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Thursday, September 7, 2023

Give us a follow on Instagram! Then scroll down for details on Jen Psaki's prime time appointment, why Andrea Mitchell felt compelled to travel to the Chad-Sudan border, and what Dave Portnoy and Elon Musk are saying about Tucker Carlson's latest interview. Plus, CAA sells a majority stake, Cesar Conde gets honored, POLITICO shakes up its organizational structure, Howard Kurtz makes an oopsies, Threads adds a search feature, X reportedly loses its brand safety head, Danny Masterson is sentenced, and Drake announces his new album will arrive this month. But first, the A1.

THE A1

No Laughing Matter

CNN Photo Illustration/Todd Owyoung/NBC/Getty Images

Jimmy Fallon is sorry.

Hours after Rolling Stone published a deeply reported story painting an ugly portrait of the culture at "The Tonight Show," I'm told the late-night host apologized to staffers who were summoned for a Thursday evening call.

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you," Fallon said. "I never set out to create that type of atmosphere at the show. I think sometimes I'm working with the best of the best, you guys are the top of the game."

Whether the apology is enough to quell the furious fallout stemming from Rolling Stone's Thursday story remains to be seen. The story, written by reporter Krystie Lee Yandoli, contained a number of allegations that depicted the show as having a toxic culture "far outside the boundaries of what's considered normal in the high-pressure world of late-night TV."

Behind the scenes, Yandoli detailed an atmosphere where employees were subjected to poor treatment from Fallon, who would allegedly lash out at them when in foul moods. Seven former employees told Yandoli that their mental health suffered while working on the show. The state of affairs was so dire that the green rooms were referred to as "crying rooms" because staffers would use them for privacy after being mistreated, Yandoli reported.

The story also contained allegations that Fallon appeared under the influence of alcohol in 2017 while at work. Fallon denied having a troubled relationship with alcohol, after the New York Post reported in 2016 that NBC executives were worried. "I could never do a day-to-day job if I was drinking every night," he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2017.

NBC notably did not defend Fallon himself, but a spokesperson said in a Thursday statement that the network is "incredibly proud of 'The Tonight Show'" and that "providing a respectful working environment is a top priority."

"As in any workplace, we have had employees raise issues; those have been investigated and action has been taken where appropriate," NBC added. "As is always the case, we encourage employees who feel they have experienced or observed behavior inconsistent with our policies to report their concerns so that we may address them accordingly."

Yandoli, who said she spoke to two current and 14 former employees for her story, is no stranger to reporting on toxic workplace cultures.

In 2020, Yandoli published a series of investigative pieces at BuzzFeed News alleging a toxic workplace culture at the "Ellen DeGeneres Show," which ultimately resulted in the ousting of the show's three top producers and an apology from DeGeneres. The daytime talk show came to an end in 2022.

Last year, Yandoli reported a dozen staffers on "Dr. Phil" had accused him of fostering a hostile workplace culture rife with fear and racism behind the scenes of the daytime program. Phil McGraw denied the allegations. The show, which courted several controversies, was canceled earlier this year after 21 seasons.

Decades ago, television executives were more willing to turn a blind eye to allegations of workplace abuse. If stars were rating well, abhorrent behavior off camera might be tolerated. But that is no longer the reality in which these stars operate in. Fallon's decision to quickly apologize, coming within hours after the Rolling Stone report landed, shows how seriously these allegations are now taken. Perhaps it will be enough to put the concerns to an end. We'll see.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Mario Tama/Getty Images

Battle of the Bundle: The stalemate between Disney and Charter is showing no signs of ending anytime soon. Charter boss Chris Winfrey spoke at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Tech Conference on Thursday, telling attendees, "If I had anything material to highlight, I would. So that should tell you something in terms of how we're doing." Winfrey said that the television business is "on the verge of flipping" to "becoming a liability" and sounded quite pessimistic about whether a deal can ever be struck with Disney. In fact, he described a scenario in which Charter is void of Disney content as "becoming more and more of a potential reality." Winfrey added that he believes the pressure for Charter to resolve the dispute will ease over time because its customers interested in live sports will sign up for another service that offers the programming. Deadline's Dade Hayes has more.

► Meanwhile, ESPN released a new statement blasting Charter as having made the decision to "abandon" its customers "by denying them access to our great programing."

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration William B. Plowman/NBC/Getty Images

Psaki in Prime: Jen Psaki is heading to prime time. The former White House press secretary turned MSNBC personality will begin hosting the network's Monday 8pm hour starting on September 25. Psaki has hosted "Inside with Jen Psaki" on Sundays at 12pm since the spring to major ratings successes, so the move makes sense. The move will create a one-two ratings punch on Mondays, with juggernaut Rachel Maddow hosting her only prime time show after Psaki, at 9pm. It will also help MSNBC capture an anti-Donald Trump audience heading into 2024, where the disgraced former president will be on trial and running for the White House. Here's my story.

► So what happens to Chris Hayes? He will still host "All In," Tuesdays through Fridays. The move, however, will allow him some additional time to work on his podcast + live events.

Mitchell's Mission: NBC viewers may have seen Andrea Mitchell this week broadcasting live at the Chad-Sudan border, where she interviewed U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield about the ongoing human rights crisis. Mitchell told me that she felt "compelled to go to this region ... to find out whether the reported accounts of mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing are becoming a genocide, as happened in 2004." Mitchell added that she strongly believes that going straight to the source and reporting from the field, when possible, is paramount. "You learn so much more when you go to where it's happening," Mitchell said. "News stories are invariably more nuanced and complex than they appear to be from a distance."

THE FOURTH ESTATE

NBCU News boss Cesar Conde was honored Thursday night by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation with the Media Award during a ceremony at the Kennedy Center. Accepting the award, Conde said, "The path to building that trust is not only accuracy and fairness. It is also making sure that we as a team and in our content reflect the rich and beautiful diversity of the communities that we serve."
A group of 22 major philanthropic donors pledged more than $500 million over the next five years to help boost local news across America. (NYT)
URL Media secured a $1 million investment from the Knight Foundation. (URL)
News Corp. is involved in "various negotiations" with A.I. companies over licensing its content, chief executive Robert Thompson said. (Reuters)
Greg Olsen "isn't satisfied warming Tom Brady's seat," Tom Kludt reported. "I'm gonna make it as difficult as possible to say, 'I can't believe we have to replace this guy,'" Olsen told Kludt. (Vanity Fair)
Kaitlan Collins said her meteoric rise from correspondent to anchor has been "totally thrilling." (Inside CNN)
The Atlantic announced CBS News as its media partner for the The Atlantic Festival. (Atlantic)

THE MARKET

CAA has sold a majority stake in the agency to Artémis, an investment firm led by French businessman François-Henri Pinault. (LAT)
The deal is a "smart move," insiders tell Scott Mendelson. (TheWrap)

HOLLYWOOD HELL

Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday suspended deals with top writers still on its payroll, including Mindy Kaling and J.J. Abrams, Brooks Barnes and John Koblin reported. (NYT)
WGA and SAG-AFTRA are asking California to provide unemployment benefits for striking workers. (Variety)

MEDIA MOVES

POLITICO announced Joe Schatz as executive editor; Francesca Barber as executive director, global newsroom strategy; and Alex Burns, as head of news. (POLITICO)
Substack hired Catherine Valentine as head of politics. (Substack)
The Hill named Joshua Eure as executive producer of video. (The Hill)
The NYT hired Neel Patel as a staff editor and introduced a second cohort of New York Times Corps members. (NYT/NYT)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Marco Bello/Reuters

Tucker's Desperation: Former Fox News host turned internet vlogger Tucker Carlson has gone too far for even some of his biggest allies. In a recent episode of his online show, the right-wing extremist gave credence to outlandish claims of former President Barack Obama being a gay crack addict. Dave Portnoy, the controversial Barstool Sports owner who recently appeared on Carlson's show, said he would "trust Anna Delvey before" trusting anything Carlson's guest said. Portnoy added, "I'd say his story has 0.0% of being true and that's generous." Even Elon Musk, who rarely meets a conspiracy theory he doesn't want to dabble in, also expressed skepticism, saying it "seems dubious" and was "not super convincing." Oof.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Tim Stanley writes about Tucker Carlson's latest antics, calling it a "new low for conservatism." (Telegraph)
Medhi Hasan offered a good example of how to effectively interrogate figures like Vivek Ramaswamy on television. "Hasan relentlessly held Ramaswamy's feet to the fire," Justin Baragona writes. (Daily Beast)
A CNN spokesperson shot down an assertion from Ramaswamy that a town hall with the network had been confirmed for Sept. 12. "The information in Mr. Ramaswamy's post is incorrect," the network spokesperson told Max Tani, who reported on the "bizarre dispute." (Semafor)
Oops! Jeremy Barr notes Howard Kurtz falsely reported President Joe Biden had tested positive for Covid. (X)
Right-wing insult artist Mark Levin is expanding his Fox News show to Saturday evenings. (Variety)
Conservative news anchor turned conspiracy curious Megyn Kelly signed a new multiyear deal with SiriusXM — and is set to interview Donald Trump next week. (Variety)
The editor-in-chief of Nature says a climate scientist's assertion that he omitted data in the journal to fit "preapproved narratives" on the issue is demonstrably false. (E&E News)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/picture alliance/dpa/Sipa USA

Searching Threads: It's arrived. Two months after its launch, Threads on Thursday started to roll out text search to its app in several countries, including the U.S., Mexico, and India. The feature has been longed for by users for some time and will make it infinitely easier for people to find content on the Meta-owned platform. The Verge's Emma Roth has more here.

🔎 Zooming in: Threads has suffered from languishing usage after the hype quickly wore off its historic launch, with users early on complaining that it was bare bones and lacked many of the features they were accustomed to having on Twitter/X. Whether the introduction of new features (Threads has also rolled out a desktop web interface) will lure new users in remains to be seen, though it seems unlikely at this point that a surge of activity will be prompted by these incremental updates.

TOO MANY TABS

Georgia Wells, Alexa Corse, and Kirsten Grind have a big story going "inside Elon Musk's Twitter transformation," which they write is dominated by "impulsive decisions" and "favors for friends." (WSJ)
Yikes! The new head of brand safety at X/Twitter "has left the company," Erin Woo reports. (The Info)
X's new content moderation policy is making it more difficult to entice brands back to the social media platform, Sheila Dang reports. (Reuters)
Uh oh! ChatGPT's traffic has dropped for the third straight month, Anna Tong reports. (Reuters)
Snapchat said it will introduce additional features to make its app safer for teenage users. (CNN)
SoundCloud is opening up its new TikTok-style discovery feed for all users. (TechCrunch)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Masterson's Sentence: 30 years to life. That's the sentence a judge handed down on Thursday to "That '70s Show" star and scientologist Danny Masterson, who was convicted of two counts of rape earlier this year. Masterson had previously pled not guilty to the charges after being accused by three women of rape during incidents from 2001 to 2003. His attorney said they were "very disappointed" with the sentence and that they are hoping to get the convictions overturned. CNN's Alli Rosenbloom has more.

OFF STAGE

Mattel is eyeing a $125 million paycheck from Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" film in 2023. (THR)
Drake announced that his highly-anticipated upcoming album, "For All the Dogs," is slated for a Sept. 22 release. (AP)
Bob Dylan announced he will release a new of his "Complete Budokan 1978" live album. (Pitchfork)
Chad Stahelski confirmed that Keanu Reeves is on board with another "John Wick" film — though he has yet to explicitly say so. (CNN)
Lionsgate has decided to reboot "The Crow," which will star Bill Skarsgård. (THR)
Paramount+ released a teaser trailer for its original series, "Lawmen: Bass Reeves," slated to premiere on Nov. 5. (YouTube)

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 next week.