Actionable news awards this week go to former CISA Director Chris Krebs, who wants to partner up in the battle against misinformation, and to Popular Information Writer Judd Legum, whose article caused corporate America to rethink political donations. Both topics may be why a growing number of organizations are cutting ties with President Donald Trump (who responded to social media banning him) and his associates. White House staffers are also having trouble finding jobs.
This admission of guilt shows Krebs has his work cut out for him.
After receiving legal letter, conservative outlet American Thinker has issued an incredible statement admitting it published “completely false” info on Dominion that had “no basis in fact.” It apologizes to readers for “abandoning” journalistic principles. https://t.co/DVFf2eWBSD pic.twitter.com/Qcqrb74q5L
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 15, 2021
- As Krebs writes, last week’s attack on the Capitol shows how disinformation has real world, human consequences. To that end, Krebs is joining Aspen Digital as its first Senior Newmark Fellow in Cybersecurity Policy and chair of the new bipartisan commission. To battle mis- and disinformation, he wants to bring together researchers, tech leaders, media specialists, private sector practitioners, and policymakers.
- We would be remiss in not mentioning Krebs’ new cybersecurity venture with former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos. Their first client is SolarWinds.
- There’s a reckoning in corporate America. As written here, last week, Popular Information contacted 144 corporations and asked if they would continue to support the Republican members of Congress who objected to the certification of the Electoral College vote. Few responded with actions (Marriott, BlueCross Blue Shield, and Commerce Bank) until the story was picked up by major news outlets – then the dam broke. That’s a major win for accountability journalism. Profiled by Bloomberg, executives may want to start reading Legum’s newsletter to head off any bad press.
On the Movers & Shakers front, it seems most news organizations waited a week to make changes. A few highlights we picked from our service include:
- CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is now a weekend anchor and chief domestic correspondent. Info on duties will follow.
- CNN announced a host of DC changes, including naming Kaitlan Collins as chief White House correspondent.
- In addition, Abby Phillip, Dana Bash and Pamela Brown are all being named to anchor positions. Jake Tapper will also have an expanded White House role. Jasmine Wright is a new White House Reporter at CNN.
- At NBC News, Hallie Jackson was named senior Washington correspondent, and will start a streaming show. Andrea Mitchell becomes chief Washington correspondent, while Monica Alba joined the White House team. Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander are new chief White House correspondents.
- Jessica Smith becomes Chief Political Correspondent at Yahoo! Finance.
- Political Reporter Lachlan Markay has jumped to Axios from The Daily Beast.
- The Wall Street Journal moved seven reporters to cover the White House.
Once again, we should give a shoutout to photojournalists such as Igor Bobic and Ash Gilbertson, giving the human element to stories. Here’s a good thread:
It’s always frustrating to see images go viral with no credit to the incredible photographers who take them. And it’s happening with the National Guard at Capitol pics. So this remarkable image was captured by the AP’s J. Scott Applewhite. pic.twitter.com/dBnCR15Iaa
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) January 13, 2021
And here are some post-impeachment links to pay attention to:
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Carl Quintanilla picked up on some insight from Goldman Sachs on President-elect Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, saying it sets the stage to be negotiated down to $1.1 trillion.
- When do we use the term insurrection?
- Video from Jan. 6 capturing talk of Capitol building floor plans.
- Reuters grabbed a filing showing federal prosecutors said Capitol rioters meant to “capture and assassinate” officials. Though, there’s a report citing “no direct evidence.” The list of arrests is growing as well.
- Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey opines on blocking the president, and the future of media. Meanwhile, he gets flack from the Biden team on transferring presidential Twitter handles.
- Amazon took down Parler, which is being mined to find info on insurrection planning.
- Google is pausing all political ads.
- A column on the media covering Trump, by WaPo Media Columnist Margaret Sullivan, made the rounds on social media.
- Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman got an inside view of Hill partisanship. But there are also some extreme accusations of “reconnaissance tours”, as well as an AOC Instagram monologue that went viral, and accounts from DC police officers picked up by WaPo:
We were battling 15,000 people. It looked like a medieval battle scene.
