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Alex Trebek RIP

As if you needed another reason to hate the year 2020, it was announced within the past hour that Alex Trebek has died from cancer. He was 80 years old and had been fighting pancreatic cancer.

Trebek had hosted Jeopardy! for almost 37 years and was an institution. I am a huge fan of the show going back to the Art Fleming days. It just won’t be the same without Alex.

From the release put out by the show today:

JEOPARDY! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends. He was 80 years old.

Alex was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2019, and he continued to host JEOPARDY! for the next 18 months. Throughout that time, Alex was open and public about his battle with cancer. JEOPARDY! episodes hosted by Alex will air through December 25, 2020 (his last day in the studio was October 29). The show is not announcing plans for a new host at this time.

Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Alex hosted dozens of game shows before becoming the host of JEOPARDY! in its syndicated debut in 1984. He hosted more than 8,200 JEOPARDY! episodes over the course of nearly 37 seasons, setting a Guinness World Record for hosting the most episodes of a single game show. Alex won the Daytime Emmy® Award for Outstanding Game Show Host seven times and was honored with Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He received the Order of Canada honor from his nativeland in 2017.

“This is an enormous loss for the JEOPARDY! staff, crew and all of Alex’s millions of fans. He was a legend of the industry that we were all lucky to watch night after night for 37 years. Working beside him for the past year and a half as he heroically continued to host JEOPARDY! was an
incredible honor. His belief in the importance of the show and his willingness to push himself to perform at the highest level was the most inspiring demonstration of courage I have ever seen. His constant desire to learn, his kindness, and his professionalism will be with all of us forever,” said Mike Richards, JEOPARDY! Executive Producer

Alex is survived by his wife of 30 years, Jean, and children Matthew, Emily, and Nicky. The family has announced no plans for a service, but gifts in Alex’s memory could go to World Vision.
“Today we lost a legend and a beloved member of the Sony Pictures family,” said Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “For 37 amazing years, Alex was that comforting voice, that moment of escape and entertainment at the end of a long, hard day for millions of people around the world. He was the heart and soul of JEOPARDY! and he will be deeply missed by everyone who made him part of their lives. Our hearts go out to Jean, Matthew, Emily, and Nicky.”

“We join our colleagues at Sony Pictures in mourning the passing of Alex Trebek,” said Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Corporation. “Alex was an extraordinary talent whose intelligence, wit and comforting presence appealed to millions of people around the world and made JEOPARDY! the outstanding show it is today.”

Poor Shannon – The Internet Never Forgets

We know Shannon Watts as the “stay at home” mom (of five) who founded Moms Demand Action as a response to the Newtown school murders. Public relations experts are very good at spinning myths and that first sentence contains a lot of myth befitting the PR expertise of Watts. Stay at home was always debatable and mom of five is true only if you include two step-children who probably lived with their real mom and not dad’s new younger wife.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal regarding RoundUp weedkiller, Monsanto, and successor company Bayer got me to thinking about Watts’ past corporate affiliations. The article detailed the role that Monsanto played in supposedly objective outside research that said their product RoundUp was safe. You had company scientists reviewing the drafts of outside research and suggesting changes. One wonders what role the public relations experts at Monsanto played in this.

The law firm leading many of the lawsuits against Bayer (which previously merged with Monsanto) is Baum Hedlund Aristei Goldman PC. They have now started posting Monsanto emails found during discovery on their website. I haven’t started searching them yet but I do wonder what name I might discover when I do.

For those that are unaware, long before Shannon Watts was the founder of Moms Demand Action and long before her last name was Watts, she was Shannon Troughton and served as the Director of Global Public and Corporate Affairs for Monsanto from 2001 to 2004. That was a pretty fast advancement for someone who graduated Mizzou a mere seven years earlier. It means she was damn good at spin.

Interestingly, the first article I found linking then-Shannon Troughton with RoundUp was in my former hometown newspaper The Greensboro Daily News and Record. It had to do with a lawsuit filed by Syngenta which has a major facility in Greensboro against Monsanto. Both companies produced herbicides and there was a patent battle.

From the article:

Monsanto spokeswoman Shannon Troughton said the company is “surprised and disappointed with Syngenta’s lawsuit, since our business teams were in the midst of discussions on license terms for their new product.”

She said Monsanto is “confident in the validity” of the patents, which the company “will vigorously defend.”

Troughton added, “If Syngenta wants to face an injunction for product sales in the absence of a license, that’s their business decision.”

Another article quoting her talked about Brazil’s ban on GMO seeds like the Monsanto “Roundup Ready” seeds and her wish that Brazil would allow them in the country. While another article quoting her details Monsanto’s legal war against farmers saving seed.

The bottom line is that every time you hear Shannon Watts dancing in the blood of crime victims in her efforts to push gun control “for the children” remember her background. She’s an expert at pushing the narrative and the only narrative that really matters is the one that personally benefits her the most.

Now it is time to start searching those lawsuit emails for hidden gems.