Hey, good morning. Here's the latest on the BBC, the News Emmys, The Atlantic, Aaron Sorkin, Denis Villeneuve, Meta, and much more. But first... |
Questioning power is our duty |
Journalists ask questions, vet the answers and report the results to the public. That’s pretty much the job description. But the Trump administration is claiming that it’s unpatriotic to do so. Today President Trump is pushing for firings and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is insulting journalists to their faces.
Let's be clear: Journalists are not the main story here. The US strikes on Iran are the main story. The public is still awaiting a clearer picture of the strikes' impact, despite Trump's insistence on Saturday and ever since that Iran's nuclear enrichment sites were "totally obliterated."
The administration is casting any questions about "the success of an incredibly difficult military operation as fake, as unappreciative, and as disrespectful to servicemembers,” CNN's Jake Tapper said on "The Lead." "But that, however, flies in the face of what journalists have hopefully learned throughout the last 50 years of U.S. history."
Tapper cited past examples of government deception to say "history has taught us that the most pro-servicemember action we can take is to ask questions of our leaders, especially in times of war. That, for journalists, is the height of patriotism."
Indeed, history is replete with proof that it is imperative to question official accounts. It's patriotic. "What's unpatriotic is trying to scare the press into silence," media historian Brian Rosenwald says.
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Trump wants cheerleaders, but... |
Both CNN and The New York Times have issued statements defending their accurate reporting about the early US intel assessment that undercut Trump's "obliterated" claims. The reporting has been credibly sourced and cautious.
In response, Trump has charged the press with trying to "demean" the military action, and has claimed that the B-2 pilots were "devastated" by the news coverage. He is far from the first politician to use the military as a shield against fair-minded scrutiny.
This strategy was on display again this morning at a Pentagon press conference — only the second time Pete Hegseth has stood before the press briefing room podium since January. Hegseth defended Trump, scolded the press, and distorted the matter at hand. "Despite the emotional speech and outrage from the Defense Secretary, what he said about the DIA assessment is what CNN reported" accurately, Kate Bolduan pointed out on air afterward.
Trump picked people like Hegseth because he wants a show. Furthermore, as the NYT's Julian Barnes wrote here, "Hegseth and his staff have made clear they believe the role of the press is to cheer the military and President Trump, rather than to report objectively about the news."
There is no way to way to square this circle. News outlets simply have to keep doing the work — while pointing out why we do it — baking in explanations about why, at its best, neutral news coverage is a public service. Here's my CNN.com column about the matter...
>> Former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr's reaction to the presser: "Perhaps this is a good time for some very senior Defense Department officials to actually read the First Amendment."
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Even Fox comes in for criticism |
Liam Reilly writes: Reading between the lines, the White House's overly aggressive response to the CNN/NYT reporting feels like a frantic attempt to convince the MAGA base that the attacks were an unambiguous success, even as Americans mostly disapprove of the strikes.
This morning Hegseth even went after his ex-colleague, Fox's Jennifer Griffin, whom he has attacked repeatedly since taking charge of the Pentagon. Fellow members of the Pentagon press corps stood up for Griffin afterward, calling her a "pro" and saying Hegseth's venom was "disgusting" and unwarranted.
>> Big picture: CNN's Stephen Collinson outlined "Why Trump needs the world to believe Iran's nuclear program is 'obliterated.'"
>> As Tom Nichols observed on MSNBC yesterday, "Trump always creates these kind of closed narrative dramas: 'We did this thing, we succeeded, now it's over, and now we can go to the next thing.'" The real world, Nichols said, is much more complicated and time-consuming.
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The Atlantic's 'Eighty Years on the Edge' issue |
"Humanity is playing nuclear roulette," The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg writes in an essay in the publication's August 2025 issue. ☝️ The striking cover, released this morning, has minimal text and an archival government photo of a 1954 bomb test at Bikini Atoll.
"Here's how the end of the world could begin," the aforementioned Tom Nichols writes in an essay titled "The President's Weapon." Three other articles in the cover package will be coming online later...
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Last night at the News Emmys... |
...The judges wanted to send a message of support to CBS News and "60 Minutes" amid Trump's ongoing legal battle with the news division. CBS took home five Emmys total, the most of any network, including three for "60 Minutes" reports. And there were repeated shoutouts to former "60" boss Bill Owens, who was a Silver Circle honoree at the ceremony.
>> ABC, CNN and National Geographic followed CBS "with four awards each, and The New York Times took home three," THR's Carly Thomas reports. "Winners will be announced in the documentary categories" during tonight's part two...
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Checking in on the Paramount talks |
A mediator has proposed that Trump and Paramount Global "settle his lawsuit over a CBS News '60 Minutes' interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris for $20 million," the WSJ's Jessica Toonkel and Josh Dawsey scooped yesterday. The proposed deal also includes "public service announcements on Paramount-owned networks to fight antisemitism." But the Trump team is also looking for an apology, which "Paramount isn’t prepared to do." (Friendly reminder, since we should note this from time to time: CBS has nothing to apologize for.)
>> Larry Ellison, whose son David is leading the charge to acquire Paramount, "has had multiple private meetings with President Trump — including one as recently as last weekend in the Oval Office," Puck's Dylan Byers reported last night. He quoted an anonymous media exec saying "in the end, Larry will make sure Shari settles, and all will be fine."
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This morning the BBC announced it will "offer a subscription of $49.99 per year, or $8.99 per month, for US users to get unlimited access to its news, features and livestream of the BBC News channel," the FT's Daniel Thomas reports. |
Sorkin to direct 'Social Network Part II' |
Aaron Sorkin is moving forward with "The Social Network Part II." You might recall that he told Matthew Belloni and Peter Hamby last year that he was working on a film involving January 6, misinformation and Facebook. Now he is "set to direct" the film for Sony Pictures, Deadline's Justin Kroll writes. "While it's being called part two, it’s not a straight sequel but rather a follow-up to the original movie."
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>> The Washington Post is testing something called "From The Source," inviting "some of the people quoted in its stories to annotate articles they appeared in," Ben Mullin reports. (NYT)
>> "Making her first-ever appearance before Congress," Kari Lake "defended her tenure and said the U.S. Agency for Global Media needs to be shrunk until it can be eliminated." (WaPo)
>> Tessa Stuart checked out right-wing media reactions to Zohran Mamdani's victory. (Rolling Stone)
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📬 Tell me about your 'hopescrolling' |
I've made a bunch of references to "doomscrolling" recently. And there's a never-ending amount of that content to consume. But I'd like to hear some antidotes. How do you detox after "doomscrolling," or how do you avoid it altogether? Click here to email your thoughts. I'll quote some of the answers and insights in Friday morning's newsletter.
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>> Another win for the large language models: "A federal judge ruled on Wednesday for Meta Platforms against a group of authors who had argued that its use of their books without permission to train its AI system infringed their copyrights." (Reuters)
>> Closing arguments got underway yesterday in Getty Images' "landmark case" against Stability AI. (AP)
>> A startup called 2wai "promises to let anyone digitally clone themselves in under three minutes" and "is designed to give entertainers — and everyone else — lifetime ownership over their AI avatars." (Axios)
>> "Ads for consumer A.I. are struggling to imagine how the product could improve your day — unless you're a barely functioning idiot," Ismail Muhammad writes. (NYT)
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Closing arguments in Combs trial |
Closing arguments are about to begin in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial. "Prosecution goes today. Tomorrow, the defense," CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister reports. "The jury could begin deliberating as soon as tomorrow. The verdict will likely be here next week."
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CA film incentive expansion is moving forward |
"California lawmakers have reached the final stages to pass an expansion of the state's $750 million film incentive program," TheWrap's Jeremy Fuster reports. A state senate committee will hold a hearing today for the bill, and lawmakers expect it "to be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom by next week."
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Entertainment notes and quotes |
>> "Denis Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond film." (LAT)
>> "As Netflix aspires to reach a $1 trillion market cap by 2030, Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall believes that the company's next big investment should be high-value, short-form content and exclusive, multi-year deals with creators." (TheWrap)
>> Sabrina Carpenter has released an alternate cover for her upcoming album, "Man’s Best Friend," that she said was "approved by God" after the musician "received backlash for the record’s cover art." (THR)
>> "'Blue’s Clues' host Steve Burns is launching a podcast designed to continue teaching the adults who watched his show as children." (THR)
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