Crooked Media - What A Day: Pandering to the libel belt

The official U.S. coronavirus death toll surpassed 100,000 today, which you would never know from President Trump’s continued online meltdown over unrelated things. 
 

• On Tuesday, Twitter ushered in a brave new world by applying its fact-check label to two of Trump’s tweets for the first time. The tweets contained the lie that mail-in ballots are fraudulent, and Twitter’s label (“Get the facts about mail-in ballots”) redirected users to news articles about the baseless claim. In response, Trump lashed out at social media companies, claiming that they “totally silence conservatives [sic] voices” and threatening to “strongly regulate” them or shut them down. 
   
• There are two laughable premises here. The first is that Trump and Republicans actually believe absentee voting to be rife with fraud, and a scourge on democracy. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, one of the foremost defenders of Trump’s attacks on vote-by-mail, has voted by mail 11 times in the last 10 years.
   
• The second is the idea that social media has been anything but a boon to right-wing voices. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Facebook conducted internal research on how to make its site a less polarizing and destructive force in the world, then largely shelved the findings. Part of the reason was that the proposed changes would have disproportionately affected conservative users, and Mark Zuckerberg’s short-lived interest in altering Facebook in the name of social good didn’t quite outweigh his interests in not getting yelled at or losing money.

In a glaring example of just how unfettered Trump remains, he’s still slandering MSNBC host Joe Scarborough with an insane conspiracy theory, ignoring a heartbroken widower who has pleaded with him to stop. 
 

• Some of Trump’s usual media allies condemned those attacks today, along with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY). The vast majority of Republican leaders have continued to stare at their shoelaces, and Twitter limply professed that it is “deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family.”
   
• In a more inspiring display of leadership, Joe Biden has responded to Trump’s mockery of him wearing a mask with the scorn it deserves, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that Trump’s “falsely masculine” refusal to wear a mask is “stoking deaths.” About three quarters of Americans agree with Biden on this one, and it’s both responsible and politically wise of him to take up the fight and set an example. 

Trump is perfectly content to break things with either end of the social-media stick: He both exploits the wide berth social-media platforms have granted him to spew lies and propaganda, and relishes any opportunity to rail against anti-conservative “censorship” to fire up his base. The coronavirus has forced tech companies to take more responsibility for the misinformation on their platforms, but they haven’t yet reckoned with the fact that Trump’s own misinformation is a huge part of that problem.

Ahead of the year’s elections, what people have asked us more than anything else is what they can do to impact the results, and now we have an answer: Vote Save America’s brand new Adopt A State program.

Adopt A State lets you directly support the work of organizers, volunteers, and candidates in the six key battleground states that will be most important to winning a progressive majority in 2020: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina. 

When you sign up to adopt a state, you’ll get specific calls to action—things you can do yourself, from home, right now—that will make a huge impact on races in these states, and help make Election Day go the way we want it to.

Adopt a state now → votesaveamerica.com/adopt 

At least 11 local news stations aired a segment scripted and produced by Amazon, which was, if you can even believe it, quite flattering to Amazon. The segment consisted of a tour inside an Amazon fulfillment center narrated by Amazon spokesman Todd Walker, whom each station introduced as if he were an in-house reporter. In the segment, Walker gushes about how Amazon keeps its employees safe, and interviews warehouse employees who profess their dedication to their work. Amazon has come under fire for ending its $2.00-per-hour hazard pay and unlimited unpaid leave policy, and warehouse workers across the country have staged walkouts demanding that Amazon do more to protect their safety. Distributing propaganda to news stations is probably not the reform they had in mind.

• Hundreds of people in Minneapolis, MN, gathered to demonstrate against the death of George Floyd, who was pinned to the ground by police officers. Police fired tear gas into the crowd, in stark contrast to the way they treated heavily armed anti-lockdown protesters in recent weeks.
   
• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified Congress that Hong Kong should no longer be considered autonomous from China, which threatens Hong Kong’s special trading status with the U.S.
   
• A federal emergency program to replace school meals has reached only about 15 percent of the 30 million children it was intended to help. Two months after Congress approved the program, only 12 states have started sending out payments, and only two have finished. 
   
• A bill to reauthorize three expired surveillance programs is in jeopardy after Trump urged House Republicans to vote against it in a late-night tweet. 
   
• NASA and SpaceX scrubbed their historic planned launch of two astronauts into orbit less than 20 minutes before liftoff, due to bad weather. A confusing day for those of us who hate to see a launch canceled, but love to see Elon Musk get told “no.” The next launch attempt is scheduled for Saturday.
   
• A California district attorney has opened an investigation into whether Tara Reade gave false testimony under oath, while serving as an expert witness. Recent news reports have raised questions about whether Reade lied about her credentials. 
   
• Disney announced it will reopen its Florida theme parks in July, with added social-distancing measures and updated attractions like Much More Space Mountain and It’s a Small World But Not So Small That You Can’t Back Up a Little Further.
   
• If you enjoyed Eric Swalwell's Fartgate, you'll love Joe Biden and the Great Fart Mystery.
   
• Larry Kramer, a noted writer and AIDS activist, has died. He was 84. 

Public opinion in the U.K. has begun to turn against Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a result of the Dominic Cummings controversy. Cummings is Johnson’s most senior adviser, and is now at the center of a scandal for traveling across the country by car during the coronavirus lockdown, flouting the rules he helped set. Both Cummings and Johnson have tried to insist that Cummings didn’t actually break the rules, which has only further ticked off the British public. A growing number of Conservative Party politicians have publicly criticized Cummings, and on Tuesday a junior minister resigned in protest. The U.K. has been patient with Johnson during his fumbling of the pandemic, but Cummings seems to have been the last straw: A new poll found that his approval rating plummeted 20 points in the span of four days. 

Father’s Day is 6/21. Find gifts under $25 and save on polos, watches and more at Nordstrom Rack!

A French study found evidence that even mild coronavirus infections produce antibodies in almost all patients. 

Silicon Valley billionaires are pouring millions of dollars into efforts to boost Joe Biden’s digital campaigning, and increase voter turnout.

Twenty-three states and a dozen environmental groups have sued the Trump administration over its rollback of Obama-era fuel efficiency regulations.

The Australian Reptile Park has welcomed the first koala joey to be born since Australia’s devastating bushfires ended. Look at her. Look at her!