Hey, good morning. Here's the latest on MAGA media's arrest-Obama push, Stephen Colbert's ratings bounce, and Pew's "Google Zero" study. Plus: Marvel's "Fantastic" outlook and "is that really Rachel?" But first... |
The freelance journalists who serve as vital eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza are struggling to obtain even the most basic supplies, especially food.
The precarious situation was highlighted this week by Agence France-Presse's main journalist union, which warned in a statement that some of AFP's "remaining freelance journalists inside Gaza were starving and too weak to work."
The French news agency said it will try to evacuate its remaining media workers from the enclave because the situation is "untenable." But, as AFP noted, it is extremely difficult to leave a territory "subject to a strict blockade." (The above photo comes from AFP.)
As CNN's latest story about the starvation crisis says, "Palestinian reporters have become the eyes and ears of those suffering inside Gaza during the 21-month conflict and are living in the same arduous conditions as the rest of the population."
Some may want to evacuate, as AFP has indicated, but others are adamant that they want to stay and continue to report.
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'We're extremely limited' |
One top editor remarked to me overnight that the news agencies are trying to assist media workers in Gaza, but "we're extremely limited in what we can do to help them."
Israel's blockade of aid is also "endangering the lives of doctors and aid workers," dozens of international humanitarian organizations have warned.
>> Reuters said in a statement yesterday that it is "deeply concerned about the health and safety of its freelancers in Gaza, with whom we are in daily contact. The extreme difficulty sourcing food is leading to their and all Gaza residents experiencing greater levels of hunger and illness. We are providing our contributors with additional financial support to help them and, should they wish to leave the territory, we will provide any assistance possible to help them get out."
>> An AP spokesman said, "We are deeply concerned about our staff in Gaza and are doing everything in our power to support them."
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MAGA media's push to arrest Obama |
Former President Barack Obama normally avoids engaging with Trump and MAGA media's frequent insults and baseless allegations. But after four days of Trump and his promotional media's nonstop "treason" talk, including a fake AI video of Obama getting arrested, the former president's office decided to say something.
His office's statement called the "bizarre" accusations a "ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," observing that "nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes."
>> Yes, but... "Trump blasts out conspiracy theories directly on social media and live on TV during press events carried by every cable network," Aaron Rupar observed. "Obama releases statements in the voice of his spokesperson through his office. Guess which method gets more attention?"
>> Right-wing media's punish-Obama-for-something push continues unabated this morning. CNN's Zachary B. Wolf helpfully annotated Trump's untethered-from-reality claims against Obama right here.
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'The era of the false flag' |
"Everything is a 'false flag' now," David Gilbert writes in a disheartening but really perceptive Wired piece. Conspiracy thinking has become so popular (and profitable for grifters) that "almost every news development is now labeled a 'false flag'" by someone, somewhere, sometime.
"Data from ISD shows that over the past five years, false-flag claims have increased by more than 1,100% on X, and the situation is getting increasingly worse," Gilbert writes. Check out the rest here...
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'See the endangered animal!' |
"It's a great day to be me because I am not Donald Trump," Stephen Colbert said at the top of his monologue last night. Here's the video. He reacted to his crowd's huge cheers by commenting that "everyone wants to go to the zoo to see the endangered animal." True: Jed Rosenzweig reports that last Thursday's "Late Show," "in which Colbert announced his own show's cancellation, was the show's highest-rated episode this calendar year." The news dropped four hours in advance, which clearly drove viewership...
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Trump wants all late-night critics ❌'ed |
The president sure seems to think he had something to do with Colbert's cancellation. His commentary on Truth Social makes clear that he wants all his late-night TV critics silenced. He said yesterday that he has heard that "Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go," and then "shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone." He explicitly wants credit if it happens: "It's really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!"
>> Reps for ABC and NBC didn't engage when we asked for comment — which means they didn't shoot down Trump's baseless speculation, nor did they defend their hosts.
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Trump repeats 'side deal' claim |
Perhaps trying to rub salt in the current CBS wounds, Trump celebrated his recent Paramount settlement yesterday and reiterated his claim that the company's future owners have struck a so-called side deal with him. He touted the $16 million payoff and said he'll receive "$20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars."
The current owners re-upped their July 2 statement, stating that its court-mediated settlement "does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs." As THR's Winston Cho wrote here, Trump's PSA talk "may hint at FCC concessions..."
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AP appeal declined for now |
While the WSJ is the latest news outlet to feel Trump's retaliation this year, The Associated Press was the first. And there was a new development in the AP's lawsuit on Tuesday: An appeals court "declined to lift restrictions" on White House access by AP journalists, Mike Scarcella reports for Reuters. This only related to the process, not the merits, however. This case is going to stretch well into the fall as both sides prepare arguments...
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WaPo Opinion section empties out |
The WaPo Opinion departures continue. Columnist Karen Tumulty said Tuesday that she will return to the newsroom as chief political correspondent, succeeding the retiring Dan Balz. Editorial writer and columnist Eduardo Porter indicated that he is leaving the Post altogether: Jeff Bezos, he said, is "taking the paper down a path I cannot follow."
"So.. officially, I'm the last Black staff columnist left in the Washington Post's opinion section," Karen Attiah wrote on Bluesky. "No words. Literally."
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'Google Zero' closer to reality |
Another sign of "Google zero:" A new Pew study finds that "Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results." Far less likely. "Users who encountered an AI summary clicked on a traditional search result link in 8% of all visits," versus 15% when a summary was absent. What's more, "the most frequently cited sources in both Google AI summaries and standard search results are Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit," not news websites. Read on...
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>> Another sign of Paramount trying to "manage the declining linear business while prioritizing its investments in streaming" a la Colbert: It is thinking about closing offices in Africa, and "reducing its local channel footprint in international markets," Lucas Manfredi reports. (TheWrap)
>> Alden's MediaNews Group has put in a surprise bid to buy The Dallas Morning News, "a last-minute twist in the sale of a publication that has been locally owned for 140 years," Katie Robertson reports. (NYT)
>> "ESPN and the NFL are inside the five-yard line on another ground-breaking deal," Andrew Marchand reports. (NYT)
>> "The BBC will proceed with broadcasting the amateur series of 'MasterChef' on BBC One and BBC iPlayer starting Aug. 6, despite misconduct findings against presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode." (Variety)
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>> Trump will speak at an AI summit in DC this afternoon. (CNN)
>> This morning Meta "introduced new safety features for teen users, including enhanced direct messaging protections to prevent 'exploitative content'," Zach Vallese reports. (CNBC)
>> Sarah Perez has an update on Apple's continued testing of "AI-powered news summaries," which now come with a disclaimer. (TechCrunch)
>> Threads "is introducing enhanced metrics to help users better understand how their posts are performing and where their content is getting discovered," Aisha Malik reports. (TechCrunch)
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Rachel Maddow's Monday night monologue was about the internet being "swamped" with an "infinite supply" of AI-driven misinfo. Maddow showed some examples of specific lies about her and said her show's MaddowBlog has added a debunking page called "Is That Really Rachel?" They cleverly registered a forwarding URL for it too: IsThatReallyRachel.com.
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Marvel's 'Fantastic' outlook |
Marvel's "Fantastic Four: First Steps" is pulling in positive reviews, giving Disney's superhero arm a much-needed win after a series of underwhelming movies. The movie has an 86% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment. Variety's Peter Debruge writes that Marvel has gotten "its mojo back with a satisfying retro-styled reboot," while THR's David Rooney writes that "Marvel has learned valuable lessons from its recent box office underperformers..."
>> The flick is expected to open north of $100 million this weekend, per Deadline.
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Remembering Ozzy Ozbourne |
Andrew Kirell writes: Ozzy Ozbourne, the heavy metal icon often known as the "Prince of Darkness," died yesterday at age 76, just a few weeks after reuniting with Black Sabbath for a performance billed as his "final bow."
"It takes great effort to cleanse your brain of the bat biting and reality television goofballing, but please try hard," writes WaPo's Chris Richards, because Ozbourne's "futuristic wail... still has something important to tell you. Namely, that it can feel good to be frightened by your nightmares when reality is worse."
Not only did Ozbourne, along with his Sabbath bandmates, pioneer an entire new genre of music, but he also pioneered an entire genre of reality TV: the celebrity family show. "It's a format that has long since been worn into the dust, thanks to the endless parade of thirsty nobodies who have attempted to replicate the formula for their own gain," Stuart Heritage writes in The Guardian. "But at the time, if you were there, you'll remember that 'The Osbournes' was like a grenade going off."
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