Hang tight, humanity When was the last time you started the week off with some good news? Sure, there are always the caveats, but “It’s probably OK to feel *some* optimism on the Moderna news, following the Pfizer announcement, right?” tweets Michael de la Merced, asking for all of us.  As Denise Grady reports at The New York Times, Early Data Show Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine Is 94.5% Effective, although the vaccine will not be widely available for months, probably not until spring. In other words, “Hang tight, humanity, redemption is coming in a few more months -- probably,” tweets Dan Fagin. “Fauci re: #Moderna #vaccination efficacy data: ‘These are obviously very exciting results. It's just as good as it gets -- 94.5% is truly outstanding.’”
James Gallagher takes a closer look in his explainer for BBC News, Moderna: Covid vaccine shows nearly 95% protection. “One week and suddenly two promising #Coronavirus vaccines now in the making. At last some hope in these strange dark days,” says Richard Galpin. The transition  We mentioned caveats. As Rebecca Shabad of NBC News reports, in an interview with Savannah Guthrie on the “Today Show” this morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he’s concerned that the Trump administration has not yet greenlighted the formal transition to the incoming Biden administration, which he said is key to the quick distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine.
While the Trump administration is doing everything it can to impede the peaceful transition of power, the transition is underway nonetheless, and as Arlette Saenz of CNN reports, people of color make up nearly half of Biden’s transition team, and women are in the majority. Nine of the 13 members of Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board are people of color and five of the members are women. Extremely Obama With the launch of his latest book, Obama is back in the news. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg interviewed the former president about the book, the greatest threats to the American experiment and why he’s still hopeful, but the headline is a little less upbeat: Why Obama Fears for Our Democracy. Should you read it? Well, Alex Sherman says, “I don't want to oversell this, but this Jeffrey Goldberg interview with Obama is one of the most interesting interviews I’ve ever seen.”  For starters, Goldberg shares, “Several people have written me this morning to note with wonder that Barack Obama uses the word ‘epistemological’ in sentences. Trump has certainly lowered our presidential-vocabulary expectations.” Obama also got some attention for his on-the-nose Richie Rich description of Trump and the curiousness of his appeal.
Yoni Appelbaum says, “Every word of this @JeffreyGoldberg interview with Barack Obama is extremely Obama. But this section, on the politics of class and culture, and on Trump and bling, jumped out at me.” You might also enjoy “Obama on being edited,” tweets Mark Berman. Obama also spoke with CBS News’ Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” last night, sharing the advice he would give Trump, his thoughts on the killing of George Floyd, and what’s behind the divisions in Washington and across the U.S. ‘Come on now’ Checking in on Trump’s legal maneuverings, Jon Swaine and Elise Viebeck of The Washington Post report that the campaign scrapped a major part of its federal lawsuit challenging the election results in Pennsylvania yesterday. Yes, “So much winning,” tweets Jacob Heilbrunn.  Meanwhile, judges appear increasingly frustrated with Trump’s legal claims about the election, according to the reporting by Matthew Mosk, Olivia Rubin and Alex Hosenball of ABC News. “Come on now,” one judge said after hearing a Trump team claim. Wait a minute. “Judges across the country are only now getting fed up with Trump’s lies? WELCOME TO MY LIFE,” tweets S. V. Date.
The waning days of a fact-free presidency  Taking us Behind Trump’s Yearslong Effort to Turn Losing Into Winning, Jim Rutenberg and Nick Corasaniti of The New York Times write that the claims of fraud in Detroit, Philadelphia and elsewhere are “the culmination of a yearslong strategy by Mr. Trump to use the power of the executive branch, an army of lawyers, the echo chamber of conservative news media and the obedience of fellow Republicans to try out his most audacious exercise in bending reality: to turn losing into winning.”
As Dan Barry puts it, “The seeds for the Trump campaign’s fact-free accusations of electoral were planted long ago; a sobering forensic examination by @jimrutenberg and @NYTnickc.” Reading this, Claire Potter says, “We owe the ordinary Americans who ran this election a huge thank you.” And at The Washington Post, Ashley Parker writes that the ending of Trump’s presidency echoes the beginning — with a lie...about crowd size. “From the racist lie of Birtherism...to the inaugural lie about crowd size...to the latest lie about crowd size...and all the mendacity in between. My latest from Trumpworld,” is how Parker sets that piece up. When Macron called Ben Moving on to another president, specifically Emmanuel Macron of France, Edmund Lee points out, “The French have always scorned the English-language press. That’s not new. What’s new is the head of state, @EmmanuelMacron, called @benyt to complain.”  Ben Smith wrote about that conversation in his latest New York Times column, The President vs. the American Media, and Miriam Elder calls out “The hypocrisy of Mr Macron -@benyt interview with a president extolling free speech and secularism while getting columns pulled and making ever more aggressive moves against French Muslims and Islam more broadly.”
Andrew Bisharat finds it “So interesting to see how western liberal democracies around the world have gone from fighting each other over nationalistic issues to fighting themselves from within over cultural issues. Reading @benyt is Sunday evening highlight.” Great, horrifying reporting As Brian Holland says, “Whew boyyyyyyy This is a lot to digest…” A big new investigation by Kenny Jacoby, Nancy Armour and Jessica Luther of USA Today finds LSU mishandled sexual misconduct complaints against students, including top athletes. The investigation reveals that at least nine LSU football players have been reported to police for sexual misconduct and dating violence since coach Ed Orgeron took over the team four years ago. But the details of how LSU handled complaints against seven of them, including two who played key roles on its 2020 national championship team, remain largely secret. Mike Freeman praises the “Truly excellent work from my @USATODAY colleagues. Worth your time. LSU ignored law in handling complaints against Guice, others.” Andrea Gallo describes it as “Great, horrifying reporting from @USATODAY about LSU’s failures after students have reported being sexually assaulted by LSU football players, frat members & others. LSU won’t even release records to the women who reported these incidents.” Substack’s moment Jon Allsop tells us, “On the subject of covering this terrible year and what might come next for the press, @CJR is today starting to roll out a new magazine that will look at this transitional moment from a bunch of different angles. First up today: @cliomiso on Substack.” He links to Clio Chang’s Columbia Journalism Review profile of The Substackerati. Highlighting “The most successful people on Substack are those who have already been well-served by existing media power structures,” Anna Codrea-Rado shares, “For me, the tension with Substack is that in order to succeed, you need to be more entrepreneur than writer.” Adds Lainna Fader, “‘Did a newsletter company create a more equitable media system—or replicate the flaws of the old one?’ is a v interesting question and given that only wealthy white men seem to be able to make it financially workable, seems pretty much same old same old!” However, Megan McArdle says, “Greenwald, Sullivan and Yglesias got so big by starting blogs that they could sell to traditional publications. They are not monetizing an audience they acquired through larger institutions, but reclaiming one they created themselves.” Either way, I think we can all agree with Leo Schwartz that “‘We're not hiring writers, and we’re not publishing editorial...we’re enabling writers and enabling editorial’ is some first-class Silicon Valley doublespeak.” Bodes well for a good week  Alright, “think YOU had a roller coaster 2020? let @theestallion tell you all (and I really mean all) about hers.” Joel Pavelski links to Allison P. Davis’ profile of GQ’s Rapper of the Year, Megan Thee Stallion, a piece that goes “inside the exuberant and empowering rise of the irreverent and magnetic rap sensation who’s here to stay.”
We don’t want to jinx anything, but as Taffy Brodesser-Akner says, this “Bodes well for a good week. Always read @AllisonPDavis.” Adds Priya Krishna, “happy monday, I think you should read this really excellent Megan Thee Stallion profile by @AllisonPDavis! One last thing  Despite the good news about the vaccines, we know it’s going to be a long dark winter, and potentially a cold one, depending on where you live. Think it will soon be too cold to eat outside? Heed this advice from Alaska, Scandinavia — even the South Pole, suggests Tom Sietsema of The Washington Post. If for nothing else, read this piece to learn about “the very Finnish notion of kalsarikannit,” and to realize there’s a name for what you’ve been doing for at least nine months now.
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