Al Jazeera says its correspondent has been released, Sports Illustrated gets a fresh start under a new publisher, C.J. rice is exonerated after Jake Tapper's cover story for The Atlantic, Candace Owens traffics in more conspiracies, Donald Trump and right-wing media lash out at the press for reporting on "bloodbath" comments, Apple and Alphabet reportedly chat about infusing iPhones with Gemini, "Dune" crosses the $500 milestone, and so much more. But first, the A1.

Elon's Reality Escape 

CNN Photo Illustration/Don Lemon/YouTube

Elon Musk is showing the world how radicalized he has become.

The billionaire, one of the most consequential figures to walk the Earth, spent another weekend swimming in the right-wing fever swamps of X — a bad habit that was apparent when his interview with Don Lemon was released Monday morning.

In the contentious interview, Musk equated moderating dangerous and appalling hate speech to "censorship," bashed the press for legitimate reporting, assailed DEI programs without supporting evidence, skewered advertisers who fled the X platform last year, and yet again gave credence to the racist Great Replacement theory, among other things. To those not fluent in the intricacies of right-wing media, some of what Musk said may have sounded bizarre or even foreign. But in the right-wing fever swamps, where Musk is now deeply entrenched, these are the issues that animate the masses. 

Musk's comments on the premiere episode of Lemon's new online show added to an unhinged 72-hour posting spree on X, in which the erratic businessman raged against the "woke mind virus" and said its "goal" is "the destruction of America," agreed with a user who wrote "Fake News is the Enemy of the People," said the press is "basically the [Joe] Biden cheering squad," accused the news media of "lying" about Donald Trump's "blood bath" comments, called NPR a "nice version of Pravda," alleged Google "manipulate[s] their search results with left wing bias," said the January 6 insurrection was "not a 'bloodbath' by any definition," and argued that if there is not a "red wave" in November, "America is doomed."

At this juncture, calling Musk a right-wing shitposter is no longer provocative. It's simply accurate. And his ugly behavior is even more troubling because of the fact that Musk is enormously influential, casting a large shadow across multiple industries and doing billions of dollars' worth of national security business with the U.S. government. 

In his ownership of X alone, Musk controls one of the world's most important communications platforms, spitting corrosive venom into the public discourse at a faster speed than his SpaceX rockets hurtle into orbit. In fact, as users of the platform once called Twitter know all too well, Musk's posts often find themselves to the very top of the home feed. That is because, according to reporting from Zoë Schiffer and Casey Newton, engineers were forced to build "a system designed to ensure" his posts do well on the platform he owns. 

To make matters worse, Musk appears to be growing more intolerant of other viewpoints. While elevating right-wing extremists, he simultaneously seeks to destroy trust in credible news sources. Once upon a time, Musk welcomed having a media personality like Lemon on the X platform. Not so much anymore. On Monday, after his interview with Lemon was posted online, Musk trashed the former CNN anchor, calling him in various posts a "stupid asshole" and saying he is "just a bad guy, plain and simple."

"He's not used to having to answer to anyone," Lemon said in a Q&A with People's Jason Sheeler, "especially someone like me who doesn't share his worldview, who doesn't look like him."

In effect, Musk has become self-radicalized on the very website that he was forced to purchase for $44 billion, sliding deeper into the darkest and most unsavory corners of the platform that has served to only reinforce his own worldview with an echo chamber of conspiracy theorists and ego-stoking sycophants that regularly fawn at his every move no matter how outrageous or preposterously false. All of it dished up by an algorithm designed to regurgitate it right back to him. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, Musk is hell bent on taking everyone else down there with him.

CNN Photo Illustration/Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera Journalist Freed: After 12 hours of detention, Al Jazeera said Monday that correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul has been released. The Qatari-funded network — along with press advocates such as the Committee to Protect Journalists — had sharply criticized Israel earlier in the day for having detained al-Ghoul. Al Jazeera said the correspondent was in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital when he was "dragged away by Israeli forces" and detained with other journalists. In a blistering statement, the network accused Israeli forces of beating al-Ghoul. When the reporter was released, he accused Israeli forces of destroying media equipment and subjecting other members of the press to appalling conditions. "He said the journalists were stripped of their clothes and forced to lie on their stomachs as they were blindfolded and their hands tied," Al Jazeera reported. "Israeli soldiers would open fire to scare them if there was any movement, al-Ghoul said."

► Notably, the IDF did not provide a comment on the incident. I personally checked in multiple times throughout the day but mum was the word. "Still looking into it," a spokesperson told me when I last checked in the evening.

CNN Photo Illustration/Diane Bondareff/AP

SI Avoids Shuttering: Sports Illustrated isn’t shutting down, after all. The iconic sports magazine is set to get new life under a publishing deal announced Monday by Authentic Brands Group, which owns the magazine’s intellectual property rights. The news, first reported by The NYT's Ben Mullin, caps a tumultuous several months for Sports Illustrated that resulted in widespread layoffs, an artificial intelligence scandal and the departure of senior executives. Here's my full story with Liam Reilly. 

🔎 Zooming in: The new publisher is Minute Media, a sports-focused content company that is home to several other notable brands, such as The Players' Tribune and FanSided. Minute Media said that while it will continue the print edition of the magazine, it hopes to also usher Sports Illustrated into a lucrative digital future. Chief executive Asaf Peled said the focus will be taking its legacy "into new, emerging channels enhancing visibility, commercial viability and sustainable impact, all while ensuring that the SI team is inspired to flourish in this new era of media."

CNN Photo Illustration/Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

Candace and the Conspiracies: Right-wing extremist Candace Owens continues to engage in appalling behavior. Mediaite's Isaac Schorr reported Monday that Owens recently liked a pair of anti-Semitic posts on X. The first post accused a Jewish rabbi of being "drunk on Christian blood" after he revealed on X that he had received death threats from Owens' supporters. The second read, "You’re making it too easy for people to hate Jews." Schorr reported that the Ben Shapiro-founded Daily Wire did not respond to his request for comment (can you imagine how they'd react if a reporter in the mainstream press were engaging in this behavior?). That aside, as Schorr wrote, the big picture is that the relationship between Owens and the Daily Wire has "grown increasingly untenable." More from Schorr here.

CNN Photo Illustration/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

An Apple-Alphabet Agreement?: Apple and Alphabet are "in talks to build Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence engine into the iPhone," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported Monday. Per Gurman, "The two companies are in active negotiations to let Apple license Gemini, Google's set of generative AI models, to power some new features coming to the iPhone software this year." That said, it's not entirely clear whether the iPhone-maker will ultimately go with Gemini. Gurman reported the company has also held talks with OpenAI. Gurman has more here.

CNN Photo Illustration/Warner Bros. Pictures

First in Reliable | The Spice Flows: After another impressive weekend at the box office, "Dune: Part Two" has passed a major milestone. The Denis Villeneuve sci-fi epic passed the $500 million milestone at the global box office on Monday, I'm told. That's a rare feat in the post-pandemic world and puts the Legendary/Warner Bros. Pictures sequel far ahead of the first installment, which was released during those strange Covid times.