memeorandum: What's really going on down in Georgia — Share to Facebook Share to Twitter (Albert Hunt/The Hill)

4:45 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: CNBC, New York Times, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, HotAir and HuffPost, 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, Insider, CBS News, Breaking News USA, IJR, Progressive Eruptions, Florida Politics, Raw Story, Occupy Democrats, Fox 8 Cleveland WJW, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, Althouse, ABC7 and The Daily Beast

Henry Farrell / Washington Post:

Facebook's Oversight Board upheld the ban on Trump, but it didn't like how Facebook banned him — The board wants Facebook to revisit its decision in six months and create more consistent rules — In the immediate aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Facebook decided to ban Donald Trump from its platform.

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

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, Pew Research Center, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, LifeZette and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:
Facebook's Oversight Board upheld the social network's decision to ban Trump

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

New York Times:
Facebook Ban Hits Trump Where It Hurts: Messaging and Money

Discussion: Political Wire and Axios

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

Discussion: Axios, Zandar Versus The Stupid, POLITICUSUSA, Althouse and Washington Times

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: Bloomberg, The Hill, Insider, CBS News, CNN, Washington Examiner, Donald J. Trump, Roll Call, IJR, Raw Story, The 19th, Washington Post, Truth and Consequences, Associated Press, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo, New Republic, Mediaite, Reuters and Salon

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Ernst defends fellow Republican leader Cheney — but calls for intra-GOP peace — INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — Sen. Joni Ernst doesn't agree with Liz Cheney's opposition to former President Donald Trump. The Iowa Republican still says her fellow GOP leader has the right to stand her ground.

Discussion: The Hill, National Review, Washington Examiner and Talking Points Memo

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.

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

Discussion: USA Today, VICE, Politico, CNN, New York Times, Forbes, The American Conservative, IJR, Bloomberg, Patterico's Pontifications, Mediaite, National Review and Michael-In-Norfolk

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

Discussion: HuffPost, Washington Post, The Last Refuge, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Wall Street Journal and The National Interest

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

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

Eli Yokley / Morning Consult:
McConnell Is Rebounding With Republicans as He Looks ‘to the Future’

Discussion: The Hill, Townhall and Political Wire

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

Discussion: Politico, Erick Erickson's Confessions …, Insider, CNN, The Colorado Sun and National Review

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: HotAir, New York Post and 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

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

Discussion: CBS Chicago, Gizmodo, AppleInsider and CBS San Francisco, more at Techmeme »

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

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 …

Discussion: Mediaite

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:

The Biden administration says it will support lifting patent protections to help produce more vaccines globally. — The Biden administration on Wednesday came out in support of waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, a breakthrough for international efforts …

Discussion: CNN, Political Wire, ABC7 and Common Dreams

Doug Palmer / Politico:
Biden team says it supports waiving patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Insider, ABC News and Washington Times

Albert Hunt / The Hill:

What's really going on down in Georgia — Share to Facebook Share to Twitter — Georgia's Republican state legislature — after an election fueled by a huge Black turnout that helped elect a Democratic president and two Democratic U.S. Senators for the first time in a quarter century …

Discussion: MinnPost and Digby's Hullabaloo

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, more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Blitzer / New Yorker:

A Mother, Separated from Her Children at the Border, Comes Home — The Biden Administration has begun a massive effort to reunite more than a thousand families torn apart by Trump. — For the past two years, Keldy Mabel Gonzáles Brebe de Zúniga kept a daily ritual.

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: Al Jazeera, 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, The Hill, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, HotAir, Progressive Eruptions, Washington Examiner, The Week and The Daily Caller

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

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

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 »

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

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: CNN and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

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 …

Brian Flood / Fox News:

CNN's Brian Stelter returns from vacation to host lowest-rated ‘Reliable Sources’ of year — Show performed better with replacement host John Avlon — CNN's struggling media program “Reliable Sources” with Brian Stelter hit another low on Sunday with its smallest audience of 2021 …

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 …

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

Nick Miroff / Washington Post:

ICE deportations fell in April to lowest monthly level on record, enforcement data shows — The number of deportations carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month fell to the lowest monthly level on record, a drop that comes as illegal border crossings remain at a 20-year high …

Alix Culbertson / Sky News:

UK to send two Royal Navy ships to Jersey after France threatens blockade of island port — France has threatened to cut off Jersey's electricity as it says fishing licences are being granted with conditions not agreed. — Created with Sketch. — The UK is sending two Royal Navy ships to Jersey …

Discussion: Politico