You're mid-way through the week! Oliver Darcy here at 11:08pm ET on Wednesday, August 17th. Here's the latest on TikTok, Netflix, Sinclair, the NYT, Vice, the NFL, and more... Trump's next move? |
Could we soon see surveillance footage of the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search on TV? It seems that is a real possibility. "Some allies of former President Donald Trump are urging him to publicly release surveillance footage of FBI agents executing a search warrant on his Mar-a-Lago residence," CNN's Gabby Orr, Sara Murray, Kaitlan Collins, and Katelyn Polantz reported Wednesday. The CNN team elaborated: "Some of Trump's aides and allies have encouraged the former President to make some of the footage available to the public, believing it could send a jolt of energy through the Republican Party's base. One person familiar with the conversations said there have been discussions about featuring the August footage in campaign-style ads, believing the footage could bolster Trump's claims of political persecution." Airing the footage, however, would pose immediate ethical challenges for news orgs. As Collins noted on "AC360," airing footage of the FBI agents could potentially put them in danger "because it would show and reveal the identities of the agents who were there." And even if mainstream news orgs opted against showing some of the footage, or took steps to protect the identities of the FBI agents, it's unlikely MAGA Media outlets would show the same courtesy. After all, it was just last week that Breitbart published names of two agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago search... |
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-- Here's the headline atop Thursday's front page of the Washington Post, referencing Tuesday's primary results and more: "Trump tightens hold on GOP..." (WaPo) -- Also driving the news cycle: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky's rebuke of the agency's pandemic response led the NBC and ABC evening newscasts on Wednesday. Here's CNN's story... (CNN) -- Blake Hounshell writes about "Dark Brandon" memes and how "inside the White House, the vibe is shifting, even if the polls have not budged much." One tid-bit in the story: "The president himself has seen some of the Dark Brandon memes and found them funny..." (NYT) -- A must-read from Noah Bierman on DC reporting and sourcing: "Unfortunately, White House officials routinely ask for anonymity, despite the Biden administration's promise to bring 'truth and transparency back' to the White House. These requests often come from spokespeople paid for by you, the taxpayer, to inform you, the citizen, about your government..." (LAT) |
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MAGA Media celebrates Cheney's defeat BY BRIAN STELTER: MAGA Media was in a jovial mode on Wednesday. All day, Fox personalities celebrated Liz Cheney's defeat. Tucker Carlson announced his show was having a "gloat-a-thon" about the news. Steve Bannon played "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" on his "War Room" podcast. Over on Newsmax, Donald Trump Jr. accused her of being a grifter. And Breitbart danced on her political grave by declaring that America was the winner in her primary. Ten years ago, she was a hero on Fox, a paid commentator at the network. Now she's the enemy. This is what struck me most: Numerous right-wing commentators portrayed Harriet Hageman's win as a great example of democracy in action, implying that it undermines Cheney's warnings about threats to democracy. But unlike Trump, Cheney didn't deny that she lost the race, or encourage people to believe she won, or incite supporters to block Hageman's victory from being certified... Cheney's main constituency: the mainstream media? Perhaps this is something that both the left and right can agree on: Cheney's main constituency, at this point, is the media. As Nia Malika Henderson said on CNN on Wednesday, "In so many ways, Liz Cheney is a person without a party. Her party in many ways is the Beltway media. And, you know, she might get grand profiles in The Atlantic, and maybe she gets a cable news deal. But in terms of having actual Republicans who will follow her ... [she] is a person on an island in her party." In his own way, Ben Shapiro made a similar comment on his podcast Wednesday. Shapiro argued that Cheney's main sin, in the eyes of Republican voters, was that she was a "useful idiot" for the news media... |
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-- "The outcome in Wyoming showed that while anti-Trump Republicans can count on ample money and media attention, the actual Republican constituency for them is far more limited," Shane Goldmacher writes... (NYT) -- "The idealized version of Liz Cheney is basically ideological and narrative catnip to DC media and cable," Hunter Walker says. "As a result, there's a lot of fluff in the coverage..." (Twitter) -- "It's not the job of the press to uncritically help kickstart Liz Cheney's run for President," Chris Vanderveen argues... (Twitter) -- Coverage of Cheney should also include scrutiny of her record on other issues, not just her recent "anti-Trump pivot," Jon Allsop writes… (CJR) -- "The reason the media runs a lot of Trump articles is that these stories are much more popular with the audience than any other kind of political coverage," Matthew Yglesias points out... (Twitter) -- Switching gears: Jake Tapper spoke to both Trevor Reed and the wife of a Navy lieutenant imprisoned in Japan. "I think that, up until now, this has had relatively small coverage," Reed said about the Navy lieutenant... (CNN) |
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| Judge laces into Alex Jones' attorneys "The Connecticut judge overseeing an upcoming defamation trial against Alex Jones laid out a list of ethics rules she fears two of Jones' attorneys may have violated by allegedly disclosing the highly confidential medical and psychiatric records of plaintiffs connected to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre," Law & Crime's Aaron Keller wrote about a Wednesday hearing. Judge Barbara Bellis went as far as to say that the conduct appeared "quite shocking" and "unprecedented." During the hearing, Bellis asked for answers to a number of questions, including information on who exactly received the health records of the Sandy Hook plaintiffs. That said, per Keller, Bellis "made no final decisions ... as to whether or not ethics rules were, indeed, violated." Here's Keller's full report... |
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TikTok preps for the midterms TikTok on Wednesday outlined how it is prepping for the midterm elections and how it will curb the spread of misinfo on the platform. Head of US safety Eric Han said in a blog post that the tech platform is introducing an elections hub to connect users to authoritative info. Han also reinforced TikTok's ban on paid political advertising and said that it is "adding labels to content identified as being related to the 2022 midterm elections as well as content from accounts belonging to governments, politicians, and political parties in the US." The Verge's Makena Kelly has more here... >> Context: The news comes as TikTok, which once flew relatively under the radar, faces increased scrutiny. NYT's Tiffany Hsu reported just days ago that election misinfo has been thriving on the platform... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE |
-- Speaking of TikTok, the tech giant has also just launched a suite of new features for advertisers... (TechCrunch) -- Meanwhile, Sebastian Herrera reports that "even Amazon.com wants to be a little like TikTok" and is "testing a feature in its app that would show users a TikTok-style photo and video feed of products for shoppers to shar..." (WSJ)
-- Vice World News is launching a news channel on Twitch with live shows airing twice a week... (Deadline)
-- Elon Musk has clarified that he is not purchasing Manchester United... (CNN) |
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A major clue hidden in Netflix's code? Netflix "isn't planning to let users of its new ad-supported tier download shows and movies to their devices for offline viewing," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported Wednesday, citing "code found inside of the company's iPhone app." The text in the current version of the app specifically states, "Downloads available on all plans except Netflix with ads." Netflix isn't commenting. And as Gurman noted, "Given that the service's launch is several months away, it's likely that the company's plans aren't yet final and its approach could still change..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR |
-- NYT has named Julie Bloom as its next Live editor... (NYT)
-- Chris Orr has joined NYT as Opinion's signature voices editor, a new role... (NYT)
-- Longtime NYT sports reporter Bill Pennington will retire next month... (Twitter)
-- Semafor has hired Bill Spindle, who is joining to cover climate... (Twitter)
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Enter BallySports+ "Capping a challenging multi-year development process, Sinclair Broadcast Group's regional sports unit has set September 26 as the nationwide launch date for direct-to-consumer streaming service Bally Sports+," Deadline's Made Hayes reported Wednesday. The streaming service will cost $19.99 a month, or $189.99 a year, and will feature MLB, NBA, and NHL games... >> The big picture from Hayes: "The rollout is a milestone in the sports media business and represents the biggest test to date of whether the lucrative legacy model of regional sports networks can be transferred to the digital age..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE |
-- The NFL has jumped from the BBC to ITV in the UK... (Deadline) -- Nielsen will start tracking viewership of "Thursday Night Football" on Amazon. "The deal marks the first time Nielsen will include ratings from a streaming service in its closely watched weekly television-viewing report," Joe Flint reports… (WSJ)
-- Lacey Rose has the behind-the-scenes story about the final days of "The Wendy Williams Show..." (THR) -- Todd Spangler lays out "why Fox is investing millions in NFTs and blockchain technology..." (Variety) -- Here's a powerful lede from Peter Kafka: "It's just like old times at HBO — plenty of scheming, betrayal, blood-letting. Oh! And they have that on screen too..." (Vox) -- Brian Steinberg breaks down "how Quentin Tarantino's battle to own 'Pulp Fiction' exposed the digital rights minefield..." (Variety) |
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| -- Netflix has revived "The Mole" after a 14-year hiatus... (TV Line) -- Kid Cudi says it will "take a miracle" for him to be friends with Kanye West ever again... (Variety) -- Simone Kessell is joining the second season of "Yellowjackets." Kessell will portray the adult Lottie Matthews... (Deadline) -- Attention "Succession" fans: Alexis Soloski writes about how Christopher Walken and John Turturro "drew upon their years of friendship in the Apple TV+ techno-thriller..." (NYT) |
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| "She-Hulk" isn't much of a smash BY BRIAN LOWRY: Marvel continues to use Disney+ to stretch the parameters of its content, but with "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law," it turns out that a sort of screwball workplace comedy isn't a particularly good fit with the studio's superhero niche. Mostly, the show plays like a sort of TMZ view of superhero life, and its shortcomings have little to do with the look of the title character, which is actually fine. Here's my full review... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN |
BY LISA RESPERS FRANCE: -- Zoë Kravitz regrets making that Will Smith slap comment... -- Florence Pugh has confirmed her split with Zach Braff...
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LAST BUT NOT LEAST... Pet of the day! Reader Sarah Jenkins emails: "I describe Abby as 5 pounds of dog and 50 pounds of attitude. But she's all ears when I read Reliable Sources to her..." |
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