What a media news day! A federal judge tosses out Elon Musk's X lawsuit and blasts the billionaire's supposed commitment to free speech, Florida passes legislation banning minors under the age of 14 from using social media, federal authorities raid the homes belonging to Sean "Diddy" Combs, and so much more. But first, the A1.

Cesar's Choice

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Cesar Conde has a decision to make — and it's not an especially difficult one.

The NBCUniversal News Group chair is facing a torrent of backlash from his own staff after greenlighting the hire of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid network contributor. 

Over the last 24 hours, the most prominent and recognizable NBC News and MSNBC personalities have voiced strong displeasure with the company's decision to welcome McDaniel to "the team." And they're not doing it via anonymous comments to the press. They're doing it on the record on NBCU's own air. Chuck Todd broke the dam on Sunday's "Meet the Press" with a set of candid comments about the hiring, and Rachel Maddow capped the flood of backlash Monday night with a blistering 30-minute monologue eviscerating the network's leadership for the "inexplicable" move.

Suffice to say, NBCU News Group is in unprecedented territory. Never has a network's C-suite ever been so thoroughly flogged by its most high-profile stars in such no holds barred fashion. Saying that Conde simply has a crisis on his hands would be a contender for understatement of the year. It's a five-alarm fire at NBCU News Group, and one of Conde's own making. 

While NBC News president Rebecca Blumenstein and senior vice president of politics Carrie Budoff Brown were most directly responsible for McDaniel's hiring, a decision that MSNBC boss Rashida Jones did not object to it at the time, the buck ultimately stops with Conde, who hold the real power at the Peacock Network. McDaniel's hiring could not have happened without Conde's blessing.

It does not take a brilliant political mind with prescient foresight to understand that hiring McDaniel would ignite a firestorm of outrage — from both within 30 Rock and outside it. Conde, someone who ostensibly supports American democracy, should have rejected McDaniel's hiring on the grounds that NBCU News Group could not put someone on its payroll who tried to subvert the 2020 vote.

As so many of NBCU's staffers have underscored, the objection to McDaniel is not that she is a Republican. It's not even that she is a Donald Trump-supporting Republican. It's that she was an active participant in the plot to overthrow the last presidential election. That is not to even mention McDaniel's years of demonizing the press, smearing the journalists who work at NBC News and MSNBC as she sought to destroy the credibility of the organization that she ran to after being chased out of the RNC.

The notion put forward by NBC that it needed to hire McDaniel to bring its viewers "an insider’s perspective on national politics and the future of the Republican Party" is absurd. If that's the case, the network should move to hire free agents like Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens. They too have their hands on the pulse of the Republican Party. In fact, they represent much more of where the GOP stands today than McDaniel. So, using NBC's logic, why not hire them? (Spoiler: News organizations rightfully have established basic standards for paid contributors. Asking that your employees have a commitment to democracy, to the truth, and to basic decency is not a big ask.)

But even if Conde has no allegiance to basic democratic principles, which this hire calls into question, given that he is known to be a political player who cares deeply about his own image in the press, he should have been wise enough to foresee that hiring McDaniel would be an ill-conceived move. How this did not occur to Conde is unfathomable and shows a tremendous lack of judgment. 

Even more bizarre is Conde's management, or lack thereof, since the controversy erupted. It was clear early on that his employees at NBC News and MSNBC did not support McDaniel's hiring. If that was not evident on Friday, it was clear as day on Sunday after "Meet the Press." The network's employees were not only flabbergasted and demoralized by the move, but absolutely enraged by it.

At that point, the writing should have been on the wall for Conde — as it was for every other media executive that I have spoken with over the last 24 hours. It is evident that McDaniel has no real future as an NBC analyst and the decision to bring her on as a contributor will have to be reversed. After all, which NBC or MSNBC program is going to invite her on after all of this?

The only real question for Conde after the Sunday morning scolding should have been how he chose to back out of the deal in the least painful way possible. To be fully honest, I very much expected a Sunday evening announcement from NBC, one that would have earned praise from the company's staff and quickly been swept away by the rush of Trump news Monday morning.

But no such announcement came.

Instead, Conde has allowed the mess to spiral absolutely out of control. MSNBC's top stars hammered the network's leadership throughout the day Monday over the hire. NBC News' Guild blasted Conde, saying in a statement that under him the company had quietly laid off employees over the last month and instead chosen to "prioritize an election deliver over its reporters." The already severe crisis was allowed to blossom into one of the worst corporate public relations catastrophes in recent memory.

All the while, Conde has remained silent. I asked his spokesperson, Stephen Labaton, on Monday whether the NBCU News Group boss had any comment on the situation. Does he have any regret? I didn't get an on-the-record response. Suffice to say, however, that what Conde does moving forward will say a lot about his character and commitment to democratic values. It will also say a lot about the NBCU News Group and what type of organization it is.

In her biting monologue on Monday night, however, Maddow did offer Conde a way out of this mess.

"Mistakes will be made," Maddow said. "But our resilience as a democracy is going to be recognizing when decisions are bad ones and reversing those bad decisions. Hearing legitimate criticism, responding to it, and correcting course. Not digging in. Not blaming others. Take a minute. Acknowledge that maybe it wasn't the right call."

"It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge when you are wrong," Maddow added. "It is a sign of strength. And our country needs us to be strong now."

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CNN Photo Illustration/Philadelphia Inquirer

Praise in Philly: Jake Tapper's cover story for The Atlantic, which ultimately led to CJ Rice being freed from prison last week, earned some much-deserved attention from the local Philadelphia newspapers. Tapper was featured on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer for his 2022 piece that detailed his father's quest to free Rice and the injustice Rice faced. Tapper told me Monday that "covering CJ Rice and bringing attention to the injustice of his conviction has been among the most important events of my life and certainly of my journalistic career." Tapper's father will be on "CBS Mornings" Tuesday. "HUGE props to CBS News for covering this story starting with having me and my dad on to discuss my Atlanta cover in October 2022," Tapper added to me. "Not a lot of news organizations would do that!"

CNN Photo Illustration/Jacquelyn Martin/AP

X'ing Out the Suit: A federal judge on Monday excoriated Elon Musk as an anti-free speech activist while tossing out a lawsuit filed by X against the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Judge Charles Breyer wrote in his decision that Musk's motivations for filing a lawsuit against the watchdog group were "unabashedly and vociferously about one thing." That one thing, according to Breyer, was "about punishing the Defendants for their speech." X had slapped CCDH with a lawsuit after the group published a report that found hate speech and surged on the platform since Musk's takeover. But Breyer wrote that the group's report "unquestionably constitutes" free speech. X said in a statement it "disagrees" with the court. CCDH, meanwhile, said that "the world's richest man tried to use his money to silence our research on X" and "it didn’t work." CNN's Brian Fung has more. 

CNN Photo Illustration/Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Meta Remains Mute: Instagram and Threads have begun limiting "political" content in the feeds of its billions of users by default. But the platforms, led by Meta executive Adam Mosseri, have yet to define exactly what "political" content is. We asked Meta last month when it announced plans to tamp down on the topic how it defines "political," but the company left that question largely unanswered then — and weeks later, it is still unclear. While Meta has stated broadly that the label encompasses posts related to "governments, elections, and social topics," a lot of content can be categorized under that umbrella. For example, does climate change fall under the category? Women's rights issues? LGBTQ freedoms? If Meta is going to shadow-ban such content, shouldn't it at least inform users what qualifies under that banner?

CNN Photo Illustration/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Diddy in the Dumps: The Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with local police, raided homes belonging to music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs on Monday. DHS did not specify what the raids were about, but a law enforcement source told CNN it is related to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation. Last year, Combs settled a suit brought by his former girlfriend, singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura, who alleged she was raped and subjected to years of repeated physical and other abuses by Combs. At least three other lawsuits have also been filed against Diddy alleging sexual assault. Diddy, who has denied the allegations, did not comment on the federal raids. CNN's Holmes Lybrand and Josh Campbell have more here.

The Golden Get: Don't change that dial! The Golden Globes on Monday announced that it had struck a deal for its annual awards show to air on CBS over the next five years. The deal, announced by CBS chief George Cheeks and Dick Clark Productions boss Jay Penske, also includes the American Music Awards being broadcast by CBS. It comes on the heels of CBS seeing a ratings surge for the 2024 Golden Globes. "CBS' collaboration with the Globes for this year's broadcast was a big win for both of us and established strong momentum for awards shows in 2024," Cheeks said in a statement. Deadline's Nellie Andreeva has more here.