A Moving Hour of Television. An Unacceptable Speaker. RNC Chair in the Hot Seat. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room
Screenshot via CNN.
MEDIA WINNER: Jake Tapper
Trevor Reed, the former Marine who was released from a Russian prison last month, spoke with Jake Tapper in a CNN Special Report, “Finally Home: The Trevor Reed Interview,” that aired Sunday night, to share the experience of his ordeal and advocate for other Americans held by hostile foreign nations overseas.
It was a powerful and moving hour of television, with Reed sharing about his “sham” trial, the horrific conditions inside the prison labor camp, his efforts at resistance, and emotions upon learning he would finally be coming home.
Tapper spoke with Reed’s family, who played an instrumental role in lobbying the White House to negotiate for his release, and the family of Paul Whelan, another former Marine still in Russia.
Reed’s family directly credits the media and a bipartisan group of elected officials for helping bring him home — Tapper’s colleague Kaitlan Collins played a small but key role — and Whelan’s brother and sister echoed the same message.
Tapper concluded the special with a short montage of some of the 55 Americans who are still imprisoned overseas, whose families have requested media attention. A solid interview with the potential to help bring more Americans home.
Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images.
MEDIA LOSER: CPAC
Zsolt Bayer, a Hungarian talk show host described as a “notorious Hungarian racist” by The Guardian was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this past week.
Bayer, a close ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, spoke Friday on the second day of CPAC Hungary.
As The Guardian reported, Bayer has referred to Jews as “stinking excrement,” described Roma as “animals” who are “unfit for coexistence,” used a racial epithet to refer to Black people while ranting about the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and used anti-Semitic language to refer to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
A few days before The Guardian article, Schlapp issued a statement complaining that the “Leftist media” had “launched a coordinated smear campaign” against CPAC.
CPAC has been unfairly attacked in the past over controversial statements made by attendees and protesters at their events, neither of whom they control, but they absolutely have control over who they honor with a featured speaking slot. Bayer’s comments weren’t hard to find. CPAC either was lazy to the point of malpractice in vetting their speakers or was fine putting a vile bigot on stage. A loser either way.
Links We Like:
How Gen X Became the Trumpiest Generation
– Ben Jacobs, Politico Magazine
The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers
– Catherine Porter, Constant Méheut, Matt Apuzzo and Selam Gebrekidan, New York Times
The Doom Spiral of Pernicious Polarization
– Yascha Mounk, The Atlantic
Why the Depp-Heard trial is so much worse than you realize
– Aja Romano, Vox
The Alfa Bank Hoax Hoax
– Tim Miller, The Bulwark
Read the full Mediaite Green Room Newsletter here, including RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel’s reaction to soon-to-be former Congressman Madison Cawthorn’s “Dark MAGA” comments.
