Happy Friday! Here's the latest on the NYT, TikTok, Matt Gaetz, Joel Kaplan, Chris Hayes, Billie Eilish, and much more... |
The speaker election show |
The most dramatic TV show of the day will take place on the floor of the House of Representatives. And make no mistake – it is a show.
It's the opening day of the 119th Congress, and that means the House has to elect a speaker. Rep. Mike Johnson's allies "are uncertain whether he can win the speakership on the first ballot," CNN's Manu Raju reports. So this might take awhile. On CNN, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will anchor special coverage starting at noon Eastern. C-SPAN shared this image of video and photo crews getting ready for the election:
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Outgoing Rep. Patrick McHenry, who served as acting speaker before Johnson was elected in 2023, said something really revealing in this "exit interview" with Politico. When asked "How have you seen the House GOP change as you've changed as a lawmaker?" McHenry said, "the people that are outside of positions of authority in the House — they're the most frequent guests on media, your most ample quotes and most active online — are not meaningful players internally, almost to a person, in this institution. The rewards, the incentives, have shifted in my 20 years to attention and people assuming that this place is a platform for that attention."
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Speaking of attention-seekers... |
Matt Gaetz launched his 9 p.m. show on One America News last night, and his first guests were three of his former House colleagues, including Rep. Thomas Massie, who repeated his vow not to vote for Johnson today. OAN lacks a lot of traditional TV distribution, but the channel pushed out clips of Gaetz's pre-taped interviews on X, thereby ensuring they'd get a lot of pickup. The Washington Examiner's Ross O'Keefe has more here...
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Government action on mute |
When the public pays attention to the congressional "show," we're missing important news about the actual workings of government, former congressman Tom Malinowski argued in this worthwhile thread. He pointed to the provision in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act capping out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2,000 a year for Medicare enrollees.
The cap "finally kicked in" on January 1, and "I'm sure many of my former constituents will feel the difference," Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey, wrote. "But will they know this happened now because specific politicians, including Joe Biden, made and kept a promise over 2 years ago, that democracy actually worked in this case?"
Malinowski noted that CNN covered the news this week, but argued that the wider media world failed to inform people about the cap taking effect. "Social media amplified news today is focused on conflict and drama" – like the speaker vote – while "information about a good thing government did is muted. Joe Rogan and the new podcasts don't care. Local news is dying."
He concluded: "What's sad is that even when the government delivers, faith in government keeps eroding. I don't think this is because democracy is broken or Washington is broken, any more than they ever have been. Our information system is broken. That's the truly important change."
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Political media notes and quotes |
>> Fox's irresponsible report linking the New Orleans terror attack to the southern border continues to have ripple effects on the right. (CNN)
>> "Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?" Trump asked on Truth Social overnight while boasting of outsized performance of Trump content on the platform. Ewan Palmer's headline: "Trump Doesn't Want to Ban TikTok Because He Gets Billions of Views." (Newsweek)
>> As Elon Musk warns of lawsuits over news coverage of the Las Vegas Cybertrust blast, Mike Masnick is here to remind everyone that just because Musk "doesn't like some headlines," "that doesn't make them defamatory." (TechDirt)
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NYT hits back at Justin Baldoni |
Justin Baldoni and his publicists generated lots of press on Tuesday by filing a libel lawsuit against The New York Times. The NYT immediately responded by saying "we plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit." Now, after reviewing the suit, the publication has more to say.
"To address some inaccuracies in the lawsuit," the Times issued a fuller statement on Thursday, asserting that Baldoni and others mentioned in the "Hollywood smear machine" article were asked "to identify any inaccuracies, provide additional context and speak with our team" before publication. (That's a totally ordinary step in the reporting process.) Baldoni and the others "chose not to have any conversations with The Times or address any of the specific text messages or documents and instead emailed a joint response, which was published in full," the NYT's new statement said.
>> Recommended: Culture writer Kat Rosenfield says the conflict between Baldoni and Blake Lively "is now a proxy war by their respective publicists to control the narrative." Read her full column for The Free Press here...
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>> It's getting worse: "Advertisers keep avoiding news sites, and publishers have had enough of it," Alexandra Bruell and Suzanne Vranica report... (WSJ)
>> MSNBC's Chris Hayes is out with a gripping preview of his forthcoming book about the "attention age..." (NYT)
>> I recently stumbled upon this Ed Zitron screed about growth hacking, tech industry incentives, and the "Rot Economy." He says "our digital lives are actively abusive and hostile, riddled with subtle and overt cons." If you're wondering what he means by that, read the essay. (Where's Your Ed At?)
>> From the left: "The demise of courageous journalism isn't a happy accident. Its replacement with engagement-chasing infotainment and propaganda isn't an error," Karl Bode argues. "It's a global assault on reason and informed consensus, and corporations and authoritarian bullies like Donald Trump are both architects and benefactors." (DAME)
>> From the right: "The decline of journalism from a trade into a profession has been a calamity," Alan Pell Crawford writes, because journalists "are not content to tell us what is going on in the world," they now "want to reform it." (The American Conservative)
>> Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld went long on how The Epoch Times serves the interests of the Falun Gong and and its founder Li Hongzhi, in part by promoting the Shen Yun dance group... (NYT)
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>> Tyler Pager, who has been a standout reporter at the Washington Post, is rejoining the NYT to report on the Trump White House. (NYT)
>> Three Politico reporters – Meridith McGraw, Olivia Beavers and Gavin Bade – are joining the Wall Street Journal. "This is an incredibly exciting moment for the WSJ Washington bureau," DC coverage chief Damian Paletta said. (X)
>> ABC and Ryan Seacrest's New Year's Eve telecast peaked with 21.5 million viewers at midnight, basically on par with the year before. (TheWrap)
>> Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen's annual special was #1 on cable; "CNN also said that its Max streaming option CNN Max had its fourth best day on record, after only the 2024 election night and the two presidential debates." (THR)
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"Mark Zuckerberg preps for Trump 2.0..." |
"...by boosting an in-house Republican."
That's the headline on Peter Kafka's Business Insider piece about Joel Kaplan replacing Nick Clegg as Meta's top policy executive. As Semafor's Liz Hoffman, Reed Albergotti, and Gina Chon first reported, Kaplan's promotion is a sign of the times, as "executives once on Trump's enemies list have come to Mar-a-Lago bearing gifts — Zuckerberg brought a pair of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses — and a major attitude adjustment." Meta's political operation "is now well placed for a Republican-dominated Washington..."
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>> "After nearly two decades of fighting, the battle over regulations that treat broadband providers as utilities came to an end on Thursday" when the Biden administration's net neutrality rules were struck down by an appeals court. (NYT)
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Apple is paying $95 million "to resolve a class-action lawsuit that alleged the company obtained private communications and shared them with third parties without consent through
Siri." (WSJ)
>> Spotify is launching a new program that provides creators with "opportunities for extra income beyond just advertising revenue, such as video payouts." (TechCrunch)
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>> "The 73 Percent Solution:" Carlos Lozada says you shouldn't 100% agree with any opinion columnist. "Audiences complain about the contrarian shout-fests in the mainstream media," he writes, "but I'm more troubled by the self-assured nod-fests." So how about... 73%? (NYT)
>> While the TikTok ban looms, "users are taking an I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it approach as they continue posting dance videos, promoting products from TikTok Shop and telling personal stories while getting ready to go out..." (WSJ)
>> Jeffrey Fleishman got to know "Know Your Enemy," a "sort of anti-Joe Rogan program for a perplexed and dismayed left-wing set" that wants to understand conservative media and history... (LAT)
>> Jason Zinoman, assessing this period of startup comedy and Netflix specials, says "honing jokes has taken a back seat to marketing," and that's not good for comics or the people they're performing for... (NYT)
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Arturo Holmes/Getty Images |
>> "Billie Eilish's 'Birds of a Feather' has flown to the top of Spotify's list of biggest songs of 2024 with 1.775 billion streams," Mesfin Fekadu writes... (THR)
>> "Last year, China's box office receipts plummeted by 23%, compared to 2023," Juliana Liu writes... (CNN)
>> Happy Golden Globes weekend! "Emilia Perez," with ten nominations, is the "strong favorite..." (AFP)
>> Host Nikki Glaser is practicing her opener at comedy clubs... (THR)
>> Deadline previews the weekend's parties here... (Deadline)
>> And last but not least, Apple TV+ is free to stream this weekend... (Variety)
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