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Thursday, November 2, 2023

Did you really think we could take a day off? Scroll down below for the latest on Rupert Murdoch, Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Kara Swisher, Margaret Sullivan, Sean Hannity, Adam Mosseri, Britney Spears, and more. Plus the latest on the situation in Alabama, where two journalists were arrested in a small town. And a look at quarterly earnings reports from Paramount and BuzzFeed. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Fox's Troubled Watters

CNN Photo Illustration/Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

Fox News is showing its true colors, yet again.

The right-wing television network has remained entirely silent amid fierce backlash stemming from Islamophobic comments made on its top-rated show, "The Five," by one of its top hosts, Jesse Watters.

In an astonishing and ugly rant, Watters on Wednesday said that he was fed up with Arab Americans and the entire Muslim world. "We have had it with them," Watters declared during the diatribe, which aired during a segment about activists ripping down posts spotlighting Israeli hostages.

The remarks earned Watters and Fox News another stinging rebuttal from the White House, which called them a "sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans." The White House added that Fox News "owes an apology to every single viewer."

If you're waiting for an apology from Fox News, however, don't hold your breath (you should probably know this by now). As usual, Fox News hasn't said a word about the hateful rant that streamed out of a top host's mouth and into the homes of millions.

And it's not the first time that Watters has made abhorrent comments since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. In October, Watters said, "I don't like how people try to differentiate between the Palestinians and Hamas."

"To me, I see people with guns. That's Hamas. The people without the guns are the Palestinians. They believe the same thing," Watters said at the time. "The Palestinians hire Hamas to run their government. You poll them; they all love killing Jews. It's in their charter. They say they believe in suicide bombings."

At an actual news organization, and in the vast majority of corporate America, such comments would unquestionably be unacceptable. The host would almost certainly be publicly reprimanded, and an apology would immediately be issued — at the very least.

But Fox News is much different. Its refusal to address the matter underscores once more that Rupert Murdoch's television arm is comfortable broadcasting hate to the masses. Tucker Carlson might be gone, but appalling comments like this still find their way to air — and the network turns a blind eye to it.

It goes without saying that voicing hate — and profiting from it — is a reprehensible act. But in the charged environment we now find ourselves in, where hate against Muslim Americans is surging alongside anti-Semitism, it is particularly irresponsible and repugnant.

Stamping out bigotry from the public discourse should be everyone's mission. For some, however, injecting intolerance into the conversation seems to be the modus operandi.

THE BATTLEGROUND

Need another example of a Fox News host making gross comments? Mark Levin falsely said that Wolf Blitzer's parents "weren't victims in one way or another, of the Holocaust" while claiming CNN "is filled with a lot of self-hating Jews." Levin also recently attacked Jake Tapper, calling him too a "self-hating Jew" and "propagandist for the enemy." (MMFA)
A CNN spokesperson fired back in a 🔥 statement: "Mark Levin's comments about Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper were wildly uninformed, inappropriate and shameful. Wolf is the child of Holocaust survivors and all four of his grandparents were murdered during the Holocaust, a fact that Wolf has personally reported on through a special documentary, trips to Auschwitz, written reflections, and decades of public speaking on Holocaust education and awareness. Levin's antisemitic rhetoric is dangerous, offensive and should be universally denounced."
The death toll among journalists has grown to 35 as of Thursday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. (CPJ)
The Society of Professional Journalists called for journalists to be protected as they report on the war: "Journalists in Israel and Palestine territories face attacks, arrests, threats and censorship making it nearly impossible to continue reporting. During this time, it is imperative that journalists are able to document what's happening on the ground so the public can remain informed." (SPJ)
Article 19: "We condemn in the strongest terms the killings, attacks and threats against journalists, which continue to mount as the crisis escalates, and call for an investigation into those attacks." (Article 19)
"How do we trust what we see?" asks Fred Ritchin, adding, "A near collapse of the media ecosystem has left us unable to gauge what is going on." (Vanity Fair)
Towson University Professor Emeritus Richard E. Vatz praised Trey Yingst as a tremendous war correspondent: "Watching this brave young (30) journalist excel in report after report while maintaining the ethics of his occupation is exhilarating." (Baltimore Post-Examiner)
Drew Harwell and Taylor Lorenz write about how the war has "placed TikTok at the center of a heated argument over the globally dominant social media app's risks and power." (WaPo)
Adobe was caught selling images of the Israel-Hamas war that were generated by A.I. (Futurism)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Victoria Jones/PA Images/Getty Images

Murdoch in the Mix: He may have retired, but Rupert Murdoch isn't just sitting idly by on the bench. Addressing investors Thursday after Fox Corporation's earnings report, Lachlan Murdoch said of his father, "I can assure you that he is still very much involved and will continue to be for years to come." The comment was in sync with what Murdoch said earlier this year, vowing to be "involved every day in the contest of ideas." THR's Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing have more here.

► Lachlan also addressed the advertising market: "We hear, and understand, that the advertising market appears to be mixed, or unsettled. However, we are not seeing that to the same extent due to our focus on sports and news. With sports, we're seeing high demand around our NFL and college football schedule."

THE INDUSTRY

IN THE MARKET

🏈 Looking to buy a Super Bowl ad? You're out of luck. Brian Steinberg reported that CBS has "virtually sold out" of inventory. CBS had asked for between $6.5 million and $7 million for 30-second spots. (Variety)
Paramount Global's stock climbed 12% in after-hours trading after a strong earnings report in which it announced its streamer, Paramount+, hit 63 million subscribers. (Deadline)
BuzzFeed's stock sunk 12% in after-hours trading, after missing on revenue and offering a weak outlook for Q4. (Street Insider)

THE FOURTH ESTATE

The National Press Club blasted the arrest of Atmore News publisher Sherry Digmon and reporter Don Fletcher: "Arresting journalists in response to the publication of a news article is contrary to democratic values. It should not happen anywhere in the world, and is especially concerning in the United States, where we have strong and well-established legal protections guaranteeing the freedom of the press."
The Atmore News reported Digmon and Fletcher "were ordered Monday to refrain from publishing future stories about criminal and civil matters that might come before a grand jury." (Atmore News)
Paul Farhi spoke to legal experts who denounced the arrests. First Amendment attorney Ted Boutrous described them as "extraordinary, outrageous and flatly unconstitutional." (WaPo)

MEDIA MOVES

Columbia Journalism School announced Margaret Sullivan will join as executive director of the Newmark Center. (Columbia)
CNN announced Kara Swisher will join the network as a contributor, saying she will be a regular on "The Chris Wallace Show," which debuts Saturday. (CNN)
NBC News hired Adrienne Broaddus as a correspondent based in Chicago. (NextTV)
Amazon MGM hired Frank Rodriguez as its general sales manager. (TheWrap)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration

Misled by Microsoft: Another day, another example of A.I. and news not mixing well. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and Allison Gordon revealed how Microsoft, after laying off human news editors, has been spotlighting false and bizarre stories on MSN.com, which he noted "remains one of the world's most trafficked websites and a place where millions of Americans get their news every day." As O'Sullivan noted, "The apparent role of A.I. in Microsoft's recent amplification of bogus stories raises questions about the company's public adoption of the nascent technology and for the journalism industry as a whole." Read O'Sullivan and Gordon's full story here.

TOO MANY TABS

The U.K. A.I. summit concluded. Matthew Sparkes wonders, "What did [it] actually achieve?" (New Scientist)
Dan Milmo and Kiran Stacey have five takeaways from the summit. (Guardian)
"Some companies that pay for OpenAI's artificial intelligence have been looking to cut costs with free, open-source alternatives. But these AI customers are realizing that oftentimes open-source tech can actually be more expensive than buying from OpenAI," Stephanie Palazzolo reports. (The Info)
Meta announced new tools for creators, including A/B testing for Reels. (The Verge)
Threads continues to get better and better: Adam Mosseri announced several new features to the web interface of the platform. (Threads)
The Threads team is asking for developers to provide feedback as it explores a content publishing API. (The Verge)
Meanwhile, Elon Musk told Joe Rogan that he bought the company once called Twitter to stop what he described as a "death cult" made up of "extinctionists" who have unleashed a "mind virus" on Earth. (CNBC)

THE INFO WARS

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

A good observation from Matt Gertz: During Sean Hannity's "on-air pep really" for House Republicans, "Donald Trump's name wasn't mentioned a single time." (MMFA)
Jake Lahut obtained Nancy Mace's staff handbook, which "demonstrates the boss's relentless focus on PR and media." Lahut reports, "Beyond drafting press releases, website posts, and tweets, staffers .. were told they needed to book Mace on a national TV outlet between one and three times per day — a staggering nine times per week, at a minimum, according to former staffers who had seen past handbooks—and on local TV channels at least six times per week." (Daily Beast)
Speaking of Mace, the South Carolina representative was on "The Daily Show" this week, and host Charlamagne tha God exposed her hypocrisy in an effective way. (Instagram)

CURTAIN CALL

TK TK TK

A 'Very Dumb' Idea: HBO boss Casey Bloys apologized on Thursday for directing staff to fire back at television critics through the use of fake online accounts — an embarrassing move exposed by Rolling Stone, which obtained some of Bloys' text messages as part of a lawsuit. "For those of you who know me, you know that I am a programming executive who is very, very passionate about the shows that we decide to do," Bloys told reporters at a pre-planned event. "I want the shows to be great. I want people to love them. I want you all to love them. It's very important to me what you all think of the shows. So when you think of that mindset, and then think of 2020 and 2021, I'm home, working from home and spending an unhealthy amount of time scrolling through Twitter. And I come up with a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration." CNN's Liam Reilly has more here.

► "Obviously, six tweets over a year and a half is not very effective. But I do apologize to the people who were mentioned in the leaked texts," Bloys continued in his remarks. Obviously, nobody wants to be part of a story that they have nothing to do with. But also, as many of you know, I have progressed over the past couple of years to using DMs. So now, when I take issue with something in a review, or take issue with something I see, I DM many of you, and many of you are gracious enough to engage with me in a back and forth and I think that is probably a much healthier way to go about this."

HOLLYWOOD HELL

The actors' union and major studios resumed negotiations again Thursday to tackle final sticking points, including the use of A.I. The time to hammer out a deal has reached the eleventh hour, with an agreement necessary very soon if the winter half of the television season is to be salvaged.
Paramount pushed back the release of the final episodes of "Yellowstone," citing the Hollywood strikes. (AP)

OFF STAGE

The Beatles' final song, "Now and Then," is out now thanks in part to A.I. (NYT)
Just one week after its release, Britney Spears' memoir has already sold a staggering 1.1 million copies — and that's just in the U.S. (AP)
Olivia Rodrigo is "beyond excited" to have a song in the upcoming "Hunger Games" movie. (BBC)
A second woman has sued Aerosmith's frontman, Steven Tyler, for sexual assault. Tyler has not yet commented. (Rolling Stone)
Duane Keith Davis, the man accused of murdering Tupac Shakur, pleaded not guilty. (CNN)
"In Marvel we no longer trust": Alex Cranz writes that Marvel "should be synonymous with a good time, but increasingly, it's synonymous with bloat, bad VFX, and poorly scripted film and TV." (The Verge)
Comedian Taylor Tomlinson is the newest addition to CBS' late-night talk show lineup with her upcoming "After Midnight," filling the vacant slot left by James Corden's retirement. (NYT)
Nic Cage described A.I. as "a nightmare to me," saying that "it's inhumane" and that he "would be very unhappy if people were taking my art … and appropriating [it]." (THR)
Emily Hampshire, known for playing Stevie Budd on "Schitt's Creek," apologized after she and her friend dressed up as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard for Halloween. (BBC)
Hulu is looking to nab a new version of "Prison Break." (THR)
Starz decided not to move forward with a series it had previously announced with Ava DuVernay. (TheWrap)
The trailer for "The Fall Guy," starring Hannah Waddingham, Ryan Gosling, and Emily Blunt, has dropped. (YouTube)
20th Century Studios dropped the first trailer for "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." (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. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn. We will see you back in your inbox next week.