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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Broken and not to be fixed anytime soon [1]
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Date: 2023-03-30
So Rep. Burchett is not willing to put up with drag queens but he’s willing to put up with mass school shootings.
x Burchett on Drag Shows vs. Shootings: pic.twitter.com/XU0H8ZsWLX — Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) March 28, 2023
Kimberly Atkins Stohr of the Boston Globe points out that the United States Supreme Court may now be preparing to target the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As we await rulings this term that could gut the already battered Voting Rights Act, weaken laws protecting the LGBTQ community, and eviscerate affirmative action in college admissions, the court teed up a new target for next term: the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court agreed to decide whether disability rights advocates can sue hotels, restaurants, or other businesses that provide public accommodations for violating the anti-discrimination law when the advocates have no intention of patronizing those establishments. In other words, do so-called “testers,” whose sole intention is to force those businesses to comply with the ADA’s accessibility requirements, have standing to sue? If the court decides the answer is no, it would be a win for businesses that claim such suits — sometimes filed by the hundreds by single litigants — are nuisance cases that threaten to destroy businesses that do not have the financial resources to engage in lengthy and costly legal battles.
Paul Farhi and Sarah Ellison of The Washington Post wonder if Fox News will attempt to settle the defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems.
Isaac J. Bailey of NiemanReports reminds us that the overwhelming majority of news organizations defended Fox News for years and years … but not anymore.
What we know now is that Fox News isn’t a news organization in any true sense of the word. (We had an inkling in 2020 when Carlson was sued for slander, and Fox News lawyers argued in court that a reasonable person would understand that the host’s statements were “loose, figurative or hyperbolic.”) From top executives and well-paid primetime hosts to supposed objective news anchors, the Dominion lawsuit has exposed the network as an entertainment network masquerading as a news outlet. In private, Fox News personalities like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Carlson were expressing their disdain for former President Donald Trump and their belief that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t stolen. On air, they said the opposite. [...] We must not underappreciate what it means that even Fox “news” anchors were arguing in favor of broadcasting inaccurate results from Arizona in 2020 because their audience didn’t want to hear the truth, that young news staffers were threatened with firing for having the temerity to try to tell the truth, that top Fox personalities spoke truthfully off air but dared not repeat those truths on air for fear of losing viewers. Fox’s media reporter Howard Kurtz is a prime illustration of what Fox has become or has always been.
One of the reasons why news organizations may have defended Fox News makes Bailey’s piece worth reading in its entirety.
Henry Hicks of Bolts magazine reports on how the Tennessee GOP is attempting to diminish the political power of Democratic-leaning Nashville.
The conservative politicians in charge of Tennessee’s state government have relentlessly aimed in the last year to diminish the political power of the state’s most populous and liberal-leaning city by curtailing Nashville’s representation in Congress, shrinking the size of its Metro Council, investigating the operations of its district attorney, and now attempting to interfere in its electoral processes. Most recently, Republican state Representative Jason Zachary and Senator Brent Taylor proposed a bill that would, if passed, ban runoffs in all municipal elections within the state. For solidly-liberal Nashville, the bill’s passage could have meant an upheaval for the upcoming mayoral election this August. The city’s elections are nominally nonpartisan, but Democrats have consistently won the mayor’s office for decades. Runoffs are common in the city’s mayoral elections, where the vote is often split between several Democrats and a few Republicans. Traditionally, after a consolidated voting bloc emerges following eliminations in a first round, a Democrat carries the mayoral election handily. The elimination of runoffs in Nashville’s mayoral elections would have opened the door for a Republican to win the position based on a plurality, even if the majority of votes go to Democrats.
Sophia Brown, the editor of the school newspaper for the New College of Florida, The Catalyst, writes an essay for CNN about why she chose New College.
As bad as things got in Florida, I and many of my classmates thought that surely his culture war policies wouldn’t reach our school, which has been something of a bubble of sanity and safety for queer students like me, as well as my transgender and BIPOC classmates. With any luck, DeSantis’ ginned-up culture wars will scuttle his presidential aspirations. [...] When people ask me why I chose New College, my usual answer is that I always wanted to go to a small school (we have an enrollment of just 700 students) with a rigorous academic program. But there’s much more to it than that. I went to a high school where students would wear shirts bearing the image of the Confederate flag. During my freshman year there, my classmates would draw swastikas on the corners of the papers on my desk when I wasn’t looking. I don’t think it was meant maliciously against me, but it showed the degree to which they had internalized and normalized hateful behavior. It was a high school that was tolerant enough to have a Gay Students’ Association, but intolerant enough that some kids would sign each other up as a prank. New College was a departure from all of that. It has been a sanctuary that not only made me passionate about education in a way that high school never did, but that taught me that I don’t have to compromise who I am. As an LGBTQ student, I don’t need to leave my identity at the door in order to have the education I deserve. My full identity can sit in the classroom with me because it informs my education and interests in a way that I cannot sever from myself.
Julia Carrie Wong of the Guardian reports that journalists for the Texas Observer may have raised enough money to save the publication.
Journalists at the muckraking liberal magazine Texas Observer have raised more than $270,000 through a GoFundMe campaign in a last-ditch attempt to save the publication from closure. The storied publication – founded in 1954 by Ronnie Dugger, edited in the 1970s by Molly Ivins, and described this week by John Nichols as “the connecting tissue of Texas liberalism” – had suffered extreme instability in recent years, with a revolving door of editors-in-chief and frequent conflict between its owners, the non-profit Texas Democracy Foundation, and its staff. Texas Tribune broke the news Sunday evening that the board had voted to cease publication and lay off the staff on Friday. It was perhaps less surprising that the staff of a crusading publication quickly organized to fight back. ... But it still came as a shock when thebroke the news Sunday evening that the board had voted toand lay off the staff on Friday. It was perhaps less surprising that the staff of a crusading publication quickly organized to fight back. ... Among the unexpected sources of support for the magazine was the “ fediverse ” – the collection of decentralized Mastodon servers that soared in popularity following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Many comments on the GoFundMe page mention that the donors learned about the Observer through Mastodon – where the Texas Observer was one of the first journalistic outlets to set up its own server , Canup said.
UPDATE: According to the Texas Tribune, the Texas Observer will continue to publish for now.
Britta Sandberg of Der Spiegel says that polling now confirms that Marine Le Pen and the right-wing Rassemblement National party is the main beneficiary of French President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plans.
The pension reform – and the manner in which the president has imposed it – unites all the elements that have always provided nourishment to right-wing populist movements, giving the impression of an out-of-control elite at the top that refuses to listen to the people and only pursues its own interests. This time, though, it’s not just Le Pen who is promoting this narrative, but also the unions, NUPES and the protesters themselves. ... Palier says the current political climate in France is clearly in favor of Rassemblement National. And there is another factor as well, he says: "The partially inaccurate portrayal of the reform by the government served to promote the cliché that the elite always lie anyway.” That, too, is a key part of the narrative promoted by populists. Polls confirm his prognosis: Macron’s approval ratings have plummeted in recent days, with just 24 percent of the country now believing that he is a good president, his worst result since the yellow vest movement in spring 2019. Le Pen’s ratings, meanwhile, have ticked up by three percentage points – but among the working class, she is up 18 points and among conservative Republicans, she has seen a gain of 11 percentage points. That makes her the sixth most popular politician in France, ahead of the prime minister, Macron and the left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Steve Hendrix, Toluse Olorunnpia, and Meryl Kornfield of The Washington Post report that the dispute between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the right-wing Israeli governing coalition plans to change the judiciary is out in the open.
The dispute escalated late Tuesday following comments by Biden that appeared to question Netanyahu’s ability or willingness to compromise on his contentious judicial-overhaul plan, which has sparked months of protests and instability in Israel. Under pressure, Netanyahu has agreed to postpone the overhaul but has shown no signs of dropping it. Netanyahu’s defiant response to Biden overnight Wednesday shook Israel’s political and security establishment and exposed the prime minister to criticism for purportedly jeopardizing the country’s most vital diplomatic relationship. In the United States, the exchange reverberated across the political landscape, as Republicans accused Biden of undermining a key ally, and some Democratic activists called for him to take an even stronger stance in calling out Israel for potential antidemocratic moves. Although tensions between the United States and Israel have been on the rise since Netanyahu’s new far-right government was sworn in in December, this was the first time they were on such vivid display. The back-and-forth reflects not only a highly unusual split between two longtime allies but also the latest chapter in a years-long relationship between two seasoned heads of state who are deeply familiar with each other’s country.
Finally today, Douglas Bloomfield writes for The Jerusalem Post comparing Netanyahu to U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister seems to have lost his deft touch in maneuvering among competing factions but the clumsiness that marks his sixth term has plunged the country into the worst domestic crisis in its 75 years. The catalyst has been his alliance with religious and nationalist extremists who are out of step with the majority of Israelis but brought enough votes to the table to put him back in power. At the heart of the crisis is a plan to overhaul the judicial system in a way that would destroy the independence of the nation’s judiciary and the balance of power it represents. If Netanyahu had planned this assault on the judiciary and push towards autocracy, it was a very well-kept secret because he never mentioned it during his campaign or at his inauguration. Maybe he will offer the Kevin McCarthy defense: the extremists forced me to accept their demands in exchange for their votes to put me in office.
Have the best possible day, everyone!
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