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Blocked and Reported

Episode 118: Every Podcaster is Bi. You Just Have To Figure Out If It's Polar Or Sexual

Blocked and Reported

Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal

Unknown

4.64.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After Jesse issues a very deep and personal apology about an egregious error, the hosts discuss the endlessly swirling media shitstorm surrounding Felicia Sonmez. To discuss this episode with other premium subscribers, click here.

Show notes/Links:

JournoList: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/06/the-washington-posts-dave-weigel-resigns-following-strange-semi-scandal

Emily Yoffe on Jonathan Kaiman: https://reason.com/2019/08/23/im-radioactive/

Anna Merlan on Emily Yoffe on Jonathan Kaiman: https://jezebel.com/emily-yoffe-is-back-on-her-b******t-heres-what-an-alleg-1837679900

Felicia Sonmez on Emily Yoffe on Jonathan Kaiman:

Anna Merlan: “'Is the UVA Rape Story a Gigantic Hoax?' Asks Idiot”: https://jezebel.com/is-the-uva-rape-story-a-gigantic-hoax-asks-idiot-1665233387

Kobe Bryant thing: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomspiggle/2020/02/04/what-felicia-sonmezs-recent-tweets-about-kobe-bryant-tell-us-about-the-free-speech-rights-of-employees/?sh=270e72ca73af

Letter of support signed by Weigel and many others: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ErQ7bN352jQZ0Ka8kCzAW8CWr2zEnUIvms5BG2Kdt1E/edit

Sonmez statement:

Policy reversal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/washington-post-reverses-prohibition-on-reporter-from-writing-about-sexual-assault/2021/03/29/c0ee3be0-90c5-11eb-9668-89be11273c09_story.html

Lawsuit: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/media/washington-post-lawsuit-felicia-sonmez/index.html

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/inside-felicia-sonmezs-war-against-the-washington-post.html

Result: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21523815-sonmezvwprlg032522

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/25/media/washington-post-felicia-sonmez-suit-dismissed/index.html

Initial Sonmez complaint about Weigel:

Jose A. Del Rel criticizes her approach:

Weigel apologizes:

Breanna Muir inserts herself:

He already apologized:

Coverage of firing: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/09/felicia-sonmez-fired-by-the-washington-post-00038622

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/business/media/felicia-sonmez-washington-post.html

“And then you have Felicia, who is essentially pouring gasoline on every fire and inviting people to watch.”: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/06/inside-the-washington-posts-social-media-meltdown

Image source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-the-new-washington-post-building-ushers-in-a-new-era-of-journalism/2015/12/10/656c248a-9ea9-11e5-9ad2-568d814bbf3b_video.html



This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.blockedandreported.org/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0

What's going on, Katie?

0:10.0

Hey, Jesse.

0:11.0

Happy Pride.

0:12.0

Happy Pride.

0:13.0

Thank you.

0:14.0

I appreciate you acknowledging that it's my month.

0:16.0

Speaking of which, you know, every business is obligated to send out their pride greeting,

0:22.8

you know, it's a law now.

0:24.0

The al-Qaeda one surprised me.

0:26.0

Yeah, Rathie on too.

0:28.0

That one surprised me.

0:29.0

So I got one of these emails from a local bookstore here in Western Washington the other

0:34.5

day, and I didn't read the email.

0:36.6

But the subject line was that's so gay.

0:39.8

And I knew immediately it was going to be some pride thing, whatever.

0:42.6

I don't read their emails.

0:43.6

It didn't bother me.

0:44.6

I didn't think about it.

0:46.5

But a couple hours later, I got another email from the same business, and the subject

0:52.5

line was, I'm so sorry if I offended you.

0:56.0

Oh, my God.

0:57.0

What happened?

...

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