Shark Week Is Cancelled: Show Notes, 12/6/22
Georgia marks the end of the midterms. Also, eggnog and marginalized sharks.
The Joe Cunningham Show airs 3-4 p.m. every weekday on NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL. The daily show notes offer you a look into the topics of the day and the links to the top stories and Joe's own writings on the state of politics in Louisiana and around the country. Follow Joe on Twitter at @JoePCunningham and Like the Joe Cunningham Show on Facebook. You can also subscribe to the Joe Cunningham Show podcast on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or Amazon.
Programming Note: At the bottom of the hour today, my friend Liz Mair joins me to talk about the JCPA. You can read my thoughts on it here, and a good piece by my RedState colleague Mike Miller here.
Georgia’s Senate Election
I’ll be honest with you, while Herschel Walker has a path to victory, it does not seem very likely. He is simply not a great candidate, was at a major fundraising disadvantage, and Republicans in Georgia just don’t seem motivated to support him. Far-right conservatives have also been so negative on early voting that they may be costing themselves a better turnout in support of Walker - Trump himself has continued to bash early voting and many Republican voters didn’t participate. That is bad news for Walker, who needs every possible vote to avoid being blown out at the very least.
Criminal Referrals Heading Trump’s Way
The January 6 Committee is preparing to issue criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, members are now telling the press. That puts Donald Trump squarely in multiple crosshairs - the J6 committee, the DOJ, and the New York AG. So while he is out there walking back his claim that he called for the suspension of the Constitution, he is also about to face many more legal battles.
I Regret to Inform You ‘Shark Week’ Isn’t Diverse Enough
No, really. A week of television that is devoted almost solely to overblown coverage of one of the top predators of the ocean does not have enough diversity, according to someone at the Washington Post.
Whitenack led a team of researchers to examine hundreds of “Shark Week” episodes that aired between 1988 and 2020. In a study published last month by the Public Library of Science, their research claims that Discovery’s programming emphasized negative messages about sharks, lacked useful messaging about shark conservation and overwhelmingly featured White men as experts — including several with the same name.
The programming featured more White experts and commentators named “Mike” than women, said David Shiffman, a conservationist at Arizona State University who was a co-author of the study.
Here is the claim: A lack of diversity creates a barrier for more women and minorities to enter the field of shark study, says… a woman who studies sharks.
Headlines of the Day
Time's Shortlist for 'Person of the Year': the Laughable Picks and Who They'll Go For (RedState)
Drugs killed 8 friends, one by one, in a tragedy seen across the U.S. (Washington Post)
Georgia voters are tired (Axios)
1,200 Iranian students poisoned ahead of mass protests (NY Post)
Senate Republicans turn on Trump over suspend-the-Constitution talk (Politico)