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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in a horrific incident captured on video Monday night, which shows an officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck as he struggles to breathe. Widespread protests broke out across the Twin Cities on Tuesday night, which law enforcement responded to with more violence, firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s high-powered PR unit sent around a pre-prepared script and news package to local stations across the country -- and at least 11 of them fell for it, airing the uncritical segment just as the company wanted it.
And lastly, President Trump launches into the conspiracy theory that MSNBC Host Joe Scarborogh killed a staff member while he was a Congressman, and Twitter made the weakest possible response, despite the pleas of the staffer’s surviving husband.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
The Twin Cities area of Minnesota erupted on Tuesday night following the tragic killing of an unarmed black man by police the previous day.
On Monday night, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for several minutes, all of which were captured on video by a bystander. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Chauvin had previously been involved in multiple shootings over his 19-year career, wounding a suspect in one.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said on Tuesday afternoon that Chauvin and other three officers who were on scene for Floyd’s death had been fired. But that action didn’t stop massive protests breaking out across the Twin Cities area, as thousands took to the streets to call for justice.
The cops, however, reacted about how you’d expect: meeting protestors with force, firing rubber bullets, marking rounds and tear gas into crowds that battled them for hours in the rain.
Floyd’s death was one of the most brutal captured on tape. In the video, Chauvin kneels directly on Floyd’s neck for an extended period of time while Floyd and several onlookers plead for Chauvin to release the pressure. Floyd eventually passes out, after saying quote “I can’t breathe, they’re going to kill me.” endquote. He was pronounced dead in the hospital.
Mayor Frey said he had originally been stopped on suspicion of forgery. That’s all it took for the police to murder him in broad daylight.
Local News Parrots Amazon PR
Amazon’s PR machine has kicked into overdrive during the coronavirus crisis, in large part due to the fact that it has fired organizers within its ranks left and right while neglecting its already oppressed workforce. While diligent reporting by Vice News, the New York Times and others has held Amazon’s feet to the fire, other outlets… aren’t doing so great.
On Sunday, Amazon sent around a prepared news segment specifically crafted to show the company in the best possible light. Most reporters, like Zach Rael at Oklahoma City’s ABC affiliate KOCO, who first publicized the pitch on Twitter, brushed it off. Rael, for example, instead asked Amazon to let journalists into the facility to do a story for themselves.
But reporting by Courier Newsroom found that at least 11 stations around the country fell for the obvious PR job and ran the story exactly as Amazon scripted it, with anchors repeating the spokesperson-provided lines verbatim.
The story is a troubling reminder of what our media could look like if corporations are allowed to completely control the conversation. There’s already a shortage of critical reporting in the country, and even the best-funded outlets often fall in line with what’s comfortable for the various powers that be. It’s just usually not this obvious.
Twitter Delivers Weak Rebuke of Trump
A strange, chaotic news day wouldn’t be complete without the president spreading conspiracies and lies online -- and it looks like Twitter, his platform of choice, isn’t willing to do much to stop him.
On Tuesday, Trump again tweeted several references to the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, a congressional staffer for then-Representative Joe Scarborough. Trump and Scarborough have been feuding over the usual petty cable news crap for months, and recently the president has decided to bring up the popular conspiracy that Scarborough was involved in Klausutis’s death.
In a letter published in the New York Times, Klausutis’s husband plead for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to delete Trump’s tweets about the conspiracy. In response, a company spokesperson mustered up a pitiful response, expressing some token sympathy and saying QUOTE:
“We’ve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward.”
That means effectively nothing, obviously, but the company did take one concrete step. Late into Tuesday afternoon, it attached two advisory tags to Trump’s tweets -- not the ones about Kausutis, but instead Trump’s lies about vote by mail. The tags merely redirect users to Twitter’s news page for vote-by-mail stories and urge them to “get the facts.” Great job everyone, they fixed it.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
The white woman who attempted to call police on a black man birdwatching in Central Park has been fired from her job at the investment bank Franklin Templeton. The woman, Amy Cooper, implied that she would use the police to inflict violence on the birdwatcher, repeatedly mentioning to the operator that he was “African American.” The altercation started after the man asked her to leash her dog.
Four Uber and Lyft drivers in New York filed suit with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, arguing that the state had failed to provide drivers with unemployment benefits. A 2018 decision ruled app-based drivers should be classified as employees and eligible for unemployment, but the drivers say the state is failing to process their claims quick enough to help them pay the bills.
Congress’s pandemic EBT program, an emergency relief measure intended lessen child hunger during the pandemic, is way behind schedule and application, according to the New York Times. Congress approved the act in Mid March -- in Mid May, the Times reports only 15 percent of the kids it was supposed to feed are getting what they need.
And finally, the Trump Justice Department is closing insider trading investigations into three U.S. senators previously caught trading stock they may have had advance tips on due to their position on Congressional committees. The only one still under investigation is GOP Senator Richard Burr, the former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- but the other three appear to be getting off scott free. Funny how that works!
That’s it for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Catch the full show this afternoon.
May 27, 2020 - AM Quickie
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Jack Crosbie
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn
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