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Monday, September 11, 2023

Another Monday is behind us. Google and the U.S. government are set for a historic antitrust trial, Disney and Charter strike an eleventh hour agreement, Chuck Todd talks about the most difficult part of exiting the "Meet the Press" moderator chair, Donald Trump bashes The WSJ, Apple prepares to unveil new iPhones, and the "The Drew Barrymore Show" resumes production. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Walter's Walk Back

CNN Photo Illustration/Carlos Osorio/AP

Walter Isaacson's highly anticipated biography on Elon Musk is hitting shelves on Tuesday — and he is already walking back a major claim.

Isaacson reported in his book that Musk had abruptly turned off Ukraine's access to his Starlink satellite internet system last year just as the country was launching an underwater drone attack on a Russian fleet in Crimea, depriving the Eastern European country's forces of critical communications for the assault and rendering the offensive a failure.

"He secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast," fearing the sneak attack would lead to a "mini-Pearl Harbor" scenario and nuclear war, Isaacson wrote in the book, according to an excerpt obtained and first reported by CNN. "As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly."

That explosive claim, which set off alarms and triggered a tsunami of questions about Musk's role as a key figure potentially determining the fate of Vladimir Putin's ruthless war, turned out not to be quite as Isaacson had told it. Musk pushed back last week, writing on X that Starlink was never activated over Crimea and that he had actually received "an emergency request from government authorities" to enable the service, with the "obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor."

"If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation," Musk wrote.

Perhaps more importantly, Isaacson subsequently walked back the bombshell claim, which had received significant media coverage and was published as an "untold story" book excerpt in The Washington Post.

"To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not," Isaacson posted on X, effectively reiterating what Musk had said. "They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet."

"Based on my conversations with Musk, I mistakenly thought the policy to not allow Starlink to be used for an attack on Crimea had been first decided on the night of the Ukrainian attempted sneak attack that night," Isaacson added in a follow up post. "He now says that the policy had been implemented earlier, but the Ukrainians did not know it, and that night he simply reaffirmed the policy."

The correction has cast a pall over the biography from Isaacson, a highly respected author who has written acclaimed biographies on historic visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane University and former head of CNN, has for years enjoyed such a sterling reputation in the media industry that newsrooms have often taken his reporting to be fact.

Now, Isaacson is having to grapple with an embarrassing problem. A spokesperson for his publisher Simon & Schuster told me on Monday that "future editions of the book will be updated" to no longer include the error.

Newsrooms, meanwhile, are updating their stories in the wake of the mischaracterization. Over the weekend, The Post updated the excerpt it had published and offered a correction to its readers.

"After publication of this adaptation, the author learned that his book mischaracterized the attempted attack by Ukrainian drones on the Russian fleet in Crimea," the correction stated. "Musk had already disabled ('geofenced') coverage within 100 km of the Crimean coast before the attack began, and when the Ukrainians discovered this, they asked him to activate the coverage, and he refused. This version reflects that change."

CNN also updated its story on Monday, noting Isaacson had backpedaled his initial claims.

"After this story published, Walter Isaacson clarified his explanation regarding Elon Musk restricting Ukrainian military access to Starlink, a critical satellite internet service," an editor's note said. "This story has been updated to reflect that change."

MUSK MANIA

Sharon Knolle notes that reviewers are saying Isaacson is "too close to his subject." (The Wrap)
"The journalist and the billionaire": "What did an old Establishment guy like Walter Isaacson learn writing Elon Musk's biography?" Shawn McCreesh wonders. (NY Mag)
Why did Musk allow Isaacson to shadow him for a biography? "He loves history and he has a big enough ego that he thinks of himself as a historical figure — and he has a desire to surprise people with his openness and brutal honesty," Isaacson told Gillian Tett. (FT)
Matt Pearce has the full list of the "biggest ideas and pettiest rages in Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk biography." (LAT)
Jill Lepore details "how Musk went from superhero to supervillain," writing that Isaacson's biography "depicts a man who wields more power than almost any other person on the planet but seems estranged from humanity itself." (New Yorker)
Anne Applebaum's assessment: "Musk let Russia scare him." (Atlantic)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Chesnot/Getty Images

Searching for Antitrust Answers: Google on Tuesday will be in court, facing off against the U.S. government in an antitrust case for the ages. The case, centered on Google's lucrative search business, will kick off a weeks-long trial that "could reshape one of the internet's most dominant platforms," CNN's Brian Fung wrote. "The trial beginning this week in Washington before a federal judge marks the culmination of two ongoing lawsuits against Google that started during the Trump administration. Legal experts describe the actions as the country's biggest monopolization case since the US government took on Microsoft in the 1990s." Fung has more here.

🔎 Zooming in: "The case is expected to feature testimony from high-profile witnesses including former employees of Google and Samsung, along with executives from Apple, including senior vice president Eddy Cue," Fung wrote. "It is the first case to go to trial in a series of court challenges targeting Google's far-reaching economic power, testing the willingness of courts to clamp down on large tech platforms."

THE INDUSTRY

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

Caving to Charter: Disney is putting on a brave face, but it's hard to see how any objective observer can look at the deal Bob Iger made with Charter and not conclude that the entertainment giant caved under pressure to the cable television provider. On Tuesday morning, just hours before the "Monday Night Football" premiere on ESPN, the two parties announced they had struck a "transformative" agreement to end their carriage dispute, putting to bed a major blackout that had endured since Labor Day weekend. As part of the deal, Disney will provide the vast majority of Charter's television customers access to Disney+, and offer more premium subscribers access to ESPN+ — a key demand and major point of contention during the negotiation process. Charter wanted Disney's streamers at no additional cost and ultimately Disney provided Disney+ to Charter's subscribers at a "wholesale" price point, without elaborating on what that price point specifically was. Here's my full story.

🔎 Zooming in: Disney's deal with Charter will unquestionably set a benchmark for other agreements between content creators and cable and satellite providers. It raises the question: Will companies like Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCU, and Paramount agree to offer their alluring streaming services to television providers in a similar fashion? Time will tell.

🔎 Zooming in, part two: Can Iger get a clean win? Since he returned to the throne of the Magic Kingdom, he has been saddled with problem after problem — but he has yet to solve for a big one in the elegant manner that his reputation might suggest he's capable of. The high-profile capitulation to Charter suggests he is facing significant challenges on several fronts.

THE MARKET

So what did Disney get? Not much, it seems. "Disney won an increase in the fees it collects for its channels," Scott Moritz reported. "The company also maintained contract terms that require 85% of Charter's subscribers to get ESPN." (Bloomberg)
"This deal sets the framework for what should be developed throughout the entire industry," Charter boss Chris Winfrey told Joe Flint. (WSJ)
Analyst Rich Greenfield gave kudos to Winfrey, saying, "You have to give Charter the win." (X)
Dana Walden conceded to Alex Weprin that Disney "made some trade-offs" during negotiations: "I think if we're learning anything in this moment, it is that we need to remain flexible, that these models are changing rapidly, that keeping up with technology and the consumer means we have to stay flexible and agile." (THR)
The Street's reaction says it all: "Disney's shares initially jumped 3% on news of the settlement, then sank after the formal announcement spelled out the details. The stock ended the day up 1.2% while Charter rose more than 3%. Both stocks, though, are still about 1% below where they closed at on Aug. 31, before the blackout started." (WSJ)

CNN Photo Illustration/William B. Plowman/NBC

Todd's Time: It's the end of an era. Chuck Todd signed off Sunday as the 12th moderator of "Meet the Press," a position he held since 2014. Under his watch, Todd oversaw a massive expansion of the storied "MTP" brand, launching "MTP Daily" and pushing it onto digital platforms. Todd, who will be succeeded by Kristen Welker, will remain at NBC News as chief political analyst. After signing off, Todd answered a couple questions for us.

► What's the hardest part about exiting the MTP moderator chair? "I won't miss working Saturdays, or missing out on weekend activities with my kids, but I'll miss Sunday mornings," Todd said. "There's an energy to it that, even in our industry, is pretty unparalleled. I love the 'construction phase' – the process of figuring out a rundown, building all the things that make it into the broadcast when we go live."

► Advice for Welker? "My biggest takeaway from doing this for almost a decade is it's really easy to make it a popularity contest – to let the sometimes very loud, but usually minority, criticism distract you from getting the answers audiences need," Todd replied. "I've always said I hope guests feel uncomfortable for at least five minutes every Sunday – not because I wish that on them, but because it means they're probably hearing something new, something different, a perspective they hadn't thought about before. So we've obviously had lots of conversations about the responsibilities of this chair, but my biggest piece of advice is that you're ultimately a steward of this institution – the job is to make it about the people you're interviewing, hearing what they say, how they defend themselves, how they rationalize their views and how they hope to lead in this country. Those are the answers that help inform people when they step into the voting booth. Kristen has those instincts in her journalism DNA – that's what makes her so well suited."

THE FOURTH ESTATE

CNN is celebrating 40 years of Christiane Amanpour this week, rolling out promos touting her uncompromising interviews at the network. (X)
MSNBC marked 15 years of "The Rachel Maddow Show," creating a promo with her colleagues congratulating her on the milestone. (X)
"The longest day": Adam Nagourney published an excerpt from his forthcoming book chronicling the history of The New York Times, detailing "how 9/11 tested the paper's newsroom—and fueled a wildly successful transition online." (Air Mail)
Fox 5 New York reporter Linda Schmidt, who was anchoring on 9/11, reflected on the horrors of that day, 22 years later. (Fox5)
Draftkings apologized for offering users a 9/11 themed betting parlay. (Mediaite)
Despite the G20 summit in New Delhi being advertised as "The Mother of Democracy" within the city, hundreds of reporters were kept at bay and barred from reporting on the leaders' activities, Mithil Aggarwal and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner reported. (NBC News)
PBS' "Frontline" will begin streaming its new documentary, "Putin vs. the Press," on Tuesday, focusing on the Russian president's war on free speech amid the nation's invasion of Ukraine. (PBS)
For years, Barstool Sports has used so-called burner accounts on X to lift hours of clips from the social media platform, avoiding the costs of the videos, Robert Silverman reports. (Daily Beast)
Two executives, Mia Libby and Stephanie Parker, have departed The Messenger just four months after the site's launch. (Confider)
Fox News fired veteran executive John Finley last week, saying "an independent investigation concluded that he had violated certain standards of business conduct." An unnamed source suggested to Jeremy Barr "that the executive used his position to benefit someone over whom he had influence." (WaPo)
GB News host Martin Daubney became visibly flustered during a breaking news segment, cursing his frustration on live television, saying "F**k, it's all gone wrong." (TheWrap)

MEDIA MOVES

U.S. News & World Report hired Dafna Linzer, recently POLITICO's executive editor, as its editorial director and executive vice president. (X)
The Associated Press promoted Alex Sanz to global news manager. (LinkedIn)
The NYT promoted David Waldstein to enterprise writer for the Metro desk; hired Aric Toler, Neil Bedi, and Arijeta Lajka as video journalists, as well as Nader Ibrahim as a senior video journalist, all on the Visual Investigations, and Video team; and hired Tara Leigh Anglin as a senior operations manager for its Washington Bureau. (NYT/NYT/NYT)
SkyShowtime named Kai Finke, previously of Netflix, its chief content officer. (THR)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Alex Brandon/AP

Trump Bashes WSJ: Donald Trump is training his fire on The Wall Street Journal. The Rupert Murdoch-owned broadsheet has been under sustained fire from the disgraced former president over the last 48 hours, with Trump repeatedly referring to it as a "globalist" and "crooked" publication on his Truth Social platform (it goes without saying how silly these allegations are). In a flurry of posts, Trump whined about the coverage he has received from the paper, even going as far as to rip its hardline editorial board, saying it "doesn't have a clue." A spokesperson for The WSJ didn't respond to a request for comment.

🔎 Zooming in: Trump's beef with The WSJ is likely related to Murdoch's ownership. But it once again puts on display how quick he is to lash out and turn on even the friendliest of outlets. It's not just the mainstream press that generates his ire these days. It's outlets like The WSJ and Fox News.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

"Fox News is more powerful than Trump," argues Colby Hall. "It should start acting like it." (Mediaite)
Tucker Carlson was "once seen as a powerbroker in Republican politics and even a possible presidential candidate," but without his Fox News platform he "has spiraled into ... growing irrelevance." (Guardian)
Newsmax "appears to be quickly losing confidence in conservative radio host Chris Plante," Justin Baragona reports. (Daily Beast)
"You deport everyone": Matt Walsh expressed support for not only deporting undocumented immigrants, but also any American-born children they may have. (MMFA)
X is effectively shadow banning The NYT, Max Tani reports. (Semafor)
X is still hosting ads for major brands the likes of the NFL and the MLB alongside outlandish conspiracy theories, Eric Hananoki notes. (MMFA)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Stephen Lam/Getty Images

A Bite From the Apple: All eyes will be on Apple Tuesday as the tech titan hosts its annual keynote from Cupertino, where it is expected to unveil the iPhone 15. The phone is widely expected to feature USB-C charging in a major shift away from the ubiquitous lightning port that has been a hallmark of the company's products for more than a decade. The company is also expected to debut new a new Apple Watch series and the next generation of its AirPods. CNN's Samantha Murphy Kelly has more here.

TOO MANY TABS

Google pledged $20 million to a new Digital Futures Project, which will seek to hold A.I. accountable, Ina Fried reports. (Axios)
Both Google and Instagram are leveraging their users' data to train their respective A.I. platforms, Geoffrey Fowler reports. (WaPo)
Threads has blocked certain searches on the platform, such as those related to Covid, on its beta search feature. (WaPo)
Analysis of one million tweets during the first GOP presidential primary debate showed that bot activity on Elon Musk's X is at an all-time high, Josh Taylor reports. (The Guardian)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/CBS

Barrymore Backlash: Most of Hollywood is still frozen, but some talk shows are heading back to the air. "The Drew Barrymore" show resumed production on Monday, drawing picketers and criticism from those who agreed with the WGA that "any writing" on the show would be a violation of strike rules. Barrymore defended the decision, writing in a statement posted to social media, "I own this choice." But that didn't quell the backlash. Inside the actual taping, two people were removed from the audience for wearing WGA pins over "heightened security concerns." Yikes. Elsewhere in the talk show arena, Deadline's Peter White reported that CBS is set to resume production of "The Talk," another move sure to draw protest and scrutiny.

HOLLYWOOD HELL

"Can talk shows continue during strikes without being scabs?" Gene Maddaus and Pat Saperstein ask. "The answers are tricky." (Variety)
NBC became the latest to suspend studio deals with high-profile producers, including Lorne Michaels and Dwayne Johnson. (TheWrap)
CBS Studios also suspended deals as the dual stakes paralyze Hollywood, Jennifer Maas reports. (Variety)
Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw have donated $1.5 million to support striking writers and actors. (Deadline)
TikTok told Olivia Little that it had "inadvertently blocked" some searches for the writers strike on the platform. (MMFA)
It's official: Ken Jennings will host "Jeopardy!" for its 40th season amid the ongoing strikes. (Deadline)

OFF STAGE

Rachel McAdams is headed to Broadway for the first time where she will star in Amy Herzog's "Mary Page" at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre starting in April 2024. (THR)
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher spoke out in a weekend video about their decision to write letters requesting leniency on behalf of their former "That '70s Show" colleague, Danny Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years to life. (CNN)
"The video itself is a bizarre document of contemporary fame; both stars are in just-woke-up-level wrinkled T-shirts, with Kutcher unshaven and bedraggled," Daniel D'Addario observes. (Variety)
"The Little Mermaid" has amassed 16 million views in its first five days on Disney+. (THR)
HGTV sold "The Brady Bunch" house for $3.2 million. (The Wrap)
Greenwich Entertainment nabbed the rights to the Louis C.K. documentary, "Sorry/Not Sorry." (THR)
Ketchup Entertainment picked up the rights to the newest "Hellboy" film. (Deadline)
The first teaser trailer for Warner Bros. Discovery's DCEU film, "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," has dropped. (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 tomorrow.