The Atlantic Does Its Research. Simmons Apologizes, Edits, Reposts. Bad Day in Court for Fox News. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room
THE DAILY NEWSLETTER – FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2021
Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images.
MEDIA WINNER: The Atlantic’s David Zweig
The Atlantic’s David Zweig took aim Thursday at the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that all children over two years old wear masks in schools in order to protect against Covid-19, describing the study behind the policy as “very shaky science.”
The recommendation stems from a September 2021 Arizona study, which found that schools without mask mandates had 3.5 times more outbreaks than schools that did. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky first cited the study while a guest on CBS’s Face the Nation on September 26th and has continued to cite the “3.5 times more likely” stat repeatedly while promoting the recommendation.
To research his article, Zweig spoke with nine experts in the field, and noted that the “study’s methodology and data set appear to have significant flaws,” including detection bias, amount of actual days in class, the definition of “outbreak,” and the type of schools surveyed. There was a scientific consensus about the protective benefits of masks in general, but not so much for schools, he wrote, citing the higher age recommendations from European health authorities and the World Health Organization.
The Biden administration’s CDC promised to “follow the science,” Zweig argued, but on this topic they seemed to be doing the opposite. “Dubious research has been cited after the fact, without transparency, in support of existing agency guidance.”
MEDIA LOSER: Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons is apologizing over an impression done on his podcast earlier this week of Joel Embiid by former ESPN employee Jackie MacMullan.
Embiid was born in Cameroon, was discovered at a basketball camp as a teenager, and encouraged to move to the United States. He played basketball for the University of Kansas before leaving early to enter the NBA draft, ultimately being selected as the third overall pick in 2014 by the Philadelphia 76ers. He missed nine games this year due to a bout with Covid-19.
In the segment from The Bill Simmons Podcast, which can be heard here, MacMullan imitates Embiid from a recent interview, including mimicking his accent. “That’s a good Embiid impression,” Simmons said in reaction.
Social media did not agree it was “good,” with a torrent of posts calling the impersonation, as well as Simmons’ response to it, racist. Embiid himself liked and shared several tweets with clips from the podcast, but Simmons still deleted the podcast and uploaded an edited version with the impression of Embiid deleted.
“Just a heads up Jackie MacMullan and I talked about Joel Embiid on my podcast,” Simmons said. “She did a quick impression of Joel. We realized afterwards it could be taken the wrong way. It was a little too late so as a result we uploaded an edited version as soon as we could. We apologize about that.”
Links We Like:
Joe Manchin Is the Only Thing Standing Between America and Sen. Cletus Von Ivermectin in 2024.
– Tim Miller, The Bulwark
Florida’s Civil Asset Forfeiture Reforms Haven’t Stopped the Shakedowns
– C.J. Ciaramella, Reason
The history of the metal box that’s wrecking the supply chain
– Rebecca Heilweil, Vox
Procrastinate This, Not That
– Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic
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