Jonathan Capehart is the latest Washington Post journalist, working on the opinion side, to leave the paper this year. Capehart announced his departure at the end of last week citing new rules governing the opinion section that he says force Post writers to ignore ongoing threats to democracy. He made his case while anchoring on MSNBC.
University of Connecticut Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Michael Patrick Lynch is the lead subject matter expert(SME) in a New York Times analysis pegged to the firing of the head of the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS). In an article published by White House correspondent Peter Baker, Lynch said President Trump’s decision to fire the head of BLS after a bad report on the U.S. job market, is an exercise of power meant to control the facts.
“Democracy can’t realistically exist without reliable epistemic* infrastructure,” said Lynch, author of the recently published On Truth in Politics. “Anti-democratic, authoritarian leaders know this. That is why they will seize every opportunity to control sources of information.”
As part of the show’s 50th anniversary, Good Morning America was broadcasting live Friday morning from Lake Compounce amusement park. The show is visiting 50 states in 50 weeks. While there, reporter Rhiannon Ally rode the Wildcat roller coaster. As you know, the roller coaster first opened in 1927.
The 50 states series will end next on July 4th; the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Follow up now on a story we told you about several months ago ICYMI…
WFSB has opened its outdoor studio built by Country Carpenters. The New England style post and beam structure will be used occasionally for weather and other broadcasts including Great Day.
Gray Television, which owns WFSB, has announced it plans to buy two more stations. One in Columbus, Georgia and one in Lubbock, Texas. Gray owns stations serving more than 100 markets making it one of the largest chains in the country.
C-Span is introducing a new program next month that will attempt to bring warring political factions in Washington, D.C. together for civil conversation. The show, called Ceasefire, will be hosted by Dasha Burns of Politico. Before joining Politico, Burns was a reporter for NBC. She will remain at Politico as White House bureau chief.
And let’s end where we began this week, at The Washington Post….
Dan Balz, who has covered politics for the paper for forty-seven years is retiring. Not completely, but mostly. He is taking some time off and will return on a part-time basis with an irregular column(in terms of frequency, not shape) in a few months. Karen Tumulty will take over Balz’s Sunday Take column.
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*ep·i·ste·mic
adjective
-
relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation, of or relating to knowledge or knowing
