Evaporate, tall person: this week on Fresh Powder

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A summary of journalism news and pop culture brought to you by  SNO

The lede

“Fake News” may just be words to some, but to journalists it signals an endangering stance to protecting the free press and, specifically, the people who practice it. “The current administration has retreated from our country’s historical role as a defender of the free press,” writes the publisher of The New York Times. “Seeing that, other countries are targeting journalists with a growing sense of impunity,” putting reporters’ lives at risk. In one case, a NYT reporter in Egypt was being detained and deported in “apparent retaliation for exposing information that was embarrassing to the Egyptian government.” When the NYT protested the move and sought government help, “a senior official at the United States Embassy in Cairo openly voiced the cynical worldview behind the Trump administration’s tolerance for such crackdowns. ‘What did you expect would happen to him?’ he said. ‘His reporting made the government look bad.’” (Sheesh…) A.G. Sulzberger, in NYT: The Growing Threat to Journalism Around the World.

Seconded

“This may seem pretty self-explanatory, but people still get confused about what else can or should get published in newspapers.” The Daily Eastern News: “What is journalism?” (It’s what I studied and practiced when I was at Eastern Illinois University, home of the Eastern News.)

TGIF

In what can only be assumed was a premeditated effort to scare viewers away, Fox picked Jenny McCarthy as its host for the Emmys red carpet show on Sunday. (E! must have someone on the inside. There cannot possibly be another explanation for this.) It went as badly as you’d expect, “much to the distress of her celebrity victims.” (The Cut)

. . . The New England Patriots might have preferred McCarthy to what they faced this weekend after releasing Antonio Brown. So far, their coach walked out of his press conference Friday and stared down a sideline reporter in silence Sunday. (Bold strategy, Cotton.)

#MillennialProblems

Two #MeToo books are released around the same time. One is a clinical, excellent representation of how reporting on a complex issue happens. The other? BuzzFeed News: “Where Kantor and Twohey present the key cultural context for their reporting … that is completely devoid in the book by Pogrebin and Kelly.”

. . . “Like being hit by lightning.” BuzzFeed News on what happens to a book when it’s marked with a celebrity’s book club approval. (The ole Joan Calamezzo bump.)

Sports!

Will she or won’t she make it happen? ESPN and Katie Nolan’s little-watched, late-night variety sports talk show, Always Late with Katie Nolan, is entering its second season. “I watch John Oliver’s show and I’m like, ‘We can do that,’” Nolan told SI.

. . . While Nolan was doing that interview, Oliver’s show was sweeping the Emmys’ two Variety Talk Series categories for the fourth consecutive year.

Thinking ahead

We’ll be keeping an eye on Vox Media’s acquisition of New York Media, the company behind New York magazine, The Cut, Vulture and more culture news sites frequently linked to in this very newsletter.

This also happened last week: “She’s here, and she’s beautiful,” says Pizza Hut of their new juiced-up Cheez-It, the glorious calzone of Cheez-Its if you will. (Coincidentally, I too am made up of 70 percent cheese, 29 percent Cheez-It and 1 percent water. Huh.)