Hope you're having a great week. Here's the latest on Jeff Bezos, Semafor, Gayle King, YouTube, Peter Baker, WBD, Paramount, and more...
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📣 Civil servants speak out |
As President Trump and Elon Musk take their proverbial chainsaws to the federal government, new sources of information are proliferating – and proving to be influential.
Websites like "We The Builders" and newsletters like "Dear Civil Servant" are giving voice to the fears and frustrations of federal workers. On the left, outlets like Democracy Docket and Zeteo are also seeing big growth, and the anti-Trump MeidasTouch show continues to outrank Joe Rogan on Apple's top pod chart.
"Around a dozen current and former federal workers are behind" the "We The Builders" site, which was "created as an outlet to share anonymous stories and technical expertise" about DOGE's dismantling of government agencies, The Verge's Lauren Feiner reported. The name comes from the organizers' view that "They are destroyers. We are the builders."
"Dear Civil Servant" is an offshoot of the group Protect Democracy, which publishes via Substack. The authors of the newsletter, Erica Newland and Jules Torti, are two former civil servants themselves.
"We didn't see resources that spoke to the vulnerability or intensity of the moment for the people who do the day to day work of keeping the government delivering for the American people," they told me. So they try to "sift through the noise and highlight critical resources and updates that affect civil servants, especially now that many government sources of information are no longer trustworthy."
Sites like Civil Service Strong are also filling the void. Journalists at niche outlets like GovExec are working overtime. And the r/FedNews forum on Reddit has been an vital resource; some posts encourage employees to feed information to reporters despite being told not to do so.
>> About that: The Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School sensed that many federal workers want to get their stories out, but don't know how, so it published a guide to "securely connecting with the media."
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Right-wing 'pipeline' of influence |
Pro-Trump content creators are also wielding a lot of influence right now. That's the subject of this new I-wish-I'd-written-it story by New York Times reporter Zach Montague. He describes the "pipeline" from right-wing influencers to Elon Musk.
"In multiple instances, viral posts by Chaya Raichik, who is the creator of the Libs of TikTok account and regularly attacks transgender people online, and Christopher Rufo, a writer who has worked to push conservatives further right on education issues, have prompted quick adjustments to public-facing government documents and even policy," Montague wrote. Read all about the "pipeline" here...
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"Reversing decades of precedent, the White House Correspondents' Association announced Wednesday that it would no longer coordinate shared coverage" of the White House, Politico's Ben Johansen wrote yesterday.
The issue is obvious: With Trump's press shop now picking the daily members of the press pool, the correspondents' association can't vouch for the accuracy of the info. WHCA president Eugene Daniels wrote to the press corps and listed a series of questions the White House needs to answer, or at least consider, like "How do they plan to create a rotation of news outlets?" and "Is the White House picking and choosing by outlet, or individual journalist?"
>> Writing for CJR, Paul Farhi is skeptical that the White House will be able to fill the pool with MAGA media stalwarts, noting that right-wing startups might not be able to "bear the cost and commitment that pool duty entails." (Then again, the Trump White House might make taxpayers foot the bill.)
>> At yesterday's cabinet meeting, Fox's Lawrence Jones was allowed in, along with poolers from Newsmax and Blaze Media, while The AP and Reuters were kept out. Today's pool includes NewsNation, Salem Radio, and the Heritage Foundation's Daily Signal.
>> Trump is holding a joint presser with British prime minister Keir Starmer this afternoon, and I'll be watching to see if any outlets are barred from attending...
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Meanwhile, Peter Baker elaborated on his tweets about Trump's Kremlinesque crackdown on the press in a new NYT piece. Baker acknowledges all the differences between the U.S. and Russia, but says the Trump administration's efforts to "pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir Putin's reign."
This is the standout part of his piece: "Every day someone who used to feel free to speak publicly against Mr. Trump says they will no longer let journalists quote them by name for fear of repercussions, both Democrats and Republicans. They worry about an F.B.I. headed by an avowed partisan warrior who has already developed what seems to be an enemies list. They fear that their outspokenness may hurt family members who work for the government. They are gambling that if they lie low maybe they will be forgotten."
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The Bezos agenda in action |
Jeff Bezos wants the Washington Post's opinion section to mimic Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. Post Opinions boss David Shipley isn't standing in the way; he's leaving. Other opinion staffers are wondering if they should leave, too. Most of all they're wondering: Is Bezos trying to appeal to President Trump to protect/advance his varied business interests in DC?
Amanda Katz, who was a senior opinion section editor until December, voiced some of her former colleagues' suspicions on Bluesky. Katz said the Post is abandoning its principles "in favor of a white male billionaire's self-interested agenda." By declaring that the Post will write every day in support of free markets and personal liberties, without any opposing views, Bezos is announcing "the end of any kind of op-ed section, as traditionally understood," Katz added. "It no longer presents a variety of opinion but a propaganda push to benefit the owner."
Newsroom staffers are on edge about the change. And the business side is dealing with another round of subscriber cancellations, four months after Bezos blocked the editorial board's endorsement of Kamala Harris and caused a huge exodus of paying customers.
Meantime, the Journal editorial board is welcoming Bezos to the "freedom" fight. Elon Musk applauded his rival's announcement. And a Trump White House aide noted the Post's shift with a gleeful Grinch gif...
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>> Former Post exec editor Marty Baron said the Amazon and Blue Origin founder "has prioritized those commercial interests over The Post" and called it a betrayal.
>> Post opinion staffers were "shocked and stunned at the sudden turn of events," Ben Mullin reports on Page One of today's New York Times. Conversely, there is no mention of the Post controversy on its own front page. The Post's short news story carried a "By staff" label rather than a byline. Will anyone from the opinion section weigh in?
>> Post veterans like David Maraniss and Cameron Barr are speaking out. When Barr wrote on LinkedIn that "I am ending my professional association" with the Post, pre-Bezos-era publisher Katharine Weymouth responded to "applaud your principled stand."
>> "You have an owner whose political perspectives are evolving quite rapidly and who, like a lot of billionaires, lives outside of consequence," a Post insider told NYMag's Charlotte Klein. "This is probably not a great commercial move, but he has the cash to be careless."
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Political media notes and quotes |
>> Developing this morning: "Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, have left for the U.S. after a travel ban on them was lifted." (AP)
>> An observation after listening to Trump's cabinet meeting: Just as he tried to redefine "hoax" to mean true stories that he didn't want people to believe, Trump is trying to redefine "fraud" to mean government spending that he doesn't like. (Bluesky)
>> Trump says his legal team wants "a lot" of money to settle his frivolous lawsuit against CBS and Paramount. (Deadline)
>> Paramount is "pulling back" on its DEI policies. (NYT)
>> NPR's chief diversity officer Keith Woods is retiring. (NPR)
>> Recommended: Peter Kafka's latest podcast episode is with David Enrich. The topic: "How Trump could change free speech as we know it." (Business Insider)
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How to stream Semafor's news summit |
Semafor is calling this afternoon's event in DC "Innovating to Restore Trust in News: A National Summit." Justin B. Smith, Ben Smith and Max Tani are going to interview the following media industry leaders back to back: Bret Baier, Brendan Carr, Cesar Conde, Mehdi Hasan, Joe Kahn, Megyn Kelly, Katherine Maher, Mark Thompson, Emma Tucker, Jim Brady, and Jim Clifton. You can live-stream the event starting at 2:10 p.m. ET via YouTube...
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>> Just now on "CBS Mornings," Gayle King said she is blasting off on a Blue Origin space launch this spring. The all-female flight will also include Lauren Sanchez and Katy Perry. (CBS)
>> Roughly 48 Los Angeles Times newsroom staffers are taking buyouts. "This is a pretty significant chunk of the remaining staff," Ben Mullin notes. (X)
>> California Gov. Gavin Newsom is launching his own podcast. (TheWrap)
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Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent) reported this morning "that it ended 2024 with 116.9 million global streaming subscribers, compared with 110.5 million as of the end of September," THR's Georg Szalai reports. In a message to shareholders, the company "outlined a path to 150 million subscribers in 2026." WBD's direct to consumer unit "posted a quarterly profit of $409 million... compared with a $55 million year-ago loss." WBD shares are up almost 5% in premarket trading. More from THR here...
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Paramount reported a net loss of $224 million during 2024’s fourth quarter, down from $514 million a year earlier, THR's Etan Vlessing reports. The company's direct to consumer segment saw an adjusted loss of $286 million (a big improvement from the year before) and its Paramount+ platform added 5.6 million new subscribers during the quarter...
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Via Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw: "YouTube is the biggest podcasting platform in the world. It's the biggest music service in the world. It's the biggest video service in the world. It's the biggest entertainment platform ever."
Shaw was reacting to YouTube's new statement that it has surpassed one billion monthly podcast consumers on its platform. "We've just been able to see this really powerful growth" of podcasts, "and it's not shown any signs of slowing down," YouTube VP for news partnerships Tim Katz told Semafor's Max Tani...
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>> Meta's Oversight Board is looking to examine the company's sweeping content moderation changes. (Engadget)
>> Four ex-Twitter workers have achieved "early victories in legal challenges to Elon Musk's mass layoffs when he bought the company in 2022." (Bloomberg)
>> Amazon has unveiled Alexa+, a revamped version of its popular voice assistant. Lisa Eadicicco has details here. (CNN)
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Tributes to Gene Hackman are pouring in after the Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead at their Santa Fe home. "One of Hollywood's most prolific stars," Hackman's film career "spanned more than 40 years and nearly 80 films," Dennis McLellan wrote for the L.A. Times. He was "equally believable in roles as lower-class losers and high-powered executives," Variety's Carmel Dagan and J. Kim Murphy wrote.
Hackman was "a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity," Francis Ford Coppola wrote on Instagram this morning. The NYT has compiled "five memorable performances to stream" here.
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