Happy Monday! Here's the latest on Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, Taylor Swift, TikTok, Connections, Cris Collinsworth, "Moana 2," and much more... |
Getting on Trump's 'wavelength' |
Donald Trump voters "were not operating on a plane of shared facts." That's what Julia Preston, a former New York Times and Marshall Project reporter turned Kamala Harris canvasser, quickly came to believe while knocking on Pennsylvania voters' doors this fall.
In a new piece for The New Yorker, Preston says she sensed that "Harris was struggling to break through" while Trump was blessed with a big advantage: "Trump was broadcasting on some direct wavelength with his followers, and he had drawn them into his alternate universe of looming economic disaster, menacing migrants, and outrages perpetrated by Democrats against their children, which only he was visionary enough to see and strong enough to combat."
A "direct wavelength" means that when Trump says "Russia hoax," his fans know exactly what he means, even though a fulsome and factual explanation would puncture the word "hoax" and would take up the entire length of this newsletter.
Trump cited the "hoax" in his statement picking Kash Patel as FBI director. And he referenced "the J-6 Hostages" in a statement last night about President Biden pardoning Hunter. It's almost like a distinct MAGA language – in much the same way that progressive activists have their own phrases and sayings about social justice. Decoding and explaining the language is a real challenge for political reporters. But it's necessary because even many Trump voters don't know what the catchphrases and conspiracy theories are all about.
As this CNN story observed, "Patel is widely viewed as a controversial figure and relentless self-promoter whose value to the president-elect largely derives from a shared disdain for established power in Washington." Simply describing him as a "loyalist" or a "firebrand" obscures what's going on...
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Credit where it's due: The hosts of "Fox & Friends Weekend" summarized the "story" of Trump's cabinet picks (albeit in a promotional way) very well yesterday.
They're the "black sheep of the last four years," Will Cain said. "People marginalized and called conspiracy theorists, but today what they represent is true disrupters." Reacting to criticism of Patel, Rachel Campos-Duffy added, "If Andrew McCabe is unhappy with this appointment, Americans should feel pretty good about it!" See, that's the "wavelength..."
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The left's comms challenge |
While announcing his candidacy for DNC chair on Sunday, Wisconsin Democratic Chair Ben Wikler made this statement about the info-environment: "Today, millions of voters get most of their information about Democrats from Republicans. To win, we have to change that — by communicating and organizing everywhere, and on every platform."
Of course, many Republicans believe that in the pre-Fox era, Republicans were stuck getting their news from Democrats. But Wikler is succinctly IDing what many Democrats now believe is a media deck stacked against them...
>> Related: Don't miss this Atlantic essay from Stephen Hawkins and Daniel Yudkin: "The Perception Gap That Explains American Politics..."
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The president and the pardon |
Biden's pardon of his son Hunter is the lead story everywhere – and one of the ultimate examples of "watch what they do, not what they say." All of his pledges and all of the will-he-or-won't-he panel discussions were for naught. Today's New York Post's cover says "HUNTER GETS AWAY WITH IT." Breitbart labels the pardon "ANOTHER HOAX" because "Joe repeatedly promised he wouldn't." The Atlantic calls it a case of "unpardonable hypocrisy." Trump, of course, pardoned several people close to him in 2021, including his daughter's father-in-law Charles Kushner, who he has now tapped as ambassador to France, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and more.
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New press secretary's past |
KFILE's latest is about Trump's press secretary pick Karoline Leavitt, who will soon be responsible for sharing accurate information with the American people. Leavitt positioned herself "as a staunch election denier" during an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2022, Andrew Kaczynski reports. He found that "in the days after January 6, Leavitt shared several posts critical of the riot," but later deleted two of the posts...
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Hegseth's history surfaces |
The New Yorker's Jane Mayer obtained a whistleblower report and other emails with disturbing claims about Fox News host-turned-Trump Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth. She says the documents suggest that Hegseth "was forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job."
The author of one of the letters said that "if you print that, I will deny I wrote it," and when Mayer reminded him "that it had been sent from the same personal e-mail account that he still uses," the author wrote, "I don't care. I'll just say it never happened." Here's the full report, which came two days after the NYT's story about Hegseth's mother accusing him of "mistreating women for years..."
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>> Trumpworld is divided over TikTok: Most of Trump's Cabinet and other admin picks "who have spoken about the app's future have strongly encouraged a ban, with a few who have large TikTok and other social media followings opposing one," Kat Tenbarge reports. (NBC)
>> As online media evolves, we're going to see even more of this: Trump and some of his cabinet picks "are adopting influencer tactics to hawk products, boost political points and promote their personal brands," Drew Harwell reports. (Wash Post)
>> Trump is nominating Gen. Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg was a paid Fox News contributor until his nomination was announced on Wednesday.
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In case you missed it, part one... |
>> "The State Department has denounced a Chinese court's sentencing of a prominent journalist, Dong Yuyu, to seven years in prison and said it stood with his family in calling for his 'immediate and unconditional release.'" (NYT)
>> "After 47 years as a working journalist and 28 at CNN I decided this year to not renew my contract and step back from the 'day to day,'" CNN International anchor Michael Holmes announced. You'll be missed, Michael, but you've certainly earned this break! (Instagram)
>> A federal judge has tossed Ray Epps' defamation lawsuit against Fox News, finding that Epps had failed to prove actual malice, Liam Reilly reports. (CNN)
>> Fox is 3-for-3: "Following the dismissals of the Jankowicz, Bobulinski, and now Epps cases, Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment," the network said.
>> Biden visited Nantucket Bookworks over the weekend and walked out with a copy of "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" by Rashid Khalidi. "My reaction is that this is four years too late," the author said. (NYPost)
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Introducing 'Vet the News' |
Vet the News "brings you news and opinion exclusively by military veterans and spouses." The aggregation site is a product of We The Veterans, a nonpartisan group that recruited vets as poll workers during the most recent election cycle. "This is a new concept," Ellen Gustafson, the group's co-founder and executive director, told me. In the months ahead, the site "will invite veterans, active duty personnel and military families to come together to read and support veteran-produced news content." The group also wants to urge more vets and their spouses to seek out jobs in newsrooms...
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'The Most Controversial Game on the Internet' |
The NYT's Connections game is "both the blessing and the bane of my mornings," The Atlantic's Elaine Godfrey wrote. So she reached out to Wyna Liu, the game's editor, for an enlightening Q&A about "the most controversial game on the internet." Among the revelations: Liu says "I'm not good at games..."
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>> An eye-opening new Journal story: Elon Musk's rivals "fear he will target them with his new power." (WSJ)
>> Fidelity marked up "the value of its X Holdings shares by 32.37% in October, the largest monthly increase since helping Elon Musk buy the company in 2022," Dan Primack reports. (Axios)
>> X is intervening in the bankruptcy sale of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars, "in what is believed to be the first time a social media platform has stepped in to a legal dispute over account ownership," Hadas Gold reports. (CNN)
>> Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has "agreed on X to record an episode of Lex Fridman's podcast in Ukraine, much to Elon Musk's delight," Nathan Rennolds reports. (Business Insider)
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Rebuilding an audience on Bluesky |
"Journalists are finding more readers and less hate on Bluesky than on the platform they used to know as Twitter," the aforementioned Kat Tenbarge reports for NBC. Users like Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press says identical posts on Bluesky and X are "getting 20 times the engagement or more" on Bluesky. Now that Elon Musk has confirmed that X is deprioritizing posts with links, Pittman says "seeing a social media platform that doesn't throttle links really makes it clear how badly we were being limited."
>> Erin Reed, who publishes Erin In The Morning on Substack, says "journalists don't like toxicity and toxic comments. We want to have conversations with people, and we don't want everything to devolve into slurs being hurled back and forth." How quaint 😊
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In case you missed it, part two... |
>> OpenAI "is discussing plans to introduce advertising to its artificial intelligence products..." (FT)
>> Taylor Swift's self-published book, "The Eras Tour Book," went on sale exclusively at Target over the weekend. "The entire rollout is unorthodox..." (WSJ)
>> NBC's broadcast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade hit an all-time ratings high for the second straight year... (THR)
>> Thanksgiving's Giants vs. Cowboys snoozer was "the most-watched NFL game on any network this regular season..." (Yahoo)
>> Meanwhile NBC Sports produced an excellent 49ers vs. Bills "snow game" last night. Cris Collinsworth said he'd never seen anything it... (Awful Announcing)
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Australia aims at socials |
CNN's Hilary Whiteman reports from Brisbane: "Australia’s parliament has passed a world-first law banning social media for children under 16, putting tech companies on notice to tighten security before a cut-off date that’s yet to be set." But, as CNN's Becky Anderson asked, "how does the Australian government expect to be able to enforce this" legislation? "I don't know. I don't think anybody knows the answer to that question. There really isn't a particularly clear plan here," University of Oxford professor Andrew Przybylski said...
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Whatta weekend at the movies. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, says "a perfect storm of Thanksgiving box office, powered by a trio of films from the musical, epic drama, and family film genres," arrived at "the most advantageous moment to reinvigorate the theatrical marketplace after a post-summer malaise." Between Wednesday and Sunday the domestic box office made about $420 million, a Thanksgiving record, with "Moana 2" leading the way. (There's a wayfinder joke there somewhere!)
>> Alan Bergman says "Moana 2" has "far surpassed our high expectations..."
>> A rare accomplishment: Dwayne Johnson had "two No. 1 theatrical release openings in the same calendar month," Deadline notes...
>> But... Variety's Owen Gleiberman argues that Hollywood is addicted to a sequel culture that is "cannibalizing its future..."
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Ms. Rachel's holiday toy story |
"Rachel Accurso might be this era's Mister Rogers, if he had been on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram," NYT reporter and (toddler mom!) Sapna Maheshwari writes. Now there are "Ms. Rachel" toys in stores, and "by the time the holidays are over, Ms. Rachel is expected to be the top new toy license this year, according to the data analytics company Circana." This "supercharged journey of toys from YouTube screens to retail sensation illustrates the seismic changes afoot in children's media and how modern parents are navigating that world." Read on...
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