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Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Follow us on Instagram! Paramount Global shares rise (ever so slightly) after its earnings report, Mehdi Hasan launches a digital media venture, Vice Media shuts down a virtual employee town hall after a flood of angry emojis, Steve Bannon continues his attacks on the Murdoch family, media companies file suits against Google and OpenAI, Universal Media Group and TikTok trade more barbs, and Larry David (along with the rest of the entertainment industry) mourns the loss of Richard Lewis. But first, the A1.

THE A1

White House Whacks Fox

CNN Photo Illustration/Fox News

The White House is formally calling on Fox News to correct its dishonest coverage of bribery and corruption allegations against President Joe Biden.

In a letter sent to the right-wing network's top brass this week, which Reliable Sources is first to report, Ian Sams, a top White House spokesperson, noted that the ex-FBI informant who was the source of the bribery claims has now been charged by federal authorities for allegedly fabricating the story.

"Despite this, Fox has taken no steps to retract, correct, or update its reporting on this false allegation from 2023," Sams said in his letter to Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott, president Jay Wallace, and Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton.

The letter is the latest from the Biden White House, which has taken a more aggressive approach to news coverage of the president that it sees as unfair in the run-up to the November election. Earlier this month, Sams sent a letter to the White House Correspondents' Association, protesting coverage of Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's handling of classified material.

Over the course of the last year, Fox News hosts have relentlessly promoted serious corruption claims against the purported "Biden crime family," which have saturated the conservative information space, spawning GOP-led probes on Capitol Hill and fueling an eventual impeachment inquiry against the sitting president.

"I would cite the number of times Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity promoted this allegation and made false statements about President Biden on primetime television throughout this time period, but the footnote citations would fill multiple pages," Sams underscored in his letter to the three top Fox News executives.

But when the FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, was charged earlier this month with fabricating the bribery allegations against Biden, even apparently confessing that Russian intelligence was involved in seeding the smear, Fox News refused to walk back the story in a meaningful way.

Hannity, the network's top promoter of the corruption claims, stuck by the narrative that he had promoted in dozens of segments (though he did disclose to viewers that the informant had been charged, spinning the development to attack the media). Elsewhere on the network, Watters used the arrest revelation as supposed evidence of an even deeper conspiracy theory, suggesting Biden was locking up Smirnov in retaliation for revealing the supposed scheme.

And while Fox News' roster of unscrupulous right-wing 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 Fox News website without a correction or mention that Smirnov has been charged with lying to the federal law enforcement about the very claims she reported.

To be clear, credible news organizations would not behave in such a manner. In fact, even before Smirnov was charged, responsible newsrooms viewed the bribery allegations as dubious at best. But Fox News has a poor relationship with the truth, often flooding the discourse with disinformation and conspiracy theories that contort to their audience's conservative worldview. Last year, the network paid a historic $787.5 million defamation settlement to Dominion Voting Systems for the lies it told about the 2020 election.

Since Fox News has declined to take the responsible course of action and meaningfully correct the record, the White House is now moving to formally request the network do so.

"We feel strongly that all Fox News Digital articles on this topic should at a minimum be updated with editor's notes informing readers that the source of this allegation has been federally indicted for making it up," Sams wrote the three top executives. "We also feel strongly that Fox News Channel television personalities like Hannity and Watters, among others, should inform their viewers on air that they have been sharing a discredited allegation from a source who has been federally indicted for making it up."

But a person familiar with the matter said that Fox News has informed the White House that it does not intend to correct its reporting. And, in a statement the network provided me, Fox News didn't directly address the White House's request for it to correct its previous coverage.

"Fox News Media has reported on all key developments since the announcement that Alexander Smirnov was charged with lying to the FBI, featuring the story prominently," a network spokesperson told me. "We will continue to report on developments in all aspects of the ongoing investigations, hearings, and trials."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Jason Mendez/Getty Images

Paramount's Mixed Bag: Shares in Paramount Global are up slightly (about 1%) after the company reported Q4 earnings on Wednesday. The Bob Bakish-led media conglomerate missed on revenue ($7.6 billion vs the expected $7.84 billion) — but it posted a surprising profit of 4 cents a share, beating analysts' expectations. The company said that its full year of direct-to-consumer losses peaked in 2022, a year ahead of plan. Paramount+ added 4.1 million subscribers in the last quarter, bringing its total to 67.5 million, and the streamer increased revenue 69% year-over-year in Q4. "We now expect to reach domestic Paramount+ profitability in 2025," Bakish said.

But, like Warner Bros. Discovery last week, the company's linear television portfolio was a drag on the company's bottom line. Paramount, which finds itself a top target of M&A talk these days, reported that its television media division saw revenue decline 12% year-over-year, or $715 million, with advertising falling 15% due to "softness in the global advertising market." Bloomberg's Christopher Palmeri has more here.

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration/Zeteo

Mehdi's Move: After exiting MSNBC last month, Mehdi Hasan on Wednesday revealed what he plans to do next. The progressive host — known for his frank commentary and no-holds-barred interview style — unveiled Zeteo, a new media organization Hasan is launching for "independent and unfiltered journalism." Hasan said the new outlet, which debuts in April, will feature podcasts, written commentary, and his trademark hard-hitting video interviews. "In the coming weeks and months, you'll see content anchored by Mehdi Hasan and his sharp-edged journalism, the kind that takes the power of the media as a public service seriously," a welcome note on the Zeteo homepage said. "You'll also see original content from an array of high-profile contributors: award-winning journalists, New York Times best-selling authors, Hollywood celebrities, and others." The WaPo's Jeremy Barr has more.

► Of course, launching a digital news venture while others struggle to survive is a bold move. So I asked Hasan what gives him the confidence that he can succeed. "I think others are collapsing because their business models are off," he replied. "The subscription model allows people to follow people they trust and build a direct relationship. People on the right have prospered and succeeded with this model — Ben Shapiro, Bari Weiss, perhaps Tucker Carlson — but folks on the left haven't even really tried."

No Paradise at Vice: Well, that didn't go as planned! Vice Media invited staffers to a town hall on Wednesday morning after following through with plans to lay off hundreds of staffers — but, as we first reported, the event was ultimately scrapped after some laid off employees invited to the virtual meeting inundated leadership with thumbs down emojis. As chief operating officer Cory Haik spoke about the outlet's future plans, the emojis became too much to ignore, flooding the screen for all to see. In fact, chief executive Bruce Dixon said it was "impossible to ignore the emojis" and shut down the short-lived town hall. Dixon said that executives would find another way to relay the necessary information to employees.

► Vice Media spokesperson responds: "It is unfortunate that employees remaining with the organization who greatly want to contribute to its success were sabotaged by a few bad actors. We understand that emotions are running high after such a significant change to the company and will continue to communicate. Our strategic vision moving forward is the right one for Vice."

THE FOURTH ESTATE

"At its core, the story of Vice is one of money, greed, and the cult of personality," writes Lachlan Cartwright. "Was Shane Smith a visionary or a villain? Like the characters and stories that the journalists at Vice News pursued over the past 11 years of award-winning journalism, it might be a more complicated portrait than that." (THR)
Alexandra Bruell reports that Essence is in talks to purchase Refinery29 from Vice Media. (WSJ)
"Can the idea of 'news' survive in a digital world?" David Streitfeld takes a hard look at "how the media industry keeps losing the future." (NYT)
Dylan Byers: "Across both broadcast and cable news, one of the most oft-repeated complaints I hear is that there are no more real leaders: no creative impresarios who actually watch the shows and care about winning big bookings and pulverizing the competition." (Puck)
Journalists from CNN, the BBC, CBS, and Sky News signed an open letter demanding that Israel and Egypt grant them "unfettered access" to Gaza. (Deadline)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's newsroom will return to Atlanta. The outlet's president and publisher Andrew Morse said it is "really important" for the newsroom "to be at the beating heart of the city." (AJC)
Andrew Murfett sat down with Janice Min, the veteran editor who founded Hollywood's new must-read, The Ankler. (LinkedIn)
Chris Stirewalt, who will start anchoring "The Hill Sunday" on NewsNation, spoke to Brian Steinberg about how he hopes to break into the crowded field of current affairs programming on Sunday. (Variety)

IN THE MARKET

Disney announced "a joint venture with India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, in an $8.5 billion deal that will create a media powerhouse in the world's most populous nation and end Disney's decades-long solo effort to gain a foothold in the market," Alex Travelli and Sameer Yasir report. (NYT)
Nexstar announced its Q4 earnings, reporting that its TV advertising revenue had fallen 36% since last year. (Variety)
While speaking to investors, Nexstar boss Michael Biard addressed the forthcoming Fox-Disney-WBD sports super-streamer (we really need a name for this, guys), saying it will offer an "additive" revenue stream that "reaffirms the critical impotents of our broadcast platform." (The Wrap)

MEDIA MOVES

Netflix tapped Dan Lin as the new head of film. (THR)
Bluesky hired Aaron Rodericks, who co-led Twitter's Trust and Safety before being cut by Elon Musk, as its new head of Trust and Safety. (TechCrunch)
CNN named Phil Mattingly chief domestic correspondent. (CNN)
NBC News promoted Catherine Kim to executive vice president of news, expanded David Verdi's duties, and promoted Marc Greenstein to a new role where he'll spearhead the conception and execution of production across a greater portion of the News Group. (Deadline)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Bannon's Fox Bashing: Right-wing extremist Steve Bannon is apparently not so happy about being called an, uh, "extremist." The "War Room" host and conspiracy theorist blasted "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday as "apparatchik" who carries out the orders of "foreigners" Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. The xenophobic attack came one day after Kilmeade referred to Bannon as an "extremist" and urged Donald Trump not to listen to him. During his Wednesday show, an enraged Bannon laced into the right-wing channel for not criticizing Nikki Haley to his liking, holding it up as proof the Murdochs supposedly "do not have the best interests of the United States in mind." Bannon went on to advance the notion that if Trump were to win election again, the administration "could show" that Rupert supposedly purchased Fox Broadcasting in a "completely illegal" manner. Mediaite's Alex Griffing has more here.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Laura Loomer, the self-proclaimed "proud Islamophobe" MAGA Media personality who is friendly with Donald Trump, called for the workers of a Jewish charity organization to be "JAILED." (MMFA)
Elon Musk's X will be in court on Thursday as it fights a motion filed by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy group critical of the social media platform, to dismiss its lawsuit under California's anti-SLAPP law, Joseph Mean reported. (WaPo)
Justin Baragona wrote about how CNN's Boris Sanchez made GOP Congressman Tim Burchett "flail" during a "brutal" interview in which he "repeatedly interjected facts following Burchett's well-worn and misleading talking points." (Daily Beast)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Taking On Big Tech: A pair of major lawsuits were filed by media outlets against some of the world's biggest technology giants on Wednesday. In Europe, 32 media groups including Axel Springer, owner of Business Insider and Politico, filed suit against Google, alleging the tech behemoth's dominance in digital advertising has led to serious losses at the outlets. "Without Google's abuse of its dominant position, the media companies would have received significantly higher revenues from advertising and paid lower fees for ad tech services," lawyers for the outlets said. "Crucially, these funds could have been reinvested into strengthening the European media landscape." Google called the suit "speculative and opportunistic," saying it "works constructively with publishers across Europe" and that its tools "adapt and evolve in partnership with those same publishers." Reuters' Foo Yun Chee has more .

Meanwhile in the US, The Intercept, Raw Story, and AlterNet sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court, alleging the ChatGPT developer violated copyright law by reproducing their reporting "verbatim or nearly verbatim" without citation, The Daily Beast's Corbin Bolies first reported. In their suit, the outlets said OpenAI "trained ChatGPT not to acknowledge or respect copyright, not to notify ChatGPT users when the responses they received were protected by journalists' copyrights, and not to provide attribution when using the works of human journalists." The Intercept also sued Microsoft over the alleged practice. The legal action follows similar lawsuits from The New York Times, Getty Images, and Universal Music Group, who have all gone to court charging that A.I. developers are using their work without permission.

TOO MANY TABS

Google boss Sundar Pichai said Gemini has "offended our users and shown bias," adding that it is "completely unacceptable." (Semafor)
Amazon has a problem on its hands. Days after dupes of Savannah Guthrie's book flooded its online store, A.I.-generated copies of Kara Swisher's biography are popping up, Emanuel Maiberg reports. (404 Media)
Substack continues to morph into a more traditional social media network. The latest sign? The introduction of DMs. (TechCrunch)
(This is where I wonder when Threads, a far more traditional social media network, will introduce this obvious feature!)
The WilmerHale law firm-led probe into Sam Altman's brief ouster from the top job at OpenAI before being reinstated is nearly finished, Mike Isaac and Cade Metz report. (NYT)
Meta is planning to launch of new A.I. LLM, Llama 3, in July. (Reuters)
Hasan Chowdhury reports on how Mark Zuckerberg is "going on the offensive this week as he looks to strengthen ties with leaders in the wider Asia region in a bid to fortify Meta's AI and mixed reality ambitions in the face of regulatory and competitive threats." (Business Insider)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Remembering Richard: Hollywood is in mourning. Comedian and actor Richard Lewis, most famous in recent years for his role on the hit HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm," has died, his publicist Jeff Abraham said Wednesday. He was 76. Abraham said that Lewis, who was battling health issues, passed away "peacefully" at his Los Angeles home Tuesday night after having a heart attack. CNN has more here.

► Larry David remembered Lewis, saying in a statement, "Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and for most of my life he's been like a brother to me. He had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today he made me sob and for that I'll never forgive him." HBO also released a statement, applauding Lewis' "comedic brilliance" and saying his "wit and talent were unmatched."

TikTok's Song and Dance: The world's biggest music label, Universal, isn't backing down in its licensing battle with TikTok. After triggering the so-called "nuclear option" earlier this week, forcing the social media platform to take down even more music credited to its songwriters, the label's chief Lucian Grainge took aim at TikTok during Wednesday's earnings call. "There must not be free rides for massive global platforms such as TikTok that refuse to meaningfully address issues around AI, platform safety, or pay their fair share for our artists' and songwriters' work," Grainge said. The label chief added that its artists, who include top acts like Taylor Swift, Drake, Beyoncé, and more, share "our resolve that all platforms that operate or seek to build businesses on the music of artists and songwriters must protect, as well as fairly compensate them." THR's Georg Szalai has more.

🔎 Zooming in: The licensing standoff has dealt a big blow to Bytedance-owned TikTok, leaving its 1 billion users unable to share and dance to hits from Universal's vast library, as well as those signed by other labels. In a new statement Wednesday, TikTok said it was complying with Universal's demands and was still hoping to reach a deal. "Their actions not only affect the songwriters and artists that they represent, but now also impact many artists and songwriters not signed to Universal," TikTok said. "We remain committed to reaching an equitable agreement with Universal Music Group."

OFF STAGE

"After the launch of OpenAI's Sora, can Hollywood adapt to the artificial intelligence 'matrix,'" asked Ryan Faughnder. (LAT)
Emily Smith called Meghan and Harry's Netflix deal a "Hollywood miss" given how little the couple has delivered since signing the 2020 agreement. (The Wrap)
Wendy Williams' publicist ripped a documentary featuring the daytime star who was recently diagnosed with dementia, telling Chloe Melas that she felt Williams "was being exploited." (NBC News)
Andy Cohen pushed back against a lawsuit from Leah McSweeney that alleges he "engages in cocaine use" and treats those "whom he uses cocaine with more favorable treatment and edits." (LateNighter)
Paramount+, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, and 101 Studios will collaborate on a new series based on Showtime's "Ray Donovan," which will be written by Ronan Bennett and be both directed and executive produced by Guy Ritchie. (Variety)
Apple TV+ will adapt William Gibson's "Necromancer" with Graham Roland serving as showrunner for the 10-episode series. (THR)
"Dune: Part Two" is slated to become director Denis Villeneuve's largest-ever box office success. (The Wrap)
"Poor Things" will hit Hulu in March. (The Wrap)
Paramount announced its Liam Neeson-led remake of "The Naked Gun" will drop in July. (The Wrap)
Adele postponed all her Las Vegas residency shows for the next month, citing her health. (BBC)
Lionsgate's Michael Jackson biopic has cast its Jackson 5. (THR)
A24 dropped the official trailer for "I Saw The TV Glow." (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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