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Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Bob Bakish rallies the Paramount troops, BuzzFeed sells Complex as Jonah Peretti slashes 16% of the company's workforce, Jeff Zucker participates in a wide-ranging Q&A, John Avlon announces a run for Congress, Comscore data shows top right-wing sites grappling with plummeting web traffic, Paul Ryan rips Tucker Carlson as a Vladimir Putin puppet, Apple takes a bigger swing at live sports, critics rave over "Dune: Part Two," and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Fox and Fantasy

CNN Photo Illustration/Fox News

Days after explosive bribery claims about President Joe Biden came ripping apart at the seams, Fox News and the broader MAGA Media universe have declined to walk back their factually-challenged narrative.

Instead, unscrupulous right-wing media figures have stuck by their corruption claims against Biden, which permeated the conservative information space to such a degree that they spawned Republican-led investigations on Capitol Hill and fueled an eventual impeachment inquiry against the sitting president.

In fact, in the wake of Special Counsel David Weiss charging the FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, with fabricating the bribery allegations against Biden, some prominent right-wing personalities have used the revelation as supposed evidence of an even deeper conspiracy theory, suggesting that the Biden administration weaponized federal law enforcement in retaliation against Smirnov for revealing the supposed scheme.

"He was too credible," Fox News host Jesse Watters told his sizable prime time audience in the wake of the informant's arrest, baselessly suggesting Biden "is locking up the source" to "discredit" the allegations against him.

Sean Hannity , the GOP propagandist who has spent years using his powerful media perch to dishonestly attack Biden, delivered the news to his audience in a similarly heavy handed way. Hannity reacted to the implosion of his narrative by deflecting and questioning the credibility of various news outlets, ranting about their previous coverage of the Steele dossier and what he decried as the "Trump Russia collusion hoax." He also assailed the integrity of Weiss, suggesting he is a Democratic hack, despite Weiss having been appointed U.S. attorney by Donald Trump. Then, after berating Weiss' credibility, in his next breath Hannity portrayed Smirnov as having been credible.

While Fox News' stable of hosts have declined to properly correct the record, the outlet's supposedly non-partisan news website has also failed to update its "EXCLUSIVE" reporting from last summer publicly surfacing the informant's false claims. Articles by reporter Brooke Singman advancing Smirnov's bribery allegations remain unaltered on the FoxNews.com website without a correction or mention that the one-time FBI informant has been charged with lying to the federal law enforcement about the very claims she reported.

The lack of a retraction or any real sign of contrition comes as the Smirnov allegations continue to implode in spectacular fashion. In court documents filed by Weiss on Tuesday, the special counsel said Smirnov admitted during an interview with law enforcement that "officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing" along dirt on the Biden family.

"The false information he provided was not trivial. It targeted the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties in the United States," Weiss underscored. "The effects of Smirnov's false statements and fabricated information continue to be felt to this day."

But when presenting the news to its viewers on Wednesday, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner framed the story around the network's chief villains, stating "Democrats and much of the media are insisting this is all a huge blow to the impeachment inquiry effort." Faulkner added that Republicans "say there is a lot of evidence," though she was apparently unable to do the math herself and conclude that the central witness being charged by federal authorities for fabricating claims is, indeed, a big blow to the impeachment effort.

While Fox News' audience, like other cable outlets, has fallen in recent years, the significance of its behavior cannot be overstated. The network functions as the main organ in the right-wing media universe and has tremendous influence over the Republican Party base. By refusing to fully acknowledge the false claims and press GOP lawmakers on their relentless promotion of it, Fox News is effectively giving GOP lawmakers permission to continue doing so. In fact, the outlet creates an incentive structure for Republicans to double down on their corruption claims, given they will be rewarded with air time on the network's highly rated programs.

A Fox News spokesperson did not off me a comment on the network's coverage of the revelations surrounding the informant.

The behavior, however, is par for the course for the right-wing network, which is notorious for poisoning the public discourse with dishonest propaganda aimed at propping up Trump and assailing his political opponents. Fox News rarely admits mistakes and often sticks with narratives long after they have been debunked.

Even after the Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch-controlled company paid a historic $787 million to settle its election lies-related lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, the network declined to run an on-air retraction. In the time since, Lachlan has publicly voiced support for Fox News' dishonest election coverage, which helped create the conditions that led to the violent January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Tim Miller, the former Republican political operative turned author, MSNBC contributor, and Bulwark writer-at-large, predicted that Fox News will never retract their Burisma claims, telling me they "have a psychological and political need for it to be true."

"The Smirnov indictment reveals that Republican leadership in the House is advancing literal Russian propaganda about the president," Miller said. "This should be a massive triple red siren story and yet conservative media is unbowed and completely at peace with doing Putin's dirty work. [It's] astounding."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP

First in Reliable | Bakish Rallies the Troops: Paramount Global boss Bob Bakish on Wednesday sought to rally his troops — a move that comes amid mounting speculation about the future of the media company and after it implemented layoffs earlier this month, pink-slipping some 800 employees or 3% of the workforce. "As we drive the company toward earnings growth, we have said that will require us to continue growing revenue while managing costs," Bakish wrote in a staff memo we obtained. "We know this has resulted in some hard choices, including the difficult decision to eliminate positions across the company last week. At the same time, you have continued to push the business forward."

Bakish pointed to a number of notable Paramount wins in the last few weeks, including: record Super Bowl ratings; a dominant Premiere Week in which CBS snagged the top 16 shows of the week, a feat that no other network has pulled off in decades; "Mean Girls" passing $100 million at the box office and "Bob Marley: One Love" debuting to $81 million worldwide; Jon Stewart smashing "The Daily Show" viewership records; and years-high ratings for the Grammys. Bakish concluded his memo saying he is "grateful" for the "hard work and dedication" of staffers and voicing confidence for the future.

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration/Spencer Platt/Getty Images

BuzzFeed's Blues: It was another difficult day to be a BuzzFeed employee, with boss Jonah Peretti announcing that the company will slash 16% of its staff ahead of a "planned strategic restructuring" next week to "enhance the company's profitability" and "reduce centralized costs." The news came as the BuzzFeed media empire shrunk even further, with the company selling much of Complex Networks — which it purchased in 2021 for $300 million — to e-commerce destination NTWRK for $108.6 million + $5.7 million related to real-estate and severance costs. Peretti said the changes will allow BuzzFeed to focus on its core brands and make it "more nimble and more innovative," describing it as helping to "enable an exciting next stage for our company." Here's my full story.

🔎 Zooming in: For what it is worth, the uniting of NTWRK and Complex is, indeed, something of a natural marriage. NTWRK serves as a marketplace for many of the items that Complex covers, such as sneakers. Combined, NTWRK said it hopes to "create the definitive cultural commerce, content, and experiential platform." Also of intrigue: Universal Music Group will serve as a strategic partner, working to identify ways in which the new platform can "offer unprecedented opportunities for both music superfans and artists." The partnership, which signals UMG is looking for new platforms to collaborate with, is particularly notable given the company's public breakup with TikTok.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Jeff Zucker participated in a wide-ranging Q&A with Lachlan Cartwright, saying RedBird IMI's goal is "to invest in or acquire companies that are well situated for the future"; confirming that if he is cleared to purchase The Telegraph he "would look to expand" the paper's reach in the U.S.; revealing he no longer watches "much television news at all, including CNN"; and saying that he believes there is a future for journalism, but that "it is going to require investment and patience and a very strong backbone that stands up for the truth." (THR)
The Pew Research Center announced the Pew-Knight Initiative, a five-year partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that aims to deliver "comprehensive, real-time look at the fast-evolving information landscape from the standpoints of both consumers and producers of news." (Pew)
Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos has been ordered to pay $218,000 in legal fees to The LAT in his failed libel case against the outlet, Max Tani reports. (Threads)
John Avlon, who exited CNN earlier this month, officially announced he is running for Congress as a Democrat in New York. (The Hill)

IN THE MARKET

Lachlan Cartwright goes "inside Disney's shadow succession game," reporting that Dana Walden hopes to "showcase her mettle as a top decision-maker in Bob Iger's empire." (THR)
Amazon is planning to sunset Freevee service as soon as Q2, Mark Stenberg reports, citing three sources. (AdWeek)
But the tech giant pushed back against the report, with a spokesperson telling Lucas Manfredi "no changes" are planned. (The Wrap )
Speaking of Amazon, the tech giant is paying an estimated $120 million to stream an NFL playoff game during the 2024 postseason, Michael McCarthy reports, citing sources. (Front Office Sports)
Audacy "received court approval to emerge from bankruptcy and hand ownership to creditors including Soros Fund Management," Amelia Pollard reports. (Bloomberg)

MEDIA MOVES

The Guardian hired Mehdi Hasan as a columnist. (Semafor)
NewsNation hired Kurt Bardella as a contributor. (YouTube)
The WaPo named Peter Wallsten its investigations editor and added Faiz Siddiqui to the business investigations team. (WaPo/WaPo)
NewsNation renewed its deal with Ashleigh Banfield. (Nexstar)
Bloomberg named Brad Stone the editor of Businessweek. (TBN)
TechCrunch hired Julie Bort as an editor on its startups and venture capital team. (TBN)
Business Insider named Meghan Morris its Singapore deputy bureau chief. (TBN)
Netflix hired Jeff Gaspin as vice president for unscripted series. (Deadline)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Rich Polk/Getty Images

First in Reliable | Right-Wing Erosion: The Righting on Thursday is set to release its first 2020-to-2024 election year audience analysis of top right-wing media websites — and the results, based on Comscore data, show a dramatic plunge in internet traffic, founder Howard Polskin said. The biggest drops in traffic were seen by Breitbart (87%), Washington Free Beacon (87%), and Townhall (87%). Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire has also seen a 73% nosedive in traffic since 2020. "Going forward throughout this critical year, I expect similar or even sharper monthly losses in election year traffic from 2020 to 2024 for a variety of reasons," Polskin commented. "These include consumer news avoidance and its cousin crisis fatigue, as well as the rise of alternative news sources." You can see the full results here.

🔎 Zooming in: For comparison, Polskin also analyzed web traffic data from CNN, The NYT, and The WaPo. All three also saw traffic decreases from 2020, but they were nowhere near the staggering losses seen from the top right-wing media sites. CNN fell 20%, The NYT 22%, and The WaPo 45%.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp declared that the annual conference, which has entirely capitulated to far-right MAGA forces, has implemented a "new rule" denying journalists press passes. "If you're a propagandist, you can buy a ticket, like everyone else, but you're not in the media, and we're not going to credential you by saying you're in the media," Schlapp told Steve Bannon, an actual propagandist. (Daily Beast)
Paul Ryan roasted Tucker Carlson, telling The WaPo's Paul Kane that the ousted Fox News host is helping "build sympathy" and "curate a line of thought ... that is pro-Putin, pro-Russia, pro-tyranny." (Mediaite)
Carlson denied to Glenn Beck that he is "pro-Putin," despite having created propaganda on the Russian authoritarian's behalf. ( The Hill)
Boris Johnson "withdrew from a debate" with Carlson, Rowena Mason reports. (Guardian)
On the heels of Carlson's propaganda tour in Russia, Bret Baier headed to Ukraine to interview President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for an interview airing on Thursday. (The Hill)
Newsmax joined the chorus of right-wing outlets condemning a pair of Florida GOP bills that target the so-called "liberal media," Corbin Bolies reports. Network boss Chris Ruddy noted the bills would make it "easy to sue media companies." (Daily Beast)
Speaking of Florida, Greg Gutfeld, who was once quite critical of Donald Trump , threatened to move to the Sunshine State after the disgraced former president was fined $354 million in New York. (Mediaite)
Jimmy Kimmel mocked the lawsuit filed by George Santos , joking that he is "embroiled in what may be the most preposterous lawsuit of all time." It's the first time Kimmel has commented since Santos filed the suit over a series of Cameo clips the comedian aired. Here's my full story. (CNN)
David Bauder looked at how the Biden team "is signaling a more aggressive posture toward the press." (AP)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Apple

Apple Enters the Arena: Apple is taking an even bigger swing at sports. The company on Wednesday launched Apple Sports, a free app for iPhone that delivers real-time scores, key statistics, and live betting odds. At launch, users will have access to live data from the NBA, NHL, and MLS, among other leagues. The app, Apple's first in the sports arena, is being released ahead of March Madness, offering real-time data for both men's and women's NCAA basketball. Other leagues will be added over time, including the NFL and MLB . "We created Apple Sports to give sports fans what they want — an app that delivers incredibly fast access to scores and stats," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Services who oversees the app and was personally involved in its creation. Here's my full story.

🔎 Zooming in: The app, which will not include advertising at its launch, represents Apple's latest foray into the world of sports, a multibillion-dollar business that technology companies are increasingly diving into, challenging the legacy media companies who have traditionally held the lucrative broadcast rights. It also threatens to upend the mobile sports app space that has long been dominated by advertising-supported apps from ESPN and others. For now, however, while Apple Sports can alert users to where a game is being broadcast, it will not stream games directly inside the app, instead pointing users to other platforms to watch the action.

TOO MANY TABS

Reddit "plans to place a big chunk of its IPO shares in the hands of its users, an unusual move that could build loyalty but also comes with risk," Corrie Driebusch reports. (WSJ)
After a probe, the FTC found that employees prevented Elon Musk from breaking a government order related to security practices. (WaPo)
Meta is testing a feature that will allow users to cross-post content from Facebook to Threads, Sarah Perez reports. (TechCrunch )
OpenAI's ChatGPT has been behaving erratically, Hasan Chowdhury reports, with some users reporting the A.I. bot spouting gibberish and nonsensical Spanglish. (Business Insider)
Nick Logan reported that TikTok "is becoming a popular source for news" in Canada, where Meta has banished news from its platforms. (CBC)
Google rolled out its new sign-in page. (The Verge)
Apple is beefing up security around iMessage. (Reuters)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Warner Bros.

'Dune' Dazzles: The reviews are officially in — and the critics are raving about "Dune: Part Two," which hits theaters next week, following a delay spurred by the strikes on Hollywood. The Denis Villeneuve -directed film, starring Timothée Chalamet, is currently boasting an impressive 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 111 reviews. Critics are calling it "cinematic nirvana," a "sci-fi masterpiece," a "towering feat of sci-fi cinema" that is "in contention for the pantheon of greatest sequels ever," and "2024's first best Picture Contender," among other things. Rotten Tomatoes' Aaron Pruner has a roundup of reviews here.

► Not everyone, however, is unified in their assessment. CNN's resident film critic Brian Lowry seemed to buy less into the hype, writing, "The second half of director Denis Villeneuve's version at times moves as if it's walking in sand, figuratively as well as literally." Read his review here.

OFF STAGE

Jimmy Kimmel hinted at parting ways with "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," telling Tim Grierson , "I think this is my final contract." Kimmel said he has about two years left on his current deal. (LAT)
Sean Combs denied rape allegations against him. (BBC)
Vanity Fair released its 30th annual Hollywood issue, featuring 11 actors — Bradley Cooper, Natalie Portman, Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo, Jodie Comer, Lily Gladstone, Greta Lee, Charles Melton, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan — it says are "seizing the moment." (Vanity Fair)
"Oppenheimer" passed the "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" as Peacock's most-watched film. ( TheWrap)
Craig Mazin, co-creator of "The Last of Us," extended his exclusive TV deal with HBO and Max for four more years. (TheWrap)
Borys Kit and Aaron Couch have a deep dive on how Marvel is "quietly retooling" its approach "amid superhero fatigue." (THR)
Actors are struggling to find gigs as TV castings appear to have dried up, Nellie Andreeva reports. (Deadline)
Tatiana Siegel reports on how Warner Bros. is "spending big" on talent as of late. ( Variety)
"Vanderpump Rules" star Tom Sandoval apologized for comparing #Scandoval to O.J. Simpson and George Floyd. (THR)
Lionsgate Movies released the trailer for "Borderlands," the latest video game to be adapted for the silver screen. (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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