Paramount directors are set to resign amid a potential deal with Skydance, data shows The Daily Wire dominates right-wing podcasting, Dan Crenshaw shreds Tucker Carlson as a "cowardly, know-nothing elitist," ByteDance's profits jump, YouTube removes a warning label on "The Joker" trailer, and more. Plus, a look at Meta executive Adam Mosseri's claim he tries to "engage" as "much as [he] can." But first, the A1.

National Public Revolt

CNN Photo Illustration/Fox News

National Public Radio is being battered by a right-wing storm.

A day after NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner penned a scathing piece for Bari Weiss' Free Press, pointedly critiquing the publicly funded outlet and portraying it as an institution that has descended into the depths of wokeism, the network finds itself under siege.

Donald Trump, Fox News, and the other organs in the right-wing universe are holding up Berliner's 3,500-word piece to demonize the outlet. And they are not stopping with a simple verbal assault, openly demanding that lawmakers strip the newsroom of its government funding. Trump on Wednesday, calling NPR a "LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE," said that "NOT ONE DOLLAR" of government funds should be sent into its coffers moving forward. 

"NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM!" Trump ranted on his Truth Social platform.

While Trump has pushed to defund the outlet before, the rage present in his post reflected the larger backlash in the right-wing media universe, where top figures have lambasted the public radio broadcaster as nothing more than a liberal propaganda mouthpiece and questioned why taxpayer dollars are funding the outlet. The NPR editor's allegations of network bias has been billed as a top story, with right-wing outlets and personalities portraying Berliner as a "whistleblower" who has shined a bright light on a sinister operation aimed at indoctrinating Americans. 

"WOKE NPR EXPOSED," declared an on-screen banner Wednesday on Fox News' most-watched program, "The Five."

"NPR PUMPED OUT AN ASSEMBLY LINE OF PROPAGANDA," blared a separate banner on Fox News host Jesse Watters' primetime program.

Berliner, however, did not go nearly that far in his piece. And he stressed in his essay that defunding the broadcaster "isn't the answer." In an email on Wednesday, Berliner also told me that he rejects the notion that NPR is a "liberal disinformation machine," as Trump stated.

"I have not seen Trump's comments, but the quote you cite is not the first time he has attacked the media," he wrote. "He has done it countless times before and will no doubt do it many times again."

While Berliner is not entirely on board with how his essay is being interpreted by Trump and his MAGA Media allies, the piece did validate a number of complaints the right has had about NPR and the press at large. Berliner ridiculed the outlet's coverage of "Russiagate," the Covid-19 lab-leak theory, and the New York Post's Hunter Biden story. And he used his complaints about how those individual stories were covered by his colleagues to draw a sweeping conclusion. NPR, he asserted, had "lost America's trust" by embracing a "progressive worldview," rejecting "viewpoint diversity," and "telling listeners how to think." 

Berliner, who cited data showing that in 2023 self-identifying conservatives consumed NPR in fewer numbers than they had in 2011, strangely failed to identify the elephant in the room: by 2023, Trump and the MAGA Media machine had spent years waging a brutal war on truth and the media organizations that espouse it. That war, unquestionably, is responsible for many Republicans losing trust in newsrooms, including NPR's. Additionally, those who identified as a Republican in 2011 may have, after the chaotic Trump presidency, changed how they identify politically. 

But when I asked Berliner why his essay neglected to mention the impact Trump's war on the media has had on the public's trust, he declined to comment.

"That's all from me now," Berliner wrote, strangely disinterested in a topic that cuts to the very heart of his essay's central thesis.

After I followed up by email, Berliner sent a link to a Gallup poll conducted last year showing trust in media had fallen, writing, "Confidence in the media has tanked, including among Democrats. It’s a good time for us to look in the mirror."

Regardless of the questionable merits of Berliner's sweeping conclusions, his piece has been nothing short of a massive gift to the right, which has made vilifying the news media its top priority in recent years. If Berliner had hoped that his essay would generate a conversation that would increase trust from conservatives, he was sorely mistaken. Ironically, it is doing the very opposite.

NPR's response, meanwhile, has been rather muted. Editor-In-Chief Edith Chapin pushed back against Berliner's characterization of the outlet in a Tuesday memo to staffers. Chapin said that NPR management "strongly disagree with Uri's assessment of the quality of our journalism and the integrity of our newsroom processes." 

But the outlet remained silent on Wednesday. A spokesperson did not respond to questions about attacks on the outlet or how management could expect its staffers to collaborate with Berliner, given how he openly spurned colleagues in his Free Press essay.

Berliner declined to comment when I asked him what he would say to colleagues who have concerns that he can no longer be trusted. But the editor said that, for now, he is still employed by NPR.

CNN Photo Illustration/Gabby Jones/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Paramounting Problems: This doesn't look like great news for Shari Redstone or the potential Paramount Global-Skydance deal. The WSJ's Jessica Toonkel reported Wednesday that four directors are expected to step down from the company's board in the coming weeks. One member of the group — made up of Dawn Ostroff, Nicole Seligman, Frederick Terrell, and Rob Kliege — had "expressed concerns about the potential Skydance deal," Toonkel reported. Prominent shareholders have in recent days expressed concern over the deal, arguing that it would benefit Redstone, but leave other stakeholders out in the cold. Toonkel has more here.

🔍 Zooming in: If David Ellison's dreams for the mountain of entertainment are ruptured, it could force Paramount to consider the offers Apollo Management has put on the table, one of which is a $26 billion proposal to purchase all of Paramount, and another is an $11 billion offer for just the movie studio. 

CNN Photo Illustration/Jason Kempin/Getty Images

First in Reliable | Daily Wire Domination: The Daily Wire is easily the biggest podcasting outlet in right-wing media, according to data from Howard Polskin's The Righting set to be released Thursday. According to the data, which is drawn from the podcast app Castbox, six of the top 20 most subscribed to shows in the space are from The Daily Wire. Ben Shapiro secured the top spot, followed by Jordan Peterson. A little lower in the top 20 chart is Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, Andrew Klavian, and the outlet's "Morning Wire" program. Additionally, Shapiro and Peterson represented the two fastest-growing podcasts in the first quarter of the year. Right behind them, outside the Daily Wire universe, was Megyn Kelly.

CNN Photo Illustration/Jose Luis Magana/AP

The Missing Mosseri: How does one get in touch with Instagram and Threads boss Adam Mosseri? Confronted on Threads this week by a user about how he only seems to reply to a select few tech journalists, the powerful Meta executive claimed that he tries to "engage" as "much as I can." But is that really the case? When was the last time the platform head granted an interview or faced questions from a member of the press? It's been a while, as far as I can tell! (I asked Meta spokespeople about this on Wednesday, but didn't hear back.) We've repeatedly requested to chat with Mosseri, but his spokespeople have always come up with an excuse about why he is unavailable or declined. Which is strange, given that Mosseri is now publicly asserting he tries to "engage as much as I can." Just not in a formal interview with a journalist who might press him on matters of importance, I presume? 

► One question Mosseri would surely be asked by a member of the press is to explain the platform's ambiguous new policy limiting the reach of "political" content. Mosseri and Meta have declined to define precisely what is considered to be "political" content. And the company has repeatedly declined to say whether the rules apply to everyone equally. (If Taylor Swift starts endorsing politicians on the platform, will Meta take action against her account and de-list her from recommendations because she is behaving "politically" in nature?) The questions are only sure to mount. Hundreds of creators signed an open letter made public Wednesday asking Meta to reverse the policy. It'd be nice if Mosseri addressed the concerns expressed in a real way instead of hiding behind his digital avatar.

CNN Photo Illustration/Warner Bros. Pictures

Jilting the Joker: YouTube on Wednesday removed a content warning label that was appended to the trailer for "Joker: Folie à Deux." When Warner Bros. Pictures released the trailer on Tuesday night for the anticipated sequel starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, viewers were told the trailer could contain "suicide or self-harm topics." YouTube, as a result, required users to consent via a pop-up window to being shown the supposedly disturbing imagery. But by Wednesday, the Google-owned platform had revised course, explaining that its systems had "incorrectly" slapped the label onto the trailer. Variety's Todd Spangler has more.