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Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Good evening! Have you connected with us on Instagram? Make sure to smash that follow button if you haven't already. Now, onward to the news: Bob Iger rejects Marvel fatigue and addresses Nelson Peltz fight at MSTMT, The NYT Guild files grievance over management's leak probe, Rupert Murdoch shuts down TalkTV's linear operation, a bipartisan bill targets TikTok, A.I. experts sign open letter, Dakota Johnson dishes all on the "Madame Web" disaster, and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Stupor Tuesday

CNN Photo Illustration/Jamar Coach/Jackson Sun/USA Today Network

It's Super Tuesday. Or is it?

Typically, Super Tuesday is a closely watched and highly anticipated brawl in which candidates fight to secure the nomination of their party. If Election Day is akin in the world of politics to the Super Bowl, Super Tuesday is the conference championship ahead of it. The stakes are usually high and, thus, so is audience interest. That leads news organizations, particularly on the broadcast side, to program their platforms to be chock full of special coverage.

But this year, the state of affairs is notably different.

The 2024 presidential primary season has been a dud. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump face no serious challengers and, short of a dramatic turn of events, the two are both expected to receive their respective party's nomination during the summer conventions. In other words, this Tuesday feels anything but super.

"This is the quietest Super Tuesday in my lifetime," Michael Socolow, a professor and media historian at the University of of Maine, posted on X. "It's weird to imagine it'll make no real news (despite the best efforts of cable TV news anchors & producers)."

Indeed, media outlets will certainly do their best to eventize the evening. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NewsNation will all offer viewers special television coverage with their most prized anchors and analysts throughout the evening. And online, expect to see outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post offer rolling coverage on their websites.

And, to be fair, outside the presidential primary races (if you can call them that), there are some key elections to keep an eye on. As CNN's Simone Pathe smartly noted, "The first down-ballot primaries of the year on Super Tuesday are likely to be even more consequential than the day's presidential contests, which are unlikely to change the trajectory of the Democratic and Republican races." Pathe pointed to the primaries for the House, calling them "by far the most important for the balance of power in Washington," given the thin majority Republicans currently enjoy.

Of course, whether coverage of those down-ballot races calls for a full day and night of wall-to-wall special coverage from every major national outlet is another story entirely. Jay Rosen, a media critic and journalism professor at New York University, argued on X that this year Super Tuesday is only "worth a paragraph in the news columns and a couple minutes on TV."

To play Devil's Advocate, however, the fact that 16 states are voting in elections from coast-to-coast is easily the biggest domestic news story of the day. Relegating coverage of it to only a few sentences would feel inadequate. And news organizations, for a string of reasons, are never going to surrender the day to their competitors.

There might, however, be a middle ground approach that allows outlets good cause to cover the races. Instead of playing up the presidential primary stakes (which are quite low), news outlets could use the evening as a hook to explore some of the disturbing, broader trends occurring in the U.S. — many of which are often consigned to the back burner during special coverage nights in favor of Washington-style campaign process chatter.

For example: Why are so many GOP voters supporting a man who openly fantasizes about being a dictator? Why don't most Republican primary voters believe that Biden legitimately won the 2020 election? Where exactly do they get their news and information and how much of a role does the poisoned information environment play in twisting reality for voters trying to sort through the issues?

Those big picture topics are certainly worth exploring. Whether newsrooms take the opportunity to candidly do so is up to them.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Michael Buckner/Penske Media/Getty Images

Iger's Insights: Bob Iger spoke on Tuesday at the annual Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom conference. The Disney boss addressed a number of hot button issues, including superhero movie fatigue, the Nelson Peltz fight, and the Magic Kingdom's new partnership with Epic Games. Some highlights:

► On Peltz: Iger said he is doing his best to ignore the proxy battle. "I am working really hard to not let this distract me because when I get distracted, everybody who works for me gets distracted and that's not a good thing," he said. "I'll leave it at that."

► On Marvel fatigue: Iger rejected the notion audiences have grown tired of superhero films, saying that it was "not an accident" Marvel's first 33 films delivered nearly $30 billion in box office receipts. "A lot of people think it's audience fatigue, it's not audience fatigue. They want great films. And if you build it great, they will come and there are countless examples of that," Iger said. (My personal POV, as a longtime but now disillusioned Marvel fan: Might it not be a bit of both?)

► On Shelving Projects: Iger revealed that Disney has quietly killed projects that the company no longer believes in, saying that the entertainment Goliath is "doing a lot" to get its creative issues turned around. "It's not an easy thing, but you got to make those tough calls," Iger said. "We've actually made those tough calls. We've not been that public about it, but we've killed a few projects already that we just didn't feel were strong enough."

► On Epic Games: Iger said that he wants Disney to use its $1.5 billion partnership with Epic Games to build a "Disney Universe" where users can interact with the company's iconic characters. Iger added that this universe will launch "in a few years" and that he is "calling this a universe, just so that we don't use the word metaverse."

THE INDUSTRY

THE FOURTH ESTATE

The New York Times Guild filed a grievance against the paper over a leak probe management launched related to its criticized story about Hamas' use of sexual violence during the October 7 terror attack, Natalie Korach reports. (The Wrap)
Report for America has "decided to stop working with one growing category of newspapers — those that are backed by hedge funds or private-equity firms," Jeremy Barr reports. (WaPo)
Hank Green interviewed The Verge boss Nilay Patel. Asked about the success of The Verge, Patel responded, "We are just stubborn about being about one thing. That is our only secret. We care a lot. We work really hard. Those are basics. But then we have been very stubborn that The Verge has an identity, and we're not going to get moved off the ball too much. It's the same for every YouTuber who is great. The algorithm comes and goes and buffets people in different directions, but the ones who've had lasting success on any platform are the ones who are pretty true to themselves. And that, I think, is just a universal media lesson." (The Verge)
After acquiring Complex, the e-commerce platform NTWRK told Sara Fischer that it will effectively do away with its name in favor of the more well-known culture magazine's brand. (Axios)
An interesting story from Will Sommer: "A socialist writer skewered the Formula One scene. Then her article vanished." (WaPo)
GB News owner All Perspectives "has been forced to provide a further £41mn in funding to cover operating costs at the lossmaking broadcaster," Daniel Thomas reports. (FT)
Meanwhile, Dan Wootton exited GB News one day after Ofcom found an episode of his show breached broadcasting rules. (BBC)

IN THE MARKET

First in Reliable | BBC Studios will be launching its first brand campaign dedicated to capturing the U.S. audience, I'm told. The creative services agency R/GA is leading on the initiative and will be responsible for the creative and strategic direction of the campaign, set to debut in Q2.
Richard Rushfield is out with his eighth annual "State of the Industry." He writes that "amid gloom" he has some "optimism." (The Ankler)
"Four months after the SAG-AFTRA deal brought a definitive end to the Hollywood strikes, the return to work for many has been a disappointingly slow process," Diane Haithman writes. "The situation is creating a crisis of morale in an industry." (The Wrap)

MEDIA MOVES

OpenAI expanded its PR team, hiring Liz Bourgeois for communications on policy, Lindsay McCallum for product and research, and Steve Sharpe for partnerships. (Axios)
WIRED welcomed Noah Shachtman back as a contributing editor. (Threads)
The LAT named Richard Verrier its business editor. (LAT)
The NYT hired Kirsten Grind as a tech investigations reporter in San Francisco. (NYT)
The Boston Globe hired Diamond Naga Siu as newsletter editor. (TBN)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Neil Mockford/GC Images/Getty Images

Rupert Recedes: Goodbye, TalkTV. Rupert Murdoch pulled the plug on the television broadcast of his right-wing U.K. outlet on Tuesday, marking a blow to the media mogul who launched the opinion-focused venture just two years ago with the aim of replicating the success of Fox News across the pond. In a memo to staffers, TalkTV boss Scott Taunton said the company will shutter its linear offering and instead pivot to its streaming operation. "While linear TV has been a good marketing and awareness window for Talk, we now need to focus our investment on where the eyeballs are and where the revenues are in growth," Taunton said. "In order to be successful, we need to prioritize being where the audiences are, rather than asking them to come to find us down the channel guide." That may all be true, but it's an acknowledgment the core product has not worked. Jon Passantino and I have the details here.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Donald Trump once again griped about "RINO" Fox News, demanding the right-wing channel "GET RID OF KARL ROVE." (Mediaite)
It goes without saying that while Trump whines about the coverage he receives from Fox News, it is overwhelmingly positive. After flirting with candidates such as Ron DeSantis, the channel has reverted back to its old pro-Trump ways, pumping many of his dishonest talking points into the public square.
Case in point, Trump's friendly chat with "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday in which the network's hosts let him mislead about the economy. (MMFA)
Speaking of all this, Bill Hemmer knocked real news outlets for not taking every single word of Trump's recent speeches, saying they should "take news out" of their names. Of course, what Hemmer doesn't say is that history is littered with plenty of examples of Fox News not taking Biden live. Weird how he doesn't seem to know that! (Mediaite)
Elon Musk on Tuesday woke up and decided to promote the racist "Great Replacement" theory, alleging that Joe Biden is "importing voters and creating a national security threat from unvetted illegal immigrants." Musk, who many journalists continue to support by using his X platform, added that it's "highly probably that the groundwork is being laid for something far worse than 9/11." (MSNBC)
"The co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus are going on record to support POLITICO reporter Heidi Przybyla, who's been embroiled for more than a week in right-wing outrage over remarks that were construed as suggesting that Christians who believe human rights derive from God are Christian nationalists," Jonathan Larsen reports. (The F**king News)
Psy-op? Taylor Swift encouraged her fans to vote for "people who most represent you" on Super Tuesday. (CNN)
Jack Dorsey "reneged on a promise to donate $5 million to a super PAC backing the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," Diana Falzone reports. (Mediaite)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/5./15 WEST/Getty Images

Targeting TikTok: TikTok is back in the Washington crosshairs. A pair of bipartisan lawmakers, Reps. Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, on Tusday introduced a bill that would force TikTok's parent, ByteDance, to divest from the company. "This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users," Gallagher said in a statement. TikTok, naturally, pushed back strongly on the legislation, saying that if it passes, it would amount to "an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it." CNBC's Jonathan Vanian has more here.

TOO MANY TABS

Over 100 A.I. experts signed an open letter urging generative A.I. developers to open their systems to investigators, adding that the obfuscation of protocols has curbed independent research. (WaPo)
So long, A.I.-generated SEO bait! A new update from Google is placing SEO-optimized junk in the company's crosshairs. (TechCrunch)
"It could change everything." One SEO marketing agency executive told Katie Knibbs that the change "sounds like it's going to be one of the biggest updates in the history of Google." (WIRED)
This is helpful! Apple Podcasts introduced transcripts. (The Verge)
But Apple's stock is in a depressive state as the company shows weakness in the A.I. age, Carmen Reinicke noted. (Bloomberg)
Meta's platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — were down for several hours on Tuesday, affecting users across the globe. (CNN)
Reddit "wants to be a meme stock, too," wrote Justin Pot. (LifeHacker)
But the company is facing an uphill battle convincing the investor community it's a worthwhile stock to buy. One equity research firm said its IPO will mark "the return of the junk IPO." Ouch! (MarketWatch)
Shira Ovide reviews Amazon's new shopping chatbot — and finds out that it is not so good. (WaPo)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Columbia Pictures

Dakota Talks 'Madame Web' Disaster: Dakota Johnson is not being shy about how she feels after starring in the widely-criticized "Madame Web." Asked about the nasty reviews the film earned, Johnson told Bustle editor-in-chief Charlotte Owen that she is "not surprised that this has gone down the way it has." Johnson explained that she believes in the film business key decisions are now "made by committees, and art does not do well when it's made by committee." The actress added, "You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they're not. Audiences will always be able to sniff out bulls**t." Johnson went on to say it was "definitely an experience" for her to star in the movie, saying she "probably will never do anything like it again." She concluded saying "it's not nice to be a part of something that's ripped to shreds, but I can't say that I don't understand." Read the full interview here.

OFF STAGE

Nigel Lythgoe denied Paula Abdul's sexual assault claims, calling them "false, despicable, intolerable and life-changing." (Variety)
A defamation trial against Roman Polanski commenced in Paris. (BBC)
Anthony Daniels, the iconic voice behind C-3PO in the "Star Wars" movies, is auctioning off his memorabilia next week. (THR)
IMAX boss Richard Gelfond said "Dune: Part Two" premium tickets sold out on the film's opening weekend. (THR)
Speaking of the "Dune" sequel: Why was the film named "Dune: Part Two" versus something with more flare, such as "Dune: Rise of House Atreides"? I would love to know how "Part Two" was selected as the final option. It feels like a placeholder title!
Disney is adding some of its biggest "Star Wars" Disney+ characters to the "Star Tours — The Adventures Continue" ride at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. (THR)
Kevin Spacey has locked a new acting role, playing "The Devil" in an Italian thriller. (Variety)
Cameron Diaz is in talks to star in Apple TV+'s "Outcome" from Jonah Hill. (Deadline)
Regé-Jean Page has joined the cast of the Steven Soderbergh thriller "Black Bag" for Focus Features. (The Wrap)
Chip and Joanna Gaines will mark the 10-year anniversary of "Fixer Upper" by releasing a new season of "The Lakehouse." (Variety)
Netflix's live-action adaptation of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" dominated the streamer's top TV list for yet another week. (Deadline)
Jeff Rowe, director of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," inked a deal with Paramount Animation. (The Wrap)

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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