Maggie Gets a Very Important Note. Potentially Deadly Misinfo. A New First Dog. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

THE DAILY NEWSLETTER – TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021

MEDIA WINNER: Maggie Haberman

There has been a great deal of media commotion over former President Donald Trump’s “History Tour” event with Bill O’Reilly where both men revealed that they had received booster shots of the Covid-19 vaccine. Trump also urged his supporters to stop sneering at vaccines during that event, so political observers are expressing hope that his plea will lead to more people getting their shots while Covid case numbers are rising.

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman (who landed the 40th spot on Mediaite’s Most Influential in News Media 2021 for “her industry-leading coverage of the de facto leader of the GOP”) reached out to Trump’s people to ask why he had changed his message, since he had previously suggested he wouldn’t get a booster.

“He replied with a handwritten note beginning, ‘Must tell the truth,’ those words underlined, then ‘and very proud to have produced the three vaccines so quickly,’” tweeted Haberman. “‘Millions of lives saved worldwide.’” She then tweeted an image of Trump’s actual note, complete with his recognizable signature.

Not too many journalists have the connections to get a quick response from a former president’s team, much less a hand-written note from the guy himself. As the Omicron variant spreads like wildfire, encouraging vaccine holdouts to get the jab is vitally important, so telling this story is too.

MEDIA LOSER: Carly Shimkus

Fox & Friends’ curvy couch was a source of wild and irresponsible misinformation Tuesday morning when co-host Carly Shimkus offered a remarkably illogical argument why many Americans are refusing to get vaccinated. Co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed, of course, with an emphatic “Exactly!” while the consistently reliable Steve Doocy appeared to hold back a wince of some sort.

As noted in the Winner section of this newsletter, Trump recently announced he had gotten a booster shot and expressly encouraged his supporters to stop undermining the efficacy of the vaccine, suggesting it’s something to be proud of and a smarter political play.

“Good for him. Everybody should have the option to make up their own mind about this,” said Shimkus about Trump’s comments.

Then she pivoted to address what some may call the anti-vax portion of Fox & Friends viewers. “If you look at the reality of the situation, if somebody isn’t vaccinated right now, and they look at their two friends who between the three of them has had six shots against covid and they still got it because of Omicron, realistically that person isn’t going to get vaccinated.”

Mediaite’s Colby Hall has a full breakdown of Shimkus’ commentary, noting that “it’s not just misinformation, it’s potentially deadly.”

Links We Like:

Americans Can’t Find Covid-19 Tests, and It’s the FDA’s Fault
– Jim Geraghty, National Review
Why Are So Many Prominent Journalists Abandoning Journalism?
– Steven Greenhut, Reason
Trump’s Big Border Wall Is Now a Pile of Rusting Steel
– John B. Washington, The Atlantic
6 epidemiologists on how omicron is — and isn’t — changing their holiday plans
– Sigal Samuel, Vox

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