In one of the grubby little hypocrisies that have come to characterize Joe Biden’s single term, the president awarded Jose Andrés the Presidential Medal of Freedom last weekend — at around the same time as signing off on another $8 billion weapons sale to Israel. A previous lot to head off to our top Middle East ally may well have played a part in the air strike that killed seven people working for Andrés’s World Central Kitchen in Gaza.
Such complex contradictions may explain Andrés’s muted reaction to receiving the honor: one of Cockburn’s sources saw the chef dining with his family and friends at Nobu after the ceremony. When the spy approached Andrés at the bar the chef was ebullient — yet upon being congratulated he turned solemn. “I am not sure I have done enough to deserve it,” he admitted. Andrés made multiple stops into the kitchen and seemed “kind of sad,” the tipster said. “His party was happier than he was.”
Rooting for you guys
Stephanie Holland, a writer for the Root, sadly died last year. Her outlet, which focuses on news and issues that impact black Americans, responded so tastelessly that Cockburn can’t help but applaud: a top editor invoked Holland while urging writers to up their workload, because it’s what she would have wanted.
“We need each of you to write four trending stories daily,” the Root’s deputy editor wrote in a staff memo, according to a report in Semafor. “This will bring us closer to standards expected of daily writers across the industry, as well as help us offset the tragic loss of Stephanie.”
The Root is under the media umbrella of G/O Media, now a private equity-backed firm. The outlet responded to the outcry about the death-for-clicks mentality by claiming that the memo was taken “out of context.” The outlet claimed it “included reasonable, industry standard goals that had been already communicated to the staff weeks ago.”
G/O Media has been aggressively selling media companies in its portfolio in recent years; its most notable sale has been the Onion, a satirical website formerly known for being funny.
Even in its heyday, Cockburn is doubtful that the Onion could have come up with a headline more on-the-nose than “New York digital media site urges staffers to honor friend’s death by upping daily content output.”
For Pete’s sake
A wonderful one-two punch from the editors at the Washington Free Beacon this week: on Tuesday, an editorial titled “Confirm Pete Hegseth.” “Like Trump, he is a thrice-married man who has been in the public eye for decades; unlike the president-elect, Hegseth says he is a reformed man who has found God.”
Then on Wednesday, this scoop: “Source Behind Hegseth Claims Is Disgruntled Former Employee.” What a coincidence! The piece concerns a woman who used to work at Concerned Veterans for America who is advocating for her former coworkers to speak to the Senate Armed Services Committee and throw a wrench in the works of Hegseth’s already choppy confirmation process. The story refers back an old Cockburn piece from The Spectator’s first month in the US — nearly seven years ago! — which delved into troubled times at CVA…
Flame retardant
Natural disasters can bring out the best in Americans, with thousands lining up to donate food, blood and clothing to complete strangers. They can also surface the most crass and craven among us.
Look no further than the performative antics of California’s politicians and the national media in the wake of the Los Angeles fires. ABC News sent David Muir, one of its best-known and most respected anchors in America (Morning Consult polling found that 64 percent of respondents trust Muir). He showed up looking like an extra from Zoolander with a clothespin pulling his jacket back to make it look as tight as possible.
“David Muir, the supposed moderator of my father‘s presidential debate, who instead chose to be a participant, is so vain that as people in Los Angeles are losing everything, he used clothes pins to make his fake fireman’s jacket more form fitting,” Donald Trump Jr. posted on X. “Sick!”
Muir isn’t alone with the showmanship, either. California’s embattled governor, Gavin Newsom, was confronted by a woman and responded by telling her that he was trying to get cell service to call President Joe Biden. Los Angeles’s mayor, Karen Bass (who was on Biden’s VP shortlist!), appeared to malfunction when pressed for answers by a Sky News reporter about the fire, while California’s Democratic-dominated legislature is convening an emergency session… to fight Donald Trump. California should probably focus on being fireproof before worrying about becoming Trump proof, if you ask Cockburn…
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