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Monday, February 05, 2024

CNN shakes up its morning lineup, Snap slashes staffers, James O'Keefe posts a mea culpa after Project Veritas settles a lawsuit, Tucker Carlson is spotted in Moscow, the Grammy Awards soar in ratings, and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Biden's Media Scramble

CNN Photo Illustration/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Joe Biden will be sitting on the sidelines this Sunday as the campaign for the 2024 election heats up.

The White House recently informed CBS News that Biden had chosen not to participate in the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview, the second consecutive year that the president has declined an offer to speak directly to the country's largest assembled live audience.

Biden's advisers have said that the decision to skip the interview was because they wanted to give the already fatigued public a break from politics during the big game. A White House official underscored that argument to me on Monday, adding that they believe the value of the interview has dropped, given it has over the years shifted from a more lighthearted media opportunity to a politics-focused affair.

Regardless, the Super Bowl snub reflects a larger Biden strategy: The president is leaning far less than his predecessors on the traditional media apparatus to get his message out, opting instead for alternative mediums to address the American people.

"We are being more creative," a Biden campaign adviser told me Monday, "and relying less on formulas of the past."

To that end, the Biden team has worked to make inroads with online influencers who create content for platforms like TikTok and YouTube, briefing social media personalities on key events and inviting them at times to the White House. Biden's team has made the president available for podcasts, where he has chatted with Conan O'Brien and Anderson Cooper about grief and tragedy. And, just last week, he made calls into four Black radio stations ahead of the South Carolina primary.

"We are being less traditional because less people get their news from traditional mediums than ever before," the Biden campaign official said.

While the rise of social media and other platforms have given politicians new ways to communicate with the public, it has also allowed those in power to bypass the traditional press and, thus, avoid scrutiny. Biden's media strategy has renewed such questions, with critics skewering him for keeping an arm's length from the establishment press.

Biden's advisers insist that the president's embrace of alternate forms of media is about diversifying his outreach, not about shielding him from hard-hitting sit downs with tough journalists. They point to interviews Biden did last year with CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley for "60 Minutes" and CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria ahead of the G7 gathering.

"President Biden is crisscrossing the country at a rate that often exceeds his predecessors' travel schedules, talking to the American people about their lives and the issues that matter most to them and executing an aggressive, modern, all-of-the-above communications and digital strategy that highlights how he's fighting for families and their values," Andrew Bates, the deputy White House press secretary, told me in a statement Monday.

But the numbers point to Biden participating in far fewer interviews and news conferences than his predecessors. According to The White House Transition Project's Martha Kumar, Biden has sat for roughly one-quarter as many interviews as Donald Trump at this point in his presidency, and one-fifth as many as Barack Obama.

While the president has regularly engaged in gaggles with the White House press corps, such forums don't naturally lend themselves to the type of aggressive questioning that might come in a sit-down interview. For those who want to see their elected leaders regularly sit down for hard questions from the free press, regardless of political party, Biden's strategy does not sit well.

Whether it is an effective political strategy, time will tell. While Biden advisers are more than confident in it, others are more skeptical. Frank Sesno — a former CNN White House correspondent, bureau chief, and current director of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs — argued that it could backfire, noting that while it "keeps him out of harm's way, it reinforces the narrative that he's running from a fight."

"The Super Bowl is super ratings and generally a full-house free pass for a president," Sesno told me. "The interview is more apple pie than food for thought. So for Biden to take a pass on this (so to speak) will be taken by the over-the-hill crowd as another piece of evidence that he's not in the game. It's safer for him — no interview means no gaffes, no viral video of a mangled answer. But it also gives another punchline to the standup comics and the armchair quarterbacks."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/CNN

Charting CNN's Course: New CNN boss Mark Thompson is shaking up the network's morning show lineup. Thompson announced Monday that the current form of "CNN This Morning," anchored by Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly, will end later this month. The show, which launched under former boss Chris Licht and struggled to find an audience and identity, will move to Washington, D.C., where it will be anchored by Kasie Hunt during the hours of 5am to 7am. Thompson said in an all-staff memo that CNN is in talks with Harlow and Mattingly about new roles at the network, though it's unclear what those might be (I'm told that Harlow, Mattingly, and executive producer Lauren Mensch learned news about the changes Sunday). Thompson also said that the changes "mean that we will no longer produce morning programming in New York and will be disbanding the team that currently produces 'CNN This Morning' in that city." A CNN spokesperson declined to say how many roles will be impacted as part of the changes, but a source told me it will affect dozens of people. Mattingly wrote on social media that his "only regret" was that he "couldn't deliver a different outcome" for the "talented team" that worked on the show. Here's my full story.

► As a result of the "CTM" changes, "CNN News Central" will start earlier, airing from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. That move in turn makes way for two fresh hours of programming. Filling those new hours will be a show anchored by Jim Acosta at 10am and a program anchored by Pamela Brown at 11am. Since Brown is on maternity leave, Wolf Blitzer will anchor in the interim.

🔎 Zooming in: The changes mark a dramatic dismantling of CNN's morning offerings implemented by Licht less than two years ago. The former CNN chief, once considered a morning show wunderkind for his work on "Morning Joe" and "CBS This Morning," made it his first programming priority to launch "CNN This Morning." But the show immediately struggled, with the original trio of anchors — Harlow, Kaitlan Collins, and Don Lemon — noticeably lacking on-air chemistry and reports of infighting making their way into the press. Less than a year later, CNN dismissed Lemon and moved Collins to prime time, leaving Harlow as the sole original anchor of the show. Mattingly began his role as co-anchor later last year. Regardless, the show's troubles are representative of the larger ratings struggles at CNN, with Licht's programming changes chasing viewers away from the network, and executives now trying to recalibrate and win them back.

THE INDUSTRY

THE FOURTH ESTATE

"Pray for the Baltimore Sun," writes Erik Wemple, who wonders whether the local broadsheet, now owned by Sinclair boss David Smith, will "morph into urban apocalypse porn." (WaPo)
Former Messenger staffers are calling Jimmy Finkelstein a "sociopath" for the "deliberately cruel" way in which he steered the beleaguered news startup into the ground, Justin Baragona reports. (Daily Beast)
Max Tani reports on "how Condé Nast bought and destroyed America's iconic music publication" Pitchfork. (Semafor)
The Atlantic cut ties with writer Yascha Mounk over sexual assault allegations, Diana Falzone reports. (Mediaite)
NewsNation anchor Nichole Berlie, who in October learned that she has breast cancer, told Stephen Battaglio she has decided to "go bald" for her newscast as she undergoes treatment. (LAT)
The WSJ editor Emma Tucker announced 14 new roles at its Washington bureau and beyond, encouraging those laid off last week to apply, saying they will be given preference. (TBN)
Fox Corporation boss Lachlan Murdoch, Fox News chief Suzanne Scott, and Fox News president Jay Wallace visited Israel last week to meet with the network's on-the-ground journalists. (Axios)
Microsoft and Semafor are teaming up to use A.I. to help develop news stories. (FT)
"CBS Mornings" hit a 62-week high in the key 25-54 demo for the week of January 22-26, Michael Malone notes. ( NextTV)
The Associated Press outlined its wire's election coverage priorities. (AP)
Nilay Patel sat down with Casey Newton to discuss his newsletter media business, leaving Substack, and the state of the industry. (The Verge)

IN THE MARKET

Byron Allen told Christopher Palmeri that he's started talks with Paramount Global on his bid to acquire the company. ( Bloomberg)
Brian Steinberg writes that Super Bowl advertisers are "poised to play things safe, fearing social media backlash." ( Variety)
Sphere Entertainment — which runs the giant, well, sphere in Las Vegas, as well as MSG Networks RSN — posted revenue of $314 million for its first quarter as a public company. ( THR)
ICYMI: Joe Rogan inked a deal worth as much as $250-million deal with Spotify, Anne Steele reported. ( WSJ)

MEDIA MOVES

POLITICO named Alexandra Manzano its managing editor for Washington Initiatives and Newsroom Development. ( POLITICO)
POLITICO also made changes to its London Playbook. ( Press Gazette)
The BBC named Annita McVeigh, Ben Brown, and Geeta Guru-Murthy chief presenters. ( Press Gazette)
The NYT promoted Jake Grovum to editor for social media and emerging platforms. ( NYT)
The Associated Press announced Mary Rajkumar and Jeannie Ohm will lead global investigations. ( AP)
The WaPo announced Lori Aratani and Ian Duncan joined the business desk to helm a new team focused on the transportation industry and the federal agencies that regulate it. ( WaPo)
Fortune magazine hired Dave Smith as an editor on the news, real estate, and success teams. ( TBN)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Joe Scarnici/Getty Images

Snap Slashes Staff: More painful layoffs are rocking Snap. The Snapchat-parent said Monday it will lay off 10% of its workforce, or some 500 employees. "We are reorganizing our team to reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration," a Snap spokesperson said. The Information's Erin Woo reported that senior leadership was targeted in the staff reduction. The brutal round of cuts — which comes just a day before the company is set to report earnings — comes after Snap already laid off 20% of its staff in 2022, and another 3% just last year. CNBC's Rohan Goswami has more here.

🔎 Zooming in: "The layoffs don't bode well for the state of Snap's business ahead of its Q4 2023 earnings," noted Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg. " Meta's blockbuster report is a tough act for Snap to follow, and Snap is likely trying to garner some goodwill with investors, who rewarded its competitor for its cost-cutting measures and its continued 'do more with less' mantra going into 2024. We expect Snap to report a 2023 year-over-year ad revenue decline of 3.3%."

TOO MANY TABS

Still, the digital ad market is offering signs of mending based on last week's quarterly results from Big Tech, Jonathan Vanian writes. ( CNBC)
Google's antitrust trial over its alleged abuse of its dominant position in the digital ad world will kick off on Sept. 9. ( CNN)
"Black Mirror"-like scenarios involving Apple Vision Pro headsets are already creeping up across the internet. ( Vice)
Tim Cook and NBA commissioner Adam Silver discussed with Alex Weprin how the Vision Pro will fit into the world of sports. ( THR)
Meta warned investors in the "key personnel" section of its annual report that it is concerned about the participation of members of management, including Mark Zuckerberg, in "high-risk activities, such as combat sports, extreme sports, and recreational aviation, which carry the risk of serious injury and death," Alex Weprin reports. (THR)
Satya Nadella marked 10 years at the helm of Microsoft. (Axios)
Amazon inked a deal with Reach, the U.K.'s largest publisher, to acquire customer data for online ad targeting as Google moves to cut third-party cookies. (FT)
Meta shut down its Facebook Groups API. ( TechCrunch)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Veritas Via Veritas: Project Veritas is finally acknowledging the truth — albeit after the organization has effectively shut down. The former right-wing group, which ousted James O'Keefe as its leader last year, leading to its ultimate demise, settled a lawsuit with a Pennsylvania postmaster whom it had accused of engaging in 2020 election shenanigans, NBC News' Ryan J. Reilly reported Monday. O'Keefe posted on X that the person whom he had relied on for the allegations "has since come to learn that he was wrong." O'Keefe added, "With this update, I am aware of no evidence or other allegation that election fraud occurred in the Erie Post Office during the 2020 Presidential Election." That's quite the about-face! Reilly has more here.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud increased police presence in the Michigan city after The WSJ published an opinion piece referring to it as "America's Jihad capital." The WSJ has not commented on its publication of the incendiary piece. (CNN)
A video that portrays Joe Biden as a pedophile doesn't violate Facebook's rules, Meta's oversight board found, also adding that it found the social media platform's rules on the matter "incoherent." (The Guardian)
Just another man on the Murdoch payroll: Fox News host Mark Levin called Biden a "f**king piece of sh*t." (Mediaite)
Self-described Islamophobe Laura Loomer, who has been embraced by Donald Trump, made the outrageous statement "savage commentators like Mehdi Hasan … need to be purged from this country." (MMFA)
Tucker Carlson was seen in Moscow leading to speculation he might interview Vladimir Putin, Jim Rutenberg and Milana Mazaeva report. (NYT)
Disney is looking to keep proprietary information and trade secrets under wraps amid its legal standoff with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mike Schneider reports. (Fortune)
A new report found that the generative A.I.-produced sexually explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift likely originated as a 4chan challenge, Tiffany Hsu reports. (NYT)
China continued censoring CNN. During a report on the country Monday, anchor Erin Burnett aired footage showing the real-time censorship. The on-screen banner read, "NOW: CHINA SENSORS CNN REPORT ON THE CHINESE EVADING CENSORS."
This was quite the interview on Monday night: Kaitlan Collins repeatedly had to fact-check Rep. Chip Roy, who has staked out a position against the bipartisan immigration deal. (Threads)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/John Shearer/Getty Images

Music's Biggest Night: Music's biggest night got even bigger. The CBS broadcast of the Grammy Awards on Sunday evening averaged 16.9 million viewers, a 34% bounce back from last year. The show, hosted by Trevor Noah, featured star-studded performances, including by musical icons Tracy Chapman and Billy Joel. It also featured a surprise appearance by Céline Dion — and, of course, the presence of Taylor Swift, who took home album of the year, setting a new record and becoming the first artist to have won four such awards. The AP's Mark Kennedy has more on the ratings here.

🔎 Zooming in: The audience for the Grammys has still fallen considerably over time. While this year's viewership of the awards ceremony is a big boost over recent years, becoming the most-watched since 2020, it remains substantially lower than years past when the annual ceremony would reliably draw an average of 20-something million viewers. But as traditional networks see their once massive audiences dwindle in the streaming era, high-profile live events continue to still be a big draw.

GRAMMY'S RECAP

While receiving the award for the best pop vocal album — her 13th Grammy — Taylor Swift announced she would release her new album, "The Tortured Poet's Department," on April 19. (CNN)
Jack Antonoff, the producer who works with Swift, called Universal Music Group's decision to pull its catalog off TikTok "a**-backward" after winning producer of the year. (THR)
"Barbie" won big at the Grammys, taking home three awards after 11 nominations. ( THR)
"I don't want to embarrass this young lady, but she has the most Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year," Jay-Z said of his wife, Beyoncé. "So even by your own metrics, that doesn't work. Think about that: The most Grammys. Never won album of the year." (TheWrap)
"All you incredible artists remember this show isn't the facts, it's just the opinion of a group of people [whose] name are kept a secret (literally you can Google it). Congrats to anybody winning anything for hip-hop but this show doesn't dictate s**t in our world," Drake said. (Billboard)
Céline Dion made a surprise appearance, presenting the album of the year award, after being diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome. (People)
Speaking of Dion: Swift's interaction — or lack thereof — with the legendary singer while receiving the album of the year award raised quite a few eyebrows. (Deadline)
Rapper Killer Mike was escorted from the Grammys pre-show in handcuffs over an alleged "physical altercation" that occurred inside the Crypto.com Arena after winning three awards. (Rolling Stone)
Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" is No. 1 on iTunes after she performed the 1988 hit. (TheWrap)
The New York Post was roasted for a headline about Taylor Swift not thanking Travis Kelce during her Grammy's speech. ( Mediaite)

OFF STAGE

HBO's "The White Lotus" cut Miloš Biković from its third season after Ukraine underscored his ties to Vladimir Putin. Biković spoke out, saying his being cut sets a "disturbing precedent." (Variety)
Jacob Elordi is being investigated by New South Wales police after he was allegedly involved in an altercation with Australian reporter Joshua Fox. (Variety)
The lackluster performance of Apple's "Argyle" begs one question, writes Rebecca Rubin: Can Tim Cook keep spending $200 million on big-screen gambles? (Variety)
America Ferrera's feature directorial debut, "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter," will head to Amazon MGM Studios' Orion Pictures instead of Netflix. (THR)
Don Cheadle joined the cast of Peacock's limited drama "Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist." (The Wrap)
Jessica Alba launched a production company, Lady Spitfire. ( Deadline)
Netflix canceled "Ratched," its Sarah Paulson-led thriller. ( TechRadar)
Apple TV+ dropped the trailer for "Palm Royale," starring Kristen Wiig and Ricky Martin. ( 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.

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