Good morning. Our 2025 resolution is to share something new and surprising in every edition. And to never waste your time! Here's our preview of a jam-packed January... |
Within 24 hours of the Bourbon Street terror attack, reporters pieced together a relatively complete picture of the suspect. But a key early bit of misreporting confused the public – and possibly the president-elect. It's a cautionary tale for everyone in the news industry as the new year begins.
Just after 10 a.m. Wednesday, Fox News reported that the suspect's truck crossed the U.S. border in Eagle Pass, Texas "two days ago." Some of Fox's coverage explicitly said "the suspect" drove across the border, leading Fox viewers to believe that a foreigner might be responsible for the deadly carnage.
Evidently, Fox was misinformed by anonymous sources. The network walked it back within two hours and said the truck was in Eagle Pass nearly two months ago, not two days ago. And more importantly, the truck was being driven by someone else at the time, so the detail about the border was completely irrelevant and misleading.
But the damage was already done. President-elect Donald Trump, seemingly misinformed by Fox, issued a statement about "criminals coming in" from other countries. "Biden's parting gift to America — migrant terrorists," Donald Trump Jr. wrote, sharing the Fox claim. "Shut the border down!!!" Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene exclaimed.
The president-elect ironically used the New Orleans attack to say that he was right and the "Fake News Media" was wrong about the threat posed by illegal immigration. If he had waited a couple hours to react, he would have learned that the suspect was a U.S. citizen and Army veteran.
"Some Republicans continued to beat the border drum well after Fox News retracted its initial report," The Daily Beast's Josh Fiallo wrote last night. This morning I'm still seeing people on social media share the misinfo.
A couple of takeaways: One, it's incredibly difficult to claw back a bogus claim that people want to believe. And two, in a repeat of 2017-2020, it's going to be crucial for reporters to scrutinize Trump's sources of information, since his favorite sources have so often misled him in the past.
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Relying on video evidence |
In New Orleans, video clips from the crime scene and surveillance footage of the attacker swerving onto Bourbon Street helped reporters and viewers make sense of the massacre. In Las Vegas, too, video was crucial to reconstructing the Tesla Cybertruck explosion that is being probed as a possible terrorist act. The first tweets about the incident showed a plume of smoke near the Trump International Hotel. Then came bystander video showing the truck on fire right by the hotel lobby; a shocking clip of the truck actually exploding; and, later in the day, police drone video of the aftermath. We should learn a lot more about the Vegas incident later today...
>> Las Vegas Review-Journal's top homepage headline right now: "Possible link explored between Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion, New Orleans terror attack"
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Here are just some of the media world milestones and events this month:
Friday the 3rd: The House meets to elect a speaker (and it will all be televised)
Sunday the 5th: The Golden Globes are live on CBS
Tuesday the 7th: CES begins (after a couple busy preview days)
Thursday the 9th: Jimmy Carter's state funeral
Friday the 10th: Hoda Kotb's last day on "Today"
Friday the 10th: SCOTUS hears oral arguments in the TikTok case
Sunday the 19th: The TikTok ban takes effect*
Monday the 20th: Donald Trump's inauguration
Thursday the 23rd: The Sundance Film Festival begins
Sunday the 26th: The AFC and NFC championship games
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I love what Kaitlan Collins told Semafor about 2024's political surprises being "the ultimate reminder to never assume what the news is going to be." As a reporter, "you should always operate with an open mind," she said. "It's easy, but risky, to think you know where a story is going."
There is so much we don't know about the year ahead. (Last night Oliver Darcy listed dozens of questions about the media industry in 2025.) But here's some of what we do know:
>> A federal judge will rule on whether Google has a monopoly in the ad tech market.
>> A different federal judge will decide on remedies for Google's search monopoly.
>> Rockstar Games will release "Grand Theft Auto VI," which is "set to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2025," as the FT puts it.
>> David Ellison will take control of Paramount's assets, Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent) will split itself into two halves, and Comcast's "SpinCo" will take shape.
>> Comcast will launch Epic Universe in Orlando and Disney will launch two more cruise ships.
>> Disney will launch its direct-to-consumer ESPN Flagship streaming service.
>> Meta will unveil something big in the smart glasses space. (Mark Zuckerberg recently said "glasses will be the next major computing platform.")
>> NBC's "SNL" will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
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"How serious is Trump about using state power to go after his political enemies? Unchastened by total control in Washington, what guardrails will constrain him?"
Politico's Eugene Daniels asked those questions, and many more, in a New Year's edition of Playbook. Soon we'll start to find out the answers. So far it seems that "Trump's media censorship arsenal is growing," as THR's Winston Cho wrote.
Trump wouldn't call it "censorship," he would call it accountability. Look to incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr's holiday letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger for an example. As I reported here, Carr is going to wield a much heavier hand than his predecessors. Disney, by the way, has not publicly responded to the letter.
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"From a journalism perspective, we seem to be entering a new era of governance, maybe a more transactional one, and that will make for opportunities to do accountability journalism," Journal and Post editor turned media investor Marcus Brauchli told me. "Then again, it looks like some people in power want to deploy 'lawfare' to go after journalists, which is bad for the press (and public) but good for lawyers." |
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Rallying around local news |
I heard from many of you after devoting the final Reliable Sources of 2024 to good news about the news, including green shoots for local media outlets. So here's a forward-looking note from Dale R. Anglin, the director of Press Forward: "Public policy wins in New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois and Washington could generate up to $107 million for local newsrooms in 2025, the Rebuild Local News Coalition says." In California, for instance, a new law could direct more state ad spending to ethnic and community news outlets.
"I travel to new cities frequently," Anglin said, "and what I hear time and again is that people want more local news and information. They know when it's missing. And thankfully, they are rallying behind it. We've had 31 communities step up to raise money for local news in their regions and states as part of Press Forward local chapters." That list will keep growing this year...
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Washington Post publisher Will Lewis is beginning a year of rebuilding – at least, he hopes so. Lewis is poised to name acting exec editor Matt Murray "the newsroom's permanent chief," Puck's Dylan Byers reported, calling it an "anticlimactic end to a long and tortured recruitment effort." Managing editor Krissah Thompson, who has been setting up the so-called "third newsroom," is formally taking over as editor of the rebranded "WP Ventures," reporting to Murray. Notably, Sam Henig, who co-founded the NYT's audio division, has come aboard as general manager.
But some Post stars are following Matea Gold out the door. Earlier this week, The Atlantic poached Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, and it "has been in discussions to hire additional Washington Post journalists," Ben Mullin reported...
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Italian reporter detained in Iran |
"Press freedom groups and media organizations are calling for Iran to release an Italian journalist who was arrested last month. Cecilia Sala, who works for the daily Italian newspaper Il Foglio, was arrested on Dec. 19 and is being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison," VOA's Liam Scott reports. "The 29-year-old was reporting in Iran on a journalist visa and was due to return to Italy on Dec. 20."
>> Jason Rezaian, who was detained in the same prison, says "she's a hostage until proven otherwise," and Italy must "do whatever it takes to bring Cecilia Sala home quickly."
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Some headlines from over the holidays:
>> A man in Colorado man was arrested "for allegedly attacking a TV news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying 'This is Trump’s America now,' according to court documents."
>> CNN's Marshall Cohen scooped that Smartmatic is trying to obtain evidence from Rupert Murdoch's secret succession battle for its ongoing case against Fox.
>> Bari Weiss and The Free Press passed the one million subscriber mark.
>> Netflix's Christmas day NFL live streams went off without a hitch, peaking with 27 million viewers during Beyoncé's halftime show.
>> On January 1, new laws took effect in Illinois and California to "regulate uses of AI with the aim of mitigating the potential harms," NBC notes.
>> Blackout: Altice USA and MSG Networks are in a carriage dispute.
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Remembering the luminaries we lost |
Winter break was also a time to reflect on those we've lost; a striking number of media world luminaries died over the holidays, including Dick Parsons, Charles Dolan, Greg Gumbel, and Woody Fraser.
On New Year's Eve I found myself rereading old emails with Aaron Brown, the revered CNN anchor who died on Sunday. I found this note from Aaron to be inspiring: "I used to say to the staff every night, 'We do the show for the people who watch, not for the people who don't. Let's give them a great show. They deserve our best.' I still think that is true."
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It ends with a messy legal battle |
The legal and PR battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, co-stars of the film "It Ends With Us," is "the messiest dispute I have ever seen between two celebrities," Elizabeth Wagmeister told Wolf Blitzer on air last night.
To get caught up, read the NYT's original "Hollywood smear machine" story; Matthew Belloni's "villains of the year" column for Puck; Wagmeister's story about Baldoni suing the NYT; and the Times' own story about the suit. "We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit," the NYT says.
>> Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, is warning that more lawsuits are coming...
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>> "The domestic box office is bound to do around $9 billion in 2025, roughly $300 million more than 2024’s estimated final figure of $8.7 billion, Anthony D’Alessandro reports, adding that, “if so, it will be the second time that U.S.-Canada ticket sales hit that threshold post-Covid after 2023’s domestic tally of $9 billion." (Deadline)
>> Variety's Emily Longeretta and Kate Aurthur present "the 41 Most Anticipated New and Returning TV Shows Coming in 2025." (Variety)
>> Andi Ortiz has the full list of Marvel releases for 2025. (TheWrap)
>> And USA Today's Clare Mulroy says these are 15 of the most anticipated book releases of the year ahead. (USA Today)
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I'm not making any forecasts about 2025, but I love all the columnists and commentators who are! For example:
>> Platformer's Casey Newton predicts that the TikTok ban takes effect, "the AI culture war begins," and "Bluesky and Threads remain in a productive rivalry."
>> Richard Deitsch's No. 1 sports media prediction is that "Tom Brady will walk away from broadcasting before the start of the 2025 NFL season."
>> CNBC's Alex Sherman surveyed 13 anonymous media executives about their predictions for the new year.
>> THR's Georg Szalai compiled "Wall Street's Hollywood stock picks for 2025."
>> And CJR's editors are out this morning with a superb look at "what we're watching in 2025." Check it out!
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