Picking its favorite
Pointing out bias in The New York Times is like shooting fish in a barrel, but comparing the newspaper's recent coverage of the announcement of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as the vice presidential running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to its 2016 coverage of then-Gov. Mike Pence as then-candidate Donald Trump's running mate is particularly egregious.
When Pence was announced, the newspaper chose to limit its front-page coverage to a small space on the bottom right-hand corner, headlined "Man in the News: Michael Richard Pence. Unbending Conservative." Much more prominent on the page were the lead story on a coup in Turkey, an update on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and an article about a man behind an attack in France.
When Harris was announced last week, the newspaper devoted almost its entire front page to the revelation. The headline of its main story was "Harris Joins Biden Ticket, Achieving A First." Two other stories on Harris on the page were headlined "Pick Seen as Safe but Energizing" and "Woman of Color in No. 2 Slot of Major Party."
Typical of the divergent descriptions were Pence as a man "deeply and proudly out of sync with his times" and Harris as someone with "a gift for capturing raw moments of electricity on the debate stage and elsewhere."
In their supposedly unbiased coverage, can you tell which candidate the newspaper preferred?
Won't heel to mob
Young North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn is fighting back against the leftist "mob," which took him to task for 3-year-old Instagram photos made of him and his brother at Adolph Hitler's retreat during a sightseeing trip.
"The vacation house of the Führer," he said in his post. "Seeing the Eagles Nest has been on my bucket list for awhile, it did not disappoint. Strange to hear so many laughs and share such a good time with my brother where only 79 years ago a supreme evil shared laughs and good times with his compatriots."
Cawthorn, who is paralyzed from the waist down from a 2014 car accident that nearly took his life, was the surprise landslide primary winner in the Tar Heel State's 11th Congressional District in the far western part of the state over a candidate favored by President Trump.
The leftist publications intimated the photos were emblematic of his racism and white supremacy.
"I don't cower to the mob," the 25-year-old Cawthorn tweeted. "The new Republican Party that I represent will fight back against liberal lies."
He also described the smear as "another fake news controversy. When our soldiers were photographed at the Eagle's Nest in 1945 they were clearly celebrating the Allies triumph over one of the greatest evils in human history. They weren't celebrating evil; they were celebrating their victory over evil."
No ironing out this irony
Students are unable to attend Alexis I. du Pont High School in Wilmington, Delaware, in person this fall semester (or at least the first six weeks), but the taxpayer-funded Red Clay public district school was the host site for a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, last week.
"There's little social distancing," Delaware Online reported. And online photos backed up the report, showing up to several hundred people - many likely students at the school - crowded together, many without masks.
"After much deliberation, consultation and synthesis of state guidance, we have decided to continue embracing a 'safety first' approach to learning this fall," a message from Superintendent Dorrell Green on the district website said.
But Democratic rallies? They're all in.
The way-back 'woke' machine
The Minnesota Twins' team dermatologist has suggested the club change a logo that was created when the baseball team moved to the city in 1961. The logo Dr. Charles Crutchfield references has two - yes - white men, one with an insignia representing Minneapolis ("Minnie") and one with an insignia representing St. Paul ("Paul"), shaking hands across the Mississippi River, which divides the two twin - get it? - cities.
Only the team hasn't used the logo since 1986. Its uniforms don't use it, its facilities don't use it in their advertising, and it is rare if found at all in any of the throwback clothing on the team store website. However, the old logo is sported on a beat-up sign on top of one wall of the team's Target Field.
Nevertheless, Crutchfield, who is Black, conducted a Facebook survey in which he asked if the team should keep the logo the same, color in one of the twin's faces and hands to add diversity, or design a new logo. Not surprisingly, though respondents weren't told the logo hadn't been used in nearly 35 years, the diversity logo won.
Now, perhaps, the dermatologist will create a campaign to bring back the old logo. What could be more important in 2020?