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Thursday, February 2, 2023

You're about to cross the finish line for the week! A trio of tech titans tumble, Comcast unloads millions of BuzzFeed shares, Tucker Carlson trashes Hunter Biden after legal threat, Meta shares soar, Beyoncé looks to make history, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

CNN Crew's Close Call

CNN Photo Illustration/CNN

CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen and his team were traveling on Thursday to the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk to report on the search and rescue efforts underway after a residential building was leveled overnight by a Russian missile. It was "supposed to be a fairly easy shoot," Pleitgen told me, given that the crew was not heading to the frontlines of the war.

"But it turned bad in an instant," Pleitgen said, describing what transpired in the blink of an eye as one of the "closest calls" and most dangerous episodes in his lengthy career as a foreign correspondent.

As Pleitgen and the team were heading to the scene, just moments after they had parked and exited their vehicle, a Russian missile struck nearby without warning, sending flames and thick plumes into the air as screaming civilians scrambled to find shelter. Pleitgen estimated that it landed only 40 or 50 yards shy of them.

"People went running to safety," he told me. "We made our way to the other side of the road to get into cover in a basement there. As I looked back, a second missile struck nearly the same place. Another big blast. We took cover. [We were] in a basement with some residents."

At least five people were wounded in the attack that badly damaged residential buildings, a children's clinic and school, according to a Ukrainian official.

Pleitgen said that after some time had passed, "when it stayed quiet," the CNN team exited the basement, filmed the destruction left by the powerful blasts, and then quickly left the scene.

The incident underscores the dangerous reporting that journalists are doing each day in Ukraine, navigating perilous situations to deliver news to the world about the toll Vladimir Putin's aggression has taken on the Eastern European country and its people. The Committee to Protect Journalists said last week that Ukraine was the deadliest country for reporters in 2022, with 15 members of the press killed in the war-torn country.

"People need to understand that this war is a whole other level of danger than wars in the past decades," Pleitgen told me, adding that this is "the most dangerous" war he has ever covered. "This a full on conventional war using heavy weapons that can hit frontline areas but also civilian places anytime."

Pleitgen said he couldn't, for obvious reasons, detail the security precautions the CNN crew takes when operating in a war zone. But he did say that "planning and communication are everything" for the team, and that they were well prepared when the reporting assignment quickly turned dire.

The incident, Pleitgen told me, has impacted how he thinks about reporting from the war zone. He said "it is so important" for journalists to be in the country reporting on the Russian invasion that has left thousands of civilians dead and forced millions to flee their homes, "even though it is very dangerous."

I asked him how he feels about waking up in the morning tomorrow and heading back into the field, given the close call. "I feel confident," he said. "But of course, an event like this reminds you to never let your guard down."

"It can all go south quickly."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/AFP/Getty Images

Tech Titans Tumble: A trio of tech titans reported earnings after the bell on Thursday — and, suffice to say, it went poorly for all of them. The Washington Post put it like this in its Friday A1 story: "Lackluster earnings reports show Big Tech's golden age is fading." Here's a roundup of earnings from Alphabet, Apple, and Amazon:

► Alphabet: The weak digital advertising market continues to take its toll on companies that rely on ad sales for revenue. That was the case for Alphabet, which saw YouTube's revenue drop nearly 8% year-over-year to $7.96 billion, falling below analyst expectations of $8.2 billion. The miss led to shares falling about 5% in after-hours trading. CEO Sundar Pichai, however, told investors who might be worried about ChatGPT that Google is planning on rolling AI features to its search engine "very soon."

► Apple: The richest company in the world missed on its earnings for the first time in seven years, sending shares sinking about 5% in after-hours trading. But, while the company recorded an iPhone sales decline, the bright spot was that it set a record for revenue on its services business (Apple TV+, Apple Music, etc.).

► Amazon: The e-commerce giant posted its least profitable holiday quarter since 2014, prompting shares to fall nearly 6% in after-hours trading. That said, Amazon did see its advertising business grow 19% as it works to catch up with Alphabet and Meta, which are far more established in digital ad sales.

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

Comcast Takes the Cash: Days after shares of BuzzFeed soared over news the company will begin using AI to help create content, Comcast moved to liquidate some of its holdings in the company. The telecommunications giant and BuzzFeed investor, sold more than 5.7 million shares, according to a regulatory filing. The unloading of stock was done over a three-day period, starting Monday and concluding Wednesday. BuzzFeed's stock has come back to earth after peaking at $3.87 on Friday (it's now $2.09 a share), but the price is still up 186% over the last month. THR's Georg Szalai has more here.

First in Reliable | Mediaite's Milestone: Mediaite is celebrating the most-trafficked year in its history. The news website, focused on covering the media industry and capturing key moments from broadcast air, recorded a whopping 422 million page views, its editor-in-chief, Aidan McLaughlin, told me Thursday, citing Google Analytics data. McLaughlin said that the website grew page views from 2017 to 2022 by 140% and saw a year-over-year increase in 2022 of 20%. McLaughlin credited "the herculean efforts of a comparatively small-yet-nimble team" for the growth that "illustrates the enduring appetite for reporting on the media industry."

IN THE INDUSTRY

One year ago today: Jeff Zucker was ousted from CNN, setting off a cascade of events that continue to reshape the network.
"Tensions on the set of 'CNN This Morning' have recently boiled over," Alexandra Steigrad writes, citing sources to report that the relationship between Don Lemon and Kaitlan Collins has frayed. A CNN spokesperson told Steigrad that "in just three months, these anchors have created a compelling morning show that breaks news and drives the conversation." (NY Post)
Yikes! CNET "pushed reporters to be more favorable to advertisers," Mia Sato reports, adding that "after being acquired by Red Ventures, staff say editorial firewalls have been repeatedly breached." (The Verge)
Reiterating what we reported last month, Paul Farhi writes about how White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has "frustrated reporters with her inability to shed light" on key issues. (WaPo)
The White House Correspondents Dinner will be headlined by "Daily Show" correspondent Roy Wood Jr. (CNN)
Charlotte Klein talks to WHCA chief Tamara Keith: "I've spent most of my career outside the bubble." (Vanity Fair)
The Washington Post teamed up with the late Jeff German's newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to complete one of the stories he'd planned to pursue before his killing. (WaPo)
Marc Caputo exited NBC News earlier this week, days after he gloated on social media about evicting a tenant from his Florida property. (Defector)
The NYT's outgoing Europe editor, Jim Yardley, spoke to William Turvill about a number of issues, including claims of the newspaper holding an anti-UK bias. (Press Gazette)
Mark Stenberg writes that BDG's recent decisions to "cut so deeply into Mic, Gawker, Inverse, and Input reflects both the broader downturn in the digital advertising economy, as well as the particular challenges facing specific verticals." (AdWeek)
Disney's war with activist investment firm Trian Management "is heating up ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting," Lillian Rizzo reports. (CNBC)

MEDIA MOVES

The WaPo hired Maeve Reston as national politics reporter; appointed Mary Beth Sheridan as its Mexico City bureau chief; and named Kevin Sieff international investigative sports reporter. (WaPo/WaPo/WaPo)
First in Reliable | Graydon Carter's Air Mail hired Harrison Vail as its director of communications.
The NYT announced Lorne Manly will lead a program to publish culture criticism from writers who have underrepresented backgrounds. (NYT)
CNN Audio named Steve Lickteig as executive producer. (Pod News)
Warner Bros. Discovery promoted Rebecca Rørmark to head of streaming marketing for EMEA. (Variety)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Janos Kummer/Getty Images

Taking Tucker To Task : The right-wing channel Fox News, already ensnared in litigation over the promotion of 2020 election conspiracy theories, is now facing a threat from Hunter Biden's legal team for alleged "false and defamatory statements" made by Tucker Carlson. A Biden attorney sent a letter to Fox News and the network's fringe talk host, demanding that Carlson "immediately retract" a conspiracy theory he pushed in mid-January. Biden's attorney described the statements Carlson made as "false" and having "no factual support whatsoever." The letter also insisted Carlson devote "a signifiant amount of air-time" on the retraction, and demanded a response by end of business day Thursday.

► Fox News spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment. But Carlson doesn't seem like he will apologize any time soon. The Fox News host led his show attacking Biden as a "lifelong crackhead" and lambasting him over the legal threats. Carlson's chyrons read "HUNTER WANTS DAD TO LOCK UP ANYONE WHO SHARED [LAPTOP]" and "HUNTER BIDEN IS OFFICIALLY DRUNK ON POWER."

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Drama at the Shorenstein Center: The Harvard Crimson reported that Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf "is forcing out online misinformation expert Joan M. Donovan." (The Crimson)
The Southern Poverty Law Center published more Alex Jones text messages, this time reinforcing "how closely connected the Infowars host is to members of the Proud Boys." (SPLC)
Kevin McCarthy indicated that he supports holding hearings about DirecTV dropping Newsmax. (The Hill)
Matt Schlapp told Steve Bannon that CPAC has "decided to go a little bit Hungarian" on "left-wing activists that like to think they're media." Schlapp added, "I don't know why we're letting them come into our house every year so they can beat the hell out of us and lie to us. So I'm not so sure we're going to do so much of that anymore." (MMFA)
Daniel Dale documented six false claims that were "fully disproven" by the Paul Pelosi attack video released last week. (CNN)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Meta to the Moon: Meta's stock finds itself resting on cloud nine, after an extraordinary day on Wall Street as investors responded positively to its earnings and stock buyback plan. "Shares of the tech giant ... climbed more than 23 percent, its biggest daily gain in nearly 10 years," NYT's Isabella Simonetti and Mike Isaac wrote. "And it was a huge move for a company its size, adding nearly $100 billion in market value in a single day, or about as much as Citigroup's entire market capitalization." Read more here.

TOO MANY TABS

More pressure on TikTok: Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet wants Apple and Google to ban the video app from their app stores. (CNN)
Twitter announced in the middle of the night that it will charge developers for API access as Elon Musk continues to search for revenue. (WSJ)
"This decision will have the most impact on bots and researchers," Chloe Xiang explains. (Vice)
Another day, another use for AI: Microsoft says it will use tech from OpenAI to write emails for salespeople. (Bloomberg)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Who Run the World?: Beyoncé has a shot at history on Sunday at the Grammy Awards, which will air at 8pm ET on CBS. If the music icon notches four wins, she will become the most-awarded artist in the Recording Academy's history. "More winning than Michael Jackson, more than Paul McCartney, more than Stevie Wonder and U2 and Aretha Franklin," LAT's Mikael Wood writes. "And with a leading nine nominations this year — a haul that brought her even with her husband, Jay-Z, for the most nods (88) of all time — Beyoncé could set the record even if she loses more Grammys than she wins." More in Wood's piece here.

OFF STAGE

The Grammys will honor the 50th anniversary of hip hop at the awards show with an all-star performance featuring Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne, and more. (THR)
Will the Super Bowl surpass 100 million viewers for the first time in years? Gavin Bridge argues that it will. (Variety)
Netflix has dropped the trailer to "Outer Banks" season 3. (YouTube)
Sylvester Stallone and his family will be the focus of a new Paramount+ reality series. (Variety)
Fox has renewed "The Cleaning Lady" for a third season. (Deadline)
"Hit Monkey" has been renewed for Hulu, though it will lose "Marvel" from its title. (THR)

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.