Lavin’s undergraduate course “Reporting on the Far Right” will kick off in the fall semester of 2019 at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. In its official faculty bio, the university billed Lavin as an expert in “far-right extremism and social justice.”

At least one current NYU journalism student questioned the decision to hire Lavin. “I sympathize with Lavin’s politics, but I don’t know why someone who had to quit their journalism job for falsely implying someone is a Nazi should be teaching at NYU,” said the student, who requested anonymity for fear of academic reprisal. “I know there are plenty of reporters out there in need of work who haven’t made a mistake like that.”

Lavin declined to comment for this story. Reps for NYU, the school’s journalism department and university president Andrew Hamilton did not respond to requests for comment.

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After leaving the New Yorker last June, Lavin was hired by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America less than a month later to focus on “far right extremism.” Though her LinkedIn profile lists that she currently works there, a spokesperson for the organization confirmed that she was no longer employed there. An additional person with knowledge of the matter said she left several months ago.

Neither Lavin’s three-year tenure at the New Yorker nor her stint at Media Matters are mentioned on her official NYU faculty bio.

Lavin’s career promptly blew up last June after she accused Justin Gaertner, a wheelchair-bound ICE agent, of having a Nazi Iron Cross tattoo over his left elbow. Lavin made the charge in a tweet after viewing a photo of Gaertner online. She later deleted her tweet after she said a number of people responded and informed her that the tattoo in question appeared to be a Maltese Cross — a symbol commonly used by members of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars.

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That, however, was not enough for the critics. The story blew up on social media and Lavin even earned a lengthy rebuke from ICE itself as well as The New Yorker. “The personal social-media accounts of staff members do not represent the magazine, and we in no way share the viewpoint expressed in this tweet,” a magazine spokesperson told National Review. “The tweet has been deleted, and we deeply regret any harm that this may have caused Mr. Gaertner.”

In a Twitter thread, Lavin soon announced her resignation from the magazine and apologized to Gaertner over the error. She also criticized ICE, saying it was not “acceptable” for the agency to attack her personally over her mistake.

“This has been a wild and difficult week. I owe ICE agent Justin Gaertner a sincere apology for spreading an rumor about his tattoo,” she said. “However, I do not think it is acceptable for a federal agency to target a private citizen for a good faith, hastily rectified error.”

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In the piece, Erdogan argued that the world should see no difference between the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 50 dead and the radical islamic terrorism of ISIS.

“As a leader who has repeatedly stressed that terrorism has no religion, language or race, I categorically reject any attempt to associate last week’s terrorist attacks with the teachings, morals or maxims of Christianity. If anything, what happened in New Zealand was the toxic product of ignorance and hate,” Erdogan wrote. “We must establish that there is absolutely no difference between the murderer who killed innocent people in New Zealand and those who have carried out terrorist acts in Turkey, France, Indonesia and elsewhere.”

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The words of unity, however, were met with scorn from many online — who argued the paper should not be giving a platform to Erdogan. In 2018, the Committee to Protect Journalists called him the “world’s worst jailer” of reporters.

Also Read: Washington Post Media Columnist Calls Fox News an 'American Plague'

“Even as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been the fiercest critic of Saudi Arabia for the murder of Khashoggi, his government continued to jail more journalists than any other on the planet,” the organization reported. “For the third consecutive year, every journalist imprisoned in Turkey is facing anti-state charges.”

Reps for the Washington Post or the Committee to Protect Journalists did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.

“The Post Opinion pages couldn’t find someone who doesn’t imprison journalists (among other concerns) to write this take?” CBS News digital White House correspondent Kathryn Watson tweeted.

“As Erdogan’s op-ed runs under the “democracy dies in darkness” tagline, a quick reminder that Turkey was the number one jailer of journalists in 2018, per the Committee to Protect Journalists,” Daily Caller investigative reporter Peter Hasson added.

The Post Opinion pages couldn’t find someone who doesn’t imprison journalists (among other concerns) to write this take? https://t.co/j38aOondUT

— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) March 20, 2019

As Erdogan's op-ed runs under the "democracy dies in darkness" tagline, a quick reminder that Turkey was the number one jailer of journalists in 2018, per the Committee to Protect Journalists https://t.co/cGm8sTNIzt

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) March 20, 2019

A radical Islamist tyrant @RT_Erdogan who tortures journalists, has $B's in global media power and btw just used actual video carnage from #ChristcurchMosqueAttack to rile up his Islamist campaign rallies is platformed @washingtonpost instead of @AIFDemocracy? #DemocracyDying https://t.co/S5sLAOFIlC

— M. Zuhdi Jasser زهدي جاسر (@DrZuhdiJasser) March 20, 2019

“Democracy dies in darkness!”

“Also, read an Op-Ed by Recep jailer-of-journalists Tayyip Erdogan!” https://t.co/iA7WMfTzFE

— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) March 20, 2019

There are plenty of Muslim leaders who have the moral standing to write an article like this. Erdogan is not one of them. Great job WaPo https://t.co/uyAYztMqMZ

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) March 20, 2019

How do you hacks keep running this journalist murderer https://t.co/naKmCjkU7q

— Grant Addison (@jgrantaddison) March 20, 2019

The @washingtonpost gives one the world's biggest jailers of journalists ( @RT_Erdogan ) a space to share his "opinion" https://t.co/kPbjG1aZzF

— Kyle Matthews (@kylecmatthews) March 20, 2019

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“We deleted an earlier tweet which mischaracterised our article on transgender rights in Japan. Here is that article, which remains unchanged,” the British magazine said in a tweet Tuesday evening.

“The article explores in detail a question that was put to Japan’s Supreme Court. Our tweets often use a line from the articles they link to. We were wrong to use the first line of this article out of its context. Sorry,” they added in an update Wednesday morning.

The original tweet had asked — without context — “Should transgender people be sterilised before they are recognized?”

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Reps for The Economist did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Far from a question from the magazine itself, the tweet linked to an Economist article about a debate currently unfolding in Japan over the issue, which the paper itself labeled “the unkindest cut.”

“Should transgender people be sterilised before they are recognised? Earlier this year Japan’s Supreme Court decided that the answer is yes,” read the opening of the piece, while also noting shortly after that “Human-rights groups say demanding irreversible surgery is outrageous. Although several Asian countries, including South Korea, have similar laws, Western countries that once also used to require sterilisation, such as Norway, France and Sweden, no longer do.”

The original tweet was immediately flagged on Twitter by prominent users, who attacked the magazine for asking the question.

“You know… f– @TheEconomist. F–ing sick of this f–ing garbage. How f–ing dare they? Really. F– them,” Media Matters editor Parker Molloy said in a tweet. “‘Should [literally any group of people] be sterilized before being [legally] recognized?’ There is absolutely no context where that is an okay question to ask, you genocidal s–weasels.”

It’s far from the first time the magazine has faced criticism over it’s coverage. Similar bad feeling ensued in 2016 when they reported that “the key to a successful marriage” was “not having daughters.”

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In an unusual deal, Michael Sanchez handed over the messages in return for the that which he received in full, upfront last year, according to WSJ. His contract with the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc. (AMI), also gave him the right to shop the information elsewhere if the company didn’t run with the story after one month, the WSJ reported.

Reps for AMI declined to comment. Reps for Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement to TheWrap, Michael Sanchez called the WSJ reporting “disappointing” and refused to “dignify” the allegations.

As with the WSJ, Sanchez did not explicitly deny sending incriminating content relating to the Amazon boss to the Enquirer.

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“WSJ’s report on old rumors from ‘anonymous’ sources is disappointing. I didn’t dignify the rumors last month and I’m not going to dignify them now,” he said in a statement on Tuesday that mostly sidestepped the substance of the Journal’s reporting.

“Two key facts remain the same: 1) Everything I’ve done since the day I met Bezos protected his extramarital affair from Gavin de Becker, and 2)I never had access to the penis selfies which are the heart of criminal allegations against Dylan Howard, a desperate man I sincerely believe attempted to brazenly blackmail Jeff Bezos,” he said.

The deal with Michael Sanchez also caused a row with American Media’s chief legal counsel for media Cameron Stracher, who was terminated from the company after AMI boss David Pecker told him he was displeased by the upfront payment, the WSJ reported.

In February, Bezos exploded the story into the public light with an extraordinary post on Medium, admitting that he had sent lewd photos, while also accusing American Media of trying to blackmail and extort him into making false claims about Pecker’s company.

“In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we ‘have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces,'” Bezos wrote. “Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten,”

In the same post, he proceeded to publish a series of emails from National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard.

In the weeks before the WSJ story, rumors had swirled as to how AMI had obtained the photos including the possibility that Saudi Arabia or even President Trump (a close Pecker ally) might have been involved.

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“Fox News must clearly state that Jeanine Pirro will not be allowed back on the air after her long history of Islamophobic hate rhetoric and the network must also take similar action against other Islamophobic hosts like Tucker Carlson,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. “All existing advertisers should drop their ads on Fox News to ensure that they are not associated with the promotion of hate.”

The council (more commonly known as CAIR) is one of the largest and most influential civil rights organizations for Muslim Americans.

Fox News preempted Jeanine Pirro’s weekly Saturday show on Saturday one week after the former federal judge suggested on air that Rep. Ilhan Omar may not fully support the United States Constitution because she is a Muslim — a statement that the network said last week that it “strongly condemns.”

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CAIR has also singled out statements that Carlson made on the radio show of a Florida shock jock between 2006 and 2011 that the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America recently resurfaced.

“Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys — that’s why it wasn’t worth invading,” Carlson said during one interview from 2008, and in another imagined a presidential candidate who would blame “lunatic Muslims who are behaving like animals.”

Fox News did not immediately respond to a series of questions about the CAIR statement.

Even as dozens of advertisers have dropped Carlson’s show in recent months over comments about immigrants and women, the network has repeatedly vowed to stand the primetime host and insisted that it would never bow to pressure campaigns from Media Matters or anyone. (The network has been notably less vocal in its support of Pirro, offering no comment on when or if she might return to the air.)

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Both hosts however got a big assist over the weekend from their most famous fan, the President of the United States. In a series of tweets on Sunday, Trump rebuked the network after Pirro’s show was preempted and urged Fox to stand strong behind both hosts.

“Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well,” Trump scolded. “Fox must stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country. The losers all want what you have, don’t give it to them. Be strong & prosper, be weak & die!”

“Keep fighting for Tucker, and fight hard for @JudgeJeanine,” he concluded. “Your competitors are jealous – they all want what you’ve got – NUMBER ONE. Don’t hand it to them on a silver platter. They can’t beat you, you can only beat yourselves!”

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“No one will ever love you the way they loved my father,” “The View” co-host said in a tweet replying to the POTUS. “I wish I had been given more Saturday’s with him. Maybe spend yours with your family instead of on twitter obsessing over mine?”

The sharp words came after Trump disparaged McCain in yet another tweet on Saturday, blasting the Vietnam veteran over his “no” vote to repeal Obamacare and his part in bringing the Steele Dossier to public attention.

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“Spreading the fake and totally discredited Dossier ‘is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain.'” Trump wrote, quoting former Clinton special prosecutor Ken Starr. Trump continued on Sen. McCain: “He had far worse ‘stains’ than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!”

The president has long nursed a grudge against McCain. The Arizona Republican was a sharp critic of Trump’s during the 2016 presidential campaign and frequently frustrated his legislative plans during his last months in the Senate. One of McCain’s final Senate votes was also one of his most significant — preventing the chamber from sending a repeal of Obamacare to the president’s desk.

Trump has never shied about going after McCain, famously telling pollster Frank Luntz in 2015 that the Senator was only considered a war hero “because he was captured,” adding that he liked “people who weren’t captured.” The attacks from Trump continued even after McCain was diagnosed with the malignant brain tumor and his subsequent death.

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The president was notably left off the guest list at McCain’s funeral.

No one will ever love you the way they loved my father…. I wish I had been given more Saturday’s with him. Maybe spend yours with your family instead of on twitter obsessing over mine? https://t.co/q7ezwmHiQ4

– Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 16, 2019

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“Cernovich has a 5-year statute of limitations on all offensive content,” he said, speaking of himself in third person in a video tweet on Monday. “I won’t listen to Tucker Carlson video because it doesn’t matter, too old.”

“Literally if you commit most crimes other than murder there’s a statute of limitations,” he continued. “If Fox News holds strong and just says we’re just not going to fire Tucker, it’s just over, then it’s a new era. It’s a new era for conservatives.”

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But Friday, Cernovich spoke differently when it was announced that Disney was reinstating Gunn to write and direct “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” — eight months after online critics discovered years-old tweets in which Gunn joked about rape and pedophilia, and was subsequently fired.

Despite his proposed “statute of limitations,” Cernovich complained vociferously on Twitter after the Gunn decision.

“If you think Gunn getting rehired hurts me rather than children, you’re a sick person and part of the problem,” the conspiracy theorist said in a tweet. “I’ll continue doing my journalism and winning!” He also spent much of Friday retweeting many of Gunn’s past remarks.

When asked about the contradiction of his position, Cernovich said the issue was one of universal applicability.

“I’ll apply the same rules to conservatives like Tucker Carlson as Margaret Sullivan and Erik Wemple apply to liberals,” he told TheWrap. “Once everyone agrees to the 5-year rule, then that rule shall be applied to all.”

“When the left finds bad tweets from a conservative, that’s journalism. When a conservative or someone on the right funds seeming pedo tweets from a Disney employee who directs children’s movies that’s ‘bad faith’ and ‘weaponized outrage,” he added.

Several recordings surfaced last Sunday of Carlson’s 2006-2011 appearances on the shock jock’s radio show, in which the future Fox News host said women enjoy being told to “be quiet and kind of do what you’re told,” suggested that statutory rape isn’t like “pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting” them, and said that Iraq is “filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys.”

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“F– you you f–ing liars,” the model and actress tweeted at the publication just minutes after they published their report saying “Michael Jackson’s only daughter slit her wrists.”

It was followed by another tweet from her: eight question marks and a scowling emoji.

Although reps for Jackson and TMZ did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment, a person with knowledge of the situation said Jackson had an incident Saturday morning that required medical treatment, and that she is currently resting at home and doing fine. “Any reports of a 5150 hold/suicide attempt are simply untrue,” they added.

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On Saturday, TMZ also reported that Jackson was on “5150 hold” — which refers to being held without will for up to 72 hours in a psychiatric hospital — and cited “family sources” and “sources with knowledge”  that the attempt was made as a “direct response to the allegations made against her father in ‘Leaving Neverland,” a documentary in which two boys accused her father of molestation in the 1990s.

It’s unclear what specifically the star was refuting in her response to the TMZ story.

The HBO documentary presented a stark case of pedophilia and sexual misconduct against the King of Pop, with interviews with two men — Wade Robson and James Safechuck — who accuse Jackson of molesting them as children. The fallout for Jackson and his estate has been substantial, with Jackson’s music being pulled from radio stations in several countries, and the “Simpsons” even yanked an iconic episode of their show which featured a prominent Jackson cameo.

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As they did during his life, the Jackson family has vociferously denied the accusations.

“We can’t just stand by while this public lynching goes on, and the vulture tweeters and others who never met Michael go after him,” his family said in a statement in response to the documentary. “Michael is not here to defend himself, otherwise these allegations would not have been made.”

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“Milo Yiannopoulos will not be allowed to enter Australia for his proposed tour this year. Mr Yiannopoulos’ comments on social media regarding the Christchurch terror attack are appalling and foment hatred and division,” Australia’s Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman said in a statement Saturday.

“The terrorist attack in Christchurch was carried out on Muslims peacefully practicing their religion. It was an act of pure evil. Australia stands with New Zealand and with Muslim communities the world over in condemning this inhuman act,” his statement added.

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A gunman opened fire in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday, killing 49 people and injuring more than a dozen others. The Australian-born person claiming responsibility for the attacks said he went to New Zealand solely to commit the attack, and that he used guns specifically to cause discord over the Second Amendment in the United States, according to the New York Times.

The decision from Australia came after a Friday post from Yiannopoulos on Facebook in which the former Breitbart editor said attacks like those at the Christchurch mosques are provoked by establishments “pandering” to extremists on the left.

Milo declined a request for comment from TheWrap, but in a series of social media posts he decried the decision, saying it was once again an assault on his free speech rights.

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“I explicitly denounced violence. I said that we on the Right are always disavowing racists. I pointed out the inconvenient fact that it is Leftists committing the majority of political violence. And I criticized the establishment for pandering to Islamic fundamentalism. So Australia banned me again,” he said on Instagram. “Coleman and his party deserve to be annihilated at the next election for their betrayal of such fundamental western values as free speech and for cravenly folding to pressure from the Left. And I suspect that electoral annihilation is exactly what’s about to happen.”

Coleman originally approved Yiannopoulos’ entry into the country for a speaking tour before elections in May, overriding the concerns of the country’s Department of Home Affairs, according to News Corp Australia. A 2017 visit from Milo to the suburbs of Melbourne led to violent protests.

Once a scourge of U.S. college campuses, Yiannopoulos largely faded from public view after being banned from Twitter. In February 2017, he resigned his position at Breitbart after multiple past remarks surfaced in which he appeared to defend pedophilia. A separate independent media venture from Yiannopoulos also ended in failure.

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Elecia R. Dexter had only served in the position at the Democrat-Reporter for a few weeks before stepping down and after interference from the paper’s ex-editor-in-chief Goodloe Sutton, according to the NYT.

“I would have liked it to turn out a different way, but it didn’t,” Dexter told the Times. “This is a hard one because it’s sad — so much good could have come out of this.”

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The decision caps a brief but eventful career for Dexter at the 144-year-old paper, which she joined as an office clerk roughly two months ago. She had no prior journalism experience .

Both Dexter and reps for the paper did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

Once an obscure southern broadsheet with no official website and a circulation of just a few thousand, The Democrat-Reporter made it into the spotlight in February after, Sutton, the paper’s 80-year-old editor, published an editorial lauding the Ku Klux Klan.

“Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again,” the Feb. 14 editorial read. “Seems like the Klan would be welcome to raid the gated communities [in Washington]. They call them compounds now. Truly they are the ruling class.”

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The piece additionally took aim at D.C. politicians for “plotting to raise taxes in Alabama” and said D.C. Democrats were leading the United States into unnecessary wars. The editorial was brought to widespread attention through social media and was denounced by some of the state’s most prominent voices — including Alabama Senator Doug Jones, who called on Sutton to resign.

“OMG! What rock did this guy crawl out from under? This editorial is absolutely disgusting & he should resign -NOW! I have seen what happens when we stand by while people-especially those with influence- publish racist, hateful views,” Alabama Senator Jones said in a tweet. “Words matter. Actions matter. Resign now!”

Sutton later said the piece was intended to be ironic, but the pressure ultimately did force him out. He remained on as an advisor to Dexter. It has not been announced who will succeed Dexter leading the paper.

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“Disney’s rehiring of James Gunn presents an excellent opportunity for Angelo Carusone and Media Matters to show they are principled fighters for social justice,” Cernovich told TheWrap. “I eagerly await joining Media Matters’ boycott of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3.'”

“What James Gunn said is worse than anything Tucker Carlson or anyone else has said. The left doesn’t care and isn’t sincere,” Cernovich tweeted Friday.

As TheWrap previously reported in July 2018, Disney cut ties with Gunn after Cernovich and others uncovered numerous old tweets from the director talking about rape and pedophilia.

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Reps for Media Matters directed TheWrap to their past reporting on Cernovich’s past remarks. 

The quote from Cernovich is a reference to the liberal watchdog group’s long history of targeting Fox News stars for advertiser boycotts over their on-air remarks and the group’s recent efforts dredging up past embarrassing statements from primetime host Tucker Carlson.

“The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,” Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios,said in a statement at the time.

Gunn himself also apologized for the remarks, saying in a statement of his own that he had been joking.

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“Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor,” Gunn wrote in a series of tweets. “In the past, I have apologized for humor of mine that hurt people. I truly felt sorry and meant every word of my apologies.”

The tweets from Gunn came mostly from a period between 2008 and 2011.

“Expendables is so manly I f–ed the s–t out of the p—y boy next to me,” he wrote in one.

“The best thing about being raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like ‘whew this feels great, not being raped!'” he wrote in another.

There were many more which have since been deleted.

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From the moment they originally dropped Gunn, Disney faced pressure from Hollywood stars — including from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise — to reverse the decision.

Dave Bautista, who stars as Drax in the “Guardians” films, decried the decision saying on Twitter that it was “pretty nauseating” being employed for Disney after it bowed to “a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis.”

“It’s a bitter-sweet conversation — um, no it’s a bitter-bitter conversation because I’m not really happy with what they’ve done with James Gunn,” Bautista said on “The Jonathan Ross Show” in August, 2018. “They’re putting the movie off. It’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you I don’t know if I want to work for Disney.”

Bautista did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

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New York City mayor Bill de Blasio strongly suggested on Friday that Amazon boss Jeff Bezos pulled out of his plans to build a second corporate headquarters in the Big Apple because of fallout stemming from his relationship with news anchor Lauren Sanchez.

“I think we could all say that unusual things were happening within the Amazon family at that moment in time — and that was said politely,” de Blasio said on “Morning Joe” Friday. “There were clearly some unusual factors happening. We know who the ultimate decision maker is. I only am saying it was an unusual environment.”

On set, several regular guests immediately pounced, demanding to know if the mayor was specifically referring to the Bezos affair with Sanchez. “You think his affair had something to do with that?” Donny Deutsch asked.

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“You floated something out that we have to pin you down on,” co-host Willie Geist added moments later. “You believe Jeff Bezos affair is somehow …”

“I didn’t say that. I said an unusual environment,” de Blasio continued.  “A lot of cross-pressures, a lot of things going on.”

“Like what?” Geist demanded.

The mayor declined to elaborate on those “cross-pressures” and instead punted to the show saying it was their responsibility to uncover the truth. Geist kept pressing over what de Blasio meant — to some laugher on set — but the mayor demurred.

Reps for de Blasio’s office and Amazon declined to comment further on the matter.

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While the Amazon deal was announced with great, fanfare in November 2018, the company abruptly pulled the plug on the plan after rising opposition from liberal and Democratic Socialist lawmakers in the city.

Though the Amazon deal had faced broad support across all demographics of New Yorkers, critics attacked the billions of dollars in tax abatements the company was offered as an incentive. Others worried about rising costs of living and gentrification issues which also would have accompanied the retailer’s planned move to Long Island City.

Though de Blasio called the Amazon pullout “unquestionably” a big loss for New York City, it was celebrated by a new rising star in his party — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world,” she tweeted after the company announced the pullout in February.

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In several tweets — issued as bodies were still being counted — Owens jeered at critics whom she said were attempting to pin responsibility for the massacre on her.

“LOL! ???? FACT: I’ve never created any content espousing my views on the 2nd Amendment or Islam,” Owens said in response to one now deleted tweet. “The Left pretending I inspired a mosque massacre in…New Zealand because I believe black America can do it without government hand outs is the reachiest reach of all reaches!! LOL!”

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“HAHA OMG you racist Leftists are taking your racism and crazy to a whole new level hahah. Black people don’t have to be Democrats” now means…mosque shootings in New Zealand?” she continued. “This clearly won’t stick but damn if I won’t grow #BLEXIT highlighting your sheer desperation. ????????”

The suspect in Friday’s mass shooting, who identified himself as 28-year-old Australian-born Brenton Tarrant, filmed the attack on social media and was taken into custody, according to the U.K.’s Telegraph.

In an online manifesto, Tarrant wrote, “The person who has influenced me above all was Candace Owens” — but Gawker co-founder Elizabeth Spiers noted many “sarcastic” passages in the document and suggested that Owens’ mention may have been “trolling.”

Still, commenters found Owens’ uses of  LOL and HAHA and laughing emojis inappropriate. “Lol is never the right response to a mass shooting,” said Bulwark contributor Molly Jong-Fast.

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“I try not to give oxygen to far-right provocateurs — the milos, katie hopkins, faith goldys — you know, the entire, interchangeable units of the hate industry — but when someone’s response to a mass killing start with “LOL” and “HAHA”, the inhumanity forces your attention #christchurch,” added Los Angeles Review of Books contributor Idrees Ahmad.

Others took exception to her tweeted assertion that she had “never created any content espousing my views on the 2nd Amendment or Islam” and resurfaced past comments that suggested otherwise.

“Please remind [London mayor] @SadiqKhan that according to the birth rate, Europe will fall and become a Muslim majority continent by 2050,” Owens said in one tweet. “There has never been a muslim majority country where sharia law was not implemented. When we’re forced to save you guys (again) we’ll forgive the balloon.”

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Owens has had a meteoric career after being singled out for praise by singer Kanye West.

In regular speaking engagements and rallies she has championed the “Blexit” movement aimed at winning over black voters to the Republican Party. She received a rapturous reception at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Committee and was praised by President Trump himself.

Owens issued a more formal statement in response the shooting overall on Friday.

“What happened last night in Christchurch, New Zealand is a tragedy and I echo the sentiment of all Americans, in wishing love and healing for all those impacted,” she said. “That said, any insinuation that black conservatism in the United States has somehow inspired radical Islamophobic white supremacy terror overseas is pointedly absurd. People on both sides of the political aisle–especially the victims–deserve a more honest conversation.”

“Lol” is never the right response to a mass shooting.

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 15, 2019

I try not to give oxygen to far-right provocateurs—the milos, katie hopkins, faith goldys—you know, the entire, interchangeable units of the hate industry—but when someone's response to a mass killing start with "LOL" and "HAHA", the inhumanity forces your attention #christchurch pic.twitter.com/jNWNehCpQV

— Idrees Ahmad (@im_PULSE) March 15, 2019

The mention of Candace Owens in the manifesto might have been trolling (and we don't know) but her assertion that she's never written anything Islamophobic is a lie. https://t.co/8Wg6vvjKsg

— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) March 15, 2019

Candace Owens had a really bad night.

Not sure LOLing, HAHAing and threatening lawsuits was the appropriate response, but hey that’s just me. #Christchurch

— andy lassner (@andylassner) March 15, 2019

#ChristChurch terrorist is the ONLY person responsible for his muderous actions but @RealCandaceO dismissive, blithe attitude, lack of introspection & seeming lack of remorse for the 40 dead people after a shout out in a terrorist manifesto is utterly disgraceful. #TryApologizing pic.twitter.com/pgEEmFX0eE

— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) March 15, 2019

Christchurch New Zealand Mosque shooter states in his manifesto that he admires Donald Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.” Also included is the influence of Candace Owens and how she's the "person who radicalized [him] the most." pic.twitter.com/LoPTMA4bT8

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) March 15, 2019

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“Effective yesterday, Morris Dees’ employment at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was terminated. As a civil rights organization, the SPLC is committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world. When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action,” SPLC president Richard Cohen said in a statement.

And while the Montgomery, Alabama-based civil rights organization declined to provide specifics as to why Dees was forced out, the statement also said the organization would be bringing in an “outside organization” to evaluate “internal climate and workplace practices.”

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“Today we announced a number of immediate, concrete next steps we’re taking, including bringing in an outside organization to conduct a comprehensive assessment of our internal climate and workplace practices, to ensure that our talented staff is working in the environment that they deserve — one in which all voices are heard and all staff members are respected,” the organization said.

Dees, 82, has been associated with the civil rights nonprofit since he co-founded it in 1971. The group became famous for its prominent battles during the civil rights era against the Ku Klux Klan and White Supremacist organizations.

The group, whose list of hate groups and extremists figures is widely cited by the media, had almost $450 million in net assets at the end of 2017, according to the most recent tax filings.

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The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, founded 15 years ago by conservative journalist turned progressive activist David Brock, has led pressure campaigns and advertiser boycotts against former Fox News stars Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly — as well as ongoing campaigns against Carlson and fellow Fox News primetime hosts Laura Ingraham. Each has lost dozens of sponsors.

But the organization has largely ignored embarrassing past comments made by the likes of civil rights leader turned MSNBC host Al Sharpton or MSNBC anchor Joy Reid, who once ran a blog (unearthed by Mediaite) that included remarks she herself described as “hateful.”

“In the end for progressive activist groups like Media Matters, Fox News is the biggest and most powerful [in cable] and therefore the first and only elephant to bag,” Joe Concha, a media reporter for The Hill, told TheWrap. “It’s why those who part ways with the network are never targeted again. There’s a bigger mission here, and that is to weaken the network by removing its biggest stars.”

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A rep for Media Matters insisted that the group maintains a broad focus. “We don’t only watchdog Fox News. We put research resources and work into way more than Fox,” the individual said, without offering specifics. “There are other ways to push for change and accountability other than advertiser efforts.”

Though its mission statement on its website makes clear that its focus is on monitoring media “for conservative misinformation,” Media Matters has largely bypassed other increasingly ascendant players in right-wing media, including local news giant Sinclair and David Pecker’s American Media — producing few articles and launching no boycotts against other outlets’ prominent personalities and sponsors.

“Sinclair just isn’t important. You can find Sinclair if you are a hardcore boomer con passing around memes on Facebook but Fox is a brand,” said media critic Stephen L. Miller, a former Fox News contributor who is no relation to the White House official of the same name. “You can turn Fox on and watch it and everyone knows it. They have higher ratings than MSNBC and certainly higher than any show on CNN, which is what this is actually about.”

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Indeed, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone dismissed critics of MSNBC’s Joy Reid, calling attacks on the host “bulls—” and “right-wing chicanery” and said outrage over her past derogatory remarks about LGBT people was “not based on a pattern of behavior but on a random thing plucked from time and space.”

Carusone also shot down criticism of his own past comments after the Carlson-founded Daily Caller resurfaced 2005 blog posts in which he referred to “trannies” and “Jewish gold.” “That entire exercise on our website was a satirical parody of a right-wing blow hard,” Carusone told TheWrap. “I did it for two months and I stopped. It was a parody.”

For many media critics, Media Matters’ selective outrage over Fox News is a blind spot that reduces its overall credibility.

“It’s pretty simple: Media Matters is on record declaring the Joy Reid story wasn’t worth exploring at all because it didn’t reach its standards. The standard, of course, being that Reid works for MSNBC and is one of the network’s most beloved hosts.” Concha said. “To cover Reid would mean alienating its readers and defying its mission, and that just wasn’t going to happen.”

Radio host and The Federalist contributor Jesse Kelly added, “Media Matters gave Joy Reid a pass because she’s a lefty and Media Matters is only interested in the destruction and silencing of people on the right.”

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Media Matters’ targeting of Fox News isn’t new. In a 2011 interview with Politico that noted that Media Matters had “all but abandoned its monitoring of newspapers and other television networks,” the group’s then-president Brock declared “war on Fox” and promised a campaign of “guerilla warfare and sabotage.”

The organization only began reporting on Carlson since he joined Fox News a decade ago. He actually worked for MSNBC from 2005 to 2008 — a period when Carlson made many of his most inflammatory comments on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show. Media Matters did not surface the comments at the time and MSNBC is not known to have taken any disciplinary action against him. Reps for the network declined to comment for this story.

While Media Matters has not said that it wants to see Carlson removed from the air, the organization has pressured current and prospective advertisers to avoid the network. “It would be unfair of us to know all that we know about Fox News and its volatility and not share that when it would matter most to those brands,” Carusone told TheWrap.

On Wednesday, the channel held an event for prospective media buyers to win over new advertisers for the network’s less partisan news programming. Carusone told TheWrap the group’s releases of past Tucker comments were not intended to overshadow the gathering, but his organization staged a protest outside the network’s headquarters in New York City on the same day.

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In a statement, Fox News said the advertiser showcase went swimmingly. “Today more than 100 advertisers attended Fox News Channel’s first ever upfront presentation which showcased our best in class journalism and opinion programming,” Marianne Gambelli, Fox News president for advertising sales, told TheWrap. “We were extremely proud to open our doors and introduce the media buying community to our America’s Watching campaign, incredible team of talent and new state of the art studios.”

So far, the channel has vowed to stand behind Carlson, a point he proudly stated in his opening monologue on Monday.

“Fox News is behind us, as they have been since the very first day. Toughness is a rare quality at a TV network, and we are grateful for that,” Carlson said. “We will never bow to the mob, ever, no matter what.” In recent months, the network has issued several statements of support for him and Ingraham — who is also facing a protracted advertiser boycott over remarks she made last year about Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg.

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Samantha Bee offered her two cents on the Tucker Carlson imbroglio currently engulfing Fox News on Wednesday, saying that the host’s old disparaging remarks towards women and Iraqis is probably what got him his job at the network.

“That is vile and disgusting and presumably the audition tape that got him a job interview at Fox,” Bee said during the monologue of her TBS show “Full Frontal. “Tucker Carlson publicly advocated a genocide while promoting his MSNBC show?”

On set, Bee played several of the most damaging moments from the Carlson audio released by Media Matters this week.

“I love women, but they’re extremely primitive. They’re basic,” Carlson said in one moment during his collected appearances on Florida shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge’s radio show.

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“If there were a Democrat to come out in the 2008 election and say, ‘you know what the problem is, it’s these lunatic Muslims who are behaving like animals and I am going to kill as many of them as I can if you’d elect me.’ I’d vote for you if you said that,” he added, during another moment on the show.

He also said Iraq was a place filled with “semi-literate primitive monkeys.”

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Bee has a personal bone to pick with Carlson. In May 2018, the host attacked her on air after the comedian called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c–.” Carlson said he was stunned by Bee’s use of the term and said it just wasn’t a word that should be in anyone’s vocabulary.

“That one word that [Bee] used. I don’t know any man who uses that word because it is kind of the one word that is actually degrading,” Carlson told radio host Tammy Bruce on his own show. “It’s the thing that feminists are always telling us. That word really is.”

Among the many things Carlson was quoted saying on Bubba’s show was a pointed jab at television host Alexis Stewart, who he called “c–ty.”

Bee later apologized for using the word  toward Ivanka. Tucker, however, has remained defiant. In a statement Sunday, he refused to concede wrongdoing and said anyone aggrieved should come on his show. Fox News has stood resolutely behind him throughout.

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Tucker Carlson spent a third day attacking left wing critics and Media Matters for America on Wednesday evening, this time zeroing in on newly resurfaced blog posts from the organization’s president Angelo Carusone.

“Carusone is himself an enthusiastic bigot,” Carlson said on his Fox News primetime show. “We know this for sure because he has written about it extensively. It turns out for years Carusone maintained a racist blog.”

The Fox News host then read a number of excerpts from Cauronse’s blog from more than a decade ago. In one post called “tranny paradise,” Carusone mocked a Bangladeshi man who had been assaulted in Thailand by a group of male prostitutes. In another, he attempted to explain his longtime boyfriend’s conservative leanings by noting his “possession of several bags of Jewish gold.”

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“Jewish gold,” Carlson said. “According to Angelo Carusone, Jewish gold is a problem. Media Matters probably ought to issue a press release about this. They’ve done a lot more for a lot less.”

The story on Carusone’s blog was reported on Wednesday in the Daily Caller — a paper co-founder by Carlson in 2010.

Carusone addressed the issue during an appearance at a Media Matters sponsored protest outside of Fox News on Wednesday.

“That entire exercise on our website was a satirical parody of a right wing blow hard,” Carusone told TheWrap. “The entire thing was a caricature of what a right wing blow hard would sound like if he was living my life. It wasn’t a very good effort. I did it for two months and I stopped. It was a parody.”

“Tucker Carlson and Fox News should be grateful that Media Matters is as fair as we are because there’s a ton of stuff that we didn’t publish,” Carusone added.

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On Sunday and Monday, the non-profit liberal watchdog group dropped multiple recordings of Carlson making embarrassing remarks on the radio show of Florida shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge. Among the most notable were calling television host Alexis Stewart “c–ty,” saying Iraqis were “primitive semi-literate monkeys,” and various other disparaging remarks toward women in general.

The drop was explicitly designed to put pressure on Carlson’s current and prospective advertisers and to continue an exodus which has seen dozens of sponsors leave the program in recent months. In a statement on Sunday, the host conceded to “naughty” language but refused to apologize, saying he was happy to have anyone who was aggrieved by what he thought on his show.

In a monologue Monday, he added that his network stood resolutely behind him.

“Fox News is behind us, as they have been since the very first day. Toughness is a rare quality at a TV network, and we are grateful for that,” Carlson said. “We will never bow to the mob, ever, no matter what.”

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The news raced around Twitter on Wednesday — with some even saying the change might have been inspired by Kanye West — before an update to the bottom of the piece from reporter Chiara Sottile revealed that the news organization was walking back the story’s central claim.

“An earlier version of this article misstated the changes that Twitter is testing in a prototype app. Twitter is testing putting engagement counts on replies behind a user tap, not removing the engagement counts for tweets,” it read.

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The original language of the report that read, “The prototype also removes the engagement counts showing the number of retweets or ‘likes’ a tweet receives” was changed to read “The prototype also moves the engagement counts for replies behind a tap.”

Reps for NBC News declined TheWrap’s request for comment on this story. Reps for Twitter referred TheWrap to an online statement.

“Yesterday, we started giving people access to our prototype app twttr which we’re using to test new ideas and get feedback. Putting likes and retweets behind a tap is just an idea to help make conversations easier to read,” the company said. “The features in Twitter and twttr will be different. twttr is the place where we’ll experiment with explorations and ideas (like a new look for conversations) that may or may not come to Twitter.”

Other elements of the article remained unchanged Wednesday, including reporting that the social network was considering “new features to enhance pictures and video on the app in an effort to encourage users to make more use of the cameras on their smartphones” and is testing them for the new app.

“We’ve really intentionally tried to make the images and footage that are captured on the ground at an event look different than other images and videos that you might attach to a tweet,” Keith Coleman, Twitter’s head of consumer product, told NBC.

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“In an e-mail from January 5 of 2016, Hillary staff discussed working with Media Matters to counter a Vanity Fair piece on Huma Abedin, quote, ‘We have Media Matters and core surrogates lined up which we can expand on tomorrow,'” Carlson said. “This isn’t just unethical, it is illegal.”

“Under IRS Regulations 501 (c) (3), nonprofits are totally prohibited from participating in campaigns of political candidates. Media Matters broke the law. The group has never been punished for this, though it is widely known,” Carlson continued. “Media Matters retains its tax exempt status. That means that you and every other taxpayer is subsidizing attacks on our own First Amendment. Why is this? How can this be happening? Maybe someone should call the IRS tomorrow morning and find out.”

Reps for Media Matters and the IRS did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

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Carlson and Fox News have been on a warpath ever since the liberal watchdog group posted excerpts from multiple radio interviews Carlson gave between 2006 and 2011 in which he made disparaging remarks towards women and called Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys.”

“Media Matters is a George Soros-funded lobbying organization whose sole mission is to punish critics of the Democratic Party,” Carlson derided. “Media Matters often uses propaganda from the Southern Poverty Law Center to bully corporations, news executives, and tech companies into punishing people it doesn’t like. Not surprisingly, the media love Media Matters.”

In the segment, the Fox News also went after mainstream media journalists who have worked with the organization, citing the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent and BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith by name as people willing to do Media Matters bidding.

Reps for Sargent and Smith did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap. Carlson also repeated his past attacks on CNN senior media reporter Brian Stelter, again calling him a eunuch. CNN has repeatedly declined to respond to the insult.

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Since Media Matters dropped audio from Carlson’s frequent appearances on the radio show of Florida shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge, the host and his network have faced renewed outrage and calls for him to be terminated. At least two advertisers have dropped his show since the Media Matters drop.

In a statement Sunday, Carlson refused to apologize for the “naughty” language, saying anyone upset was welcome to come on his show and have it out with him.

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” Carlson said. “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour,” Carlson continued. “If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

On Monday, Carlson doubled down on air, informing viewers that he would never “bow” to online outrage mobs and said Fox News stood resolutely behind him.

“Fox News is behind us, as they have been since the very first day. Toughness is a rare quality at a TV network, and we are grateful for that,” Carlson said. “We will never bow to the mob, ever, no matter what.”

The network confirmed Tuesday evening that Carlson was expected to remain on air for the rest of the week.

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As reported by the Washington Post and many others at the time, the storm got going in 2003 when Carlson worked for CNN as co-host of the network’s debating show “Crossfire.” In a playful segment about telemarketers, a viewer asked Carlson if he would give out his own phone number on air. The host obliged — but the number he then recited turned out not to be his, but was instead that of the Fox News Washington bureau.

The network promptly retaliated by posting Carlson’s own phone number to their website. The move (which today would commonly be known as doxxing) resulted in a storm of harassing calls to Carlson’s wife and family. Fox News subsequently ignored Carlson’s demand to remove the number and said they would only do so if the host apologized on air for his error, which he later did.

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“They’re a mean, sick group of people,” Carlson told the Post at the time. “Don’t harass my wife and kids. Even the Mafia doesn’t do that.” The Washington Post reporter who wrote the story, Howard Kurtz, now also works for Fox News as host of the show’s media-news program “Media Buzz.”

“CNN threw the first punch here. Correcting this mistake was good journalism,” a Fox News spokeswoman said at the time.

And while Carlson routinely inveighs against CNN to millions of people every night from Fox News primetime and disparages their senior media reporter, Brian Stelter, as a “eunuch,” he had nothing but praise for the network when he was there and publicly doubted he would ever work at Fox News.

“It’s hard to imagine,” Carlson told Salon in 2003 after being asked by the website if he might ever consider jumping ship to Fox. “If you’re in Peshawar, they’re not watching Fox News Channel, they’re watching CNN. I know it sounds trite, but I love the fact that CNN is engaged with the world. CNN USA, our domestic network, doesn’t carry a lot of foreign news. But it’s a great organization.”

In the same interview Carlson also broadly attacked Fox News and their use of “straw men” to promote right wing ideas.

Well, what I think the problem is in general and, not just with Fox, but the genre, is that it encourages you to use a straw man. So for example you see hosts bring on, “This is Jeffrey Mohammed X, and he’s the president of the Association to Kill White Motherfuckers,” and he’ll be presented as a spokesman for black America. And then the host will say, “Well, how can you support lynching white people? That’s just wrong!”

Carlson went on to leave Crossfire in 2005 (shortly after a very memorable on-air confrontation with then-“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart). Before joining Fox News he spent 2005-2008 at MSNBC where he frequently faced off against a young Rachel Maddow. He joined Fox News as a contributor in 2009 and became a full time host in 2016, replacing Bill O’Reilly and largely holding on to his predecessor’s longtime primetime ratings dominance.

Reps for Fox News declined to comment.

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“In short, the false and defamatory gist of CNN’s collective reporting conveyed to its viewers and readers that Nicholas was the face of an unruly hate mob of hundreds of white racist high school students who physically assaulted, harassed, and taunted two different minority groups engaged in peaceful demonstrations, preaching, song, and prayer,” according to the suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Kentucky.

“The CNN accusations are totally and unequivocally false and CNN would have known them to be untrue had it undertaken any reasonable efforts to verify their accuracy before publication of its false and defamatory accusations,” the suit added, citing four TV broadcasts and nine online articles it considers defamatory.

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Sandmann seeks $75 million in compensatory damages for “the reputational harm, emotional distress, and mental anguish caused by CNN’s false attacks” as well as $200 million in punitive damages.

“Contrary to its ‘Facts First’ public relations ploy, CNN ignored the facts and put its anti-Trump agenda first in waging a 7-day media campaign of false, vicious attacks against Nicholas, a young boy who was guilty of little more than wearing a souvenir Make America Great Again cap while on a high school field trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,” the suit reads.

Reps for CNN did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

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Last month, Sandmann filed a similar suit against the Washington Post, seeking $250 million. After the filing of that suit, the Post said in a statement provided to TheWrap, “We are reviewing a copy of the lawsuit and we plan to mount a vigorous defense.”

A video posted on social media Jan. 19 depicted an edited version of events that occurred the day before. It shows several students and Nathan Phillips, and some viewers believed the teens were mocking Phillips.

The clip sparked widespread outrage and condemnation, but Sandmann denied any racist intent, and told the Associated Press he was trying to de-escalate the situation.

A longer video of the incident posted Jan. 21 showed that Phillips and his group had first initiated the encounter with the Covington students and that the students had earlier been subjected to harassment from a different organization. Several media figures subsequently disavowed their initial statements about the incident.

Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.

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Tucker Carlson doubled-down Monday night against his critics who reacted to a compilation of decade-old radio interviews published by Media Matters for America in which the host made various disparaging comments toward women.

In a monologue on Monday’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the conservative commentator said he would never “bow to the mob,” adding that Fox News stands behind him.

“Fox News is behind us, as they have been since the very first day. Toughness is a rare quality at a TV network, and we are grateful for that,” Carlson said. “We will never bow to the mob, ever, no matter what.”

Carlson added that he would never be pressured into apologizing but would only due so if he genuinely believed himself in the wrong.

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On Sunday and into Monday, Carlson faced a cascade of outrage on Twitter over remarks he made between 2006 and 2011 to the Florida radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge. On set Monday evening, Carlson said the remarks had been said in jest or taken out of context.

In a statement issued late Sunday evening, Carlson did concede the language had been “naughty,” but said anyone upset was welcome to appear on his show to air their grievances.

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” Carlson said “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

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The host is currently facing a boycott of more than two dozen advertisers, a group that was joined by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on Monday.

Carlson’s monologue stating that his network supported him aligns with multiple past statements the Fox News has issued in defense of him and fellow embattled host Laura Ingraham.

In a statement to TheWrap Monday morning, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said that more Carlson recordings were coming.

“The other material is similarly vile,” Carusone said. “The next one will help give some additional insight into Tucker’s worldview vis-a-vis race and ethnicity.”

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In a statement, the company said that the move was part of a necessary “restructuring,” and would take directly impact audience development/circulation, copy, fact, production, and video.

“In some cases, the changes we are making reflect a need for new focus as we build out our digital subscription business; in others, they reflect an overdue integration of print and digital staffs,” New York Media said in its statement.

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“In no case are they a judgment on the quality of the work produced by our colleagues who are leaving, and we thank them sincerely for their contributions here,” the company added. “The restructuring reflects tough decisions made by our CEO and management team over the past several months, in order to focus our efforts where we see the most opportunity for future growth.”

The news was first revealed to employees in a memo from CEO Pam Wasserstein, which reiterated many of the themes shared in the company’s statement.

In January, longtime New York Magazine editor-in-chief Adam Moss stepped down. Moss, who built the company from a single print publication into specialized verticals that include Vulture, The Cut, Grub Street, and Intelligencer, was replaced by David Haskell, an editor at New York Magazine since 2007.

The company was also criticized after Erik Abriss, a freelancer for Vulture publicly wished for the death of the Covington Catholic high school students and their families. The company repeatedly declined to comment at the time whether they would continue to publish his work on the site.

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“Thank you, @FoxNews,” Omar tweeted. “No one’s commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth.”

Pirro suggested on her show Saturday night that the Minnesota congresswoman’s Muslim faith might make her less loyal to the United States.

Also Read: Fox News 'Strongly Condemns' Jeanine Pirro for Remarks on Rep. Ilhan Omar's Muslim Faith

“This is not who your party is. Your party is not anti-Israel, she is. Think about this. She is not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat Party,” Pirro said. “So if it’s not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from? Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran, 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t get molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?”

Pirro’s statement was heavily criticized, even coming by some within Fox News, like contributor Guy Benson and Hufsa Kamal, a Muslim producer for “Special Report With Bret Baier.”

“@JudgeJeanine can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab aren’t American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself,” Kamal said in a tweet.

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Fox News condemned Pirro’s remarks in a statement and promised that Pirro had been spoken with.

“We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly,” a network rep said. The rep did not respond to requests to elaborate on how the matter was addressed or whether any disciplinary action will be taken.

Pirro released her own statement where she declined to apologize, and instead offered Omar the opportunity to appear on air.

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“I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution,” she said. “I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.”

Omar had been under fire just days ago after she made remarks that questioned the “allegiance” of Israel supporters in the United States, which was called anti-semitic by a broad spectrum of figures including former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Omar has not addressed the issue publicly.

Reps for Fox News did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

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“The other material is similarly vile,” company chief Angelo Carusone told TheWrap on Monday. “The next one will help give some additional insight into Tucker’s worldview vis-a-vis race and ethnicity.”

“[We] certainly want to make sure they are released when they can be most helpful to the media buying decision makers,” Carusone added, alluding to his company’s long history of organizing pressure campaigns against Fox News advertisers.

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“We’re entering a critical time of year: upfronts. This is when most of the ads for next year will be sold,” Carusone said. “Brand safety and dependability is a big factor this year. Advertisers have grown increasingly frustrated with the steady stream of Fox controversies. Many of them were predictable if the media buyers had better information.”

The new Tucker audio may come as early as Monday or Tuesday.

A rep for Fox News did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

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On Sunday, the liberal watchdog group dropped a compilation of years’ worth of audio from Carlson that documented his regular appearances on the the radio show of Florida shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge between 2006 and 2011. In the recording, Carlson made several disparaging remarks toward women including calling television host Alexis Stewart “c–ty.”

Carlson pointedly refused to apologize on Sunday evening, telling critics they were welcome to come on his show and take issue with him directly.

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” Carlson said. “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

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“Carson and Cronkite are long gone, but Alex Trebek remains, the last of the old-school broadcasters who once visited us every night as a matter of ritual,” Jennings wrote. “He takes it seriously, being the face of ‘Jeopardy!’ the voice of facts in a post-fact world … He knows how much he means to people.”

“In person, he’s decidedly not the stern, judicial presence you might expect,” Jennings continued. “When the cameras stop rolling, Alex is a looser, even goofy presence. He takes studio audience questions at every break, sometimes slipping into funny accents or even bits of soft-shoe.”

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Last week, 78-year-0ld Trebek stunned the world by announcing he was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Trebek, who has hosted the show for 35 years, said he planned to keep working through his illness and even joked about how he had to beat the odds because of contract requirements.

“Normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging but I’m going to fight this,” the host said. “I’m going to keep working and with the love and support of my family and friends — and with the help of your prayers, also — I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.”

Jennings became a minor celebrity after winning 74 “Jeopardy!” games in a row in 2004. It remains by far the longest winning streak for any champion in the show’s history and the run netted him more than 3 million in winnings.

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“We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly,” a network rep said. The rep did not respond to requests to elaborate on how the matter was addressed or whether any disciplinary action will be taken.

Pirro also released her own statement in which she offered no apology, but did clarify her intentions.

“I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution,” she said. “I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.”

Also Read: Tucker Carlson Called Out Samantha Bee for Saying 'Actually Degrading' Word 'C-t' That He Also Used on Air

The duel statements capped more than 24 hours of growing outrage over a moment from Pirro’s Saturday evening Fox News program in which she laced into Omar over remarks the freshman Congresswoman has made attacking Israel and which many have derided as anti-semitic.

“This is not who your party is. Your party is not anti-Israel, she is. Think about this. She is not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat Party,” Pirro said Saturday. “So if it’s not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from? Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran, 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t get molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?”

The comment sparked a bipartisan cascade of outrage, with even Fox News personalities like contributor Guy Benson calling out Pirro. Hufsa Kamal, who works as producer for the network’s “Special Report With Bret Baier,” tweeted out her criticism and tagged the judge to make sure she would see it.

Also Read: Tucker Carlson Refuses to Apologize for 'Naughty' Past Comments About Statutory Rape, 'C-ty' Women

“@JudgeJeanine can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab aren’t American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself,” she said. 

Pirro is a longtime friend of President Trump and the billionaire is known to watch the show regularly.

Her remarks were one of two major headaches for the channel on Sunday. Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson was forced to explain years of past remarks he made in on-air appearances on an old Florida radio show, including one in which he called host Alexis Stewart “c–ty.”

In a statement, he too declined to apologize and also invited critics, including the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters for America, to face him on-air.

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago.” Carlson said, though some of the resurfaced comments occurred as recently as 2011. “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

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Tucker Carlson, who refused to apologize on Sunday evening after old audio clips surfaced of the Fox News host making disparaging remarks about women and calling TV and radio personality Alexis Stewart “c–ty,” had a very different reaction to comedian Samantha Bee’s use of that word to describe first daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump.

During a May 31, 2018 airing of his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” program, Carlson called the word “actually degrading” and said he didn’t know of any man who would use such language. Carlson made the remarks during a monologue calling out Bee called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c—” on air on her weekly TBS show “Full Frontal.”

“That one word that [Bee] used. I don’t know any man who uses that word because it is kind of the one word that is actually degrading,” Carlson told radio host Tammy Bruce on his own show. “It’s the thing that feminists are always telling us. That word really is.”

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“It reduces us to a vile terminology, to a part of our body and to the ultimate debasement of who we are as women,” Bruce added. “This transcends politics and party and everything else. This is about a loathing and hate. They have no ideas.”

Bruce also slammed the broader “misogyny” which she said “lives on the left” and attacked women such as actress Sally Field for coming to Bee’s defense.

But during call-in radio segments on “Bubba the Love Sponge Show” between 2006 and 2011 unearthed by the liberal watchdog group Media Matter for America, Carlson made a series of degrading comments about statutory rape and women such as Martha Stewart’s daughter, Alexis.

“She seems extremely c–ty,” Carlson told Bubba about Alexis Stewart on air in 2006. “She just does seem a little c–ty.”

Also Read: Tucker Carlson Refuses to Apologize for 'Naughty' Past Comments About Statutory Rape, 'C-ty' Women

After saying that he heard Bubba producer Brent Hatley interview Alexis Stewart, Carlson added, “I heard her on with him and I just wanted to give her the spanking she so desperately needs. … She seems so high-maintenance, she seems like the kind of person you marry and then just the rest of your life is like hell.”

On Sunday evening, Carlson released a statement in which he conceded to using “naughty” language during past radio appearances but declined to apologize and said that anyone who was truly aggrieved by any of his positions was welcome to come on set.

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” Carlson said, sidestepping the fact that some of the highlighted comments occurred as recently as 2011. “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

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The audio, which Media Matters released Sunday evening, was taken during a period between 2006 and 2011 and documents Carlson’s long history of calling into the Florida radio show of shock jock Bubba The Love Sponge.

Media Matters has a long history of targeting Fox News hosts and personalities with damaging releases like the Carlson tapes and in the past has also led advertiser boycotts against the channel. In recent months Carlson has lost more than two dozen sponsors after he accused illegal immigrants of making the United States a “poorer” and “dirtier” country.

In multiple past statements, Fox News has vowed to continued to stand behind the embattled host.

Media Matters chief Angelo Carusone had no comment on any new boycott plans against Carlson or Fox News. A rep for Fox News had no comment beyond Carlson’s earlier statement.

Watch the video of Carlson’s old segment on Samantha Bee above.

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“It’s been a great vacation but I am back on twitter! And news: I will go to CNN as a Political Analyst instead. Will start next month on air and on line. See y’all soon!,” Flores said in a tweet — her first since October 2018.

A rep for CNN confirmed the role change and said Flores had proposed the change. The network added that it looked forward to Flores coming on in her new position.

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“We can confirm that when Sarah came to us and proposed her role be adjusted to a political analyst instead, we agreed and we look forward to her starting in that role,” a CNN rep said.

After Politico broke the news of CNN’s decision to hire her, Flores and the network faced immediate backlash — including from many within CNN. She was originally slated to coordinate television and digital political coverage for the 2020 presidential cycle.

CNN tried to stem criticism by promising that Flores would have no role in its coverage of the justice department. After pressure from the DNC, Flores was also removed from 2020 debate coverage before ultimately being taken off all 2020 coverage.

Flores has a long history in Republican politics, including previous stints with Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz, as well as serving as deputy campaign manager for ex-HP boss Carly Fiorina during her 2016 presidential campaign.

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“Bill Shine offered his resignation to the President yesterday evening, and the President accepted. Bill continues to support President Trump and his agenda and will serve as Senior Advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign,” Sanders said.

Shine, who previously served as co-president of Fox News after the departure of Roger Ailes, will take a new position as a senior advisor with the Trump 2020 reelection campaign.

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“Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life. To be a small part of all this President has done for the American people has truly been an honor,” Shine said a press release announcing his departure. “I’m looking forward to working on President Trump’s reelection campaign and spending more time with my family.”

A longtime Fox News hand, Shine was elevated to share the top job with Jack Abernethy in August, 2016 after multiple allegations of sexual harassment were made against longtime chief Roger Ailes.

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As an Ailes ally, however, Shine found himself named in multiple lawsuits against the channel and was ultimately pushed out himself in May of 2017. He was hired by Trump to replace Hope Hicks as White House Communications director in July of 2018. (Hicks, ultimately took a plum job as Fox’s chief communications officer and a top aide to Lachlan Murdoch.) Critics then and now blasted both career moves as further proof of the closeness of the Trump White House and Fox leadership.

The Shine departure once again leaves open the troubled position of White House Communications Director. President Trump has cycled through five comms chiefs since taking office.

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Gayle King fired back at Jesse Watters on Thursday after the Fox News host publicly mistook her for “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts on air during a broadcast of “The Five”

“I couldn’t believe this,” King told Stephen Colbert laughing about the incident on “The Late Show” Thursday. “So many people started sending this to me because I normally don’t watch Fox News.”

King said after watching Dana Perino correct her colleague on air, she sent a thank you email to her — which also included a pointed suggestion.

Also Read: Fox News' Jesse Watters Apologizes to Gayle King After Confusing Her With Robin Roberts

“I just wanted to thank you for letting your colleague know that Robin Roberts and I — It was a great compliment — but thank you for letting him know that we are two different people.” King said recalling the email. “And could you let the rest of your colleagues know that all black people do not look alike. Can you please just share that.”

Reps for King at CBS appeared to ignore the original flub and did not respond to requests for comment from TheWrap about the incident on Thursday. Reps for Roberts at ABC also declined to comment at the time.

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The original gaffe from Watters happened during a Wednesday airing of “The Five,” of which he is a co-host. In the segment he had originally tried to compliment King.

“Hats off to Gayle King for totally redeeming herself after the [Jussie] Smollett fiasco,” Watters said.

“That was not Gayle King,” fellow co-host Dana Perino corrected. “Robin Roberts did the Smollett interview.”

When another host, analyst Juan Williams, attempted to just go through the whole moment, Watters broke in to apologize.

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“Sorry for Robin Roberts out there,” he said “I apologize.”

Still later in the program, Watters held up a small white board apologizing again to the two anchors. “I’m sorry Gayle + Robin.”

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Tucker Carlson came out swinging at the top of his show Thursday evening with the Fox News host blasting Democrats for their decision to not offer his network a 2020 presidential primary debate. He also took aim at CNN’s Brian Stelter and Ana Navarro, and accused the mainstream media of allowing a political party to dictate news coverage.

“‘They criticize Nancy Pelosi,’ screams the eunuch. ‘That’s not allowed. They must be excluded,'” Carlson said in a mocking tone moments after playing footage of Stelter justifying the DNC decision by citing Fox’s relentlessly critical coverage of Democrats. “Needless to say ubiquitous windbag Ana Navarro agrees with that,” Carlson continued, before playing footage of her.

Carlson went further still, suggesting that Stelter’s on-air position represented the true feelings of CNN boss Jeff Zucker and that he was using Stelter as a way to launder his personal opinions.

“Tom Perez is arguing that a political party should decide who gets to cover the news. Amazingly CNN and MSNBC agree with him,” Carlson said “Jeff Zucker issued a public statement saying so. Zucker didn’t do it in his own voice of course, he prefers to lurk behind the curtain. Instead Zucker dispatched his creepy little spokesman to deliver the party line.”

Carlson went on to defend his own network’s dedication to free speech.

“You may dislike Fox News, but there is no question about this channel’s commitment to free speech. We defend speech, even when it’s unpopular, even when the person speaking has attacked us personally,” he said. “Free expression is bigger than any one person or organization. It’s the very heart of this country.”

“We really believe that. CNN and MSNBC do not believe that,” Carlson added.

A CNN spokesperson declined to comment. Stelter himself addressed the issue on Twitter with an eye-roll.

“Misplaced priorities: Instead of leading his hour with, let’s say, Paul Manafort’s sentencing, Tucker led with… me,” he said. In his Thursday evening newsletter, Stelter said Carlson “misstated what I’ve said about Fox being rejected by the DNC” and linked to past remarks from his Wednesday evening newsletter, which he said reflected his actual position on the issue.

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Right wing author Dinesh D’Souza said President Trump might need to consider sending in the national guard to protect free speech on college campuses — adding that a promised executive order may not be enough to address the issue.

“Let’s remember Berkeley is a state university, it’s fully accountable to the First Amendment and the First Amendment is not less valuable than say the 14th Amendment, which protects civil rights,” D’Souza said during an appearance on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

“So if I were Trump, I would consider — in extreme circumstances — sending in the national guard because sending in force to protect basic constitutional rights is actually an appropriate use of force,” he said.

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D’Souza added that instances of conservatives backing down to campus pressure, like when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pulled out of a 2014 speech at Rutgers University, ultimately only emboldened anti-free speech activists.

Though it invites a thorny slew of state’s rights issues, the president can federalize and take control of a state national guard, George Mason University law professor Tim MacArthur told NPR last year. 

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Past examples have included President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 when he ordered the Arkansas national guard to integrate schools in Little Rock and George H.W. Bush, who sent the California national guard to assist with riot control after the Rodney King verdict. Presidents Obama and Bush Jr. both also employed national guard troops during their presidencies.

D’Souza, a longtime conservative critic, has risen to new prominence with his strong embrace of President Trump, his most recent documentary openly compared the billionaire to Abraham Lincoln. Trump returned the favor by giving D’Souza a full pardon for a 2014 conviction on felony campaign finance violations.

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“Everyone ought to see it for what it is: Not a normal news organization with inevitable screw-ups, flaws and commercial interests, which sometimes fail to serve the public interest,” Sullivan said in a Post column Thursday morning. “But a shameless propaganda outfit, which makes billions of dollars a year as it chips away at the core democratic values we ought to hold dear: truth, accountability and the rule of law.”

“Fox News has become an American plague,” Sullivan added, concluding the piece.

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Sullivan also argued that while the channel did have some upstanding journalists like Chris Wallace and Bret Baier, the broader aim of the network was to serve as a disinformation machine and should not be legitimized as a news organization worthy of hosting a debate.

“For mainstream journalists to suggest that there be no consequences or even recognition is willfully blind — and smacks of an unseemly inside-the-Beltway solidarity,” she continued. “Fox News shouldn’t be treated as an honest broker of political news. It was not censorship as some bizarrely claimed, merely a decision not to enter into a business relationship.”

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Fox News declined to comment on the Sullivan criticism.

The DNC decision to yank Fox from consideration came after a lengthy New Yorker piece broadly summarizing the close ties between the network and the Trump White House.

“Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates,” DNC chief Perez said in a statement. “Therefore, Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”

The decision, however, did come in for a lot of heat online — including from many professional journalists.

“There are plenty of quality journalists at Fox, some of whom have been excellent questioners at past presidential debates. And really, if you can’t answer questions — especially if they’re not the questions you want asked — maybe you don’t have good answers,” NBC News’ Jonathan Allen said in a tweet. 

Politico senior media columnist Jack Shafer also dismissed the decision, in a piece titled “If You’re Afraid of Shep Smith, You Probably Shouldn’t Be President.”

“The party’s avoidance of the network reveals a shameful political gutlessness, especially considering that Fox intended to assign tame newsers Bret Baier and Chris Wallace to the debate, not feral opinionators Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity,” Shafer wrote. “Any politician who can’t hold his own against a journalist from the other team should be disqualified from running.”

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“Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist offered his effusive praise to CBS News’ Gayle King on Wednesday, telling the network’s late-night host Stephen Colbert that interview subjects like R. Kelly were why he carried around a “taser” before big sit-downs.

“All hail Gayle. Right?” Geist said. “Interviews like that are why I carry a small taser with me at all times. You sometimes gotta have to get up and neutralize the threat a little bit.”

Geist went on to say that the image of King sitting unaffected as Kelly stood and berated her was destined to become “iconic.”

Also Read: Gayle King's Explosive R Kelly Interview Wins Praise for Her 'Unflappable' Composure (Video)

Geist was far from alone in his praise for King, who is in fact a network rival. Even over on Fox News, host Jesse Watters praised her performance despite confusing King with “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts. (He later apologized).

On Wednesday, King owned the news cycle both for conducting a highly-charged interview with the musician who is facing multiple charges of felony sexual abuse and for maintaining her composure during the most emotional moments.

Also Read: R Kelly Says Lady Gaga Was 'Not Professional' When She Apologized for Working With Him (Video)

At one point, Kelly stood and berated King while she sat motionless. “Quit playin’. I didn’t do this stuff. This is not me,” Kelly said, staring directly into the camera. “I’m fighting for my f–ing life.”

On Twitter, many of King’s industry colleagues and other high profile influencers agree with Geist and Watters’ assessments

“There’s a lot going on in these R. Kelly clips. But one thing that jumps out is how direct, super clear and no frills these questions are by @GayleKing,” director Ava DuVernay said on Twitter. “She’s asking exactly what most of us would ask if we were in her seat. Crazy how refreshing it is. Speaks to how rare it is.”

“This is wild. @GayleKing is again teaching a master’s class in interviewing. She remains so calm and focused while @rkelly loses it,” added PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.

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Fox News host Jesse Watters apologized on Wednesday after confusing CBS News host Gayle King with “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts. The moment took place during an episode of “The Five” — and came as Watters attempted to praise King for her much discussed interview with R. Kelly.

“Hats off to Gayle King for totally redeeming herself after the [Jussie] Smollett fiasco,” Watters said.

“That was not Gayle King,” fellow co-host Dana Perino corrected. “Robin Roberts did the Smollett interview.”

Also Read: Jussie Smollett Tells 'GMA' He Is Certain the Men in Surveillance Footage Attacked Him (Video)

As analyst Juan Williams attempted to power through the moment, Watters broke in to apologize.

“Sorry for Robin Roberts out there,” he said “I apologize.”

Also Read: Fox News' Brit Hume Calls Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'Adorable' and 'Like a 5-Year-Old'

Later on in the program, Watters held up a small white board reiterating his apology to the two anchors. “I’m sorry Gayle + Robin.”

Reps for ABC declined to comment. Reps for CBS did not immediately respond to request for comment. On Wednesday however, Watters was far from alone in heaping praise on King, who has increasingly become CBS News’ most indispensable anchor.

Also Read: Gayle King's Explosive R Kelly Interview Wins Praise for Her 'Unflappable' Composure (Video)

On Twitter, fans from across the spectrum said her work — particularly during Kelly’s more emotional moments — had been a master class of interviewing.

“There’s a lot going on in these R. Kelly clips. But one thing that jumps out is how direct, super clear and no frills these questions are by @GayleKing,” director Ava DuVernay said on Twitter. “She’s asking exactly what most of us would ask if we were in her seat. Crazy how refreshing it is. Speaks to how rare it is.”

“This is wild. @GayleKing is again teaching a master’s class in interviewing. She remains so calm and focused while @rkelly loses it,” added PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.

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In a statement, Democratic Party chief Tom Perez said the decision came as a direct result of reporting from Jane Mayer and the New Yorker which documented the closeness between the network and Trump White House.

“I believe that a key pathway to victory is to continue to expand our electorate and reach all voters,” Perez said in a statement. “That is why I have made it a priority to talk to a broad array of potential media partners, including Fox News.”

“Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates,” he continued. “Therefore, Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”

In a statement, Fox News urged the DNC to reconsider its decision.

“We hope the DNC will reconsider its decision to bar Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, all of whom embody the ultimate journalistic integrity and professionalism, from moderating a Democratic presidential debate,” Fox News said in a statement. “They’re the best debate team in the business and they offer candidates an important opportunity to make their case to the largest TV news audience in America, which includes many persuadable voters.”

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“Today, we are happy to announce that we are creating additional newsroom departments and posting more than three dozen new jobs,” Murray said.

The memo said the new positions would aim to strengthen the paper in five key areas, identified as Young Audiences, Membership Engagement, Newsroom Innovation, Audience Data and R&D.

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“The slate of new jobs includes developers, designers, product managers, data specialists, and also, crucially, journalists,” the memo continued. “There are many new reporting jobs throughout these teams, and furthering our goals to find new ways to work together, the reporters will be seated directly with team members of many different skill sets.”

Among the new editorial spots now being advertised on the Wall Street Journal include a video journalist, a banking reporter, and a “WSJ newsroom innovation chief.”

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There was also an opening for a “young voices editor,” which suggests the paper’s new focus on reaching younger readers.

“The Wall Street Journal seeks a New York-based editor to oversee a new initiative to solicit and edit articles, videos, essays and storytelling in other formats by people in their teens and 20s,” a description of the job reads. “This editor will be a public-facing ambassador at universities to deepen the relationship the Journal has with college and graduate students, and the editor will run an editorial process to publish content created by students, young adults and young professionals.”

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The news at WSJ contrasts sharply with broader industry headwinds of layoffs and downsizing. In recent months BuzzFeed, Vice, HuffPost, McClatchy, Gannett, Mic and many more smaller publishers have all undergone savage personnel cuts as part of restructuring.

While profitability remains elusive for many, those who have prospered have often done so only with the backing of a wealthy patrons. Staff additions at The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times and Time Magazine came only after each outlet was acquired by a sympathetic billionaire.

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Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume doesn’t think much of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, telling Fox viewers Tuesday evening that he found the 29-year-old New York Democrat “adorable” in much the same way he might find a “5-year-old.”

“She makes news. She’s kind of compelling. She’s kind of adorable, as sort of in the way that a 5-year-old child can be adorable,” Hume told Tucker Carlson, with the show host nodding in agreement.

“Yes,” Carlson said. “She says things nobody else will say, but she’s also really arrogant. I wonder if she’ll wear well?”

Also Read: Fox News' Brit Hume Insists He Doesn't Have 'Fantasies About Trump's Penis' - for Real

Hume said he thought the first-term congresswoman’s appeal would last only a few weeks and said he was surprised by her staying power — even as she has become a go-to talking point among Fox News commentators and hosts. He also warned that her proposed policies would lead the broader Democratic Party “off a cliff” if they were ever broadly adopted.

Reps for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

It is far from the first time Fox News personalities have used Ocasio-Cortez as a political punching bag. The network regularly features her in their primetime and morning opinion programming, often taking issue with her personal choices as well as her signature policy proposal, the Green New Deal.

Also on Tuesday, host Sean Hannity warned viewers that the Green New Deal would lead to “guaranteed vacations” and “universal guaranteed income” and “guaranteed retirement.” In January, a GOP strategist dismissed Ocasio-Cortez as a “little girl” during an appearance on Fox Business. Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan has said she believes much of the criticism of the congresswoman, nicknamed AOC, is due in part to the fact that she is a “young Latina.”

Some anchors and hosts have grudgingly praised AOC’s effectiveness at driving her message, including Laura Ingraham who has called her “impressive”

Also Read: 'Fox & Friends' Fires Back at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 'Be Quiet, Come Back When You Grow Up' (Video)

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez  has never had an issue giving it right back, lacing into critics on her Twitter feed, like this Washington Examiner reporter who made fun of her clothes, or this Newsmax host who made fun of her childhood home. In an interview with Spectrum News NY1 this week, Ocasio-Cortez said she was committed to smacking down false attacks before they could become mainstream.

“I grew up seeing these attacks on [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi. I grew up with these attacks on Barrack Obama. I grew up even with these bad-faith attacks on Hillary Clinton,” she said. “And so we know what’s going and I feel like what I’ve chosen to do is break this fourth wall a little bit and respond to them.”

“They were ignored because it was beneath the president to respond to these things,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “Then they started to grow and as we say grow legs and start walking around.”

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“CBS This Morning” anchor Gayle King is winning high praise for maintaining her composure after R&B star R. Kelly stood up, shouted and gesticulated wildly during an emotional interview that aired Wednesday following his arrest on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

“There’s a lot going on in these R. Kelly clips. But one thing that jumps out is how direct, super clear and no frills these questions are by @GayleKing,” director Ava DuVernay said on Twitter. “She’s asking exactly what most of us would ask if we were in her seat. Crazy how refreshing it is. Speaks to how rare it is.”

“R Kelly isn’t even talking to Gayle so much as he’s talking to the camera. He wants this interview to be another performance. He wasn’t ready for Gayle’s stellar and unflappable style,” added civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson.

Also Read: R Kelly Says Lady Gaga Was 'Not Professional' When She Apologized for Working With Him (Video)

“This is wild. @GayleKing is again teaching a master’s class in interviewing. She remains so calm and focused while @rkelly loses it,” said PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.

In the interview, Kelly emotionally pleaded his innocence as he awaits trial on felony sexual abuse charges. “Quit playin’. I didn’t do this stuff. This is not me,” Kelly said, staring directly into the camera. “I’m fighting for my f—ing life.”

Kelly then stood up and began berating interviewer Gayle King as she remained seated, unfazed by the outburst and calming addressing him as “Robert.”

“You all are killing me with this s—,” Kelly screamed. “Thirty years of my career and you are all trying to kill me. You’re killing me, man. This is not about music. I am trying to have a relationship with my kids and I can’t do it. You all just don’t want to believe the truth. You don’t want to believe it.”

Also Read: R Kelly Denies Sexual Misconduct Accusations in New Interview: 'I Didn't Do This Stuff' (Video)

The situation became so unstable that King and Kelly’s publicist were forced to pause the interview to allow the musician to compose himself. He later apologized for being so “emotional.”

“You sound like you’re playing the victim here, you do,” King said.

“I’m just telling the truth,” he responded.

Kelly is next scheduled to appear in court on March 22.

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