What a week. And it’s only Thursday.

This week, for the first time in history, the speaker of the House was removed after a no-confidence vote. Every Democrat in the House joined eight Republicans to remove California Republican Kevin McCarthy from his post.

The Republican Party now seems in chaos and there is no speaker with the threat (again) of a government shutdown looming in a few weeks.

But here’s what is standing out to me this week … well, besides being reminded just how divided our politics are and how broken Washington, D.C., seems to be: The media coverage of this wild week has been superb.

Over the past few days, a constant refresh of the website homepages of The Washington Post and The New York Times would reveal more analysis, more perspective, more news. In a word, I’d call the coverage comprehensive. Can I add an adjective? Expertly comprehensive.

Let me just list the headlines on the Post’s homepage. This is from Wednesday evening:

• “Scalise, Jordan running to replace McCarthy”
• “A few possibilities for the next House speaker”
• “McCarthy ouster exposes the Republican Party’s destructive tendencies”
• “The House can’t function without a speaker”
• “Vote to oust McCarthy is a warning sign for democracy, scholars say”
• “Republicans are sick of Matt Gaetz, and they’re not quiet about it”
• “A score-settling McCarthy to successor: Good luck with these people”
• “As McCarthy tumbled toward defeat, Trump did not defend his speakership”

That doesn’t include a half-dozen pieces from the Post’s excellent Opinions department.

In these stories, there was breaking news, what happened, what might happen next, why it happened, what it all means.

News. Analysis. Perspective. Expertly executed.

The same type of expertise could be found at The New York Times, which includes stories such as “From a Capitol Hill Basement, Bannon Stokes the Republican Party Meltdown.” And from Politico, which included “The House GOP Is a Failed State” and “The rudderless GOP careens toward 2024.” And the Los Angeles Times, which included “McCarthy flopped, Gaetz mutinied, but blame the chaos on the entire Republican Party.”

These pieces — all of them — were well sourced, well reported, well researched and well written.

The “CBS Evening News” and NBC’s “Nightly News” led their evening newscasts Wednesday with easily digestible, yet all-encompassing coverage. ABC’s “World News Tonight” didn’t lead with the soap opera inside the House, but it was in the first block.

(Interestingly, “World News Tonight” led with a man who was stabbed and killed in front of his girlfriend early Monday morning in Brooklyn in what is believed to be a random attack. The attack was captured on surveillance video and a manhunt is on the way for the suspect. The network’s second story was about a shooting at Morgan State University where five people, including four students, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.)

The cable news networks provided strong coverage, including the drama of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi losing her Capitol office. (More on that below.)

In the end, this was a major story with implications for all Americans. And the media did its job of keeping Americans informed.

Faulkner calls out petty behavior

Fox News’ Harris Faulkner is considered one of that network’s “straight news” anchors, but she often swerves over the line into right-wing talking points.

But on Wednesday, she showed at least some journalistic chops by grilling Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs, one of the Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy as speaker of the House. Harris asked Biggs about Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) — who, in one of his first moves, informed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she was being kicked out of her hideaway office in the Capitol building.

Faulkner questioned Biggs about the removal of McCarthy, how the House has devolved into chaos and then, when she mentioned McHenry’s name, she said, “And by the way, one of the things he did comes across as rather petty. I mean, rather than waiting for Nancy Pelosi or somebody to come back, he takes her office while she’s memorializing Dianne Feinstein. Like, are you all talking because that’s not who you are, Congressman Biggs. That’s not who any of these eight are!”

Biggs danced around his answer, but good for Harris for addressing it.

… And now for the rest of the story

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, talking from her office in the Capitol in April. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

CNN’s Jamie Gangel reported that while McHenry gave the public order that Pelosi was being kicked out of her hideaway office, McCarthy was actually responsible for Pelosi and Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer being booted. Appearing on “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” Gangel called it “real estate revenge.”

Gangel added, “And guess who is moving into Pelosi’s office? You get one guess.”

Of course: Kevin McCarthy.

Gangel said, “One Republican source said to me, quote, ‘Kevin is on a revenge tour. Patrick would never do that on his own. This was Kevin’s call.’”

Tapper said, “Classy.”

Ogden Newspapers faces lawsuit from former EIC

For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.

A former Aspen Times editor-in-chief is suing the newspaper and its parent company, Ogden Newspapers, alleging that they had violated his rights and “the integrity of local journalism” when they fired him one day into his tenure.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Pitkin County District Court in Colorado, comes nearly a year and a half after The Aspen Times faced heavy criticism for suspending coverage of a controversial land purchase by Soviet-born billionaire Vladislav Doronin. Andrew Travers, the plaintiff in the suit, has said that multiple Ogden leaders reassured him that they would lift coverage restrictions if he accepted a promotion to editor-in-chief. However, he was fired after he published a column criticizing Ogden’s handling of the situation.

Travers argues in his lawsuit that The Aspen Times; the paper’s owner Swift Communications; and Ogden Newspapers, which acquired Swift in 2021, broke laws prohibiting employers from making misrepresentations of job security to influence candidates. He is seeking a jury trial, reinstatement of employment, and various economic and compensatory damages.

“Ogden Newspapers and its leaders should be held accountable for destroying the Aspen Times, muzzling coverage and violating the public trust,” Travers said in a press release. “Along with abandoning their journalistic responsibility, Ogden clearly violated my legal rights. Affirming those rights in court will deter Ogden and others from doing this to other journalists and other communities.”

Ogden regional publisher and chief revenue officer Cameron Nutting Williams wrote in an email that the company has not yet received any official notification of the lawsuit but denies any unlawful conduct and “strongly disagree(s)” with Travers’ characterization of the situation.

In April 2022, Doronin sued the Times and Ogden for defamation over its coverage of his land purchase in the resort town of Aspen. As the two parties worked to settle the lawsuit, the Times halted coverage of Doronin, even deciding against covering the lawsuit itself — a practice atypical for many newspapers. The Times’ editor-in-chief was forced to spike a news story and two columns about Doronin, and he eventually resigned. Several other staff members also quit.

Leaders at the Times and Ogden urged Travers, then the paper’s arts editor, to accept a promotion to editor-in-chief. Over the course of several meetings with top leaders, Travers stressed that he would only accept the promotion if he had editorial freedom. Leaders assured him that they would lift coverage restrictions.

One of the first pieces Travers published as editor-in-chief included the two spiked columns, as well as internal emails about the columns. He said that he received approval from Times publisher Allison Pattillo before publication. However, after the piece went up, he was fired and the Times temporarily took down the web version before republishing a version without the emails.

Ogden has previously said that Travers was fired for including the internal emails. Pattillo told Aspen Public Radio at the time that she “was not aware of the extent of emails that were going to be published” and took responsibility for not asking to read the entire column.

In the aftermath, several more staff members quit, and Pitkin County stripped the Times of its status as the paper of record, instead giving the designation to rival paper Aspen Daily News, which continues to hold it to this day.

Kill that headline

In the past, if you went to X, formerly known as Twitter, and posted a story from, say, The New York Times or The Washington Post or your local news outlet, the tweet would then show a headline, a photo and a description of the story.

But starting Wednesday, as X owner Elon Musk promised over the summer, X will not display the headlines.

The Wrap’s Natalie Korach reports, “If the account posting the link wants a headline or synopsis, they will have to do it manually. It appears that the change has only impacted mobile users and has not yet made its way to X for desktop.”

You would assume, however, that is coming.

Korach wrote, “Musk announced that this change was coming in August in an attempt to reduce clickbait-style posts and shrink the size of posts in a user’s feed, as well as to improve the site’s aesthetics.”

But The Verge’s Jay Peters wrote, “In my opinion, removing headlines makes X harder to use — posts are less easy to parse at a glance — so I’m not sure if this change is going to lead to people posting more often like Musk hopes.”

SNL’s return

Pete Davidson, shown here in September 2022. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Now that the writers strike is over, “Saturday Night Live” will return for its 49th season on Oct. 14. Former cast member Pete Davidson will host. Ice Spice will be the musical guest. Davidson was supposed to host last spring, but that show was canceled because of the writers strike.

Bad Bunny is scheduled to be both host and musical guest on Oct. 21.

Deadline’s Peter White and Matt Grobar report that the entire cast from last season will return this season, with one addition: Chloe Troast, who has worked with “SNL’s” “Please Don’t Destroy” writing team of Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy.

Just a bit

There is someone else out there who thinks the NFL and the media are “overdoing it a little bit” when it comes to the whole Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift story. Who thinks that? Travis Kelce.

On the most recent episode of the highly popular podcast he does with his brother, Jason, Travis Kelce said, “I think it’s fun when they show who all is at the game. I think it brings a little bit more to the atmosphere, brings more to what you’re watching. But at the same time …”

Jason jumped in to say, “They’re overdoing it.”

Travis said, “They’re overdoing it a little bit for sure, especially my situation. I think they’re just trying to have fun with it.”

In the end, however, don’t get the impression that Travis is bothered by the extra coverage. He is media savvy. He gets it. And as long as Swift keeps showing up at games, you can bet the NFL will keep up the coverage.

Awful Announcing’s staff wrote, “Given that it’s brand new and there’s still some intrigue over exactly the nature of the Kelce-Swift relationship, of course it’s going to be treated as a huge deal. Will it be the same in Week 10 or Week 17 if it’s still a thing? Probably not.”

They added, “The bottom line is given the interest and ratings that it’s bringing, the NFL and its TV partners were always going to take advantage of the sudden celebrity interest. And as both Travis and Jason Kelce are building a media empire of their own, they likely understand that better than anybody.”

Media tidbits

• A behind-the-scenes media story: The Guardian’s Samanth Subramanian with “The insider: how Michael Lewis got a backstage pass for the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried.”
• New York Magazine political columnist Jonathan Chait with “The News Media Is Not Trying to Elect Trump (The mainstream media isn’t, at least).”
• The Washington Post’s Bryan Pietsch with “Ukrainian journalist missing in Russian-occupied territory.”
• Also from The Washington Post, Rachel Weiner with “Man who attacked reporter on Jan. 6 sentenced to more than 4 years.”
• Fortune CEO Alan Murray announced he will step down from his role at the end of April 2024. Here’s more from Fortune.

Hot type

• For The Washington Post, Wesley Lowery writes about the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Massacre: “Viola Fletcher waited 102 years for reparations. She’s still waiting.”
• The Guardian’s Amelia Gentleman with “Escape from the rabbit hole: the conspiracy theorist who abandoned his dangerous beliefs.”
• As the Major League Baseball playoffs are getting cranked up, PBS’s “Frontline” looks back at the Houston Astros cheating scandal in “The Astros Edge: Triumph and Scandal in Major League Baseball.”

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• Bring Poynter to Your Newsroom, Classroom or Workplace.
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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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