Pence rewrites virus media approach for Facebook Live, Cheddar, Barstool Sports
Trump insiders are giving Vice President Mike Pence the credit for the administration’s forceful coronavirus media campaign. Two officials told Secrets that it was Pence who started meeting with reporters and columnists after being assigned to head the president’s virus task force. He expanded that to specialty and medical media, dispatching the task force’s top medical authorities to new media outlets and talk shows not typically represented in the White House briefing room. For example, task force member Dr. Deborah Birx talked to The Morning Toast, which is geared toward millennial women. Dr. Anthony Fauci did an Instagram Live with Steph Curry, Barstool Sports's Pardon My Take, and a Facebook Live with Mark Zuckerberg.
A White House official said the plan has been “to reach new audiences through nontraditional mediums such as podcasts, Instagram, and Facebook Live, as well as other specialty and targeted media platforms. This has allowed us to reach a wider demographic in order to provide timely updates on the efforts to combat the coronavirus and keep all Americans informed.” GOP communications strategist and former Bush administration spokesman Ron Bonjean said, “Fighting the coronavirus is not a partisan issue, but a top concern among all Americans who are mostly staying at home worried about their health.” He added, “Pence is making a smart decision to unleash his top task force members to go beyond the traditional media, especially the gotcha journalism of cable news. These appearances can benefit Americans because the conversations should be focused on educating people about how best to mitigate the virus instead of sparring with top news anchors on who is to blame.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/pence-rewrites-media-approach-for-virus-facebook-live-cheddar-barstool-sports
DNC cheers 23 tweets from reporters ripping Trump, New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and Al Jazeera
The Democratic National Committee’s 2020 war room rolled out some new ammunition in its bid to take down President Trump and belittle his fight against the coronavirus: 23 tweets from reporters critical of his Saturday virus task force briefing. “Trump Turns Another Briefing Into A Campaign Rally” headlined the war room release, listing the tweets of prominent reporters from the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and others.
In their tweets and reports promoted by the party, reporters dismissed Trump’s briefing. “No news at this briefing so far,” tweeted Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. “What’s newsworthy here,” wrote Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal. “The president is, again, saying stuff,” added CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale. NPR’s Domenico Montanaro tweeted, “Saturday's briefing brought to you by Trump's Greatest Hits, including complaining about broken system, touting that the federal government has done everything perfectly (‘We didn't miss a trick’) and complaining about the test. News? Not so much.” And Andrea Mitchell said on MSNBC, "We were told he was going to brief the, to brief about the current state of the coronavirus crisis, but clearly, he is on a political tear — attacking reporters, attacking the New York Times, saying that he inherited garbage when in fact he inherited a plan from the Obama administration and an office on pandemics, which he then disassembled … as well as medical health officials who were pre-positioned in China, who might have spotted the beginning of this pandemic.”
With the list of tweets from reporters, the DNC made its case that, “Instead of using tonight’s briefing to update Americans on the coronavirus, Trump turned it into a campaign rally where he attacked anyone who has pointed out his failures, downplayed the number of U.S. fatalities and lied about our testing capacity.” Quoting reporters' comments can lend credibility to the attack, especially among those who follow those journalists and their outlets. A Pew Research Center survey this month said that 54% approve of the media's coverage of the virus. Some 48% gave Trump a good to excellent rating but gave public health officials often seen at the briefings a 79% good to excellent rating.
Trump’s hot and cold relationship with the media was on full display yesterday as he called out reporters and newspapers for coverage he disagreed with. “The media has been, some very honest but some very dishonest,” he said. The DNC list of reporters' tweets that were used in their war room attack won’t change his mind. In fact, there were so many that the party broke them up into six different topics to rap Trump on his wide-ranging, 67-minute briefing that featured news on the virus, attacks on the media and Senate critics, cheering of protests to open the economy, and comments from his new chief of staff, as well as lead White House medical expert, Dr. Deborah Birx.
One of the six, for example, is, “Trump is desperate to downplay the crisis and falsely claim success against the virus, so he deemphasized the many Americans who have lost their lives.” Under that heading, it lists these three tweets from White House reporters: Reuters’s Jeff Mason: “Trump opens up his press conference by saying the U.S. has fewer deaths per capita than other nations, says China is way ahead in terms of death (despite the numbers).” Vox’s Aaron Rupar: “The US has the most coronavirus deaths in the world, but Trump begins the April 18 #TrumpPressConf by claiming America ‘has produced better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany.’” Huffington Post’s S.V. Dáte: “Trump now spinning the 37,938 dead Americans thus far as a victory, and a lower per-capita mortality rate compared to other countries [a dubious claim, given the per-capita testing] so it's going to be that kind of couple of hours.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/dnc-cheers-23-tweets-from-reporters-ripping-trump-nyt-cnn-msnbc-npr-al-jazeera
Small businesses were only supposed to Main Street relief. How did big chains get loans?
At least 60 publicly traded firms have claimed loans from the $350 billion pledged to Main Street businesses, including chains such as Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, according to Reuters. Last month, Congress passed the CARES Act, a more than $2 trillion coronavirus aid package, which President Trump signed into law. So far, $342.3 billion in loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration has been allocated to companies across the country. "Loans of $2 million or more made up nearly 28% of the total, and those of at least $5 million accounted for 9%, with a number of those going to companies with access to public securities markets," Reuters found.
Some big-name companies with more than a total of 500 employees appear to have used a provision to their advantage, Reuters reported. An exemption in the CARES Act allows food industry businesses to obtain loans as long as no more than 500 employees work at a single location. Additionally, the aid package did not prohibit the money going to publicly listed firms.
Reuters also found companies in rural areas of the country received a disproportionately large amount of federal funds administered by the SBA. North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Mississippi all come in the Top 5 in terms of states that have had the most success securing loans from banks backed by the U.S. government, according to Reuters. “The bankers here, they know the farmer, they know the barber, they know the cafe owner,” said Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska. The SBA's loans in Nebraska reached 558 of every 1,000 businesses, according to Reuters. The sector receiving the most money was construction with 13% of the total, and the outlet reported that "sector represents less than 9% of overall employment among U.S. firms with 500 or fewer employees, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2017, the latest available." Healthcare and food service lagged behind with 11% and 9%, respectively. New York, California, and Texas accounted for 23% of all loans, more than $82 billion.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/small-businesses-were-only-supposed-to-main-street-relief-how-did-big-chains-get-loans