Before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building, before the countless recounts, there was election ̶n̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ week — the week many eyes were on souped-up map magisters John King of CNN, Steve Kornacki of MSNBC and Bill Hemmer of Fox News.
The trio brought out an old school news consumption vibe while also bringing out the memers both young and seasoned.
“Hey Kasie, I have to stop you. Steve Kornacki has a piece of paper in his mouth.”#tbtpic.twitter.com/I9DAMMhGv4
— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) November 6, 2020
There’s a new place for fans to find Kornacki as he joins our Movers & Shakers list. He just signed a four year, multi-million dollar deal with NBCUniversal. The Los Angeles Times reports Kornacki will be a regular analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America” and the halftime report on “Sunday Night Football.” He will also be a part of the network’s Super Bowl telecast in 2022, LAT says.
Other select Movers (there were 141 new positions) include:
- Rachel Smolkin (strong politics background) becoming vice president of news at CNN Digital.
- Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani taking over as presidents and co-heads of CBS News.
- Kerri Cavanaugh moving up to news director at WFOR-TV.
- PBS NewsHour adding Yamiche Alcindor as White House correspondent.
- Sally Buzbee rising to executive editor of The Washington Post.
- WaPo also promoted Tim Elfrink to deputy editor of the national politics enterprise and investigations team; moved William Wan to the local desk from the national desk; and made Brianna Tucker deputy editor of its 202 newsletter team.
- Zack Stanton being named deputy editor of Politico Playbook.
- Kenneth Moton joining the Washington bureau of ABC News.
- Shelby Talcott becoming senior White House correspondent at The Daily Caller.
- Ex-Bloomberger Andy Reinhardt coming back at politics editor at The San Francisco Chronicle.
- Politics Reporter James Barragan moving to The Texas Tribune from Dallas Morning News.
- Peter Smith combining religion and politics, nationally at The Associated Press.
- Stuart Reid and Justin Vogt elevating to executive editors at Foreign Affairs.
In News of Note:
- Our own reporting: Facebook Trump Ban, Algos and 2024 Presidential Election Fundraising
- We ask the question: Will the “bigs” be the only game in town? Sinclair Expands ‘The National Desk’ to Evenings
- Angie Jackson gets well-deserved praise from inmates for her coverage of COVID-19 in prisons. Here are her stories.
- David Sirota brings more enterprise journalism: The $13 billion debt collector industry is funneling huge cash to lawmakers in a campaign to halt Democratic legislation on predatory practices.
- Jessica Toonkel hears that BuzzFeed may be in talks to acquire digital lifestyle publisher Complex Networks as part of its plan to go public by merging with a SPAC.
- CNN President Jeff Zucker wants journalists to say what they actually want to say.
- Rep. Liz Cheney has a combative interview on Fox News.
- YouTube, with its massive reach, has a history of being unable to keep disinformation off of its site.
- Margaret Sullivan hat tips fellow newsies for calling out the work of WTIF journalists who will not let anyone forget politicians who tried to overturn an election.
- Axios reports misinformation is just one part of a vaccine trust problem.
- NPR: Researchers have found just 12 people are responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- Poynter says fact-checkers can blunt the threat of disinformation.
The theme of the last few bullets is something this intelligence briefing highlighted in its previous edition. Political extremism has brought new light to the problem of misinformation and disinformation — so-called fake news. New, that is, for those that haven’t read Chapter 7 of the Thomas Mann & Norman Ornstein book, ‘It’s Even Worse Than It Looks,’ summarized here.
In the middle, facts can be distorted and opinions can diverge. There’s no more shocking result than in the most alarming events this week regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the wire feeds report, the general public can only watch the results.
Israel’s Iron Dome defence system and rockets launched from Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip rise into the night sky on May 14
📸 Anas Baba pic.twitter.com/vQmNuIhhJe
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 14, 2021
