How divided are we as a country?
We can argue about anything. Even balloons.
That’s where we are after the United States shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on Saturday. The balloon crossed over Alaska early last week before being spotted over Montana and then traveling across the U.S.
Since news of the balloon first became public knowledge on Thursday, there have been fierce arguments about how the U.S. should handle it.
Shoot it down? Don’t shoot it down? When to shoot down? Where to shoot it down? Isn’t it even worth shooting down? What can a balloon do that satellites can’t? Is this a big deal or no deal at all?
The Washington Post’s David Ignatius wrote, “The public spectacle of a spy balloon floating over America has been an embarrassment for the Biden administration, to be sure. But the administration can claim that it waited for the most opportune moment to destroy the balloon and capture its secret payload — and that the strange affair was a net intelligence plus for the United States.”
Ignatius added, “The political fracas is already underway in Washington. Republicans claim the Biden administration showed weakness in allowing the balloon to enter U.S. airspace. Officials counter that the previous administration, under President Donald Trump, didn’t react to several similar missions over U.S. states and territories.”
The arguments continued on Sunday, a day after the balloon was knocked out of the air. The Sunday shows offered plenty of reaction.
Republican Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “The president allowed this to go across our most sensitive (military) sites.”
But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the decision to wait was based on the safety of those below. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Buttigieg said, “There’s reporting now that the debris field that was created by this balloon when it was shot down was about 7 miles long.”
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said “the military made a thoughtful decision” during his appearance on “Meet the Press.”
Booker added on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” “We have a real problem with China on a number of issues. From their human rights violations to their violations of international business law, to even the challenges we’ve had with them on overt spying. So I’m grateful that the military took decisive action when they did and how they did. But we obviously have issues here.”
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said, “They calculated this carefully with a message embedded in it. And I think that’s the part we can’t forget here. It’s not just the balloon. It’s the message to try to send the world that … we can do whatever we want, and America can’t stop us.”
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said, “China has been waging a Cold War against the United States for decades, and unfortunately, not many of our leaders have acknowledged that.”
Cotton also used the opportunity to suggest Biden was weak on China, and that this balloon ordeal proves it.
It’s predictable that Democrats and Republicans are turning this into a political debate. The New York Times’ David E. Sanger wrote, “The balloon incident came at a moment when Democrats and Republicans are competing to demonstrate who can be stronger on China.”
Trump vs. Christie
Former President Donald Trump and former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie are feuding. During an appearance on Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC, Christie said he didn’t think Trump could beat Biden in 2024.
Meanwhile, not many Republicans have officially stepped up to say they would seek the nomination against Trump. Christie said on “This Week,” “Who wants to be the first in the pool with Donald Trump — when he has no one else to shoot at and his whole life is about shooting at people?.”
Well, Trump now has found someone to shoot at: Christie. Apparently upset over Christie’s comments that Trump couldn’t beat Biden, Trump said on Truth Social, “‘Sloppy’ Chris Christie, the failed former Governor of New Jersey, spent almost his entire last year in office campaigning in New Hampshire for the Republican Nomination for President. Much like his term in office, where he left with an Approval Rating of just 9%, his Presidential campaign was a complete disaster.”
Trump added, “He endorsed me the following day, later recommended Chris Wray for the FBI (how did that work out?), went down in flames, and then was SALVAGED by ABC FAKE NEWS. I never wanted him!”
Christie fired back on Twitter, writing, “I’m the target of Donald Trump’s new tantrum. None of his lies about me today bothered him when he asked me to prep him for every general election debate or offered me 3 different cabinet posts. He’s the only man to lose to Biden outside Delaware. That loss to Joe still stings.”
As far as a Biden-Trump rematch? The Washington Post’s Dan Balz and Emily Guskin write, “Few Americans are excited about a Biden-Trump rematch, Post-ABC poll finds.”
Balz and Guskin write, “Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, the Post-ABC poll finds 58 percent say they would prefer someone other than Biden as their nominee in 2024 — almost double the 31 percent who support Biden.”
They add, “Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 49 percent say they prefer someone other than Trump as their nominee in 2024, compared with 44 percent who favor the former president.”
DirecTV’s direct response
Newsmax and many conservative politicians have been throwing temper tantrums ever since the network was dropped by DirecTV. Newsmax and many of its supporters say the network was dropped because of its political leanings, while DirecTV insists it was over carriage fees — that Newsmax wanted more money from DirecTV to carry the network. DirecTV said it didn’t want to have to pass along higher subscription rates to its customers. The move impacts a potential 13 million viewers.
Trump and others have echoed Newsmax’s complaints about political censorship, with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz calling it a “direct assault on free speech and a threat to democracy.” There have been threats of lawsuits and congressional hearings.
In a statement released Sunday, DirecTV pointed out that it recently added a conservative network called The First, which includes such right-leaning voices as Bill O’Reilly, Dana Loesch, Liz Wheeler and Jesse Kelly. The statement said, “Our differences with Newsmax are economic, not political or ideological.” The statement went on to say, “DirectTV is disappointed by Newsmax’s position. We prefer Newsmax had never left and remain interested in bringing Newsmax back under the right financial terms.”
What’s the deal?
Megyn Kelly, shown here in 2017. (RW/MediaPunch/IPX)
Megyn Kelly used to be a big deal. She was on Fox News and then NBC. These days, she is still around. She has her own podcast/SiriusXM show. But she’s not so much of a big deal. Not like before.
But the New York Post treats her like she is.
An astute reader of The Poynter Report made this keen observation: The Post has written at least 17 stories over the past three months about Kelly and comments she made on her podcast/SiriusXM show. That includes eight stories in 2023. (The Post already wrote many stories about Kelly’s podcast before the last three months.)
The headline on six of the stories starts with “Megyn Kelly blasts …” Then there are “Megyn Kelly pans …” and “Megyn Kelly weighs in on …” and “Megyn Kelly rips …” You get the idea. (Click this link to see.)
In the stories, Kelly is usually taking on people such as CNN’s Don Lemon, First Lady Jill Biden, Prince Harry and Meghan and Keith Olberman.
I reached out to the writer of several of the articles, but have not heard back.
It’s not unusual for any media outlet to often quote or link to a particular subject. I often link to columns written by former Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan and Semafor (and former New York Times) media writer Ben Smith. I also often point to interviews conducted by Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” and Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” and commentary from “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt.
But I would argue those are big voices on far-and-wide-reaching platforms. Is Kelly worth quoting that much anymore? It might have made more sense back when Kelly was at Fox News, whose owner (Rupert Murdoch) also owns the New York Post.
Look, at the end of the day, the Post can write about anybody they want as often as they want. And maybe the Post gets a bunch of clicks when it writes about Kelly’s comments, meaning it’s a smart business decision. But it just seems curious to write about a figure such as Kelly as often as they have recently.
It also might show that Kelly has one heck of a publicist.
Speaking of the Post …
I just had to mention the brilliant back cover from Saturday’s New York Post. It’s about Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who demanded a trade from the Nets. (That demand was met on Sunday when Irving was dealt to Dallas.)
The headline was “YOUR WORK HERE IS DONE!” Then it had a photo of Irving with a checklist that said:
- Pocket more than $100M
- Miss 134 games
- Refuse COVID vax
- Promote anti-Semitic movie
- Win 1 playoff series
- Demand trade.
Longtime Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan tweeted the cover and wrote, “Why we can never let the New York Post go out of business.”
Well done
Actor Pedro Pascal. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
“Saturday Night Live” had one of its best shows in recent memory. Host Pedro Pascal, who is seen these days on HBO’s “The Last of Us,” was superb — as good as any host the show has had in the past couple of years. “SNL” quickly came up with a solid cold opening about the Chinese balloon with cast member Bowen Yang playing … the balloon.
You can easily find the skits on the internet, and I encourage you to do so. Especially clever was a filmed “trailer” of another show based on a video game — just like “The Last of Us,” which is based on a video game.
There are so many tired SNL-hasn’t-been-funny-in-years takes out there, mostly, I submit, from those who really don’t even watch the show. But even skeptics, I think, would enjoy the offering from this past Saturday.
So what’s all this about cancel culture?
The Grammy Awards were announced Sunday night. The most controversial award went to comedian Dave Chappelle. The Hollywood Reporter’s Abbey White noted, “Dave Chappelle won best comedy album at the 2023 Grammys for his most recent special The Closer, which received backlash over material focused on the transgender community.”
NPR TV critic Eric Deggans tweeted, “Wow. Grammys really don’t care; one year after giving an award to admitted harasser Louis C.K., they gave one to Dave Chappelle’s homophobic and transphobic Netflix special. Sigh.”
Sad news
Two-time Oscar-nominated actress Melinda Dillon has died. She was 83. No cause has been announced.
Dillon might be best known for playing the mom in the holiday classic “A Christmas Story.” Her Oscar nominations, both for Best Supporting Actress, include her work in one of the best-known journalism movies of all time, “Absence of Malice.” The other came for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
And my personal favorite movie that Dillon was in: “Slap Shot.”
Here are obits from The New York Times’ Alex Traub and The Washington Post’s Brian Murphy.
Hot type
- Superb work from The New York Times’ Steve Eder, Matthew Rosenberg, Joseph Goldstein, Mike Baker, Kassie Bracken and Mark Walker: “Muscle Cars, Balaclavas and Fists: How the Scorpions Rolled Through Memphis.”
- Washington Post contributing columnist Brian Broome with “Why does ‘The 1619 Project’ worry people? It offers a peek at the truth.”
- The Wall Street Journal’s Tim Higgins with “When Does Elon Musk Sleep? Billionaire Speaks of Limits to Fixing Twitter and His Back Pain.”
More resources for journalists
- Time for a new job? Your future employer is looking for you on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers. Search now!
- Discover quality online information in a flash. Learn how in MediaWise’s free 7-day mobile course, Find Facts Fast.
- Leadership Academy for Diversity in Media (Seminar) — Apply by Feb. 17.
- Lead With Influence (Feb. 2023) (Seminar) — Registration ends today, Jan 30.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.
