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Wednesday, May 3, 2023

The NYT emerges victorious over Donald Trump in court, US Weekly gets a new top editor, more behind-the-scenes Tucker Carlson footage leaks, the FCC goes after Meta, and Jamie Foxx thanks his fans after weeks of hospitalization. But first, the A1.

THE A1

The Writing on the Wall

CNN Photo Illustration/Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

It's a script without an ending.

Since the Writers Guild of America went on strike Tuesday after failing to hammer out a deal with the major studios, all of which are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the two sides have been at an absolute standstill.

I'm told that there have been no negotiations since the strike commenced and that there are no negotiating sessions currently on the books. When I asked a studio executive on Wednesday evening when they expect talks to resume, the person replied, "No idea, no idea."

"There is no way of knowing," the executive added.

Both sides have dug their heels in the sand over a small number of significant issues, and neither side is willing to budge at the moment. It is, after all, impossible to negotiate until a non-negotiable condition for one party becomes a negotiable.

What the executive I spoke to did underscore is that the studios have plenty of content in the bank to keep their hungry audiences happy. And in recent years, the executive pointed out, viewers have actually struggled to keep up with all the new shows and movies that have been released on streaming platforms.

"We are not going to have test patterns on any TV any time soon," the executive joked, noting that streaming catalogs are filled to the brim with shows and movies for people to watch.

The executive is not wrong. Outside of fans of the venerable late-night comedy institutions, it is going to take quite a while for the average viewer to see the impacts of the ongoing strike. Think for a minute: Has the strike impacted your television viewing habits yet? I'm betting not.

In other words, the standoff will likely have to endure for a lengthy period until it becomes unbearable for either side. And it just might.

The WGA has signaled that the work stoppage could last for many months. And if the guild wants to apply real pressure to the studios, it's hard to see how it would not push the strike deep into the summer.

Which is all to say, strap yourself in for the long haul.

THE SIDEBAR

"Pay your writers or we'll spoil 'Succession'": WGA members continued to picket outside studios Wednesday. And, given that writers are protesting, many of the signs are quite clever. Comedian Jenny Yang has a good roundup of signs here. (Twitter)
The WGA is planning rallies in New York and Los Angeles for May 15, David Robb reports. (Deadline)
Gene Maddaus reports what it was like "inside the room" as "talks collapsed" between the WGA and AMPTP: "Until the last day or two, negotiators for both labor and management believed that the other side would give, and that a deal would be reached at the last moment." (Variety)
The strike "could give studios and streamers an opportunity to slash costs by exiting undesirable talent contracts if the work stoppage drags on for an extended period," Joe Flint reports. (WSJ)
Lacey Rose reports that a "deluge of eleventh-hour scripts have execs contemplating what to do next." (THR)
Nicholas Quah breaks down why the strike will have little effect on podcasting. (Vulture)
Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers will continue paying their respective staffs' salaries out of their own pockets, Peter White reports. (Deadline)
Whoopi Goldberg on "The View": "It is day two of the writers strike, and that means we're still writing things on cards." (Deadline)
WWE boss Nick Khan said the company is not impacted by the strike: "Of course we are supportive of the writers who are members of the guild and their efforts, and we are hopeful a deal can be reached between them and the other side in short order." (Deadline)
"Once again, a strike is happening during a period of widespread economic uncertainty," Ashley Cullins and Katie Kilkenny write. "But this time around, there's a twist: the ascension of generative artificial intelligence." (THR)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The Donald's Defeat: Yet another one of Donald Trump's bogus lawsuits against a news organization has been thrown out in court. On Monday, a judge ruled against the former president and dismissed his claims against The New York Times. Trump had sued the paper in retaliation for its story on his taxes. The judge not only dismissed The Times from the case, but also ruled that Trump needed to cover their attorneys' fees and legal expenses. Ouch! CNN's Tierney Sneed and I have the full story here.

► "The New York Times is pleased with the judge's decision today," a spokesperson for the paper told me. "It is an important precedent reaffirming that the press is protected when it engages in routine newsgathering to obtain information of vital importance to the public."

THE BUSINESS

First in Reliable | US Weekly's New Editor: It's time for something new for Maria Fontoura, Rolling Stone's executive editor. I'm told that Fontoura will be departing the iconic music mag and heading to US Weekly, where she will serve as the outlet's editor in chief and work to remake the celebrity and entertainment outlet. Her last day at Rolling Stone, I'm told, is later this month.

IN THE INDUSTRY

"Media freedom is in dire health in a record number of countries, according to the latest annual snapshot, which warns that disinformation, propaganda and artificial intelligence pose mounting threats to journalism," Oliver Holmes reports on World Press Freedom Day. (Guardian)
To mark press freedom day, Andrea Mitchell spoke to Associated Press journalists who are reporting on Russia's war on Ukraine from the front lines. (NBC News)
Jake Tapper, anchoring his show after another mass shooting in America, told Dr. Sanjay Gupta that moving forward he wants to focus more on the horrifying human impacts from gun violence: "I am just going to be asking you to bring more insight on-air as to what these bullets do to our bodies because if we as a country have decided this is our new reality, I just think we need to do a better job about being explicit." (CNN)
Ben Smith: "We're watching the end of a digital media age. It all started with Jezebel." (NYT)
"The head of human resources at Mansueto Ventures, the media company behind the publishers Inc. and Fast Company, was arrested after committing financial fraud against the company," Mark Stenberg reports. (AdWeek)
Savannah Guthrie will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Georgetown Law when she delivers the school's 2023 commencement address. (Georgetown)

MEDIA MOVES

The LAT hired Jack Herrera as a national correspondent. (LAT)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Seth Wenig/AP

The Tucker Tapes: Another day, another leaked behind-the-scenes video of Tucker Carlson during his time at Fox News. The progressive watchdog Media Matters on Wednesday published a clip showing the one time Fox News king candidly discuss the deposition he gave in the Dominion defamation case. Carlson referred to a Dominion lawyer as a "slimy little motherf**ker" and confessed to his producer "the hate" that he felt for him. "I don't want to feel that way. I think it's wrong. It's bad. It's totally bad for you to feel that way," Carlson said. "But that guy, he triggered the shit out of me."

🔎 Zooming in: The question continues to be, who is leaking this footage and why? The videos appear to have been sourced from Fox News' internal video library, meaning it would have required someone with access to those systems to download the footage. But surely that would leave some trace. I have asked Fox spokespeople whether the network is conducting a probe into who might have leaked footage, but have not received an answer. If you are the person leaking the footage and would like to chat about it, do get in touch!

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Now, onto the Tucker Text: The racist text message shouldn't have been surprising to anyone who actually watched Carlson's show where a toxic stream of hate flowed each night to millions of viewers, I write in an analysis piece. (CNN)
"If this is indeed the text that got Carlson canned, then … anticlimax! In contrast to Carlson's typical thinly veiled racist tirades on the air, this quaint and frankly delusional statement about how white men supposedly fight ... seems comparatively tame," Laura Miller writes. (Slate)
Erik Wemple's latest: "Even Tucker Carlson knew Tucker Carlson was out of control." (WaPo)
"Amidst the mania over the text, I think its context is being overlooked, and that context is the most shocking part of this new revelation: Carlson's comment was about Trump," Aidan McLaughlin notes. (Mediaite)
Andy Horowitz's satirical take: Carlson "enraged Fox by saving his best material for his texts." (New Yorker)
Jack Shafer with a smart question: "How is it that the biggest media story of the decade — the settlement of Dominion Voting Systems' defamation suit against Fox News for what appears to be an unprecedented sum of $787.5 million — has been displaced by reporting on the wicked things Tucker Carlson expressed off-camera?" (POLITICO)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration//Peter DaSilva/Reuters

Meta's Monetization: The FCC went after Meta on Wednesday, accusing it of violating a $5 billon privacy settlement and proposing that the tech giant should be barred from monetizing data it collects from young users. Meta, which has 30 days to respond, swiftly fired back at the FTC by calling the move a "political stunt" and promising to fight it. Meta really has no choice but to fight it. As CNN's Brian Fung noted, "If approved, the sweeping proposal could threaten the future of Meta's business, including its expansion into virtual reality." Fung has more here.

TOO MANY TABS

Meta warned on Wednesday that hackers are using ChatGPT as tools to break into devices. (CNN)
Meta also shut down a network of fake China-based accounts. (CNN)
TikTok announced Wednesday that it will launch a new ad product aimed at publishers, giving them 50% of the cut. (WSJ)
TikTok has updated its creator fund which now requires 10,000 followers and longer videos. (The Verge)
Elon Musk emailed NPR reporter Bobby Allyn at 2:19am with two words: "You Suck." The email came after Allyn reported that Musk had threatened to reassign the NPR Twitter account to another entity if the outlet didn't resume tweeting. (Twitter)
Kate Conger reports on how Jack Dorsey "has a lot to say" about Twitter under Musk - he's just posting it on other platforms. (NYT)
Google has started rolling out passkeys, new technology that could eventually make the password a relic of the past. (WIRED)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Warner Bros.

'Dune' Day: Happy "Dune Day" to all who celebrate. Warner Bros. Pictures on Wednesday released the much-anticipated trailer for "Dune: Part Two," as well as a new poster teasing the November 3 film. I won't spoil the trailer too much for you, but it does feature some epic footage of a sandworm. The Verge's Andrew Webster has more here.

OFF STAGE

Jamie Foxx, who has been mysteriously hospitalized for weeks, posted on Instagram thanking fans for the well-wishes. (Vulture)
The Rotten Tomatoes score for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" has improved to 80%. (Rotten Tomatoes)
Kaare Eriksen wonders: "After 'Mario' madness, will animation stay strong at summer box office?" (Variety)
Ratings for ABC's "Live" saw a nice surge, averaging 2.4 million viewers with the introduction of Mark Consuelos as co-host. (Deadline)
Paramount+ is the new sponsor of the Monday movie series in New York City's Bryant Park. (Variety)
Netflix renewed "Sweet Tooth" for a third and final season, which has already been filmed. (The Wrap)
The Canne Film Festival will honor Michael Douglas with an honorary Palme d'Or. (Reuters)
Missy Elliott and Willie Nelson will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (WaPo)

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.