Good morning. Here's the latest on CNBC, "Minecraft," TikTok, Laura Loomer, The New Yorker, Ross Douthat, Tracy Chapman, and more... |
Be prepared, not panicked |
How are media outlets supposed to thoroughly report on a stock market panic without furthering the panic?
That question is top of mind for journalists as global markets plunge and U.S. stock futures point to further declines at the open today. Industry leaders like Jamie Dimon and Trump boosters like Bill Ackman are sounding alarms... Bankers and analysts are making frightening comparisons to 1987, 2008 and 2020... And financial news websites are dusting off their explainers about circuit breakers, just in case. One of CNBC.com's top stories this morning: "How much do stocks have to drop before trading is halted?"
Veteran anchors and reporters are well acquainted with the balancing act that's required in the midst of a market meltdown. News coverage shouldn't underplay the volatility (lest the audience feel misinformed later) but shouldn't contribute to it, either. A broadcaster who has helped viewers navigate multiple crashes told me the following:
"Think of it like leaning back while riding a bike downhill. You don’t want to any of your own forward weight to contribute to the momentum."
This dynamic was evident on air during the Silicon Valley Bank panic of 2023. I observed at the time that experienced financial pundits were choosing their words very carefully – taking pains not to cause a bank run – even as partisan blowhards and social media clout-chasers stoked panic for their own purposes.
Here's the thing: This self-inflicted wound is so obviously painful that it needs no dramatization. But this moment does call for explanation. Bloomberg is out with a helpful stock market glossary – "terms for navigating a market meltdown" – and CNN has a recession explainer here.
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President Trump's dubiously calculated tariffs – and his indifference about the economic damage – is rightly resulting in the toughest coverage of his second term so far. News outlets are using phrases like "Trump's tariff chaos" and "Trump tariff market collapse," lest the selloff seem like it came out of nowhere.
"There seems to be a lack of acknowledgment of the real pain and panic people are feeling right now," Jake Tapper said to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on "SOTU" yesterday. The pain "is totally self-inflicted, which is why I'm calling it economic vandalism," Richard Quest told Erin Burnett the other day.
Many MAGA media outlets are still downplaying the situation – or distracting from it. (Check out Breitbart's homepage to see what I mean.) I ran a SnapStream search yesterday and found more than 50 references to "trans" on Fox since Trump's tariffs were announced. But some pro-Trump influencers (like Dave Portnoy) are being forthright about the tumult. As the Washington Post's Jeremy Barr put it, "some corners of conservative media aren't thrilled with Trump's tariffs."
>> The NYT's Lulu Garcia-Navarro with some food for thought: "I’ve seen countries collapse and it almost always comes from the hubris of one uncontrolled leader. Can be slow. Can be fast."
>> The DC Examiner's David Harsanyi with a prediction about pro-Trump punditry: "No matter what happens they'll pretend it worked."
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The viewer impulse to watch business news coverage during a market meltdown is "the same basic instinct that attracts onlookers to a car crash."
I quoted an investment firm consultant saying that back in 2008. And it's true again today. CNBC says Thursday (the first big selloff day after Trump's tariff rollout) was the channel's highest-rated day since January 2022 among total viewers. "CNBC Digital also had its best day for page views since January 2022 and, best day for unique visitors since May 2021," according to a spokesperson.
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Who, if anyone, is advising Trump to stay the course (and on the golf course) while so many others try to change his mind? What is he watching? His media diet is especially important right now. And thanks to The AP's
Alex Brandon, we know that the president did consume some news coverage that was critical of his tariff crusade over the weekend. In this photo, he is reading Saturday's New York Post:
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"The message is: crowd large," Mother Jones reporter Tim Murphy wrote after attending a #HandsOff protest in Manhattan, one of hundreds across the country on Saturday. "A lot of politicians and administrators and business leaders, in bowing to Trump, have drawn confidence and comfort from the perceived vibe shift. Events like this puncture that delusion. They are an unavoidable illustration of outrage." His point: "You can stop asking where the mass opposition is now—it's here."
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Shifting to the rest of the day's media world news now...
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'Warner Bros brings the box office back alive' |
☝️ That's how Deadline box office editor Anthony D'Alessandro framed the smash success of "A Minecraft Movie." With a $157 million domestic haul, this was "the biggest opening for a videogame feature take ever," he wrote. Social media videos showed "auditoriums full of middle schoolers hooting, hollering and shouting out meme lines from the game."
>> Industry analysts told CNN's Auzinea Bacon that "Minecraft" is the first big over-performing movie of 2025.
>> "There are no fail-safe formulas in Hollywood, but this one comes close," the NYT's Brooks Barnes observed.
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The NAB Show continues in Las Vegas today through Wednesday... Tonight the NCAA championship game tips off at 8:50pm on CBS/Paramount+... On Tuesday Chris Whipple's "Uncharted" hits bookshelves... On Wednesday CNN holds a prime time town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders... On Thursday "The Pitt" season one finale streams on Max... On Saturday UFC 314 takes place in Miami...
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Facebook officially stops fact-checking |
"By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over," Meta chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan says. "That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers. We announced in January we’d be winding down the program & removing penalties. In place of fact checks, the first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached."
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Last night Trump confirmed what CNN and other media outlets reported on Friday: That the Trump admin had been close to a TikTok deal last week, but Trump's additional 34% tariff on China blew it up. "We had a deal pretty much for TikTok — not a deal but pretty close — and then China changed the deal because of tariffs," Trump told reporters. "If I gave a little cut in tariffs they would have approved that deal in 15 minutes, which shows the power of tariffs."
So Trump is once again postponing enforcement of the TikTok sale-or-ban law – this time until mid June...
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The significance of Laura Loomer |
The far-right activist landed an Oval Office meeting with the president "after Loomer reached Trump by phone," CNN's Alayna Treene and Steve Contorno reported over the weekend. Writing for The Atlantic, Ali Breland argued that the Loomer meeting should be a "warning," saying "she is a testament to how much further to the right Trump has moved since his first term, and how much further he may be open to going." Meanwhile, as Axios noted here, MAGA media has "tiptoed" around the meeting and ensuing firings...
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"Republican senator floats using violence against journalists who report 'fake news.'" That's the headline from NBC's Megan Lebowitz. The senator was Markwayne Mullin, and when one of his hometown newspapers wrote a story about his comments, he "indicated he had been joking." Details here...
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>> New this morning: NYT opinion columnist Ross Douthat "will explore the New Right (and much more) through" a new podcast called "Interesting Times," Natalie Korach reports. (VF)
>> On Saturday's "Have I Got News For You," Amber Ruffin said "talking shit" got her uninvited to this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. (Daily Beast)
>> G/O Media announced the sale of both Quartz and The Inventory, marking "a near completion of the unraveling of G/O Media's portfolio," Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn reported. (Axios)
>> Liam Reilly interviewed TIME's creative director D.W. Pine, who recently published his 1,000th cover. (CNN)
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>> In The New Yorker's innovation and tech issue, out today, Kyle Chayka looks at "Bluesky's quest to build nontoxic social media." (New Yorker)
>> Kate Conger describes how X has been benefitting from Elon Musk's role as a Trump adviser. (NYT)
>> The BBC "has filed a complaint with a UK antitrust regulator complaining that aggregators like Apple News and Google News minimize credit for the stories they feature." (TechCrunch)
>> Major traffic declines have left publishers feeling "betrayed" by Google's shift to AI-generated answers in search, Davey Alba and Julia Love report. (Bloomberg)
>> Shanti Das documented how "TikTok makes money from child begging livestreams." (The Guardian)
>> Silicon Valley and Hollywood and stars collided at the Breakthrough Prize Ceremony in Santa Monica on Saturday. (THR)
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>> No "White Lotus" spoilers here – I haven't watched the season three finale yet! – but this John Koblin piece says it has "built one of the largest audiences of any HBO series," with a whodunit plot that harkens back to "broadcast hits from an earlier era." (NYT)
>> "Hollywood's hopes for a 2025 comeback are fading fast," partly due to tariff impacts, Lucia Moses writes. (Business Insider)
>> Lindsay Zoladz landed a rare interview with Tracy Chapman, who is "breaking her silence to look back on her self-titled debut and its powerful hit 'Fast Car.'" (NYT)
>> "Jay North, who starred as the towheaded mischief maker on TV's 'Dennis the Menace' for four seasons starting in 1959, has died." He was 73. (AP)
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