Jennifer Berry Hawes

South reporter at ProPublica, Pulitzer Prize team winner & finalist, wrote "Grace Will Lead Us Home" about the Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, SC

[Jennifer Berry Hawes @JenBerryHawes]

🧵
As hurricane season approaches, I want to tell you why I spent the past 4 months reporting this new story about Hurricane Helene.

In 1999, I spent 13 hours in a car on a gridlocked interstate with my 3-week-old baby during the disastrous mass evacuation from Hurricane Floyd.

[ProPublica @propublica]

1/ ProPublica is a nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom that hopes to inspire real-world change.

That means we are free from meddling owners, free from corporate interests, and free from political pressure.

[Brian Stelter @brianstelter]

Scott Pelley tells the NYT: "The collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of ‘60 Minutes’ is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone." https://t.co/GOB29Bv0Qb

[Dylan Byers @DylanByers]

New statement from Scott Pelley:

There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.

The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.

“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

The waste is heartbreaking.

Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.

For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.

At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.

I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.

Scott Pelley

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Exclusive: A convicted Jan. 6 rioter who later said that he regretted his participation in the U.S. Capitol attack has been hired by the Trump administration to work inside a Pentagon office that manages highly classified military operations. https://t.co/3OtllgCSWP

[Dan Lamothe @DanLamothe]

Relatedly:

The last Pete Hegseth press briefing at the Pentagon was May 5.

The last Pentagon press briefing by a Hegseth spokesperson was Dec. 2, to a new right-leaning press corps that also has since been pushed out of the building.

Last year, Hegseth's team promised the "most transparent Department of Defense in history."

[julie k. brown @jkbjournalist]

"Perversion of Justice" https://t.co/ytU7IPmP8n

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

Remarkable story from @propublica of how the Pentagon got a call from the White House and rushed to lend $620 million to an obscure company -- with links to Donald Trump Jr. The company's valuation rose 10-fold to $2 billion. https://t.co/yIJ9bXb9Jb

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Breaking news: The Pentagon is moving to recruit hundreds of troops to appear as spectators at President Trump’s UFC cage-fighting event on the White House lawn, and requiring those who attend to pay their own way and meet height and weight requirements. https://t.co/zOSM2ac8Kk

[Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein]

Another episode of @propublica’s podcast is out and it’s really good. Honestly. How to Fight a Health Insurance Denial With a Little-Known Tool https://t.co/eNwo08ouy4 featuring reporting by @deldeib

[Jennifer Berry Hawes @JenBerryHawes]

The Record Divide Between Corporate Profits and Worker Pay https://t.co/aeZnv4pL6T

[Scott Nover @ScottNover]

Cecilia Vega was fired from "60 Minutes" today. In a statement she alleged meddling by CBS News management, and said she fears for the future of the broadcast.

(CBS News declined to comment on her statement.)

[Nick Reynolds @IAmNickReynolds]

Sen. Shane Massey now meeting with the press. Said the turnout seen earlier today supported his theory it would only energize voters downballot.

"Just having this debate is going to have negative consequences for Republicans across the state," he said.

[Jennifer Berry Hawes @JenBerryHawes]

Redistricting effort in SC Senate dies as 12 Republicans cross line on first day of early voting https://t.co/uLlJwGLLi7 via @postandcourier

[Nick Reynolds @IAmNickReynolds]

That's all she wrote.

Final vote: 20-24, incl. 12 Rs.

Nos: Allen, Bennett, Campsen, Cash, Cromer, Davis, Devine, Graham, Hembree, Hutto, Jackson, Johnson, Massey, Matthews, Ott, Peeler, Rankin, Sabb, Stubbs, Sutton, Tedder, Walker, Williams, Zell.

Fernandez, Martin have leave

[AL.com @aldotcom]

The judges ruled Alabama cannot use the map the Legislature approved in the August 11 special primary.

[Jennifer Berry Hawes @JenBerryHawes]

@IAmNickReynolds At Mount Pleasant’s Wando library, the line was around the building at 8:40 am.

[ProPublica @propublica]

ProPublica obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

(Pub. 2021)
https://t.co/pXC3KxEHyP

[Mandy Powers Norrell @MPowersNorrell]

Some very important points from Republican Senator @SenTomDavisSC email tonight regarding redistricting:

[Lulu NYT @LuluGNavarro]

This is astoundingly embarrassing. . https://t.co/vkyRLkzv5n

[Jennifer Berry Hawes @JenBerryHawes]

“People said my car stank, but I couldn’t smell it,” one rescuer said. “That scared me. I don’t smell the bodies anymore.”

Incredible visuals by @TylerHicksPhoto

https://t.co/xq5nMDzMmP via @NYTimes