Welcome to the Jim Acosta Morning Memo on a late-summer Wednesday tinged with unequal measures of sadness and joy at the passing of a legend and a national treasure. Stumble to the kitchen for that cup of ambition, and let’s JAMM.
Will Always Love You: The world mourned yesterday as the news broke that the incomparable Dolly Parton has passed away at the age of 80.
The outpouring included a classy tribute by President Joe Biden, and even Donald Trump managed not to mess this one up.
Where It All Began: Jim Acosta shared his connection to Dolly after he dug up a couple of old Dollywood press passes from when he was working at WBIR-TV in Knoxville TN 30 years ago.
Acosta notes that “Dolly was from East TN and a major source of hometown pride. Everybody had stories about Dolly. She was a local legend who performed on tv for the very first time at WBIR.”
Here’s that first performance, via WBIR.
Hey Porter: Dolly wrote “I Will Always Love You” for her mentor and business partner Porter Wagoner. Here’s Wagoner introducing Dolly for the first time on his show in 1967, and telling her "We'll look forward to having you around for a long, long time."
What a blessing that he was right.
Dolly Wouldn’t: Dolly was famous for keeping her political opinions to herself, but some folks are reading between the lines posthumously. Parton refused a Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump — twice — and said she wouldn’t accept one from Biden if it were offered, citing a desire to remain apolitical.
I got offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the Trump administration. I couldn't accept it. I feel like if I take it I'll be doing politics. I don't work for those awards.
Spare Us: A viral post claimed “Republicans defunded her childhood reading program this year btw.”
Verdict: True. Republicans at the state level reduced or voted to reduce Imagination Library funding partnerships over the past two years.
Lying Sexist Bigot: There was also this iconic moment at the 2017 Emmy Awards, during which Dolly reunited with her 9 to 5 costars, and appeared to go along with the bit as they compared Trump to the “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" they kidnapped in that film.
All That Glitters: We could post Dolly Parton clips all day, but we have the rest of the news to get to. This one — Dolly covering Stairway to Heaven — is too good to miss.
Self-’Center’ed: The Trump administration made the despicable threat to demolish the Kennedy Center. Jim Acosta covered the story Tuesday afternoon.
So he’s now holding the Kennedy Center hostage, ladies and gentlemen. That is what is happening right now. He is holding the Kennedy Center hostage.
He’s saying, “A nice arts facility you have there. Be a shame if something happened to it.” He is acting like the mob. And he is saying, “If you don’t put my name back up on the Kennedy Center, I’m going to demolish it.”
And I don’t know in what way could he act more like a criminal?
And Now A Word From Our Sponsor
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Check them out at https://go.snapstream.com/the-jim-acosta-show.
One-Liner Of The Day:
