White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt met with reporters on Tuesday and was again asked about the status of Kilmar Abrego García, a man from Maryland who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. At the Oval Office on Monday, both Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele acted like neither had the ability to see that Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States.
Leavitt appeared frustrated that she was still being asked about the situation and, at one point, claimed Abrego Garcia was involved in human trafficking. As ABC News wrote, “She repeated unproven claims that the Maryland man was a member of MS-13 and involved in trafficking, citing the president and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.”
The key words there: unproven claims.
Leavitt told the media, “Deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result. There is never going to be a world in which this is an individual who is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland. Because he is a foreign terrorist and an MS-13 gang member. Not only have we confirmed that, President Bukele yesterday in the Oval Office confirmed that as well. So he went back to his home country, where he will face consequences for his gang affiliation and his engagement in human trafficking. I’m not sure what is so difficult about this for everyone in the media to understand.”
Maybe it’s because those claims are still not proven?
As PolitiFact’s Maria Ramirez Uribe reported, “There is no evidence that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist. … It’s unproven that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 and therefore a terrorist after the gang’s foreign terrorist designation.”
Covering — or not covering — the Post
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple is one of the best in the business. His pieces about the media are smart, in-depth and always relevant. He eschews hot takes in favor of nuanced, well-reasoned opinions. And yet, he never pulls a punch and is an entertaining read.
Occasionally, he does a live chat with readers, which is always a must-read for media followers. In Tuesday’s chat, he was asked a pretty tough question. A reader wrote, “Not to be snarky, but how can you cover media when you're not allowed to say anything about 1 of the 2 big Newspapers in the U.S.?”
Wemple gave a direct, honest answer: “Well, let's just go with ‘as best I can.’ Just for everyone's information, the issue at the core of this question is a recent directive from management at The Post that we are not to write about the ‘inner workings’ of this newspaper. Which means that I won't be doing any more of the dozens of pieces critical of my own employer that I'd done here over nearly 14 years as media critic. In the interest of fairness and context, I will point out that I'm not aware of other national news outlets equipped with opinions-side media critics who have carte blanche to rip into their own employers.”
There are plenty of other media topics in the chat that you’ll enjoy reading.
Viewing habits
An interesting item in Tuesday’s Politico Playbook. We all know that President Donald Trump watches TV. He often comments on things he has seen on Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, and even “60 Minutes” and CNN. It’s not uncommon that a segment on one of those networks or shows is followed by a social media post from Trump commenting about that segment or show.
Anway, for Politico Playbook, Jack Blanchard writes that Trump’s viewing habits even go to C-SPAN at some very odd hours. A reader emailed Blanchard to note that Trump told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer he’d been watching reruns of his testimony to Congress on C-SPAN. Trump told Greer during a cabinet meeting, “You were on every night, at 3 o'clock in the morning.”
Blanchard checked and, indeed, C-SPAN was showing Greer’s testimony overnight (it was actually closer to 2:15 a.m., but the point is still the same).
It seems Trump is a fan of C-SPAN. In a recent speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump twice mentioned watching C-SPAN. First, to say that he had been listening to House Speaker Mike Johnson while putting on his tie that day. And then later in that speech, Trump said he learned about the drop in gas prices while watching C-SPAN. Trump said, “in between my watching my great friends on C-SPAN.”
The end of the Houston Landing
Disappointing journalism news on Tuesday. The Houston Landing — a nonprofit digital outlet that began publishing in June 2023 — announced it would shut down by mid-May, less than two years after its launch, due to “financial challenges.”
My Poynter colleagues Angela Fu and Rick Edmonds write, “It launched with more than $20 million in funding and aimed to provide accountability reporting and storytelling that reflected Houston’s diversity. Despite rapidly growing a staff of more than 40, however, the Landing has had a rocky two years, weathering unpopular firings and the loss of significant funders.”
Check out their story for all the details.
The Poynter 50
Another installment of The Poynter 50 is out. In case you haven’t been following, we at Poynter have a continuing project called The Poynter 50, a series reflecting on 50 moments and people that shaped journalism over the past half-century — and continue to influence its future.
The latest piece is from Poynter and PolitiFact’s Louis Jacobson: “Matt Drudge broke the Lewinsky story — and the media gatekeepers.”
It’s a great look into just how Drudge broke the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky story and helped usher in the era of “it’s out there” reporting.
A bad look
A moment during an otherwise humdrum Atlanta Braves telecast has been getting lots of attention the past couple of days. On Monday night, Wiley Ballard, a male sideline reporter on Braves’ TV games, was doing a segment from the stands in Toronto — where the Braves were playing the Blue Jays — called “The Field Report.” This one was with two female fans. Ballard was professional, asking them how often they come to games and what they thought about the Braves.
When the segment ended with one of the fans saying she was “not quite” sold on becoming a Braves’ fan, Ballard sent it back to the booth, saying he would “go to work” — presumably on convincing the woman to become a Braves fan. Again, all fine.
But then play-by-play announcer Brandon Gaudin encouraged Ballard to “get the numbers,” meaning to get phone numbers from the female fans. It then turned into a bit with Ballard telling the women that he was supposed to get their numbers.
At one point, he told one of the women, “I’m dead serious. They are saying in my ear right now. … She doesn’t believe me because she thinks you guys are making this up. I might use that in the future, that’s a pretty good move.”
The woman eventually gave her number to Ballard, and it became a viral moment across social media. After the game, Braves game analyst CJ Nitkowski named Ballard his No. 1 player of the game.
So the Braves broadcast and, yes, many fans seemed to get a kick out of it. Many on social media found it to be a lighthearted, fun moment.
But the reaction from many others, especially from female journalists, was quite different. The gist: Imagine if a female reporter asked for a man’s number while doing her job. Much of the pushback came after Miles Garrett, a sports reporter and anchor for Fox5 Atlanta, posted the clip and wrote, “Shoutout to my guy @wileyballard - setting the standard for sports reporters getting a phone number out in the wild. 10/10 work”
Abbey Mastracco, who covers the New York Mets for the Daily News, tweeted, “‘Setting the standard’ It’s an incredibly low, unprofessional standard to set. Not only did this put the women in the awkward position to not say no, but if a woman did this she would be slutshamed for the rest of her career IF she even got to keep her career.”
ESPN’s Kris Budden tweeted, “If a female reporter ever tried this little bit, that’d be the last job she’d ever have…”
Newsday sportswriter Laura Albanese tweeted, “If I had ever done anything close to this, my career would be over. This is...flabbergasting.”
Washington Post national baseball writer Chelsea Janes tweeted, “Imagine if a female reporter did anything like this. Career over. Pretty brutal to see it glorified by the broadcast.”
These are just a few of the many, many negative reactions to what happened. Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder collected those and even more, including this reaction from Chris Kirschner, a male reporter who covers the New York Yankees for The Athletic: “I’m all for having fun but there’s just no chance in hell a woman in the same position would be applauded for doing this on air. We have to be better here.”
There were others who defended what happened, including WFAN’s “Boomer and Gio” and, a real shocker here, Clay Travis’ OutKick sports site, which acted like this was no big deal and yet wrote not one, but two pieces about it. One called the women journalists who complained “whiners,” and the other used words like “humorless” and “uptight.”
While some might see this as just harmless goofing around, the announcers failed to see how it came off as bro-like behavior that was, at the very least, tone-deaf and, at the very worst, misogynistic. In the end, the female journalists who responded undoubtedly have a clearer and more credible perspective than anyone else on this matter.
This newsletter was written before the completion of Tuesday night’s Braves game, so if the matter was addressed during the broadcast, I’ll have a follow-up in Thursday’s newsletter.
Media tidbits
- Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds with “Spokane’s Spokesman-Review is going nonprofit.”
- Last Sunday's "60 Minutes" on CBS — the show that apparently set President Trump off on a social media rant — had 9.6 million viewers, its best audience since Nov. 14, 2024. Sunday's show featured Scott Pelley's interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Jon Wertheim's report from Greenland; and Lesley Stahl's story on the Savannah Bananas baseball team.
- The Washington Post’s León Krauze with “Bill Maher went to Washington. He got played.”
- Semafor’s Max Tani with “After NBC, Chuck Todd buys into local news.”
- Rory McIlroy’s thrilling victory at The Masters on Sunday was a ratings bonanza for CBS. The network said the final round, which saw the very popular McIlroy complete a career grand slam, averaged 12.7 million viewers. That’s a 33% jump over last year’s final round and the highest-rated golf telecast since 2018.
- ESPN is dropping its Major League Baseball game package after this season, but it’s not necessarily down on baseball. ESPN announced a deal to show 10 Savannah Bananas games over its various platforms this year. The Bananas are kinda-sorta the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball — a team that mixes comedy, showmanship and trick plays into its games. The team has a huge following. For example, they recently played before 65,000 in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL Buccaneers. The games will air on Friday and Saturday nights on ESPN and ESPN2 and will be simulcast live on Disney+ and ESPN+.
Hot type
More resources for journalists
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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].
