Media top headlines June 18
Joe Rogan torching CNN's Brian Stelter, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock claiming no one opposes voter ID, and an NBC reporter complaining about parents demands for transparency regarding critical race theory round out today's top media headlines
The left-wing outlet Slate is facing backlash for a podcast referring to Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., as a "toxic White lady" for her call to keep the filibuster that could frustrate liberal legislative ambitions.
Sinema, whose moderate politics have irked even President Biden, was the subject of a lengthy discussion on Slate's "The Waves" podcast, where she came under fire for everything from her politics to her flamboyant wardrobe.
"It’s interesting to me that the set of bills that she is holding up by supporting the filibuster or refusing to consider filibuster reform includes a voting rights bill named for John Lewis … Because in 2015, at the start of that Congress, as there is at the start of any Congress, there’s an election to determine who will lead each party," said Slate writer Christina Cauterucci.
"At the time, almost every Democrat voted for Nancy Pelosi. Not Kyrsten Sinema. She said she wanted to elect John Lewis to lead the party. And she said, ‘He’s my hero.’ Well, the fact that she calls him a hero, publicly embraces him as a civil rights icon, and now is working against the substance of what he stood for is, to me, like peak toxic White lady energy."
REPORTERS CONTINUE TO HOUND MANCHIN, SINEMA ABOUT ELIMINATING FILIBUSTER TO PAVE WAY FOR DEM AGENDA
"The new media rules for when a person's conduct can, and cannot, be attributed to their race seems unsustainable to me," journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted in reaction.
Cauterucci and fellow staff writer Julia Craven agreed Sinema was a politician who placed her image ahead of legislating. Cauterucci also referred to Sinema's wardrobe choices as "totally crazy."
BIDEN APPEARS TO BLAME SENS. MANCHIN, SINEMA FOR STALLING HIS AGENDA
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley noted there was "no pushback from feminists" on two women picking apart how Sinema dresses, in addition to criticizing the podcast for what he called a distortion of the filibuster's history.
"'Vote the way we want or we will call you a racist' is kind of proving the point of critics of all of this," pundit Stephen L. Miller tweeted.
Cauterucci also attacked the filibuster as "a random interpretation of the rules that has been largely in the past used to oppose civil rights legislation." Democrats frequently employed the filibuster while Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate under Republican President Donald Trump.
"The filibuster was not created by the Founding Fathers," Cauterucci said. "It was sort of a loophole in the Senate rules. It was not intentionally created at all, certainly by not the Founding Fathers, which, who cares what they thought? But for the sake of arguing on Sinema's terms, it does matter that the Founding Fathers did not want to require a supermajority for passing legislation. It was not a deliberate way to, as she said, create comity and encouraged by partisanship. It was kind of a random interpretation of the rules that has been largely in the past used to oppose civil rights legislation."
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Sinema and Manchin have been the subject of consistent media questioning for not getting on board with Democratic efforts to kill the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to break and force votes on most major legislation.