Received this email from a friend? Subscribe here.

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Before we get started, an exciting announcement: We are thrilled to tell you that this newsletter has been nominated for a Webby award! You can vote for us here.

Now, onward to the news of the day: Detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich met with his lawyers, Rupert Murdoch's engagement has been called off, Fox News says it intends to make some of its marquee stars available for testimony at trial, Mark Zuckerberg has 33 billion reasons to be all smiles in 2023, Warner Bros. celebrates its 100th birthday, and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Desensitized to Donald

CNN Photo Illustration/Seth Wenig/Pool/AP

America has grown weary of The Trump Show.

Years and years of breathless coverage has desensitized the public to developments about the former president. The numbers show it. On the night before Donald Trump was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, ratings on the cable news networks did not break — or even near — records.

I'd be lying if I said that I did not feel it too. Trump has broken so many norms that he has left the public numb. The endless talk about "the walls closing in" on Trump that saturated the public conversation for years, with him ultimately emerging unscathed, has also rendered a country that is skeptical he will ever face any actual legal consequences for his actions.

It's easy to just tune it all out — and many evidently are.

Ironically, at a time that the country should arguably be tuning in to special coverage related to the former president, with an indictment in New York and another possible in Georgia, people are doing the opposite, burnt out by the never-ending saga of Trump.

However, what transpired in Manhattan on Tuesday was an important moment, one that will forever be seared into our national history. A former president arrested and arranged in court. It's important not to overlook that.

It was a serious moment worthy of special coverage. It would have been a failure of the press not to treat it as such.

That's not to say that all of the coverage was perfect. At times, broadly speaking, it was perhaps too enveloped in discussion catered to the beltway audience. And whether news networks needed overhead helicopter shots of Trump's motorcade or live footage of his plane on the go is certainly debatable.

But coverage was warranted. This wasn't a trivial story that the press rushed to hype. As Semafor D.C. Bureau Chief Benjy Sarlin, who noted he is "amenable to 'Trump is covered too much' critiques," wrote on Twitter Tuesday afternoon, "I don't know what exactly people are expecting on the day a former president and current 2024 frontrunner is arraigned in court."

The tension over whether the press went overboard boiled up at times during rolling coverage. On MSNBC Tuesday night, Rachel Maddow addressed it head on, conceding that the coverage had "felt a bit like a circus at times." And she forgave her audience if they did not tune in.

"But today, we got the substance of the legal case against the former president," Maddow said. "And it is interesting, it was surprising in some ways, it is legally both intricate and very blunt."

In other words, it was consequential — and deserving of attention.

THE SIDEBAR

The Drudge Report's banner: "DONALD DOCK"
The NYT's A1 lede: "Donald J. Trump, who has weathered two impeachment trials, a special counsel inquiry and decades of investigations, was accused by Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday of orchestrating a hush-money scheme to pave his path to the presidency and then covering it up from the White House." (NYT)
"The media coverage of former President Donald J. Trump's arraignment on Tuesday could be summed up by the title of this year's big Oscar winner: Everything, everywhere, all at once," Michael Grynbaum and John Koblin write. (NYT)
Paul Farhi argues that with the courtroom "walled off to cameras during Trump's arraignment, the images simply couldn't meet the moment." Farhi noted television networks "had to resort to showing what was going on outside the court rather than what transpired within it." (WaPo)
"Recording a historic moment, or feeding into a spectacle?" wondered Charlotte Klein. "It's a seemingly eternal question when it comes to media coverage of Donald Trump." (Vanity Fair)
Don't forget the National Enquirer lies at the heart of this story. Brian Schwartz reports on how the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has shed "new light" on the tabloid's efforts to boost Trump in 2016. (CNBC)
A few chyrons I saw on Fox News Tuesday night, as a reminder how this is playing in right-wing media where much of the country gets their news: "THE LEFT'S LATEST WITCH HUNT," "THIS INDICTMENT IS A NAKED POLITICAL HIT JOB," "THE ELITES ARE SCARED TRUMP MIGHT WIN," and "TRUMP INDICTMENTS ARE ABOUT REVENGE, NOT JUSTICE."
Over at the White House on Tuesday, The NYT's Michael Shear clashed with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over the White House's silence on the Trump indictment. (Mediaite)
Meanwhile, amid all of this, traffic to Truth Social has "surged on the site since the indictment was announced," Stuart Thompson reports. (NYT)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Evan Vucci)/AP

To Take Trump Live Or Not?: Cable news networks were once again faced with a not unfamiliar conundrum when Trump delivered a prime time speech responding to the indictment from Mar-a-Lago: CNN opted to take most of the speech, cutting away toward the end. Jake Tapper explained, "We felt that it was important after a day in which we were bringing you news of his arrest and arraignment that we allow the former president to give his view of the proceeding — and then obviously it was somewhat incoherent, and then began turning into a campaign event, at which point we cut away." Daniel Dale later appeared on with one of his trademark fact-check segments. Meanwhile, MSNBC opted not to take any of the speech. Rachel Maddow explained the network's viewers that Trump was "just giving his normal list of grievances" and that the progressive news channel didn't "consider that necessarily newsworthy." Maddow added, "There is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting lies."

► No surprise, but worth noting: Right-wing talk channels Fox News and Newsmax both carried the speech in its entirety.

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Reuters

Gershkovich Meets With Lawyers: Detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich met with his lawyers on Tuesday, Editor-In-Chief Emma Tucker informed staffers in a memo. Tucker said Gershkovich's "health is good" and that he is "grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world." Tucker explained the "legal avenue is one of several avenues we are working to advocate for Evan's release" and that the newspaper continues to work with the White House and government agencies to secure his release. Tucker added that she spent time with Gershkovich's family on Sunday. "They are incredibly resilient in the face of extraordinarily difficult circumstances," Tucker wrote. "They are relieved to know we finally have contact with Evan. We continue to stand with Evan's family as they face this ordeal."

► Wednesday marks one-week since Gershkovich was detained by Russia. The WSJ is asking that its staffers at 10am ET participate in a "social media storm" and help "keep Evan top of mind" by posting about him.

Ending the Engagement: The media wedding of the summer is no more. Billionaire right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Ann Lesley Smith have called off their engagement just weeks after announcing they would be tying the knot, a source told me on Tuesday. When Murdoch and Smith announced their engagement via a Cindy Adams column in the New York Post, the four-time married Murdoch declared that this "better be" his "last" love, adding that he was "looking forward to spending the second half" of his life with Smith. It's unclear what happened to change things. Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman, who first reported the engagement had been called off, cited a source that said Murdoch had become uncomfortable with Smith's outspoken evangelical views. A Murdoch spokesperson declined to comment. Here's my full story.

IN THE INDUSTRY

The Obamas' Higher Ground production company has struck a deal with podcasting platform Acast for ad sales and distribution, J. Clara Chan reports. (THR)
The White House Correspondents Association has announced the winners of its 2023 journalism awards, recognizing Matt Viser, Jeff Mason, Phil Mattingly, Doug Mills, Josh Gerstein, and Alex Ward for their work. Congratulations to all the honorees! (WHCA)
The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership of The City College of New York recognized NBCU News Group boss Cesar Conde with its inaugural Colin L. Powell Distinguished Leadership Award.
Nominees for the Webby Awards are out. (The Wrap)
🔌 And as I mentioned above, the Reliable Sources newsletter is among the nominees. Please consider showing your support and voting for us!
Los Angeles Mag Editor-In-Chief Maer Roshan is in talks to depart the outlet, he told Loree Seltz. (The Wrap)

MEDIA MOVES

CNN named Karen Friedman Agnifilo as an on-air legal analyst. (CNN)
Universal Pictures tapped Matt Leaf as EVP of business affairs. (Deadline)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Shelby Tauber/Reuters

Testifying at Trial: Fox News said in a Tuesday letter that it intends to make some of its marquee stars and top executives available to testify when Dominion Voting System's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit goes to trial this month. Among the hosts Fox News said it intends to make available are Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Bret Baier, Dana Perino, and Jeanine Pirro. Executives include Suzanne Scott and Jay Wallace. Not mentioned in the Tuesday letter were Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, both of whom the judge has signaled he could force to testify at a trial. CNN's Marshall Cohen and Kate Trafecante have details.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

"Did Fox News melt this county's brain?": Don't miss Elizabeth Landers' piece in which she goes to a California county that terminated its Dominion contract. Landers looks at how the conspiracy theories that have loomed over the elections company have taken hold on the ground. (Vice)
"Rupert Murdoch's cable network isn't really a news organization. It just plays one on television," Eugene Robinson writes. (WaPo)
Meanwhile over in Australia: "The judge in the blockbuster defamation case between Lachlan Murdoch and Crikey publisher Private Media says he is considering sending both sides back to mediation, describing the case as being 'driven more by ego and hubris and ideology.'" (AFR)
And back in the U.S.: Author Judy Blume slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at Variety's Power of Women luncheon: "Teachers are under fire, librarians are threatened!" (Variety)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Meta and the Market: Morale might be low at Meta after two rounds of brutal layoffs, but Mark Zuckerberg has nearly 33 billion reasons to be all smiles. The Street's Luc Olinga noted Tuesday that the Meta chief's "year of efficiency" has turned his company into "a Wall Street star since the start of the year," in turn making him $32.8 billion richer. As Bloomberg's Subrat Patnaik echoed in a Tuesday story, Meta "is the hottest tech stock in the market right now," having surged 140% since November.

TOO MANY TABS

✂️ Cuts, cuts, cuts: Apple "is eliminating a small number of roles within its corporate retail teams," Mark Gurman reports, noting the cuts are the tech titan's "first known internal job cuts since it embarked on a belt-tightening effort last year." (Bloomberg)
Google workers in London staged a walkout on Tuesday over job cuts at their company. (Reuters)
Dogecoin has gained nearly $4 billion in market value after Elon Musk changed Twitter's logo to a Shiba Inu dog. (Reuters)
TikTok has been fined nearly $16 million in the U.K. for not enforcing age limits for children under 13. (CNN)
"Once I began using TikTok more frequently, I found I couldn't stop": An Arizona State University student writes about the journey to "escaping" TikTok. (Slate)
"The algorithm recognizes vulnerability and, instead of seeing it as something it should be careful around, it sees it as a potential point of addiction," Center for Countering Digital Hate chief Imran Ahmed tells Kevin Rawlinson. (Guardian)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Warner Bros. Discovery

The 100th Birthday: Warner Bros. on Tuesday celebrated its 100th anniversary, with celebrations occurring across Warner Bros. Discovery's offices to mark the momentous occasion. WBD boss David Zaslav visited the Warner Bros. lot and addressed the 2,000 assembled employees, as well as others watching from viewing parties across 50 offices from around the world. "We have an incredible company and this is an incredible moment for all of us ... one hundred years in the making," Zaslav said. "Today we stand on the shoulders of the Warner Brothers themselves. It is really our moment in time, not just because of the 100th celebration but because of all of the amazing stories we will tell together."

► THR's Chris Yogersrt looked back at "how the Warner Brothers got their film business started."

► Rotten Tomatoes marked the occasion by posting what it deemed to be the "100 essential Warner Bros. movies."

OFF STAGE

Warner Bros. Discovery is "close to a deal for a new online TV series based on Harry Potter," Lucas Shaw reports. WBD boss David Zaslav and HBO chief Casey Boys "have worked to convince" J.K. Rowling "to produce a new series," Shaw added, noting a company spokesperson declined to comment to him. (Bloomberg)
Don't expect Mario games to head to the iPhone: "Mobile apps will not be the primary path of future Mario games," Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto told Ethan Shanfeld. (Variety)
A replicate of D.C.'s iconic 9:30 Club will open next month by way of a Foo Fighters show. (DCist)
Robert De Niro is set to star in and executive produce a Paramount+ drama about the SDNY from writer Billy Ray. (THR)
Kit Harrington will star in "Industry" season three. (Deadline)
Lionsgate will release the "Ballerina" spinoff of "John Wick" on June 7, 2024. (THR)
The second teaser trailer of "Barbie" is offering a better look at what viewers can expect when they enter the dream house. (Variety)

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