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Tuesday, January 17, 2023

CNET's AI disaster, Disney downloads on its activist investor, Microsoft's imminent layoffs, China gives Marvel the green light, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Davos, Disinfo, and Democracy

CNN Photo Illustration/Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

The World Economic Forum's annual meeting at Davos has long been a lightning rod for conspiracy theories. Extremist figures such as Infowars host Alex Jones have reliably used the event to drive up fear and paranoia about sinister schemes the "globalists" are supposedly plotting.

In the past, however, these farcical conspiracy theories have largely been confined to the fringe corners of the internet — places like Infowars. But in recent years, that has changed. The radical ideas promoted by the likes of Jones have gone mainstream, having been popularized by some of the most influential personalities in right-wing media.

Take Glenn Beck for example. The right-wing media personality, who wrote a conspiratorial book called "The Great Reset" playing off the WEF's 2020 Covid theme, mocked the idea on Tuesday that conspiracy theories circulate around the event, while simultaneously giving oxygen to some of those very theories when he interviewed a guest who claimed, unchallenged, that the gathered world leaders "want you to eat insects rather than meat."

It's not just Beck who is using the event to push this fringe rhetoric. New Twitter owner Elon Musk, who responded on Sunday to a conspiratorial thread about the gathering at Davos, said the "S in ESG," which stands for WEF's "environmental, social, and governance" criteria, "stands for Satanic." (Musk also claimed he was invited to the gathering, but organizers said he was not on the guest list.)

Alex Friedfeld, associate director with the ADL Center on Extremism, told me Tuesday that the use of extreme rhetoric and the endorsement of conspiracy theories from leading voices on the right has resulted in the outlandish claims reaching far more people than they once did.

"The fact is that these conspiracies have bounced around in more fringe parts of the internet," Friedfeld said. "But when you have folks like Tucker Carlson or Glenn Beck — they start to normalize these conspiracies, they expose millions of more people to these ideas."

In particular, Friedfeld pointed to "The Great Reset" conspiracy theories, noting that the term has "largely been divorced" at this point from its 2020 Covid origins and become "a broad brand for conspiracies" about how global elites are plotting to use the masses for their own benefits. Friedfeld said that, in particular, the use of the term "The Great Reset" by mainstream figures is cause for alarm because it can send people down a rabbit hole.

"You go searching for whatever version they're talking about on Fox News and all of a sudden you're exposed to all these other conspiracies that fall under the same umbrella," Friedfeld explained.

The Associated Press' Sophia Tulp reported this week that use of "The Great Reset" has been on a steady rise at Fox News. Tulp said the term was mentioned on the right-wing talk channel 60 times in 2022, up from 30 mentions in 2021, and 20 in 2020. Tulp added it was most mentioned on Carlson's show and Laura Ingraham's.

The danger of conspiracy theories has not been lost on attendees at Davos. On a Tuesday panel moderated by Brian Stelter, A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, described disinformation as one of the most pressing problems facing society.

"I think if you look at this question of disinformation, I think it maps basically to every other major challenge that we are grappling with as a society, and particularly the most existential among them," Sulzberger said. "So, disinformation and in the broader set of misinformation, conspiracy, propaganda, clickbait ... the broader mix of bad information that's corrupting the information ecosystem, what it attacks is trust."

"And once you see trust decline, what you then see is a society start to fracture, and so you see people fracture along tribal lines and, you know, that immediately undermines pluralism," Sulzberger added. "And the undermining of pluralism is probably the most dangerous thing that can happen to a democracy. So I really think if you're spending this week thinking about the health of democracies and democratic erosion, I think it's really import to work your way back up to where this starts."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Adobe Stock

Turning A Blind AI: There has been a lot of discussion in recent months about how artificial intelligence will alter the future of journalism in the not-so-distant future. Much of that has been prompted by Open AI's ChatGPT, due to the bot's frightening ability to quickly produce fast, fluent copy on a number of subjects. But it turns out that AI isn't quite ready for prime time — and CNET is learning the difficult way, as Futurism's Jon Christian first pointed out. After quietly employing machines to write dozens of stories, the tech-focused publication is now grappling with having to issue major corrections. "We are actively reviewing all our AI-assisted pieces to make sure no further inaccuracies made it through the editing process," CNET spokesperson Ivey Oneal told Christian. "We will continue to issue any necessary corrections according to CNET's correction policy." Yikes.

► A good point from Gizmodo's Lauren Lefter: "CNET has claimed that all of its AI-generated articles are 'reviewed, fact-checked and edited' by real, human staff. And each post has an editor's name attached to it in the byline. But clearly, that alleged oversight isn't enough to stop ChatGPT's many generated mistakes from slipping through the cracks."

THE BUSINESS

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Disney Downloads: The battle lines have been drawn. Disney fired back against activist investor Nelson Peltz on Tuesday, bluntly saying in an SEC filing that he simply "does not understand" the company's business and "lacks the skills and experience to assist the board in delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem." The nuclear language from Disney, which also defended CEO Bob Iger, comes after Peltz and his hedge fund Trian Fund Management tried unsuccessfully last week to score a board seat. The NYT's Brooks Barnes has details here.

► Related: Disney said in a separate filing on Tuesday that fired CEO Bob Chapek received severance worth more than $20 million after already earning north of $24 million in 2022. Variety's Todd Spangler has more here.

First in Reliable | Melber's Magic: Ari Melber has a billion reasons to celebrate. That's because his MSNBC show, "The Beat," has crossed one-billion views on YouTube — a notable feat for a cable news program. "We're reaching new audiences wherever they are," Melber told me. "To quote one very reliable source, Jay-Z, 'One million, two million, three million, four / In just five years, forty million more.' Well in five years, we went from millions to a billion – and that's all thanks to MSNBC viewers." EP Dann McDorman added to me that the show is "constantly experimenting" with different mediums. "What we've found is that our guest interviews can be utilized in many ways — TV segments, short clips on Instagram and TikTok and extended cuts on YouTube," McDorman said.

IN THE INDUSTRY

Maria Ressa has been acquitted of tax evasion in the Philippines. (NYT)
In a letter to Grant Wahl's widow, Dr. Celine Gounder, President Biden says Wahl "will forever be remembered as a journalist who was bold enough to hold a mirror up to the sports industry so his readers could see the good, the bad, and the true." (Twitter)
CNN's Audie Cornish will receive On Air Fest's 2023 Audio Vanguard Award. She'll be interviewed by Kara Swisher on February 25 when presented with the award. (The Wrap)
The BBC has apologized and is investigating after "sexual noises interrupted live television coverage," Rachel Russell reports. (BBC)
Another blow to U.S. News & World Report's rankings: Harvard Medical School will no longer submit information to the publication, a move that follows top law schools. (WSJ)
Stephen A. Smith to Ben Strauss on the notion he is the most important nonexecutive at ESPN: "I'm constantly told that I am by the bosses. They tell me religiously because of the ratings and the revenue that I bring in. … I don't absorb it like, Wow, look what you've done. I receive it as pressure." (WaPo)
The CW is "very close" to a television deal with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, Alex Weprin reports. (THR)
Meanwhile, HBO Max is set to stream its first live sports event. (Next TV)

MEDIA MOVES

MSNBC has appointed Rebecca Kutler to oversee its streaming, digital and audio efforts. (TVNewser)
ABC News has promoted Rachel Scott to senior congressional correspondent. (ABC PR)
NBCU has hired Amy Geary as SVP of content distribution. (Variety)
SiriusXM has tapped WSJ vet Suzi Watford for the newly created role of SVP and chief growth officer. (Radio Insight)
Independent Television Service CEO Sally Jo Fifer is exiting the organization. (Deadline)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Rewarding Radicals: Two of the most extreme members of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, are being given committee appointments under new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Both Greene and Gosar have pushed numerous conspiracy theories over the years, with Greene infamously promoting the QAnon delusion. As CNN's Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju noted in their story, Greene has even gone as far as to indicate support for executing prominent Democrats. Meanwhile, Gosar has lengthy ties to white nationalists. But now they're both being accepted by McCarthy's GOP — and most assuredly going to use their posts in Congress to further poison the public conversation with conspiracy theories.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Eric Hananoki details Marjorie Taylor Greene's long history with Alex Jones: "I am a huge fan of yours." (MMFA)
CPAC organizer and right-wing media personality Matt Schlapp has been hit with a lawsuit after denying an accusation of sexual assault, first reported on by Roger Sollenberger. (Daily Beast)
In an interview with Jake Tapper, Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan knocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by saying he's "done a really good job getting on Fox News," but has poor approval. (Mediaite)
Peter Kafka talks to Alex Stamos about tech and misinformation: "How much culpability and power should we really assign to tech?" (Vox)
Glenn Greenwald says he is ditching Substack for Rumble-owned Locals after signing a deal with the right-wing video site. (Greenwald)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Jeenah Moon/Getty Images

Microsoft Mulls Layoffs : Microsoft could be the latest Big Tech company to be hit with layoffs. That's according to Sky News reporter Mark Kleinman who reported Tuesday that the Redmond-based company "is preparing to axe thousands of jobs" that could be announced within days. Kleinman reported Microsoft is "contemplating cutting roughly 5% of its workforce," which would amount to roughly 11,000 jobs. The WSJ's Tom Dotan also reported layoffs could be announced as soon as Wednesday morning. In response to the report, Microsoft said it would not comment "on rumor or speculation." Kleinman has more here.

Souring on Snap: Shares in Snap ended down Tuesday. That was probably due to more bad news facing the social media company, this time from JMP Securities analyst Andrew Boone who downgraded the stock. Boone warned, "Short-form video platforms are taking share of time from Snapchat," writing that he preferred Meta and Google over Snapchat. MarketWatch's Emily Bary has more here.

TOO MANY TABS

"Extremely hardcore." That's the headline on this deep-dive into Elon Musk's Twitter from reporter extraordinaires Zoë Schiffer, Casey Newton, and Alex Heath. (The Verge)
One day after a stunning BBC report found that Taliban officials were purchasing blue checkmarks on Twitter, the social media company has removed the verification badges. (The Guardian)
Dozens of news and media companies are continuing to partner with Twitter for events that will occur this year, Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
Speaking of Twitter... The embattled company continues to auction off its office furniture. (TechCrunch)
The University of Texas at Austin has blocked students from accessing TikTok on the school's wifi. (Texas Tribune)
TikTok is quietly testing a new "Podcasts" feature that allows users to listen to a video's audio in the background. (Insider)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Marvel Studios

Disney's Delight: 2023 just got even sweeter for Disney. The company's Marvel blockbusters "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" both secured release dates in China. As THR's Patrick Brzeski noted, the move ends "a de facto three-and-a-half year ban on all Marvel movie releases in the country — a pattern that cost Disney hundreds of millions in potential ticket revenue." Both movies will see time at the all-important Chinese box office in February, with "Black Panther" getting a February 3 release date and "Ant-Man and the Wasp" hitting theaters on the film's North America launch date of February 17. Brzeski has details.

OFF STAGE

"Avatar: The Way of the Water" is about to become the sixth biggest film ever at the global box office, passing "Spider-Man: No Way Home." (Deadline)
Netflix has announced its biggest ever lineup of Korean films and TV shows. (Collider)
K.J. Yossman takes you "inside Warner Bros. Discovery's secret joint bid with the European Broadcasting Union for media rights to the Olympics." (Variety)
Madonna has announced dates for her 2023 "Celebration" tour. (THR)
Jeremy Renner says he's returned home from the hospital after a snowplow accident left him critically injured. (CNN)
Speaking of Renner: Paramount+ has removed wounds from the actor's face in "Mayor of Kingstown" marketing following his injury. (THR)
HGTV star Christina Hall has launched her own production company. (Deadline)
Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley have begun yearslong prison sentences after they were convicted on fraud and tax charges. (CNN)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will see you back in your inbox this time tomorrow.