Brian Stelter here at 11:22pm ET on Tuesday, July 12 with the latest on Twitter, Google, Ev Williams, ESPN, Margaret Atwood, HBO, the FCC, and more... The hallway video |
Sometimes a news outlet's scoop is a tremendous source of pain for the people involved. This is one of those times in Texas. Family members of some of the children killed in Uvalde are outraged at the Austin-American Statesman and KVUE's publication of surveillance video from inside Robb Elementary School. Texas officials are also furious about the leak. Uvalde mayor Don McLaughlin said the Statesman's actions were "one of the most chicken things I've ever seen." The "hallway video," as it has come to be known, is visual evidence of police officers' actions, and inaction, during the May 24 attack. Families of the victims were expecting to be see the footage on Sunday. Rep. Dustin Burrows, chair of the Texas House committee investigating the school shooting, said Tuesday morning that "we will meet with members of the community first, and provide them an opportunity to see the hallway video and discuss our preliminary report. Very soon thereafter, we will release both to the public." The Statesman and its TV partner KVUE decided not to wait. The paper stated its reasons for publishing. And the TV station did the same when it interrupted afternoon programming -- in this case, ABC's coverage of the Jan. 6 hearing -- to show carefully selected clips from the video. "We're doing this for these people," anchor Bryan Mays said while showing the faces of the dead, "for their families in Uvalde, for the people of the city, and really the people of the state of Texas who have been desperate to learn what happened inside that school back in May." The anchors warned viewers in advance that they would see video of the gunman; hear audio of gunfire; and see police officers waiting and waiting in the hallway outside the classrooms. Importantly, the audio of children screaming was edited out. And the video was not graphic per se. But it was gut-wrenching to watch. "This is not a decision that we have taken lightly," reporter Tony Plohetski, who has been out in front on this story, told viewers. "We have carefully considered what we are doing here." Plohetski said he knew some would disagree, but noted that family members and government officials have called for transparency. "We found ourselves in a position -- once we obtained this video -- that we similarly did not feel it was in our interest to withhold it from the public," he said. Consider his framing: What if you were in charge of a newsroom and you received a leaked copy of the hallway video? Would you withhold it? Conversely, what if your child was murdered at school? Would you want the surveillance video to be seen? The Statesman's explanation Executive editor Manny Garcia wrote in a Tuesday afternoon column that the decision to publish came "after long and thoughtful discussions." The news outlets removed sounds "of children screaming as the gunman enters the classroom," because, Garcia wrote, "we consider this too graphic." "We have also chosen to show the face of the gunman as he enters this school," he wrote. "Our news organization guidelines state that we should not glorify these individuals and give them the notoriety that they seek. We chose, in this instance, to show his face to chisel away at any conspiracy that we are hiding something." In total, two versions of the video were released on Tuesday: Four minutes of "critical moments" and then the entire video that was leaked. According to Garcia, the touchstone was transparency: "This tragedy has been further tragic by changing stories, heroic-sounding narratives proven to be false and a delay or in most cases rejection of media requests for public information by law enforcement leaders, public officials and elected leaders." He pointed out that "this story is part of a much larger public records and legal battle" by media outlets "to obtain all videos of the tragedy, body-camera footage, communications, 911 calls and more."
"Have some freaking decency"
Among some parents and other loved ones, "anger is aimed at both the law enforcement response depicted in the surveillance footage and at the Austin-American Statesman for publishing the video," CNN's Cheri Mossburg wrote Tuesday evening. Some family members posted notes on social media urging others not to share the leaked video. "This is the opposite of what the families wanted!!!!!" Gloria Cazares, whose daughter Jackie was killed, wrote on Facebook. Angel Garza, whose daughter Amerie was killed, said "who in the hell do these people think they are?" He called out local officials, perhaps trying to single out the leaker, and said "you want to go ahead and air their final moments to the entire world. What makes you think that's OK? The least you can do is have some freaking decency for us." CNN's Mary Kay Mallonee and Amir Vera have further reactions here... The bottom line Did the news outlets do the right thing? Did they do it the right way? I suspect this will be debated for a long time. Burrows, who is chairing the House investigation, tweeted that he was "disappointed" that the Uvalde community didn't get to see the footage first. But he also said he was "glad" that some material was now public. Dallas-based entrepreneur and former Obama admin official Brandon Friedman observed that "authorities have had nearly two months to share the video with the families. They should've been shown the video within a week of the shooting. Stop blaming the press." CNN's Shimon Prokupecz framed it this way: "At every turn families in Uvalde have been disrespected. Authorities have had plenty of chances to provide them information. To provide them the video. It didn't happen. Now with days away from them seeing the video — it is leaked." Prokupecz rightly focused on what the video actually shows – for instance, "officers retreating and running for cover in the minutes after they entered the school. Training teaches them to press the fight." That didn't happen. Then they wait, and wait, and wait some more. "Officers standing around doing nothing," he wrote. "This is painful to watch. We know what's on the other side of walls. They seem to have no clue what to do. How is this possible?" |
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THREE OF TODAY'S MEDIA MUST-READS |
-- Max Fisher explores this question: "Has the world entered a time of unusual turbulence, or does it just feel that way?" Despite all the doomscrolling, data shows that, "on many metrics, the world is generally becoming better off..." (NYT) -- "The power and peril of being Adam Schefter, the ultimate NFL insider," by Ben Strauss, could fuel a semester-long journalism school seminar... (WaPo) -- Sirin Kale writes about "the amateur investors ruined by the crypto crash," and why some say they would do it again... (The Guardian) |
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| Twitter v. Musk... Twitter shares rose 4.3% on Tuesday. After the trading day ended, the company formally filed suit against Elon Musk in Delaware, kicking off what could be a very long and very expensive legal fight. Or not? "In conjunction with the complaint, Twitter filed a motion to expedite proceedings in the case, requesting a four-day trial on the dispute to be completed in September," CNN's Clare Duffy wrote. We'll see about that... ...And Musk v. Trump The Twitter drama has opened up a dispute between Musk and Donald Trump. Over the weekend Trump dissed Musk, and on Monday Musk tweeted, "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset." Trump responded with some jabs at Musk on the much smaller platform Truth Social. "Oh, man, we're really going to do this," Bloomberg's Ashlee Vance tweeted. "What happens the two most volatile social media accounts collide?" Musk replied to Vance by laughing, then posting a GIF of Abe Simpson, invoking the "old man yells at cloud" meme. This will surely keep going... >> Teddy Schleifer quipped: "I thought only Mark Zuckerberg could pull off a Mark Zuckerberg — where you somehow piss off both Trump and the left simultaneously — but congrats to Elon Musk for proving me wrong..." |
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President Biden arrives in Israel... Amazon holds its second Prime Day... |
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The seventh 1/6 hearing Former Oath Keepers spokesman Jason Van Tatenhove may have said it best at Tuesday's hearing: "I think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truths." The truth of the Jan. 6 attack, he said, is that "what it was going to be was an armed revolution... This could have been the spark that started the new civil war, and no one would have won there." >> "Perhaps the most unexpected moment of the hearing" was at the very end, when Rep. Liz Cheney raised the possibility of a witness tampering investigation for a second time... >> John Dickerson speaking on CBS about the effects of Trump's lies: "There are still people hearing these messages and that means this threat is ongoing and alive in this very moment..." >> On CNN, Jake Tapper connected the dots between the DC hearing and the Uvalde hallway video, saying, "For our democracy to survive, we need transparency from our public officials. If we do not get it, we get lied to..." |
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-- The NYT/Siena poll of the 2024 GOP primary field shows Trump "weakened," but well ahead of Ron DeSantis and others. Michael Bender's story says "the poll suggested that support from Fox News could prove crucial: Mr. Trump held a 62 percent to 26 percent advantage over Mr. DeSantis among Fox News viewers, while the gap between the two Floridians was 16 points closer among Republicans who mainly receive their news from another source..." (NYT) -- Jim Geraghty wonders: "In a Trump-DeSantis race, which Republican candidate would get more hostile coverage from the mainstream media?" He says he can sense a "sure, Donald Trump was bad, but Ron DeSantis would be even worse" narrative forming... (National Review) -- We wrote about this story last night and predicted it would gain more attention, especially in conservative media. Here's Jonathan Turley writing for NYPost's Opinion section: "Activist tale of a 10-year-old rape victim's abortion looks like a lie..." (NYPost) -- Missed this yesterday: Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan's latest TV ad, titled "Fox News Friends," is airing exclusively on Fox, and is "stuffed with clips of Fox personalities heralding Ryan's 'moderate ideas,'" Henry J. Gomez reports... (NBC) -- "Former A.G. William Barr has been subpoenaed as part of" Dominion's lawsuit against Fox News, Olivia Rubin reports... (ABC) |
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A reminder "of our inherent connection" |
Right now we're "gawking in awe at the universe, together," Shannon Stirone writes in this piece for the NYT about this week's release of images from the James Webb Space Telescope. "Moments like this are rare," she says, "not just because telescopes this powerful are few and far between, but because collective experiences are too, at least ones so overwhelmingly positive. That is its own feat, and it's what space exploration does: It reminds us of our inherent connection. Viewing images like these can also provide a profound sense of insignificance — they offer a sense of proportion and understanding of just how small we are on the grand scale." Read on... |
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BY AN PHUNG: -- Ev Williams is stepping down as CEO of Medium after nearly ten years at the job. He will become chairman of Medium's board and has tapped Tony Stubblebine, CEO of the online coaching company Coach.me, to replace him… (NYT) -- Evlond Cooper writes that Tucker Carlson's latest Fox Nation "documentary" on wind energy "cobbles together many of the same tired, debunked attacks on wind energy, solar power, and climate science that he has promoted over and over again on his weeknight show..." (Media Matters) -- Tracie Powell's new philanthropy Pivot Fund gave a combined $2 million to "seven nonpartisan news outlets in Georgia, all led by people of color and targeted at Black, Hispanic, or Asian-American audiences..." (NiemanLab) -- "A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday struck down a FCC requirement that broadcasters check federal sources to verify sponsors' identities..." (Reuters) |
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Advertisers abandoning Facebook? "Meta's ad problems go beyond the economic slump," Insider's Claire Atkinson, Lucia Moses, and Lara O'Reilly write: "It's not the must-buy it used to be and advertisers are starting to shift dollars elsewhere for the first time. As a result, Meta's expected to lose market share for the first time this year." Here's the full story... |
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ESPN loses its fantasy guru BY FRANK PALLOTTA: Matthew Berry's departure represents the end of an era at ESPN. Fantasy sports is a lucrative business for the network, and Berry was, in many ways, the face of that enterprise. Berry's takes on fantasy sports drove eyeballs and traffic to ESPN airwaves, digital platforms and podcasts... >> The longtime fantasy sports guru did not say what his next step would be. But NYPost's Andrew Marchand reports that "NBC Sports has emerged as the favorite" to pick him up... >> ESPN said it is still "committed as ever to fantasy sports," and will announce "details about programming, personalities, and our games in the weeks ahead..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE |
-- "Google will slow hiring for the rest of the year, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told employees, making the search giant the latest tech company to either pull back on new hires or trim staff..." (WSJ) -- "After seven years at Twitter, Nick Sallon is leaving the nest to join Bloomberg Media as the company's first chief partnerships officer..." (Variety) -- Rebecca Hahn is Twitter's new head of global communications... (Twitter) -- Meera Pattni is Semafor's first head of global comms... (Axios) -- Gothamist co-founder Jen Chung is departing at the end of this week... (Twitter) -- Kaya Yurieff says the once-hot app Clubhouse "has enough cash to figure things out..." (The Information) -- Speaking of The Information, it is rolling out a "new networking system..." (Axios) |
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"Handmaid's" author has a message about Roe v. Wade BY AJ WILLINGHAM: Margaret Atwood, author of the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale," has shared her thoughts on the dissolution of Roe v. Wade with four small words and a coffee cup. The writer posted a photo on Instagram of herself sitting in a chair, holding a mug with the phrase, "I told you so..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR |
-- Atop the front page of Wednesday's The Times in the UK: "BBC chief forced to defend pay rises for top presenters..." (The Times) -- Netflix "is seeking to amend its programming deals with major entertainment studios to allow the streaming giant to put content on an advertising-supported version of the service," Joe Flint reports. He says "it won't be cheap for Netflix..." (WSJ) -- YouTube TV "has surpassed 5 million subscribers and free trial participants a little more than five years after it launched," which makes it "the biggest internet pay-TV provider" in the US and "the fifth-largest TV distributor of any kind..." (Deadline) -- "CBS-owned Los Angeles TV stations KCAL and KCBS are set to shakeup the local news landscape in the fall with a programming flip that will bring the first-ever morning newscasts to KCAL." Cynthia Littleton explains the strategy here... (Variety) |
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Digesting the Emmys drama BY BRIAN LOWRY: This year's Emmy nominations tackled the seemingly impossible task of distilling the breadth of the current TV landscape into award categories, with a mix of old and new, and a breakthrough in the form of "Squid Game," the first non-English-language series nominated, after "Parasite's" Oscar breakthrough in 2020. Voters tried to identify standout new series, like "Only Murders in the Building" and "Abbott Elementary," while acknowledging older ones as well. In a sign of the times, the TV Academy dispensed with its annual tally by network, leaving it to the key players to slice and dice the numbers in ways that suit them. For what it's worth, HBO/HBO Max opened a wider lead over Netflix after last year's photo finish, but voters spread the wealth, which is good news for the For Your Consideration ad business. Also, the awards underscore that the way performers choose to submit themselves remains important, with "The White Lotus" cast all going the supporting-actor route, and being rewarded with a staggering eight slots in those categories... By the numbers -- Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent) earned the most total nominations of any media company, with Disney coming in second... -- "Succession" was the most-nominated program, with 25 nods. "Ted Lasso" and "The White Lotus" were next with 20 nominations each... -- "Hacks" and "Only Murders In the Building" earned 17 nominations each, rounding out the list of top five nominated programs... -- Dave Chappelle's controversial Netflix special "The Closer" was nominated in two categories... -- Among the first-time nominees: Barack Obama and the late Chadwick Boseman... -- CNN's "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy," which won the Emmy for hosted nonfiction series/special last year, is up for the prize again this year, along with noms in four other categories... What about these? SANDRA GONZALEZ WRITES: Tuesday's Emmy nominations had a little bit for everyone, and that's great. But as with every award show shortlist, not all the beloved series and performances made the cut. Where, for example, was the love for NBC's final season of "This Is Us?" Emmy voters gave the final season only one nomination – for outstanding original music and lyrics. "Insecure," meanwhile, would have been a welcomed addition to the stellar outstanding comedy lineup. And "Pachinko" was another sad omission, as this sweeping saga highlighted never-told stories that more people need to see. Read on... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE |
-- "After more than 50 years in showbiz, Sheryl Lee Ralph has finally received her first Emmy nomination," Leah Asmelash writes. "And her joy is infectious..." (CNN) -- Variety's Clayton Davis published an "Emmy diversity report..." (Variety) -- This story calls for followups! Page Six says "Bradley Cooper and Huma Abedin are dating," and Anna Wintour played matchmaker... (Page Six) |
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LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST... Pet of the day! Teresa writes: "This is Seamus and he always makes time to read Reliable Sources with Mom before he heads to the office..." |
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| Thank you for reading! Feel free to email us anytime. See you tomorrow... |
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