“President Trump was wrong.”
Those were the comments made by former Vice President Mike Pence regarding Jan. 6, 2021. Pence made his remarks while speaking Saturday night at the Gridiron dinner, an annual fancy event thrown by journalists in Washington, D.C.
Pence went on to say, “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Pence’s comments started off as light and funny, which is typically the theme for the dinner, but turned serious near the end when he talked about Trump and Jan. 6.
Pence said, “Jan. 6 was a tragic day for our nation. It was not, as some would have us believe, a matter of tourists peacefully enjoying our Capitol. Tourists don’t injure 140 police officers by simply sightseeing. Tourists don’t break down doors to get to the speaker of the House. Tourists don’t threaten public officials.”
The Washington Post’s Ben Terris wrote, “It was a strange place to make news. Then again, Pence was simply stating the obvious. The fact that his remarks were newsworthy was funny, but not really.”
As NPR TV critic Eric Deggans tweeted, “Only took him three years to speak up. And he still didn’t call out Fox News or Tucker Carlson directly for their lies.”
Meanwhile, Pence also did talk about the media during his speech. He said, “I don’t deny that you infuriate me … and I’m sure I infuriate you … but I genuinely value what you do to keep us a democracy.”
As many pointed out, it would have been nice if Pence said that at the same time his former boss in the White House was calling the media the “enemy of the state.”
The Jan. 6 tapes
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy chose to give the more than 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 surveillance video to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. But, appearing on Sunday’s “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News, McCarthy said he will “slowly roll out” the tapes to other news outlets.
About giving the tapes to Carlson, McCarthy said, “I didn’t give the tapes. I allowed (Carlson) to come see them, just like an exclusive with anybody else. My goal here is transparency.”
Howard Kurtz defends Fox News
Two weeks ago, Howard Kurtz, who hosts Fox News’ Sunday morning show about the media called “MediaBuzz,” told viewers that executives at the network told him he was not allowed to talk about Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News.
Well, on his program Sunday, Kurtz did talk about it, mostly defending Fox News during a four-minute commentary. It’s the type of commentary that Fox News viewers likely wanted to hear on the network’s first real on-air comment about the bombshell suit.
Kurtz started by saying, “I’m not sugar-coating the allegations in this $1.6 billion suit. Or the fact that Fox has taken a hit in the court of public opinion.”
But then he mostly sugar-coated the allegations. He then added, “… there was a crucial First Amendment argument here involving the coverage of unsubstantiated claims of 2020 election fraud by Donald Trump and his allies.”
To borrow an old Fox News phrase, I posted the video. Watch it and you decide.
Wild week in the UK
Few things are bigger in Britain than soccer and few names are bigger in British soccer than Gary Lineker. He’s the former captain of England’s national team who has gone on to be one of the nation’s top broadcasters. He’s an analyst on the BBC’s “Match of the Day,” a popular soccer highlights show. It’s a job he has held for more than two decades.
Last week on Twitter, Lineker, 62, criticized the country’s new asylum policy, tweeting to his 8.8 million followers, “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?”
Conservatives in Britain were upset with Lineker’s comments and some even called for his firing. The BBC suspended Lineker for posting a political opinion on Twitter. But that was just the beginning of the story.
BBC broadcasters and analysts, as well as some English Premier League players, boycotted the network in support of Lineker. Those boycotts severely impacted soccer coverage on the BBC over the weekend.
Reporting from London, The Associated Press’ Jill Lawless wrote, “Instead of blanket coverage on Saturday of the most popular league in the world, the BBC had no preview shows on radio or TV and no early evening summary of the final scores of Premier League games. Lunchtime TV program ‘Football Focus’ was replaced with a rerun episode of antiques show ‘Bargain Hunt,’ while early evening ‘Final Score’ was swapped for ‘The Repair Shop.’”
The show that Lineker is on — “Match of the Day” — went from its usual 90 minutes to a 20-minute show with no commentary, only crowd noise.
The BBC is being criticized for giving in to pressure from conservatives and for suppressing free speech. The BBC’s argument is that because its license fees are paid by citizens, it must remain impartial in all of its coverage.
New York Times London bureau chief Mark Landler wrote, “On Sunday, the BBC was struggling to work out a compromise with Mr. Lineker that would put him back on the air, after days of controversy over his criticism of a government plan to crack down on asylum seekers. But the fallout from the dispute is likely to be wide and long-lasting, casting doubt over the corporation’s management, which has made political impartiality a priority but has faced persistent questions about its own close ties to Britain’s Conservative government.”
It was such a big deal that even British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak weighed in, saying, “Gary Lineker was a great footballer and is a talented presenter. I hope that the current situation between Gary Lineker and the BBC can be resolved in a timely manner, but it is rightly a matter for them, not the government.”
More on the Irvin story
During Super Bowl week, football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin was sent home by the NFL Network and ESPN after being accused by a woman of inappropriate and harassing behavior in the lobby of a hotel. Irvin held a press conference with his lawyer last week. He denied any wrongdoing and lashed out at the accusations, saying, “It just blows my mind that in 2023 we’re still dragging and hanging brothers by a tree. It blows my mind that I have no opportunity to defend — I don’t even know what I’m defending.”
His lawyer said he had seen a video of the encounter and that there was nothing inappropriate. The woman in the video is a Marriott employee, and Irvin and his lawyer announced last week that they were filing a $100 million lawsuit against the woman and Marriott.
But now Marriott is firing back. In a court filing, Marriott claims Irvin made a lewd remark to the woman, repeatedly touched her without her consent, leered at her and then made a crude remark as he walked away. (Read this story to see the very crude remark Marriott is claiming Irvin made.)
Murdoch on ‘Succession’
Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch in 2018. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Semafor’s Max Tani reached out to News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch to ask the media mogul if he was planning on watching the final season of HBO’s “Succession.” The show certainly seems partly inspired by the Murdoch family.
Despite owning several media giants, Murdoch rarely talks to the media. But he answered Tani, saying, “Never watched it.”
Oh well.
Tani also asked Murdoch what he thought about Elon Musk running Twitter. Murdoch said, “Great! Tough task but he will get there.”
Tani reached out to Murdoch at an email address that was discovered in the Dominion Voting System lawsuit filings against Fox News.
Media tidbits
- People Magazine’s Kyler Alvord with two moving stories involving the Fox News team that was caught in a deadly blast while covering the war in Ukraine. First, it’s “Fox News War Reporter Benjamin Hall, Who Lost a Leg in Russian Missile Attack, Shares His Survival Story.” Then it’s Alvord with “Injured War Reporter Benjamin Hall Remembers His Slain Colleague: ‘He Laid Down His Life to Save Me.’”
- The National Press Photographers Association with the 2023 Best of Photojournalism.
- The Daily Beast’s Victor Swezey with “Podcaster Murdered by Crazed Fan Who Stalked Her Across the Country.”
- During a segment on “CBS Sunday Morning,” actress Eva Longoria talks about her new CNN travel show, “Searching for Mexico.”
Hot type
- The NCAA men’s basketball tournament starts this week and the favorite and overall No. 1 seed is the University of Alabama. But there’s a troubling story surrounding the program. Here is superb work from The Washington Post’s Kent Babb about the program and its head coach: “Nate Oats always has his players’ backs. At Alabama, has he taken it too far?”
- Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke with “‘Let him play.’ How a deaf, autistic basketball player’s one shining moment became a Cerritos College nightmare.”
- Finally today, I’ll have more reaction and analysis from Sunday night’s Oscars in Tuesday’s newsletter. But for now: this column from the Los Angeles Times’ Grace Park: “‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ saved my relationship with my mom.”
More resources for journalists
- Hiring? Post jobs on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers.
- Poynter’s Beat Academy (March-Oct.) (Webinar series) — Enroll now.
- Spend “An Evening with NBC News’ Kerry Sanders: Reflections of a Fearless Broadcast Journalist,” March 23.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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