Jeff Bezos breaks his silence on the turmoil at The Washington Post, The Bulwark poaches Sam Stein, ABC News says it will simulcast the CNN debate, shares in Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global hit new lows, Dr. Anthony Fauci blames Laura Ingraham for Donald Trump's hydroxychloroquine obsession, the FTC refers a TikTok complaint to the Justice Department, Elon Musk tries to woo advertisers at Cannes Lions, "House of the Dragon" gives Max its biggest day ever, Justin Timberlake gets arrested for DWI, and so much more. But first, the A1. |
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| CNN Photo Illustration/Bill Pugliano/Getty Images |
Donald Trump can't quit Fox News.
The Republican presidential candidate may lash out in strong terms at the right-wing channel for supposedly not being sufficiently loyal to him, but a fresh analysis of the content posted on his Truth Social page shows that he promotes the outlet more than any other.
In the month of May, Trump posted 56 videos from Fox News, dwarfing the volume of content he posted from any other outlet, according to the analysis conducted by The Righting, a website that monitors right-wing media. In addition to the 56 video clips, Trump posted an additional six articles linking to FoxNews.com, for a total of 62 pieces of content from the Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch-controlled media organization, according to the analysis, which was provided first to Reliable Sources.
"This analysis shows that despite Mr. Trump's hot and cold relationship with the Fox News Channel, it was clearly his number one choice in May to shower his followers with links to content that he obviously felt were aligned with his messages," said Howard Polskin, president and founder of The Righting.
Comparatively, Trump posted 26 video clips from the upstart internet streamer Right Side Broadcasting Network, 11 videos from the pro-Trump cable channel Newsmax, and 5 from the far-right Real America's Voice. He posted eight links to Real America's Voice, only three to Breitbart, and one to the New York Post. Polskin noted that his analysis indicated Trump has a "preference for fringe outlets like RSBN and Real America's Voice over more established outlets like the Washington Examiner and the Washington Times."
The Righting analysis also found that, in addition to the content Trump posts from right-wing sources, he also links to mainstream news organizations when it fits his agenda. In May, he linked to the Associated Press, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, POLITICO, NBC News, The New Yorker, and Reuters.
"While Trump consistently disparages mainstream or progressive news outlets as 'fake news,' he'll link to those sources if it shows the Biden campaign or Democrats in a poor light," Polskin said.
Indeed, Polskin's analysis pulls back the curtain on how Trump works the media. While he has publicly bashed Murdoch and Fox News, in addition to waging an unrelenting war on the press, he continues to promote their content when it fits into the narrative that he is trying to sell his supporters. The warped feedback loop is yet another way in which he exploits the media for his own ends. |
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CNN Photo Illustration/John Locher/AP |
Bezos Weighs In: After weeks of standing on the sidelines, Jeff Bezos broke his silence Tuesday on the mounting turmoil inside his newspaper as questions swirl over the integrity of publisher Will Lewis and incoming top editor Robert Winnett. "I know you've already heard this from Will, but I wanted to also weigh in directly: the journalistic standards and ethics at The Post will not change," Bezos said in an email to top newsroom leaders. The Amazon billionaire added that they had his "full commitment on maintaining the quality, ethics, and standards we all believe in." Here's my full story. 🔎 Zooming in: Notably, in his short note to newsroom leaders, Bezos did not explicitly state his support for Lewis, who has alienated, enraged, and demoralized the newsroom he is ostensibly supposed to lead. Sure, the memo signaled some support. But it is striking Bezos only tepidly did so. Instead, he made the decision — probably fairly carefully — not to do that in this moment. As one Postie noted to me, Bezos appeared to be "deliberately leaving it open-ended" and "purposefully ambiguous" to give him plenty of wiggle room should he move to throw his controversy-plagued publisher overboard. |
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First in Reliable | Scooping Stein: The Bulwark has poached veteran journalist Sam Stein from POLITICO, where he has served as deputy managing editor of politics. Stein, who previously also held top roles at The Daily Beast and HuffPost, will join the outlet as its managing editor, starting on July 1. The Bulwark was founded in 2019 as an unabashed Never Trump outlet, but has more recently attempted to broaden its appeal as a center-right news organization. "Sam has successfully built out several newsroom operations, and we look forward to him helping take The Bulwark to the next level as we continue our rapid growth," Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell said in a statement provided to me. Stein praised The Bulwark, saying "there may not be a more dynamic place in the political ecosystem right now" and that he is "beyond excited" to join the team. |
First in Reliable | Eye on Ethics: New York University wants to reward journalists who carry out their jobs ethically. The university's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute is establishing the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism, with judges including Dean Baquet, Sewell Chan, Gina Chua, Lynn Novick, and others. The award will "celebrate acts of journalism that meet the highest ethical standards in the face of pressure or incentives to do otherwise." Stephen J. Adler, director of the institute, said that it is "grounded in the belief that a greater focus on ethics ... can help journalists become more effective and more trustworthy, and therefore more valuable to their audiences and to the broader community." |
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- ABC News said it will simulcast next week's CNN presidential debate, with special coverage led by David Muir. (Deadline)
- Jake Tapper, Erik Wemple, Brian Stelter, Ta-Nehisi Coates and others attended a Georgetown University panel inspired by David Carr. "We are fighting for the legitimacy, fighting for facts and truth, every day we step up to the plate," Tapper said, adding that, "We are fighting for the soul of journalism." (Threads)
- Variety co-Editor-In-Chief Ramin Setoodeh released his new book, "Apprentice in Wonderland." Donald Trump sat for six interviews with Setoodeh for the book. (Variety)
- Forbes "sent a letter to the CEO of A.I. search startup Perplexity accusing the company of stealing text and images in a 'willful infringement' of Forbes' copyright rights," Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
- The Daily Mail will premiere a dozen YouTube shows in 2024, Sara Guaglione reports. (Digiday)
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- Shares in Warner Bros. Discovery closed just under $7 on Tuesday, marking a new low for the company. The stock has declined nearly 14% over the last month.
- Shares in Paramount Global also sunk to a new low, closing at just $9.61 a share. The stock has declined 20% in the last month.
- Meanwhile, the linear business continues to decline: "May marked record highs for streaming's share of TV usage, as the category accounted for 38.8% of TV," Nielsen said in its May 2024 The Gauge report. (Nielsen)
- And the ratings for the NBA Finals hit its lowest viewership in three years, averaging 11.3 million people each game. (Forbes)
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- Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced Robert Gibbs as its chief communications and public affairs officer. (CNN)
- Venu filled out its founding leadership team, naming Gautam Ranji as chief financial officer; Brian Borkowski as chief marketing officer; Tim Connolly as chief business officer. (Deadline)
- Lionsgate promoted Chase Brisbin to executive vice president of international SVOD sales and head of global channels. (The Wrap)
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Fauci Blames Fox: Where did Donald Trump pick up his obsession with hydroxychloroquine? Dr. Anthony Fauci laid the blame at the feet of Fox News host Laura Ingraham. During an interview Tuesday with MSNBC's Ari Melber, Fauci said Trump "wanted so badly" for Covid-19 to "go away the way influenza goes away" and "was hoping for some magical solution." Fauci continued, "And then when that didn't work, then we had to have these miracle cures like hydroxychloroquine, which he got from Laura Ingraham on Fox News." Ingraham, of course, was a big proponent of the anti-malarial drug, despite no real evidence it was an effective treatment against the virus. While not surprising, it's yet another example of how Trump was influenced by Fox News, picking up junk pedaled by cable propagandists and promoting it from the White House. Mediaite's Charlie Nash has more here. |
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- First in Reliable | Smartmatic subpoenaed Chris Stirewalt in its lawsuit against Fox News, Marshall Cohen reports. He provided critical testimony in the Dominion Voting Systems case about the process of calling the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
- Fox News has gone "to war" with the White House over so-called "cheap-fake" videos, Justin Baragona reports. As Baragona noted, Harris Faulkner also bizarrely claimed CNN could be in "litigious territory" for its coverage of the clips. (Daily Beast)
- Switching gears: YouTube's algorithm tends to drive users toward right-leaning and Christian videos, per a new study. (NBC News)
- Not good! "The leading A.I. chatbots are regurgitating Russian misinformation," Ina Fried reports, citing a NewsGuard report. (Axios)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Matt Cardy/Getty Images |
More Trouble for TikTok: The legal bills are piling up over at TikTok. The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday said that it had referred a complaint about the ByteDance-owned app to the Justice Department after uncovering evidence it may have violated a federal law prohibiting "unfair and deceptive" practices. The FTC said that "although the Commission does not typically make public the fact that it has referred a complaint, we have determined that doing so here is in the public interest and that a proceeding is in the public interest." A TikTok spokesperson said it has cooperated with the FTC and that it was "disappointed" with its decision, adding that the company disagrees with the allegations. CNBC's Jennifer Elias has more here. |
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- Elon Musk is looking to woo advertisers back to X at this year's Cannes Lions Festival, Daniel Thomas and Hannah Murphy report. (FT)
- That's because X's band of small advertisers isn't enough to turn its ailing advertising business around, as Erin Woo reports. (The Info)
- Meanwhile, documents submitted by X to state regulators shed some light on Musk's plans to turn the platform into an everything app, with a Venmo-like tool, Aisha Counts and Kurt Wagner report. (Bloomberg)
- Going blind? Apple has suspended work "on its next high-end Vision headset" as its Vision Pro fails to catch on in a real way, Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu report, adding that the Tim Cook-led company is still working on releasing a cheaper model in 2025. (The Info)
- As promised, Meta released its Threads API, allowing developers to build "unique integrations." (The Verge)
- ByteDance quietly launched Whee, its Instagram competitor — but it is not available in the U.S. yet. (Tech Times)
- Snap rolled out generative A.I. tools that provide users with more realistic special effects. (Reuters)
- Is it better to search Reddit or Google? Ann-Marie Alcántara tried relying solely on the former for a week, reporting that the rustles were not "clear-cut." (WSJ)
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CNN Photo Illustration/HBO |
Max Rides the Dragons: The dragons are still a big draw! The season two premiere of "House of the Dragon" drew 7.8 million viewers across all platforms on Sunday night, delivering Max its biggest day globally since its launch. Additionally, HBO said that the interest for the show boosted streaming numbers for season one considerably. That said, the debut episode of the second season of the "Game of Thrones" prequel did not match season one's record-setting 10 million viewers, the largest audience HBO has amassed for a series opener in its history. The Wrap's Loree Seitz has more here. ► As HBO celebrated the numbers, it announced production had commenced on another series set to take viewers to Westeros. Filming for "A Night of the Seven Kingdoms," which takes place about a century before the events of "Game of Thrones," started in Ireland. Variety's Adam Vary has more. |
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- Pixar's "Inside Out 2" pulled in $22.2 million on Monday, the second-best Monday performance by a Pixar film. (Deadline)
- Pat Sajak's final episode as host of "Wheel of Fortune" yielded 11 million viewers, the show's biggest audience in four years. (The Wrap)
- Justin Timberlake was arrested for DWI in Sag Harbor after allegedly failing to stop at a stop sign and stay in his lane. Timberlake told police he "had one martini." (CNN)
- Alex Murdaugh's son, Buster, filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent), and Gannett, claiming he was falsely accused of murder in documentaries. CNN aired a version of one of the documentaries. The outlets did not comment. (WaPo)
- Netflix unveiled plans for two permanent experience venues — one in Pennsylvania and another in Dallas — that will open in 2025. (Variety)
- Will Smith will star in Sony's sci-fi thriller "Resistor." (Deadline)
- Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are teaming up again on another crime thriller. (Deadline)
- Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane will star in Hulu's comedy series "Mid-Century Modern," from Ryan Murphy and the creators of "Will & Grace." (Variety)
- Chris Rock, Terry Crews, and Tichina Arnold will reprise their "Everybody Hates Chris" roles in a new half-hour animated series for Comedy Central called "Everybody Still Hates Chris." (The Wrap)
- Apple TV released the official trailer for "Lady in the Lake." (YouTube)
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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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