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Monday, November 6, 2023

Journalists embed with the IDF, William Lewis introduces himself to The WaPo's staff, the Pulitzer Board make a key eligibility change, Yahoo Finance prepares to debut a new look, OpenAI turbocharges ChatGPT, SAG-AFTRA says it remains at a disagreement with the studios over "several essential items," Taylor Swift tops Billboard's album sales chart for "biggest week in nearly a decade," and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Stephanopoulos' Stand

CNN Photo Illustration/Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

How do you interview election deniers? George Stephanopoulos offered an example on Sunday.

In a remarkable exchange with Rep. Steve Scalise that aired on "This Week," the ABC News anchor pressed the Republican House Majority Leader no less than a half dozen times on what should have been a simple and painless matter: unequivocally stating that the 2020 election was not stolen by President Joe Biden.

Scalise repeatedly attempted to evade the question, but Stephanopoulos held firm, relentlessly confronting the Republican again and again with the straightforward query.

"I asked you a very, very simple question. Now, I have asked, I think, the fifth time and you can't appear to answer," an exasperated Stephanopoulos said as the interview descended into a grilling. "Can you say unequivocally the 2020 election wasn't stolen?"

Scalise never did offer a direct answer to the question (though you could argue his awkward dodging spoke volumes) and the interview ended after it was clear one would not be given. Stephanopoulos told me Monday that he was never going to move on to another topic until Scalise answered the unambiguous question, which proved impossible for the congressman.

"In my mind, if you can't say the election is not stolen, why move on to other things? Why should anything else have any credibility?" Stephanopoulos rhetorically asked me when we chatted by phone.

"You don't move on from whether an election is stolen," Stephanopoulos added. "This is not just another policy debate, it is fundamental."

Stephanopoulos declined to comment on how he believes other news anchors should approach the matter, but he said, for him, it's really not too complicated.

"We are a democracy. A democracy is decided by elections. And the peaceful transfer of power, up until 2020, was at the heart of our democratic tradition," Stephanopoulos told me. "If that can be called into question, then our whole democracy can be called into question. In my mind, it is a foundational question, the most fundamental question we face now as we head into the next election."

While the answer is simple in Stephanopoulos' mind, newsrooms have spent untold amounts of energy discussing and debating best practices for engaging with election deniers. Those discussions are closely tied with the most profound question that continues to bedevil the news media: How to best cover Donald Trump.

As the disgraced former president walked into court on Monday, news outlets were again forced to grapple with the issue, particularly the cable networks that had to decide in real-time whether to air his remarks live to the public. The progressive news channel MSNBC aired just a few moments, before quickly cutting away. The right-wing channel Fox News, predictably, did air Trump's remarks. And CNN did as well, carrying in full Trump's unhinged tirade against Biden, the New York attorney general, and so-called "thugs" who he ranted "must hate our country."

I asked Stephanopoulos about the uncertain waters that outlets once again found themselves in when covering such events. Do you carry Trump's remarks live when he delivers them, particularly on days like Monday when he is in court? Do you believe, as some do, that they carry some inherent news value?

"I don't think we should be in the business of airing falsehoods," Stephanopoulos flatly said.

"The fact that he is going to court is newsworthy," he added. "The falsehoods are not."

The civil fraud trial in which Trump testified under oath on Monday, of course, only presented the first of many thorny decisions that newsrooms will have to make over the next year as the Republican frontrunner is summoned to court to face criminal charges. And the looming 2024 election will surely result in an uptick of 2020 election denialism, given the debunked conspiracy theory's hold on the Republican Party.

These issues will, without question, continue to prompt significant debate among journalists. But for Stephanopoulos, well, the answers are quite apparent.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration

Inside Gaza With the IDF: News outlets, for the first time since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, were allowed over the weekend to embed with Israel Defense Forces on the frontlines. A small group of journalists were granted the rare access, including CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Getting the access, however, did require the outlets to agree to the IDF's terms. "In this case, we operated under the observation of Israeli commanders in the field," Diamond told David Rind in Monday's edition of "Tug of War," CNN's daily podcast on the war. "We weren't allowed to move unaccompanied within Gaza. And, as a condition of entering Gaza under escort with the IDF, we also had to submit all of our materials and footage to the Israeli military, for review before publication."

🔎 Zooming in: "Now, we agreed to those terms in order to provide a limited window into Israel's operation in Gaza," Diamond added. "I think it's important to note that the Israeli military only asked us to delete one piece of footage which showed sensitive military technology on one of their armored personnel carriers. And, beyond that, [they] asked us to blur images of maps, faces of soldiers, and anything that could potentially compromise the location of this specific base. But these are typical conditions, when any military takes you with them into a combat zone."

IN THE WARZONE

"After almost exactly a month of fighting, the conflict is not only the deadliest on record for media workers in Israel and Palestine but the deadliest ... for media workers covering any war in recent memory," Jon Allsop wrote. (CJR)
Jake Tapper looked at the manner in which Hamas frames casualties of war and how journalists are confronting representatives for the terror group with some tough questions.. (CNN)
Jazmine Hughes, a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, resigned after being reprimanded for signing a letter that called Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide. (Mediaite)
Voice of America wrote about why some news outlets are "avoiding" the "terrorist" label while covering the war. (VOA)
In cable news, CNN has been the ratings victor during the first month of the Israel-Hamas war, with MSNBC lagging behind, Natalie Korach reports. (TheWrap)

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration/Matt McClain/The Washington Post/AP

The New Postmaster: After officially being named over the weekend as the next chief executive and publisher of The WaPo, William Lewis quickly sprung to work on Monday. Lewis, I'm told, made the rounds at The WaPo's offices, spending time introducing himself to various departments. During his time talking with the newspaper's newsroom, he was introduced by interim boss Patty Stonesifer and flanked by Executive Editor Sally Buzbee and opinion editor David Shipley. Lewis spent approximately 45 minutes taking questions from the outlet's journalists, vowing to uphold the paper's tradition of first-rate journalism while also lifting the struggling outlet to new heights.

► Don't miss Lewis' first interview, which was granted to The WaPo's own Elahe Izadi and Karla Adam. "We're going to expand. We're going to get our swagger back," Lewis told the duo.

Pushing the Pulitzer Board: Monday brought with it some big news for broadcast journalism outlets: The Pulitzer Board announced it has amended its long-held policy of not accepting submissions from television news organizations and expanded its eligibility to include their digital sites. The change, which will certainly shake up the races, comes after years of pressure from the broadcast outlets, including CNN, which had written letters in the past imploring the board to change its ways. NBCU News bosses Cesar Conde and Rebecca Blumenstein most recently pushed the Pulitzer Board to expand the eligibly requirements. "If the Pulitzers are to remain what they have always been, a reflection of our very best American journalism in any given year, we think that now is the time to lift this prohibition," the duo wrote the board in April, according to a copy of the letter I obtained. Finally, after much resistance, the board is doing just that.

First in Reliable | Yowza, Yahoo!: Yahoo Finance is getting a major face lift. The highly trafficked financial news website will debut a new look Tuesday morning at 6am ET across both mobile and desktop platforms, featuring a new homepage, upgraded quote and sector pages, and an updated news hub, among other improvements. A spokesperson for the outlet described it as "the most substantial change to the site in a decade." The refreshed website — which launches the same day as its Yahoo Finance Invest conference — will also feature fewer advertisements. "While high-volume, programmatic ads continue to dominate the internet landscape, we're betting on a quality over quantity approach," Tapan Bhat, president and general manager of Yahoo Finance, said in a statement. "Driving meaningful engagement is the underlying goal across our entire content strategy, and our new advertising solutions reflect that mindset."

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Huh? Hank Sanders, a reporter for The Daily Southtown, was issued three citations from Calumet City in Illinois after he continued reaching out to city departments and city employees concerning a flooding issue, Rebecca Carballo reports. (NYT)
Paul Farhi took a look at "the windfall that transformed NPR 20 years ago." (WaPo)
PBS announced its suite of 2024 election coverage, which will include special news and documentary programming that will primarily be helmed by Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz. (PBS)
WIRED is also launching a new politics vertical as the 2024 presidential election looms ever closer. (Axios)
CBS News is launching a fact-checking arm to analyze both misinformation and A.I.-generated content. (TheWrap)

IN THE MARKET

Paramount Global ended the day down nearly 8% after BofA Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich downgraded the stock to "underperform." (Deadline)
Dish Network lost about 64,000 paying television subscribers in Q3, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing. (THR)

MEDIA MOVES

The NYT added Erica Green to its team of White House correspondents; announced Jonathan Kim joined the news finance team; and promoted both Tom Lotito and Laura Montenegro to assistant editor. (NYT/NYT/NYT)
The Guardian U.S. hired Emilie Harkin as senior vice president for growth, Adria Walker as a reporter, and Melissa Hellmann as senior reporter on the race and equity team — marking a milestone for the newspaper's U.S. bureau as it employs over 100 editorial staffers. (The Guardian/The Guardian)
Time Studios named Dave O'Connor its new president. (Deadline)
Disney named Hugh Johnston its senior executive vice president and chief financial officer. (CNBC)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Revving Up the Robots: ChatGPT is getting turbo charged. During its first in-person event on Monday, OpenAI announced GPT-4 Turbo, the company's improved version of the industry leading A.I. tech that it promised will be three times cheaper for developers. OpenAI also said it will allow for custom models of its bot to be created and that a GPT Store will allow different GPTs to be searchable. And it announced it has about 100 million weekly active users. CNN's Samantha Kelly has more here.

► "GPTs will continue to get more useful and smarter, and you'll eventually be able to let them take on real tasks in the real world," the company said in a blog post. "We think it's important to move incrementally towards this future, as it will require careful technical and safety work—and time for society to adapt. We have been thinking deeply about the societal implications and will have more analysis to share soon."

TOO MANY TABS

As it turns out, A.I-powered chatbots may hallucinate — i.e. simply make something up — more often than users realize, Cade Metz reported. (NYT)
Meta said it will bar political advertisers from using generative A.I. (Reuters)
YouTube said it will test A.I. features, such as comment summarizations, for its premium subscribers. (TechCrunch)
Elon Musk launched a new A.I. tool, Grok, which he said is a chatbot "with a rebellious streak" that will be integrated into X. (The Hill)
PlayStation became the latest platform to drop X integration. (Engadget)
TikTok said it will end its $1 billion creator fund next month. (The Verge)
The E.U. told TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew to "spare no effort" to counter disinformation. (Reuters)
On Meta's own podcast, Meta engineers explained how they built Threads in a few months. (Meta)
Instagram disclosed that it now boasts more than 1 million subscriptions on the platform. But Jacob Kastrenakes noted that it's "a small number" for the platform, given it "has around 2 billion monthly users." (The Verge)

THE INFO WARS

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Elon Musk "appears to be undermining X CEO Linda Yaccarino's attempts to bring advertisers back to [X] again, this time by reinstating two British far-right Islamophobes, Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson, to the platform as Yaccarino visits London to woo U.K. advertisers," Justin Horowitz writes. (MMFA)
Clay Travis portrayed himself as being politically persecuted while disclosing that he is under audit by the IRS: "When I took over the Rush Limbaugh time slot with [Buck Sexton], they said expect the IRS to audit you every year there's a Democrat in office. Guess what just arrived — my first ever IRS audit! Amazing timing. The Biden administration is the most corrupt in our lives." (Mediaite)
Lachlan Cartwright has the "untold story," via Brian Stelter's forthcoming book on Fox News, of "how Jeanine Piero failed up." (Daily Beast)
Steve Benen writes about Mike Johnson's repeated trips to Fox News: "The new House speaker appears less interested in introducing himself to the public in general, and more interested in reaching out to a narrower partisan constituency." (MSNBC)
Right-wing media troll James O'Keefe is in the latest season of "Selling Sunset," accompanying Alexandra Rose to a party.
The Righting launched a "Trump Trial Tracker," which contains the latest info on the disgraced former president's legal cases. (Righting)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Mario Tama/Getty Images

Standstill with SAG: There was significant hope that a deal between the actors' union and studios would have been ironed out by now — but the two parties are still butting heads. The studios on Saturday delivered their "last, best, and final" offer to SAG-AFTRA. On Monday, the actors' union delivered their formal response to the studios, but in a public statement effectively said the deal on the table was still not good enough. "There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI," SAG-AFTRA said in a message to its members. CNN's Ramishah Maruf has more here.

HOLLYWOOD HELL

"An end to the 116-day actors strike may not be imminent," Dominic Patten and Anthony D'Alessandro reported Monday night. (Deadline)
Jeremy Fuster wrote about how Hollywood has been on pins and needles over the last 48-72 hours. (TheWrap)
Lesley Goldberg and Katie Kilkenny have more details on specifically which A.I. issues remain a sticking point. (THR)

OFF STAGE

Taylor Swift's "1989 (Taylor's Version)" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, selling more than 1.6 albums to mark the "biggest week in nearly a decade" for album sales. (Billboard)
James Corden signed a deal with SiriusXM for an interview show, titled "This Life of Mine with James Corden." (THR)
FX officially renewed "The Bear" for a third season. (Variety)
Netflix renewed "The Circle" for two more seasons. (TheWrap)
Freeform's "Chrissy & Dave Dine Out," a new unscripted series that will follow Chrissy Teigen and David Chang as they explore the L.A. food scene, will premiere on January 24. (TheWrap)
Ari Aster's "Dream Scenario," starring Nic Cage, will hit theaters on November 10. (NYT)
AppleTV+ released the official trailer for "The Family Plan," which stars Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan. (YouTube)
Netflix dropped the official trailer for "Lift," which stars Kevin Hart and Sam Worthington. (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 tomorrow.