Good morning. Here's the latest on CNBC, Brendan Carr, Google, "Around the Horn," Theo Von, and "Emily in Paris." Plus: a reset button for Instagram! |
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Tonight at the International Press Freedom Awards, an annual fundraising gala held by the Committee to Protect Journalists in midtown Manhattan, there will be impassioned speeches about the dangers faced by journalists in places like Gaza, Niger and Guatemala. But there will also be warnings about looming threats to press freedom in the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump's promised "retribution" could take many forms. That's one of the reasons why advocates and editorial boards are urging the Senate to pass the PRESS Act.
The bill would prevent the government from forcing journalists to reveal their sources and limit the seizure of their data without their knowledge. It has been passed by the House twice with bipartisan support, and it has Republican sponsors in the Senate, but it has been stalled for months in the Senate Judiciary Committee. And Trump may have just sealed its fate.
Yesterday, in between his posts on Truth Social announcing nominees for his incoming administration, Trump wrote that "REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!" He linked to a PBS "NewsHour" interview with Committee to Protect Journalists head Jodie Ginsberg advocating for the bill...
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After Trump's reelection earlier this month, press advocacy groups redoubled their efforts to get the legislation signed into law. Several media outlets and newspaper editorial boards have urged readers to contact their senators and lobby for it. John Oliver also promoted the bill on his post-election edition of "Last Week Tonight."
But "Senate Democrats are running out of time," WIRED reporter Dell Cameron wrote last week. Democratic lawmakers have focused on confirming Biden's judicial nominees during the lame-duck session. And Republican Sen. Tom Cotton has reportedly led internal resistance to the bill. Cotton's office did not respond to my request for comment about whether he is holding it up.
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Why Trump should reconsider |
Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, isn't ready to give up yet. Last night, he told me that Trump should reconsider his position because "the PRESS Act protects conservative and independent journalists just as much as it does anyone in the mainstream press."
Here's the argument: "Democratic administrations abused their powers to spy on journalists many times too," he said, and "the bipartisan PRESS Act will stop government overreach and protect the First Amendment once and for all."
"Much of the reporting Trump likes, from the Twitter files to stories poking holes in the Russiagate conspiracy, came from confidential sources," Timm observed. "Many Trump supporters from Rep. Jim Jordan to Sen. Mike Lee are champions of the PRESS Act because it would protect all journalists, including many who reach primarily conservative audiences. That's good for the public, whether they voted Republican or Democrat." Here's my full story for CNN.com...
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Mika defends Mar-a-Lago meeting |
"People are really scared. It's one of the reasons we went in there: People are really scared about Donald Trump's comments about political adversaries," MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski said on this new episode of The Daily Beast podcast.
Brzezinski has bristled at the assertion that she and Joe Scarborough were feeling that way. But last night Puck's Dylan Byers expanded on my Tuesday story about the couple's retribution concerns. "Joe and Mika have privately told friends that they're worried the incoming president will seek revenge for their criticism of him," Byers wrote, and a "source close to the matter said Joe and Mika believed that by meeting with Trump, they could assuage his potential desire for reckless payback and thus nuke any possibility of having to endure the headlines of a [Matt] Gaetz witch hunt or legal torture campaign."
>> Brzezinski also said on the Daily Beast podcast, "I don't regret anything I've said during the campaign and I stand by it. But I'm also looking at how to do things differently. And I would never turn down an opportunity to gain insight or information, ever." She is hoping for an interview with Trump...
>> This morning, Axios boss Jim VandeHei commented that "Morning Joe" did "the right, hard thing in opening a line to Trump. It is insane for critics to NOT think all of us in media need to know more so we can share/report more."
>> But Monday and Tuesday's ratings suggest that some "Morning Joe" viewers turned off the show after the meeting was revealed.
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Made-for-TV cabinet updates |
As I said on "The Situation Room" last night, I've already counted a half dozen Fox-related hires by the president-elect. Here are a few new updates:
>> Trump is eyeing right-wing radio host, podcaster and former Fox star Dan Bongino for the job of U.S. Secret Service director, CNN's Kristen Holmes, Holmes Lybrand and Jamie Gangel reported yesterday.
>> A few days ago Dr. Marty Makary was on Fox promoting RFK Jr. for HHS. Now he is reportedly the leading candidate to run the Food and Drug Administration. He is no longer a Fox News contributor, but he was on the payroll for years...
>> This morning on "Fox & Friends," Brian Kilmeade heaped skepticism on Matt Gaetz's nomination, saying "the Trump team's got to be thinking, you know, maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Lawrence Jones disagreed...
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TIME's new cover is about "Citizen Musk." Simon Shuster quotes a "member of Musk's social circle who recently talked to him" who says Musk is driven by his mission to occupy Mars, and Musk is "realizing that being in control, directly or indirectly, of U.S. government budgets, is going to put us on Mars in his lifetime. Doing it privately would be slower." Read on...
>> Rich Greenfield wonders: "Could Trump help Elon buy TikTok?" He talked about it on the most recent episode of his LightShed Podcast...
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Lazarus on a listening tour |
The CEO of "SpinCo," Mark Lazarus, will spend today at CNBC HQ in Englewood Cliffs, NJ to meet with anchors and talk with staffers about Comcast's spinoff plan. Yesterday, Lazarus made the rounds at MSNBC. He told Oliver Darcy that he was "doing a lot of listening." From what I've heard, Lazarus was well received, but employees still have lots of questions, and answers are a ways away.
For instance: MSNBC "could have to consider changing its name and familiar markings," Variety's
Brian Steinberg reports. But that's a big "could" for now.
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Comcast's cable spinoff raises all sorts of questions about future of the TV business, and the Q's aren't confined to Comcast. Will other streaming-focused companies, like Disney or CNN’s parent Warner Bros. Discovery, spin off their cable channels too? How might the cable bundle business model be impacted?
"It's unclear if Comcast investors will care that much" about the spinoff, CNBC's Alex Sherman notes while sharing this eye-opening stat: "The NBCUniversal cable networks are relatively small assets, generating about $7 billion in revenue" in the past four quarters, while "the rest of Comcast took in about $116 billion in revenue."
"With so much unknown, Comcast probably isn't doing this because it's sure the spin will be a slam dunk for investors," Sherman writes. "Instead, Comcast's motivations may be a signal to the media industry that it's time to enter a new phase" of consolidation.
>> Meanwhile, some political commentators are wondering if "SpinCo" is just an elaborate way to shed MSNBC, given the possible political downsides of owning a progressive news network in a second Trump era. They're throwing MSNBC "overboard," Bill O'Reilly claimed on NewsNation last night...
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"Activist investor Starboard Value LP's proposal to end the dual-class share structure at News Corp. got struck down during a vote at the media company’s annual meeting on Wednesday," Bloomberg's Hannah Miller and Crystal Tse report. "The Murdoch family controls about 41% of the voting shares at the parent of Dow Jones, the NY Post and other businesses, giving any proposal without their support a slim chance of passing. In a statement Wednesday the company said the nonbinding proposal had been 'convincingly' defeated..."
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>> This morning FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed that she will depart the agency in January, as expected... (RTBR)
>> Her successor, Brendan Carr, continues to use his bully pulpit in very different ways than past FCC chairs. Yesterday, he posted Jeff Bezos's recent comment that "Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working," and added, "He's not wrong." (X)
>> "The Trade Desk, one of the largest publicly traded advertising technology companies globally, is building a connected television operating system," Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
>> Nate Silver says President Biden should "step down and let Kamala Harris assume office, saying he does not appear capable of making 'high-stakes' decisions," Grace Harrington writes. (Daily Beast)
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"The US government formally proposed a partial breakup of Google on Wednesday, urging a federal judge to force a sale of the company’s Chrome web browser after a landmark ruling this year found that Google had violated US antitrust law with its search business," CNN's Brian Fung writes. Google has promised to appeal, and there's a long road ahead...
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A reset button for Instagram! |
"Instagram users will soon be able to manually reset the recommendation algorithm that determines what they see in their feeds," NBC's Rob Wiles writes. "The change was particularly designed to ensure teenagers see more appropriate content," but it will work for everyone. (I'm excited to try it myself.) "In just a few steps, Instagram said, users will be able to clear the recommended content across their Explore, Reels and Feed tabs..."
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>> CNN's Julia Chatterley interviewed Bluesky COO Rose Wang, who "says their alternative to X was based on the social media experiences of women..." (Instagram)
>> Helpful or harmful? OpenAI has released "a free online course designed to help K-12 teachers learn how to bring ChatGPT, the company's AI chatbot platform, into their classrooms..." (TechCrunch)
>> Not playing: The New York Times "sent a cease and desist letter to the owner of a website that lets you make your own Connections games," Jay Peters reports. (The Verge)
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Report: 'Around the Horn' is ending |
"ESPN plans to hit the mute button on 'Around the Horn.' The show’s legendary run of more than two decades will conclude in the summer of 2025," the New York Post's Ryan Glasspiegel scooped yesterday. The network is not confirming or denying. He says the show will "have a well-deserved victory lap in the coming months..." |
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>> Joel Souza's "Rust" finally had its world premiere "at a small if starry film festival in Torun, Poland" on Wednesday. The screening began with a moment of silence for Halyna Hutchins. The NYT's Alex Marshall was there and wrote about the scene... (NYT)
>> The return of "Yellowstone" "was the No. 1 premiere for any series internationally in Paramount+ history on its launch day," Kayla Cobb reports. And check out the U.S. Nielsen #'s: "21 million viewers in live plus three day viewing..." (TheWrap)
>> Emmanuel Macron for the win! "'Emily in Paris' is returning to Paris for its fifth season, although it will also partly shoot in Rome, where the fourth season is set, Elsa Keslassy writes. Macron personally pushed for the show's return... (Variety)
>> Variety's Tatiana Siegel is writing a book about "the sweeping history of the DC film franchise" for Crown Publishing... (Variety)
>> Manosphere podcaster Theo Von and David Spade are writing, self-financing and starring in a buddy comedy called "Busboys..." (Variety)
>> And here are the winners from last night's CMA Awards... (CNN)
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