Being an excellent reporter requires being aware of what you don’t know. Being a sensible reader does, too, especially given the social media-era proliferation of search-engine experts on monkeypo … I mean student loa … I mean Ukrai … I mean electric vehic … you understand what I mean.
Luckily, the newsroom of The Washington Post is filled with people who find themselves either experts in their very own right or know which experts will help their readers understand complex, nuanced questions of politics and policy, technology, wellness, personal hygiene, in-laws management, etc.
So let’s take a deeper take a look at three major headlines from this week.
John Fetterman’s closed captions
My colleague Amanda Morris reported on Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman’s verbal stumbles and reliance on closed captioning to reply questions in his first on-camera interview since he had a stroke in May. Each are to be expected, experts told Amanda.
“While neurological experts said they might not offer a selected diagnosis about Fetterman’s health, they noted that closed captions are a standard tool for individuals with auditory processing or hearing issues, conditions which don’t have anything to do with overall intelligence,” she reported.
Fetterman’s health is a legitimate issue in his neck-and-neck race along with his Republican rival, Mehmet Oz. Accommodations like closed captions aren’t as familiar as, say, eyeglasses, hearing aids, or wheelchairs, in order that they require more expert explanation.
“Issues with processing sounds can occur for several reasons. Hearing is an especially unique sense because unlike sight or smell, sound gets processed before it even reaches the brain. There are a variety of areas where understanding might be impaired, even when someone has no hearing loss or mental disability, said Borna Bonakdarpour, an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.”
I can’t quote the entire piece, so read it here.
Alex Jones and that $1 billion damage award
The Infowars founder spent years lying concerning the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and convincing his followers that oldsters of the slain schoolchildren were actors and the entire thing was a hoax. He’s been ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to relatives of the children. Will he, though?
My colleagues Annabelle Timsit, Leo Sands and Joanna Slate checked out major questions within the case, notably whether Jones, who has defiantly attacked the proceedings and suggested he won’t cough up the money, pays.
- His “sprawling digital misinformation empire” brought in $165 million between 2016 and 2018.
- His lawyers contend he has struggled financially since being banned from just about all mainstream social media platforms in 2018.
- He claimed this week he has lower than $2 million.
- He has refused to make public financial information that may help confirm his claims.
- In a distinct trial, a forensic economist put Jones’s combined net price along with his businesses to be as much as $270 million.
Lawyers for the families have vowed to wring every dollar out of Jones.
It’s still too early to know the way much he’ll actually pay.
“Infowars on Wednesday prominently featured news articles concerning the verdict on its website and encouraged readers to ‘help Alex by making a donation to his legal defense.’ The web site linked to a fundraiser on GiveSendGo, a self-described Christian site with a history of hosting fundraisers for far-right groups. As of early Thursday, it had raised just over $185,000 out of a complete goal of $500,000.”
Trump and his Jan. 6 committee subpoena
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has subpoenaed former president Donald Trump, demanding he submit documents and testify concerning the events leading as much as that day and through the riot itself.
My colleagues Perry Stein, Tom Hamburger and Spencer S. Hsu note Trump could refuse to comply and that compelling the cooperation of a former president could be enormously complicated, partly due to problems with the Structure’s separation of powers.
“Any legal proceedings that emerge from this subpoena could drag on for months,” they reported. “And that might be a win for Trump. If Republicans take control of the House in January, they are going to likely dissolve the Jan. 6 committee, rendering the subpoena meaningless, legal experts said.”
Ultimately, Perry, Tom and Spencer cited experts as saying, the subpoena “may find yourself being more of a symbolic move,” “the committee’s way of giving Trump a proper opportunity to reply to its work, even when it doesn’t expect Trump to indicate up.”
And if he does, he could still invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.
It seems unlikely we’re going to listen to from Trump while sitting in a witness chair. But have little question: We are going to hear from Trump via almost every other public forum or platform many times and again. On Friday morning, he issued a rambling, grievance-filled letter to the committee by which he made no mention of testifying, but recycled a pile of his lies about being cheated out of a second term.
In letter, Trump lambastes Jan. 6 committee but is silent on subpoena
“Despite very poor television rankings, the Unselect Committee has perpetuated a Show Trial the likes of which this Country has never seen before,” Trump claimed within the 14-page letter sent to House select committee chairman Benny G. Thompson (D-Miss.). “There isn’t a Due Process, no Cross-Examination, no ‘real’ Republican members, and no legitimacy because you don’t speak about Election Fraud or not calling up the troops. It’s a Witch Hunt of the best level, a continuation of what has been happening for years.” He was silent on whether he would comply with a subpoena for testimony and documents, John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro report.
Teenager in custody after no less than five are killed in North Carolina shooting
“A 15-year-old white male opened fire in an eastern Raleigh, N.C., neighborhood Thursday afternoon, killing no less than five people and leaving multiple people injured, authorities said,” María Luisa Paúl, James Bikales, Andrew Jeong and Andrea Salcedo report.
“The suspect was taken into custody nearly five hours after the shooting began, Raleigh Police said,” describing the incident as an “‘ongoing investigation’ at a Friday morning news conference.”
Democrats lead with Hispanic voters is smaller than in 2018, Post-Ipsos poll finds
“Hispanic and Latino voters rank rising prices as a very powerful issue of their midterm vote and are split nearly evenly between trusting Democrats and Republicans to deal with the problem, with greater than 1 in 3 trusting neither party. Democrats lead on most other issues and hold a 28 percentage-point advantage on trust to handle abortion, which Hispanic voters rank as second-most vital of their vote, a Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds,” Scott Clement, Emily Guskin, Amy Wang, Sabrina Rodriguez report.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
‘Recent tank man’: Rare protest in Beijing mars Xi Jinping’s moment
“A one-person protest in Beijing has called for elections, an end to the country’s strict ‘zero covid’ policy and the removal of ‘dictator’ Xi Jinping, in a rare display of political dissent that was met with a wave of online censorship days ahead of a key political meeting expected to increase Xi’s rule for no less than one other five years,” Christian Shepherd reports.
Warnock and Walker face a pivotal debate in Georgia
Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, the previous football star, are set to square off tonight in what will likely be the primary — and possibly the one — debate in some of the anticipated races of the midterm elections.
“The controversy will test whether Mr. Warnock can expand what polls suggest is a narrow advantage over his rival, and whether Mr. Walker can quiet doubts about his qualifications for the office after a wave of explosive reports describing past behavior of his that has contradicted his public stances,” the Recent York Times’ Maya King reports, referring to recent allegations from an ex-girlfriend that Walker “paid for her to have an abortion and had asked her to have a second abortion, despite the fact that he has campaigned on his opposition to the procedure with no exceptions.”
Biden to sign executive order today to lower prescription drug prices
“President Biden will sign an executive order Friday, instructing the Department of Health and Human Services to explore actions it could take to lower prescription drug prices,” Tyler Pager reports.
“The order is an element of an effort by Biden to focus on his administration’s efforts to strengthen Medicare and Social Security and reduce costs amid soaring inflation.”
Biden’s web guarantees in limbo amid long battle over FCC nominee
“The nation’s telecommunications regulator has been with out a Democratic majority for the whole lot of President Biden’s 21-month tenure, hamstringing efforts to revive open web protections and shut the digital divide,” Cat Zakrzewski and Cristiano Lima report.
“Breaking the deadlock on the Federal Communications Commission hinges on confirming Gigi Sohn, a longtime public interest advocate and former Democratic FCC official who was first nominated by the White House nearly a yr ago. Because the midterm elections approach and Democrats’ ability to retain their narrow control of the Senate stays uncertain, Sohn’s supporters are warning Congress that the clock is ticking to lock in a majority on the agency.”
Variety of anti-trans laws passed since 2018, visualized
“Of the 388 bills introduced within the last 4 years, only 39 have develop into law,” Anne Branigin and N. Kirkpatrick report.
“The onslaught of laws has been driven by conservative legislators who argue that these restrictive laws protect the rights of kids and families, fairly than curtail them. Others have framed them as a spiritual prerogative.”
Pelosi said she desired to punch Trump as Jan. 6 riot began, latest footage shows
“Footage filmed on Jan. 6, 2021, shows a frustrated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) telling aides that she desired to punch Donald Trump, and lawmakers pleading for the National Guard to be deployed as supporters of the previous president forced their way into the Capitol,” Kelly Kasulis Cho reports.
“I hope he comes. I would like to punch him out,” Pelosi says in response, gesticulating together with her palm. “That is my moment. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I would like to punch him out, and I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m going to be completely happy.”
Peter Thiel to place more cash behind Masters as McConnell group balks
In a reversal, “Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who pumped $15 million into an excellent PAC that helped make Blake Masters the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, is planning to spend as much as $5 million more within the race, in response to people accustomed to the matter,” Isaac Stanley-Becker reports.
He previewed his latest plans to make a financial commitment to the final election in talks this week “with a representative from a PAC linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Thiel suggested he and the PAC each put $5 million behind Masters.”
“But Steven Law, who heads the McConnell-linked group, the Senate Leadership Fund, indicated to Thiel on Thursday that he couldn’t find the resources to make that commitment, in response to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private details.”
Biden continues to be in California for many of today.
At 6:10 p.m., he’ll speak at Irvine Valley College in Orange County about lowering prices for American families.
Immediately afterward, Biden will set off for Portland, Oregon, where he is predicted to participate in a grass roots volunteer event with Oregon Democrats at 10:10 p.m.
We got a sneak peek of Studio Ghibli’s long-awaited theme park in Japan. You won’t wish to miss it.
“As with Ghibli movies, you can’t help but appreciate the character surrounding you. It’s designed in order that you are feeling like you might be living in an actual Ghibli world, fairly than visiting a fantasy. The result: a sensory overload that’s peaceful at the identical time,” Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Julia Mio Inuma and Shiho Fukada report.
Thanks for reading. See you next week.
