Last week, ProPublica published a blockbuster story about how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife have gone on swanky vacations paid for by a Republican megadonor. Thomas never disclosed these gifts.
It naturally raised legitimate questions about Thomas, his role as a powerful judge on the most powerful court in the land and how he might be influenced by politics and favors instead of the law.
At the time of the story, Thomas didn’t bother to respond. After the story came out and launched an outpouring of negative responses toward him, Thomas did respond. He essentially said he did nothing wrong because he and the donor, Harlan Crow, are old friends. In a statement, Thomas said, “Early in my tenure at the court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”
ProPublica’s story — written by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski — was meticulously reported, and drew praise from many in the journalism community. In addition, Thomas was criticized by many who see this as another example of the Supreme Court’s credibility being weakened by political biases.
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern wrote a story with the headline, “Clarence Thomas Broke the Law and It Isn’t Even Close.”
New York Magazine political columnist Jonathan Chait wrote, “The right-wing justice has operated, in conjunction with his wife, in the center of a network of conservative activists whose project is indistinguishable from his legal work.”
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal editorial board came out and ripped … ProPublica. In an astonishingly brazen editorial, the board called this “The Smearing of Clarence Thomas.” They called ProPublica’s story a “non-bombshell,” among other insults.
The editorial started with, “The left’s assault on the Supreme Court is continuing …” They also called ProPublica a “left-leaning website.” (ProPublica’s founding editor-in-chief, CEO and president was Paul Steiger, a former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal — something you did not read in the Journal editorial.)
The editorial board wrote:
The piece is loaded with words and phrases intended to convey that this is all somehow disreputable: “superyacht”; “luxury trips”; “exclusive California all-male retreat”; “sprawling ranch”; “private chefs”; “elegant accommodation”; “opulent lodge”; “lavishing the justice with gifts.” And more. Adjectival overkill is the method of bad polemicists who don’t have much to report.
Never mind that the adjectives are actually, you know, true and accurate. As ProPublica senior editor and reporter (and former Journal columnist) Jesse Eisinger tweeted:
We stand accused of adjectival abuse. Assume the WSJ will be reporting us to the Society of Professional Journalists. I’d take alt suggestions.“Short & long-order cook who works just for him”? “Extremely large boat”? “Place where no gurls lowd”?
The board of the Rupert Murdoch-owned publication then used its own adjectival overkill to defend Thomas and disparage what they redundantly call the “liberal press.”
The board went on to write, “It’s all ugly politics, but the left is furious it lost control of the Court, and it wants it back by whatever means possible.”
Again, Thomas and his wife did go on vacations paid for by a Republican mover and shaker who also, according to Washingtonian’s Sylvie McNamara, collects Nazi memorabilia.
At no point did the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board ever mention Thomas and the problematic conflict involving his wife, Ginni, and her deep connections to powerful conservative activism, including trying to get the 2020 presidential election overturned. For the Journal’s editorial board to dismiss this as all ugly politics and biased journalism is as misguided as it is ironic. Whoever was actually responsible for writing the editorial clearly didn’t realize that it came across as projecting and partisan. At no point did the editorial ever consider that a Supreme Court judge accepting gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is worth reporting on and, at the very least, questioning.
ProPublica is an elite-level journalism outlet with multiple Pulitzer Prize winners. While one certainly has the right to question whether Thomas actually broke any ethical or legal guidelines, the Journal’s editorial board’s attack on a respected media outlet in this way is unseemly. To dismiss a well-reported story as a political hack job that is some part of a grand media conspiracy because it doesn’t like the court’s makeup feels beneath The Wall Street Journal.
When Chait wrote his piece for The New Yorker, he wasn’t talking about the Wall Street Journal’s editorial, but I couldn’t help but think of the Journal when Chait wrote, “The Republican Party believes that Thomas’s seamless integration of conservative-movement activism with the Supreme Court’s singularly powerful and unaccountable role in public life represents the finest and purest workings of the republican form of government. As we peer into a future of unbroken conservative control of the courts for perhaps decades to come, we should take seriously their professions of admiration for Thomas and his open contempt for the idea any ethical obligations might constrain his power.”
Twitter now takes aim at the BBC, along with NPR
Last week, Twitter took a petty and flat-out wrong stance against National Public Radio by labeling NPR’s Twitter account as “U.S. state-affiliated media” — a move that NPR public editor and my Poynter colleague Kelly McBride called “utter and complete bull(expletive).” Since then, Twitter changed the “U.S. state-affiliated media” label to “government funded media.”
Twitter also has branded the BBC on its official Twitter account as “government funded media,” as well as PBS.
The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi wrote, “The change in designation for NPR follows Musk’s admission that he actually didn’t understand the news organization’s relationship to the government when he ordered NPR to be designated as state-affiliated.”
Twitter hasn’t defined what it means to be “government funded media.”
As CNN’s Sophie Tanno reports, “Britain’s national broadcaster is predominantly funded by UK households via a license fee, which is also required to watch non-BBC channels or live services. This is supplemented by income from commercial operations.”
In a statement, the BBC said, “We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee.”
The BBC account has 2.2 million followers.
Meanwhile, NPR has not tweeted since Twitter first labeled it as “U.S. state-affiliated media.”
NPR’s Bill Chappell wrote last week, “NPR operates independently of the U.S. government. And while federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources.” Chappell added, “NPR is an independent, non-profit media organization that gets the bulk of its direct financial support from two sources: sponsorships and fees paid by hundreds of member stations, as its website states.”
Bashing Trump’s chances
The Sunday morning news shows didn’t give Donald Trump much hope of being elected president in 2024.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was asked if he could work with Trump if Trump were elected. Newsom flatly said, “Biden will be reelected.”
Meanwhile, former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t think much of President Joe Biden’s chances in 2024 … unless he runs against Trump.
On ABC’s “This Week,” Christie said, “I think Donald Trump is the only Republican (Biden) can beat. I don’t think he could beat any other Republican that could get nominated.”
A fiery pregame speech
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich signals to his players during a game last week. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Gregg Popovich, head coach of the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs and the league’s all-time leader in wins, was asked before Sunday’s season finale if he was thinking about retirement since he’s 74, has been a head coach since 1996 and was just elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The man known as “Pop” wouldn’t say. But he had plenty of other things to say in a press conference, going on a passionate speech lobbying for gun control legislation. Along the way, he called legislators “cowardly” and “selfish.”
He asked whether anyone in the room was carrying a firearm. He talked about his home state of Texas, saying, “I just wondered because we have a governor and lieutenant governor and an attorney general that made it easier to have more guns. That was a response to our kids getting murdered. I just thought that was a little bit of a strange decision. It’s just me, though.”
Popovich spoke for nine minutes about the subject, turning his attention to two Tennessee state representatives — Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — who were expelled last week after protesting against guns. Popovich said, “I mean, we’ve got two young Black guys in Tennessee who just got railroaded by a bunch of people that I would bet down deep in their soul want to go back to Jim Crow. And what they just did is a good start. It’s beyond comprehension. And what were they guilty of? They actually protested?
“Those (Tennessee Republican) legislators called those kids that were protesting ‘insurrectionists.’ That’s hard to believe in America. But America ain’t what we thought America was. It’s changed. So if those kids are insurrectionists, what were the people on Jan. 6? What do we call them? What’s the next step or word or level of violence after insurrectionists? I don’t know what it is. What will it take?”
Speaking about the recent shooting at a school in Nashville, Popovich sounded off against Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Popovich said, “I mean, I couldn’t believe it, so I wrote this thing down. But Sen. Marsha Blackburn, her comment after was, after the massacre, ‘My office is in contact with federal, state and local officials and we stand ready to assist.’ In what? They’re dead! What are you going to assist with? Cleaning up their brains off the wall? Wiping the blood off the schoolroom floor? What are you going to assist with?
“And then there’s Gov. Lee. I’m sorry to go on and on, but Bill Lee, ‘I’m closely monitoring the tragic situation. Please join us in prayer.’ What are you monitoring? They’re dead! Children, they’re dead.”
Here’s video of most of what Popovich said. And here’s a story from ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
Media tidbits
- Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News is set to begin one week from today. It appears headed to trial, although the sides could reach some sort of settlement before then. One ex–prosecutor says this could be an “absolute disaster” for Fox. Newsweek’s Fatma Khaled has more.
- Semafor’s Max Tani with “Before meeting with Elon Musk, top advertisers privately debate his ‘racist rhetoric.’”
- Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales goes on CNN’s “State of the Union” and tells host Dana Bash, “It’s important that we have real discussions on women’s health care and get off the abortion. Get off the abortion conversation. Women have a whole lot more other issues than just abortion. Let’s have those real conversations, and let’s talk about — let’s talk about the other things that are happening in this world.” The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies has more.
- The Los Angeles Times’ Russ Mitchell with “Far-right media outlet targets L.A.’s Asian business leaders. They’re fighting back.”
- The New York Times’ Vimal Patel with “At Stanford Law School, the Dean Takes a Stand for Free Speech. Will It Work?”
Hot type
- Former President Bill Clinton writes an opinion piece for The Washington Post: “Why has peace endured in Northern Ireland? Hope and history rhymed.”
- This is cool: The New York Times with “5 Minutes to Make You Love Jazz.” And earlier in this series: “5 Minutes to Make You Love Classical Music.”
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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
Correction: This story has been updated to say Jonathan Chait works for New York Magazine. Another publication was in the original version.
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