Right-wing media figures spin Hunter Biden's conviction, The WaPo's media desk reports on the newspaper's internal turmoil, Alex Jones openly fantasizes about executing Donald Trump's critics, Fox Corp. board member Paul Ryan blasts Trump on Fox News, Elon Musk moves to withdraw his legal battle against Sam Altman, Apple shares soar on A.I. announcements, "Inside Out 2" looks to break 2024's opening weekend record, "The Boys" announces final season, and more. But first, the A1. |
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| CNN Photo Illustration/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP |
Shari Redstone has finally spoken.
After weeks of endless speculation about the future of Paramount Global, and more than half a year of grueling negotiations, the heiress called off talks with David Ellison's Skydance Media, astonishing the industry and raising questions about the future of her family-controlled media empire.
The deal went up in flames at the one-yard line. Just as Paramount's special committee was set to vote on the deal, lawyers representing the Redstone holding company National Amusements Inc. sent word that she had moved to end merger discussions, I'm told.
Why Redstone ultimately vetoed the deal is now up for discussion. Was Redstone irked by the latest financials of the offer? Was she afraid of shareholder litigation? Is legacy at play? Or is it simply that Redstone just cannot let go of the empire her father, Sumner, built?
The answer, of course, depends — greatly — on who you ask.
One narrative that has emerged is that, while the two parties had agreed on the economic terms, there were still outstanding issues they had not been able to see eye-to-eye on. Chief among them was whether the deal should have been subject to approval from a majority of the minority shareholders. Redstone had advocated for a vote to protect against potential lawsuits; Skydance resisted.
"That was an important term," a person close to the matter told me.
The competing narrative is that Skydance had made a competitive offer. Ellison and his backers, led by Redbird Capital, had repeatedly sweetened the terms of the deal and met all the financial requirements for it to happen over many months of painstaking negotiations. In this version of events, the real reason a transaction is not taking place is because Redstone, advised by Ellison foe Charles Phillips, simply got cold feet.
"Shari got spooked," as one person bluntly told me.
Regardless of the cause, the deal is not happening — and squabbling about the reason it could not get across the finish line does not change that reality. Instead, it underscores the brewing tension between the two sides as the frustrated parties struggled to make a potential marriage work.
And tried they did over the last several months, with the negotiations claiming several high-profile casualties along the way. Over the course of the last few months, Bob Bakish was ousted as chief executive of Paramount Global and four directors resigned from the company's board. The corporate drama, as many observers have pointed out, has been akin to a real-life "Succession."
NAI, which has received interest from other parties and will now explore them, offered support Tuesday afternoon for the Office of the CEO at Paramount Global, the post-Bakish triumvirate made up of Brian Robbins, George Cheeks, and Chris McCarthy. The trio last week outlined a plan for the company, which includes exploring a joint streaming venture, finding synergies, and reducing costs by $500 million.
"NAI supports the recently announced strategic plan being executed by Paramount's Office of the CEO as well as their ongoing work and that of the Company's Board of Directors to continue to explore opportunities to drive value creation for all Paramount shareholders," the family-owned company said in a statement. NAI also said it "looks forward to the ongoing, successful production collaboration between Paramount and Skydance." The two companies have in recent years partnered for blockbusters such as "Top Gun" and "Mission Impossible." "At this point, there was an unbelievable amount of uncertainty hanging over the company," one of the people I spoke with Tuesday night said of Paramount. "They want the company to be able to move forward." |
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- The lede from Jessica Toonkel, who broke the news Tuesday and has been all over the story from the start: "Shari Redstone isn't ready to get out of the entertainment business just yet." (WSJ)
- David Ellison: "Paramount will always hold a special place for me, we had our first slate deal with the studio and continue to co-own several marquee franchises together. I have great respect for the legacy of Paramount, value our ongoing partnership and wish them the best." (Deadline)
- Behind the scenes, Skydance "is furious," Alexei Barrionuevo, Lucas Manfredi, and Emily Smith report. (The Wrap)
- "The news shocked the entertainment industry as there had been many signals this week that the sides were moving closer to a transaction," Todd Spangler noted. (Variety)
- "One sign of the tension emanating from both sides of the deal was the sheer length of negotiations," Benjamin Mullin and Lauren Hirsch pointed out. "The talks stretched from late last year until this week, and were also rife with leaks, never a sign of harmonious negotiations." (NYT)
- "Another big deal point: We hear that both sides couldn't agree on how Skydance would operate the company through the regulatory process," Jill Goldsmith and Anthony D'Alessandro report. (Deadline)
- Rich Greenfield's take: "Succession+Titanic=Paramount."
- Redstone will "have to agree to an offer from someone eventually, because keeping the status quo isn't an option," Christopher Palmeri and Thomas Buckley write. (Bloomberg)
- Shares in Paramount Global closed down about 8%. (CNBC)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images |
Hunter Hysteria: Donald Trump's dishonest allies in right-wing media are promoting absurd conspiracy theories in the wake of Hunter Biden's guilty verdict, baselessly suggesting that the country's judicial system had been rigged to protect the Biden family from having more serious crimes supposedly exposed. "Hunter Biden guilty. Yawn," right-wing talk host Charlie Kirk wrote. "The true crimes of the Biden Crime Family remain untouched. This is a fake trial trying to make the Justice system appear 'balanced.' Don't fall for it." As Hadas Gold noted, "The reaction showcased how far to the fringes the right-wing and pro-Trump media ecosystem has drifted in recent years, with high-profile personalities defaulting to conspiracy theories and innuendo in response to inconvenient political news." Read Gold's full story here.
► Lisa Rubin's observation on X: "It is striking that in the wake of today's Hunter Biden verdict, at least three jurors have already spoken to the press. But after two civil jury trials (in the E. Jean Carroll cases) and the Manhattan DA's criminal trial, none of the 30 jurors on the Trump cases have said a word publicly." | |
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- "What does Jeff Bezos want?": Elahe Izadi and Sarah Ellison have a deep-dive into the less-than-stellar situation at The WaPo, which the duo describes as being "at a crossroads." (WaPo)
- Under new owner David D. Smith, The Baltimore Sun has started publishing content from the local Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned Fox affiliate, in addition to other material the newspaper's journalists say does not meet its standards, Laura Wagner reports. (WaPo)
- Disturbing trend: "The number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has officially surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S.," Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
- "For news publishers and tech sites looking to both entice and engage users, games are serious business," Mike Isaac reports. (NYT)
- The NYT has entered into a two-year partnership with Instacart to allow readers to purchase the cooking ingredients for its recipes, Kathryn Lundstrom reports. (AdWeek)
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- When the WNBA's broadcast rights go up for renewal, the league "could triple its annual rights to revenue," Ben Strauss reports. (WaPo)
- Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced it snagged the rights to the French Open. (CNN)
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AFP named Mehdi Lebouachera its global editor-in-chief starting in November after the U.S. election. ( Press Gazette) - Bloomberg Opinion welcomed Catherine Thorbecke as a technology columnist. (TBN)
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CNN Photo Illustration/The Alex Jones Show | Jones' Warped View of Justice: Right-wing extremist Alex Jones, who has been largely embraced by conservative media, on Tuesday fantasized about executing Dr. Anthony Fauci and others who supposedly "lied to Trump." In a disturbing rant on his Infowars show, Jones accused Fauci and other unnamed figures of having "already had the [Covid-19] vaccine ready years before they released the virus." Jones called on them to be imprisoned "for the rest of their lives." He then, however, asserted "it is the right thing to do that they be executed." Jones continued on his disturbing rant, telling his audience, "And if the juries decide to hang them, I'm not a wimp. I will volunteer. I think it should be public. I will pull the lever. If they're convicted by a jury of treason, I would personally on national TV be there and pull the switch to break their necks at the end of a rope." Raw Story's David Edwards has more here. 🔎 Zooming in: It might be tempting to dismiss Jones' rhetoric as the rantings of a madman, but it is important to remember that the gravity inside the GOP has largely shifted his direction. Jones, having been embraced by mainstream figures, no longer merely represents the fringe. That is evidenced by the fact that high-profile personalities who once mocked him, such as Glenn Beck, are now openly supporting him. It's also evidenced by the disturbing reality that Donald Trump has vowed to seek retribution if he were to find his way back into the White House for a second term, and his allies have very publicly floated jailing his critics. |
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- Fox Corporation board member Paul Ryan appeared on Fox News to declare Donald Trump "unfit for office." (Mediaite)
- In an interview with Abby Phillip, George Stephanopoulos continued to advocate for not interviewing Big Lie promoters about other topics: "If you're willing to lie about something as big as that, why should anything else they want to talk about be given any credence?" (Mediaite)
- The Gateway Pundit's bankruptcy filing is a "delay tactic," former election workers suing the right-wing outlet told Jason Koebler. (404 Media)
- Aaron Rodgers has been all over right-wing media this year, promoting Covid-19 conspiracy theories, among other nonsense, Reed McMaster reports. (MMFA)
- Elitist, much? Candace Owens is selling fans 15-minute video calls that cost $22,500, which comes out to about $1,500 a minute, The NYT's Stuart A. Thompson points out. (Threads)
- Fox Nation stuck a deal with Kevin Costner. (Axios)
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CNN Photo Illustration/David Swanson/Reuters | Musk Backs Down: The clash of Silicon Valley titans is over! Elon Musk on Tuesday moved to drop his lawsuit against Sam Altman, putting to rest a monthslong legal drama that pitted two of the most powerful technology moguls against each other. Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in February, alleging that the organization he had helped found had abandoned its original nonprofit mission. But the saga quickly became messy. On Friday, for example, OpenAI published Musk's old emails in which the X/SpaceX/Tesla boss expressed views about the A.I. behemoth that appeared contradictory to his current rhetoric. CNN's Clare Duffy has more. 🔎 Zooming in: While Musk might be withdrawing his litigation against OpenAI, his current stance toward the company has not changed. On Monday, Musk warned that if Apple integrates ChatGPT into its devices, he will ban employees from using iPhones at his companies. |
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- 📈 Tim Cook must be all smiles. Shares in Apple closed up Tuesday more than 7% for a near-record high of $207.15. The Street apparently reversed its initial thoughts on the company's A.I. announcements at WWDC.
- Matteo Wong and Charlie Warzel on Apple's A.I. announcements: "The iPhone is now an A.I. trojan horse." (The Atlantic)
- Meanwhile, Kevin Roose confesses that his Vision Pro has collected dust on a shelf, despite The NYT technology columnist having initially been excited by the product. "Novelty fades, and today I barely use the Vision Pro at all," Roose writes, asking if Apple can "rescue" the pricey device. (NYT)
- X has started hiding all likes — a move that coincides with the Elon Musk-owned platform permitting pornography on the platform. (The Verge)
- How is this still a thing?! Elizabeth Lopatto points out that Google's A.I. Overview *still* recommends glue for pizza. (The Verge)
- Remember BeReal? The once up-and-coming social platform has been purchased by Voodoo, a mobile game publisher. (TechCrunch)
- LinkedIn is piloting its A.I. assistant for premium members. (Axios)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Pixar | Turning Out for 'Inside Out': It looks like Pixar could have a hit on its hands. The Disney-owned studio's "Inside Out 2" is projected to rake in $80-$90 million at the box office when it opens this weekend, Variety's Rebecca Rubin reported Tuesday. That would make it the biggest opener of 2024, surpassing the $82.5 million put up by "Dune: Part Two." Meanwhile, Sony's "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" is estimated to add another $28 million to the $56.5 million it earned in its debut weekend. Rubin has more here. |
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- Season five of Prime Video's hit series "The Boys" will be its last. (The Wrap)
- "From the very beginning, I wanted to wrap it out around season five," showrunner Eric Kripke told Demetrius Patterson. (THR)
- "Stop playing 'Baby Reindeer' games": Matt Belloni writes Netflix "is pushing the stalker drama for Emmys as a 'true story' even as key facts have fallen apart and its subject has sued for defamation." (Puck)
- Kevin Spacey broke down as Piers Morgan asked him about his current financial status: "My house is being sold at auction." (Mediaite)
- CBS renewed its new late-night program "After Midnight" with Taylor Tomlinson for a second season. (Deadline)
- Paul Giamatti joined "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" series on Paramount+. (THR)
- Sylvester Stallone's memoir "The Steps" sold to William Morrow. It is slated for a 2025 publication. (Deadline)
- Annecy Animation Festival attendees were treated to a first look at Andy Serkis' animated "Lord Of The Rings" film. (THR)
- Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were also announced as executive producers on the "LOTR" project. (The Wrap)
- Zack Snyder will release director's cuts for his two "Rebel Moon" movies via Netflix on Aug. 2. (The Wrap)
- The "Star Wars" audience is older and more male than Marvel's, per data from Parrot Analytics provided to Christofer Hamilton. (The Wrap)
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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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