Brian Stelter here. Scroll down for the latest on AMC, Harper's Bazaar, OAN, Google, "Cops," and much more...
The riot lie
Watch Fox News for a few hours, and you might think rioters are still prowling America's biggest cities, smashing windows and stealing handbags. You might think Minneapolis is still burning. You might think the unrest is getting worse.
In the "Fox & Friends" and "Hannity" alternative universe, the rioting is still a present-tense threat and could restart at any time. This is contradicted by every news report from every other outlet. The story now is about peaceful, powerful, sustained protest all across the country. But "riot porn" video is irresistible to Fox's producers and hosts, even though the video is out of date now.
I've been noticing this for several days now. Sometimes the video has a little label in the corner with the date, like "May 28" for fires in Minneapolis, but not always. And if you think the label is sufficient, you're kidding yourself. The video is often accompanied by talk of "unrest," violence and inner-city chaos. One of the banners on Sean Hannity's show Tuesday night said "GROWING LAWLESSNESS IN MAJOR CITIES." His show, and others, have been blurring the unrest seen in the wake of George Floyd's death with other, generalized types of crime. Statements like "we have to restore law and order" have implied that law and order has not been restored.
Look, I live in Manhattan and I hated what happened in this city on May 31 and June 1. The looting and mayhem was appalling. But it was more than a week ago. The graffiti has been scrubbed off the bodega on my block. The broken windows have been cleaned up. And today I noticed the city's garbage can -- taken away last week because vandals were lighting fires in them -- back on my building's corner today. I took it as a small but telling sign that things are getting back to normal. It is grossly misleading to show old video of looters on a loop while omitting what's going on today.
These are editorial choices
Brian Kilmeade kind of gave up the game on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning. "I thought when George Floyd was killed, we were going to be talking about racial equality in this country and George Floyd's life," he said. "We could not get to that because our first four stories were all about the massive destruction on the biggest cities." The control room cued up video of Minneapolis chaos from May 29, a week and a half ago. Kilmeade said "now people are looking around and saying 'What is the message again?'"
Well, the message from the video was that Minneapolis is in shambles. The message from the on-screen banner was about "THE THREAT OF ANTIFA." Other networks have found plenty of time to talk about racial equality and Floyd's life, so Kilmeade should look inward...
Trump perpetuates the lie
On Tuesday morning the president retweeted a three-day-old post from a right-wing columnist in Europe who said Minneapolis is "looking like the aftermath of a war." Again, notice the use of present-tense. The tweet was old and the video was even older -- it was a compilation of ugly scenes from the end of May.
Folks who live in these cities know the truth about the swift recovery from the sickening but short-lived riots. Do Fox viewers in rural areas know the truth?
All three of Fox's prime time shows delighted in an audio tape of Chicago aldermen arguing with the mayor about the May 31-June 1 violence. The conference call took place on Sunday, June 1. WTTW, the PBS affiliate in Chicago, obtained the tape and published it last Friday. Yet on Tuesday night Fox treated it like it was brand new.
The riot lie is related to this next item...
The "Antifa fantasy"
That's what Anne Helen Petersen calls it in her must-read story for BuzzFeed News. She explores how rumors about "roving bands of Antifa have followed small protests all over the United States." It's nonsense, of course, nonsense fueled by Facebook posts and fringe websites, but the rumors give militias something to guard against. As Petersen writes, "it doesn't matter if antifa was never coming in the first place. They didn't come, and that's evidence of victory."
>> The reality: "NPR has reviewed court documents of 51 individuals facing federal charges in connection with the unrest. As of Tuesday morning, none is alleged to have links to the antifa movement..."
>> Historian Mark Bray, who has studied the leftist groups, made this point on CNN the other day: "You can see that when these groups in major cities mobilize, they don't get more than a couple hundred people. And they're more active in some regions than others..."
>> In the past two weeks, Fox News programs have mentioned Antifa more than 325 times, per TVEyes. Fox Business: 173+ times. Antifa has come up 67+ times on CNN and 88+ times on MSNBC...
Trump's poisoned well of info
I'm about to pop up on Don Lemon's "CNN Tonight" with a look at where Trump's crazy Buffalo tweet came from. In short, an anonymous post on the Conservative Treehouse blog led to a kooky segment on One America News, and Trump tagged OAN in his Tuesday morning tweet. So OAN is funneling conspiratorial nonsense from the fever swamps of the web into Trump's lap, and he's sharing it with the world.
>> Republican lawmakers dodged questions about the tweet...
Garbage in, garbage out
Brian Lowry writes: Trump's search for friendly news coverage continues to produce a garbage-in, garbage-out dynamic. Namely, if you rely on outlets like OANN and random Twitter accounts that will provide the sought-after adulation, the quality of the information you put out will suffer accordingly...
Top Twitter reactions
-- CNN's Jake Tapper: "It doesn't take courage to say that the president shouldn't smear anyone, much less victims of (alleged) assault; or to condemn him for sharing lies from the fever swamps of the internet. Just a modicum of honesty and self respect. It's astounding to see folks unwilling to do so."
-- Political scientist Brendan Nyhan: "If you had a family member believed this stuff, you would try to help them. Instead, we gave them the nuclear codes."
Some OAN staffers upset
Oliver Darcy writes: While OAN publicly doubled down on its conspiracy theory, it "exasperated" multiple people within the little-watched network, WaEx's Mike Brest reported. "Several people in the newsroom spoke out about the story," one employee told Brest. Another described it as "freaking awful" conspiracy theory and said that a "majority" of staffers felt the same way...
Conservative media distances itself
Oliver Darcy writes: Even in conservative media, Trump's claim was met with resistance. The Washington Examiner and National Review dismissed it as a "conspiracy theory." Breitbart called it an "unsubstantiated claim." Fox News published a story extensively quoting journalists and pundits on both the right and left denouncing it. And the Drudge Report outright mocked it...
The same movie stuck on loop
Oliver Darcy writes: How many times have we seen this movie? The horror film in which Trump sees a conspiracy theory being peddled by one of his favorite right-wing outlets and then tweets it out without a care in the world about the potential consequences of his words? I'd honestly try to count how many times it has played out for the world to see, but I've lost count.
We've also seen the equally disturbing sequel play out far too many times. The one where Republican senators are questioned about the President's reprehensible behavior, but don't have the spine to directly address it. So we watch endless footage of these senators pretending to reporters that they simply haven't seen the tweet at the center of controversy or don't know much about it.
The final installment of the trilogy is the saddest of all. It's the one where the innocent person caught up in Trump's web of lies, and often unable to defend themselves, has their reputation smeared by the President of the United States. In this case, an elderly man who still remains in the hospital after being pushed to the ground by police. It's a sad end to a set of movies, one no one wants to watch. Unfortunately, for the country, it's stuck on loop.
George Floyd laid to rest
Quoting from Lester Holt's sign-off from Houston following Tuesday's funeral service: "The people who filled the pews today, lined the procession route or marched in protest, yet again on the nation's streets, celebrated the man -- the face that now stands for hope for our fellow citizens who for far too long have been smothered by bias, oppression, and an uneven playing field. When America refers to this moment, it will say his name: George Floyd."
New editor of Harper's Bazaar magazine
Samira Nasr is succeeding Glenda Bailey, "who stepped down from the Hearst title in January after 19 years in the role," Business of Fashion's Chantal Fernandez reports. "Originally from Montreal, Nasr is currently the executive fashion director at Vanity Fair..." and her appointment "marks the first time a black editor will lead Harper’s Bazaar, the oldest continuously published fashion magazine in the country, a milestone in an industry where there is little if any diversity in the highest levels of leadership."
Representation matters
"As the proud daughter of a Lebanese father and Trinidadian mother, my world view is expansive and is anchored in the belief that representation matters," Nasr said Tuesday. "My lens by nature is colorful and so it is important to me to begin a new chapter in Bazaar’s history by shining a light on all individuals who I believe are the inspiring voices of our time. I will work to give all voices a platform to tell stories that would never have been told."
AMC plans to be 'fully open globally in July'
"AMC Theatres, the world's largest movie theater owner, announced Tuesday that it is planning to reopen its 1,000 theaters around the world next month," Frank Pallotta writes. AMC did not provide specific dates for the reopenings...
Sony's big release in July
Chloe Melas writes: Sony announced late Tuesday that the studio will release the Selena Gomez-executive produced movie "The Broken Hearts Gallery" on July 10. Other studios are planning to release "Tenet" and "Mulan" in mid-July... But the big question remains ... will people show up and fill seats as the pandemic continues?
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Republicans have moved to call Dan Bongino, a right-wing personality and Fox News contributor known for fiery rants aimed at "owning the libs," as a witness in a police brutality hearing... (Politico)
-- Max Tani reports that Condé Nast staffers are upset about another executive's old social media posts. The executive is now apologizing... (Daily Beast)
-- NYT exec editor Dean Baquet is approaching the company's mandatory retirement age, but "media watchers and insiders now say" AG Sulzberger may be "pushing Baquet to stick around an extra year so he can broaden his search and bring in younger and more diverse candidates," Keith J. Kelly writes... (NYPost)
NYT op-ed fallout: Views from the right and left
-- The WSJ editorial board says the exits of James Bennet (and Stan Wischnowski in Philly) are "another milestone in the march of identity politics and cancel culture through our liberal institutions, and American journalism and democracy will be worse for it..."
-- In this Vox column, David Roberts says the Tom Cotton op-ed affair shows why the media must defend America's democratic values. He says "the rise of right-wing authoritarianism is the headline story of US politics, but the domestic mainstream media is prevented by its own anachronistic habits and norms from telling it..."
Tucker Carlson on the rhetorical knife's edge
"This may be a lot of things, this moment we’re living through, but it is definitely not about black lives," Tucker Carlson said Monday night. "Remember that when they come for you, and at this rate, they will." What many people heard Carlson telling his nearly 100% white audience was "black people are coming for you." Fox came out with a statement attempting to clarify: "Tucker's warning about 'when they come for you' was clearly referring to Democratic leaders and inner city politicians."
Brian Lowry writes: For what it's worth, I thought his use of "they" meant when progressive critics "come for you," anticipating criticism he would receive from groups like Media Matters. But the fact that it wasn't 100 percent clear is indicative both of how awkwardly worded the monologue was and the rhetorical knife's edge on which the host regularly skates...
"Google's putting $15 million into a 'Support Local News' ad campaign"
Poynter's Kristen Hare with word of a new ad campaign in support of local news: "'Support Local News,' from the Google News Initiative, Local Media Consortium and Local Media Association will spend $15 million in ads in local newspapers, their sites, radio, TV and online-only newsrooms in North America for the next six weeks." Multiple surveys have shown that Americans are largely unaware of the local news crisis. Details here...
Hasan Minhaj's message
His latest episode of Netflix's "Patriot Act" is about the news industry. (There's a joke about his March appearance on "Reliable Sources.") The 21-minute segment is up on YouTube. His takeaway for viewers: "We need strong local papers. We need to treat them like the essential services they are..."
Kerry's deep dive into Her Campus Media
Kerry Flynn writes: Her Campus Media had been planning for a big growth year after acquiring three of its competitors in 2019. But the pandemic radically altered its business by upending the media industry and life on college campuses. Here's how the college-centric media company has been overcoming the challenges...
GOP lawmakers urge FCC to "clearly define" Section 230
Brian Fung reports: Republican lawmakers Marco Rubio, Kelly Loeffler, Kevin Cramer and Josh Hawley urged the FCC on Tuesday to take "a fresh look" at the language in the Communications Decency Act that has protected social media companies from litigation -- even though authors of the law say it is working as intended and legal experts say it isn't clear the FCC has jurisdiction. More to come...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
By Allison Gordon:
-- A must read: "The police have been spying on black reporters and activists for years. I know because I'm one of them..." (ProPublica)
-- The 19th News is now recognizing Juneteenth as a staff holiday, per Errin Haines. Twitter is doing the same... (Twitter, CNBC)
-- The Ringer Union is out with a new statement, expressing concerns about diversity in their newsroom... (Twitter)
-- The winners of this year's White House Correspondents' Association awards include journalists from PBS, the WSJ, the NYT, CNN and ProPublica... (WHCA)
Trailer for HBO's Roy Cohn documentary
Via Deadline, "here's the first trailer for Ivy Meeropol's documentary 'Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn,' which will debut on HBO later this month. The feature film, which had its world premiere at the 2019 New York Film Festival, is another insight into the infamous attorney who prosecuted the Meeropol's grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and later argued persuasively for their execution." Details here...
Defund the "Cops"
Brian Lowry writes: Paramount Network's decision to cancel "Cops" and A&E's decision to postpone "Live PD" underscores the thorny issues raised for cable networks that rely on unscripted shows about policing in the current moment.
It's worth noting those shows have proliferated for the very reason "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted" took root after the 1988 writers strike: they're relatively cheap to produce, yielding a ratings bang for the buck...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- The demand for ABC to cast a black "Bachelor" is gaining steam as the country grapples with issues of race. "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" alums are supporting a push to make the franchise more diverse...
-- Hartley Sawyer has been fired from "The Flash" due to offensive tweets he posted before joining the show...
-- Keanu Reeves has shared why he's returning for "Matrix 4..."
"A sense of urgency"
From Glenn Whipp's new profile for the LAT: Reese Witherspoon "says people often ask her why she feels such a sense of urgency in telling so many women’s stories across an array of platforms." Her answer:
"Think about the hundreds of years, if not thousands of years of lost women's stories. How the hell can I not feel that there's a sense of urgency? Every woman I know that is working to tell stories of women or marginalized groups feels the same way. You don't know how long a window will last. You hope it lasts a long, long time, but you never know."
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
"A new level of love"
Anderson Cooper and his baby son Wyatt are on the cover of this week's People magazine. "It feels like my life has actually begun," Cooper told the mag. "And I sort of wonder, what was I waiting for? This is a new level of love. It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced, and yet it’s also very familiar and incredibly special and intimate. It’s really extraordinary." More here...
Thank you for reading...
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