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Thursday, October 19, 2023

President Biden delivers a prime time address, the death toll among journalists covering the Israel-Hamas war rises, Netflix's stock trades up 16%, Elon Musk removes The NYT's badge, Apple reportedly pulls the plug on Jon Stewart's show, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Mitt on the Media

CNN Photo Illustration/Greg Nash/Reuters

Mitt Romney, once the Republican Party's standard-bearer, believes the right-wing media machine is at fault for much of the radicalization that has disfigured the GOP.

The Utah senator and one-time GOP presidential nominee unleashed a torrent of pointed criticism aimed squarely at the information universe in which most of his party's members consume their news, characterizing it in a new book as a dangerous propaganda factory detached from reality, poisoning the minds of its inhabitants.

Romney's blunt assessment of the right-wing media apparatus comes in "Romney: A Reckoning," the forthcoming book by McKay Coppins, a journalist with The Atlantic who was granted a series of exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to the outgoing senator.

"It's hard to imagine," Romney said in one excerpt of the book that Coppins shared with me, but Tucker Carlson is turning the GOP into "the pro-Russian, pro-authoritarian party."

"And that's not what it used to be," Romney added.

In another excerpt, Romney expressed alarm at how prominent storylines in the right-wing media space demonized people that he believed should have been celebrated, such as an Olympian struggling with mental health.

"It's almost like you take what is praiseworthy and of good report and you say, 'Let's attack that!'" Romney said.

His stinging analysis of the media consumed by Republicans is particularly noteworthy, given that he once harbored a close relationship with its top figures. But that relationship was shattered when Donald Trump ascended within the Republican Party, ushering in a new era defined by vicious attacks on political opponents, the smearing of the press, embracement of conspiracy theories, and a brazen assault on the truth.

The warped political environment made Romney, once the archetype of its traditional conservative values, an outcast to right-wing media figures, which after a brief civil war, wholly embraced Trump following his election. Speaking to Coppins, Romney expressed shock at how he personally became portrayed as a villain by the very same people who once championed him as a leader worthy of the highest office in the land.

At one point in 2019, after seeing a clip of Fox News host and pro-Trump propagandist Sean Hannity rant about him as a "weak, sanctimonious Washington swamp politician," Romney decided to phone up his old ally, Coppins wrote.

But the call didn't go well, with Hannity scolding Romney and accusing him of making certain comments to appease the mainstream press. "You're just doing this because you want to get praise on MSNBC!" Hannity told Romney, according to the book. Hannity then questioned Romney on Hunter Biden, and erupted when the senator confessed he was not aware of Burisma, according to the book: "How do you not know what Burisma is?"

Romney wondered to Coppins whether Carlson — the former Fox News host who became the network's ratings king through ugly, anti-immigrant, conspiratorial rants — was having an effect on Hannity.

"I can only imagine that Sean is consumed with Tucker Carlson being ahead of him, and his everyday effort is to find ways to reclaim the throne as the most-watched," Romney told Coppins. "He's in the same vein as Tucker. Just not as effective as Tucker — Tucker's smart."

Through a spokesperson, Hannity told me that he "only wished the best for [the] soon to be former Senator."

"It's very clear losing the presidency has turned Mitt into a small, angry, and very bitter man," Hannity added. "It's sad to see."

Regardless of his feelings about Hannity, Romney acknowledged that the problem is more deeply rooted, blaming the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Fox News as an institution for some of the ugly rhetoric injected into the public discourse. After seeing the former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs fearmonger about immigrants, Romney wrote an email to a pair of political confidants, describing Fox as a "serious problem."

"Lou is a moron," Romney wrote, according to Coppins. "Fox is an enabler."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Jonathan Ernst/Pool/Reuters

POTUS in Prime: President Joe Biden delivered a rare prime time address to the nation on Thursday, expressing his support for both Israel and Ukraine. Biden tied the conflicts together, saying that Vladimir Putin and Hamas wish to "annihilate" their neighboring countries. The speech interrupted regular programming on the broadcast networks, which broke in to deliver special reports. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NewsNation also carried the speech (Newsmax aired a portion of it before cutting out). CNN has live updates here.

ISRAEL AT WAR

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the death toll since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war has risen to 21. (CPJ)
Alexandra Bruell reported on how the hospital blast showed the "challenge for journalists" covering the unfolding war. (WSJ)
The BBC told Jake Kanter that it was "wrong to speculate" on who was responsible for the Gaza City hospital explosion. (Deadline)
Jake Tapper spoke with Haaretz Editor-In-Chief Esther Solomon about why the Israeli publication believes Benjamin Netanyahu holds responsibility for the attacks. (CNN)
Valerie Strauss outlined some of the "news literacy lessons" learned so far from the war. (WaPo)
The E.U. demanded that Meta and TikTok explain what, specifically, they're doing to clamp down on disinformation proliferating online concerning the Israel-Hamas war. (AP)
Elon Musk has been cashing in on "superspreaders" of war misinformation on X, NewsGuard found. "Establishing the truth in any conflict can be difficult as competing sides push contradictory narratives — but some claims that are objectively and clearly false are still going viral and being seen millions of times by users of X," Donie O'Sullivan reported. (CNN)
Instagram issued an apology for inserting the term "terrorist" into Palestinian bio translations. (404)
Steve Bannon and Alex Jones have been championing their very own home-grown conspiracy theory, David Corn observed. (Mother Jones)
Joel Fields, showrunner for "The Americans," laced into the Writers Guild of America for remaining mum on Hamas' attack on Israel, saying the union has "failed us deeply." (TheWrap)
The MTV EVA Awards were canceled out of "an abundance of caution." (CNN)

THE INDUSTRY

IN THE MARKET

The FCC "proposed to apply utility-like regulations to America's internet service providers, a policy change expected to raise costs for Comcast, Charter Communications, AT&T and other blue-chip companies," Ryan Tracy reports. (WSJ)
Netflix stock ended Thursday trading up more than 16% after its Q3 earnings report and announcement that it will hike prices.
IMAX announced it will expand in China, adding 20 locations. (THR)

THE FOURTH ESTATE

The State Department condemned the detention of RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, saying it is "another case of the Russian government harassing U.S. citizens." (Reuters)
Americans' trust in media has hit lows not seen since 2016. (Gallup)
The two finalists to become The WaPo's publisher and chief executive are Bloomberg L.P. adviser Josh Steiner and former Dow Jones boss Will Lewis, Dylan Byers reports. (Puck)
Journalists at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette passed the one-year mark of their work stoppage. (Poynter)
The BBC's Kirsty Wark announced she will step down as the anchor of "Newsnight" after 30 years following the next UK election. (BBC)

THE FOURTH ESTATE'S ESTATES

Bret Baier is selling his 16,250-square-foot D.C. mansion — maybe compound is a more apt word? — for $31.9 million. (WSJ)
Matt Drudge is selling his Miami 6,695-square-foot farm country home for $2.9 million. (Miami Herald)
The New York City townhouse featured in "Succession" is on the market for $15 million. (THR)

MEDIA MOVES

Insider hired Katie Notopoulos. (Threads)
The NYT named Susan Wessling its new standards editor, while previous editor, Phil Corbett, will step into a senior editor role. (NYT)
NewsNation and The Hill hired Steve Krakauer as a media contributor. (AdWeek)
CNBC announced Arabile Gumede will join the network's flagship morning show "Squawk Box Europe" as a reporter. (CNBC)
Disney named Tinisha Agramonte its chief diversity officer. (Deadline)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/MoMorad/IStock/Getty Images

A Sign of The Times: The Gray Lady is being bullied by Elon Musk yet again. The press-hating billionaire on Thursday abruptly stripped The NYT of its gold badge on X. It is yet another example of Musk using the power he wields to belittle a news organization, this time as his platform is flooded with mis- and disinformation as a war breaks out in the Middle East. I checked in with a spokesperson for The NYT and the newspaper had no response. The WaPo's Drew Harwell has more here.

🔎 Zooming in: The move against The Times is part of a larger pattern of harassment Musk has aimed toward the outlet, which seems to get under his skin more than any other. Earlier this year, X inserted a lengthy delay for users clicking on links to The NYT from the platform. The bizarre move was eventually reversed after questions were raised. And last year, Musk banned The NYT's Ryan Mac, a move he also later reversed, though he mandated Mac delete a tweet that had offended him. But despite the constant attacks, The NYT has taken no action. One wonders: Is there anything Musk can do that would generate a real response from The Times?

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Rumble's chief executive is "super excited" to add far-right, self-described "proud Islamophobe" Laura Loomer to its lineup. (MMFA)
Don't miss this wild story from Mattathias Schwartz, in which far-right figure Chuck Johnson throws Peter Thiel under the bus as an FBI informant after becoming upset with the billionaire. (Insider)
It's safe to say that Steve Bannon, and other factions of right-wing media, are not happy with the idea of empowering Patrick McHenry amid the House Speaker turmoil: "With half of those weasels and snakes and pencil necks up there and gutless cowards ... what they're trying to do, brother [Jim] Jordan, in making you the speaker designee and wait until January, is to audition you. It's like a mail-order bride back in, I don't know, back in the 1870s or something, out West." (MMFA)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Omar Marques/SOPA Images/Sipa USA

The Detector Dilemma: Why hasn't OpenAI released its A.I. image detection tool? Sandhini Agarwal, who works on the safety and policy team at the company, told TechCrunch's Kyle Wiggers that the topic has been "discussed and debated quite extensively." But, Agarwal said, there is concern that releasing it now could do harm. "There's this question of putting out a tool that's somewhat unreliable, given that decisions it could make could significantly affect photos, like whether a work is viewed as painted by an artist or inauthentic and misleading," Agarwal explained. Read the full story.

TOO MANY TABS

From Elon Musk's X to Google News, Silicon Valley has slowly been making its exit from news, wreaking havoc on an already unstable industry, Mike Isaac, Katie Robertson, and Nico Grant write. (NYT)
Slack is ending its account on X that shared status updates, joining other companies who have pulled the plug on Musk's platform. (The Verge)
Google's continued foray into A.I. has spawned concerns for publishers, Helen Coster reports, with its new A.I.-powered search pulling from a variety of sources to generate a summary for users. (Reuters)
Lindsay Rittenhouse looks at X's push to rake in political ad dollars. (AdAge)
The guardrails constructed to contain A.I. are more feeble than previously believed, researchers have determined, Cade Metz reports. (NYT)
Uh oh. Telegram is still leaking users' IP addresses if they accidentally add hackers to their contacts and accept their phone calls. (TechCrunch)
Jeff Bezos was asked by Beltway legislators how he intends to curb mis- and disinformation on Amazon's Alexa devices. (WaPo)
Brendan Koerner goes "inside a TikTok factory for misfit stars." (WIRED)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Phto Illustration/Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Apple's Problem With Jon Stewart: After two seasons, Jon Stewart's run at Apple TV+ is coming to an abrupt end. The tech giant and comedy icon will part ways, just weeks before the third season of "The Problem With Jon Stewart" was set to begin taping, Benjamin Mullin, John Koblin, and Tripp Mickle reported Thursday. The trio said Stewart and Apple "had disagreements over some of the topics and guests" for the series, adding that the comedian told staff topics about China and A.I. had concerned Apple executives. Apple declined to comment to the paper. Read the full story.

HOLLYWOOD HELL

As the SAG-AFTRA strike approaches the 100-day mark, Hollywood's biggest stars, led by George Clooney, made a proposal to the union to eliminate the cap on membership dues in a bid to bolster members' health benefits, Mike Fleming Jr. reports. (Deadline)
Marvel's "Deadpool 3" pushed back its theatrical release. (Deadline)
SAG-AFTRA issued guidance on which costumes striking actors can don ahead of Halloween — and both Barbie and Wednesday costumes are out. (THR)

OFF STAGE

Disney is eyeing a $70 million to $80 million domestic opening for the latest installment of the MCU, "The Marvels." (THR)
Megan Thee Stallion settled her legal battle with 1501 Certified Entertainment over contract issues. (Variety)
The Paramount+ premiere of the "Frasier" reboot opened to an impressive 2.2 million viewers. (TheWrap)
"Suits" reclaimed its No. 1 streaming trophy. (THR)
Amazon's spinoff of "The Boys," titled "Gen V," has been renewed for a second season. (THR)
Stephen Colbert is taking the week off from "The Late Show" as he recovers from Covid-19. (Deadline)
Netflix renewed "Sweet Magnolias" for a fourth season. (TheWrap)
RIP: Burt Young, who played Paulie in the "Rocky" franchise, has died at 83. (CNN)

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.