Brian Stelter here at 10:33pm ET on Wednesday, August 3rd with the latest on Alex Jones, Substack, Sunny Hostin, "Days of our Lives," Gavin Newsom, and more. But first, three stories that stood out heading into Thursday... One week after the flood |
Parts of eastern Kentucky remain impassable nearly a week after catastrophic flooding. Now a heat wave is complicating relief efforts. One form of relief is information – something that's mighty valuable to people who have been disconnected from Wifi and cell phone service for days. That's why I want to highlight what The Mountain Eagle newspaper in Letcher County is doing. The weekly newspaper said that Wednesday's edition, the first since the flood, is free of charge "given the circumstances Letcher County now faces." "While none of the members of our small staff have suffered as badly from the flooding as those who have lost a home or a loved one, it has been much more difficult than normal to publish this week's edition," the newspaper said on Facebook. "One reporter broke his foot covering the flood; other employees could not get not get to work because of damage to driveways, etc." Those are the sorts of stories about the reality of local news reporting that rarely get told. The Mountain Eagle asked Facebook users who pick it up at various distribution points to let them know "if the stack there is running low so that we can replenish it," and sure enough, readers are replying with requests for more copies. For the paper, this is a long-term story: "Many stories to be told over the next several weeks." Hat tip to CNN's Caroll Alvarado for flagging this to us... |
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CPAC Texas starts Thursday "Former President Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former White House strategist Stephen Bannon are just a few of the names conservatives will hear from as CPAC Texas 2022 kicks off later this week," The Hill's Caroline Vakil writes. CNN media analyst David Zurawik homed in on the expected Orbán speech in his new column, writing that "some democracy experts say that the march to the far right at this dangerous moment for American democracy makes it imperative that the media brings its A-game." Robert C. Lieberman, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins, said "the fact that American conservatives seem to admire him and think of him as someone to emulate really reveals the true colors of that wing of the Republican Party and American conservative movement." Read on... |
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Wild speculation ahead of WBD earnings Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent) will release its Q2 earnings on Thursday afternoon, which means the company is in its "quiet period" right now. But the noise surrounding the company is so loud that it's borderline absurd. Fans are mounting social media campaigns to save projects – before knowing what's really happening. News articles are hyping ideas about combining HBO Max and Discovery+ – but that plan was announced months ago. On Thursday afternoon's earnings call, we'll see what actually is announced, and what isn't. Vulture's Joe Adalian, citing multiple sources, said that "very little final has been decided beyond combining HBO Max and Discovery+." As Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw said, "let's wait to hold a eulogy for HBO Max until you know what's going to happen..." Behind the "Batgirl" decision As for Tuesday's canning of two films, "Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt," Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro and Justin Kroll report that "the filmmakers were told that it came down to a 'purchase accounting' maneuver available to Warner Bros Discovery because the company has changed hands, and also changed strategy from the previous regime. This opportunity expires in mid-August, said sources, and it allows WBD to not have to carry the losses on its books at a time when the studio is trying to pare down $3 billion in debt across its divisions..." >> "The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership's strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max," the company said. "Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future." | |
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Paramount Global, Thomson Reuters, and Gannett report earnings before the bell... WBD and AMC Entertainment report earnings after the close... |
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THE ALEX JONES TRIAL: Decision watch Closing arguments concluded Wednesday in the Alex Jones trial taking place in Texas, and the case was sent to the jury for deliberations. We could have a decision as soon as Thursday... "Speech is free, but you have to pay for your lies" |
BY OLIVER DARCY: That is what Sandy Hook family attorney Kyle Farrar reminded the jury during closing arguments. Farrar said the job of the court is to "make sure Alex Jones and his company pays for the reckless lies he told about" Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis. "This is a decade of lies, a decade of deceit," Farrar said. "It destroyed people's lives, good people, people that chose love. He's made them live their lives in fear. Fear of actually being harmed or murdered by people that follow the lies and want to do something about it — that believe the lies and the hate that come from Mr. Jones." Jones' attorney, Federico Andino Reynal, closed by telling the jury to set aside "bias, prejudice, and sympathy" when deciding how much to award Heslin and Lewis. Heslin and Lewis "are tremendously sympathetic people," Reynal said. But, he argued, "that has no role in the dispassionate oath you took to decide this case based on the facts." Similarly, he argued that whether one thinks Jones "isn't a good person" should "play no role" as they deliberate.
A monumental oops
OLIVER DARCY ADDS: Earlier in the day, Jones was cross-examined by Sandy Hook family attorney Mark Bankston who put the Infowars founder's dishonestly on full display for the court, fact-checking a number of his answers in real-time. In a remarkable moment, Bankston disclosed to Jones and the court that he had recently acquired evidence proving Jones had lied when he claimed during the discovery process that he had never texted about the shooting. Bankston said that Jones' attorney had, in an apparent mishap, sent him two years of cell phone records that included every text message Jones had sent. The records, Bankston said, showed that Jones had in fact texted about the Sandy Hook shooting. "That is how I know you lied to me when you said you didn't have text messages about Sandy Hook," Bankston said. Here's my full story... Meanwhile: Inside the bankruptcy hearing The accountant who now oversees Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems as chief restructuring officer, Marc Schwartz, was in bankruptcy court on Wednesday. CNN's Sonia Moghe has a recap here. Among the revelations: >> Schwartz said Jones withdrew $62 million from the company over 14 years, and $30 million of that went to the IRS... >> Schwartz testified that Infowars received $9 million in crypto donations "that went directly to Mr. Jones..." >> Schwartz testified that $4.5 million had been spent on legal expenses related to the Sandy Hook lawsuits between 2018 and 2021, but that he did not believe those numbers to be accurate... | |
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-- The AP's lead: "U.S.-China relations are teetering on a precipice after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan..." (AP) -- Patriotic fervor erupted "on Chinese social media over Pelosi's visit," Eduardo Baptista reports... (Reuters) -- Matthew Loh reports how "China's social media users were threatening war over Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Now they're talking about sand..." (Insider) -- The new subpoenas of two Trump White House officials signal that the Justice Department is "looking squarely and directly at Donald Trump," Preet Bharara said on "The Lead with Jake Tapper..." (CNN) -- Alec MacGillis writes: "Five of the WSJ's nine editorials so far this week are attacks on the Schumer-Manchin climate/tax/drug prices deal. They really, really don't like it..." (Twitter) -- The top story on Wednesday's edition of Fox's "The Five" was "speculation about AOC running for president in 2024 based on a single op-ed in The Hill. They spent over 10 minutes on this subject," Justin Baragona notes... (Twitter) |
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Top primary night takeaway Tuesday night's unexpected victory for abortion rights in Kansas led the big three evening newscasts on Wednesday evening. This was "the first ballot test for abortion rights" since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and it was "overwhelming," NBC's Dasha Burns said. Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University, told CNN that the margin was a shock: "Nobody in Kansas, from political strategists to pundits to analysts, predicted that kind of margin." A failure of punditry imagination, perhaps? >> On "Special Report with Bret Baier," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to downplay the Kansas result: "I don't think we really know until the end of the year what kind of an impact" the SCOTUS ruling will have on elections... >> There were lots of other primary night takeaways... And some races are still too close to call, namely the GOP nomination for governor in Arizona. Former TV anchor Kari Lake has climbed into a "narrow lead," and she has "declared victory," the AZ Republic reports... "Gavin Newsom pushes Hollywood to film in California after Roe v. Wade reversal" That's Herb Scribner's headline for Axios. The California governor said "he supports legislation that would provide $1.65 billion in new TV and movie tax credits for film and television creators, hoping to bring Hollywood studios back to California for production," citing states like Georgia that have "waged a cruel assault on essential rights..." |
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-- Jonathan Lemire's "The Big Lie" debuted at #2 on the NYT's nonfiction best seller list... (NYT) -- LA Times reporter Matt Pearce writes about the rise of "democracy" beats, "where newsroom editors and reporters no longer simply cover candidates and elections but voter registration laws, ballot access and election integrity..." (LAT) -- Peter Kafka on the state of newsletters: "The Substack frenzy seems like a thing of the past, but lots of publishers are still leaning into newsletters..." (Vox) -- Substack wants you to know it's about a whole lot more than newsletters: Hamish McKenzie says in a new essay that Substack is "home to writers' communities" and likens it to Discord, Telegram, and Geneva. He says "we're deeply interested in building out further support and features for communities..." (Substack) |
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NYT earnings report "The New York Times Company added about 180,000 net digital-only subscribers in the second quarter of the year but generated less digital advertising revenue, it said on Wednesday," the NYT's Katie Robertson reports. Adjusted operating profit fell 18% year over year to $76 million, a hit that "was mostly from losses at The Athletic." >> TheWrap's Eileen AJ Connelly notes that digital ad revenue fell 2.4% to $69.3 million, but was "offset by a 15% spike in print advertising revenue, to $48.1 million..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE |
-- Taylor Lorenz's story about Triller is on Page One of Thursday's WaPo: "A TikTok rival promised millions to Black creators. Now some are deep in debt." Her story repeatedly shares reporting that contradicts Triller's claims... (WaPo) -- "Meta appears to be ramping up its testing of a new platform that allows users to host interactive livestreams, engage with fans, and earn revenue," Amanda Perelli reports... (Insider) -- In other Meta news, "Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1 to shift its focus to Reels..." (TechCrunch) -- "At this point," Casey Newton observed, "basically every tech giant, and a whole graveyard of startups, have tried this and run into a brick wall. Americans just do not want QVC on their phones (yet?)..." (Twitter) -- The continuation of a trend: "Meta executives are fleeing Silicon Valley," Sophie Mellor writes. The company is "growing out offices and centralizing its Instagram base in London..." (Fortune) -- On Wednesday Richard Waters and George Parker scooped that Meta global affairs president Nick Clegg "is partly relocating to London," both to be "closer to his elderly parents" and because it's a convenient location "from which to travel to Europe and Asia..." (FT) |
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Netflix's high hopes for ad pricing Sarah Krouse, Suzanne Vranica, and Jessica Toonkel's latest for the WSJ is titled "Netflix is scrambling to learn the ad business it long disdained." Among the details: Reed Hastings "has set lofty financial ambitions for the ad business. He and other company executives have told investors and ad industry executives privately in recent months that Netflix will eventually be able to charge advertisers about $80 for every 1,000 views of an ad by helping them target specific audience segments, people familiar with the discussions said. That would put Netflix among the most expensive destinations for ads, alongside top NFL television programming." More... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR |
-- Alex Sherman's latest: "Comcast and Charter may need new focus as broadband growth stalls amid competition..." (CNBC) -- Altice USA reported a similar story on Wednesday: "It shed about 40,000 broadband customers in Q2, its fourth consecutive quarter of losses..." (NextTV) -- On an earnings call, Altice "confirmed it has put its telcom Suddenlink assets are up for a sale after fielding interest from several buyers," Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing report... (THR) -- Sunny Hostin "has inked a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal to continue as co-host" of "The View," Elizabeth Wagmeister scoops... (Variety) -- Speaking of Variety, Cynthia Littleton and Ramin Setoodeh took the reins as co-editors-in-chief this week. "We will continue the tradition of bringing you the essential scoops of the day," they wrote in their first editors' letter... |
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Honoring Vin Scully Listening to Vin Scully was "the greatest communal experience in Southern California sports history," Bill Shaikin recently wrote. He described baseball fans clutching transistor radios at Dodger Stadium: "Tens of thousands of fans, assembled in one place, listening on a tiny radio as the greatest broadcaster in baseball history described the game being played right in front of them." Shaikin's column was published last month, pegged to the All-Star Game, describing Scully as the Dodgers' "biggest star in Los Angeles," despite "never played an inning for the team." The column took on newfound relevance Tuesday night after Scully died at the age of 94. "His poetic narration of Los Angeles' most enduring sports franchise will ring in our hearts forever," Bill Plaschke wrote. The Times' coverage of Scully's passing has been superb, and it's no surprise that some fans want a print copy: The LA Times is selling commemorative editions for $15... |
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'Days of our Lives' moving to Peacock "NBC's Days of our Lives will become a Peacock exclusive starting September 12," Vulture Joe Adalian scooped on Wednesday. "The move will end the show's 57-year run on broadcast television and also marks the exit of NBC from a genre it pioneered 73 years ago." NBCU's hope, of course, is that "Days" fans "will follow the show to Peacock." Two more key details: >> "NBC will fill the gap left by Days with a new one-hour news program, NBC News Daily, anchored by Kate Snow, Aaron Gilchrist, Vicky Nguyen, and Morgan Radford..." >> Just three daytime soaps will remain on broadcast TV: "ABC's General Hospital and CBS's The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful..." The non-linear shift BY BRIAN LOWRY: Between the "Dancing With the Stars" premiere announcement on Disney+ (something we already knew was coming) and the "Days of Our Lives" migration to Peacock, it really feels like we're taking another significant leap into the robbing-from-linear-to-pay-streaming phase of the studios' migration of their content over to these new platforms. But whether these long-running broadcast franchises can actually benefit streamers, who rely on buzz-worthy shows capable of driving subscriptions and media attention, seems highly iffy once you get past the initial announcement... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE |
-- Warner Bros. is set to release 'Joker 2' in theaters on Oct. 4, 2024... (THR) -- "'She-Hulk' star Tatiana Maslany, director and head writer defend Marvel's VFX Artists amid CGI criticism..." (Variety) -- "Ellen Pompeo to reduce 'Grey's Anatomy' on-screen presence in season 19 as she takes on Hulu series role..." (Deadline) |
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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ANIMAL HAVEN: Rescue of the Day! This week, we will be using this space to feature rescues from NYC's Animal Haven. Reliable Sources readers who choose to adopt one of the dogs or cats will not only receive the wonderful company of a new companion, but we will also send a CNN gift package your way. Just mention that you found the rescue through our newsletter... Here is today's rescue: "This big ol' goof is Humphrey! He was rescued from an overcrowded shelter in Kentucky and this southern charmer has been busy adjusting to the busy streets of NYC. Humphrey is a big boy—weighing in around 60lbs—and he's a quite silly, happy-go-lucky guy who just seems happy to be around people. Humphrey's a fun-loving dog who may seem a little distracted at times, but he's trying his best!" Click here to adopt Humphrey!
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