Prominent Group Demands Serious Pat McAfee Punishment Over Caitlin Clark Comment

(Athlon Sports)

UltraViolet, a community focused on combating sexism and promoting equality for women through advocacy, issued a stern statement on the matter.

“Coupled with McAfee’s pattern of promoting problematic falsehoods – including platforming Aaron Rodgers and allowing him to spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus or Jeffrey Epstein – demonstrate that McAfee simply does not have the necessary judgment that sports fans deserve.

“Not only does McAfee deserve to be fired, but Disney needs to ensure that ESPN commits to a culture where commentators will no longer be allowed to spew sexist and racist remarks. That should be the minimum standard that sports fans should expect from their commentators and that ESPN and Disney should expect from their hosts. It is hard to ask for anything less when we recall that ESPN is the same network that suspended Jemele Hill for calling President Trump a white supremacist.”

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Women’s Rights Are Essential to Democracy. Why Do Philanthropists Treat Investments in Women as a Special Interest?

(Ms. Magazine)

Divorcing gender justice from democracy is inconsistent, irrational and unnecessarily expensive. To separate them is to delay success and pay for it many times over.

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Sean Combs Settled a Lawsuit, but His Troubles Were Just Beginning

(The New York Times)

“Because of Cassie, and the three other women who came forward to tell their stories, we all now know the real Sean Combs,” Shaunna Thomas, the executive director of UltraViolet, said in a statement. “His brand deals have collapsed, fellow artists have distanced themselves from him and called for accountability, and even though he was nominated for a Grammy Award this year, he didn’t show up because he knew he would not be welcome there.”

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NBC Picked the Wrong Partner to Take to the Republican Debate | Opinion

(Newsweek)

We are one year away from the 2024 presidential election and once again, the mainstream media is ignoring the threat of extremist propaganda machines. Today, the media, specifically NBC News, is failing the United States electorate.

Not just because NBC News is uncritically platforming misinformation as a co-host of tonight’s third Republican debate, but because the network is working with one of the far-right’s most powerful propaganda machines, Rumble, to do it. By co-hosting tonight’s debate with Rumble, NBC is legitimizing a video-sharing platform that bankrolls self-described misogynists and promotes right-wing conspiracy theorists.

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Third debate: Watching remotely easier than getting a ticket for GOP debate in Miami on Nov. 8

(The Palm Beach Post)

The event, hosted by the Republican National Committee, will be moderated by Lester Holt, Kristen Welker, and Hugh Hewitt. It also will be live-streamed by the online site Rumble.

The platform drew scorn from the gender tolerance advocacy group UltraViolet which accused Rumble “of extremist rhetoric and content that promotes misogyny, antisemitism, and racism.” The group called on NBC to cancel the program.

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UltraViolet calls on CNN to Cancel Scheduled 2024 Town Hall Event with Donald Trump in New Hampshire

(The Hill )

CNN came under fire almost as soon as the news of the event broke.

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan tweeted on Monday that CNN was “giving a live primetime platform to an indicted insurrection-inciter, who also incited violence against their network.”

Hasan added that he had been asked many times whether the media had “learned lessons” from 2016 and 2020, and that CNN’s decision indicated to him that “clearly some in our media have not.”

Liberal activists were equally condemnatory of the decision.

Shaunna Thomas, the co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, a pro-gender equality organization, called Trump “a flagrant misogynist” and “insurrectionist” to whom CNN was about to give “free airtime and an unfettered platform to spew lies and hate.”

Her organization is calling on the network to cancel the event.

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What Tucker Carlson’s departure means for Fox News

(The Week )

Immediately after Carlson’s departure was announced, fans and detractors started discussing his exit, with both sides critical of Fox News for different reasons. Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, denounced Carlson, tweeting that he used Tucker Carlson Tonight and Fox News to “spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.” Bridget Todd, director of communications for the women’s group Ultraviolet, described him as “one of the nation’s most prolific mouthpieces for white supremacy, misinformation, and misogyny. By providing Tucker with a platform on national TV for so long, Fox News has done extensive damage to our democracy. Good riddance, Tucker Carlson.”

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Fox News Parts Ways With Tucker Carlson Days After Dominion Settlement

(The New York Times )

With his abrupt departure from Fox News on Monday, Tucker Carlson lost the megaphone that many have accused him of using to spread conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines, gender identity and election integrity.

Civil rights activists and media experts expressed hope that a major force in the misinformation ecosystem had been muzzled.

The television host was “one of the nation’s most prolific mouthpieces for white supremacy, misinformation and misogyny,” said Bridget Todd, director of communications at the gender equity advocacy group Ultraviolet.

“We are not sad to see him go,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive of the L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization GLAAD, wrote on Twitter.

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Women’s rights group UltraViolet calls on CNN to suspend Don Lemon from talking politics after Nikki Haley insult

(The Hill )

A top women’s group is calling for CNN anchor Don Lemon to be suspended from covering politics over his comments about women and age this week while discussing Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

“While Don Lemon’s egregiously sexist comments about women being ‘in their prime’ have no place on CNN or anywhere in the news media, this isn’t the first time Lemon’s bias has influenced his on-air reporting,” said Bridget Todd, director of communications at UltraViolet, a leading national gender advocacy group. “From athletes to politicians and even his co-anchors, Lemon has used his power and platform to consistently undermine and demean powerful women.”

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Medical providers, activists urge Google to ban ads from anti-abortion clinics

(The Hill)

A coalition of more than 100 medical providers and advocacy groups asked Google to stop accepting ads from anti-abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers in a letter sent to the tech giant Wednesday.

The letter, led by women’s rights group UltraViolet, urges Google to ban ads from anti-abortion centers in order to help mitigate efforts to “mislead, harm, and misdirect people away from reproductive health and abortion care,” according to a copy of the letter shared with The Hill.

“Allowing anti-abortion centers to place ads on your platforms that steers unsuspecting people into the hands of those who will deny them care is unethical. The best way to prevent this is to remove and ban intentionally misleading advertisements sponsored by anti-abortion clinics and centers, especially crisis pregnancy centers,” they wrote.

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