NEWS AND OPINION:
The season of media adoration is upon us. The press is knee-deep in cuddly coverage of presumed President-elect Joseph R. Biden though the results of the contested election have not been finalized. The press has upped the ante; we’re taking very cuddly coverage here.
“The liberal media seems to prove that journalism may indeed be dead with the latest ’breaking news’ report about Democrat Joe Biden. After four years of presenting leaked lies from unnamed sources as hit pieces on President Trump, the mainstream media now seems to be shifting its tone in readiness for a journalistic vacation under a potential Biden administration. Hence, ’CBS Sunday Morning’ dropped a new kind of bombshell as the Bidens ’exclusively’ shared news about their pets,” writes Frieda Powers, senior staff writer for BizPac Review.
The exclusive here was that the Bidens plan to bring two German shepherd dogs and a cat to the White House.
Ms. Powers noted that The Washington Post and The Daily Beast were among major news organization joining in the fuss over incoming pets.
“The level of fawning and wide-eyed wonder over pets potentially coming into the White House, while ignoring anything of substance on Biden and after years of trashing Trump, set the media up for a well-deserved backlash,” she says.
Mr. Trump even caught grief in past coverage over the fact that he did not bring any pets with him to the White House when he took up residence.
Twitter lit up with commentary from those who reject the Biden adoration — among them David Martosko, the U.S. political editor for the Daily Mail.
“Wonder why journalists have a reputation that rivals rotting cabbage? The idea that this is breaking news,” he tweeted.
A MELANIA MEMOIR
President Trump has written multiple books about his life and philosophy. Former first lady Michelle Obama is the author of a best-selling memoir, as is former President Barack Obama. So what about some thoughts from first lady Melania Trump?
She is currently in “meetings” to discuss a potential book deal, according to a report Sunday by the New York Post.
“Melania is in meetings to write her White House memoir. And it would be her money — a chance for her to earn on her own,” an unnamed source told the news organization.
“I’m told her husband is encouraging her. She’s not done, or going as quietly as you might expect,” the source continued, noting that a memoir by Mrs. Trump “could be worth big money.”
That could be true. Mrs. Obama’s 2018 memoir “Becoming” sold a record-breaking 14 million copies. With Mr. Obama, she received a $65 million advance from Crown Books.
But there’s more than money at stake here.
“A book from Melania could set the record straight on some of her notable White House episodes — from that infamous ’I really don’t care, do u?’ jacket that she wore in 2018 to enduring a coronavirus infection,” the Post said.
The news of Mrs. Trump’s possible memoir has already gone global in the meantime, picked up The Daily Mail, International Business Times and Vanity Fair.
A HANDY SUMMATION
“Everyone outside of D.C. knows: The media overwhelmingly protects Democrats. D.C. is filled with bipartisan swamp supporters. Government agencies protect themselves first. Obama, Biden spied on Trump. Our courts and judges are growing partisan. Big Tech censors conservatives.”
— Richard Grenell, former acting director of the United States National Intelligence, in a terse but telling tweet on Sunday.
HAPPY CYBER MONDAY
Monday could be very happy indeed for retailers.
“Analysts expect Cyber Monday 2020 to be the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history, with anticipated sales of $10.8 billion to $12.7 billion,” reports Quartz.com.
“On Black Friday this year, consumers dropped $9 billion online, a 21.6% increase over 2019, according to data from Adobe Analytics. The jump made this year’s Black Friday the second largest online spending day ever for Americans, just shy of the record $9.4 billion spent on Cyber Monday 2019,” the news organization continued.
“Covid-19 restrictions drove some of the sales. States that limited gatherings saw 265% year-over-year growth in online shopping on Black Friday, compared to states without restrictions. With consumers looking to avoid crowds and indoor shopping, Adobe also found a 52% year-over-year increase in curbside and in-store pickup.”
But there is much competition from a similar phenomenon overseas.
“Despite the significant amount of money expected to be dropped on Cyber Monday, the numbers pale in comparison to the world’s largest shopping event. Single’s Day, held by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, dwarfs both Black Friday and Cyber Monday by an order of magnitude. The Nov. 11 shopping day generated $74.1 billion this year, or nearly the GDP of Guatemala,” the Quartz analysis said.
A SURPRISE IN THE GARDEN STATE
What’s this? New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said something positive about President Trump?
When it comes to Operation Warp Speed and the development of vaccines against coronavirus, Mr. Murphy had a say about the White House response to the pandemic, revealed during an appearance Sunday on Fox News.
“So do you, governor, give credit to the Trump administration for where we are on that front?” asked anchor Bret Baier.
“I do. Period,” Mr. Murphy.
“I was on a call privately with Vice President [Mike] Pence just before Thanksgiving and said so. We’re on calls regularly with the White House. We’ve got one tomorrow,” the governor noted.
POLL DU JOUR
• 86% of the world’s population say they were “treated with respect” on the day before they were surveyed.
• 75% of this population “smiled or laughed a lot” in that time period; 71% experienced “a lot of enjoyment.” 71% “felt well rested.”
• 49% said “they learned or did something interesting” during the time period.
• 39% experienced “a lot of worry”; 35% felt stress.
• 31% were in physical pain; 26% felt sad; 22% felt anger.
Source: A Gallup Global Emotions Report poll of 175,000 adults in 145 countries, conducted throughout 2019 and released Nov. 19.
• Helpful information to jharper@washingtontimes.com
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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