Major news outlets strangely show little interest in reporting on Donald Trump's courtroom naps, NPR suspends Uri Berliner, Democratic congressmen demand answers over sports super-streamer, OAN settles Smartmatic suit, News/Media Alliance asks feds to probe Google for blocking news in California, Bill Weir names the one thing he'd change about climate coverage, "Sesame Street" workers authorize a strike if deal isn't hammered out this week, "Dune: Part Two" becomes available to purchase on digital platforms, and so much more. But first, the A1.

'Banned in the USA'

CNN Photo Illustration/Kevin Richardson/Baltimore Sun/TNS/Getty Images

America's right-wing forces would have you believe that they are the courageous entities standing up for free speech.

But, as they try to claim that mantle, many of those same forces in media and politics are behind a disturbing wave of book bans sweeping the nation. 

PEN America, a non-profit organization committed to protecting free expression, published an alarming report Tuesday indicating that the "book ban crisis" is only getting worse. The bans are "speeding up," the organization warned in its report, a troublesome trend that is impacting public school systems from coast-to-coast.

"There were over 4,000 instances of book bans in the first half of this school year—more than all of last school year as a whole. This is a marked increase in comparison to the last spring semester, in which PEN America recorded 1,841 book bans," the group said in the report, aptly titled "Banned in the USA."

The bans started in haste in early 2021, birthed in the backlash to Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 Project at The New York Times. At the time, the concern among conservatives was that schools were using books to supposedly indoctrinate young students with critical race theory, an academic concept that became a culture war flashpoint and sparked hysteria in right-wing circles. Over time, the bans have grown to encompass other topics, notably gender ideology.

The censorship has been fueled by the right-wing media machine (which again, purports to be pro-free speech), with entities such as "Libs of TikTok" targeting specific school systems and effectively waging pressure campaigns against administrators to take certain works off the library shelves. 

Some of the books removed from schools across the country include Margaret Atwood's acclaimed dystopian-turned-Hulu adaption "The Handmaid’s Tale," Amy Reed's novel "The Nowhere Girls," Rupi Kaur's NYT bestseller "Milk and Honey," Ta-Nehisi Coates's memoir "Between the World and Me," and others.

"Those who want to ban books are attempting to use obscenity law and hyperbolic rhetoric about 'porn in schools' to justify banning books about sexual violence and LGBTQ+ topics (and in particular, trans identities). In doing so, they have also disproportionately targeted books by women and nonbinary authors," PEN America said. "The movement to ban books also continues to focus on themes of race and racism by advancing rhetoric disparaging 'critical race theory,' 'woke ideology,' and efforts to ensure library collections are diverse and inclusive."

CNN Photo Illustration/PEN America

Such brazen book bans — unprecedented in modern American history — is at its worst in the red states of Florida and Texas. In Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law last year that led to the removal of books from public school shelves, more than 5,100 books were banned between July 2021 and December 2023, according to PEN America. In Texas, the number was more than 1,500, the group said.

The bans have also led to harassment against the authors who suddenly find themselves hurled into the information wars. Abdi Nazemian, a gay Iranian-American author, said during a press call organized by PEN America on Tuesday that "nothing could have prepared" him for "the experience of having my book banned." 

"First and foremost, a heartbreak over the message it sends to young queer kids who deserve love and support. But also just the fear over all the online threats I've received," Nazemian said. "I've been called a pedophile and a groomer. I've been called filthy, indecent, profane, shady, slimy."

PEN America said Tuesday that there is one glimmer of hope: growing resistance to the bans. Every major publisher is now actively supporting a legal case to halt book banning in Iowa. And, across the country, ordinary people are getting involved to put an end to the trend. 

"We see students at the forefront, leading protests, read-ins, marching to oppose censorship and educational censorship in particular happening and plaguing their schools and school libraries," Kasey Meehan, the program director of PEN America's Freedom to Read, said Tuesday. "And, of course, we're joined by incredible voices of authors and parents and other advocates that are leading efforts to be as coordinated, as well resourced, and as organized as those efforts to remove books in the first place."

CNN Photo Illustration/Jeenah Moon/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Sleepy Joe Trump: Imagine, for a moment, if President Joe Biden were to be caught openly sleeping at an important hearing. Then imagine it were to occur at another important hearing the next day. Not only would right-wing media outlets like Fox News run wild with coverage questioning his fitness for office, mainstream news organizations would no doubt also treat the snooze fest as a serious news story. But, for some unknown reason, Donald Trump falling asleep at his historic criminal trial in New York (as he apparently did, again, on Tuesday) has been met with a rather muted response.

ABC News and NBC News didn't even bother mentioning it on their evening newscasts and many major outlets haven't even filed straight stories on it. To be frank, if not for The NYT's Maggie Haberman reporting on the matter Tuesday, it's unclear whether the public — which is relying on news organizations to be its eyes and ears in the courtroom, given cameras are barred — would know about it. It's all the more bizarre given that Trump has made attacking "sleepy Joe" a central tenet of his campaign, framing the president as lacking the stamina to serve in the nation's highest office. Which is to say, the fact that Trump is the one apparently unable to stay awake in his own criminal trial isn't a trivial story. It's important. So why has much of the press fallen asleep at the wheel?

The Drudge Report 

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Smartmatic's OAN Settlement: Another day and another MAGA Media outlet is paying for having peddled Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election. Voting technology company Smartmatic and the far-right network One America News said Tuesday that they had settled a defamation lawsuit stemming from the outlet's conspiracy peddling in the wake of the 2020 contest. "The case has been resolved pursuant to a confidential agreement," OAN attorney Chip Babcock said. Neither party disclosed the terms of the deal. The case was still in the discovery phase, but depositors were set to get underway, including for owner Robert Herring and his son, Charles. Now, those will never happen. Here's my story with Marshall Cohen.

🔎 Zooming in: Smartmatic's case against OAN was one of a spate of lawsuits filed against right-wing outlets in the aftermath of the election. Several of those lawsuits continue to make their way through the court system, including Smartmatic's cases against Fox News and Newsmax. 

CNN Photo Illustration/Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty Images

Gutting News From Google: News organizations are ratcheting up the pressure on Google after the Silicon Valley titan started blocking some California news outlets over a proposed state law that would require tech companies to pay for publishers' content. The News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,000 publishers, sent letters on Tuesday to multiple federal agencies imploring them to launch a probe into Google over the move. "There are many ways Google's unilateral decision to turn off access to news websites for Californians could violate [various] laws," the letters stated. News/Media Alliance chief Danielle Coffey added "no one company should be permitted to control information so singularly that it can make decisions to the detriment of society, as Google has done in California." Google, for its part, has declined to comment. CNN's Hadas Gold has more here.

CNN Photo Illustration/Chronicle Books

Covering the Climate: CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, is out with a new book Tuesday, "Life As We Know It (Can Be)." The nonfiction work is about the perils facing Earth, but it is also about so much more, touching on the human spirit and condition. Weir told me that when he became a father at 52, he "was really worried about the planet my new son had just joined" and so he started writing him Earth Day letters. "They were dark and angry at first, but as he grew, I went on a deliberate hunt for solutions and found a whole new way to think about the problem," Weir explained. "Along the way, I collected dozens of new ideas and practical ways to build stronger, healthier and more resilient communities and met so many inspirational role models for my kids."

I asked Weir to identify one thing he would change about the media's climate coverage, if he had such power. "Too often, I’m the guy yelling 'SAY IT! Say the word 'climate!'' at the screen when a reporter is standing in technicolor proof of unnatural disaster and never connects that day’s record-shattering events to the larger trends of planetary change. During Covid, every member of every newsroom was suddenly forced to become a health reporter and I argue we're all destined to be climate reporters as Earth overheats and humanity adapts — or doesn’t. It’s the one beat that connects all the others, and the sooner we help audiences understand climate’s connection to their health, wealth and happiness, the better."

CNN Photo Illustration/Sesame Workshop

Strike on Sesame Street?: The writers of "Sesame Street" are one step closer to staging a strike. Unionized workers at Sesame Workshop voted unanimously on Tuesday to authorize a strike if a deal for a new contract is not reached by Friday, when the current deal expires. Both the union and management issued statements saying they are committed to negotiating before a potential work stoppage. "Our writers are integral members of our creative team, and we are engaged in good faith negotiations with the WGA," Sesame Workshop said. "We’re still hopeful that we’ll come to an agreement in advance of the expiration." We'll see if that happens. Variety's William Earl has more here.