Good morning from Kiawah Island, SC. I'm here for Bruin Capital and Sportico's sports leadership conference. Scroll down for media headlines about Sarah Wynn-Williams, CBS, David Culver, "The Handmaid's Tale," and more... |
On paper the Associated Press just won a major First Amendment victory.
It's a valuable sheaf of paper: A firm ruling from a federal judge that President Trump's "brazen" punishment of The AP is unconstitutional and must end.
But what will it mean in practice? Will the Trump White House respect the judge's order and restore The AP's access – or come up with new ways to crack down on the free flow of information?
Some White House correspondents expect the latter. There is, in the words of one veteran on the beat, "deep concern" about what Trump might try next.
After all, the Trump administration now picks and chooses which media outlets are in the press pool every day, and makes sure to add pro-Trump friends to the nonpartisan fray. (Today CNN and NPR will be joined by One America News and Breitbart.)
Judge Trevor McFadden's order is "for the Government to put the AP on an equal playing field as similarly situated outlets, despite the AP's use of disfavored terminology." So, if Bloomberg and Reuters are allowed in the press pool, The AP should be allowed too. But it's easy to think of ways to weasel around the ruling and further reduce media access.
Historically all three wires have been a daily part of the pool, but the Trump press shop has already been making Reuters and Bloomberg take turns, while excluding The AP altogether.
When I sounded this pessimistic note (sorry!) on CNN's NewsNight last night, other panelists observed that Trump craves cameras and attention. True! Maybe he will just ignore The AP's questions. Bottom line: We just don't know what the White House's next move will be.
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Will WH seek an emergency stay? |
Shortly after the ruling yesterday, an AP reporter and photographer were turned away from joining a motorcade with the White House press pool," the AP's own media reporter David Bauder noted in his story.
Maybe that's because Judge McFadden, a Trump appointee, put a hold on his own order to give the White House time to respond. The admin has until Sunday "to provide the government time to seek an emergency stay from a higher court and to prepare to implement the court's injunction."
You can read the ruling for yourself here. Pro-Trump social media influencers immediately posted the judge's photo (in what is now recognized as an attempt to intimidate) and some encouraged the White House to ignore his ruling altogether. Thus the AP dispute is now part of a much bigger story: About Trump and the rule of law.
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Sarah Wynn-Williams testifies |
Former Facebook employee Sarah Wynn-Williams, who authored "Careless People" last month, will testify before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee this afternoon. The hearing is being called "A Time For Truth." In prepared testimony, she says "I saw Meta executives repeatedly undermine US national security and betray American values." NBC has more here, including Meta's statement calling the testimony "divorced from reality and riddled with false claims..."
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"Having lived through three prior periods of economic weakness, we can't seem to shake off the feeling that this time feels different," Michael Nathanson and his colleagues at MoffettNathanson write in a new note for media and tech sector investors this morning.
With a recession appearing increasingly likely, Nathanson says tens of billions of ad spending is at risk. "Given the ongoing secular headwinds facing the linear TV ecosystem, we worry that television could mirror the fate of radio and newspapers during past recessions," he writes. "Should budgets shift away from linear TV at an accelerated pace, we see risk of a more permanent reallocation toward connected TV and broader digital channels." He recommends Netflix and Alphabet for "investors looking for a safe place to hide" right now...
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MrBeast makes it relatable |
Popular online media personalities continue to make the tariff pain relatable by translating the news for their own audiences. I mentioned Dave Portnoy's comments the other day. Now here's Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, who explained to his millions of X followers "how for some companies, like his chocolate business Feastables, Trump's tariffs don't actually incentivize businesses to move manufacturing into the United States." TechCrunch's Amanda Silberling has all the context here.
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>> Per Reuters, "China began censoring some tariff-related content on social media" after America's 104% tariffs on Chinese goods took effect this morning. But posts criticizing the U.S. are getting through, and they are "top hits."
>> Tariffs are giving brands an "opening for 'Made in America' ads – with carefully chosen words," as Patrick Coffee explains in this morning's WSJ.
>> Vanity Fair's Natalie Korach describes the Murdoch media empire's split reaction to Trump’s tariffs: The Wall Street Journal and New York Post are expressing concern while Fox News is cracking jokes.
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>> Dr. Jon LaPook of CBS News landed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s first network interview since taking charge of HHS. The sit-down is airing this morning. Kennedy said what the medical community wanted him to say many weeks ago: That "the federal government's position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine."
>> Yes, but: RFK's recent comments in support of the vaccine are "stoking fury among his supporters," NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports.
>> RFK has promised "radical transparency," but the recent cuts "included the very people who communicated the health department’s work to Americans," the NYT's Maggie Astor writes.
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Exclusive – and on every screen |
Yesterday CNN's David Culver "had exclusive access to El Salvador's high-security prison," CECOT, "following the arrival of the latest round of deportees from the United States," Poynter's Tom Jones writes.
Culver filed a live report as soon as his team regained cell phone service outside the prison. And as you can see above, it was streamed every which way – on CNN's TV networks, website and mobile app. "Essentially it was a digital livestream, simultaneously broadcast on CNN/US, CNNI and CNNE," a rep says.
>> In a Q&A with Jones , Culver said CECOT "is a symbol. For many here, it's strength. For others, it's repression... We're not here to decide what’s right. We’re here to show what's real — and help people see the full picture."
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'Libs of TikTok' along for the ride |
Chaya Raichik, who runs the far-right "Libs of TikTok" account, tagged along with ICE "as part of a 'sting operation' to arrest illegal immigrants in Phoenix," the Arizona Republic's Stephanie Murray reports. "Exclusive footage coming soon," Raichik promised her followers.
Raichik's ridealong is the latest illustration of what NYT TV critic James Poniewozik recently called the "Department of Homeland Publicity." He said Kristi Noem's social feeds are a "short-form reality show" about immigration enforcement, with a visual aesthetic that "borrows from terrorism dramas, crime dramas — the kinds of stories, like '24,' that have in the past suggested that personal liberties and due process can get in the way of safety." Read on...
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>> The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has named Mitali Mukherjee its new director. (Reuters Institute)
>> MSNBC has tapped Madeleine Haeringer as senior VP of digital, audio, and longform. (THR)
>> Vanity Fair deputy editor Daniel Kile "has been named interim EIC while Conde Nast searches for a successor to Radhika Jones." (X, Puck)
>> Credit where it's due: The details of Nick Viall's eight-figure podcast deal were first reported by Ashley Carman of Bloomberg. Apologies for the oversight!
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>> A new survey from Poynter and the University of Minnesota shows that "nearly half of Americans say they don’t want news from generative artificial intelligence," with 20% of respondents saying that "publishers shouldn't use AI at all." (Poynter)
>> "Some news publishers see resurgence of Facebook referral traffic, but aren’t sure what to make of it," Sara Guaglione reports. (Digiday)
>> X has reached a deal to drop Twitch from its wide-ranging lawsuit alleging an advertiser conspiracy against the platform. (Reuters)
>> Joe Perticone asks: "What's the point in TikTok ban if Trump won't enforce it?" (Bulwark)
>> The aforementioned Peter Kafka says "face computers are face-planting." (Business Insider)
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Sports and entertainment notes |
>> "NCAA March Madness ended with a bang, with Monday's championship game drawing its biggest audience since 2019," an average of 18.1 million viewers. (TheWrap)
>> "'Adolescence’ is still going strong on Netflix, soaring to fourth place on the streamer’s ‘Most Popular English TV’ list in the past week." (Deadline)
>> Apple is offering a rare Apple TV+ discount right now. (THR)
>> The final season of "The Handmaid's Tale" is here: the first three episodes debuted on Hulu yesterday. Note to my wife: Let's watch this weekend! (ABC)
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Preserving iconic recordings 👂 |
"Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,' Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On,' Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black,' albums by Miles Davis and Steve Miller Band, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's revolutionary musical 'Hamilton' are just some of the latest recordings to be added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, to be preserved for future generations," David Morgan writes for CBS.
This morning the library "announced 25 audio recordings that are being inducted to the registry." One addition "is barely six seconds long: Brian Eno's chime heard when booting up Windows 95." Remember it?
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