Constructing trust; Murdoch meets with McConnell; R. Kelly sentenced; YouTube's 'accidental media critics;' fifteen years ago today...

View this email in your browser.

Share it on Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe here.

Brian Stelter here at 10:01pm ET on Wednesday, June 29. Here's the latest on Liz Cheney, Lachlan Murdoch, the Supreme Court, Substack, TikTok, Nexstar, and more...

"The construction of trust"

Have you thought about the House's 1/6 committee as a fact-checking apparatus?

Anne Applebaum has. The Atlantic staff writer attended the annual GlobalFact conference earlier this month, and the event informed her insightful new column about the 1/6 hearings.

Fact-checkers and scholars have "often argued that shouting about the objective truth will never work," she wrote, "and that what is needed instead is the construction of trust." She asserted that the hearing organizers have taken that argument to heart by creating, in essence, "a giant fact-checking project designed not only to write an accurate account of what happened in the run-up to the Capitol attack, but to convince people to believe it. The point is not to establish whether some detail that one witness reveals is true or false, but rather to tell a larger story, using a wide range of perspectives, delivered in a manner optimally designed to create trust."

How so? Well, Applebaum contended that Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, is the "single, authoritative voice that unifies the different parts of the story," above and beyond any single witness. This approach, she wrote, "seeks to restore a common framework for generating knowledge — that is, a network of people and institutions and fact-checking mechanisms whose overall story should resist even the attempts to cast doubt on one or another witness. Should, of course, is the operative word here."

This Los Angeles Times headline declared Wednesday that "the campaign to discredit Cassidy Hutchinson has begun." I'd say it has passed the beginning stage and is well underway. But Applebaum's point is that the committee is trying to "construct" trust where it has been lacking in recent years, not with individual facts but with the weight of a full story. "Construction of trust" is a phrase that can light up conversations in newsrooms: How do we / can we / should we participate in this "constructing?"

Fact-checking is under attack

This month's gathering of the International Fact-Checking Network, housed at the Poynter Institute, was the first in-person meeting in three years. And it was "twice the size" of that one, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote Wednesday. He shared some key notes and quotes:

>> IFCN director Baybars Orsek: "Our collective trust in reliable and authoritative information is being attacked by people in power..."

>> Reps of fact-checking organizations "expressed concern about how governments have increasingly sought to influence public opinion by dismissing fact checks or imposing regulations that would limit their impact..."

>> YouTube, which has been under intense pressure from fact-checking groups for perceived faults, "sent a senior executive to address the audience," Kessler noted...

Sign of the times: A "legal support fund" for fact-checkers

As Al Cross remarked, "We have come to a very sad pass in our society when people who make a profession of checking facts need to raise money for lawyers to defend them from harassment and worse." He was reacting to this recent news: The International Fact-Checking Network "has launched a new Legal Support Fund to provide financial assistance to fact-checking organizations that are facing threats of harassment, intimidation and litigation. The fund is made possible by Meta's renewed support and Google News Initiative's yearlong partnership..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- CNN.com's top homepage headline right now: "Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Pat Cipollone in key move..." (CNN)

-- Jake Tapper's Wednesday afternoon scoop: "Hutchinson stands by her testimony amid pushback..." (CNN)

-- Caroline Orr Bueno writes: "One of the goals of disinformation campaigns like the one targeting Cassidy Hutchinson is to discredit the significant points of her testimony by calling into question details about the less-significant/insignificant points. Stay focused on the big picture, which isn't in doubt..." (Twitter)

-- MSNBC's Ari Melber pointed out the "unusual signs of a partial split within the Murdoch media empire..." (Mediaite)

-- Rep. Adam Kinzinger on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Wednesday night: "You're going to know the truth. And when your kids go to school, someday they're going to be taught the truth about Jan. 6 because of the work this committee is doing..." (CBS)

Central casting call?

BY BRIAN LOWRY:

It's been pointed out that Trump often sees people in terms of the media image they convey, a byproduct of his own time in the spotlight. Perhaps inevitably, the way Hutchinson came across on TV played into that mentality, from those who began speculating about who might play her in a movie or miniseries to where my mind went, which was – as much as I wish this wasn't the case – the interest she will surely receive from reality-TV shows, knowing a little something about how those producers think. As MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes put it in a column for The Bulwark, "How did Trump himself see this? He obsesses about appearances, and she was an attractive, poised, and compelling witness. To use Trump's own term, she looked like she was from 'central casting,' and she made for great television. Which is why TrumpWorld absolutely, positively will work feverishly to discredit her testimony. Which, of course, is already underway." Speaking of that...

Examiner editorial board blasts Trump as "disgrace"

The editorial board of the conservative Washington Examiner published a blistering editorial on Wednesday condemning Trump as a "disgrace" who is "unfit for power again." Hutchinson's testimony "confirmed a damning portrayal of Trump as unstable, unmoored, and absolutely heedless of his sworn duty to effectuate a peaceful transition of presidential power," the board wrote. The conclusion: "Republicans have far better options to lead the party in 2024."

>> But this POV is not the one saturating MAGA Media. On Breitbart, for instance, the banner headline read, "Jan 6 🤡 Show Finale." And sites like The Daily Wire and The Gateway Pundit focused on elements of the story that questioned the veracity of the specifics of Hutchinson's testimony. Sean Hannity continued to tear her down on Wednesday night: His show's image of her swearing to the tell the truth was defaced by the words "RUMORS, HEARSAY AND GOSSIP..."

FIRST IN RELIABLE:

Murdoch meets with McConnell

BY OLIVER DARCY:

Lachlan Murdoch met with Mitch McConnell when he visited DC earlier this month, sources familiar with the meeting told Kaitlan Collins and me. It's unclear what the two discussed and spokespeople for Murdoch and McConnell declined to comment or even confirm the meeting took place. But I can imagine that McConnell might have a few gripes to take up with the Fox boss about the coverage he has received on the channel. Namely, Tucker Carlson, who has called McConnell an "instrument of the left," among other things...

Fox viewers continue to tune out 1/6 hearings

BY OLIVER DARCY:

The proof is in the pudding — or in this case, the ratings. Fox News viewers are continuing to tune out the 1/6 hearings en masse, as evidenced by Nielsen numbers. On Tuesday, during the 12pm hour ahead of the hearing, Fox averaged 1.7 million viewers. By the 2pm hour, that number had fallen to 900K — meaning nearly half of Fox's audience fled the channel during Hutchinson's testimony. Of course, the trend was the opposite on cable news channels. CNN's viewership on Tuesday afternoon spiked to 2.6 million and MSNBC's jumped to 3.5 million...

THURSDAY PLANNER

"GMA" will air the first clip from Jon Karl's exclusive interview with the aforementioned Liz Cheney. ABC says the full interview will air on Sunday's "This Week..."

President Biden will hold a presser from the NATO Summit...

The Supreme Court will release its final opinions of the term, and Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement will take effect, leading to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's swearing-in at noon ET...

"Minions: The Rise of Gru" opens in previews...

R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years

"You left in your wake a trail of broken lives," US District Court Judge Ann Donnelly said as she read the sentence. CNN's Sonia Moghe and Dakin Andone have the full story here. "It is a stunning fall for hitmaker Kelly, who won multiple Grammy Awards and released chart-topping music while dodging sexual misconduct allegations for decades," WaPo's Thursday front-page story says. "His is among the highest-profile cases to spring from the #MeToo movement, and the punishment handed down in a Brooklyn federal court is one of the harshest since the movement began..."

Decades, literally decades, of reporting later

Jim DeRogatis reacted to Wednesday's 30-year sentence by calling it "a little less than a year for every year he ruined lives, starting with victim #1, 1991."

DeRogatis is an authority on the subject. As The Guardian noted in May, he "began investigating Kelly in November 2000, after receiving an anonymous fax telling him that: 'Robert's problem – and it's a thing that goes back many years – is young girls.'"

DeRogatis was the Chicago Sun-Times' music critic at the time. He and his colleague Abdon Pallasch "published their first report into Kelly in December 2000," Sirin Kale wrote, and "they assumed the reaction would be so strong that the story would be over, he says. Instead, their investigation – which revealed that Kelly exploited his fame to have sex with a 15-year-old girl – was largely ignored by the national press." The reaction was indifference, he says. He stayed on the story, with the help of victims' parents, and his 2017 story for BuzzFeed News portraying Kelly as a "cult" leader broke through. Documentaries soon followed, including "Surviving R Kelly," and "federal prosecutors opened an investigation." There are many stories, DeRogatis said, "that are still not getting told..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- A "First Amendment confrontation may loom" now that SCOTUS has ruled against a federal right to abortion, Jeremy W. Peters writes... (NYT)

-- "Online searches for abortion medications soared" after Politico's story about the draft decision in May, "according to an analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine." The searches "were higher in states that were more restrictive about reproductive rights or had less access to care..." (MobiHealthNews)

-- Janay Kingsberry's latest: "Gen Z is influencing the abortion debate — from TikTok..." (WaPo)

-- "It's been a rocky first month for White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre," West Wing Playbook says... (Politico)

Clarification of the day

When CNN's Dana Bash asked VP Kamala Harris about 2024 on Monday, Harris said "Joe Biden is running for reelection, and I will be his ticket mate." On Wednesday she rephrased her answer while speaking with reporters: "The president intends to run and if he does, I will be his ticket mate. We will run together." CNN's Arlette Saenz reported that Harris specifically "sought to make such a clarification over concerns about FEC rules, a source with knowledge of the concerns said." The word "intends" means that Biden is not an active, formally declared candidate…

FCC commissioner wants TikTok removed

Brendan Carr has called on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their respective app stores, citing a recent BuzzFeed News probe that found ByteDance's Chinese staff had access to US user data. Carr made his recommendations to the companies in a June 24 letter in which he wrote that the allegations TikTok faces prove it is "out of compliance with the policies that both of your companies require every app to adhere to." CNN's Brian Fung has more here...

>> Neither Apple nor Google have commented. TikTok, however, has described the BuzzFeed News story as "misleading..."

>> BuzzFeed says it "stands categorically behind our reporting that US user data was accessed by China-based TikTok employees far more frequently than previously known, and we're glad that TikTok even confirmed this in its own statement..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- "Journalists from leading international media organizations, including Reuters and CNN, have been barred from covering official ceremonies during Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to Hong Kong later this week..." (CNN)

-- Antonio de la Cruz, a journalist for Expreso, is the latest journalist to be killed in Mexico... (Reuters, CNN)

-- Slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh's brother is seeking US help "holding Israel to account..." (WaPo)

-- "A new report from Northwestern University's journalism school" indicates that "over 360 newspapers have closed since just before the start of the pandemic," Isabella Simonetti writes... (NYT)

Layoffs at Substack...

"Today's the saddest day we've had at Substack," CEO Chris Best wrote. The startup decided to lay off "13 of its 90 employees on Wednesday," the NYT's Ben Mullin wrote, calling it "part of an effort to conserve cash amid an industrywide funding crunch for start-ups." Best told employees "that Substack had decided to cut jobs so it could fund its operations from its own revenue without raising additional financing in a difficult market, according to the person with knowledge..."

...And at Patch

Patch, the well-regarded local news operation with lots of "patches" across the country, made cuts across the company on Wednesday, including in editorial. Andy Truc Nguyen, who was one of the affected staffers along with "at least 17 other journalists," said "we were told economic conditions required a restructuring of the company." Eileen O'Gorman said the "entire copy editing desk" and "nearly half of the sales team" was let go...

CJR dives into the Punchbowl

BY OLIVER DARCY:

Adam Piore on Wednesday published a deep-dive into the Capitol Hill-focused digital news org Punchbowl. Writing for CJR, Piore described Punchbowl as "avowedly agnostic with respect to partisanship, but devoutly observant of politics." He further described founders Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer as working around the clock, rising "every morning in time to record a podcast at 5am, put out their first newsletter of the day sometime after 6am," and then continue working into the afternoon and evening as they host events and put out additional newsletters to paying subscribers. Read the full piece here...

>> Notable nugget: "Annual 'membership' to Punchbowl costs three hundred dollars; as of late 2021, at least three thousand people had signed up; around a hundred thousand got the free version..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

Nexstar "close to a deal" for The CW

The WSJ's Joe Flint with the scoop: Nexstar "is close to a deal" to acquire majority control of the CW Network from co-owners Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, according to people familiar with the matter." With the usual caveat that the talks could fall apart, Flint reports that the agreement "could be finalized in the coming weeks." He has lots of details here. The companies are not commenting...

>> Context: "Nexstar already is the largest owner of CW affiliates. By taking over control of its operations, the broadcaster is continuing a strategy to invest further in creating and owning content. Over the past few years, it has launched the NewsNation cable channel and acquired the political news outlet The Hill..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

"The Accidental Media Critics of YouTube"

Adlan Jackson's must-read for NYT Mag is about "one of the most popular genres of videos online." It's meta: Clips of "internet-video figures dissecting the output of other, more popular internet-video figures" has "become its own small ecosystem." One of the questions Jackson raises: "Are they comedians or media critics?"

Fifteen years ago today...

BY JAMIE MAGLIETTA:

Today marked 15 years since the first iPhone went on sale. The device transformed the way we consume media as it "ushered in the age of the smartphone, altering the way we use the internet, communicate — and take photos." The birthday also ushered in nostalgic posts on social media. Tony Fadell, who co-created the iPod and iPhone tweeted this photo of the original iPhone team.

>> CNN re-lived 2007 by posting a video from the Vault, reminding viewers of the countdown clock leading up to the debut, the long lines, and the media coverage around the launch...

>> WSJ recognized iPhone's 15 years with a documentary looking at how the innovation "shaped a generation..."

>> CNET's Ian Sherr writes, how after 15 years of the iPhone, "we're all still waiting for that next big thing..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

BY LISA RESPERS FRANCE:

-- George Clooney and Julia Roberts have reunited for their first rom-com in years. They play a divorced couple who unite to stop their daughter's wedding in "Ticket to Paradise..."

-- Sam Asghari appeared on "GMA" and talked about his "surreal" marriage to Britney Spears...

-- Danny Bonaduce says he still doesn't have a diagnosis for a mystery illness which left him unable to walk or talk...

Charting the "Black Comedy Revolution"

BY BRIAN LOWRY:

"Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution" can't entirely cover a subject of that breadth, but it comes pretty close, from Dick Gregory's pioneering standup during the civil-rights movement to Bill Cosby (a bit grudgingly, admittedly) becoming America's dad to Richard Pryor, the template, the comics say, for most of what followed. The only quibble might be the title, since a key point is that in troubled times that call out for biting satire, there's almost an obligation to offend, not merely a right...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

-- The BET Awards ratings were up 35% this year... (Variety)

-- 007 won't be around for a couple more years. James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli also dished "nobody's in the running" yet to play the British spy... (Deadline)

-- Cameron Diaz is heading out of retirement to star in a Netflix film with Jamie Foxx called "Back in Action..." (THR)

-- Bringing this newsletter full circle from its lead, Kate Winslet will star in and exec produce the HBO miniseries "Trust..." (Wrap)

-- NBC has set its fall premiere dates... (TV Line)

LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST...

Pet of the day!

Reader John Styll emails: "This is Oscar, rescued through EmmyLou Harris' Bonapart's Retreat organization in Nashvile 10 years ago. He got that name because he was a grouch. Here, he displays his attitude until I finish reading Reliable Sources. (He barks at the TV version)..."