One Misstep for Dawn. One Giant Leap for Womankind
A new study suggests women astronauts are more efficient. Plus: Ted Cruz's campaign can't tell one Black man from another. And: This was the day a decade ago the world learned my name.
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On this day in 1988, a jury in Seattle, Washington convicted Stella Nickell on two counts of murder. She was the first person to be found guilty of violating the Federal Anti-Tampering Act for putting cyanide in Excedrin capsules in an effort to kill her husband.
And it was on this day in 2013 that the New York Post ruined my life.
Well, not permanently! But the Post’s story about my coming out immediately sparked a wildfire of tabloid headlines, shock-jock jokes and paparazzi staking out my home, my kids, my ABC News colleagues and relatives.
Those members of my family who were not supportive of my transition blamed me for the news coverage, accusing me of orchestrating it or blaming me for sharing my coming out on Facebook as for why it happened. What?! People post photos of their dinner on social media, but I’m to blame for announcing I’m transgender?
What I realized months later were the two reasons I became famous, or infamous: I was the first transgender journalist to come out in a U.S. television network newsroom; And the owner of the Post, Rupert Murdoch, was itching to stick it to Disney, the owner of ABC News, and to make the Mouse look bad for having me in charge of news coverage. Of course, I wasn’t really in charge, but that didn’t stop the tabloids; One outlet even labeled me a network correspondent!
Eventually, all the negative attention set-off a very difficult mental health crisis, which led to a lot of confusion and delusion and, in my view, ultimately cost me my 30-year, Emmy Award-winning career in TV network news.
A few years after my downfall, the newspaper editors were kind enough to finally take down the awful story that set those events in motion. Click here for Business Insider’s copy/paste version of the Post story, which falsely claimed that I just showed up one day at work in an LBD and wig.
“After walking into the ABC News office on Friday in a little black dress and brunette wig, top ABC News editor Don Ennis announced that he would now like to be called ‘Dawn’ and will be making the transition into a woman.”
The Daily Mail wasn’t first but they were far worse:
Although the Post let my bosses know the story was forthcoming, and even offered me an opportunity to provide a quote, what we didn’t know at that time was that former Good Morning America producer Lisa Sharkey, now a senior vice president at Harper Collins, willfully violated a non-disclosure agreement, signed by her colleagues, by leaking details of a memoir I was writing to the tabloid.
Murdoch owns both the Post and Harper Collins. Sharkey later admitted to my literary agent she had done so out of spite, because we decided not to shop the book to her, personally. Sheesh.
Thanks to Sharkey’s sabotage, publishers we had courted subsequently rejected my memoir, owing to all the negative publicity generated by her leak. It contained personal details I had never before revealed publicly, which once revealed, led my mother and other relatives to disown me, and deny what happened to me as a teenager, when I was a child model.
To my surprise, GLAAD gave the Post kudos for its “respectful” coverage of my coming out, not knowing at that time where gossipmonger Tara Palmeri got the dirt on my modeling days. Both she and Sharkey have enjoyed brilliant careers ever since.
If you want to know more about what those days were like for me, I’ll refer you to my old, long defunct blog, lifeafterdawn.com. Enough about me!
Here Now the Actual News
BREAKING: RUSSIA SENDS ARMY OF DRONES TO ATTACK UKRAINE’S CAPITAL —The New York Times
WILDFIRES FORCE EVACUATION OF 30,000 CANADIANS: CBS News
BIDEN TO MEET WITH McCARTHY THIS WEEK ON DEBT LIMIT: NYT
GOLD MINE FIRE IN PERU KILLS 27 WORKERS: New York Post
CHINA’S FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS WITH U.S. ENVOY: NYT
FANS BOO WINNER OF MIAMI GRAND PRIX: CNN
WHAT STARTED THIS BACKLASH AGAINST RACER MAX VERSTAPPEN? —Sports Illustrated
ACTOR RICHARD DREYFUSS SAYS DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STANDARDS IN HOLLYWOOD “MAKE ME VOMIT:” Variety and YouTube
HealthWatch
STUDY FINDS WOMEN ASTRONAUTS ARE MORE EFFICIENT THAN MEN: Phys.org
READ THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE SPACE PROGRAM: NASA
Politicukoos
TED CRUZ CAMPAIGN TEXT CONFUSES TWO BLACK MEN: Rep Colin Allred (D-Texas) is not Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, just so ya know. Just wondering outloud: How many Black people do you think work on the Cruz campaign? Or in his Senate office even? —Jezebel
TransWorld
TWO NATIONAL POLLS SAY MOST AMERICANS DO NOT SUPPORT TRANS RIGHTS: Los Angeles Blade and Washington Post
CONSERVATIVE PUNDIT CLAIMS POLLS SHOW “HUGE MAJORITIES OF AMERICANS AGREE WITH ME: Twitter
JOURNALIST ERIN REED WARNS, THE POST POLL IS NOT NEW: Twitter
OHIO JUDGE RULES TRANSGENDER WOMAN DID NOT COMMIT INDECENT EXPOSURE IN WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM: It’s because she’s fat, apparently. —Fox News
CHICAGO GAY BARS BAN ANHEUSER-BUSCH PRODUCTS: New York Post
ANHEUSER-BUSCH FIRES AD AGENCY BEHIND DYLAN MULVANEY PARTNERSHIP: Washington Examiner
MEANWHILE, DYLAN MULVANEY IS LIVING HER BEST LIFE: Instagram
FORMER WRESTLER MACK BEGGS ACCEPTS OFFER TO FIGHT UFC’S JAKE SHIELDS: Fox News
SHIELDS BOASTED ABOUT IT ON HIS INSTAGRAM
Star Trek Corner
STRANGE NEW WORLDS TACKLES “THE KLINGON CONTROVERSY:” CBR
HOW TO VIEW EVERY SEASON OF EVERY STAR TREK SERIES: Click here to subscribe to Paramount+
That’s all for today! I’ll be back tomorrow with more news to help you rise up and start your day. Until then… May your news be good news!
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