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Tuesday, July 25, 2023

House Republicans are targeting Mark Zuckerberg, the White House is condemning Greg Gutfeld, and strikers in Hollywood are zinging Bob Iger. Plus, Alphabet shares jump on the company's earnings report, Elon Musk peddles anti-vaccine nonsense after Lebron James' son suffers cardiac arrest, Threads introduces key new features, "Barbie" continues to crush at the box office, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

The Variety Show

CNN Photo Illustration/CNN

Variety is facing a blistering wave of backlash.

The Hollywood trade publication is being confronted with serious questions about its journalism from top industry figures over a feature story it published Tuesday that aimed to offer a fresh look into the behind-the-scenes drama and power struggles that beset CNN over the last 18 months.

Within minutes of publication, the story, written by Tatiana Siegel, the outlet's executive editor of film and media, ricocheted through the media universe, igniting buzz and raising eyebrows among journalists, executives, television agents, and everyone in between. But, soon after the dust settled, the veracity of the article's many anecdotes and characterizations came under heightened scrutiny.

The 4,000+ word article chiefly portrayed former CNN chief Jeff Zucker as an emotionally wounded former executive, singularly obsessed with finding an avenue to purchase the network that he once led. The piece contained a number of questionable anecdotes about Zucker searching the globe for the capital to acquire the prized cable news network for himself — all of which the veteran television executive's camp firmly denied in a series of strong statements that were littered throughout the article. CNN did not comment on the report. (It's worth noting that CNN's parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, has repeatedly stated the network is not for sale.)

In an on the record statement to me, Risa Heller, a spokesperson for Zucker, went even further than the statements provided to Variety. Heller denounced Siegel's reporting practices, describing the published piece as a "total joke."

"There used to be a time when Variety held its content and its reporters to a high standard of truth and facts in journalism, but those days are clearly over," Heller said. "It is stunning to read a piece that is so patently and aggressively false. On numerous occasions, we made it clear to the reporter and her editors that they were planning to publish countless anecdotes and alleged incidents that never happened. They did so anyway."

The story also painted Chris Licht, who was ousted as head of the network earlier this year following a series of astonishing self-inflicted errors, as a victim of shoddy reporting from The Atlantic's ace reporter Tim Alberta and Puck's relentless and well-sourced Dylan Byers. In a pair of separate statements sent to me, the editor in chiefs of both The Atlantic and Puck forcefully pushed back against Siegel's characterization of their reporters.

"The charges leveled by Tatiana Siegel in Variety against The Atlantic's Tim Alberta are completely false," Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, said in a statement. "Siegel was informed by The Atlantic that the charges were completely false, but she nevertheless decided to smear Alberta. Siegel's report is based on false assumptions and false information, and she provides no evidence to support her claims and characterizations."

"When Siegel reached out to our spokespeople, she was asked for specific examples of the alleged journalistic liberties taken by Alberta, but she did not provide any, apart from the false anecdote about Alberta's conversation with Chris Licht at his gym," Goldberg added. "We provided her with a specific refutation of that false charge."

Goldberg continued:

I would note that no one quoted in Alberta's 15,000-word story, and no one associated with the issues raised in the piece, has asked us to correct any aspect of the article. This is because Alberta's article is entirely accurate, and the quotations in the article were all collected under clear guidelines. Alberta met with Licht on seven different occasions (including multiple meetings on single days), and spent more than 12 hours of on-the-record time with Licht. Siegel claims that Alberta held "just four meetings" with Licht, but she did not ask The Atlantic for information about the number of meetings Alberta held with Licht. We would have been happy to provide her with accurate information, had she asked for it. No off-the-record quotes were used in the piece. Our fact-checkers reviewed all notes and recorded interviews, and verified each fact in the article. Licht and his team were given ample opportunity to comment by Alberta, and by our fact-checkers.

Tim Alberta is one of America's finest reporters, and he is known by colleagues here at The Atlantic and across our industry for his fairness and scrupulousness. His profile of Chris Licht was a model of probing, ethical, and fair-minded reporting.

Jon Kelly, editor in chief of Puck, similarly defended his reporter, who was portrayed in the piece as a Zucker shill.

"Dylan Byers singlehandedly elevated the CNN story into the popular culture through his extraordinary and relentless reporting, which was always fair and unbiased and based, frankly, on virtually innumerable sources," Kelly said. "Any assertions to the contrary are absurd. But this is life. When you're the defenestrator, people try to defenestrate you."

To be fair, when publishing a high-wire piece the length of Siegel's, it is almost a certainty that someone will contest a detail or two. But it is extraordinary to see this volume of blowback with this degree of contention. And it's rare to see on-the-record criticism from top industry voices speaking in such plain terms.

Reached for comment, a Variety spokesperson notably offered a defense of the piece that contained far less fervor. The spokesperson simply said, "Variety stands by our investigative story about CNN written by one of the best journalists in the business."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Alex Wong/Getty Images

Zuck in the Muck: It looks like House Republicans are about to hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress. The House Judiciary Committee — led by Jim Jordan, the hyper-partisan congressman who often appears allergic to the truth when it clashes with his politics – has scheduled a vote Thursday on the matter. The vote will then make its way to the GOP-led House. At issue is Zuckerberg's compliance — or supposed lack of compliance — with the subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The subcommittee, which is constantly hyped in right-wing media, has said Zuckerberg is not complying with requests to produce documents about his company's "decision-making process to censor viewpoints." Meta, for its part, has pushed back, saying it has "delivered over 53,000 pages of documents" and "operated in good faith with this committee's sweeping requests for information." Deadline's Ted Johnson has details.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

IN THE INDUSTRY

Several MPs in Britain's Culture, Media, and Sport Committee have asked the Sun to disclose information pertaining to its editorial procedures after the tabloid printed allegations about Huw Edwards. (BBC)
The Guardian added seven reporting roles aimed at ramping up the periodical's "restorative justice" plan after it discovered the paper's founders had ties to slavery. (Press Gazette)
The NYT will bring "The Ezra Klein Show" to public radio airwaves starting November 10. (NYT)
Several major Israeli publications printed all-black A1s bearing the caption "a black day for Israeli democracy," a paid advertisement protesting the government's passing of the Law to Cancel the Reasonableness Standard, part of its divisive judicial reforms. (Jerusalem Post)

MEDIA MOVES

The NYT rehired Denise Fuhs as a senior staff editor and promoted Christian Smith to staff research editor for the magazine's research department. (NYT/NYT)
The LAT hired Rachel Hulin as deputy director of photography and promoted Marissa Evans to entertainment reporter. (LAT/LAT)
The Wrap named Stefano Tonchi executive editor of TheWrapBOOK. (The Wrap)
Warner Bros. Discovery promoted Lisa Collins to North America DEI Group vice president. (The Wrap)
Nexstar hired Michael Biard Jumps as president and COO. (THR)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/John Lamparski/Getty Images

Gutfeld's Gut Check: The White House condemned Fox News in harsh terms on Tuesday over remarks made by Greg Gutfeld about the holocaust. In a statement to me, deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said comments made by Gutfeld were a "horrid, dangerous, and extreme lie" that "insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils" committed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. During a discussion about Florida's new Black history standards, Gutfeld said that people survived the concentration camps by "having skills" and being "useful" — an assertion that immediately ignited criticism, including from the Auschwitz Memorial. "What Fox News allowed to be said on their air yesterday — and has so far failed to condemn — is an obscenity," Bates told me. Fox News never responded to a request for comment. Here's my full story.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Elon Musk used the cardiac arrest of Lebron James' son, Bronny, to spread more anti-vaccine nonsense. (Rolling Stone)
Kara Swisher: "There's never someone else's terrible tragedy ... that this bottomless pit of attention addiction does not find a heinous way to insert himself in, frequently wrong but never in doubt." (Threads)
While Swisher cut through Musk's BS, others took the erratic billionaire seriously. Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum asked a doctor on her show whether it was a "fair question" to wonder if James' cardiac arrest was caused by a Covid-19 vaccine. (Twitter)
And Laura Ingraham defended Musk peddling the conspiracy theory on her show. (MMFA)
Switching gears: Donald Trump's campaign issued a press release that said, "In no uncertain terms, Rupert Murdoch made clear that Ron DeSantis is his golden boy, no longer." (Twitter)
The DeSantis camp fired Nate Hochman, an aide and former National Review writer who secretly made a video with a Sonnenrad symbol used by the Nazis, Alex Thompson reports. (Axios)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Google's Gains: Shares in Alphabet are ⬆️ more than 6% in after-hours trading after the tech titan reported strong quarterly earnings Tuesday. The Silicon Valley company's earnings notably included a 3% increase in ad revenue, up to $58.1 billion from $56.3 billion, due largely to YouTube and its core search product. Those figures beat analyst expectations and helped boost overall revenue to $74.6 billion, a 7% jump from the same period last year. Net profit was $18.4 billion. CNBC's Jennifer Elias has more here.

► During the earnings call, chief executive Sundar Pichai hyped the infusion of A.I. into the company's products. "This is our seventh year as an A.I.-first company," Pichai said," and we intuitively know how to incorporate A.I. into our products."

► Alphabet also promoted chief financial officer Ruth Port into the newly created role of president and chief investment officer.

TOO MANY TABS

Shares in Snap were ⬇️ nearly 20% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the company offered a weak forecast and said the advertising issues it has faced impacted its second quarter. (WSJ)
Yikes. Spotify shares took a nosedive on Tuesday, ending the day ⬇️ more than 14% after the audio streamer missed on revenue in its earnings report and issued weak guidance. (CNBC)
Spotify boss Daniel Ek hinted that the company could conduct even more layoffs. (Variety)
Threads updated its app with key new features, including a "following" tab that allows users to see posts from only accounts they follow. (CNBC)
Elon Musk's X is cutting prices on ads to win back advertisers and "warning brands" they will lose their checkmarks "unless they reach certain spending thresholds," The WSJ's Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin report. Of course, it's worth noting the checkmarks don't mean much, given that Musk dismantled Twitter's verification system. (WSJ)
TikTok's online marketplace aimed at U.S. users is set to launch in August, Raffaele Huang reports. (WSJ)
OpenAI made its ChatGPT app available on Android. (CNBC)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Iger Takes Incoming: Disney boss Bob Iger has had a "terrible, horrible, no good PR week," THR's Kim Masters reported Tuesday. Masters noted that Iger has been fielding arrows since his interview with CNBC's David Faber, in which he candidly spoke about the Hollywood strikes and raised the specter of selling the company's linear television assets. Indeed, Iger has arguably taken the most heat amid the strikes, being regularly ripped by members of SAG-AFTRA and the WGA. On Tuesday, Bryan Cranston became the latest high-profile figure to take the Disney boss on, delivering a "message" to him while speaking at a rally. "We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living," Cranston said. "And lastly, and most importantly, we will not allow you to take away our dignity!"

HOLLYWOOD HELL

"Marvel, Disney, Warner's DC and many other studios have been forced to delay upcoming projects due to a historic double strike," Herb Scribner, Niha Masih, and Samantha Chery report. (WaPo)
Filming on the second season of AppleTV+'s "Silo," starring Rebecca Ferguson, is on indefinite hiatus. (Deadline)
Some participants of the Tournament of Champions for "Jeopardy!" have recused themselves from the competition in a show of solidarity with the ongoing strikes. (THR)
Snoop Dogg canceled concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in solidarity with strikers. (Variety)
Between The Rock and a Hard Place: Dwayne Johnson donated a seven-figure sum to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's relief fund, the largest single donation in the foundation's history. (Variety)

OFF STAGE

Not a Case of the Mondays: "Barbie" raked in $26.1 million on Monday at the domestic box office, the best performance by a Warner Bros. Discovery movie ever on a Monday. (The Wrap)
Mattel renewed its licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. (AP)
With new movies from Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Luc Besson, the 80th Venice Film Festival is already courting significant controversy. (THR)
The theatrical release of "Poor Things" starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe has been pushed back three months. (THR)

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.