While You Were Offline: Fox News Is Officially No Longer ‘Fair and Balanced.’ Wait…

It was a long, intense week. America had two shootings, the UK had a terrible fire in an apartment building that (as of this writing) killed 30 people, and the world lost actor Adam West, prompting Los Angeles to fire up the Bat-signal in tribute. And that's just the beginning. Curious what you might have missed online last week? Read on. There's a lot.

Fox News Loses Its 'Fair and Balanced' Motto

What Happened: Fox News dropped its iconic "Fair and Balanced" slogan.

What Really Happened: Fox News has had an exceptionally rocky past few months. It lost its biggest star when Bill O'Reilly was forced out in April and lost its former boss when Roger Ailes died in May. Now, it turns out, it's losing even more: The network is dropping its "Fair and Balanced" motto, apparently in a move to distance itself from the "old" Fox News.

While the media reported breathlessly on the surprising change, Twitter was far more cynical about the whole thing:

The Takeaway: In lieu of "Fair and Balanced," producers have reportedly been asked to use the network's "Most Watched. Most Trusted" motto, which only seems kind of fair and balanced.

Does That Make You the Witch, Mr. President?

What Happened: The Washington Post reported that President Trump is under investigation for obstruction of justice. President Trump called that investigation a "witch hunt."

What Really Happened: Honestly, given everything that's been going on lately, was anyone not expecting this to happen?

In a report written by four people, using no less than five sources, the Washington Post revealed last week that President Trump is, in fact, being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for possibly attempting to obstruct justice in his firing of FBI director James Comey. Was this a big deal? It certainly seemed so to many.

The story was picked up everywhere, because this isn't an everyday thing. Trump responded by calling the whole thing a "witch hunt."

And, it should be noted, not everyone was even convinced of the legitimacy of the investigation in the first place:

Things got even more heated a day later when President Trump tweeted that he was "being investigated for firing the FBI director by the man who told me to fire the FBI director." Ostensibly he was referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who wrote a letter recommending Comey's ouster but also appointed Mueller. That tweet, of course, brought on a whole new wave of conversation and questions.

So, yeah, this is going to be playing out for a while.

The Takeaway: Twitter, care to handle this one?

Jeff Sessions' Memory Loss

What Happened: Jeff Sessions showed up at his Tuesday testimony before Congress, but his memory didn't appear to accompany him.

What Really Happened: The news broke at the start of last week: Attorney General Jeff Sessions was going to make a surprise appearance to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, in a public hearing, to talk about the unfolding investigation into potential collusion between the Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. With the eyes of a nation upon him, expectations for what Sessions would actually reveal were minimal—

—and yet, somehow the reality was even less illuminating, thanks to Sessions repeatedly saying he "couldn't recall" the information he was being asked to provide. Indeed, he used that excuse to avoid answering questions no less than 26 times during the two-and-a-half-hour session, when he wasn't quasi-claiming executive privilege as a reason to avoid other questions.

Twitter noticed Sessions' general evasiveness, and had some thoughts.

Awkwardly, not two days after Sessions testified, the parts of his testimony that he could recall were already being disputed publicly, so perhaps he should've just forgotten the whole thing. Given how bad his memory seems to be, that wouldn't have been difficult.

The Takeaway: How best to respond to the Sessions testimony? Well, it depends which side of the partisan divide you're on. There's this way of looking at things…

…or, you know, there's this:

No-Laughing Matter

What Happened: Steve Harvey told a not-great joke. Twitter called him out for it.

What Really Happened: This one seems almost too dumb to be true, but on his radio show this week, comedian Steve Harvey told a caller from Flint, Michigan, "enjoy your nice brown glass of water" after the two disagreed about Harvey's favorite basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Too far? The media coverage would suggest it is, but Twitter was even less forgiving of the joke.

The Takeaway: You know what? It really was a joke that was, at best, ill-considered and at worst, offensive and ugly. (Not to mention, not very funny.) But what was Steve tweeting about that day? Surely he was apologizing and trying to get out in front of this whole thing…

Oh. OK.

Wonder Woman Got Your Back

What Happened: On the one hand, it's not surprising that Wonder Woman would start a trend amongst fans. On the other, who really expected it to be this trend.

What Really Happened: As always, we're going to try to end this thing on an upbeat note. You know that scene in Wonder Woman where Diana is in disguise at the German ball, and has her sword down the back of her dress? Apparently, the internet liked that scene. (No surprise; the internet liked that movie in general.) Actually, the internet loved that scene. Like, made-up-a-hashtag-for-it loved it.

The Takeaway: Beyond just seeing women inspired by Diana Prince in yet another way, there was something special about this particular trend that we just can't put our finger on…

Oh, yeah. That's it.