Elizabeth Vargas has reported from war zones in Iraq and hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. She has interviewed presidents in the White House and has crisscrossed the country and the globe.
But now she’s up for another challenge: anchoring the newscast of record for the (relatively) new cable news outlet NewsNation.
“Elizabeth Vargas Reports” debuts tonight at 6 p.m. Eastern on the Nexstar-owned cable network that also is the home to Dan Abrams and Chris Cuomo. (NewsNation relaunched in early 2021 and reaches about 70 million homes.)
So why NewsNation? And why go back to the anchor desk?
Vargas told me in a phone interview last week, “This news cycle is so extraordinary. … To be honest, when this opportunity arose, I just couldn’t resist one more time leaning into what I think is going to be a historical news cycle.”
Vargas is clear: This newscast isn’t going to play politics or turn into an opinion show. It’s a newscast.
“’I’ve never done opinion,” Vargas said. “That is not what I feel comfortable doing. I’m a journalist, by training and experience. This will be the newscast of record for NewsNation. We’ll go deep into a handful of stories that are the biggest stories affecting Americans across the country, not just in the Beltway, but across the country.”
What does she think of the cable news landscape these days?
“I think there’s a lot of good coverage out there and I think there’s a lot of polarizing, partisan, loud coverage as well,” Vargas said. “I know as a viewer and voracious news consumer myself, it can drive me crazy.”
Vargas, 60, has just about done it all in her nearly 40 years in journalism. She worked on NBC’s “Dateline” and the “Today” show, as well as ABC’s “Good Morning America.” She co-anchored ABC’s “World News Tonight” and “20/20.” She has won an Emmy and Peabody and wrote a best-selling memoir, “Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction.”
And now her latest challenge is trying to find a spot in a crowded and polarized TV news world.
Vargas said the handful of stories each night will be done in a “thoughtful, in-depth manner. We’re not going to lurch over into that extreme element of the spectrum. … As a journalist, I think it’s our responsibility not to tell people what they want to hear, but what’s actually happening.”
‘60 Minutes’ controversy
Lesley Stahl, left, of CBS’s “60 Minutes,” interviews Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. (Courtesy: “60 Minutes.”)
Before it even aired Sunday evening, CBS’s “60 Minutes” was being blasted on social media for a segment on Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The program’s Twitter account put out a tweet teasing the segment, saying, “Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, nicknamed MTG, isn’t afraid to share her opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they are. She sits down with Lesley Stahl this Sunday on 60 Minutes.”
What the tweet didn’t include, and what critics immediately jumped on, was that Greene’s intense and in-your-face opinions include QAnon conspiracies, as well as other far-right conspiracy theories, and comments that are racist, antisemitic and homophobic.
NBC News’ Ben Collins, who covers disinformation, extremism and the internet, tweeted, “oh my god what are we doing here.” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted, “This is the type of normalizing that mainstream media did of segregationists.” Former Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger tweeted, “Wow. Insane that 60 min would do this.”
That was the overwhelming response on social media. But not the unanimous one.
New York Times journalist Jonathan Swan tweeted, “People suggesting Mike Wallace would not have given a platform to MTG are not familiar with his career — either on 60 Minutes or Night Beat. He would have done a tough interview with her but based on who else he ‘platformed’ he wouldn’t have thought twice about giving her airtime.”
So, again, all this reaction was before the show even aired.
Is Greene worthy of being profiled by the gold standard of news shows? I would argue yes. As Lesley Stahl, who reported the story, said while introducing the piece, “She has managed in just two years in Congress to accumulate real power, landing on important committees, and influencing the direction of Republican policies.”
That makes Greene a newsworthy subject.
As far as the story and the interview that went along with it, opinions surely will be divided. Stahl did push Greene for some of her comments about Democrats (calling them “pedophiles”), her unwavering support of Donald Trump, her past comments about QAnon and the shooting at Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
At one point, Stahl stopped and essentially rolled her eyes while saying, “Wow. OK.” At another point, “60 Minutes” showed their receipts when posting screenshots of things Greene said on social media. So they didn’t give Greene a total pass.
But overall, it felt as if the pushback was light and not persistent — at least based on what made it to air. Greene was able to deflect questions, give non-answers and escape any real accountability for some of her outrageous and unproven views. For example, Stahl asked Greene about Greene’s opinion that the U.S. should have a “Christian government.”
Stahl said, “The Constitution, the very First Amendment, prohibits having a religion in the government.”
Greene answered, “Yet, the Founding Fathers quoted the Bible constantly and were driven by their faith.”
And … that was it. No follow-up, at least not one that was shown on air. That’s just one example. That’s how much of the story went. Greene supporters or even those who don’t follow her that closely likely came away thinking, “Hmm, OK, she’s a little extreme, but not that bad.”
Those who already didn’t like her had their opinions confirmed but likely were frustrated by how she was portrayed.
In other words, the fear that many had about the piece going in — that it would normalize Greene — likely came to fruition.
In the end, Greene absolutely should be profiled by “60 Minutes,” but not in the way “60 Minutes” did it.
WSJ reporter remains detained
Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker appeared on Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS to talk about Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being detained in Russia. The Russian authorities are accusing Gershkovich of espionage.
Tucker told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan that the WSJ doesn’t know where Gershkovich is being held and they have been unable to get any messages to him, but she added they were reassured that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Tucker said, “Well, we’re hoping that the government will move swiftly to designate Evan as wrongfully detained. It can take a long time, but we’re hoping we’re optimistic it’ll move a bit more swiftly in this case. When that happens, it’s an official recognition that the charges against Evan are entirely bogus. And once that official recognition comes, things can then move a bit more rapidly.”
Tucker went on to say, “Evan is a very talented, experienced reporter. He’s accredited to report from Russia. And he was on an assignment doing what he always does. He was gathering information. He was reporting from the ground to provide our readers with eyewitness accounts of what it’s like to be in Russia at the moment. It’s a complete outrage that he was arrested like this. … What the Russian authorities are saying is utter nonsense.”
Meanwhile, check out this from the New Yorker’s Joshua Yaffa: “The Unimaginable Horror of a Friend’s Arrest in Moscow.”
Also, Margaret Sullivan’s latest media column for The Guardian US: “The arrest of an American journalist in Russia is awful. For me, it’s also painfully personal.”
And, finally, The Wall Street Journal’s Louise Radnofsky, Warren P. Strobel and Aruna Viswanatha with “Evan Gershkovich’s Arrest Marks a New Era of Hostage Diplomacy.”
Check that
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Twitter removed the verified blue check from The New York Times’ official main account on Sunday. Twitter boss Elon Musk seemed to remove it personally after the Times said it would not pay for the Twitter Blue service. Many news outlets said they would not pay for service — claiming that the verified blue check does not mean an account is credible, but that someone merely paid for it. The new Twitter Blue plan was to go into effect over the weekend. The Times appears to be one of the few to actually have had a blue check removed.
The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell wrote, “The move continues Musk’s years-long grudge against U.S. journalists who have reported critically on him, and it will raise the risks of impersonation.”
The grudge certainly seemed personal when Musk tweeted, “The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting.”
The Times’ main account has 55 million followers, making it among the top 25 most-followed accounts on Twitter, according to Social Blade.
To run or not to run
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin appeared on several Sunday morning shows and didn’t say he would run for president. But he didn’t rule it out either. His senate term is up next year and hasn’t committed to running for reelection.
Manchin, a Democrat who is more centrist than left, told NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd, “My filing date is Jan. 15 in 2024, and I will make my decision maybe a little bit before that — but not until the end of the year, I can assure you.”
When Todd asked if he would run as a Democrat, Manchin said, “The party identification is not going to change me. Democrat, Republican. I mean, having a D and R should not change you as a person. I’m going to still fight for the things I do. Can’t I be a moderate centrist with whatever identification, or no identification? I would think.”
Meanwhile, when asked directly if he would run for president, Manchin told CNN “State of the Union” moderator Dana Bash, “We have a movement. There’s a movement. There’s a movement going on that people want to bring the extremes back to the sensible and reasonable, responsible middle. If I can be part of trying to get a dialogue. … I’m trying to get a dialogue to where people are saying, come on, this is ridiculous. Don’t force people to go to the extremes. No one runs their life this way. Let’s come back to the middle. It’s the United States of America. It’s about our country. Everyone’s worried about their own political future. I’m worried about the country.”
Manchin also ducked the question when asked by “Fox News Sunday” moderator Shannon Bream.
Story of the week
The big story this week, of course, is that former President Donald Trump is expected to be arraigned in New York on Tuesday as he faces more than 30 charges related to hush money he allegedly paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Trump announced Sunday that he will speak from Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night.
The Sunday news shows were full of Trump talk.
Some of the more interesting comments? MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, who has already established herself as a compelling host after just three shows, said, “To me, the only people who are weaponizing and politicizing what shouldn’t be a political process are leading Republicans. And they’re doing this for one reason: because Donald Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party, and they’re scared of losing the support of his base. So what should Democrats be doing about the indictment news? Let me start with what not to do. As much as you may want to, now is not the time for a mass order of ‘Lock Him Up’ T-shirts and mugs. That is what Trump and his supporters would do. Now is also not the time for Democratic candidates to celebrate, to brag, to predict the outcome of the legal cases. If you can, put your head down and stay out of it for now.”
As far as the media angle, it is interesting how Fox News has reacted to the Trump story. Politico’s Meridith McGraw noted the indictment “rekindled, for now, a long-standing relationship that had gone decidedly sour.”
It’s true. Fox News hosts have been quick to defend Trump and repeat many of Trump’s claims that this is a political witch hunt.
McGraw wrote, “It was a detente of sorts for some on Fox News — who had shown an eagerness to move on from Trump since his presidency ended. And while it illustrated the circling of the wagons that appears to be in motion in the aftermath of the grand jury’s decision, it also underscores another element of the early 2024 race: Trump’s re-engagement with and re-acceptance among the political press.”
Media tidbits
- Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman with “Tensions Flare Inside NPR After Staff Layoffs and Town Halls.”
- No one does a better Trump impression than “Saturday Night Live’s” James Austin Johnson and he nailed it in the “SNL” cold open over the weekend.
- Mediaite’s Ken Meyer with “Fox’s Jason Chaffetz Totally Dismisses Trump’s Post Threatening ‘Death and Destruction’: ‘That’s Why America Loves the Guy’.”
Hot type
- “CBS Sunday Morning” and reporter Anthony Mason with “Neil Diamond on ‘A Beautiful Noise,’ Parkinson’s, and being thankful.”
- For The New Yorker, Emma Green with “Hillsdale College’s Battle for the Soul of American Education.”
- For The New York Times, Penelope Colston with photographs by Jake Michaels: “The Finnish Secret to Happiness? Knowing When You Have Enough.”
More resources for journalists
- Hiring? Post jobs on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers.
- How Any Journalist Can Earn Trust (Self-directed course) — Enroll Now.
- Lead With Influence (Feb. 2023) (Seminar) — Register by Jan 30.
- Poynter’s Beat Academy (March-Oct.) (Webinar series) — Enroll now.
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.
