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Thursday, May 11, 2023

You're nearing the end of another week! Town hall turmoil at CNN, Disney's day down, Elon Musk's new Twitter CEO, NBC's Olympics move, and so more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Punishing PBS

CNN Photo Illustration/Sue Ogrocki/AP

America's most-watched PBS station is on the verge of going dark.

The Republican governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, recently vetoed a bill that would have renewed the license and provided millions in funding for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, the statewide PBS network that reaches more than 650,000 viewers a week. Stitt took issue with what he alleged was LGBTQ-inclusive programming on the station, claiming to Fox News that it amounted to the "indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children."

"It doesn't line up with Oklahoma values," Stitt told the right-wing network this week in an interview about the decision.

The move from Stitt to attack the home of family friendly programs such as "Sesame Street," "Clifford the Big Red Dog," and "Mister Rogers" is representative of a new and quickly expanding front in the culture wars. Republicans, most prominently Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have over the last year laced into Disney, claiming the intentionally inoffensive brand is really a "creepy" company engaged in "grooming" children with radical gender ideology. That strain of attack is now spreading to PBS.

A spokesperson for the public broadcaster defended its programming, saying it provides "curriculum-based content that for generations has educated and inspired children in Oklahoma and across the country."

"The threat to funding puts Oklahoma families at risk of losing access to the local free content they trust to help kids reach their full potential. The fundamental goal of PBS KIDS remains supporting children as they learn and grow through programming they have come to know and love. Now is not the time to take that away from any child," the spokesperson said.

While rhetoric from politicians can often be empty and merely aimed at exciting supporters, the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from the GOP is leading in recent months to real actionable consequences. Cheered on by the most powerful entities in right-wing media, politicians like Stitt and DeSantis are moving to use the power of the state to punish organizations for their inclusivity.

While the Oklahoma station receives $6.3 million in funding from donors and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $2.9 million comes from the state government. If Stitt's veto is not overridden by the state legislature, it would send the station into uncharted territory and could prompt painful decisions to be made.

Not only is OETA the home of educational children's programming, but it also plays an important civic role. It produces and airs the "Oklahoma News Report," the only state news program that reaches every county in Oklahoma. And, crucially, it is the broadcast network that state authorities rely on to disseminate emergency alerts to the public, including for severe weather, a frequent and dangerous occurrence in the Tornado Alley state. In just the last year alone, the network has transmitted more than 200 emergency alerts.

Sen. Carri Hicks, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma City, blasted Stitt's decision, saying she is "deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to politicize an institution that is so meaningful to generations of Oklahomans."

"I grew up in a rural community where we did not have access to cable or satellite television, but I did have high-quality educational content on PBS," Hicks said in a statement. "Because of OETA, I spent my afternoons after school practicing math and reading. Our governor wants to rob our children of that programming and opportunity to learn just so that he can score some political points. It is truly a shame and a disservice to the people of Oklahoma."

Bob Spinks, a board member and past president of the Friends of OETA non-profit, also spoke out against the governor's move.

"Since we are Oklahoma's only statewide television broadcasting system, serving all citizens in the 77 counties in our state, the loss of OETA will leave an enormous gap in providing educational programming, public safety support, and civic engagement for the hundreds of thousands who depend on us weekly," Spinks told CNN.

"I am not sure of how it will develop if the veto isn't overridden," Spinks candidly said. "Clearly, there could be an effect on emergency alert capability."

"But since we've never faced this before," Spinks added, "we just don't know."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Will Lanzoni/CNN

Town Hall Turmoil: CNN chief Chris Licht on Thursday morning, amid a flood of internal and external criticism, offered a full-throated defense of the network's town hall with Donald Trump. "We all know covering Donald Trump is messy and tricky, and it will continue to be messy and tricky, but it's our job," Licht said during the network's daily editorial call. Licht added that he "absolutely, unequivocally believe[s] America was served very well" by the event. Later in the evening, Anderson Cooper offered a defense of the event. "You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again," Cooper said. "But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?"

🔎 Zooming in: Whether Licht and Cooper's defenses are enough to quickly quell the outrage remains to be seen. Twenty-four hours after CNN's town hall, it's all anyone is talking about. Throughout the day, in fact, we heard from dozens of network staffers — ranging in seniority and positions across the organization — who all expressed dismay by what they saw transpire on their television screens. Even as I'm writing this letter right now, I am still fielding messages and phone calls. In fact, Cooper's defense of the town hall prompted another tide of criticism. CNBC's Alex Sherman tweeted that the monologue from Cooper "doesn't address the problems" with the town hall. "Of course people should hear from the Republican frontrunner," Sherman wrote. "It's that CNN gave him **that** platform."

THE SIDEBAR

The town hall drove the news cycle on Thursday. "Last night provided a clearer view of where Trump stands on the key issues that America is grappling with right now," Kaitlan Collins said on Thursday night.
Several Republican senators pushed back against Trump's remarks. (CNN)
And E. Jean Carroll threatened to sue Trump again after the disparaging remarks he made about her. (NYT)
The town hall drew 3.3 million viewers, "making CNN the most-watched cable news network of the evening," Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
"But network executives faced a tsunami of criticism for giving the Republican candidate a platform to spread lies," Stephen Battaglio reports. (LAT)
"Inside CNN, the mood was dark": Paul Farhi and Jeremy Barr report on the internal anger over the event, with one network staffer telling the duo, "I've been a CNN journalist for many years. I've always been so proud to say that. I've never, ever been ashamed of CNN until tonight." (WaPo)
"The ordeal also further damaged the CNN CEO's standing among rank-and-file at the network," Max Tani reports. (Semafor)
Politico Playbook: "ABOUT LAST NIGHT — To call it a s**tshow would be generous." (POLITICO)
Matt Drudge's take: "CNN OUTFOXES FOX!" (DRUDGE)
"Well, that was a disaster, a politically historic one," Peggy Noonan writes. "It situated Donald Trump as the central figure of the 2024 presidential cycle ... It will have an impact on the campaign's trajectory. When it was over I thought, of CNN: Once again they've made Trump real." (WSJ)
Jack Shafer argues critics should stop "with the bellyaching" over the town hall, writing it is "never a mistake for the press to confront newsmakers." Shafer contends that "the lessons" learned "are not to fear Trump or to actively suppress his ideas but that the best format for tangling with him is a taped one." (POLITICO)
Josh Barro argues that the town hall "was useful and appropriate" and that it is "a step in the right direction" for CNN to be treating Trump "more like you would any other politician." (Very Serious)
"It was all spectacle and no sunlight—and it showed far more about those who put it on and attended it than it did about Trump," Amanda Carpenter argues. (Bulwark)
"This was not journalism we saw on CNN last night: this was entertainment programming, the kind of reality television show that did so much to foist Trump onto the body politic. He owned last night's format," Charlie Sykes writes. (Morning Shots)
David Bauder: The event "swiftly turned chaotic in a stark display of the tightrope facing journalists covering a leading 2024 Republican candidate who refuses to play by the rules." (AP)
"There were plenty of people in that room that were ardent supporters of Trump, and no matter what he said, they were ready to jump out of their seats and applaud. But there were also people that sat there quietly disgusted or bewildered," an audience member tells Tara Palmeri. (Puck)
When Collins interviewed Trump "she did so in a pristine white pantsuit, thus immediately joining a long line of women who have gone face to face with the former president in that symbolic armor," Vanessa Friedman notes. (NYT)

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Joshua Sudock/Walt Disney World Resorts/Getty Images

Disney's Down Day: Disney shares were down nearly 9% on Thursday after it lost subscribers and "the company reported that income from its traditional television business had declined sharply and its streaming segment is still a long way from achieving profitability," The WSJ's Denny Jacob reported. "The decline erased about $16 billion from the company's market value and marked the stock's sharpest single-day fall since Bob Iger's return in November as Disney CEO," Reuters Aditya Soni noted. More here.

IN THE INDUSTRY

ABC News announced Eva Pilgrim and DeMarco Morgan as the new anchors of "GMA3." Gio Benitez will replace Pilgrim on "GMA" weekends. (CNN)
Publishers are worried that Google's new A.I. function in search could harm traffic to websites. (CNBC)
Don't miss Seth Abramovitch's oral history of MTV News: "It was lightning in a bottle." (THR)
John Koblin and Nicole Sperling write about how striking writers have found their "villain" in Netflix. (NYT)

MEDIA MOVES

WaPo promoted Matea Gold to managing editor. (WaPo)
WaPo also promoted Hank Stuever to deputy features editor. (WaPo)

THE VALLEY

TK TK TK

Musk's Move: It's finally happening. Elon Musk on Thursday announced that he will step down as chief executive in about six weeks. The erratic billionaire said that he had hired a new head for X/Twitter. Musk said that after she starts, his role will transition to being executive chair and chief technology officer. Though Musk didn't name his pick, Kara Swisher predicted in the afternoon that he had selected NBCU's Linda Yaccarino. That was confirmed later by Puck's Dylan Byers and The WSJ's Jessica Toonkel, Suzanne Vranica, and Alexa Corse. (See here and here.)

🔎 Zooming in: When Yaccarino takes over Twitter, she will inherit a company in absolute turmoil. Musk has dissolved the board of directors, laid off most of the staff, assailed newsrooms causing organizations like NPR to stop using the platform, alienated advertisers, destroyed identity verification, attempted to start a subscription business with limited success, and even himself discussed the possibility of bankruptcy. Which is all to say, Yaccarino will have her work cut out for her.

TOO MANY TABS

Shares in Alphabet were up more than 4% after it teased its new A.I. features at the I/O developer conference. (CNBC)
Meta announced new tools for advertisers, including an A.I. "testing playground." (CNBC)
Meta is shuttering the Messenger app for Apple Watch later this month. (TechCrunch)
House Republicans are raising "deep concerns" about the content decisions on TikTok. (Reuters)

THE INFO WARS

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Fox News and Tucker Carlson "are both losing," Alex Shephard writes. (New Republic)
Matt Gertz argues that Carlson's show "could upend Fox and the GOP — if it actually happens." (MMFA)
Nikki McCann Ramirez points out that "even Fox isn't buying GOP's claims about Biden's foreign business dealings." (Rolling Stone)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Michel Euler/AP

Paris on Peacock: "NBC is betting big on broadcast TV and its Peacock streaming service for its 2024 Paris Olympics coverage, as it embraces more live coverage of the summer games," THR's Alex Weprin wrote. "NBCU said Thursday that it planned to stream all 2024 Olympics events live on Peacock next year, a first for the summer games (the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics only saw a handful of events streamed live). In addition, the company says that it will air at least nine hours of coverage during the daytime hours, including live coverage of the finals for key events like gymnastics, swimming, and track & field." Read Weprin's full story here.

OFF STAGE

Michael J. Fox is on the cover of Variety, reflecting in an interview with Brent Lang on his long career and battle with Parkinson's disease. (Variety)
HBO released the trailer for "Reality," the docudrama starring Sydney Sweeney as Reality Winner. (YouTube)
Focus Features dropped the trailer for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3." (YouTube)
The CW canceled both "Kung Fu" and "The Winchesters." (Deadline / Deadline)

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 next week.