As we approach the anniversary of when all of our lives changed, I can’t help but wonder exactly when the reality of it all finally hit me. Looking back through my camera roll, there were plenty of opportunities: Was it at that concert on March 2nd, where I brushed off the thought that being in a busy venue maybe wasn’t the best idea? Or was it on March 7th, when I packed into a crowded pub for my friend’s leaving drinks? It could have easily been on March 13th, when I stopped by my local grocery store only to find the pasta aisle completely bare.
If I’m being honest, I don’t think there was one singular moment. There were several instances, spread out over days and weeks, when I began to realize that things were about to change, even if I didn’t quite understand how yet. On March 11th, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. By March 12th, I had written about it. It has featured in all but nine of my stories ever since.
In non-pandemic news: I joined The Bunker this week to discuss vaccine hesitancy, vaccine passports, and—most important of all—the return of Frasier. Listen to the end to hear me wax lyrical about my unending love for Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs. You can tune in via your favorite podcast app or by clicking below.
What I’ve written
As the United States grapples with the many legacies of the Trump era, I wrote about one of its lesser-known chapters: a seven-month period during which Michael Pack, Trump’s appointee to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, sought to wrest control of the country’s state-funded international broadcasters by purging their senior leadership, undermining their editorial independence, and entrenching their traditionally bipartisan governing boards with right-wing ideologues, in an apparent effort to assure a conservative hold on the networks well past Trump’s presidency.
Those efforts ultimately failed, but they have nonetheless left lasting scars on USAGM and its broadcasters. To understand the Trump administration’s legacy at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, I spoke with a dozen current and former staff members. In their telling, what was at stake was not just their safety and that of their colleagues, some of whom have been detained and killed over their work in the past year, but decades of trust with their audiences. Even if the institution survived an attempted takeover by one administration, what’s to prevent another from trying again?
“We seem to have been just lucky that they were incompetent,” one staffer told me. “Maybe the next ones won’t be.” Keep reading here
What I’ve read
This essential piece by Zeynep Tufekci on the pandemic mistakes we keep repeating:
We need to be able to celebrate profoundly positive news while noting the work that still lies ahead. However, instead of balanced optimism since the launch of the vaccines, the public has been offered a lot of misguided fretting over new virus variants, subjected to misleading debates about the inferiority of certain vaccines, and presented with long lists of things vaccinated people still cannot do, while media outlets wonder whether the pandemic will ever end.
This important story by Elaine Godfrey on anti-Asian harassment’s long history in America:
But even as the pandemic begins to wane in America, the frequency of anti-Asian discrimination may not, Borja warned. The trope of the “perpetual foreigner” has long kept Asian Americans from being viewed as fully American. Geopolitics can make it worse, Borja said: American politicians now regularly criticize—even villainize—China, admonishing its government on issues related to trade policy, technology, and human rights. When that rhetoric is irresponsible—when it targets regular people, not leaders—even Asian Americans who aren’t Chinese can feel the effects stateside. As long as these tensions continue, Borja said, Asian American people and communities will be vulnerable. Government leaders should speak and act carefully, she added.
This excellent long read by Helen Lewis on Jordan Peterson and the horrors of modern fame:
Like a rock star spiraling into burnout, he was consumed by the pyramid scheme of fame, parceling himself out, faster and faster, to everyone who wanted a piece. Perhaps he didn’t want to let people down, and he loved to feel needed. Perhaps he enjoyed having an online army glorying in his triumphs and pursuing his enemies. In our frenzied media culture, can a hero ever return home victorious and resume his normal life, or does the lure of another adventure, another dragon to slay, another “lib” to “own” always call out to him?
What I’m thinking about
How I will never tire of seeing people’s “I got vaccinated” posts (especially if they’re as good as this one).
Until next time,
Yasmeen Serhan