Received this email from a friend? Subscribe here.

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Cable news ratings surge during Trump arraignment coverage, The Wall Street Journal marks one week since Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russia, NPR blasts Elon Musk for labeling it "state-affiliated media," Meta says advertisers will soon be able to use A.I. to create ads, "Super Mario" looks to be a super success at the box office, Jeremy Renner talks to Diane Sawyer, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Rendezvous With Rupert

CNN Photo Illustration/Mike Blake/Reuters/FILE

Rupert Murdoch should get ready for a trip to Wilmington, Delaware.

The Fox Corporation chief will almost certainly be summoned to the Diamond State to testify as a witness in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against his company, which is scheduled to go to trial later this month, barring an abrupt last-minute settlement, which is always possible.

Fox had tried to shield Murdoch and his chief executive son, Lachlan, from being forced to testify. But on Wednesday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said at a hearing that if the voting technology company moves to subpoena them, he would not stand in the way.

Noting that the Murdochs are "relevant to the case," Davis said, "If Dominion wants to bring them live, they need to issue a trial subpoena, and I would not quash it." Davis explained that "both parties have made these witnesses very relevant."

The decision from the judge marked another painful legal setback for Fox, which had done its very best to persuade the judge that the Murdochs should not be compelled to testify. And for good reason.

Their inclusion to the witness list will intensify the agonizing process that Fox will surely go through during the weeks-long trial, with the aging mogul and his son being forcibly summoned to court to defend the indefensible — all as a result of a series of reckless decisions at their network that have come back to bite them with a vengeance and now risks causing even more damage to the crown jewel of their global media empire.

At trial, the elder and younger Murdoch will be joined by a slew of their marquee Fox News talent, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Bret Baier, and other high-wattage stars who the right-wing channel said in a letter to the court this week that it will make available to testify. Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott will also be on hand.

"The witness list for the Fox News $1.6 billion defamation trial now has more big names than a prime-time lineup," The NYT's Katie Robertson observed Wednesday.

Fox isn't happy about any of it, naturally. The company on Wednesday put out yet another fiery statement, blasting Dominion. "Dominion clearly wants to continue generating misleading stories from their friends in the media to distract from their weak case," the Fox statement said. "Demanding witnesses who had nothing to do with the challenged broadcasts is just the latest example of their political crusade in search of a financial windfall."

Of course, even if the Murdochs were not directly involved in the specific segments mentioned in the lawsuit, astute media observers know that the buck stops with them. They control the network. And that's precisely why Dominion has indicated they want to call them to the stand.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Candy for Cable: Cable news coverage of Donald Trump's arrest and arraignment drew big ratings. CNN on Tuesday averaged 1.8 million viewers in prime time, with 487,000 in the key 25-54 advertising demo. The network's ratings peaked in the 3pm hour with 2.8 million total viewers, and 657,000 in the demo. Over on MSNBC, the highest-rated hour was at 9pm with 2.8 million total viewers and 372,000 in the demo. MSNBC averaged 2.7 million prime time viewers, with 348,000 in the demo.

► In right-wing talk TV, Fox News averaged 4.4 million viewers in prime time, with 713,000 in the demo. Fox News peaked during Trump's speech in the 8pm hour, drawing a whopping 6.5 million viewers with 1.1 million in the demo. Newsmax also surged Tuesday, drawing 478,000 average viewers in prime time, and peaking with 826,000 total viewers during Trump's speech in the 8pm hour.

THE SIDEBAR

"For once, Donald Trump did not enjoy the show": James Poniewozik notes that "the ex-president's indictment put him in the rare position of being forced onto a public stage not of his own choosing." (NYT)
"Trump knows how good he is at getting the media to cover him, and he understands how to manipulate the spotlight," Adam Serwer writes, in a piece harshly critical of the arraignment coverage. (The Atlantic)
Ted Anthony put it like this: "In the currency of today's attention economy, Donald Trump is the world's richest man." (Fortune)
"When it comes to Donald Trump, the media seem to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing," Edward Luce added. (Financial Times)
The New Yorker released an early look at next week's cover: "Truth is stranger than fiction: for the first time in its long history, The New Yorker is publishing a courtroom sketch on the cover." (New Yorker)
Shirin Ghaffary points out that Trump "is no longer the social media king" and reports that his arrest "was a whimper, not a roar, on Twitter, a platform designed for these moments." (Vox)
First in Reliable | In an interview with Stephen Colbert's "Tooning Out the News," Charles Blow responds to Trump calling him a "sick degenerate" and "racist" for a critical piece he had written about him. See Blow's response here.

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Paul Beckett/Wall Street Journal

#IStandWithEvan: Staffers at The Wall Street Journal, and supporters across the globe, marked one week of Evan Gershkovich being detained in Russia by demanding his release on Wednesday. Supporters flooded social media with the #IStandWithEvan hashtag. And in The Journal's bureaus, photos of Gershkovich were displayed on giant screens throughout the day. "I never would have believed that I'd be the one to be cheering people on to get on social media," The Journal's head of standards and ethics, Emma Moody, wrote the newsroom. "But this time was worth it."

► On the diplomatic front: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he had urged Russia to "immediately" release Gershkovich. "In my own mind, there's no doubt that he's being wrongfully detained by Russia, which is exactly what I said to Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov when I spoke to him over the weekend, and insisted that Evan be released," Blinken said at a press conference.

IN THE INDUSTRY

Bob Iger and Tim Cook will meet this week with some House members focused on U.S.-China competition. (CNN)
CNN and Don Lemon denied a Variety report that accused the anchor of belittling his female colleagues more than a decade ago. (Mediaite)
First in Reliable | Lester Holt will air a sit-down interview Thursday with Melanie Bloom McNulty, the widow of the late journalist David Bloom. Thursday marks 20 years since his tragic death.
RIP: Neal Boenzi, who was The NYT's top photographer for more than 40 years, capturing iconic images for a generation at the paper of record, died this week at the age of 97. (NYT)
The "Today" show became the first morning program to win a Peabody award. The NBC show was honored with the Peabody Institutional Award that recognizes programs "for their enduring body of work and their iconic impact on both the media landscape and the public imagination." (THR)
Speaking of awards: Yesterday, we told you about this newsletter being nominated for a Webby award. Your votes have sent us rocketing to first place in the people's choice category. Thank you! Your support means the world. And if you haven't voted, you still have time and can do so here.

MEDIA MOVES

Disney appointed Hulu boss Joe Earley head of streaming; Michael Paull will depart the company. (WSJ)
In an anticipated announcement, MSNBC named Ana Cabrera as anchor of its 10am hour. The show will be called "Ana Cabrera Reports" and premieres April 10. (Deadline)
Ad Fontes Media, a startup that encourages companies to advertise on news, tapped Lou Paskalis as its chief strategy officer. (WSJ)
The NYT hired Neima Jahromi for its book review section; MJ Franklin was promoted to preview editor; Emily Eakin was promoted to senior editor. (NYT)
CNN brought on Bryan Mena from The WSJ as a business reporter.

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

NPR Excoriates Musk: NPR laced into Twitter on Wednesday after the Elon Musk-owned company appended a "state-affiliated media" label on its account, an action typically reserved for state-controlled propaganda outlets such as Russia's Sputnik. "We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as 'state-affiliated media,' a description that, per Twitter's own guidelines, does not apply to NPR," NPR chief John Lansing said in a statement. "NPR and our member stations are supported by millions of listeners who depend on us for the independent, fact-based journalism we provide. NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way." Musk, who has been unrelenting in smearing the news media, stood by the action. "Seems accurate," he replied in a tweet to a right-wing personality. CNN's Brian Fung has more here.

► Will NPR remain on Twitter? I asked a spokesperson but didn't hear back. That said, it's notable that since Musk slapped NPR's account with this label, the outlet has stopped tweeting.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Robert Costa reported that Steve Bannon has been encouraging Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run for president as a chaos agent for months. Kennedy filed paperwork on Wednesday with the FEC. (Twitter/AP)
"Anywhere a hot button exists, she pushes twice": Emily Jane Fox profiles Candace Owens, who opened up about her friendship with Kanye West, among other topics. (Vanity Fair)
It's hard to stress how much this stuff saturates right-wing media these days: Daily Wire personality Michael Knowles told his audience that Democrats "have a weird sexual interest in children." (MMFA)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Making Ads By Machine: Another day, another way in which a tech company is incorporating A.I. technology into its product. Meta's chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth said on Wednesday that the company plans to launch a feature that will allow marketers to use A.I. to generate ad content. Speaking to the Japanese outlet Nikkei, Bosworth said that generative A.I. is "the area that" he is probably "spending the most time" in right now, along with Mark Zuckerberg and chief product officer Chris Cox. So much for the Metaverse? Read the full story here.

► Meta on Wednesday also published an A.I. model "that can pick out individual objects from within an image, along with a dataset of image annotations that it said was the largest ever of its kind," Katie Paul reports.

TOO MANY TABS

Meta's cuts "are gutting customer service, leaving influencers and businesses with nobody to call," Jonathan Vanian reports. (CNBC)
But Wall Street loves the bloodshed at 1 Hacker Way: Meta's stock got another upgrade as the company continues slashing costs. (Barrons)
"What happens when ChatGPT lies about people?" asks Pranshu Verma and Will Oremus, who note that the A.I. bot "can misrepresent key facts with great flourish, even citing a fake Washington Post article as evidence." (WaPo)
On that topic, an Australian mayor is preparing the world's first defamation lawsuit over content created by ChatGPT. (Reuters)
Snapchat is launching new safeguards around its own A.I. bot. (TechCrunch)
Substack unveiled a new "notes" feature. Aisha Malik observed that the feed "looks a lot like Twitter." (TechCrunch)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Nintendo and Universal Studios/AP

'Super Mario' Success: Mario is ready to collect some coins. Universal Nintendo's much-anticipated "Super Mario Bros. Movie" is looking like it will be a box office winner, projected to clean up at least $128 million in its five-day debut over the Easter weekend, THR's Pamela McClintock reports. McClintock adds that some "bullish pundits suggest the movie could even clear $140 million to $150 million" after earning an estimated $26 million alone on Wednesday. Read McClintock's full story here.

🔎 Zooming in: Why is the movie looking so promising at the box office? "Not only is the PG-rated pic whipping up interest among families," McClintock points out in her piece, "it is appealing to the generations of adults who grew up playing Nintendo's wildly popular Mario games (or those who still play)."

OFF STAGE

In an interview with Diane Sawyer set to air Thursday, Jeremy Renner said that after his snowplow accident, he was so worried he might not survive his injuries that he wrote down his "last words" to his family on his iPhone. (CNN)
"Everyone who ran Hollywood used to be young," Peter Kiefer writes, asking, "What happened?" (The Ankler)
Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker announced a new Hulu special, "'Til Death Do Us Part: Kourtney & Travis," that will recreate the couple's May 2022 wedding ceremony. (LAT)
Another one bites the dust: "Ziwe" was canceled by Showtime after its second season. (The Wrap)
Anderson Cooper will be an executive producer for Amazon's "Vanderbilt," a drama based on the book by the same name — penned by Cooper and Katherine Howe. (THR)
Apple has acquired the rights to the Jonah Hill-directed "Outcome," which will star both Hill and Keanu Reeves. (The Wrap)
Jack Harlow, Matt Damon, and Casey Affleck will all star in Apple's upcoming original, "The Instigators." (Deadline)
Johnny Depp will return to the silver screen in Maïwenn's historical drama "Jeanne Du Barry," set to debut at Cannes. (Variety)
Orlando Bloom will star and executive produce Amazon's "This Must Be The Place," based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel. (Deadline)
Ken Jeong will star and executive produce an upcoming Fox comedy series, titled "10% Happier." (Deadline)

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