Hey, happy Monday. Here's the latest on Stephen Colbert, Julie K. Brown, ChatGPT, Jonathan Capehart, Mehdi Hasan, John Oliver, "Shark Week," and more... |
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images |
To defend the network against charges of political cowardice in the face of President Trump's pressure, CBS insiders have pointed to the slow-motion nature of "The Late Show" cancellation. If we were trying to appease Trump, they say, why would we leave Stephen Colbert on the air for ten more months of Trump mockery?
It's a fair point, and one that Keith Olbermann, who has been through the TV cancellation wringer several times, made on X over the weekend. He responded to a woman who said "we are officially at the 'pulling comedians off the air who criticize our dear leader' phase of fascism," and said, "Sorry. That's not what happened here. If it had, they wouldn't be keeping him on until next MAY."
But the questions about Paramount and politics linger, and tonight Colbert will have a chance to address them. He will tape his first new episode since this all went down last week.
LateNighter founder Jed Rosenzweig says Colbert "obviously" won't pull any punches when it comes to Trump. "But his comments about the show's cancellation last week seemed very carefully chosen — gracious, even — toward his CBS bosses, whom he praised as 'great partners,'" Rosenzweig pointed out.
"Maybe he meant it. Maybe he doesn't blame his direct bosses for the decision. Or maybe he's just doing what he can not to burn the house down with ten months still to go," he said. "He'll be fine, of course — but he also has 200 staffers to think about." Here's my latest CNN write about Colbert.
>> Many of the followup think-pieces have been about the shrinking ambitions of the broadcast networks. Cancelling shows (and cutting checks to Trump's library) are the kinds of moves that "hasten the demise of network TV," the NYT's Jason Zinoman writes...
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Colbert is slated to have two Hollywood stars, Sandra Oh and Dave Franco, as his guests tonight. On Thursday, he will interview Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro...
>> Over the weekend John Oliver called the "Late" end "terrible, terrible news for the world of comedy." The AP rounded up other host reactions here. Speaking of:
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Andy Cohen's comment in that roundup story stood out to me. Cohen lamented that CBS is "turning off the lights after the news," meaning the 11 p.m. late local newscast that stations produce every day.
A reporter at one of those CBS stations messaged me, requesting anonymity, to point out that staffers are worried about the knock-on effects of "The Late Show" ending. For some stations the 11 p.m. news is a ratings "bright spot," the reporter said. "A lot of that is due to strong CBS lead-ins from primetime. But I wonder about if Colbert isn't there after the news, how much more of a drop-off will there be during the newscasts themselves." Will people just go to bed earlier (or change the channel)? Broadly speaking, all across broadcast TV, cuts beget further cuts...
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Views from left and right |
On the right, the #1 talking point is that Colbert was underperforming (and unfunny) while being overpaid. "While the left is lamenting the loss of Stephen Colbert, their CBS late-night shill, the network had already given Colbert years of operating at a huge loss before finally cancelling him," Breitbart's Warner Todd Huston writes.
On the left, concerns about shrinking space for political satire dominate. "Think about what Colbert represented," Parker Molloy wrote at her Substack, The Present Age. "Every weeknight, in front of millions of viewers, he delivered sharp political commentary that treated Trump not as a normal president but as the threat to democracy he represents. While other media outlets twisted themselves into pretzels trying to appear 'balanced,' Colbert called bullshit. Night after night."
>> 📻 🔌 You can hear me talking all about this on "The Brian Lehrer Show" and "The Michael Smerconish Program" this morning...
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You're not imagining the MAGA bots |
Fellow social media addicts know what I mean about that ☝️. "A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump administration," NBC's Kevin Collier reports. "But with the MAGA movement split over the administration’s handling of files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts' messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue and revealing the AI-fueled nature of the accounts." One takeaway: If it looks too artificial to be real, it's probably AI-driven.
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'Nothing will be good enough' |
Even the president "doesn't seem to think his angry and chaotic efforts to end the renewed storm over convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will work," CNN's Stephen Collinson says. "He warned in a weekend social media post that 'nothing will be good enough' to satisfy what he claims are leftists and troublemakers fanning the uproar." Of course, some of those "troublemakers" are MAGA media influencers who feel betrayed by Trump, the DOJ and the FBI.
At least for the moment, though, Trump has "deflected MAGA's wrath" by hyping his lawsuit against the WSJ, Erica L. Green wrote for the NYT this morning. She says he is "tapping into other MAGA grievances: the deep mistrust of mainstream media, the disdain for Rupert Murdoch and the belief that the president had been unfairly persecuted by his political foes."
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Explosion of book, TV interest |
This morning the Trump White House told Playbook that "no one outside the Beltway is talking about" the Epstein saga anymore. But I published data last night that indicates otherwise.
A sudden resurgence of Epstein interest has been measurable in book sales, Netflix streams and YouTube searches. As I wrote here, the data points to deep public curiosity in Epstein's underage sex trafficking operation, and a possible government coverup, at a time when Trump is trying to shift attention elsewhere.
For instance: Old copies of Julie K. Brown's 2021 book "Perversion of Justice" have been snapped up by buyers in recent weeks, and now it's out of stock all across the web. A rep for publisher HarperCollins says more copies are on the way: The book is now entering its third printing. "I hope it reflects that people really want to understand the story from the beginning," Brown told me.
Here are some other #'s, including an updated stat about the 2020 Netflix docuseries "Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich," which saw a 268% surge in viewership week-over-week, according to Luminate.
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Regarding Trump's WSJ lawsuit... |
"U.S. president suing newspapers for reporting is not something we should just get used to. It's a grave threat to press freedom and everyone's free speech," FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff wrote.
I'm still on the hunt for any example of a past president filing a suit like this. If you know of any, get in touch.
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☝️ That's how Axios AM describes it. On Wednesday Trump is slated to keynote a DC AI summit co-sponsored by the "All In Podcast" and the White House is expected to release its "AI Action Plan." The policy document "promises a hands-off, pro-growth approach," per Axios.
>> Mike Allen reports that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be in town this week, too. He has new growth #'s from OpenAI: "ChatGPT users send more than 2.5 billion prompts each day globally. More than 330 million of those daily prompts are in the U.S."
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Also coming up this week... |
All week: It's Shark Week.
Wednesday: Alphabet, Tesla, A&T and T-Mobile report earnings.
Friday: Charter reports earnings.
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Another must-watch 'Surrounded' |
Jubilee's "Surrounded" continues to be one of the most compelling YouTube shows about politics and polarization. The latest episode features Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan versus 20 "far-right conservatives" picked by Jubilee. (Zeteo says "he was genuinely not aware of how extreme many of them would be.") The episode already has nearly two million views. "I thought it would be an interesting exercise in trying to understand what genuine far-right conservative folks think," Hasan said afterward. "And it was kind of disturbing to see that they think what I thought they think and they were happy to say it out loud." (One participant let out a gleeful laugh after eagerly labeling himself a "fascist.")
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>> "Jonathan Capehart, the Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion columnist, has taken a buyout at The Washington Post after 18 years with the paper" (Axios)
>> Elon Musk's X "refuses to hand over data in 'politically-motivated' French investigation" (CNBC)
>> Today's fantastic WSJ A-hed is about the "KPop Demon Hunters" phenomenon that continues to consume my house and maybe yours too: "The Biggest K-Pop Band to Top the Charts Isn’t Even Real" (WSJ)
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>> Stuart A. Thompson profiles the Dor Brothers, "a video production studio that has gained notoriety online — along with more than 100 million views across platforms — by fully embracing A.I." (NYT)
>> Clare Duffy dives into why tech insiders are mixed about how much AI will upend the job market. (CNN)
>> Julie Jargon's latest: "He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse." One of her points "As more people use generative-AI bots, more of the most vulnerable among us will engage in ways that could be confusing and even harmful..." (WSJ)
>> A new study "based on self-reports in a survey of nearly 2 million people in 163 countries" concludes that "using smartphones before age 13 could damage kids’ mental health." (CNN)
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The 'kiss cam' needs a new name |
Practically overnight, that staple of ballparks has been transformed, thanks to the viral video moment during the "Jumbotron Song" at a Coldplay concert last week. The kiss cam is now... the Coldplay cam? The duck and cover cam? Over the weekend Chris Martin offered concertgoers a "friendly reminder" before the cam popped up on the jumbotrons...
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Weekend box office report |
"Superman" "flew past the competition for the second straight week, grossing an estimated $57.25 million to top the box office this weekend," CNN's Auzinea Bacon reports. The film has now surpassed $400 million worldwide. Fandango director of analytics Shawn Robbins says "we've seen really strong daily holds and usually that is indicative of word of mouth taking in..."
>> The weekend's two biggest openers, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Smurfs," made $13 million and $11 million respectively...
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SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST... |
John Oliver rebrands a team |
Do you remember how the aforementioned John Oliver said last May that he wanted to rebrand a Minor League Baseball team? "Nearly 50 teams sent in proposals, with Oliver ultimately opting for the Erie SeaWolves, as that Pennsylvania team and Detroit Tigers affiliate played nowhere near a sea," Daniel Kreps wrote for Rolling Stone. On Saturday the renamed team, the Erie Moon Mammoths, made their debut "to a record-setting crowd that included Oliver in attendance." MLB.com has a great recap here.
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