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June 20, 2019
Good morning. Did you see Meghan McCain and Joy Behar go at it Wednesday on “The View”? That’s nothing new. Debate is a big part of that show and this wasn’t the first time McCain and Behar squared off. But one word changed the narrative.
Viewer discretion advised?
Megan McCain snapped the b-word at Joy Behar on Wednesday after a confrontation on ‘The View.’
What made Wednesday’s McCain-Behar dust-up on “The View” provocative was that it included McCain calling Behar the b-word.
The initial reaction was that McCain crossed a line. But if you watch the clip, it doesn’t look as nasty as it seems when you read the word.
The panel was discussing Donald Trump’s Tuesday re-election launch, and it ended with Behar sort of mocking McCain with a sarcastic “Aww.” McCain said, “Oh don’t feel bad for me b—h, I’m paid to do this, OK. Don’t feel bad for me.”
After some audience groans, panelist Sunny Hostin said, “Let’s not start calling each other b—–s.”
McCain said, “Oh Joy and I call each other b—h all the time.” Behar just smiled, but you couldn’t tell if it was a friendly smile or a I-don’t-know-how-to-react smile.
Following a commercial break, the two downplayed the exchange, with McCain repeating that they call each other that word all the time. Behar added that the two are going to argue on the show before saying, “I don’t care if you call me a b—h.”
I’m not a female, so it’s hard for me feign outrage on Behar’s behalf or pass judgment on McCain. You could argue that if they don’t have a problem with what happened, why should anyone else? You could also argue that this dustup is sexist, because when two men argue on TV, we don’t rehash and dissect each and every word.
But what makes this different is that McCain used a gender-specific word. Just because Behar was fine with it doesn’t mean viewers weren’t offended or felt disempowered. The panelists on that show — or any show, for that matter — have an obligation to the audience’s perceptions and reactions, which should supersede their own personal feelings. And in this case, McCain’s choice of words ended up overshadowing an otherwise interesting conversation.
Fighting words
The New York Times’ publisher took the unusual step of writing a column in a competitor’s pages.
New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger is pictured, left, with Nancy Ancrum, editorial page editor of the Miami Herald, at a conference in Austin, Texas, in this 2018 file photo. (AP Photo/Paul Weber)
New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger fired back at President Donald Trump’s attacks with a strongly-worded op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. (Seeing as how the Times and Wall Street Journal are competitive with one another, the solidarity speaks volumes.) Sulzberger is disturbed by Trump’s recent tweet accusing the Times of treason, which is technically punishable by death. In his op-ed, Sulzberger writes:
“There is no more serious charge a commander in chief can make against an independent news organization. Which presents a troubling question: What would it look like for Mr. Trump to escalate his attacks on the press further? Having already reached for the most incendiary language available, what is left but putting his threats into action?”
Sulzberger wrote that he met with Trump in the Oval Office earlier this year and relayed his concerns about attacks on a free press. He said Trump “expressed concern and insisted he wanted to be viewed as a defender of the free press.” But Trump also took credit for the term “fake news.”
Sulzberger wrote, “Mr. Trump’s campaign against journalists should concern every patriotic American. A free, fair and independent press is essential to our country’s strength and vitality and to every freedom that makes it great.”
100 days and counting
100. Wednesday marked the 100th consecutive day without an official White House press briefing. That seems unfathomable, and more than doubles the previous record (42) of this administration.
CNN’s Brian Stelter writes, “I’m beating this drum because the cancellation of the briefing has both symbolic and practical consequences. Practical because questions aren’t being answered. Symbolic because Trump and his aides are shutting out the press and giving permission for government agencies to do the same.”
Short, sweet and transparent
An Axios survey shows that readers like knowing the length of newsletters and how long it will take to read them.
If you get a newsletter from Axios, you might have noticed something at the top over the past month. It’s called a “Smart Brevity” count. It tells the reader how many words are in the newsletter and how long it will take to read. For example, in Wednesday morning’s Axios AM newsletter from Mike Allen, the “Smart Brevity” count says: “1,079 words … < 5 minutes!”
Axios isn’t alone in doing this. Other websites — Medium, for example — do it as well. But Axios set out to learn just how valuable this was to readers. So it included a right-to-the-point survey asking readers if they loved the word count or hated it. The results left no doubt: Readers loved it. Of the more than 11,000 responses, more than 80% said they loved the word/time count.
In an email, Axios editor-in-chief Nicholas Johnston told me, “It comes down to one of our founding principles: Reader first. The word count and read times at the top of Axios newsletters are just one of the ways in which we practice what we preach when it comes to Smart Brevity and respecting our reader’s time.”
Finding TIME to write
As a contributing editor, Angelina Jolie will write for the news magazine on human rights, among other topics.
Actress Angelina Jolie is adding another line to her résumé: contributing editor to TIME magazine. TIME says Jolie will write on a variety of topics, “focusing primarily on displacement, conflict and human rights.” Her work will appear monthly across TIME’s global platforms.
Her first story appeared on TIME’s website Wednesday to coincide with World Refugee Day. It will appear in the July 1, 2019 issue, which hits newsstands on Friday.
It’s 5 against NY1
Five anchorwomen are suing a local news station, saying they are being pushed out for younger, less experienced journalists.
Five anchorwomen at NY1, New York City’s 24-hour local TV news station, are suing the network over age and gender discrimination. The New York Times reports the women claim they are being forced off the air in favor of younger, less experienced hosts.
The anchors — Roma Torre, Amanda Farinacci, Vivian Lee, Jeanine Ramirez and Kristen Shaughnessy — range in age from 40 to 61. Torre, 61, told the Times, “We feel we are being railroaded out of the place. Men age on TV with a sense of gravitas, and we women have an expiration date.”
The station is owned by Charter Communications. A spokeswoman for Charter told the Times, “We take these allegations seriously and as we complete our thorough review, we have not found any merit to them.”
Hot type
A list of great journalism and intriguing media.
- The New York Times has an interactive Q&A with the Democratic presidential candidates in which they all answer the same questions.
- The sale of the Reading Eagle could result in 81 layoffs by the end of the month. The Morning Call has the details.
- How do you cover beats in your own backyard? Poytner’s Kristen Hare tells you.
- BuzzFeed News with this big story: An ex-GOP operative with white nationalist ties has written opinion pieces for The Wall Street Journal under a pen name.
- VICE’s Jason Silverstein writes that “being black in America is a health risk” and “it’s time for reparations.”
Editor’s note: In yesterday’s newsletter, we linked to an investigative report and told you it was from the AP — but we were only partially right. The story was actually written in part by Nora Eckert, a graduate student at the University of Maryland and part of the school’s Capital News Service. Also contributing to the data analysis that made the story possible were Capital News Service reporters Riin Aljas, James Crabtree-Hannigan, Elliott Davis, Theresa Diffendal, Jessica Feldman, Hannah Gaskill, Samantha Hawkins and Roxanne Ready. We regret the oversight.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
Upcoming Poynter training:
- How to Cover the Iowa Caucuses (workshop). Deadline: Aug. 2. Admissions rolling.
- Table Stakes: Poynter’s Local News Innovation Program. Deadline: June 24.
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