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Government Adviser Who Warned of 200,000 COVID Cases a Day Faces Scrutiny After Dramatic Fall in UK Infections

Professor Neil Ferguson, the controversial epidemiologist who predicted there would be as many as 200,000 COVID cases a day in the UK if restrictions were lifted, is facing scrutiny after infections continued to drop for the 6th day in a row.
The day before so-called ‘freedom day’ in England, where most mask mandates and social distancing restrictions were lifted, Ferguson was asked by the BBC’s Andrew Marr where the country was heading as a result.
“It’s very difficult to say for certain, but I think 100,000 cases a day is almost inevitable,” said Ferguson, adding, “The real question is do we get to double that or higher? We could get to 200,000 cases a day.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="6.9882352941176">
Neil Ferguson, July 18: "100,000 cases a day is almost inevitable."<a href="https://t.co/kYw3jhHcl1">pic.twitter.com/kYw3jhHcl1</a> <a href="https://t.co/9dgimVEGks">https://t.co/9dgimVEGks</a>
— Michael P Senger (@MichaelPSenger) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1419719097080635392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
The professor went on to warn of “major disruption” to the NHS and the interruption of elective surgeries.
Ferguson is being proven wrong by the statistics once again, which today showed there were 24,950 new coronavirus cases, the sixth consecutive daily fall.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="4.1">
Epic graph. <a href="https://t.co/a9r1JxRST2">pic.twitter.com/a9r1JxRST2</a>
— SecondOpinion (@DaFeid) <a href="https://twitter.com/DaFeid/status/1419631695737786376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
“Lockdown zealots will attribute this decline to the vaccines, but that begs the question of why they weren’t confident the vaccines would prevent cases from surging when they predicted armageddon last Monday?” <a href="https://dailysceptic.org/2021/07/26/do-the-u-k-s-falling-case-numbers-prove-lockdowns-dont-work/">asks</a> Toby Young.
As Christopher Snowdon highlights, the scientists who claimed England’s unlocking represented “a threat to world” are also being proven spectacularly wrong. SAGE government advisers who claimed that relaxing restrictions was “a dangerous and unethical experiment” also face embarrassment.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="10.181818181818">
In a superb touch, the graph under that quote in the Guardian article headlined 'England’s Covid unlocking is threat to world, say 1,200 scientists' automatically updates once a day. <a href="https://t.co/eRXqybDxja">https://t.co/eRXqybDxja</a> <a href="https://t.co/ByHhFCDVer">pic.twitter.com/ByHhFCDVer</a>
— Christopher Snowdon (@cjsnowdon) <a href="https://twitter.com/cjsnowdon/status/1419708776379191296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
The issue once again begs the question; Why does the government continue to follow advice given by arch-lockdown advocates who have got it wrong time and time again?
Don’t forget that it was Ferguson who infamously <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8759609/Professor-Lockdown-stands-doomsday-forecast-sent-Britain-lockdown.html">warned</a> that half a million Brits would die without a draconian lockdown, despite the fact that countries like Sweden which didn’t impose lockdown had similar waves and infection rates.
Not only has Ferguson repeatedly proven himself to be totally unreliable (after having already disgraced himself during the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak), but he infamously betrayed what he really thought about the severity of the pandemic via his own behavior.
During the first lockdown, when Ferguson himself was predicting up to half a million deaths, the professor took the threat of the virus so seriously, he allowed his mistress to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/05/exclusive-government-scientist-neil-ferguson-resigns-breaking/">violate the rules</a> by traveling back and forth across London to continue the pair’s sordid affair.
“It’s OK when we do it!”
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/26/government-adviser-who-warned-of-200000-covid-cases-a-day-faces-scrutiny-after-dramatic-fall-in-uk-infections/">https://summit.news/2021/07/26/government-adviser-who-warned-of-200000-covid-cases-a-day-faces-scrutiny-after-dramatic-fall-in-uk-infections/</a>

revolution summit Government Adviser Who Warned of 200,000 COVID Cases a Day Faces Scrutiny After Dramatic Fall in UK Infections

Professor Neil Ferguson, the controversial epidemiologist who predicted there would be as many as 200,000 COVID cases a day in the UK if res...

Survey Finds Most Brits Still Wearing Face Masks Despite No Legal Requirement

The feud between Senator Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci continues to evolve, with Paul slamming Fauci this weekend for refusing to actually answer any questions in Congress last week regarding his ties to the Wuhan lab, and instead responding with “an ad hominem attack.”
“I think he has self-interest in not being attached to this research, because more and more of the evidence is pointing towards the virus having come out of that lab, if it did, you can see how moral responsibility or culpability attaches to Dr. Fauci because he had the poor judgment to fund this lab,” Paul said during an appearance on WBKO.
Paul continued, “There are reports that the Chinese military has actually been working on weaponizing viruses. So I think it was a poor judgment. Even as much as a month ago, Dr. Fauci was asking the Judiciary Committee whether he still trusted the scientists and the Chinese scientists. And he says, Oh, of course.”
“He was also asked in 2012, if a bug should escape, if a virus should infect a researcher, escape and become a pandemic, what then? And he said, Well, the science and the research is worth it, even if a pandemic should occur,” Paul also noted.
“So this to me shows incredibly poor judgment, not wisdom, poor judgment. And really, there’s a possibility we are suffering from his poor judgment,” the Senator further urged.
Paul added, “This research still goes on in the United States, we should want to know, you know if the NIH is still funding this type of research in North Carolina? And in Galveston, do we want this to occur? Are we worried that we could have the worst virus leak out of the lab?”
Watch:
<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"></figure>
Last week Paul <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/rand-paul-sends-criminal-referral-203600465.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABqj49pQ7rypfgQLZk1Kim_bv8upgfP_xBDW8AVeUBHsXSj01gxUBB8OFxyysjy2C5Noa2m_nXjthzDlouY0sBmNxdnYoTc4To27Q7U1AzmFehxUNyxL-JtweMDYSfi1itYVmndrT_OKFOywOnjl2DH3gua7fiQ4qIBJrkzHE7NB">wrote to the Department of Justice with a criminal referral for Fauci</a>, noting in his letter to AG Merrick Garland, “I write to urge the United States Department of Justice to open an investigation into testimony made to the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on May 11, 2021.”
Within the letter, Paul points to the paper he mentioned during last week’s hearing “in which the spike genes from two uncharacterized bat SARS-related coronavirus strains, Rs4231 and Rs7327, were combined with the genomic backbone of another SARS-related coronavirus to create novel chimeric SARS-related viruses.”
The Senator urged that “these experiments combined genetic information from different SARS-related coronaviruses and combined them to create novel, artificial viruses able to infect human cells.”
Despite Fauci’s denials, this exactly “fits the definition of gain-of-function research,” Paul emphasises, further asking the DoJ to investigate “any materially false, fictions, or fraudulent statement or representation,” Fauci has made on the matter.
“I ask that you investigate whether Dr. Fauci’s statements to Congress on May 11, 2021 violated this statute or any other,” Paul wrote in the letter.
Meanwhile, Fauci appeared on his favourite propaganda platform CNN Sunday and declared that he is considering bringing back mask mandates, even for the fully vaccinated.
Watch:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="7.4260089686099">
TAPPER: "Do you think masks should be brought back for vaccinated Americans?"
FAUCI: "This is under active consideration… Yes, I am part of the discussion." <a href="https://t.co/nJ9Om22rwi">pic.twitter.com/nJ9Om22rwi</a>
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1419359233234120712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2021</a></blockquote>
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/26/survey-finds-most-brits-still-wearing-face-masks-despite-no-legal-requirement/">https://summit.news/2021/07/26/survey-finds-most-brits-still-wearing-face-masks-despite-no-legal-requirement/</a>

revolution summit Survey Finds Most Brits Still Wearing Face Masks Despite No Legal Requirement

The feud between Senator Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci continues to evolve, with Paul slamming Fauci this weekend for refusing to actually ans...

Labour Councillor Ridiculed For Bragging About Wearing a Mask on an Empty Train

A Labour Councillor faced ridicule after she bragged on Twitter about wearing a face mask on an empty train.
Not all heroes wear capes.
“Going to keep wearing my mask on public transport. Even when it’s just me on the tube,” tweeted Alice Perry.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="6.8198757763975">
Going to keep wearing my mask on public transport. Even when it’s just me on the tube. <a href="https://t.co/0Ttsg3c9hT">pic.twitter.com/0Ttsg3c9hT</a>
— Alice Perry (@aliceperryuk) <a href="https://twitter.com/aliceperryuk/status/1417042780992462850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
Numerous respondents pointed out that Perry must have been disappointed that no one on the train could see how compliant and virtuous she was, which is why she decided to take selfie and post it to Twitter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="7.8947368421053">
But even when you're alone, you have to post a selfie on the internet to signal your virtue. <a href="https://t.co/3Wz8l9P5cW">https://t.co/3Wz8l9P5cW</a>
— TheEndOfEverything (@EternalEnglish) <a href="https://twitter.com/EternalEnglish/status/1419278853336453127?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
“This pandemic has provided an opportunity for normies to feel like heroes for being absolutely useless, and they endlessly gloat about it too,” reacted one person.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="8.4">
This pandemic has provided an opportunity for normies to feel like heroes for being absolutely useless, and they endlessly gloat about it too. <a href="https://t.co/PnycfFkfIs">https://t.co/PnycfFkfIs</a>
— ɐ͎ʞ͎ć͎ı͎ɹ͎ɐ͎ɯ͎ (@LeaMaric) <a href="https://twitter.com/LeaMaric/status/1419296809609007105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
“This is evidence of irrational though, psychological trauma and human conditioning. People need leadership to break this cycle, not encourage it,” opined lawyer Viva Frei.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="8.6044444444444">
This is evidence of irrational though, psychological trauma and human conditioning. People need leadership to break this cycle, not encourage it <a href="https://twitter.com/aliceperryuk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@aliceperryuk</a> <a href="https://t.co/PmfX46rCT1">https://t.co/PmfX46rCT1</a>
— Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) <a href="https://twitter.com/thevivafrei/status/1419260185604919298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
“What bravery and sacrifice,” remarked Aubrey Huff.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="5.4736842105263">
What bravery and sacrifice. 🤦🏻‍♂️ <a href="https://t.co/0KDBJDnXcA">https://t.co/0KDBJDnXcA</a>
— Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) <a href="https://twitter.com/aubrey_huff/status/1419282314039762948?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
Perry’s bizarre tweet underscores once again how the mask has little to do with virus protection and everything to do with signaling subservience to the cult of conformity.
As previously <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/19/government-advisor-admits-masks-are-purely-comfort-blankets-that-do-virtually-nothing/">highlighted</a>, Dr Colin Axon, a SAGE advisor for the government, dismissed face masks as “comfort blankets” that do virtually nothing, noting that the COVID-19 virus particle is up to 5,000 times smaller than the holes in the mask.
“The small sizes are not easily understood but an imperfect analogy would be to imagine marbles fired at builders’ scaffolding, some might hit a pole and rebound, but obviously most will fly through,” Axon said.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/26/labour-councillor-ridiculed-for-bragging-about-wearing-a-mask-on-an-empty-train/">https://summit.news/2021/07/26/labour-councillor-ridiculed-for-bragging-about-wearing-a-mask-on-an-empty-train/</a>

revolution summit Labour Councillor Ridiculed For Bragging About Wearing a Mask on an Empty Train

A Labour Councillor faced ridicule after she bragged on Twitter about wearing a face mask on an empty train. Not all heroes wear capes. “G...

Germany: Vaccinated “Will Have More Freedom” as Unvaxxed Banned From Cinemas, Restaurants

The feud between Senator Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci continues to evolve, with Paul slamming Fauci this weekend for refusing to actually answer any questions in Congress last week regarding his ties to the Wuhan lab, and instead responding with “an ad hominem attack.”
“I think he has self-interest in not being attached to this research, because more and more of the evidence is pointing towards the virus having come out of that lab, if it did, you can see how moral responsibility or culpability attaches to Dr. Fauci because he had the poor judgment to fund this lab,” Paul said during an appearance on WBKO.
Paul continued, “There are reports that the Chinese military has actually been working on weaponizing viruses. So I think it was a poor judgment. Even as much as a month ago, Dr. Fauci was asking the Judiciary Committee whether he still trusted the scientists and the Chinese scientists. And he says, Oh, of course.”
“He was also asked in 2012, if a bug should escape, if a virus should infect a researcher, escape and become a pandemic, what then? And he said, Well, the science and the research is worth it, even if a pandemic should occur,” Paul also noted.
“So this to me shows incredibly poor judgment, not wisdom, poor judgment. And really, there’s a possibility we are suffering from his poor judgment,” the Senator further urged.
Paul added, “This research still goes on in the United States, we should want to know, you know if the NIH is still funding this type of research in North Carolina? And in Galveston, do we want this to occur? Are we worried that we could have the worst virus leak out of the lab?”
Watch:
<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"></figure>
Last week Paul <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/rand-paul-sends-criminal-referral-203600465.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABqj49pQ7rypfgQLZk1Kim_bv8upgfP_xBDW8AVeUBHsXSj01gxUBB8OFxyysjy2C5Noa2m_nXjthzDlouY0sBmNxdnYoTc4To27Q7U1AzmFehxUNyxL-JtweMDYSfi1itYVmndrT_OKFOywOnjl2DH3gua7fiQ4qIBJrkzHE7NB">wrote to the Department of Justice with a criminal referral for Fauci</a>, noting in his letter to AG Merrick Garland, “I write to urge the United States Department of Justice to open an investigation into testimony made to the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on May 11, 2021.”
Within the letter, Paul points to the paper he mentioned during last week’s hearing “in which the spike genes from two uncharacterized bat SARS-related coronavirus strains, Rs4231 and Rs7327, were combined with the genomic backbone of another SARS-related coronavirus to create novel chimeric SARS-related viruses.”
The Senator urged that “these experiments combined genetic information from different SARS-related coronaviruses and combined them to create novel, artificial viruses able to infect human cells.”
Despite Fauci’s denials, this exactly “fits the definition of gain-of-function research,” Paul emphasises, further asking the DoJ to investigate “any materially false, fictions, or fraudulent statement or representation,” Fauci has made on the matter.
“I ask that you investigate whether Dr. Fauci’s statements to Congress on May 11, 2021 violated this statute or any other,” Paul wrote in the letter.
Meanwhile, Fauci appeared on his favourite propaganda platform CNN Sunday and declared that he is considering bringing back mask mandates, even for the fully vaccinated.
Watch:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="7.4260089686099">
TAPPER: "Do you think masks should be brought back for vaccinated Americans?"
FAUCI: "This is under active consideration… Yes, I am part of the discussion." <a href="https://t.co/nJ9Om22rwi">pic.twitter.com/nJ9Om22rwi</a>
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1419359233234120712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2021</a></blockquote>
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ALERT! In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/07/26/germany-vaccinated-will-have-more-freedom-as-unvaxxed-banned-from-cinemas-restaurants/">https://summit.news/2021/07/26/germany-vaccinated-will-have-more-freedom-as-unvaxxed-banned-from-cinemas-restaurants/</a>

revolution summit Germany: Vaccinated “Will Have More Freedom” as Unvaxxed Banned From Cinemas, Restaurants

The feud between Senator Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci continues to evolve, with Paul slamming Fauci this weekend for refusing to actually ans...

Starbucks can’t be America’s bathroom

<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/2/27/21145969/starbucks-coffee-drinks-stores">Starbucks</a> is sort of America’s bathroom. In cities like New York, where public restrooms are <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/02/why-you-cant-find-a-public-toilet-in-nyc.html">hard to come by</a>, it’s the de facto spot to stop and pee. Mike Bloomberg, who <a href="https://nypost.com/2013/10/27/bloomberg-falls-short-on-public-restrooms/">tried to set up</a> a network of public toilets when he was mayor, once reportedly shrugged that perhaps “<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/subverting-starbucks-146749">there’s enough Starbucks</a>” to address the city’s bathroom needs anyway.
But Starbucks is an imperfect public toilet because providing a public toilet is not the point of Starbucks. It has tried in the past to <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-11-16/starbucks-close-public-restrooms-manhattan-locations">limit its facilities to employees</a>, or, at the very least, to require people using those facilities to buy something first. That proved to be a <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/5/19/17372164/starbucks-incident-bias-bathroom-policy-philadelphia">problematic system</a> after employees at a Philadelphia Starbucks in 2018 called the police on two Black men who asked to use the bathroom while waiting for a business associate. And so, the coffee giant has begrudgingly accepted its fate as many passersby’s emergency loo.
The solution is far from ideal. But in many places in the US, there aren’t many immediate alternatives. The government has failed to meet a very basic biological need, and so a private company fills part of the gap.
Across various segments of American life, the private sector has begun to take on tasks big and small that one might think should be tackled by the public sector. Domino’s <a href="https://www.eater.com/2018/9/7/17831586/dominos-potholes-paving-for-pizza-towns">filled in potholes</a>. Dawn’s dish soap <a href="https://dawn-dish.com/en-us/dawn-saves-wildlife">saved ducks</a>. American Express <a href="https://about.americanexpress.com/corporate-responsibility/philanthropy/we-sustain-communities/default.aspx">pitched in</a> on historic preservation. Walmart <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/29/walmart-unveils-low-price-analog-insulin-amid-rising-diabetes-drug-costs.html">started selling</a> low-priced insulin. A slew of companies <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/tuition-assistance-companies/">help workers</a> pay for school. Much of America’s health care system is still handled through private insurers and your job. As people lose faith in government to act on sweeping issues such as climate change and guns, they’re increasingly <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/17/18139699/companies-nike-patagonia-dicks-politics-kaepernick-trump-ads">looking to corporate America</a> and asking whether there’s something they can do about it. If Congress won’t tackle gun violence, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/28/17061618/dicks-sporting-goods-parkland-gun-sales">maybe Dick’s Sporting Goods can</a> try.
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<figcaption>Earlier this year, Walmart began offering a less expensive version of insulin for Americans who don’t have health insurance or struggle to pay for the diabetes drug.</figcaption>
<cite>Callaghan O’Hare/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite></figure>
It’s not a bad thing for brands and companies to try to make the world better. Starting a business often involves identifying a problem to solve, and it’s much better for companies to help than to do harm. <a href="https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/corporate-social-responsibility-examples">Corporate social responsibility is fine</a>. There are, however, limits.
“Of course we want businesses to be responsible,” said Suzanne Kahn, managing director of research and policy at the Roosevelt Institute. But she emphasized that this does not constitute a plan for how to organize society. “Private companies don’t, can’t, or won’t plan with the same values that we demand and expect the government to.”
Companies have a profit motive and are ultimately accountable to shareholders. Doing what’s lucrative often doesn’t align with what’s best for most people, and when they do nice things, it’s often because they know it will play well with consumers and workers. Domino’s helped fill some potholes <a href="https://www.prweek.com/article/1497341/dominos-paving-pizza-campaign-proves-people-passionate-potholes">because it was good advertising</a> for pizza pickup customers, not because it’s overly concerned about the future of America’s bridges and roads. The issue is, the entity that should be driving the bus on America’s bridges is kind of asleep at the wheel.
The private sector is increasingly encroaching on the government’s space because the government is leaving so much space to begin with. Corporations are swooping in with solutions because the solutions coming from public officials and entities aren’t working or are nonexistent.
“I don’t think it’s bad for a company to say we’re going to do the Paris climate accord,” Kahn said. “It’s bad when we as a country say we’re going to let companies do what should be a public responsibility.”
At the start of the pandemic, the airwaves were filled with <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/8/21212435/coronavirus-tv-ads-mcdonalds-toyota-state-farm-dominos">commercials</a> from brands promising solidarity and support. Corporate America was eager to reassure us “we’re all in this together” and highlight the myriad ways they were supporting their customers and workers. Insurers <a href="https://www.progressive.com/support/covid19/">paused</a> policy cancellations. Telecom companies <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21231803/verizon-extends-15gb-of-extra-data-deal-to-customers-through-may">gave away extra data</a>. Retailers started calling their workers “heroes” and, in some cases, giving them hazard pay.
But many companies were here for us on Covid-19 <a href="https://www.vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-economy-recession-stock-market/2020/7/24/21334368/pandemic-related-perks-benefits-disappearing-essential-workers-starbucks-covid-19">until about the summer of 2020</a>, after which many of those pandemic-related perks and benefits expired. Stores <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/16/21258834/coronavirus-essential-workers-hazard-pay-kroger-target-covid">halted hazard pay</a> for workers even though the hazard was far from over. Creditors <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/covid-19-deferment-period-ending-what-to-do-2020-7">wound down debt deferrals</a>. We were all in this together for a limited time only. Ultimately, it was big government programs, such as stimulus checks, unemployment insurance, and eviction moratoriums, that would make the biggest difference in people’s pandemic lives.
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside><q>“It’s bad when we as a country say we’re going to let companies do what should be a public responsibility”</q></aside>
</div>
It’s illustrative of the greater landscape: The private sector can and should play a role in addressing society’s issues, but it will only do so to a point. Kroger just isn’t going to pay its workers an extra couple of dollars an hour forever if it doesn’t have to. The airlines <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/around-35-000-people-could-lose-their-job-tonight-if-n1241588">started laying off workers</a> the minute government funding dried up. <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2020/10/7/21504134/trump-covid-19-vaccine-operation-warp-speed-debate">Operation Warp Speed</a> for the vaccines wasn’t going to be undertaken by pharmaceutical companies on their own.
Companies are under increasing pressure from their workers and consumers to do the right thing. According to a <a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/kantar-consumers-want-brands-to-take-stance-on-social-issues-but-demograp/579618/">report</a> from Kantar Monitor, more than two-thirds of consumers expect brands to be clear about their values, and nearly half of millennials and Gen Z expect brands to be brave and speak out. Research suggests that when companies do a good deed, their products <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-companys-good-deeds-can-make-consumers-think-its-products-are-safer-132234">are perceived as safer</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/2010/05/26/microsoft-google-apple-ford-cmo-network-most-inspiring-companies.html?sh=2cbc971b4141">consumers are drawn in</a>. Employees also have high expectations of their workplaces — being on the “right side” of issues such as climate and race can be a useful recruiting tool. But what matters more than companies talking a big game on helping their communities is <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22453449/corporate-tax-jeff-bezos">whether they’re backing that up</a>, or what else they’re doing in the background.
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<figcaption>Demonstrators protest against Amazon’s working conditions and company policies in front of the the investment firm Blackrock, one of the company’s largest shareholders, in Washington, DC, on May 24.</figcaption>
<cite>Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Companies have money and power, and major multinational corporations are often the only entities besides government with the clout to influence societal forces, said Jerry Davis, a professor of management at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “It’s very clear that some of the problems that we want to have solved are going to take scale, and that’s the kind of scale that only a government or a really big business can pull off. And if we don’t trust the government to do it, that just leaves Walmart and Amazon,” Davis said.
Alice Korngold, a corporate governance consultant, echoed the idea that companies are often the ones with the weight to tackle major global issues — though sometimes, once you dig deeper, the situation becomes much more muddled. “I’d never say, ‘This company is doing a particular thing, then this company is great!’ And it’s really industries that are often culpable for creating situations that need to be addressed,” she said. She explains that, far from alleviating collective problems, some industries are complicit in creating them, pointing to the fossil fuel industry, a notorious driver of pollution and waste.
If Walmart were to decide to stop selling factory-farmed meat or were to commit to selling only LED lighting, it could have a real impact on the environment. But companies can’t always, or even often, be trusted to wield all of their powers for good.
“We need big to do some good things, and yet big can be really bad,” Davis said. “Big in the hands of Mark Zuckerberg is a nightmare.”
The cynical view of companies acting as a benevolent force in the world is that they’ll only do so to the extent that it somehow benefits their bottom line or is good marketing. That cynical view is sometimes borne out in reality.
Take the example of the internet. The government has given private companies billions of dollars to try to expand broadband internet access across the United States and often relied on going through telecom companies to expand <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/new-york-city-verizon-internet/">urban</a> and <a href="https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/why-rural-areas-cant-catch-a-break-on-speedy-broadband/">rural</a> broadband alike. But some companies have <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/centurylink-frontier-took-fcc-cash-failed-to-deploy-all-required-broadband/">taken the public cash without fulfilling their end of the bargain</a>, or used public financial support to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/17/verizon-emergency-broadband-benefit/">further their private financial interests</a>. Still, millions of Americans don’t have fast, reliable internet because it’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/9/10/21426810/internet-access-covid-19-chattanooga-municipal-broadband-fcc">just not lucrative for telecommunications companies to get it to them</a>. Americans who live in remote or low-income areas won’t generate a return on investment.
And yet, we keep looking to private companies to help fix America’s broadband problem because the government isn’t there to do it. The government doesn’t think about the internet the way it does, say, electricity — as in something everyone should have. It’s hardly the only example of the public sector ceding territory or leaving to the private sector tasks reasonable minds might think it should take on.
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside><q>“We have to recognize that sometimes privatization arises because other systems don’t work”</q></aside>
</div>
The 1980s and ’90s saw a shift in political rhetoric to shrinking the reach of the government. Ronald Reagan told us, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” George H.W. Bush declared, “Read my lips, no new taxes.” Bill Clinton announced, “The era of big government is over.” The neoliberal idea took hold that the government should set the rules of the road and take on some challenges, but the private sector and marketplace are equipped to do much of the driving. Lower the taxes paid by the rich and by corporations, the thinking goes, and hopefully their money will trickle down and they’ll put it to good use.
“The premise of a kind of market-leaning libertarian is that the pursuit of private self-interest in the marketplace, aggregated across many actors, will turn out to be socially beneficial,” said Rob Reich, a professor of political science and philosophy at Stanford.
That’s not, in practice, how the market often works. The US has left health care up to private insurers in the Affordable Care Act, ultimately leaving a public option by the wayside. The result: a health care system that is still exorbitantly expensive. There are countless stories of GoFundMe drives that are supposed to be heartwarming, where people <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-crowdfunding-medical-expenses-bernie-sanders-154557626.html#:~:text=The%20JAMA%20research%20found%20that,and%20raised%20about%20%243.7%20billion.">raise billions of dollars</a> through a private internet platform to cover expenses for health costs or other financial setbacks in their personal lives. As to how heartwarming these stories actually are, well, your mileage may vary — it’s not ideal that a crowdfunding platform has taken the place of a more robust public system to cover health costs.
“Privatization, I think, is a very bad solution to certain problems. But I do think we have to recognize that sometimes privatization arises because other systems don’t work,” said Chiara Cordelli, a political philosopher at the University of Chicago and author of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/9780691211732/the-privatized-state">The Privatized State</a>, which makes the case that privatization and government outsourcing weaken the legitimacy of the state.
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<figcaption>President Biden visits the the Pearl Ice Cream Parlor in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on June 29. The trip was scheduled to tout his multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plans that encompass everything from better bridges to broadband access.</figcaption>
<cite>Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Americans are also losing faith in the ability of government to act. According to <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx">Gallup</a>, just 18 percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in big business. Their faith in Congress, however, is somehow even lower, at just 13 percent.
It’s understandable, given so much of the gridlock in Washington, DC. In the current balance of power, Democrats hold the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate — and they’re still struggling to get major legislation passed. Republicans won’t go along with much of what Democrats want to accomplish, and Democrats are unwilling to make the changes (as in, abolishing the filibuster) necessary to push their agenda through. Capitol Hill has failed over and over to make real reforms on issues such as guns and immigration and climate. Many companies — which are subject to the pressures of their consumers and their employees — have at least tried. But, again, that trying has limits.
“We have these big, public, global and national problems that we need to address, and that’s not the length of time at which they think, it’s not the scale at which they think,” Kahn said. “And if they’re choosing to put some of these values front and center, we certainly cannot count on them to be thinking about how equitably their moves are affecting different communities.”
With threats as big and imminent as the Covid-19 outbreak or climate change, it’s important to have an all-hands-on-deck approach that draws in various players: the government, private companies, nonprofits, and philanthropy. And there are plenty of smart people who argue that while private entities are not the answer to the world’s problems, they need to play a role.
“You can look at almost every major issue of today ... and it requires, to solve it, going across all these sectors and aligning interests, whether it’s homelessness, whether it’s climate action, whether it’s racial equity, what have you. None of this is going to be solved by government alone or by the private sector,” said William Eggers, the executive director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights.
“The role of government absolutely should be to protect our public interest,” Korngold said. “The problem is that so many problems are global, and the governments are national.”
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<figcaption>Bill Gates visits Ghana in 2013 to meet with government and health officials on ways to combat global health problems.</figcaption>
<cite>Pius Utomi EkpeiI/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Still, finding a balance is tricky. Take the example of <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/17/18141181/foundation-charity-deduction-democracy-rob-reich">billionaire philanthropy</a>, which is often an outgrowth of extraordinary success in the corporate world. It’s nice that rich guys are trying to have a positive influence on the world. It’s also hard not to wonder whether said rich guys shouldn’t just be <a href="https://www.vox.com/22569105/how-rich-avoid-tax-warren-buffett">taxed more</a>, or why the US and the world are in a spot where private entities, whether it be <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/11/21133298/bill-gates-melinda-gates-money-foundation">Bill Gates’s charity</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/16/21069827/twitter-microsoft-linkedin-public-charge-trump-immigration-tech-companies">his company</a>, are filling in such obvious public spaces.
The government is by no means a perfect actor. But it is leaving problems to the private sector to address what it feels like should be directly in its purview, whether it be providing citizens basic health care or filling in a pothole in the street.
Even decent outcomes, like Starbucks as a forced public bathroom, can feel pretty uneasy. The pandemic gave it a good reason to shut those restrooms down, meaning suddenly a solution many people had adopted was no longer available. And even in normal times, it’s a little awkward to sneak by the barista without buying a coffee or muffin or water first. That’s because it is, and a private coffee company shouldn’t be standing in as a public restroom in the first place.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22585831/starbucks-bathroom-privatization-government">https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22585831/starbucks-bathroom-privatization-government</a>

vox Starbucks can’t be America’s bathroom

Starbucks is sort of America’s bathroom. In cities like New York, where public restrooms are hard to come by , it’s the de facto spot to st...

Why LeVar Burton’s Jeopardy! quest feels so meaningful

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/McujvIzukWqBHa44qo7WkNmqHGI=/1343x654:4136x2116/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22735709/1211656455.jpg" /></div>
Game shows aren’t exactly known for generating hugely anticipated “event television” viewing — but when LeVar Burton hosts Jeopardy! for five days beginning July 26, he may deliver the rare exception. That’s because Burton’s hosting stint is largely the result of a widespread social media campaign to land him the gig, and many people hope it will be a precursor to his full-time assumption of the role long filled by <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/8/21112177/alex-trebek-jeopardy-dies">Alex Trebek</a>.
Burton, who <a href="https://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2436">won an episode</a> of Celebrity Jeopardy! in 1995, first expressed interest in hosting Jeopardy! at least a decade ago, long before Trebek’s May 2019 announcement that he had been diagnosed with aggressive pancreatic cancer. At the time, Burton seemed to merely be floating the idea that he might succeed Trebek someday, upon the host’s eventual retirement. In 2020, however, after social media chatter about Burton hosting surfaced a few months before Trebek’s death, Burton <a href="https://twitter.com/levarburton/status/1308249187071320064">restarted the conversation</a>.
Burton is one of a string of guest hosts who have carried the show this year. Beginning in January, public figures and popular Jeopardy! fan favorites, like all-time Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings, have stepped in for weeklong hosting stints which also doubled as potential auditions for the permanent hosting gig. Despite having <a href="https://twitter.com/brentspiner/status/1379489910449528832">public</a> and <a href="https://blackamericaweb.com/2021/07/01/levar-burton-will-hurt-if-not-jeopardy-host/">media</a> <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a36198380/levar-burton-should-be-the-new-jeopardy-host/">support</a>, it’s unclear whether Burton will ultimately get the job.
If Burton does wind up becoming Jeopardy!’s new host, his hiring won’t just fulfill his dream as a <a href="https://people.com/tv/levar-burton-says-it-will-hurt-if-he-doesnt-get-jeopardy-hosting-gig/">lifelong fan of the show</a>. It will also be a mark of how fully internet culture can shape the culture at large.
Hosting Jeopardy! would play directly into Burton’s unique and remarkable onscreen career as well as his ongoing second life as a cultural icon. But beyond just offering us a chance to get reacquainted with a cool TV host, Burton’s Jeopardy! quest offers us a deeper understanding of how we think about celebrity, persona, and nostalgia.
As a kid growing up in the shadow of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, LeVar Burton learned early on to value education as his best weapon for success. His mother, Erma Gene Christian, was a social worker and teacher who raised Burton and his sisters as a single mother in Sacramento, California. “She told me unequivocally,” Burton <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCNCO6XIBU">said</a> in a 2014 interview. “You are going to grow up and you’re going to inherit a world that will probably be hostile to your presence simply because of the color of your skin, and the best thing you can do, the leveler of the playing field for you, is education.” Burton took that mantra to heart — but not before he made an amazing entrance into his professional acting career.
In 1977, at the age of 19, Burton was an undergraduate studying acting at the University of Southern California — a major change from previously <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/11/levar-burton-skeleton/566489/">studying</a> for the Catholic priesthood. Burton was preparing for his first lead role ever (in the school production of Oklahoma!) when the drama department recommended him for his first professional audition, where he won the part of Kunta Kinte in the miniseries Roots.
Based on writer Alex Haley’s novel <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Froots-the-saga-of-an-american-family-27b0aab5-2efd-43bc-abbf-66245f584d22%2F9780306824852&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22557875%2Flevar-burton-jeopardy-hosting-history" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/books/roots-the-saga-of-an-american-family-27b0aab5-2efd-43bc-abbf-66245f584d22/9780306824852\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/culture/22557875/levar-burton-jeopardy-hosting-history\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22321916__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/books/roots-the-saga-of-an-american-family-27b0aab5-2efd-43bc-abbf-66245f584d22/9780306824852","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/culture/22557875/levar-burton-jeopardy-hosting-history","xcust":"___vx__p_22321916__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>Roots: The Saga of an American Family</a>, the miniseries traced Haley’s own lineage through fictionalized, apocryphal narratives of what happened to his ancestors after they were abducted and sold into slavery in the US. The story followed several generations of Black characters who struggled to survive and maintain their family connections despite ongoing abuse and trauma.
Roots was a major TV landmark. Its eight episodes were viewed by more than 130 million Americans, setting <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2016/05/roots-miniseries-ratings-were-off-the-charts.html">viewership records</a> that still stand today; it <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/388646642821358311/">made the cover of Time magazine</a>; it received a staggering 37 Emmy nominations, winning nine.
But if Roots was a historic moment for television, it wasn’t without controversy. In retrospect, it’s hard for many not to view the miniseries as a <a href="https://deadline.com/2016/05/snoop-dogg-roots-boycott-video-1201764578/">gratuitous display of abuse</a> — a narrative of misery porn that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=18sDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA146#v=onepage&q&f=false">psychologically wounded Burton</a> while filming, and one we would roundly critique today; as critic Frank Rich <a href="https://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/liberal-feel-bad-movies-2013-11/">wryly put it</a> in 2013, “In a day when there were still only three networks to choose from in prime time and home video recording was a novelty, Americans rushed to their sets each night to see how slavery turned out.”
Nonetheless, Roots’ cultural impact was undeniable — and as the show’s main character, the original kidnapped slave who was brought to America from The Gambia, Burton’s Kunta Kinte made perhaps the most indelible impact of all.
Images of Kunta Kinte, bound in chains and an enormous slave collar but still defiant, or tied to a whipping post but refusing to call himself by the slave name given to him, still resonate. When <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/9/6/17820158/colin-kaepernick-eric-reid-collusion-grievance-protest-settlement">Colin Kaepernick</a> showed up for his widely publicized NFL tryout in 2019, after having been previously shut out of the league for kneeling during the national anthem as a protest against police brutality, he did so <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/17/us/colin-kaepernick-kunta-kinte-meaning-trnd/index.html">wearing a shirt</a> emblazoned with Kunta Kinte’s name. The reference made an apt role model for a man who was refusing to accept the NFL’s ostracism. In Roots, after Kunta repeatedly tries and fails to escape, his captors cut off part of his foot, a scene <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/16/17244186/kendrick-lamar-pulitzer-prize-damn-first-rapper">Kendrick Lamar</a> references in his 2015 hit “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRK7PVJFbS8">King Kunta</a>”: “King Kunta — everybody wanna cut the legs off him / Kunta, Black man taking no loss.”
If Burton had never acted again, we would still be talking about him in 2021 — that’s how important Kunta Kinte was and is. But Burton would go on to hold two long-term roles that would make him even more of a fixture in households across the US: one as Geordi La Forge, the blind lieutenant commander of the starship Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and one as the host of the PBS children’s series Reading Rainbow.
<a href="https://ew.com/article/2007/09/25/star-trek-tng-oral-history/">Burton has said</a> that he got a call to audition for The Next Generation in 1986 because producer Bob Justman remembered how much Burton had loved the original Star Trek; the two had previously worked together and Burton had often talked about the series. Justman convinced Burton to consider The Next Generation by noting the involvement of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in the new spinoff series. (Wesley Snipes also auditioned for the role of Geordi and later hailed Burton as “<a href="https://twitter.com/levarburton/status/1371348283013009411">a greater actor</a>” when Burton got the part instead.) “Gene Roddenberry’s vision was one that really meant a lot to me,” Burton later <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/03/24/596463721/not-my-job-we-quiz-levar-burton-geordi-on-star-trek-on-geordie-shore">told NPR</a>. “It said when the future comes, there’s a place for you. Seeing Nichelle Nichols [the Black actress who played <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2015/8/3/9090201/star-trek-nichelle-nichols-nasa-sofia">Uhura</a> in the original series] on the bridge of that ship meant that when the future got here, there was a place for people who looked like me.”
A blind engineer who was able to pilot the ship thanks to a vision-enhancing device, Geordi <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-one-thing-about-geordi-that-levar-burton-wishes-sta-5925015">inspired</a> legions of sci-fi fans, including fans with disabilities. Even more importantly, Geordi’s identity as a Black character who wasn’t primarily defined by his blackness was hugely important to Burton, who had declared repeatedly early on in his career that he didn’t want to be pigeonholed into playing stereotypes. “I have always said, as an actor, I want to not only recreate life specifically through the black experience, I want to be a human being in the roles that I play,” he <a href="https://archive.org/stream/childrentelevisi00unit/childrentelevisi00unit_djvu.txt">told Congress</a> in 1983, “and a black man could be a doctor or a lawyer in any given situation, and not always have to have come specifically from the ghetto.” It’s an idea that has become quite prominent over the last decade of cultural conversation, and Burton was among its pioneers. Burton went on to play Geordi through all seven seasons (1987–1994) of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as in four spinoff films.
Yet Burton’s most influential role was not as the pilot of the Enterprise, but his longtime gig as host of PBS’s Reading Rainbow, an immersive storytelling and education show for kids that premiered in 1983. Each week, Burton built a fun adventure and learning experience around a different children’s book — one week he’d go on a jungle safari, the next he’d don a snorkel and dive among the coral reefs.
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During its original run from 1983 to 2006, Reading Rainbow was nominated for two primetime Emmys and won 26 daytime Emmys. Burton himself picked up 15 nominations and two wins as outstanding host of a children’s show. Even more significant was Reading Rainbow’s actual impact on education; a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140713004032/https://current.org/wp-content/themes/current/archive-site/ed/ed721s.html">survey</a> conducted by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1997 found that teachers used Reading Rainbow in their classrooms more than any other PBS kids’ show.
Reading Rainbow ended in 2006 due to funding cuts. Across its 21 seasons, the series helped kids develop not only a deeper love of reading, but a better understanding of the world. Crucially, it also provided a powerful positive image of a young, well-educated Black man in an era when such depictions were rare — when criminologists and politicians were instead branding young Black men as “<a href="https://eji.org/news/superpredator-myth-20-years-later/">superpredators</a>.”
That positive onscreen image was further strengthened by Burton’s engaging personality. Burton found his calling through Reading Rainbow; he now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/28/magazine/levar-burton-interview.html">describes</a> his life’s purpose to the New York Times as “bringing healing ... joy ... information, education, [and] enlightenment through storytelling.”
Meanwhile, the story the public has created about LeVar Burton is just as significant as the many stories he’s been telling us for decades.
When the public considers the next Jeopardy! host, it’s easy to see a link between the public persona of Burton and that of Alex Trebek. They’re both purveyors of erudite wisdom, education, and general positivity. Burton’s role as Reading Rainbow’s host also situates him within a collective of PBS show hosts whose wholesome positive energy and sage curiosity are unblemished in the cultural consciousness. Alongside “happy little cloud” painter Bob Ross and kindly cardigan-wearing neighbor Fred Rogers, the gentle mentorship Burton delivered from afar to countless kids over the decades made him a trusted figure. All three men have become culturally revered and lavished with nostalgic veneration.
Speaking of Rogers to the New York Times, Burton noted that they both trained to enter the clergy, and both shared values of authenticity, service, and self-acceptance long before they became legendary PBS children’s show hosts. “He taught me that it was okay to use television as a ministry,” Burton <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/levar-burton-roots-star-trek-the-next-generation-reading-rainbow/">later recalled</a> to Mo Rocca. “[T]hat it was possible to enlighten while entertaining.”
Burton’s connection to Ross is less direct — Ross hosted the long-running PBS series Joy of Painting, which overlapped with much of Reading Rainbow’s run until Ross’s death from cancer in 1995 — but it might be even more important in understanding Burton’s trajectory toward his current position in the cultural consciousness. With the rise of social media in the early 2010s, Ross’s cultural reputation became elevated to internet sainthood, in a moment of public recognition and collective celebration that would later be repeated for both Rogers and Burton.
Ross’s cultural ascension arguably peaked around 2012, when PBS made and remixed Ross’s soothing, encouraging aphorisms into a viral autotune mashup, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA">Happy Little Cloud</a>.” That same year, for what would have been Ross’s 70th birthday, he was honored as the subject of a <a href="https://www.google.com/doodles/bob-ross-70th-birthday">Google Doodle</a>. Ross became a fixture of internet culture as a chill force of positivity and goodness, and the public came to see him as an unsullied paragon of virtue.
Social media was vital to this process, because PBS show hosts of yore weren’t typical celebrities. They didn’t occupy the media limelight or walk red carpets annually; they didn’t exist in the public consciousness the way other celebrities might. So it wasn’t, really, until the internet allowed people to come together to share their appreciation for Ross and similar public figures — people whom we might think of as “soft power celebrities” — that a cultural consensus began to emerge regarding their significance.
Once social media built a narrative about Bob Ross as everyone’s favorite hippie dad artist teacher, other consensuses emerged even more rapidly about similar men (to date, nearly always men) who have filled similar roles: wildlife expert Steve Irwin, Muppets creator Jim Henson, and chef Anthony Bourdain, for example. (It’s notable, perhaps, that LeVar Burton has achieved that categorization while he’s still alive, rather than posthumously.) That cultural conversation started to coalesce for Burton around the same time it was peaking for Bob Ross — as we see in this 2012 episode of Community when Troy (<a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/12/6/16681382/donald-glover-recode-100-actor-standup-fx-atlanta">Donald Glover</a>) meets Burton and can’t handle it because he’s afraid of “disappointing” his childhood idol:
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In 2015, Burton zoomed back into the cultural spotlight when he launched a Kickstarter to revive Reading Rainbow. The project sought to put more books, teaching, and educational materials into classrooms and on the web for virtual access, with much of the content hosted by Burton. Building off the public’s love and nostalgia for the original Reading Rainbow series, and aiming to expand a Reading Rainbow app that Burton had released the year before, the Kickstarter was a huge success: It <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/levar-burtons-reading-rainbow-beats-veronica-mars-kickstarter-backer-record/">surpassed the backer record</a> then held by a campaign to make a Veronica Mars movie, ultimately raising $5.4 million from 105,000 people.
As Adrienne Raphel <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-limits-of-reading-rainbow">noted</a> in the New Yorker at the time, “Reading Rainbow’s campaign hits the Internet’s sweet spot: millennial nostalgia; a kitschy, easily parodied theme song; an Upworthy-worthy goal of putting books in every child’s hands nationwide.” Ultimately, Burton’s attempt to bring back the original Reading Rainbow as a TV series seems to have fizzled; thanks to a <a href="https://current.org/2017/10/wned-and-levar-burton-terminate-licensing-deal-for-reading-rainbow/">bevy of disputes</a> with the Buffalo TV station that originally produced the show, Burton wound up diverting most of the Kickstarter funds into a renamed service called <a href="https://www.skybrary.org/skybrary">Skybrary</a> that offers interactive content to paid subscribers.
Still, despite the dilution of its original goal, the Kickstarter put Burton on a fast track toward pop culture deification, as did the 2017 launch of his podcast <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/18/17120694/levar-burton-reads-science-fiction-fantasy-short-stories-podcast-pod-hunters">Levar Burton Reads</a>, in which Burton reads short stories and other literature intended primarily for adults.
Meanwhile, Fred Rogers, a beloved figure who arguably held a similar pop culture saint status, gained even more veneration in 2018, the year of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/7/26/17616380/fred-rogers-documentary-2018-mister-rogers-neighborhood">50th anniversary</a>. The occasion saw numerous public tributes to the show and peaked with the release of the biopic <a href="https://www.vox.com/summer-movies/2018/6/7/17433834/mister-fred-rogers-neighborhood-wont-you-be-my-neighbor-review">Won’t You Be My Neighbor?</a> That same year, someone on Reddit created a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesomememes/comments/9vpocg/the_four_horsemen_of_wholesomeness/">meme</a> titled the “Four Horsemen of Wholesomeness” featuring Ross, Rogers, Irwin, and Henson. As the image macro spread, some meme-makers <a href="https://threadfox.com/products/the-four-horsemen-of-wholesomeness-with-steve-and-levar-burton-version-2?variant=30277313167443">replaced Henson with Burton</a>, perhaps to shore up the educational parallels.
This idea got another boost during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the meme shifted to emphasize their “virtual teaching” styles:
Essentially, Burton benefited from two prominent trends during the 2010s: <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/4/4/18282247/wholesome-memes-culture-aesthetics-aspirational-explained">wholesomeness</a> and increased nostalgia for the ’80s and ’90s. As both trends grew, public affection among Gen X-ers and millennials likewise grew toward many of the TV figures from that era who purveyed positive vibes. Burton was high on that list, and he benefited from his association in the public’s mind with other PBS creatives with pure and gentle reputations.
Those associations ultimately extended to include Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Burton’s cultural ascension peaked just as the public was considering not only how beloved and esteemed Trebek was, but thinking about who might be virtuous enough to carry on his formidable legacy.
Though you might not have heard about it until recently, LeVar Burton has wanted to host Jeopardy! for quite a while. Not only did he compete and win Celebrity Jeopardy! in 1995, but he’s <a href="https://www.thepetitionsite.com/893/997/898/levar-burton-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy/">tweeted</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/StarTrek/status/1026183829097041920">for</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/levarburton/status/1024115559141523456">years</a> about wanting the gig. In 2013, he devoted most of <a href="https://www.serialoptimist.com/conversations/levar-burton-an-icon-seeks-a-new-iconic-role-15977.html">an interview</a> with the blog Serial Optimist to discussing how much he wanted to host Jeopardy!, noting that he’d grown up with the show and believed its legacy should involve a host who had a history with it.
In September 2020, just a few months before Trebek passed away, Burton <a href="https://twitter.com/levarburton/status/1308249187071320064">tweeted</a>, “I feel like I’ve been preparing my whole life to occupy the @Jeopardy host podium when Alex retires.” Then in November, shortly after Trebek’s death, a fan named Joshua Sanders started a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/sony-pictures-entertainment-levar-burton-should-be-the-next-host-of-jeopardy">Change.org petition</a> to make Burton the new permanent host.
“LeVar Burton has inspired and shaped the minds of several generations of trivia-loving nerds,” Sanders wrote. “This petition is to show [Sony Pictures Television, which produces Jeopardy!] just how much love the public has for Burton, and how much we’d all love to see him as the next host of Jeopardy!”
Within days, the petition had received over 20,000 signatures; it currently stands at more than 250,000. Celebrities like Burton’s Star Trek costar Brent Spiner, late-night TV host Stephen Colbert, and actor Dick Van Dyke stepped up to voice their support for Burton. Countless media outlets, unable to resist “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YtYMzh8lxk">I can go twice as high</a>” quips, covered the push to make Burton the host.
Not all coverage was positive. In <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/18/988483549/when-jeopardy-might-announce-a-permanent-host">an interview</a> with journalist and Jeopardy! expert Claire McNear, NPR’s Weekend Edition host Lulu Garcia-Navarro called the social media campaign “bizarre,” and the two women questioned whether Burton had the “humor” and “quick wit” required for the job. They seemed to view the social media push around Burton as gimmicky.
Their reactions seem a bit misguided. Social media campaigning is now so common, it’s somewhat weird to frame it as weird. Burton’s fans clearly believe his hosting Jeopardy! would be socially significant — and it’s difficult to argue otherwise. For one thing, Black men are rarely afforded such prominent platforms on television or anywhere else, so his landing the gig would be a milestone for onscreen representation. For another, Burton has devoted his existing public platform to promoting education, literacy, and general positivity. What might he do with even more resources and visibility — especially hosting a show that has a reputation that’s nearly as spotless as Burton’s own?
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I hope <a href="https://twitter.com/levarburton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@levarburton</a> knows just how cherished and loved he is by the public. The outpouring of support for him to host <a href="https://twitter.com/Jeopardy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Jeopardy</a> is so incredible, especially in these polarized times. It's rare to find unifying common ground.
— Stephanie Guerilus (@qsteph) <a href="https://twitter.com/qsteph/status/1406374251871997953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Throughout its decades-long run, Jeopardy!’s biggest controversies have been minor ones — mostly concerning <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/jeopardy-contestant-addresses-critics-who-felt-he-was-too-arrogant-t218741">arrogant winners</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/5/2/18516852/jeopardy-james-holzhauer-record-winning-streak-hero-villain">card-shark contestant James Holzhauer’s</a> unprecedented mathematical gameplay, which many fans saw as ruinous to the game’s spontaneity and fun. Nothing has sullied either the integrity of Trebek or the game. By contrast, controversies have already brewed around other potential replacement hosts, like <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/11/25/ken-jennings-past-tweets-mocking-the-disabled-surface-after-jeopardy-guest-hosting-announcement_partner/">Jennings</a> and <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dr-oz-backlash-jeopardy-guest-host-disgrace-alex-trebek-224229399.html?guccounter=1">Dr. Oz</a>, after viewers have questioned things they’ve said and done before. Burton may not only be a popular candidate — he may also be one of the few whose public persona is truly squeaky clean. For a show like Jeopardy!, which began as <a href="https://www.history.com/news/quiz-show-scandal-fraud-jeopardy">a more honest alternative</a> to the scandal-laden trivia contests of the ’50s before evolving into a cultural staple, having a host with an equally sterling reputation is critical to its legacy.
That reputation might ultimately be an obstacle to Burton’s originally stated goal of portraying his humanity onscreen; after all, being pigeonholed as a saint may be just as limiting as being pigeonholed as a stereotype. Still, one doesn’t choose sainthood. Perhaps that’s a fitting benchmark in the life of a man who once <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=18sDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA146#v=onepage&q&f=true">wanted</a> to be the first Black pope. Whatever Burton does next professionally, his role as mentor to the masses seems fully established.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22557875/levar-burton-jeopardy-hosting-history">https://www.vox.com/culture/22557875/levar-burton-jeopardy-hosting-history</a>

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