Monday, October 3, 2022

Monday is in the books. Scroll down to see what Russian propaganda outlets are focusing on as the country suffers setbacks in its Ukraine war, why Big Tech might worry about the upcoming SCOTUS term, and how Chris Cuomo opened up his debut NewsNation show. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Finding answers in Florida

CNN Illustration/From CNN

In the wake of Hurricane Ian's catastrophic landfall that has left at least 100 people dead in Florida, the press is holding local and state officials to account, confronting elected leaders with pointed questions about whether they delayed issuing evacuations orders to residents where the storm roared ashore.

Mounting questions about the late decision to evacuate Lee County, a stretch of Southwest Florida that has been left permanently disfigured by Ian's menacing winds and hellish storm surge, have played a pronounced role in news coverage.

The questions were prompted by a report in The New York Times that detailed the county's internal deliberations and stated plainly that the county's failure to issue an evacuation order until Tuesday — less than 24 hours before Ian made landfall and a day after neighboring counties had already done so — was an "apparent violation" of its own emergency planning strategy.

Since The Times story published, both local and national news organizations have grilled officials, in some cases asking point blank whether the decision could have cost lives in an area where more than half of all hurricane-related deaths have now occurred.

Among those facing tough questioning Monday were: Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie; Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno; and Lee County Board of Commissioners chair Cecil Pendergrass.

"Did the order to evacuate in Lee County go out too late?" CNN's Kate Bolduan bluntly asked Pendergrass, her first in a cascade of frank questions. Pendergrass, like other officials, defended the county's response, saying there was "well enough notice."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also been met with questions on the matter. Speaking to reporters Sunday, CNN correspondent Nadia Romero asked DeSantis if he "stood behind" Lee County's decision not to issue an evacuation order until Tuesday.

The line of questioning led to a somewhat combative answer from the governor, who retorted, "Well, did you — where was your industry stationed when the storm hit? Were you guys in Lee County? No, you were in Tampa. So they were following the weather track." (CNN and other news organizations did, in fact, have crews in Lee County when the storm hit.)

But while elected leaders like DeSantis are defending the decision, a sign that there was disagreement with it was also evident Monday. Appearing on CNN, a spokesperson for the city of Fort Myers, the county's commercial hub, noted that the municipality had asked residents to start voluntarily evacuating Friday, but called the evacuation "sort of last minute."

More about the county's response will surely make its way to the public in the days and weeks ahead. That is due, in part, to the pressure being applied by news organizations seeking answers — a reminder of the critical role journalists are playing in the disaster recovery effort.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Illustration/Lenny Smith

Back In Studio: Southwest Florida news station WINK headed back late Monday afternoon to its Fort Myers studios after having spent days broadcasting from a makeshift studio setup at its transmitter site. The station had been forced to take extraordinary measures to stay on the air after storm surge from Ian coursed through its offices last week, damaging much of the outlet's equipment and forcing staffers to temporarily move to that remote location. WINK's senior EP Lenny Smith, however, shared the update that employees had returned. "I left my headset in the [WINK] control room when [Ian's] storm surge started flooding our building," Smith tweeted. "Five days later, I'm putting it back on."

OFF THE WIRE

Tom Jones, who evacuated St. Petersburg, writes that "it was local journalism that informed those in the storm's path." (Poynter)
The News-Press is helping hurricane victims understand what to do and how to stay safe in the deadly storm's wake. (News-Press)
University of Miami journalism professor Albert Cairo argues that news organizations should do more to emphasize threats hurricanes pose to an area, beyond the cone. (Axios)

THE INFO WARS

Kremlin Crushes on Elon: As Russia faces significant setbacks in its war on Ukraine, the country's propaganda outlets have downplayed the news and distracted with something else: Elon Musk's proposed "peace" plan. Musk's tweet proposal, which generated significant backlash, was one of the top stories on RT, Sputnik, and Pravda on Monday, distracting from the bad news Russia faces on the battlefield. RT published multiple stories on the tweets, featuring them throughout the day in the top position on its homepage. The Moscow-based broadcaster also noted that Musk had declined to block the outlet from his Starlink service earlier this year when other entities moved to limit its access, and even praised it in texts as having "some good points."

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Donald Trump has made good on his threat to sue CNN, filing a lawsuit against the network accusing it of defamation. CNN declined to comment on Monday. (Bloomberg)
Gerry Smith writes about how the right-wing conspiracy channel One America News is "attempting a comeback by leveraging an old technology: the antenna." (Bloomberg)
Joe Pompeo goes inside Australian news site Crikey's "war with the Murdochs." (Vanity Fair)
Kellyanne Conway made her debut appearance on Monday as a Fox News contributor. (Mediaite)

THE BUSINESS

CNN Illustration/From NewsNation

Cuomo's Comeback?: Nearly a year after being fired from CNN, Chris Cuomo returned Monday to prime time, debuting a new 8pm show on the low-rated NewsNation. Cuomo kicked off his program by saying he'd like to just talk about the issues, but acknowledged that "obviously this isn't a normal show start." Cuomo said that he has "learned lessons, good and bad in the past many months" and added that "thankfully, it's been the case that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." He continued, "This show is going to be different than what I've done in the past because I'm different."

Maddow's Next Pod: Get ready for another podcast from Rachel Maddow. MSNBC on Monday announced the new audio series "Ultra," which it said "examines the history of a seditious plot to undermine democracy 80 years ago," will debut October 10. It's the first major project from Maddow to debut since she scaled back her cable news hosting duties earlier this year. In a statement, MSNBC chief Rashida Jones alluded to other future projects from Maddow, saying "Ultra" is only "the first of many projects in the expanding Rachel universe that will allow audiences to see–or hear–Rachel on all of our platforms."

► Read more: Maddow talked to Rolling Stone about the podcast.

Changes at the CW: Big changes are taking place at the CW as Nexstar Media Group prepares to acquire the channel. Longtime head Mark Pedowitz announced Monday that he is departing. He'll be replaced by former board member Dennis Miller. Other executives, including the company's heads of finance and marketing, are also reportedly exiting.

🔎 Zooming in: Lesley Goldberg notes that Pedowitz "transformed the network" and wonders whether Nexstar will "erase" his legacy.

IN THE MARKET

Maggie Haberman's Trump book "Confidence Man" is No. 1 on Amazon ahead of its Tuesday release. (Amazon)
Warner Bros. Discovery head of international Gerhard Zeiler talks about the company's business strategy on "Hot Seat." (Ankler)
John Koblin looks at "Dateline" and how the true-crime brand has gone "from TV to podcast stardom." (NYT)

MEDIA MOVES

First in Reliable: Ryan Nobles is heading to NBC News where he will serve as Capitol Hill correspondent. (Twitter)
Natalie Morales has been named a CBS News correspondent. She will continue moderating "The Talk." (Variety)
Chris Davis will be The NYT's deputy editor for its local investigative reporting fellowship. (NYT)
First in Reliable: Emma Reeves is joining Rolling Stone as director of photography.
Christopher Miller has joined FT as Ukraine correspondent. (Twitter)

THE VALLEY

CNN Illustration/From HuffPost

SCOTUS Eyes Social Media: The Supreme Court will hear two pivotal cases later this term about online speech that could significantly shape the future of social media, the court announced on Monday. As HuffPost's Matt Shuham wrote, "The court has agreed to hear Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh. Both cases concern whether tech companies could be held legally liable for what users post on their platforms, as well as for content that users see because of the platform's algorithm."

Currently, tech platforms cannot be held liable for such material, because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. But there has been a movement in recent years to erode or eliminate the protection Section 230 provides. These cases will test Section 230's limits and the broad immunity that tech companies have enjoyed.

TOO MANY TABS

Meta's stock rose on Monday after trading last week at its lowest since 2019. (MarketWatch)
Speaking of Meta: The company has settled a lawsuit against two U.S. companies scraping Facebook and Instagram data for a "significant financial" sum. (TechCrunch)
Tim Cook is the latest tech CEO to question if people understand the metaverse and if they want to live inside it. (The Verge)
TikTok increased its turnover in Europe nearly six-fold in 2021, according to financial filings. (FT)
Google has shut down Google Translate in China, "removing one of the company's few remaining services that it had provided in a country where most Western social media platforms are blocked." (AP)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Illustration/Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Kardashian's Crypto Fine: You won't see Kim Kardashian promoting crypto securities in the near future. The SEC said Monday that it had fined the reality television star $1.26 million for failing to disclose she had been paid to tout a crypto asset. As part of the punishment leveled by the SEC, Kardashian, who said she had agreed to pay the fine, will also not promote crypto securities for three years. In a statement, her attorneys said she was "pleased to have resolved" the matter and pledged to do "whatever she can to assist the SEC" with its ongoing probe. CNN's Chris Isidore has more here.

OFF STAGE

Speaking of Kim K, Spotify released the first two episodes of her podcast, 2+ years after she signed an exclusive deal with the streamer. (Variety)
Zach Sharf and William Earl look at why "Bros" bombed at the box office. They say "straight people aren't entirely to blame." (Variety)
The reviews for the premiere of "SNL" are not-so-good. Critic Eric Deggans called it a "relentlessly average, borderline uninspired season opening episode." (NPR)
HBO is defending the dark scenes in "House of Dragon," noting it was "an intentional creative decision." (Insider)
Apple has released the trailer and set a December 9 theatrical opening for Will Smith's "Emancipation." (Deadline)
Season two of "The Rings of Power" is starting production. (THR)
"Doctor Strange" and "Loki" scribe Michael Waldron is set to write "Avengers: Secret Wars." (Deadline)
Taylor Swift candidly talks about her new song "Anti-Hero" and says she struggles "with the idea of not feeling like a person." (CNN)