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Wednesday, January 03, 2024

Mark Thompson starts shaking up CNN's digital operation, Disney wins support from a key investor as it prepares for battle with Nelson Peltz, The Messenger's board mulls the outlet's future, Christopher Rufo gets candid about the right's pressure playbook, TikTok readies to take on Amazon, Elon Musk's X lowers the cost for a gold checkmark, and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

ESPN's Fumble

CNN Photo Illustration/Getty Images

ESPN has a Pat McAfee problem on its hands.

The sports broadcaster ignited a torrent of backlash on Tuesday when he allowed the conspiracy curious and injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers to baselessly suggest during his show that Jimmy Kimmel might be named in documents identifying Jeffrey Epstein associates.

Kimmel, undeniably one of the brightest stars in the Disney universe, fired back at the assertion made on ABC's sister channel, saying the "reckless words" put his family "in danger" and that if he kept it up, the two of them would "debate the facts further in court."

McAfee, for his part, offered an apology on Wednesday. The sports personality, who confessed to the New York Post's Andrew Marchand that he pays Rodgers seven figures to appear on his show, told his audience that his program is supposed to be "an uplifting, a happy one, a fun one" and that he doesn't "like the fact that we're associated with anything negative ever."

"Some things, obviously, people get very pissed off about, especially when they're that serious allegations," McAfee said. "So we apologize for being a part of it."

The less than vigorous apology, delivered a full day after the offensive remark was made, came much too late. Rodgers' supposed "s**t talk joke" about Kimmel, as McAfee described it, had leaped around the world and breathed air into the notion that the comedian was an associate of Epstein, the convicted pedophile.

A spokesperson for ESPN declined to comment on the matter and a representative for Disney did not respond when I reached out on Wednesday, despite the unusual situation in which one of the entertainment juggernaut's most prominent personalities was smeared from within the walls of the Magic Kingdom.

It's unlikely Bob Iger is thrilled about one of his top talents having his reputation run through the mud on Disney's own sports network. But perhaps the Mouse House boss should get acquainted with the ritual, given that episodes like this are bound to repeat themselves with McAfee on his payroll.

In fact, the Kimmel-McAfee-Rodgers drama underscores a growing problem for ESPN, which inked a reported $85 million five-year deal last May with McAfee to expand his role on the network and bring "The Pat McAfee Show" to its airwaves. Instead of drawing attention for sports commentary, McAfee's weekly conversations with Rodgers have given way to the type of headlines that might prompt envy from Alex Jones of InfoWars.

The anti-vaccine Rodgers, who positions himself as a warrior for "medical freedom," has repeatedly and shamelessly used his platform on ESPN to question Covid-19 vaccines, which the scientific community has credited for saving countless lives and restoring normalcy to society after a year of shut downs that brutalized the world economy. But Rodgers doesn't seem to care about what the overwhelming number of medical professionals believe. Instead, he has waded into the fever swamp occupied by the likes of Alex Berenson and Tucker Carlson.

Rodgers has assailed Dr. Anthony Fauci, hyped anti-vaccine presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., and mocked Travis Kelce as "Mr. Pfizer" for advertising with the pharmaceutical company. Just the other day, Rodgers went on what the Daily Mail referred to as a "bizarre anti-vax rant" on McAfee's show, in which he talked about vaccine supporters having supposed "puppet masters."

Rodgers has peddled this junk on ESPN with encouragement from a gleeful McAfee. Instead of pushing back, McAfee often approvingly laughs it up with the NFL player, with no apparent care in the world for the damage that his irresponsible rhetoric can carry with it.

And, to be frank, ESPN and Disney have not done much better. Instead of denouncing the dangerous cocktail of conspiratorial trash that Rodgers serves up for its audience, ESPN — which bill itself as the "worldwide leader in sports" — has opted to stay silent, apparently unable or unwilling to work up the courage to take a stand for the truth.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Mat Hayward/Getty Images

CNN's Digital Reno: New CNN boss Mark Thompson is in discussions to lure digital product whiz Alex MacCallum back to the network, Puck's Dylan Byers first reported Wednesday, and which I have since confirmed. The news comes after Thompson announced Wednesday morning that Athan Stephanopoulos, who previous network boss Chris Licht hired in October 2022 as executive vice president of digital, will depart the organization at the end of January. Stephanopoulos said in a memo that Thompson "had his own vision of how he wanted digital operations to be organized" and "in order to give him the freest hand possible to structure and shape the organization moving forward, I felt that now was the best time for me to step back from my role and move on to a new chapter."

Thompson recruiting MacCallum as his digital product chief would make a lot of sense, given she worked extensively with him at The NYT to expand the paper's online portfolio, before heading to CNN as the general manager of the now-shuttered CNN+. In other words, she knows Thompson and she knows CNN. MacCallum exited CNN in 2022 and started in August 2023 as chief revenue officer at The WaPo. But on Wednesday evening, amid her talks with CNN, The WaPo's new chief, William Lewis, announced that MacCallum will be exiting, signaling that her return to the three-lettered news network is perhaps ever-the-more likely. In a short memo to a select group of personnel at The WaPo, which I obtained, Lewis said MacCallum had "chosen to leave the organization for personal reasons" and thanked her for "her hard work and dedication during a challenging time." MacCallum did not respond to requests for comment. And a spokesperson for CNN declined to comment.

► Meanwhile, at The WaPo, Lewis said in his memo that Johanna Mayer-Jones "will report directly to me as Chief Advertising Officer, as will the new Chief Subscriptions Officer, who will be announced soon."

THE INDUSTRY

Shooting The Messenger: Less than a year after its ambitious launch, the financial situation at the digital news startup The Messenger appears to have grown dire. Semafor's Max Tani reported on Wednesday that the struggling outlet's board of directors met on Friday where it debated the future of the Jimmy Finkelstein-founded publication, which is apparently running perilously low on cash. The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona and Lachlan Cartwright went as far as to report Wednesday that the outlet is on "life support" with only weeks to live. Among the options considered to rescue the troubled news website, Tani reported, the board considered shutting down the outlet altogether and Finkelstein "expressed a willingness to sell the organization." Tani has all the details here.

🔎 Zooming in: While The Messenger's financial woes have burst into the open, it is hardly the first sign of trouble at the outlet. Since its high-profile launch, the site has seen a number of staff defections and alarming reports about its coverage decisions surrounding Donald Trump. The revelation also comes just one day after the outlet's president, Richard Beckman, announced his departure and two dozen staffers were laid off.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Paul Beckett, The WSJ editor tasked with securing Evan Gershkovich's release, said he "wouldn't be totally surprised" if the journalist remained in prison in 2025. (The Messenger)
U.K. ministers have delayed The Telegraph's corporate "hive down" restructuring until Jan. 31, days after Ofcom will announce whether it recommends the tabloid should be acquired by the Abu Dhabi-funded RedBird IMI. (The Telegraph)
The Guardian U.S. raised over $2 million to support journalism in 2024, shattering its previous fundraising record. (The Guardian)
🔌 I spoke to Andrew Murfett about how we assemble the Reliable Sources newsletter, how we aim to serve you as an audience, our approach to covering CNN from within the house, the broader tumultuous time in media, and so much more! (LinkedIn)

IN THE MARKET

💥 Disney won the support from activist investor ValueAct Capital as it prepares to wage another battle with Nelson Peltz. (WSJ)
Kim Masters: "As ousted Marvel mogul Ike Perlmutter and activist investor Nelson Peltz enlist former Disney exec Jay Rasulo in their quest to reshape the studio, [Bob Iger] faces a somewhat more credible challenge to his reign." (THR)
Amazon's foray into Prime advertising is expected to bolster the company's annual revenue by up to $5 billion, according to a Bank of America analysis. (Bloomberg)
Roku will debut its first-ever high-end television as the company looks to increase revenue. (Bloomberg)

MEDIA MOVES

First in Reliable | Axios updated its leadership team. The "smart brevity" outlet named Jacquelyn Cameron as chief revenue officer, overseeing national and local strategy; Allison Murphy as chief operating officer, overseeing national and local businesses; Fabricio Drumond as president of Axios New Ventures, with the aim of growing the company's events and high-end subscription business; and Kristin Burkhalter as executive vice president of Axios Live.
First in Reliable | Semafor hired Britta Galanis as a communications manager.
POLITICO named Grace Maalouf its deputy head of news. (POLITICO)
Fox News named Jimmy Failla the permanent host of "Fox News Saturday Night." (Deadline)
ESPN hired Doug Greenberg to cover the sports betting industry. (TBN)
Reuters named Tommy Reggiori Wilkes its European finance editor. (TBN)
Modern Healthcare hired Michelle Stein as its deputy editor. (TBN)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Thomas Bender/Herald-Tribune/USA Today Network

The Right's Pressure Playbook: Right-wing activist Christopher Rufo is not shy about how he aims to use the press to advance his agenda. Rufo, one of the primary activists who helped topple Harvard's Claudine Gay, gave an interview to POLITICO's Ian Ward that published Wednesday in which he was, in fact, quite candid about his plans. "I knew that in order to achieve my objective, we had to get the narrative into the left-wing media," Ruffo told Ward. Ruffo, who has led campaigns against Disney and Bud Light, explained, "It gives permission for center-left political figures and intellectual figures to comment on the story and then to editorialize on it. Once we crossed that threshold, we saw this cascade of publications calling on her to resign." Ruffo further signaled he plans to recycle the playbook moving forward. "For the time being, given the structure of our institutions, this is a universal strategy that can be applied by the right to most issues," he said. "I think that we've demonstrated that it can be successful." Read the full Q&A here.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

The war on Disney rages on: "We need to turn Mickey into a Nazi," Daily Wire host Michael Knowles declared. (MMFA)
Casey Newton said his independent outlet, Platformer, might leave Substack over its refusal to draw the line at pro-Nazi speech. "In short, we're meeting with the company this week in hopes Substack will reverse course and remove all pro-Nazi material under its existing anti-hate policies. If it chooses not to, Platformer will move off Substack." (Threads)
Conspiracy theorist and presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy Jr. has placed his campaign's communications in the hands of Del Bigtree, a renowned conspiracist, Tim Dickinson reported. (Rolling Stone)
Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw shot back at Fox News host Jesse Watters, calling him a "f***ing clown" after Watters on Tuesday floated the notion several lawmakers might be guilty of insider trading. (Daily Beast)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

TikTok's Target: TikTok "aims to grow the size of its US e-commerce business tenfold to as much as $17.5 billion this year," Bloomberg's Zheping Huang, Alex Barinka, Dong Cao, and Olivia Poh reported Wednesday, citing sources. As the quadrumvirate pointed out, the "ambitious target sets up a clash not just with Amazon but also fellow Chinese-owned outfits Temu and Shein, who've been making big strides among younger American shoppers." Officially, however, TikTok pushed back against Bloomberg's report, telling the outlet that "the speculated US merchandise sales figures represented by Bloomberg are inaccurate." Read the full story here.

TOO MANY TABS

TikTok "powered early growth in its U.S. shopping service by offering low sellers' fees and footing the bill for deep discounts. But that free ride is quickly coming to an end," Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan report. (The Info)
"Fines imposed by Russian courts on Alphabet's Google and YouTube, Meta, TikTok and Telegram appear to have been settled as the companies are no longer registered as debtors in the state bailiffs' database," Reuters reported. (Reuters)
That's a steep discount! Elon Musk's X, desperate for revenue, said it will start selling gold checkmarks to organizations for as little as $200 a month, after initially attempting to charge $1,000 a month. (The Verge)
Social media companies made over $11 billion collectively in U.S. advertising revenue from minors in 2023, according to a study from Harvard. (AP)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

Barbie Gets Bumped: Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" has been categorized as an adapted, not original, screenplay by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, despite having campaigned for the former, Variety's Clayton Davis reported Wednesday. That designation comes after the Writers Guild of America deemed it to be an original screenplay. As Clayton noted, however, "each awards body and voting group has its own subset of rules for movies" and the film's characters "were Mattel dolls long before they came to the big screen, which is where the Oscars' decision likely originated." Clayton has more details here.

OFF STAGE

The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards will feature the Outstanding Writing for a Variety series category, following controversy. (TheWrap)
Two more women have accused "So You Think You Can Dance" judge Nigel Lythgoe of sexual assault days after Paula Abdul filed a lawsuit alleging Lythgoe twice sexually assaulted her, which he denied. (LAT)
Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht of "Suits" fame are slated to present at the 81st Golden Globes on Sunday. (Variety)
Song Kang-ho of "Parasite" fame will star in Disney+'s upcoming drama, "Uncle Samsik." (THR)
Steven Yeun will not join the cast of Marvel's upcoming film, "Thunderbolts." (TheWrap)
Jack Bannon and Douglas Henshall have joined the cast of director Lasse Hallström's upcoming series, "The Darkness." (THR)
Adam Driver defended his right to play "just two" famous Italian characters for the silver screen, asking, "Who gives a s**t?" (Vanity Fair)
Paramount released the final trailer for "Mean Girls." (YouTube)
20th Century Studios dropped the teaser trailer for "The First Omen." (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.