memeorandum: The U.S. Birthrate Has Dropped Again. The Pandemic May Be Accelerating the Decline. (Sabrina Tavernise/New York Times)

3:30 PM ET, May 5, 2021

Top Items:

Oversight Board upholds former President Trump's suspension, finds Facebook failed to impose proper penalty — The Board has upheld Facebook's decision on January 7, 2021, to restrict then-President Donald Trump's access to posting content on his Facebook page and Instagram account.

Charlie Warzel / Galaxy Brain:

Trump's New Blog Is a Trap — The only way to win is not to play … A Quick Thought on Facebook's Oversight Board Decision — This morning the Board delivered its long-awaited decision with this slippery, misleading headline: Oversight Board upholds former President Trump's suspension …

Discussion: New York Times, CNBC, The Wrap, HotAir, Mediaite and POLITICUSUSA

Washington Post:

Facebook's Oversight Board upheld the social network's decision to ban Trump — Long-awaited ruling has implications for how social media companies govern speech by public officials and other powerful people — Facebook's Oversight Board on Wednesday upheld the social network's decision …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, NewsOne, Politico, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Week, Associated Press, East Bay Times, The Root, The American Independent, USA Today, Snopes.com, KNWA FOX24, ABC7, WGN-TV, Variety and Jezebel, more at Mediagazer »

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Facebook Oversight Board Upholds Social Network's Ban of Trump — A company-appointed panel ruled that the ban was justified at the time but added that the company should reassess its action and make a final decision in six months. — SAN FRANCISCO — A Facebook-appointed panel of journalists …

Discussion: LGBTQ Nation, Breaking News USA, Occupy Democrats, Insider, Talking Points Memo, CBS News, IJR, Progressive Eruptions, Florida Politics, Fox 8 Cleveland WJW, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Althouse, ABC7 and The Daily Beast

Michael Kruse / Politico:

The Facebook Ban Hurt Trump in Surprising Ways — STRONGSVILLE, Ohio— Joe Poldruhi wasn't sure what to believe about his local congressional race. He hadn't heard it straight from Donald Trump. — I had come to Ohio's 16th District to report on Trump's vengeance-fueled decision …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, LifeZette, The Intellectualist and Washington Post

Henry Farrell / Washington Post:
Facebook's Oversight Board upheld the ban on Trump, but it didn't like how Facebook banned him

Discussion: Politico, The Verge, CBS News, Louder With Crowder, New Republic, IJR, NPR, Associated Press and Vox

The Guardian:
Trump criticizes Facebook ruling and says social media companies ‘must pay a political price’ - live

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA, RedState, Twitchy, Washington Times and Althouse

Politico:

Cheney isn't fighting McCarthy push to replace her in leadership — Liz Cheney is not fighting to hold onto her job as House GOP conference chair, even as top Republican leaders openly campaign to replace her in the No. 3 spot. — To the frustration of many fellow Republicans …

Discussion: The Hill, Insider, Washington Examiner, CNN, New York Times, Donald J. Trump, Roll Call, The 19th, Breitbart, Truth and Consequences, Talking Points Memo, New Republic, Mediaite and Salon

Dan Balz / Washington Post:

The effort to dump Liz Cheney is the consequence of a party that lost its way — The growing effort to remove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from the third-ranking Republican leadership position in the House further accelerates her party's full capitulation to Donald Trump's big lie about the 2020 election.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, ABC News, National Review, Politico, Axios, Breitbart, Associated Press, The Western Journal, Insider, Washington Times, Raw Story, davidblaska.com, The Nation, Fox News, The Dispatch, HuffPost, CNN and Times of San Diego

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
How GOP rage at Liz Cheney makes a future stolen election more likely

Discussion: CNN, VICE, New York Times, Slate, The Colorado Sun, The American Conservative, IJR, Forbes, Bloomberg, National Review, Mediaite and Michael-In-Norfolk

Burgess Everett / Politico:
Ernst defends fellow Republican leader Cheney — but calls for intra-GOP peace

Discussion: The Hill, National Review and Washington Examiner

Allahpundit / HotAir:
Report: Trump, McCarthy, Scalise all back Elise Stefanik to replace Cheney in caucus leadership

Discussion: Washington Post, Fox News, Breitbart and Wall Street Journal

Steve Hayes / The Dispatch:
Kevin McCarthy's GOP is Tired of Hearing the Truth

Discussion: National Review, Patterico's Pontifications, New York Times and Townhall

Wall Street Journal:
Purging Liz Cheney

Jacqueline Alemany / Washington Post:
Power Up: Marjorie Taylor Greene might have helped Liz Cheney survive this long

Discussion: Politico, Insider, Erick Erickson's Confessions …, National Review, The Wrap and Forbes

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
Liz Cheney's top donors stand with her despite Republicans' push to oust her from House leadership

Discussion: The American Independent, Tangle, Bloomberg, The Hill, Associated Press, Politico, POLITICUSUSA, NBC News, Washington Times and New York Times

Fadel Allassan / Axios:
Trump, House GOP leaders endorse Elise Stefanik to replace Liz Cheney

Discussion: CBS News, The Hill, CNN, Washington Examiner, Insider, NPR, The Federalist, National Review, Associated Press and Talking Points Memo

Brad Stone / Bloomberg:

The Untold Story of How Jeff Bezos Beat the Tabloids — When a gossip rag went after the CEO, he retaliated with the brutal, brilliant efficiency he used to build his business empire. In an exclusive excerpt from the new book Amazon Unbound comes an unrivaled tale of money, sex, and power.

more at Mediagazer »

Annie Nova / CNBC:

Federal judge overturns national eviction ban — A federal judge struck down on Wednesday the national eviction moratorium, potentially leaving millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes. — Housing advocates have said that the national ban is necessary to stave off …

Discussion: Raw Story

Cassidy Morrison / Washington Examiner:
Judge overturns federal pandemic eviction moratorium

Discussion: National Review and The Federalist

Wall Street Journal:

Peloton Recalls All Treadmills as CEO Apologizes — Home-fitness company now offering customers refunds, halts sales of Tread+ machine — Peloton Interactive Inc. has agreed to recall its treadmills, and its chief executive apologized for the company's initial refusal to comply …

Discussion: TMZ.com and New York Post

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission:
CPSC and Peloton Announce: Recall of Tread+ Treadmills After One Child Death and 70 Incidents; Recall of Tread Treadmills Due to Risk of Injury

Discussion: CBS News, Gizmodo, Jezebel, USA Today, TechCrunch, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times, ABC News, KTVX-TV, CBS Pittsburgh, CBS Philly, Forbes, The Verge, UPI, Fox 8 Cleveland WJW and WOWK-TV, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Thomas / CNBC:
Peloton recalling all treadmills after reports of injuries, one death

Discussion: Gizmodo, CBS Chicago, AppleInsider and CBS San Francisco

Jessica M. Goldstein / Washingtonian:

The Awkward Feeling of Rooting for the White House Press Secretary — Half of America is smitten with Jen Psaki, while a swath of the White House press corps sounds quite taken with how polite she is. — In her first three months on the job, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has yet …

Neal Rothschild / Axios:

Trump's spell over the media broke once he lost his megaphones — Social media interactions about former President Trump have fallen 91% since January, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip. — Why it matters: When Trump lost his social media accounts, he lost his once-immense power …

Discussion: Mock Paper Scissors

Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:

Nature at its craziest: Trillions of cicadas about to emerge — COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) — Sifting through a shovel load of dirt in a suburban backyard, Michael Raupp and Paula Shrewsbury find their quarry: a cicada nymph. — And then another. And another. And four more.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Fox 8 Cleveland WJW

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:

Judge Says Barr Misled on How His Justice Dept. Viewed Trump's Actions — Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in a ruling that the misleading statements were similar to others that William P. Barr, the former attorney general, had made about the Mueller investigation.

Discussion: CNN, The Guardian, The Intellectualist, Daily Kos, The Hill, Raw Story, Crooks and Liars, HotAir, Washington Examiner, Progressive Eruptions, The Week and The Daily Caller

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
Giuliani evidence should be reviewed by an outside lawyer, Justice Dept. says

Discussion: Joe.My.God., Talking Points Memo, Reuters and CNN

Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:

The U.S. Birthrate Has Dropped Again. The Pandemic May Be Accelerating the Decline. — Over all, the birthrate declined by 4 percent in 2020. Births were down most sharply in December, when babies conceived at the start of the health crisis would have been born.

Discussion: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Reuters, NPR, Human Events, The Daily Caller, National Review and The Hill

Martin Crutsinger / Associated Press:

Treasury warns of need to deal with national debt limit — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department says it will employ measures to avoid an unprecedented default on the national debt this summer, but officials say those measures could be exhausted “much more quickly” …

Kate Davidson / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Treasury Evaluating Various Scenarios for Debt Limit Reinstatement

Discussion: Bloomberg

Claire Williams / Morning Consult:

Biden's $1.8 Trillion American Families Plan Is Supported by Nearly 60% of Voters — While just 1 in 4 Republicans back the package, they expressed more support for the proposal's individual provisions — 86% of Democrats support Biden's plan, compared with 54% of independents and 25% of Republicans.

Discussion: Insider, Daily Kos, The Hill and Forbes

Mariko Paulson / Issues:
President Biden's American Families Plan: Budgetary and Macroeconomic effects

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Boston Globe, CBS News, Insider, The Daily Caller, Washington Times, Daily Kos, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, CBS Philly and WCCO | CBS Minnesota

Larry McShane / New York Daily News:

Please buy this newspaper: A Daily News reporter begs a local owner to rescue the tabloid from Alden Global Capital — Like any good tabloid headline, it's simple, snappy and succinct: DAILY NEWS NEEDS NEW OWNER. — And not just any owner: a New York owner, someone who knows the city …

Discussion: Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Signal Blog:

The Instagram ads Facebook won't show you — Companies like Facebook aren't building technology for you, they're building technology for your data. They collect everything they can from FB, Instagram, and WhatsApp in order to sell visibility into people and their lives.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Washington Post, MacRumors, The Indian Express and Forbes, more at Mediagazer »

Ronald Radosh / New Republic:

Our Friend, the Trump Propagandist — According to our old friend David Horowitz—the radical leftist turned thoughtful conservative turned Trump propagandist whom we've been acquainted with, in his various political guises, for more than 60 years—America is on the brink of destruction …

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:

Strongmen who got cozy with Trump get the cold shoulder from Biden — The Biden administration has zinged Russia and China over human rights and alleged thuggery against their neighbors, cut off some arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and stiff-armed Turkey's increasingly authoritarian leader.

Discussion: Washington Examiner and National Review

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

There's an Extremely Stupid Reason Congress Doesn't Want a Good IRS — Yesterday, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen noted that, in this decade, uncollected federal taxes will amount to roughly $7 trillion. Former IRS commissioners Fred Goldberg and Charles Rossotti have calculated that …

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Kevin McCarthy says he rented a ‘room’ — in a 7,000-square-foot penthouse — “Frank [Luntz] has been a friend of mine for more than 30 years. ... I've rented a room from Frank for a couple of months, but don't worry, I'm back to — going back to where I normally am, on my couch in my office.

Discussion: Breaking News USA, Mock Paper Scissors, The Gateway Pundit and The Hill

Washington Post:

White House grapples with reports of labor shortage, inflation as recovery picks up steam — Biden administration officials are hearing from a range of voices about economic pressures — Senior Biden economic officials have in recent weeks been peppered by complaints from restaurant groups …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Insider

New York Times:

Why Democratic Departures From the House Have Republicans Salivating — A growing number of Democrats in battleground districts are retiring or leaving to seek higher office, imperiling the party's slim House majority and President Biden's expansive agenda.