đŒ NewsNeat Weekend Read #4
Fri 4 May 2017: Michelle Wolf, Facebook's Big $ Bucks, Trumps Troubled Legal Narrative
Iâm Kingi Gilbert with NewsNeat, presenting a summary of the stories of the week that had a major impact.
Context of the Week
"He has helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster, and now you are profiting from him."
Michelle Wolf on the media's role in putting Trump where he is â and keeping him there.
Michelle Wolf Makes Many US Journalists Very Angry
Michelle Wolf wins the Zoom Attention Award for this week. This is her mischievous expression before her speech at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Association dinner last Saturday. Yes, her action was intense.
Many reporters went crazy over her address, calling it âshamefulâ and âdisrespectfulâ but many public voices have an alternate view:
I think everyone's pissed because she called them all out. Sure there were jokes and it was really funny, but holy shit what a depressing state our government and media are in. We're Rome right before the fall.ï»ż
Wolfâs jokes are tame in comparison to the crap thatâs spewed out of Trumpâs mouth about women.ï»ż
holy shit, she killed it and all the upset faces LOL. She was always funny on the daily show, but this is a whole. 'notha. level.ï»ż
I wouldn't have watched this if politicians and the media hadn't made such a big deal about it, but damn...she handed it to most of them. Guess the truth hurts. They need to get over themselves.ï»ż
YouTube Users
We live in a world where populism is currency, exemplified by Donald Trump and the mediaâs non-stop attention on him (good or bad). Michelle Wolf played into this dynamic with full effect, the full video below.
Trumps Troubled Legal Narrative
Runner-Up in the Zoom Attention Award is former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the newly appointed legal counsel for Donald Trump. Not to be outdone by Kanye Westâs string of incoherent Tweets, the Trump administration had to do something unexpected to capture the attention of the international media this week. It totally reversed itâs position on a number of sensitive issues.
Giuliani stepping in for disgraced lawyer Michael Cohen (who is still under investigation) contradicted the Trump administrationâs argument in several legal inquiries. Giuliani said:
Trump fired FBI director James Comey because he (Comey) would not say Trump wasnât a target of an investigation.
The $130,000 payment to adult pornography film actress Stormy Daniels by Trumpâs personal attorney Michael Cohen was repaid by Trump, a direct contradiction to last month, Trump said didnât know anything about the payment.
The legal problem? US law says you canât legally make a $130,000 in-kind contribution to a federal campaign. If what Giuliani said is true, the campaign could be implicated in illegal activity, and furthermore, if Trump organisation facilities were used to help make these payments, there might be additional campaign finance violations related to the use of corporate resources.ÂGiuliani also pretty much confirmed that he himself leaked Muellerâs questions for Trump to the New York Time in an effort to paint the special counsel as unbiased.
Is this perhaps part of a wider strategy to circumnavigate other future road blocks? Rudi Giuliani has an interesting background.
Facebook Still Making Huge $ Bucks $
Wasnât Facebook âbesieged,â âbeleaguered,â and âbesetâ by privacy issues, a congress hearing the and Cambridge Analytica scandal? Havenât they supposedly experienced a brutal 18 months since the 2016 U.S. presidential election set off what The Economist called a âtechlashâ? Nope. Facebookâs performance last quarter was killer.
The companyâs financial performance is more of a reflection of Facebookâs unstoppability than its cause. Despite personal reservations about Facebookâs interwoven privacy, data, and advertising practices, the vast majority of people find that they canât and donât want to quit.
Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic
Some might say, the public are swept into a social whirlpool of technological infrastructure that defies rejection.
Check out these financial stats:
Facebookâs net income was the highest in Facebook history at just about $5 billion.
Monthly users were up;
Daily users were up;
They generated almost $4 billion more revenue in the first quarter of 2018 than the first quarter of 2017.
Their margins were up year over year.
By any metric, this was what the analysts would call a blowout quarter. Shares jumped, of course. And now, theyâve recovered most of what they lost in the immediate fallout of the Cambridge Analytica revelations.
In brief
The number of Muslim refugees admitted to the United States in the first half of fiscal 2018 has dropped from the previous year more than any other religious group. The reduction in Muslim refugee admissions is part of a slowdown in all admissions. Source: PEW Research Center.
A Higher Moral Level: Two African American men arrested for no reason at a Starbucks settled with Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 each â and a promise by the city to spend $200,000 on a program for young entrepreneurs. âThis is the best way to see that change that we want to see," said Donte Robinson, one of those arrested. "It's not a right-now thing that's good for right now, but I feel like we will see the true change over time." Source: USA Today.
Cambridge Analytica announced it was shutting down, beginning proceedings to dissolve in the U.K. and U.S. That follows news that the firm, used by the 2016 Trump campaign, misused Facebook data on a broad scale without the social networkâs knowledge. Officials said it lost clients and has incurred legal expenses surrounding the misuse of data. Rebranding, said one official, would be futile. Source: BuzzFeed News.
Diet Your Feelings: âDonât think of sugars or carbohydrates as a drug or an addiction, because then you have no control. Think of these dopamine-producing foods as challenges to regulateâ, says nutritionist Dana James in this fascinating piece⊠âThese are actually just too pleasurable for me, I donât have the ability to regulate myself, so Iâm not going to have any right now.â Source: Munchies.
In Spain, the ETA, a violent group that had sought independence for the countryâs Basque region, formally disbanded. It had relinquished its arms last year.
In Afghanistan, three bombings killed 34 people. The Islamic State said it was responsible; the group has increased its attacks in Afghanistan since losing most of its territory in Iraq and Syria.Â
The leaders of India and China met this week, aiming to improve relations that have been tense because of border disputes in the Himalayas and Chinaâs financial investments in Pakistan.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Washington for meetings with President Trump. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Australia.Â
Scientists tracking whales near Antarctica say that humpback whales in the region have shown increased fertility rates in recent years, and that fin whale and blue whale populations are increasing in the southern oceans.