Happy Tuesday! Here's the latest on Paramount, Spotify, Ed Helms, Katherine Maher, "The Walking Dead," Beyoncé, the Detroit Opera House, and more... |
President Trump is taping an interview with ABC's Terry Moran this morning. This one will have all the frills: An Oval Office interview setting, a prime time network airing. It will also be ABC's first sit-down with Trump since the broadcaster's parent Disney paid $16 million to settle his defamation lawsuit last December.
Today, 100 days into Trump's second term, it's clear that the ABC settlement was a harbinger. It was "part of a broader strategy," Eric Cortellessa wrote in a recent TIME cover story. "Trump believed that if ABC would cave, so too would other companies worried about getting on his bad side, according to three sources familiar with his thinking."
This push and pull has been the overarching media story of Trump's first 100 days. Trump needs media attention, but wants it on his terms. Thus Voice of America is out (at least pending court appeals) and The War Room is in. He wants revenge against his critics and rah-rah coverage from, well, everyone. But is he getting it? Yes and no.
In the same way that some law firms cut deals while others went to court, and in the same way that some universities squirmed while others took a stand, some big media players have sought to placate Trump while others have decided not to play that game at all. As Tom Foreman writes in this 100-days piece for CNN.com subscribers, Trump's revenge tour is underway, "but so is a growing resistance."
At Paramount, it's all happening under the same roof:
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Reps for Trump and Paramount "are scheduled to meet Wednesday before a mediator who will determine the fate of Trump's $20 billion lawsuit against CBS," Charlie Gasparino reports for the New York Post. Paramount is declining to comment.
While the lawsuit is frivolous, it represents a serious obstacle for Shari Redstone and her Paramount payday, which is why so many insiders expect a settlement. Yesterday, FCC chair Brendan Carr asserted that settlement talks "have nothing to do with the work that we're doing" and claimed his review of the Paramount deal is running its "normal course." Normal is certainly not the word I'd use. Scott Pelley's "60 Minutes" sign-off made the newsroom's POV crystal clear; I'm told there is absolute solidarity among reporters and producers there.
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'Campaign to censor and control' |
The Trump administration "is on a campaign to censor and control," FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, one of the panel’s Democratic dissenters, told Jake Tapper on "The Lead." Caving just "breeds further capitulation," she said. "So my sincere hope is actually that we'll have courage and that people will stand up and push back."
>> Brian Lowry's latest column for TheWrap: "Trump Turns M&A Dreams Into a Quid Pro Quo."
>> "Journalists can only be as brave as their bosses allow them to be," Tina Brown comments in her latest Fresh Hell dispatch.
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(Still) the cable news prez |
Andrew Kirell writes: Trump's TV fixation, a source of fascination during his first term, hasn't garnered as much attention this time around, but every so often his posts give away his viewing habits. Amid his usual flurry of early morning Truth Social tirades yesterday, Trump posted a seemingly random endorsement of rising country musician Warren Zeiders, prompting us to ask, "Huh? Why?" Turns out, Zeider appeared on Brian Kilmeade's late-night Sunday show and touted his conservative beliefs. Guess we can safely assume the president is watching Fox News even at 10pm on a Sunday...
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>> "The Trump administration is on a campaign to do everything it can to diminish and obstruct journalism in the United States," Columbia journalism professor Bill Grueskin tells the AP's David Bauder.
>> Reporters Without Borders says these 10 numbers sum up Trump's first 100 days.
>> Page One of today's New York Times showcases this look at the "reconfigured" White House briefing room.
>> Watch: CNN's Donie O'Sullivan recently met up with some of the MAGA media personalities who are now among Karoline Leavitt's favorites.
>> In a new WaPo piece, Philip Bump argues that Trump's informational bubble is the reason he's "stumbling" now. He likens Trumpworld to "an AI trained on a limited, flawed set of data."
>> View from the right: "Forget what the media says," The Daily Signal's Victor Davis Hanson says. Trump's first 100 days "have been revolutionary."
>> Another view from the right: On day 100, "Trump 2.0 Is in Trouble," the WSJ editorial board warns.
>> The Atlantic shared excerpts from its recent sit-down with Trump and audio from a March phone interview. Jeff Bezos? "He's 100%. He's been great," Trump said. Mark Zuckerberg? He's "been great," too.
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Spotify just keeps growing |
Looks like music and podcast listeners have thus far chosen to tune out the dire economic forecasting. "Spotify added 5 million paying subscribers in the first three months of the year, even as chief executive Daniel Ek warned about the 'short-term noise' around US President Donald Trump's tariffs," the FT's Anna Nicolaou reports. Spotify shares are down about 5% in premarket trading, however, likely due to its Q2 guidance...
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Today's new nonfiction releases |
Actor and comedian Ed Helms is out today with "SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups," a book inspired by his podcast of the same name.
Three new memoirs are also riding high on Amazon's new releases list: "My Next Breath" by Jeremy Renner, "Uptown Girl" by Christie Brinkley, and "This American Woman" by Zarna Garg.
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Public media chiefs speak out |
NPR CEO Katherine Maher will be Jordan Klepper's guest on "The Daily Show" tonight — an unusual booking that underscores how publicly funded media outlets are trying to galvanize support against Trump's bid to strip federal funding.
Relatedly, PBS CEO Paula Kerger will sit down with Sara Fischer at the Axios News Shapers event in DC tomorrow morning. The session will be live streamed...
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BBC publishes workplace culture report |
Some news about the BBC from the institution's culture reporter Ian Youngs: "A small number of BBC stars and managers 'behave unacceptably' at work, and bosses often fail to tackle them, a report into the broadcaster has found."
The report — conducted in the wake of the Huw Edwards scandal — was published in full here. The review "concluded there is not a widespread 'toxic' culture, but that there is 'a minority of people' whose bad behavior 'is not addressed.'" BBC chair Samir Shah says that will change...
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>> Yesterday the House passed the 'Take It Down' Act, "which aims to protect Americans from deepfake and revenge pornography," Betsy Klein and Haley Talbot report. Trump is expected to sign the bill into law. (CNN)
>> Alexander Saeedy's scoop on Page One of today's Journal: "Wall Street Banks Sell Final Slug of Elon Musk's X Debt." (WSJ)
>> Vanity Fair's longtime executive digital editor Mike Hogan is stepping down. (X)
>> Sewell Chan, who was recently fired by CJR over staff complaints about his behavior, was named a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership & Policy. (TheWrap)
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Liam Reilly writes: Kentucky has good odds for Journalism… the horse. Journalism has emerged as the early favorite for the state's 151st Derby on Saturday, holding 3-1 morning line odds as of today. Making this a too-good-not-to-include analogy, the 2025 Derby's runner-up is Sovereignty, a bay boasting 5-1 morning line odds whose sire is … Into Mischief.
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Manhattanites, watch out for zombies around Penn Station today. With "The Walking Dead: Dead City" coming back for season two this weekend, AMC is having the franchise's famed and feared "walkers" help hand out thousands of New York Post copies with this creative cover wrap:
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The "walker" sightings are part of a broader promotional blitz; some zombies even "ran" in the Brooklyn Half Marathon last weekend... |
>> Beyoncé kicked off her "Cowboy Carter" tour at SoFi Stadium last night. (Rolling Stone)
>> Capitalizing on the glee around "A Minecraft Movie," Warner Bros. Pictures is booking "immersive sing-along and meme-along block party screenings" this Friday. (Variety)
>> "Brad Pitt and 'Conclave' director Edward Berger will team on A24 feature 'The Riders,'" based on Tim Winton's novel of the same name. (THR)
>> Nellie Andreeva has word of three new Greg Berlanti projects in the pipeline. (Deadline)
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'Fear can't shut me down' |
As a new production of "The Central Park Five," the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, is slated to open on May 10 at the Detroit Opera House, the NYT's Robin Pogrebin reports that the opera company is well aware of the political context. "Its leadership team understands the perils of mounting a production that waves a red cape at a pumped-up, reactive presidency," she writes.
Trump is a character in the opera, since he infamously demonized the five teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of beating and raping a woman in 1989.
Todd Strange, who plays Trump in the opera, told Pogrebin that he does feel some trepidation about the role, given the president's vindictive nature, but "the fear can't shut me down."
"I'm not going to run away from the role," he added.
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