President Biden schedules Oval Office address, Donald Trump's campaign cancels on Candace Owens, Comcast touts its NBA deal, YouTube misses on advertising revenue, a top Sinclair host calls it quits, Gateway Pundit spends $700,000 on 2020-related litigation, VDARE editor says site will be imminently "suspended," Meta employees debate Threads' anti-politics policy, Mark Zuckerberg touts open source A.I., "Deadpool & Wolverine" set for record-breaking debut, and more. But first, the A1. |
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| The Campaign Against Kamala |
CNN Photo Illustration/Fox News |
The right-wing media machine is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Kamala Harris.
As she held a rally Tuesday for the first time as the likely Democratic presidential nominee, Fox News, talk radio, and the constellation of digital news websites and online personalities were busy blitzing her with a wide array of attacks, aiming to quickly villainize her with only 100-some days to go before Election Day.
Over the last 48 hours, Harris has been derided as a radical California liberal; she has been smeared as a "DEI" candidate; she has been denigrated as a "mistress" for her previous relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, even though it occurred after Brown was separated from his wife and was not a secret; she has been ridiculed for her laugh and described as unlikeable; she has been characterized as having been too tough on crime as a prosecutor, but also pro-illegal immigration; she has had her candidacy labeled a "coup"; and she has been subjected to commentators mocking even the pronunciation of her name, among other things. Suffice to say, it has been a lot.
If elected, Harris would not only be the first woman president, but she is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. Her heritage and status as a powerful woman on the cusp of winning the Oval Office has, quite plainly, spurred the attacks drenched in racist and sexist vitriol. "Suddenly she's the next messiah?" Fox News host Jesse Watters said Tuesday night as he railed against Harris. "The only reason she is in the White House is because of the DEI deal Biden cut with Bernie [Sanders] to seal the nomination." The salvo is a page out of the right's playbook targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, a bogeyman it has used to blame for everything from airline safety issues to the Baltimore bridge collapse.
In most of corporate America, even calling someone a "DEI" candidate would be grounds for stiff disciplinary action, if not outright dismissal. But attributing the success of Harris to her race and sex has become standard fare among Donald Trump's media allies who conveniently ignore her wealth of experience in both law and government. (It is somewhat ironic, given that J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate, actually has a rather thin resume.) To a degree, the onslaught of attacks Harris has been subjected to recalls the ugly treatment that Barack Obama received from right-wing media more than a decade ago as he campaigned for president and served in office. Most prominently, Obama was targeted with the false and reprehensible conspiracy theory suggesting he was an illegitimate president because he supposedly wasn't born in America, a movement that Trump himself endlessly fanned the flames of. The attacks on Harris are, without question, in the same vein. While right-wing media figures have for years attacked and mocked Harris as the administration's "border czar" and a "socialist," the blitzkrieg of attacks now being directed toward the vice president signal how flummoxed MAGA Media is over how to tackle her candidacy. Until Sunday, the focus of right-wing media had been on Joe Biden, which waged an unrelenting campaign on the president, portraying him as a senile, mentally incapacitated man under the control of nefarious "globalist" forces. Now, with the sudden and last-minute switcheroo by the Democratic Party, Trump and his media allies are left searching for the most effective narrative to present to the public to damage Harris' chances at denying them the White House. Those efforts will, surely, increase as new polling emerges showing Harris could seriously threaten Trump's odds of winning in November. Which narrative Trump's media allies settle on remains to be seen. It may ultimately prove too difficult to identify a singular line of attack on Harris, in which case several charges could be tossed into a stew that blends together. That's how right-wing media confronted Obama in 2008. But, notably, it did not prove to be a successful strategy. And for some Republicans, the race-based attacks on Harris have already crossed the line. "Of course it's not appropriate, for heaven's sakes. What, are they just going to say if you're not a white male, it's a DEI candidate?" moderate Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. "I'm sorry. No." |
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- "Harris's record and character will be distorted and disparaged by a flood of disinformation and the kind of ugly prejudice we're already hearing from MAGA mouthpieces," Hillary Clinton wrote for The NYT. (NYT)
- White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre framed President Joe Biden's decision to not run for re-election as a heroic sacrifice while appearing on "The View." (Mediaite)
- Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings donated $7 million to a super PAC supporting Harris's presidential bid, his biggest-ever in support of a single candidate, Julia Black reported. (The Info)
- "Kamala Harris' Hollywood Love Story": Matthew Frank spoke to Sherry Lansing, Barry Diller, Damon Lindelof and more about how Harris "won over an industry early on." (The Ankler)
- "Hollywood has been reignited in full force and is ready to back the party's new presumptive nominee," Elizabeth Wagmeister reported. (CNN)
- Viewership of the HBO hit comedy "Veep" surged 353% on Max following Biden's 2024 exit and endorsement of Harris. (Deadline)
- Coming Soon: President Joe Biden will deliver an Oval Office address Wednesday at 8pm about his decision to exit the 2024 race. (CNN)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images |
Canceling Candace: Cancel culture has struck again! Right-wing extremist Candace Owens will no longer take part in a Donald Trump campaign event this week, Jewish Insider's Matthew Kassel reported Tuesday night. The reversal came after Owens' scheduled appearance with Donald Trump Jr. in Tennessee generated a storm of backlash. Owens, of course, has a history of trafficking in antisemitic tropes, to such an extent that The Daily Wire earlier this year chose to end its relationship with her. Kassel has more. 🔎 Zooming in: Despite her long history of false, conspiratorial, and hateful rhetoric, Owens has still managed to stay in good graces with a number of power players in conservative politics, as evidenced by the fact that the Trump campaign had planned to hold an event with her. And that speaks volumes about the state of affairs on the right these days. |
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| Chris Marion/NBAE/Getty Images |
David vs Goliath Amazon: The fight that Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav is bringing to the NBA is raising larger questions about the future of sports rights and Big Tech. All signs suggest that the NBA is likely to stick with a deal it struck with Amazon and force WBD to bring litigation against the league in its attempt to match the e-commerce giant's bid. That led to a worthwhile discussion Tuesday morning on "Squawk on the Street," with David Faber asking, "Is every sports rights deal going to ultimately end up with Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, or even Netflix at some point?" Jim Cramer then wondered, "Do these companies own the world?" While Big Tech might not own everything in the world quite yet, if Amazon can pocket the NBA games, it certainly suggests that plenty more sports rights will likely find their way into Silicon Valley's camp. And that will have ramifications for the industry at large. ► Comcast boss Mike Cavanagh said on the company's earnings call Tuesday that they have a tentative 11-year deal with the NBA: "Much like our long standing relationships with the NFL and the Olympics, we look forward to putting the weight of our entire company behind our partnership with the NBA for decades to come." |
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- Peacock's second-quarter revenue grew while the company narrowed on-year losses, though paying subscribers fell by 500,000. (THR)
- Comcast expressed confidence that the 2024 Paris Olympics will help Peacock's standing in the streaming wars. (Bloomberg)
- Google's stock fell about 2% in after-hours trading after the company beat on its Q2 earnings report. (MarketWatch)
- One of the causes for concern among The Street: YouTube missed on advertising revenue, with $8.66 billion vs the $8.93 billion analysts expected. (CNBC)
- Shares in Spotify soared, closing up nearly 12%, after posting a monster earnings report, with record profits and strong growth. (Bloomberg)
- TelevisaUnivision announced its streaming business is on course for profitability in 2024. (THR)
- Ike Perlmutter sold his entire stake in Disney after waging his proxy fight. (WSJ)
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| The BBC will axe 500 additional staffers by March 2026 following a financially existential annual report. ( Deadline)
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- Netflix tapped Epic Games' Alain Tascan as its games president. (The Wrap)
- The NYT named Melissa Hoppert the next editor of Express. (NYT)
- Bloomberg News hired Max Harlow as a data reporter. (TBN)
- Morning Brew hired Caroline Catherman to cover health care and Paige McGlauflin as a "HR Brew" newsletter reporter. (TBN/TBN)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Sinclair |
Signing Off from Sinclair: One of Sinclair's top anchors has called it quits "over concerns about the accuracy and right-wing bias of the content he was required to present on air," Popular Info's Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the duo, anchor Eugene Ramirez, who hosted Sinclair's national evening newscast, believed political bias was present in some of the stories the outlet compelled him to cover. Ramirez effectively confirmed the Popular Info story, writing on social media that he does not "contest any of the claims made" and that his "integrity is not for sale." Read the full story here. |
The Cost of Election Lies: The far-right conspiracy site Gateway Pundit has spent roughly $700,000 so far defending itself from 2020 election-related defamation lawsuits, according to a new filing in its bankruptcy case uncovered by my colleague Marshall Cohen. The company sought bankruptcy protections after being sued by two Georgia election workers and a former Dominion Voting Systems executive, who were falsely accused by Gateway Pundit and others of rigging the 2020 election. |
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- VDARE editor Peter Brimelow announced in a video posted to X that he has resigned and that "in a couple days" the racist website will be suspended. "VDARE has been murdered by the New York Attorney General Leticia James," Brimelow said in the video, adding the website has been "battered to death" by litigation. (Newsweek)
- Charlamagne Tha God told Jake Tapper that he believed the press was "lying to themselves" last week by not directly addressing Donald Trump's role in inflaming the country's political rhetoric: "You can't even begin to have conversations about dangerous rhetoric that leads to political violence without talking about Trump." (Deadline)
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| CNN Photo Illustration/Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters |
Losing the Thread: It seems not everyone at Meta is happy with the company's decision to curtain "political" news on Threads. After Joe Biden exited the 2024 race, staffers complained in an internal forum that the news was nowhere to be found on the text-based platform's "For You" feed, The Info's Kalley Huang and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan reported. "It feels broken that a topic overwhelming my following feed doesn't show up at all in [For You]," Dalton Smith, the head of product at Threads, candidly wrote in a post. Read the full report here. 🔎 Zooming in: A spokesperson for Meta responded to The Info by reiterating the company's anti-politics position. Of course, it is worth noting that many months after adopting this significant policy, Meta has repeatedly declined to offer answers to basic questions about how they are implementing it. |
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- Mark Zuckerberg in an open letter spoke in favor of open source A.I., containing that it will permit developers to understand how models work and build new programs. (NYT)
- Meanwhile, Meta announced a new LLM, Llama 3.1 405B, which it says can rival those of Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. (Axios)
- A foldable iPhone? It seems Apple is seriously pursuing the idea, Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu report. (The Info)
- Rejected! Alphabet's dreams of owning Wiz won't become reality after the Israeli startup ended talks over the proposed $23 billion deal. (CNN)
- The Senate will examine legislation this week that aims to protect kids from dangerous content online. (AP)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Marvel Studios |
'Deadpool' Set to Deliver: The summer box office is poised to remain red hot this weekend. Marvel's "Deadpool & Wolverine" is on track to net $160-$170 million at the domestic box office, meaning it could very well surpass the opening weekend performance of last year's smash hit, "Barbie." Even if it falls short of the $162 million "Barbie" commanded on opening weekend, the blockbuster is certain to become the biggest R-rated movie debut of all time. And it looks to get a good start at the overseas box office, with estimates it could earn as much as $190 million. Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro and Nancy Tartaglione have more here. ► The review embargo has lifted – and they're not as great as I expected? The film is currently boasting an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with 103 reviews in. It's a solid score, but given the hype, lower than I had anticipated. ► Ryan Reynolds joked to Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show" that there will be no "Deadpool 4," joking his "wife and children will divorce me." |
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- Warner Bros. Pictures unveiled the trailer for Todd Phillips' much-anticipated "Joker: Folie À Deux," starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. (YouTube)
- Celine Dion is set to mark her return at the Olympics Opening Ceremony, Elsa Keslassy reports. (Variety)
- The WNBA's All-Star Game broke the league's previous ratings record, pulling in 3.44 million viewers on ABC. (The Athletic)
- Tickets for Billy Joel's final Madison Square Garden show are selling for sky-high prices, with some going for more than $10,000. (Variety)
- Jon Voight told Stephen Rodrick that he "didn't see" an anti-Donald Trump vibe in "Megalopolis," even though Rodrick said that there were plenty. (Variety)
- "What's Ailing 'Euphoria'?" Kim Masters takes a look at "tragedy and trauma inside" the buzzy HBO show. (THR)
- Jon Hamm is in talks to star in and executive produce the scripted podcast series "Dungeon Masters." (Deadline)
- The sixth and final season of FX's "What We Do In The Shadows" will premiere on Oct. 21. (Deadline)
- Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" has been No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 for the third consecutive week. (Billboard)
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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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