Top of the morning! Here's the latest on Elon Musk, Kari Lake, the Kennedy Center, Miles Taylor, Jen Psaki, DeepMind, "Love Island," and more... |
Public radio and TV stations are mobilizing in response to President Trump's proposal to claw back their next two years of federal funding. A 45-day clock is ticking.
"This rescission proposal is the most serious threat ever faced by public broadcasting," NPR CEO Katherine Maher told staffers and listeners yesterday. "We urge Congress to act in the interest of their constituents and save public broadcasting."
The lobbying effort that was already underway is now kicking into overdrive, beginning on the House side, since Speaker Mike Johnson said last night that he will put the White House's spending cuts request on the House floor next week.
Some of the cuts are related to DOGE initiatives, but defunding NPR and PBS is something else: a conservative activist cause for decades that has always run into resistance from Republican lawmakers in the past.
Will this time be different? Some public media execs are cautiously hopeful that they can convince some GOP moderates to ignore Trump's proposal, thereby killing it. Many Republicans are eager to strip the funding, however, and the White House push for passage is going to be intense.
So local stations – particularly those in states with persuadable lawmakers – are getting loud. "PBS COULD SHUT DOWN" without federal funding, a bright red box on the Maine Public Media home page says, linking to the "Protect My Public Media" hub.
"During this fight we will demonstrate our value to Congress," PBS CEO Paula Kerger said in a statement, "as we have over the last 50 years."
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A Republican's lone stand |
One GOP senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, is already on the record as opposing Trump’s effort to claw back the PBS and NPR $$. In a local newspaper editorial last month she called the public media system an "invaluable resource that saves lives in Alaska" and pledged to protect the roughly $12 million that her state's stations receive. But she is a lonely voice on this topic in her party.
As Liam Reilly and I wrote here, big stations in major metro areas would weather the loss of taxpayer support because they rely more heavily on donor contributions and other sources of revenue, while some smaller and more rural stations, like ones in Alaska, would be forced off the airwaves altogether.
Even the bigger stations would suffer because the federal funds help pay for the proverbial foundation of public radio and TV, like the connections between stations across the country. "To put it bluntly, this is the funding that keeps the lights on, keeps our signals on the air, and keeps the entire public media system working as a whole," New York Public Radio told supporters in a call-for-help email last night. The email said "time is of the essence," which inspired our title up top.
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"Just because conservatives have been pushing this for a long time doesn’t mean it’s popular," CNN's Aaron Blake reminds us in this analysis piece. "A March Pew Research Center poll showed Americans supported continuing the funding rather than ending it, 43% to 24%." About one-third of Americans offered no opinion.
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How will Trump respond to Musk? |
Last Friday, Trump gifted Elon Musk a "key to the White House."
"I guess he'd better change the locks," Jimmy Kimmel said last night.
Trump has yet to respond to Musk's "disgusting abomination" denouncement. This morning Musk continued on a posting tear against Trump's big bill. Yesterday Musk said he was "sorry," but he doesn't seem remorseful in his latest X replies and posts. He warned about overspending "bankrupting America," said the bill "more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the @DOGE team at great personal cost and risk," and agreed with a fan who said "it's not about Right vs Left. It's about the Establishment vs the People."
>> Fox's Peter Doocy probably said it best when he asked Karoline Leavitt, "How mad do you think President Trump is going to be when he finds out..."
>> Importantly, Musk is not the only GOP ally speaking out. Yesterday Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene "said that she had been unaware that the mega-bill she voted for would block states from regulating AI for a decade."
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The Washington Post obtained the reduction in force plan that Kari Lake sent to Congress yesterday. "If these layoffs are carried out in the coming weeks, only *80 people* will work at U.S. Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America — down from 1,300 in March," reported Scott Nover.
Notably, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting comes out practically unscathed under this plan, while VOA would have just 11 employees. (Presumably VOA would begin running programming from One America News, as Lake intends.)
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Sales ⬇️ at Trump's Kennedy Center |
Kennedy Center insiders compiled ticket and subscription sales data and made sure the NYT and WaPo got ahold of the info. It's "a window into the arts center's challenges following President Donald Trump's takeover," WaPo's Travis M. Andrews wrote. Sales have fallen "sharply," the NYT's Javier C. Hernández wrote, adding that "the Kennedy Center disputed the relevance of the data..."
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Trumpworld notes and quotes |
>> "The BBC has rejected incorrect White House criticism of its Gaza coverage, describing a claim that it had taken down a story as 'completely wrong.'" (BBC)
>> Author and outspoken Trump critic Miles Taylor says he's on a modern-day blacklist now that Trump has directed the DOJ to investigate him. He writes, "This is much bigger than me. This is about whether we will allow the President—any president, of any political party—to criminalize criticism." (TIME)
>> Politico took an in-depth look at "the Pentagon's chaotic communications team" and the dearth of press briefings. (Politico)
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'All Mike Lindell did was talk' |
Whenever Trump sees his ally Mike Lindell, Trump pours on the praise. A "patriot." A "brave guy." The "single greatest advertiser in history." Right now, though, Lindell is something else: A defendant. Lindell may take the stand later today. "This is his first time facing a jury" for 2020 lies, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan pointed out on "AC360."
O'Sullivan asked Lindell about the defamation charges: "If this jury sides with Eric Coomer, will it give you pause? Will it give you a moment where you say, hmm, maybe I'm wrong about this election stuff?"
"Never," Lindell said. "I'm not wrong."
Notably, though, Lindell's lawyers said in court yesterday that they won't try to prove his election lies during the trial. "All Mike Lindell did was talk," Chris Kachouroff told the jury...
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>> "YouTube has fired back at Disney, opposing Disney’s lawsuit attempting to block the video giant’s hiring of Justin Connolly." (Variety)
>> "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" has retained just about half of Rachel Maddow's coveted 9pm audience, Corbin Bolies reports. (Daily Beast)
>> "Paramount has fired its longtime media agency of record in a cost-saving move as its proposed merger with Skydance Media continues to gestate." (Deadline)
>> "New episodes of 'Jeopardy!' and 'Wheel of Fortune' will be available on both Hulu and Peacock beginning in September," marking the "first time that newer episodes of either show will be available on a streaming platform," John Koblin writes. (NYT)
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What is Ripple? It's a Washington Post project to host and promote lots of outside opinion columns — including from Substack — on the Post's website, the NYT's Ben Mullin reports. "Executives hope" that Ripple "will appeal to readers who want more breadth than The Post's current opinion section and more quality than social platforms like Reddit and X."
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Rejecting WBD pay packages |
In a symbolic move yesterday, nearly 60% of (CNN parent) Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted "to reject the pay packages for several of the company's executives, including CEO David Zaslav's compensation package of more than $50 million," CNN's Samantha Delouya reports. "Last year, shareholders narrowly approved executive pay, with 53% voting in favor." WBD's board of directors said it takes the results of the say-on-pay vote "seriously." Here's more.
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>> Trump "is poised to extend the TikTok ban deadline —for the third time — as the White House and China prepare to hold trade talks," Charlie Gasparino hears. (NYPost)
>> Speaking of... The Free Press recently published an editorial pointing out that the ban is the law of the land, so it's "time to enforce it, Mr. President." (The FP)
>> Gina Chua writes that AI is "tantalizingly close" to offering consumers personalized news diets. (Semafor)
>> "Anthropic's AI is writing its own blog — with human oversight," Kyle Wiggers reports. (TechCrunch)
>> Puck is adding Ian Krietzberg, former EIC of The Deep View, as AI Correspondent and author of a newsletter titled The Hidden Layer. (Facebook)
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What's on the mind of DeepMind's CEO |
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google's AI research arm DeepMind is less worried about an AI "jobpocalypse" and more concerned "about the technology falling into the wrong hands — and a lack of guardrails to keep sophisticated, autonomous AI models under control," CNN's Lisa Eadicicco and Anna Stewart write. Stewart sat down with Hassabis yesterday — check out the interview here...
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OpenAI movie in the works |
Luca Guadagnino is lining up to direct "Artificial," a "recounting of the tumultuous period at artificial intelligence company OpenAI in 2023 that saw CEO Sam Altman fired and rehired in a matter of days," THR's Borys Kit reports. Amazon MGM Studios is moving at "lightning speed" on this project, "looking to get production going this summer..."
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The documentary "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" will launch this year's Tribeca Film Festival with an opening night premiere tonight. The Piano Man himself is reportedly not attending the premiere while he undergoes treatment for a rare brain condition he publicly disclosed late last month.
Along with many movies, this year's festival "will host video games, audio storytelling and an immersive program stamped with a catalog of acronyms: A.R., V.R., A.I.," the NYT's Natalia Winkelman writes in this curtain-raiser.
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Reliable reader Caroline emailed last night: "Peacock's majorly anticipated release of Love Island USA season 7 has totally failed. Season 6 was a HUGE hit last summer and really brought in a ton of viewership for the franchise and specifically for Peacock," so fans were counting down to the 9pm ET launch last night, but it didn't stream on time, and then the platform "seemingly crashed," Caroline wrote. "People are angry!!! Felt like a make or break moment for Peacock that they totally flopped on." The episode eventually came online 40 minutes late, and Peacock thanked folks for their patience...
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>> "'Good Night, and Good Luck' yet again broke its own record for highest weekly gross for a Broadway play, bringing in $4.245 million last week, as the production wraps up its run." (THR)
>> Speaking of the play, Anderson Cooper sat down with star George Clooney ahead of Saturday's live telecast on CNN. Here's a clip. (CNN)
>> Taylor Swift's fans celebrated her master recordings purchase "by throwing a consumption party, flooding digital services to download more of her albums and stream more of her songs." (Billboard)
>> And last but not least, one of my favorite stories of the day is on Page One of the L.A. Times: Ryan Faughnder reports on "'Lilo & Stitch,' 'Minecraft' and the revenge of the PG family movie." (LAT)
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