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Wednesday, January 25, 2023

It's been a busy media news week! WaPo is advertising on Twitter, Wall Street reacts positively to Rupert Murdoch's merger abandonment, CNET comes clean about its AI errors, Newsmax accuses DirecTV of "censorship," Elon Musk talks about his tweets on Tesla's earnings call, the WGA nominations arrive, and much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Facebook's Fraught Decision

CNN Photo Illustration/Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Nine minutes after Meta announced that it will allow Donald Trump back on its platforms, the disgraced ex-president was on his own Truth Social app posting about supposed election fraud in the 2020 election.

It's nothing unusual for Trump. A research report published earlier this month by the watchdog group Accountable Tech found that Trump had written more than 200 posts containing "harmful election-related disinformation" since he was banished from Meta's platforms.

But now, once again, Trump is Meta's problem. The social media giant announced on Wednesday, unsurprisingly, that Trump will be permitted back on Facebook and Instagram, setting the stage for some thorny content moderation calls in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

And those content moderation calls are likely to be contentious.

For instance, a Meta spokesperson told me that Trump will be permitted to attack the results of the 2020 election without facing consequences from the company. However, the spokesperson said, if Trump were to cast doubt on an upcoming election — like, the 2024 presidential race — the social giant will take action. In those cases, Meta might limit the distribution of the violative post or restrict access to advertising tools.

But attacks on the 2020 election will only serve to cast doubt on the integrity of future elections. And Meta will undoubtedly face scrutiny for its high-stakes decisions on the issue as Trump inevitably approaches the line.

But this is only one aspect of the murky content moderation waters that Meta will find itself in. As Accountable Tech noted in its report, Trump has posted a number of things in recent years on Truth Social that would seemingly violate the company's community standards. Accountable Tech found that Trump had attacked racial minorities (remember when he posted that racist attack last year on Mitch McConnell's wife?) and amplified the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory to his followers more than 100 times.

And then there will surely be reprehensible, antidemocratic comments that Trump will make on Facebook that perhaps don't outright violate the company rules, despite how ugly they may be, but which ignite outrage and throw Meta into the spotlight. For example, last week, Trump raged on Truth Social that he believed the reporters, and perhaps editors, of Politico's scoop on the leaked Roe v. Wade decision should be jailed until they disclose their source(s).

Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, previewed how the company will respond to those sorts of nasty posts when he — and notably not Mark Zuckerberg — announced the return of Trump. Clegg argued that "the fact is people will always say all kinds of things on the internet."

"We default to letting people speak, even when what they have to say is distasteful or factually wrong," Clegg added. "Democracy is messy and people should be able to make their voices heard. We believe it is both necessary and possible to draw a line between content that is harmful and should be removed, and content that, however distasteful or inaccurate, is part of the rough and tumble of life in a free society."

THE SIDEBAR

Clegg told Sara Fischer and Mike Allen that Trump's team was not given a heads up about the company's decision. (Axios)
Meta asked for a last-minute meeting with Trump's lawyers, but were not told what it was about, Kristen Holmes reported. (CNN)
Trump responded to being allowed back on the platform again by attacking Facebook and saying "such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President." (Twitter)
This is a big win for Trump, if only to regain access to Facebook's advertising and fundraising tools. One Trump adviser stressed to Rebecca Kern that Facebook ads were "a big part of victory in 2016 and a big part of the 2020 reelect." (POLITICO)
The move to allow trump back on Facebook "is unlikely to change how advertisers spend their money" on the platform, Sheila Dang and Katie Paul report. (Reuters)
The American Civil Liberties Union cheered Meta's decision: "This is the right call. Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country's leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech." (Associated Press)
The Anti-Defamation League disagreed: "During his presidency Trump used social media platforms such as Facebook to spread hate and incite violence. There is no reason to believe the former president will behave differently now that the platform has reversed his ban. This isn't a matter of free speech." (ADL)
Rep. Adam Schiff's point: "Trump incited an insurrection. And tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power. He's shown no remorse. No contrition. Giving him back access to a social media platform to spread his lies and demagoguery is dangerous. [Facebook] caved, giving him a platform to do more harm." (Twitter)
Worth wondering: Would Meta have made the same decision if Elon Musk had not paved the way by reinstating Trump on Twitter?
Also worth wondering: How long will it take Trump to violate Meta's rules when he is actually allowed to return to Facebook? We'll see.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

Disclose The Docs: The New York Times and NPR asked a judge on Wednesday to unseal a trove of documents in Dominion Voting Systems $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against right-wing channel Fox News. "This lawsuit is unquestionably a consequential defamation case that tests the scope of the First Amendment," the pair of news organizations said in the filing. Spokespersons for Dominion and Fox News did not immediately provide a comment. But David McCraw, deputy general counsel of The Times, told me in a statement, "The public has a right to transparent judicial proceedings to ensure that the law is being applied fairly. That is especially important in a case that touches upon political issues that have deeply divided the country." Here's my full story.

WaPo Waffles: The Washington Post is apparently happy to do business with companies that engage in the censorship of journalists. On Wednesday, I noticed that the newspaper was advertising on Twitter, despite the platform having baselessly banned a number of journalists — including Drew Harwell, one of its own reporters — late last year.

Twitter has not only failed to fully restore the accounts of journalists it banned (which include CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and The NYT's Ryan Mac), but owner Elon Musk effectively smeared the reporters in the immediate aftermath of the bans by falsely claiming they had "basically" posted "assassination coordinates" by sharing his "exact real-time location" (they did not). At the time, WaPo Executive Editor Sally Buzbee put out a strongly worded statement, demanding Harwell be reinstated on Twitter. But, as they say, actions speak louder than words. And WaPo's willingness to send its ad dollars to a billionaire who regularly bashes the press — well, that says a lot.

🤫 Mum is the word: A WaPo spokesperson did not provide a comment when reached Wednesday night about the paper's move to advertise on Twitter.

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Mary Altaffer/AP

Murdoch's Margins: Wall Street reacted positively on Wednesday to Rupert Murdoch's decision to withdraw his proposal to reunite both Fox Corp. and News Corp. Fox shares ended the day up nearly 3% and News Corp. popped almost 6%. But the question still lingers: Why precisely was the deal called off? Was it because of the potential sale of News Corp.'s Move for $3 billion? Or was it something else? THR's Georg Szalai reported that, behind the scenes, James Murdoch had raised concerns about the proposed merger. Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said he believed the deal was abandoned because of pushback from investors. Meanwhile, Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino said he believed Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit against Fox "was a meaningful obstacle" as well. Szalai has more here.

CNET Comes Clean: Yikes! CNET said on Wednesday that it had completed its review of stories it published using an AI tool — not ChatGPT — and found errors in many more of them. The Verge's Mia Sato and Emma Roth reported that CNET issued corrections on 41 of its 77 stories. CNET's editor-in-chief, Connie Guglielmo published a note to readers coming clean with the errors. But Guglielmo defended the process of using AI and said the outlet will "continue exploring and testing" how the technology "can be used to help our teams as they go about" doing their jobs. "The process may not always be easy or pretty, but we're going to continue embracing it – and any new tech that we believe makes life better," Guglielmo wrote, adding CNET has introduced new steps to catch potential mistakes. We'll see if that works.

IN THE INDUSTRY

There's still no end in sight for the strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sara Scire reports. (NiemanLab)
Fox News has been hit with a new lawsuit by Laura Luhn. It alleges the late network boss Roger Ailes "photographed and videotaped Luhn in compromising positions." Fox says the lawsuit is "meritless." (Deadline)
Lauren Sánchez talks with Derek Blasberg about her relationship with Jeff Bezos and her forthcoming trip to space. It's her first solo interview since her relationship with Bezos became public. (WSJ)
The Hill has debuted a "fresh new look" for its print edition. (The Hill)
Penske Media Eldridge has acquired Dick Clark Productions. (THR)

MEDIA MOVES

The Guardian has tapped Margaret Sullivan as a weekly columnist where she will write about media, politics, culture, and more. (Guardian)
The NYT has hired Jen Poyant as executive producer of its audio newsroom shows. (NYT)
The WaPo's opinion section has brought on seven new contributors: Jim Geraghty, Mary Hadar, Gabriel Pasquini, Ramesh Ponnuru, Amanda Ripley, Natasha Sarin, and Ruy Teixeira. (WaPo)
WAMU has announced Kara Kearns as chief operating officer. (WAMU)
PMC has hired Hannah Woodard as senior director of communications. (Variety)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Aaron M. Sprecher/AP

Newsmax Gets The Boot: The right-wing channel Newsmax was in 13 million fewer homes on Wednesday. That's because DirecTV pulled the plug on the network after the two sides could not reach a renewal agreement. In short, DirecTV refused to pay Newsmax a carriage fee, noting that the channel's content is free to viewers and provided at no charge on streaming platforms such as Roku. Newsmax responded to getting boot by accusing DirecTV of bias and censorship. "This is a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax," CEO Christopher Ruddy said in a statement. Bloomberg's Todd Shields has details here.

► Of note: Newsmax has strong support among Republican lawmakers. Dozens have sent a letter to the company and warned that congressional hearings could take place on the matter. And the network is seeking to capitalize on this support, with hosts telling viewers to contact members of Congress and demand an investigation into "potential discrimination against conservative networks." The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona has more.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Why wouldn't DirecTV want to pay for content like this?: Newsmax host Benny Johnson says that President Joe Biden "believes in child sacrifice." (MMFA)
Just so you know what Fox News' top host was doing with his prime time perch Wednesday night: "WE NEED TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF EPSTEIN'S DEATH," the chyron on Tucker Carlson's show said as the host pushed conspiracy theories about his death.
Right-wing activist James O'Keefe is at it again. This week he posted a video (it's not worth linking to) ambushing The NYT's Adam Goldman. As I reported last year, O'Keefe's right-wing group has targeted Goldman and his colleagues Mark Mazzetti and Michael Schmidt, all of whom have aggressively reported on Project Veritas' spy tactics.
It's hard not to laugh at this one: Fox News fell "for an obviously fake story that a root beer chain is putting pants on a 'polarizing' mascot," Ken Meyer reports. (Mediaite)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Musk's Debt Dilemma: Elon Musk has explored "using as much as $3 billion in potential new fundraising to help repay some of the $13 billion in debt tacked onto Twitter for his buyout of the company," The WSJ's Berber Jin and Alexander Saeedy reported Wednesday, citing sources. The reporting duo added that in December Musk considered selling up to $3 billion in Twitter shares. Read the full story here.

► Kara Swisher's reaction: "Looking forward to seeing who swallows this deal ... he will get the $ — it's just a question of what he has to do to get it."

TOO MANY TABS

That was quick: White supremacist Nick Fuentes has been suspended from Twitter a day after his account had been reinstated. The ban came after he expressed his love for Adolf Hitler on the platform. (Daily Beast)
Twitter has also kicked off "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander after having also reinstated his account. (Rolling Stone)
Musk was asked during Tesla's earnings call Wednesday if he believes his tweets have hurt the electric automaker's brand. He responded he has 127 million followers and argued, "That suggests that I'm reasonably popular." (The Verge)
Twitter has signed deals with ad tech companies DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science as it works to convince advertisers its a safe platform to market on. (Variety)
Meta is paying BuzzFeed close to $10 million as part of an effort to bring more content creators to the social media giant's platforms, Jessica Toonkel and Alexandra Bruell report. (WSJ)
Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Ken Buck have introduced a bill to ban TikTok in the U.S. (The Hill)
Google's massage therapists were part of the tech company's layoffs last week. (Insider)
Apparently, ChatGPT can get a law degree now? The AI bot has passed law school exams, though it didn't outperform most students. (Reuters)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Allyson Riggs/A24

WGA Nominations Arrive: It's not just the Academy announcing nominations this week. The Writers Guild of America also unveiled nominations on Wednesday for three categories. Among those who got the nod were, "Everything Everywhere All at Once," "Top Gun," "The Menu," "Nope," "Tár," and "Black Panther." THR has the full list here.

OFF STAGE

Hulu is the latest to sever ties with Justin Roiland after his domestic violence charges. Roiland has pleaded not guilty. (Variety)
Borys Kit reports that New Line has won an auction for "Weapons," the latest movie from "Barbarian" filmmaker Zach Cregger. (THR)
Jeremy Renner was injured when he took action to stop the snow-removal tractor from hitting his nephew. (CNN)
Brian Lowry reviews Hulu's "The 1619 Project," based on The NYT's initiative. "'The 1619 Project' basically provides an extended taste of what made the Times' effort both celebrated and controversial." (CNN)
"Mystic River" author Dennis Lehane has inked a deal with Apple TV+. (Variety)
Dave Chappelle is talking about the backlash that he faced after making anti-trans remarks. (Deadline)

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.