Media top headlines February 28
In media news today, CNN picks its new president, a New York Times journalist argues Europe isn't a continent, and Jen Psaki dodges a question about President Biden's mental fitness.
New York Times Magazine reporter and founder of the controversial 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones was sharply mocked by critics over the weekend for falsely claiming that Europe was "not a continent."
The left-wing writer took to Twitter Sunday to make the odd claim, appearing driven by others' concerns over the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military. She also referred to such alarm over people that "appear White" as a racial "dog whistle."
"What if I told you Europe is not a continent by definition [sic], but a geopolitical fiction to separate it from Asia and so the alarm about a European, or civilized, or First World nation being invaded is a dog whistle to tell us we should care because they are like us," Hannah-Jones, who uses the name "Ida Bae Wells" on the platform, wrote.
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"To be clear: We should care about Ukraine. But not because it is European, or the people appear white, or they are ‘civilized’ and not ‘impoverished.’ All people deserve to be free and to be welcomed when their countries are at war," she added in a separate tweet, suggesting bias over how European countries are viewed compared to countries in other parts of the world.
Hannah-Jones included two additional tweets with articles appearing to support her claim of bias.
Critics blasted Hannah-Jones over the claims, mocking her references to race amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and rebuking the idea that Europe wasn't a continent.
"When your entire existence is built on the foundation of dry sand that is Critical Race Theory, every layer of thought gets more unstable," one critic wrote, referencing the controversial school curriculum driven by the 1619 Project, while another argued Hannah-Jones wasn't a good source on "history, geography, or geopolitics."
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"Tectonic plates and large natural dividers would like a word," another critic wrote, while one accused her of alleging that those who identified as European had identities that didn't actually exist.
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"An entire political, cultural, and ideological alliance fell in line behind this person's intellectual observations. It's not something that can just be written off," wrote one critic, who also highlighted a back-and-forth between Hannah-Jones and another user, in which the latter doubled down on her claim about Europe and asked what the definition of a continent was.