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Monday, May 8, 2023

Welcome back to the work week! In this edition: An observation on how newsrooms cover gun carnage, The NYT inches closer to a deal with the guild, the Daily Beast's newsroom grapples with unease, the White House pushes back against a New York Post claim, Google plans to make A.I. central to its developer conference, the writers strike freezes production on several high-profile shows, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Bret Baier's Battle

CNN Photo Illustration/Paul Morigi/Getty Images

Bret Baier's standing as a "fair and balanced" newsman is being called into question like never before.

The Fox News chief political anchor has long enjoyed a strong reputation in Washington circles and among viewers, anchoring major news events for the network and moderating presidential debates. While its never been a secret that Baier's program carries a conservative bent, he's widely been considered a respected figure who adheres to traditional journalistic ethics and standards.

That reputation, however, has been ruptured in recent months by the release of leaked private text messages sent in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, casting the "Special Report" anchor in a dramatically different light.

On Thursday, the Daily Beast reported that Baier and now-former host Tucker Carlson engaged in a conversation on Nov. 4, 2020, about potentially delaying Fox News' call of the election. Both men complained that they were receiving blowback from their Trump-supporting viewers over the network's controversial early projection that then-candidate Joe Biden would win the state of Arizona, putting him on the brink of capturing the White House.

"We need to do something to reassure our core audience," Carlson wrote Baier in the wake of the Arizona call, according to The Beast. "They're our whole business model."

Baier replied that he had been "pushing for answers." He then added, according to The Beast, "I have pressed them to slow. And I think they will slow walk Nevada."

Days later, the network was, in fact, last to call the presidency for Biden.

When reached for comment Monday, a Fox News spokesperson pointed me to a previous statement from the network. "Fox News stood by the Arizona call despite intense scrutiny," the statement said. "Given the extremely narrow 0.3% margin and a new projection mechanism that no other network had, it's hardly surprising there would be postmortem discussions surrounding the call and how it was executed, no matter the candidates."

While much attention has been paid in recent months to the shocking comments Carlson made about Trump and his colleagues inside the right-wing network, Baier has managed to escape much of the scrutiny in the press. But the leaked messages exposed that Baier, like others at the outlet, feared its Trump-supporting audience and seemingly went as far as to urge that editorial decisions be made to placate its viewers, a brazen breach of journalistic norms.

The report in The Beast followed an explosive March story from The New York Times that quoted Baier pushing Fox News President Jay Wallace to pull the channel's Arizona call and "put it back in [Trump's] column," even though it was never in Trump's column.

Typically, anchors are not involved in discussions related to making election calls. That process is left up to a network's decision desk. And normally, decision desks base their calls off of data and voting statistics, without taking into consideration politics or potentially alienating a channel's audience.

"There has been some misdirection in the sense that all of the coverage tends to flow to the most outrageous behavior and less outrageous behavior, but still extremely troubling behavior, gets less attention," Erik Wemple, a media critic at The Washington Post, told me. "I think that's the case with Baier."

That's not to say, however, that certain circles in politics and media are not taking notice of it all. In Washington, Baier's peers in the news media are paying close attention. I'm told that over the weekend there was consternation among other network anchors about the latest embarrassing revelation involving Baier.

The revelations about Baier are especially noteworthy given that he is the face of Fox News' so-called "straight news" division. The channel has long argued that its right-wing talk show hosts, which make up the bulk of the outlet's programming, operate in a separate world fire-walled from its journalists. This argument makes it easier for Fox News to pitch itself to advertisers who might otherwise be wary about marketing their products.

"I am one of those people who does observe some distinction between Bret Baier and Sean Hannity ... but the text messages show they are all panicking about the same thing," Wemple told me. "And the news operation sees its existence as hinging on the crazy. They see their future as imperiled if the fringe isn't happy."

In the wake of departures of Fox's stable of even-handed news anchors in recent years — including Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace — Baier has effectively stood alone as the final member of the old guard. But after the leaked messages showed an attempt to meddle in the race calls, Wemple said, Fox's ability to use Baier as a fig leaf will be much more difficult to maintain.

"It's clear now that the fig leaf is translucent," he said. "It's not covering anything up."

THE SIDEBAR

Fox News tells Brian Steinberg that more than 40 new advertisers have started marketing their products during the network's 8pm hour since Tucker Carlson was fired. (Variety)
That said, the ratings for the hour continue to take a hit. Fox News placed last in the demo in the 8pm hour on Friday. (Mediaite)
Kayleigh McEnany, an election lies promoter, is hosting the 8pm hour this week. (LAT)
Charlotte Klein writes about how "life after Fox is apparently taking shape for Carlson," with the ex-host's camp leaking to news outlets — anonymously, of course — that he's ready to go to war against his former employer to be let out of the constraints of his contract. (Vanity Fair)
To that end, Brett Favre declared in a tweet that he is "with Tucker" and said it is "time to boycott Fox until they come to their senses and let the man speak." (The Hill)
Corbin Bolies and Justin Baragona got their hands on some more of the redacted texts from the Dominion filings. In one message, Jesse Watters said the network should "hire some Trump people" and called for longtime host Neil Cavuto to leave. (Daily Beast)
What will Lachlan Murdoch say about Carlson and Dominion? Fox Corporation reports earnings before the bell on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, this is a real headline about a real thing: "Alex Jones threatens man who impersonated Tucker Carlson and said they should suck each other's nipples." (Jezebel)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/oe Raedle/Getty Images

Covering the Carnage: Two horrific mass shootings have rocked the country in recent days, yet again putting the plague of U.S. gun violence front and center. But, while reading much of the coverage from major newsrooms after the Texas mall shooting over the weekend, I was struck by how many outlets still fail in digital/print stories to connect the violence to the larger trend spilling blood from coast to coast. In fact, there have been more than 200 mass shootings in 2023 alone, more than any year since at least 2013. By now, every news organization should have a standard paragraph placed near the top of each mass shooting story underscoring its connection to the broader issue of gun violence. Bizarrely, however, that doesn't appear to be the case. Instead, many of the mainbar stories treated the latest shootings as isolated incidents, with little context of the much bigger issue until late into the story, if at all. It goes without saying that newsrooms can do better.

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Mark Lennihan/AP

Deal or No Deal?: The New York Times and the guild are inching closer to a deal, I'm told. The Daily Beast's Lachlan Cartwright reported Monday evening that an agreement could come as soon as this week. "Whether it happens this week is unclear, but it certainly could happen this week," a person familiar with the negotiations told me. The guild and The NYT management have been recently engaged in off-the-record negotiating sessions and have made great progress, I'm told. Whether that will be enough to get the deal across the finish line in the next few days remains to be seen.

First in Reliable | The Fever Breaks: The Daily Beast is ending its "Fever Dreams" podcast as Will Sommer exits the outlet for The Washington Post, I'm told. (The Daily Beast confirmed it is "pausing production" on the show "for the immediate future.) In some ways, the departure of Sommer puts a cap on the exodus of marquee talent that rose to fame during a previous era of The Beast, which was led through the Trump years by ex-boss Noah Shachtman. The string of high-profile departures and the possibility that owner Barry Diller might sell the outlet has not helped the state of morale at The Beast, multiple sources told me. One person noted that the politics team has taken an enormous hit in recent years, as top talent have slowly moved on from the punchy outlet. Another person said a general state of unease has enveloped the newsroom, particularly as other digital news operations shutter amid difficult times.

IN THE INDUSTRY

The WaPo, The WSJ, The NYT, The LAT, The Atlantic, and the Associated Press, were among some of the major national news outlets to win Pulitzer Prizes on Monday. (Pulitzer Prizes)
Vox Media also won its first Pulitzer, by way of New York magazine. Gimlet Media also won its first prize. And three local outlets — Al.com Birmingham, the Miami Herald, and Mississippi Today — took home prizes. Sara Fischer has a breakdown of the winners here. (Axios)
Benjamin Mullin writes about how a father-son duo in Alabama won a Pulitzer together: "I feel stunned. It's a great honor. And to do it with your kid — I'm telling you, that's gold." (NYT)
The NYT "is getting around $100 million from Google over three years as part of a broad deal that allows the Alphabet unit to feature Times content on some of its platforms," Alexandra Bruell reports. (WSJ)
Meanwhile, Max Tani reports that "some of the most listened-to podcasts in America are struggling to sell ads." (Semafor)
Joe Purzycki, Puck's co-founder and CEO, is leaving the company, Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
Fox News has dedicated its London bureau to photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski, who was killed while covering the war in Ukraine. (AdWeek)
More than 19 million watched the coronation of King Charles III in the U.K. The U.S. viewership numbers will be released Tuesday. (Deadline)
Dish Network said during its earnings report that the press "exaggerated" the severity of the cyberattack it came under earlier this year. (Deadline)

MEDIA MOVES

The WaPo named Rosalind Helderman deputy investigations editor. (WaPo)
The Hill promoted Sarakshi Rai to director of audience development. (The Hill)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Leah Millis/Reuters

New York Post Nonsense: The front page of the New York Post's website on Monday blared a headline about the tabloid being "banned" from a White House event "as Hunter indictment looms." Reading the story, a reader would walk away with the idea that the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet had been isolated and banned for its editorial positions. But, that's not the whole truth. A White House official told me that at least two dozen other outlets were also not credentialed for the event, citing space issues. "No one was singled out, and when we can't accommodate a particular credential request, we do our best to accommodate requests at a future event," the official said, adding that the White House tries to "credential as many reporters into the room as possible." Not exactly the scandal The Post made it out to be.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Disney has cited Ron DeSantis latest comments in an updated complaint against the Florida governor. (Deadline)
Bethany Mandel writes that Steven Crowder's marriage "matters," noting, "Treating your wife like an indentured servant is not conservative." (The Free Press)
"Megyn Kelly has worn a lot of prominent hats in the media industry ... but now it seems she has taken on a new role as a conspiracy theorist," Sarah Rumpf writes. (Mediaite)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Sujjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

A.I. at I/O: Google will make A.I. "a central theme" at its annual developer conference, Google I/O, which kicks off on Wednesday, CNBC's Jennifer Elias reported Monday. The Silicon Valley titan, which has faced an unprecedented challenge to its business from the rapid rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT, will aim to explain how it is bringing "generative experiences" to its search product, she reported. Read Elias' full report here.

TOO MANY TABS

David Pierce reports on how Google "tried to fix the web," but failed: "Google promised to create a better, faster web for media companies with a new standard called AMP. In the end, it ruined the trust publishers had in the internet giant." (The Verge)
Meta is reiterating it will block news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada if a bill forcing it to pay publishers for content passes. (Gizmodo)
State bans on TikTok have "clouded the plans of many so-called destination marketing organizations that have come to rely on it," Patrick Coffee reports. (WSJ)
Anthony Adragna writes about how Rand Paul is taking a "new stand" in the Senate against banning TikTok. (POLITICO)
"How to build (and destroy) a social network": Charlie Warzel writes about Elon Musk's stewardship of Twitter. (The Atlantic)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Xinhua/Getty Images

Pausing Production: The writers strike is starting to take a toll on the production of a number of prominent shows. On Monday, it was announced that production of "Severance," "Stranger Things," "Daredevil: Born Again," and the "Game of Thrones" spinoff "A Night of the Seven Kingdoms" has been paused. Of course, the suspension of production on the shows won't be noticeable to viewers for some time. But if the strike drags on for months, as many observers are expecting, the pauses will translate into noticeable delays.

► Deadline's Rosy Cordero has dispatches from day six of the picket lines.

► Meanwhile, renowned "The Wire" writer David Simon hit the picket line after HBO suspended his deal. The Wrap's Sharon Knolle has details.

► "The top executives who steered into layoffs and cost-cutting didn't see big pay declines in most cases for 2022 compensation," THR's Georg Szalai reported Monday.

OFF STAGE

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" rocked the box office with a $118 million opening weekend, above Disney's projections. (Deadline)
"Marvel has another box office hit, but the damage done by Phase Four likely won't be fixed," Jeremy Fuster writes. (The Wrap)
Rebecca Rubin notes that for the "Guardians," it is "all about box office staying power." (Variety)
Brian Cox wants to win the Emmy for lead actor in a drama, despite his limited time in this season's "Succession." (Variety)
Olivia Nuzzi spoke to the cast and creators of "White House Plumbers." (Vulture)
"The Kelly Clarkson Show" is moving production from the Universal lot to 30 Rock this fall. (The Wrap)
Nicolas Cage and Bill Skarsgård will star in the "Lord of War" sequel, titled "Lords of War." (THR)
Elizabeth Holmes says Amanda Seyfried won an Emmy for "playing a character" she created. (Variety)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by 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 tomorrow.