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Tuesday, September 12, 2023

The White House writes news executives about impeachment coverage, Lester Holt broadcasts from inside Iran, "Monday Night Football" generates monster ratings, Fox News gets hit by shareholder lawsuits over its dissemination of election lies, Infowars host Owen Shroyer gets jail time, Google faces off with the U.S. government in court, MTV hosts the VMAs, and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Amanpour's Milestone

CNN Photo Illustration/CNN

Christiane Amanpour still remembers her humble beginnings at CNN.

Forty years ago, before she was hired by what was then a groundbreaking news startup, she was an electronics graphics operator at a local NBC affiliate, responsible for the various elements that appear on-air during broadcasts. When she arrived in Atlanta to discuss a role at CNN with a recruiter, she did so with only $100 in her pocket and a single suitcase.

"The then-recruiter took one look at me and said, 'Oh, there's a vacancy on the foreign desk. You're foreign. Go fill it," Amanpour recounted to me on Tuesday just before she received a standing ovation in the New York newsroom during a 40th anniversary celebration of her remarkable career.

While the job of desk assistant was at the "very, very bottom" of the totem pole (Amanpour told me that "you could not get any lower and you could not be paid any less), the position offered her the chance to exit the technical line of journalism and get her foot in the door of the editorial side of the business. From there, with a lot of hard work, she pulled herself up, becoming a script writer, field producer, reporter, and eventually foreign correspondent.

That's when she was deployed to cover the Gulf War and received a good share of air time reporting from Saudi Arabia. The way she tells it, her fate has been very much intertwined with CNN's — and in the early 1990s, they were both "exploding onto the international consciousness" at the same time.

Nowadays, the name Amanpour is synonymous with brave field reporting and unflinching interviews, holding the world's most powerful — and, in some cases, ruthless — leaders to account. Over the span of her impressive career, the veteran reporter has traveled to dozens of countries, interviewed legions of politicians, and shined a spotlight on more injustices than one would probably care to know exist in this world.

But of all the assignments, there is one in particular that snapped to mind when I asked her which has left the most profound impact on her: Bosnia.

"It was genocide," Amanpour bluntly recalled, adding that covering the humanitarian crisis that unfolded in the country led her to adopt her trademark "be truthful, but not neutral" motto on journalism.

"I was witnessing, along with my colleagues, who the aggressors were," she explained. "There was no equivalence either factually or morally. And I didn't present any equivalence. There was no, 'On the one hand, on the other hand.' In situations of gross violations of human rights ... you cannot be neutral because then you are an accomplice. All of that came to me, and I distilled it into, 'We have to be truthful, not neutral.'"

"And it applies to everything," Amanpour added. "Whether you're covering Donald Trump, whether you're covering the climate crisis, whatever you're covering — you absolutely have to be truthful, which does not mean unobjective. Objective means cover all sides. It does not mean come to the same judgment about all sides."

Amanpour, now CNN's chief international anchor, said that she believes there are a number of good journalists who hold U.S. lawmakers' feet to the fire. But she expressed concern that there is "way too much focus on the horse race in politics, as opposed to the policy and context."

"I would say if I was a foreign correspondent ... I would cover this in the same way that I would cover ... threats to democracy in any other part of the world," Amanpour said. "And I would make sure that you don't just give a platform to those who survive on hate speech, to those who want to crash down the Constitution and democracy."

Getting stuck in the mud of process and the machinations of U.S. politics is something that a number of news organizations continue to struggle with. Instead of homing in on the larger picture of democracy under unrelenting assault from autocratic forces within our own borders, it can be easier to instead focus on whether candidates are making savvy political moves. Such coverage, often fueled by a desire for access, offers journalists a way of avoiding the uncomfortable.

"You don't want to go to the cocktail parties. You don't want to be liked. You don't want to rub shoulders," Amanpour said, calling access journalism "the road to perdition" for journalists. "Your job is not that. You need to be able to hold them constantly accountable."

Over the course of her storied career at CNN, Amanpour has seen the network at its highest points and lowest valleys — including over the last 20 months where the 4,000-person strong network has grappled with multiple seismic internal blows. And, true to her reputation, Amanpour doesn't sugarcoat any of it.

"CNN had some very rough years, as we've all experienced," Amanpour candidly told me. "And now — I'm happy that this 40th anniversary coincides with a new leadership. Because this is an important moment to seize the reins and to charge full speed ahead."

"And we're heading into another election campaign that's going to be incredibly important," Amanpour added. "And we're going to stand up for the values, and the principles, of truth and democracy, human rights, and allowing people to know they have a place to turn, should they choose to want to find the facts."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/J. Scott Applewhite/AP

First in Reliable | Newsrooms on Notice: The White House on Wednesday plans to send a letter to top news executives, urging them to intensify their scrutiny of House Republicans after their unprecedented move to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, despite having found no evidence of a crime. "It's time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies," Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel's Office, will say in the letter, according to a draft copy I obtained. "When even House Republican members are admitting that there is simply no evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong, much less impeachable, that should set off alarm bells for news organizations." The letter will be sent to executives at a number of outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, CBS News, and others, I'm told. Here's my full story.

🔎 Zooming in: House Republicans, most of whom have denied all wrongdoing from Donald Trump, have long sought to baselessly portray Biden as a corrupt, crime-ridden politician engaged in sinister activities. And newsrooms have often failed to robustly call out the mis- and disinformation peddled, something that has frustrated the White House which believes that the news media should be doing more to dispel lies saturating the public discourse. "In the modern media environment, where every day liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox, process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people's feeds, and obscure the truth," Sams will tell news execs.

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration/NBC Nightly News

Inside Iran: Viewers of "NBC Nightly News" have seen Lester Holt anchor from a place most Western journalists rarely visit: the streets of Iran. Holt has been on the ground in the country since the weekend, with his visit culminating in an interview Tuesday with the country's president, Ebrahim Raisi. I'm told NBC News spent many months working on securing the sit-down and planning Holt's trip to the Islamic country, which remains hostile to the U.S. But it is part of the Peacock news network's commitment to reporting out of Iran. NBC News is the only Western news organization to have maintained a bureau in Iran for nearly two decades.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

During a Warner Bros. Discovery company town hall on Tuesday, David Zaslav praised CNN's interim leadership team and said, "CNN is back. It's building. And now we have a new great leader who is going to be coming in October, Mark Thompson. He is terrific."
As Kristen Welker takes the helm as the 13th moderator of "Meet the Press," Andrea Mitchell writes that all Sunday public affairs programs will be moderated, or co-moderated, by women, marking an enormous milestone. (WaPo)
Lawyers for Dow Jones, which publishes The WSJ, urged the United Nations' working group on arbitrary detention to proclaim Evan Gershkovich arbitrarily detained and requested that Russia immediately release the journalist. (WSJ)
Maria Ressa, the chief executive and co-founder of Rappler, was acquitted of tax evasion in the latest legal victory for the journalist. (CNN)
The Colorado Sun, which pioneered the for-profit/nonprofit hybrid model, is shifting gears toward a fully nonprofit one. (Nieman)
The Economist is adding a new subscription level — titled "Economist Podcasts+" — to its list of offerings, which, for $4.90 a month, will include all of the magazine's new podcasts, Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
Former NFL Network reporter Jim Trotter hit the league and network with a racial discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. (Daily Beast)
Gannett is hiring a Taylor Swift reporter, prompting quite a few reactions in the media industry. Corbin Bolies, however, notes that it "comes as Gannett has repeatedly slashed jobs in local news markets across the last two years, most recently laying off six percent of its news division in December." (Daily Beast)

THE MARKET

Endeavor's UFC business officially merged with the WWE to create TKO Group Holdings. (THR)
Who says linear television is dead? "Monday Night Football" averaged a record 22.6 million total viewers across Disney's portfolio of outlets carrying the highly anticipated showdown. (TV Line)
Rick Porter writes about how the NFL is delivering a "much needed boost to broadcasters." (THR)

MEDIA MOVES

Fox News extended Bret Baier's contract. (Variety)
NewsNation hired Connell McShane as an anchor. (Variety)
The WaPo named Darryl Fears as senior environmental correspondent. (WaPo)
CBS Los Angeles named Matt Goldberg vice president and news director at CBS News and Stations' local businesses. (Paramount)
The NYT promoted Christine Chun to deputy weekend editor and Pat Lyons day editor for national; promoted Sarah Goldstein, Sergio Gonzalez, and Oskar Garcia to editorial directors at The Athletic; and promoted Talya Minsberg to report on fitness/sports. (NYT/NYT/NYT)
CAA upped Kyle Margolis to television news agent.

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress/Getty Images

Standing Up for What's Right?: New York City's pension funds and the state of Oregon took legal action on Tuesday against Fox Corporation, alleging in a lawsuit that the Fox News parent company failed shareholders by allowing the right-wing channel to recklessly spread lies about the 2020 election that opened it up to a pair of massive defamation cases. The lawsuit accused the media company of having chosen to "invite robust defamation claims, with potentially huge financial liability and potentially larger business repercussions, rather than disappoint viewers of Fox News." A Fox Corporation spokesperson declined comment. Here's my full story.

🔎 Zooming in: The lawsuit represents the most serious shareholder legal action taken against Fox since it settled a historic defamation lawsuit brought by election technology company Dominion. Legal and corporate governance experts have long warned that Fox would be subject to shareholder lawsuits for irresponsible management decisions that left it vulnerable to legal action.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Owen Shroyer was sentenced to 60 days in jail for his involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. (CNN)
"What's up with The Washington Post's story about Susanna Gibson?" asks Parker Malloy. (The Present Age)
"The policymaking body of the federal courts indicated Tuesday that it hasn't considered a change in rules to allow livestreaming of criminal trials such as those of Trump," Michael Macagnone reports. (RollCall)
Awkward! Tuesday's edition of "The Five" got "a bit awkward when co-host Jeanine Pirro was reminded she is vaccinated against Covid-19," Michael Luciano writes. (Mediaite)
RFK Jr. deftly chooses when to espouse his conspiracy theories, tempering his takes before congressional audiences and letting loose on more friendly platforms, reports Sheera Frenkel, who listened to more than 24 hours of his broadcasts. (NYT)
Joe Rogan and Tulsi Gabbard stoked the flames of the 15-minute city conspiracy theory. (Mediaite)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Google's Search Grip : The antitrust trial of the modern internet era has officially kicked off. The U.S. government and Google sparred in court on Tuesday over allegations that the tech titan intentionally stifled competition to its monopolistic search engine. "This case is about the future of the internet, and whether Google's search engine will ever face meaningful competition," DOJ lawyer Kenneth Dintzer told the court. Google pushed back, arguing that Apple "repeatedly chose Google" as its default search engine "because Apple believed it was the best experience for its users." CNN's Brian Fung has more here.

TOO MANY TABS

Apple launched the iPhone 15, with the most notable — and predictable — change being the switch to USB-C. (CNN)
Meanwhile, the specter of China's iPhone ban looms large. "Selling phones is now a political act," writes Vlad Savov. (Bloomberg)
TikTok Shop will fully launch in the U.S. as the ByteDance-owned company seeks to harness its user base's purchasing power. (CNN)
Since taking over Twitter and turning it into X Corp., Elon Musk appears to have possibly violated the FTC's privacy orders, Cat Zakrzewski reports. (WaPo)
Several senators have expressed skepticism over Chuck Schumer's A.I. summit slated for Wednesday, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren calling its closed-door nature "just plain wrong." (NBC News)
Meta was slapped with a class-action lawsuit over claims it "copied and ingested" their content in order to train its A.I. platform. (Deadline)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Music on MTV: The 2023 MTV Video Music Awards took place Tuesday evening, with Nicki Minaj hosting — and performing — at the iconic annual event. The evening saw NSYNC reunite and present an award to Taylor Swift. Swift, accepting the best pop award, told the '90s boy band that they are "pop personified." CNN's Alli Rosenbloom has the full list of winners.

HOLLYWOOD HELL

The WGA "canceled a scheduled meeting with top Hollywood showrunners, including Kenya Barris and Noah Hawley, on Monday after a week of intense bickering over whether the guild was adequately seeking a resolution to the entertainment industry's crippling four-month-old strike," Sharon Waxman reports. (TheWrap)
The WGA is investigating member complaints that their residual checks are being delayed and much smaller than usual. (Deadline)
Loree Seitz, Kayla Cobb, and Sharon Knolle detail how broadcast companies are "weathering" the strikes this fall. (TheWrap)
Staffers on MTV's "Ridiculousness" voted to unionize with WGA. (THR)
Willem Dafoe said an industry "collapse" could be possible if the negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the studios don't end. (THR)

OFF STAGE

Jussie Smollett will return to court to appeal a 2021 conviction that found him guilty of staging a racist and homophobic attack on himself. (AP)
You (Don't) Belong With Me: STX's "The Marsh King's Daughter," directed by Neil Burger, will hit theaters on Nov. 3 instead of Oct. 6 to avoid sharing the silver screen with AMC's "Taylor Swift: Eras Concert." (Deadline)
Aerosmith put off six of the band's North America farewell shows after lead singer Steve Tyler suffered vocal cord damage. (CNN)
Rapper A$AP Relli sued both A$AP Rocky and his attorney, Joe Tacopina, for defamation. (Rolling Stone)
David Mamet's "Henry Johnson," starring Shia LaBeouf onstage, has extended its run. (THR)
Megan Thee Stallion pulled out of the Global Citizen Festival 2023, citing schedule conflicts. (Pitchfork)
A group of A-listers penned an open letter to the Toronto Film Festival urging it to drop the Royal Bank of Canada as its sponsor. (Deadline)
ITV picked up the exclusive rights in the U.K. to carry the Oscars. (BBC)

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. You can follow us on Instagram and Threads. We will see you back in your inbox tomorrow.