memeorandum: Cable news outlets fail us in a time of crisis (Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post)

12:35 PM ET, April 20, 2020

Top Items:

Jonathan O'Connell / Washington Post:

White House, GOP face heat after hotel and restaurant chains helped run small business program dry — With program out of money, backlash prompts executives at Shake Shack to return $10 million loan. — The federal government gave national hotel and restaurant chains millions of dollars …

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Florida Politics, New York Post, Raw Story and HuffPost

NBC News:

Shake Shack returning $10 million government loan meant for small businesses — With the Paycheck Protection Program already out of money, the burger chain says other restaurateurs need its loan more than it does. — Shake Shack, one of several large restaurant chains that got federal loans through …

Discussion: The Week, Bloomberg and Quartz

Randy Garutti / LinkedIn:

Shake Shack is returning its PPP Loan. Here's why: — A letter from Danny Meyer and Randy Garutti — On March 27, when both branches of Congress and the White House came to an agreement to provide sweeping financial assistance via the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, many of us in the restaurant industry cheered with a big sigh of relief.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, NPR, Redstate, CBS Los Angeles, Axios, courthousenews.com, CNBC, New York Post, Associated Press and The Week

Judd Legum / Popular Information:
A raw deal — The pandemic has been devastating for small businesses …

Discussion: New York Daily News, Washington Post and CNBC

Derek Wallbank / Bloomberg: Shake Shack Will Return Its Entire $10 Million U.S. Government Loan

Alicia Wallace / CNN:
Shake Shack, Ruth's Chris and other chain restaurants got big PPP loans when small businesses couldn't

Discussion: Redstate and New York Times

Zachary Warmbrodt / Politico:
Shake Shack to return small business loan after uproar

Discussion: Raw Story

Michelle Toh / CNN: Shake Shack returns $10 million emergency loan to the US government

Washington Post:

Pro-gun activists using Facebook groups to push anti-quarantine protests — A trio of far-right, pro-gun provocateurs is behind some of the largest Facebook groups calling for anti-quarantine protests around the country, offering the latest illustration that some seemingly organic demonstrations …

Discussion: The Bulwark, Fox News, VICE, The Smoke Eater, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post: Cable news outlets fail us in a time of crisis

Washington Post:
‘Go to China if you want communism’: Anti-quarantine protester clashes with people in scrubs

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, Breitbart, The Hill and Raw Story

Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:

Everyone is in denial about November — The 2016 hangover — Over the weekend, the hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts read a lot of analysis about what the Trump administration was thinking and doing about reelection. What all of this analysis had in common was a refusal to acknowledge some brute facts.

Discussion: Fox News, NBC News, The Nation and The National Interest

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The one poll number that could haunt Trump on coronavirus

Discussion: The Hill, Blue Virginia and The American Independent

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Stop Airing Trump's Briefings! — The media is allowing disinformation to appear as news. — Around this time four years ago, the media world was all abuzz over an analysis by mediaQuant, a company that tracks what is known as “earned media” coverage of political candidates. Earned media is free media.

Discussion: HuffPost, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA and Mother Jones

Michael Kranish / Washington Post:

Brett Giroir, Trump's testing czar, was forced out of a job developing vaccine projects. Now he's on the hot seat. — Brett Giroir, the federal official overseeing coronavirus testing efforts, says that his experience working on vaccine development projects at Texas A&M University helped prepare him for this historic moment.

Discussion: CNN, The Week and Raw Story

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Trump's support for right-wing protests just got more ugly and dangerous — At bottom, President Trump's ongoing support for right-wing agitators who want to own the libs by throwing off the oppression of policies limiting their own exposure to a deadly pathogen should sound unsettlingly familiar.

Discussion: PRESS RUN, Common Dreams and The Philadelphia Inquirer

Charlie Warzel / New York Times: Protesting for the Right to Catch the Coronavirus

James Arkin / Politico:

Democrats' momentum puts Senate majority in play — Republicans started this election cycle as heavy favorites to keep their Senate majority, with a lineup of elections mostly in red-tinted states and GOP incumbents favored over a slate of relatively unknown and untested challengers.

Discussion: Raw Story

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

A watchdog out of Trump's grasp unleashes wave of coronavirus audits — Lawmakers handed President Donald Trump $2 trillion in coronavirus relief — and then left town without activating any of the powerful new oversight tools meant to hold his administration accountable.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The Daily Caller and Raw Story

George Packer / The Atlantic:

We Are Living in a Failed State — When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years.

Discussion: Raw Story

Beth LeBlanc / Detroit News:

Poll: Michiganians favor Whitmer's COVID-19 handling over Trump's — Michigan residents favor Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's handling of the coronavirus over that of President Donald Trump, according to a poll done for the Detroit Regional Chamber that was released Monday.

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:

White House worried Trump-inspired protests will blow up in his face if attendees are stricken with COVID-19: NYT's Haberman — Appearing remotely on CNN's “New Day” New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman claimed that senior officials in Donald Trump's administration …

Jasmin Barmore / Detroit News:

5-year-old with rare complication becomes first Michigan child to die of COVID-19 — A month ago, 5-year-old Skylar Herbert complained to her parents that she had a bad headache. — On Sunday, after spending two weeks on a ventilator, the Detroit girl died.

Discussion: Fox News and New York Post

Marilynn Marchione / Associated Press:

Reports suggest many have had coronavirus with no symptoms — file photo, amid coronavirus concerns, a healthcare worker takes the temperature of a visitor to Essentia Health who was crossing over a skywalk bridge from the adjoining parking deck, in Duluth, Minn. A flood of new research suggests …

Discussion: Associated Press

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message — With his poll numbers fading after a rally-around-the-leader bump, the president is stoking protests against stay-at-home orders. — First he was the self-described “wartime president.” Then he trumpeted the “total” authority of the federal government.

Discussion: Mediaite, Deadline, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Redstate, NBC News, Politico, Axios and ABC News

Justin Wise / The Hill:

Trump calls FBI investigators in Russia probe ‘human scum’ — President Trump on Sunday lashed out at FBI leadership over the origins of the investigation into Russian election interference, calling investigators who led the probe “human scum.” — Trump made the remarks during …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and PJ Media Home

CNN: Trump won't say whether he will pardon Manafort and Stone, calls FBI investigators ‘human scum’

Helen Branswell / STAT:

The months of magical thinking: As the coronavirus swept over China, some experts were in denial — The response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and other countries has been hobbled by a host of factors, many involving political and regulatory officials.

Bloomberg:

Oil in New York Plunges Below $15 as Storage Sites Fill — Texan buyers offering as little as $2 a barrel for some crudes — WTI plummets as much as 22%, though futures expire on Tuesday — Oil plunged below $15 a barrel in New York, a fresh 21-year low, as inventories soar …

Houston Chronicle:

Across nation, masks are the latest political, cultural divide — Kevin Krannawitter won't wear a mask because he just doesn't think it's necessary, whatever the scientists say. Marilyn Singleton won't wear one either - and she's a physician - because she says it's un-American for the government to force people to cover their faces.

Nick Bilton / Vanity Fair:

In the Coronavirus Era, the Force Is Still With Jack Dorsey — Twitter's CEO, last of the Steve Jobs-like tech-founder demigods, was on the verge of being pushed out by private-equity investors. But his will, and wiles—and COVID-19—gave him new purpose. For now.

Discussion: Althouse

Mark Sherman / Associated Press:

Supreme Court: Criminal juries must be unanimous to convict — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that juries in state criminal trials must be unanimous to convict a defendant, settling a quirk of constitutional law that had allowed divided votes to result in convictions in Louisiana and Oregon.

Discussion: One America News Network

Reuters:

South Koreans return to work, crowd parks, malls as social distancing rules ease — Hyonhee Shin, Heekyong Yang — SEOUL (Reuters) - South Koreans are returning to work and crowding shopping malls, parks, golf courses and some restaurants as South Korea relaxes social distancing rules amid …

Patrick Cooley / The Columbus Dispatch:

Coronavirus in Ohio: More than 1,800 inmates at Marion Correctional test positive — Patrick Cooley Jim Woods The Columbus Dispatch — The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to 11,602 cases on Sunday — Coronavirus has overtaken a vast majority of the prison population …

Discussion: The Hill and New York Post

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

US announces extended travel restrictions with Mexico, Canada — The United States, Canada and Mexico will extend restrictions barring non-essential travel across their respective shared borders for another 30 days amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration announced Monday.

Discussion: Fox News and One America News Network