Happy Wednesday! Here's the latest on Netflix, Sean Hannity, TikTok, Democracy Docket, Trevor Noah, the WSJ, and more...
|
Rupert Murdoch's media empire just did something it very rarely does.
It said sorry.
Prince Harry's long legal battle against Murdoch’s UK newspapers "took an unexpected turn" earlier today "after the duke settled his case over allegations of unlawful information gathering shortly before the trial was due to get underway," CNN's Lauren Kent and Lauren Said-Moorhouse report from London.
"In a monumental victory today, News UK have admitted that The Sun, the flagship title for Rupert Murdoch's UK media empire, has indeed engaged in illegal practices," Prince Harry and fellow claimant Tom Watson said in a statement read aloud by their lawyer outside court.
It's something of a capstone to the decades-old phone hacking scandal that cost the Murdoch empire in excess of $1 billion.
This settlement will cost the company some more. Although the exact amount is not known, some media reports have pointed to an eight-figure sum, which would likely include legal costs as well as damages. A source involved in the case did not refute the figure when asked by CNN.
Perhaps even more notably, Murdoch's News Group Newspapers issued a lengthy apology letter to Prince Harry "for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life." The apology goes on for five paragraphs...
|
The end, or a new beginning? |
By settling, Murdoch is avoiding the spectacle of a trial, but not the shame of an apology and payout. CNN's team has the latest here, and for a blow-by-blow of how it all went down, check out the BBC's live updates page here.
The claimants are urging the police and parliament to investigate further now that the newspaper group has admitted to unlawful activity...
|
|
|
President Trump is now talking about TikTok entirely as a deal making exercise. "I have the right to make a deal," he said yesterday, rhetorically repositioning the U.S. law banning TikTok as a big business opportunity for the U.S. and his tech mogul friends. He said he would be open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison taking over the video platform. Of course, ByteDance would have to be open to a deal.
Some analysts believe TikTok's fate is tied up in Trump's other dealings with China, like his threats to impose new tariffs. "TikTok is one poker chip in the broader game of high stakes poker between China and the US," Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives told me this morning...
>> At an Axios-sponsored event at Davos today, ByteDance board member Bill Ford said a deal will get done because "it's in everybody's interest."
>> Meantime, ByteDance's CapCut is now working again in the U.S., for users who already have the app on their phones. But ByteDance's apps remain unavailable in the Apple and Google app stores, owing to the continued uncertainty over the TikTok ban law...
|
|
|
The way Trump sees it, "he didn't only defeat the Democrats in the 2024 campaign; he also vanquished the remnants of Republican opposition, the mainstream media and a justice system that he saw as a force weaponized against him," this new NYT piece points out.
You could hear this attitude in his Q&A with the press pool yesterday. Trump tried to shut down a sharp line of questioning by NBC's Peter Alexander by citing the election results. "Stop interrupting," Trump said when Alexander pushed him about the January 6 pardons. "Take a look at the election. Just look at the numbers on the election. We won this election in a landslide, because the American public is tired of people like you that are just one-sided, horrible people, in terms of crime."
Whether he's sidelining DEI employees or stigmatizing trans Americans, he and his favorite Fox hosts are going to keep citing his win while claiming journalists just don't understand it...
|
|
|
Hannity taping with Trump |
In January 2017, Trump granted his first big interview as president to ABC anchor David Muir. By selecting ABC, Trump was seeking a big broadcast audience, but it might have backfired because he made lots of false claims, attacked the media, and seemed "obsessed with his own popularity."
Rereading the coverage of that interview eight years later, Trump sounded more like a Fox host than a newly inaugurated president. This time around, Trump's first post-inauguration interview is going to Fox's Sean Hannity, who was given the nickname "shadow chief of staff" during his last administration.
Last night, Trump chatted with the House GOP leadership during a special show from Capitol Hill. This morning, he is taping an interview with Trump in the Oval Office and air it on his 9 p.m. show, as Stef W. Kight was first to report. Fox will likely release a clip or two in advance...
|
Daily Wire names WH correspondent |
It's still unclear when Karoline Leavitt will hold her first White House press briefing. But whenever she does, there may be some new faces in the briefing room. This week The Daily Wire named Mary Margaret Olohan as its first White House correspondent. Will other pro-Trump outlets follow Daily Wire's lead and add reporting staff in DC, or remain content to feed off others' reporting?
|
WSJ editorial board chastises Trump |
In a pair of editorials this morning, the conservative editorial board writers at the WSJ express disappointment with Trump's first moves in office. They call Trump's 75-day pause of the TikTok ban an "illegal amnesty" since none of the conditions allowing Trump to grant a reprieve "have been met," and they call Trump's mass pardons for January 6 "cop beaters" a "rotten message from a president about political violence done on his behalf..."
|
|
|
Political media notes and quotes |
>> That WSJ editorial is an exception to the rule. For the most part, pro-Trump outlets are either defending or downplaying the pardons... (Media Matters)
>> "Trump world and conservative media continue to rewrite Jan. 6 history," media critic Tom Jones writes. (Poynter)
>> Jim Sciutto says one apparent lesson from Trump's pardons is that "disinformation works." (X)
>> +1 to Stephen Collinson's lead: "It already feels like he's been back for months." (CNN)
>> Jake Lahut reports that journalists on the White House beat have "plenty to worry about" with Trump back in office, "but some are looking forward to the press having better access." (CJR)
>> But "access is overrated" when newsmakers' answers are bogus, Patrick Radden Keefe points out: "If you’re dealing with pathological liars, I don’t know how good the access is,” Keefe tells Aidan McLaughlin on this week's Press Box podcast. (Mediaite)
|
|
|
Democracy Docket posts growth |
I mentioned yesterday that I'm keeping an eye on new media outlets that take advantage of this unsettled moment. Here's an example: One of the Democratic party's leading election lawyers, Marc Elias, has been building out Democracy Docket, which he describes as a "pro-democracy news outlet untethered to corporate interests."
The site focuses on court cases and voting rights from a progressive POV, and "since the election," Elias told me, the site "has seen a 30% increase in free subscribers and 118% increase in paid premium members," with more than 300,000 free subscribers total. Inauguration Day was one of its top days for converting visitors into subscribers...
|
How's that for a catchy name? Mehdi Hasan's Zeteo is starting a YouTube live show to cover the "chaos" of Trump's first 100 days back in office. Co-hosts Francesca Fiorentini and Wajahat Ali are hosting the show Mondays and Thursdays at 8pm ET... |
"About 90 minutes after Trump took the oath of office," Vox Media "debuted a new daily newsletter called The Logoff," NiemanLab's Joshua Benton writes.
What a name! Vox says the newsletter will be an "as-short-as-possible explanation of the most important news of the day regarding the new president." No distractions. "And when there's no meaningful news at all, we'll tell you so," the letter promises.
It's an obvious bid to reach news avoiders and the politically exhausted. As Benton says, "there's power in the framing you present to your audience — and 'We aim to make you 10% more sane for the next four years' is a hell of a pitch..."
|
|
|
>> Kaitlan Collins opened "The Source" last night by noting that she is also back in DC as CNN's chief White House correspondent. "That means that every night here at 9 p.m., I'll have new reporting on what's happening behind closed doors," she said...
>> Sign of the podcasting times: Will Cain debuted in Fox's 4 p.m. ET time slot yesterday with a podcast mic on his host desk... (Variety)
>> Fox News was the highest-rated channel by far during Monday's inauguration, just like it was in 2017. MSNBC's ratings were (unsurprisingly) low. (NYT)
>> Overall, Trump's second inauguration "wasn't as widely viewed as his first," but that is "keeping with a historical pattern for second-term presidents," Rick Porter notes. (THR)
|
|
|
Netflix's blowout earnings |
"This is what winning looks like," Pivotal Research analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak said as he reacted to Netflix's "blowout" subscriber growth and other strong quarterly earnings stats. Shares in the company are up about 15% in premarket trading, flirting with the $1,000 mark for the first time.
The streamer reported 19 million new subscribers in the last quarter of 2024, its greatest quarterly gain ever, and announced "it will raise prices on most of its subscription tiers in the US and Canada," Liam Reilly reports...
>> Netflix "also shared that including 'extra member accounts,' its global audience is estimated to be exceed 700 million," CNBC notes...
>> The key for Netflix going forward "is to press their advantages and keep the subscriber/ARPU flywheel going," Wlodarczak said, "because the larger they get, the more leverage they have over their peers/content creators, the better their product gets (allowing them to drive subscriber/ARPU growth), the more cash they have to spend on compelling content and the bigger the moat grows around their core business model."
|
|
|
>> Meta has launched "a slew of updates to its Reels short-form video platform — and is offering sizable cash bonuses — in an effort to lure TikTok creators to its platform," Alex Weprin reports. (THR)
>> The New York Times "is exploring bundled subscription partnerships with smaller publishers to expand its subscriber base in the U.S.," Sara Fischer reports. (Axios)
>> "Substack advertising is turning writers into part-time sales reps," Katie Deighton explains... (WSJ)
|
|
|
>> "The Grammy Awards are sticking with their man: Trevor Noah will host the show for the fifth consecutive time." (AP)
>> Ryan Gosling is in talks to join Shawn Levy's "Star Wars" project. (THR)
>> Using its "Content Valuation methodology," Parrot Analytics says the season two premiere of "Severance" generated over $200 million for Apple. (Deadline)
>> Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' "Die With a Smile" has secured "a third total and consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart." (Billboard)
>> The Ankler "is launching an entertainment business trade publication dedicated to the creator economy" called "Like & Subscribe." (Axios)
|
|
|
|
® © 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
