcast its nine-episode of Watchmen in 2019. Two remaining survivors, 110-year-old Viola Fletcher and 109-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, sued for reparations, and another plaintiff, Hughes Van Ellis, died last year at 102. They asked for punitive damages, a compensation fund, and a scholarship for descendants of Greenwood residents who survived the attack.
Plaintiffs specifically addressed “Defendants’ exploitation of the Massacre for their own economic and political gain.” The city has been making money from tourists visiting Tulsa to learn about the tragedy, but those who suffered didn’t benefit from this historical attraction. Oklahoma judges acknowledge that the plaintiffs’ “grievances are legitimate” but denied Fletcher and Randall. The state Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the legitimate grievances don’t fall under the state’s “public nuisance statute.” Plaintiffs plan a rehearing with the court, but it will likely be futile.
Far-right conspiracy theorists including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have been busy deleting their posts after they were punked by a video of fences and barricades installed around the Supreme Court building with the claim that the justices were ready to release the decision on DDT’s immunity. The videos were actually before the announcement of the ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Nel's New Day 