Another busy morning. Here's the latest on the WSJ, the FCC, ABC News, "South Park," CNBC, Nintendo Switch 2, Joe Biden's book deal and much more. But first... |
CBS names new '60 Minutes' boss |
Michele Crowe/CBS News/Getty Images |
CBS News is not hiring an outsider to helm "60 Minutes" as the program's correspondents feared might happen. Instead, the coveted executive producer job is going to Tanya Simon, a 25-year veteran of the newsmag who took charge on an interim basis when Bill Owens resigned under pressure last spring.
In light of the recent settlement with President Trump, "60 Minutes" staffers have serious concerns about how Paramount's future owners might meddle in political coverage, and specifically what pressures Simon might face. But this morning's appointment will no doubt come as a relief.
As CBS News prez Tom Cibrowski wrote in his memo, Simon — daughter of the late correspondent Bob Simon —"understands what makes '60 Minutes' tick." The CBS press release notes that "she is the fourth executive producer in the broadcast's 57-year history, and the first woman in the role."
>> Simon's comment: "I'm deeply committed to this level of excellence and I look forward to delivering an exciting season of signature 60 stories that cover a wide range of subjects for a broad audience and engage viewers with their world." The season premiere is set for September 28.
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Trump dismisses AI copyright concerns |
President Trump is siding with big tech companies over publishers and authors who say AI models are stealing their livelihoods and futures. Trump "dismissed" copyright concerns while releasing the government's new "AI action plan" yesterday, WIRED's Kate Knibbs reported.
Sounding a lot like a Meta or OpenAI executive, Trump said "you can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for."
"We appreciate that, but just can't do it— because it's not doable," Trump added, likening AI models to voracious readers at a public library: "When a person reads a book or an article, you've gained great knowledge. That does not mean that you are violating copyright laws."
Tech lobbyists welcomed this statement, of course, and it left some media execs wondering if Trump appreciated that his pro-AI position doubled as another blow to besieged news outlets, book publishers and entertainers.
"Trump has bought into the lines on AI & copyright that he’s been fed by his big tech advisers," Ed Newton-Rex, CEO of the nonprofit Fairly Trained, wrote after the speech. He argued that "Big Tech is using fear of China to scare policy makers into changing the law to favor them. It is working."
Meanwhile, blockbuster copyright infringement lawsuits like New York Times v. OpenAI and v. Microsoft continue to progress through the courts...
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'Years of legal uncertainty' |
Clare Duffy writes: For now, copyright uncertainty persists. As Moses Singer attorney Rob Rosenberg, who specializes in media, technology and intellectual property, told me, "With federal policy noncommittal on training data licenses, copyright owners and AI platforms may face years of legal uncertainty. The absence of clear rules likely encourages copyright holders to continue filing suits to establish legal norms on AI training practices. In the absence of a national policy, judges, not lawmakers, will set precedents about what AI companies can and can't do."
>> On CNN's "Terms of Service" podcast, Duffy recently interviewed Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., who said the music industry should keep an open mind about AI but that new legislation to protect copyright owners is essential. Here's the conversation.
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Creating and destroying simultaneously |
One of my Google Chrome tabs this morning shows Alphabet stock soaring 3.5% in premarket trading, because, as CNBC put it, the company's "search and advertising units still showed growth in the second quarter despite AI competition heating up."
Another tab shows this provocative 404 Media headline: "Google's AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain." Emanuel Maiberg conveys, using one of his own stories as an example, how Google AI Overview is "quietly devastating the entire human online information economy." Here's his argument...
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WSJ's hot streak continues |
The key point of yesterday's Wall Street Journal story wasn't that Trump's name appeared in the DOJ's review of Jeffrey Epstein documents. Given his long friendship with Epstein, his name was bound to appear. The key was that Pam Bondi briefed Trump on the matter back in May. Thus the story may help to explain why the Trump admin did a 180 after vowing to reveal so much more about the government's past probe into Epstein's crimes.
>> This Journal story had been in the works for more than a week, I'm told, and its publication despite Trump's lawsuit has further energized WSJ staffers.
>> Puck's Dylan Byers hears that Trump-related articles at the WSJ are now "subject to additional editorial oversight and legal review."
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ABC News was pursuing this, too? |
The WSJ story mentions that "on July 9, after ABC News reached out to the White House about Bondi's briefing to the president, [Dan] Bongino and Bondi clashed in a meeting."
But ABC never aired or published its reporting about Bondi's May briefing. In isolation, that's not necessarily a big deal. It's common for news outlets to chase stories and then choose not to publish for all sorts of reasons. But given ABC's $15 million settlement with Trump last December, reporters have been buzzing about whether the network was gun-shy about going ahead with this particular scoop.
To be clear, there is no concrete evidence that ABC held off for political reasons. (On July 15, an ABC reporter asked Trump if Bondi told him that "your name appeared in the files," and Trump's evasive answer made news.)
But this is why financial deals with Trump create huge perception problems and internal headaches for news organizations. (An ABC rep had no comment about this when I asked, since news outlets generally don't discuss their internal news gathering decisions.)
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A notable graf from that WSJ story |
The Journal also reported what many observers of the right-wing media ecosystem have suspected this month: That Bongino "has told colleagues that his association with the administration's decision to keep the files private has eroded his credibility among the base of support that fueled his rise as a successful podcaster and media personality." |
'South Park' comes out swinging |
Stephen Colbert will have to try harder. The most piercing criticism of Trump from a Paramount-controlled channel in the past 24 hours came from "South Park" on Comedy Central. During last night's Season 27 premiere, the show took direct aim at Trump and Paramount.
In the episode, Trump sues the residents of South Park for $5 billion after they protest Jesus appearing in their schools. Jesus begs the residents to settle with Trump and nervously confesses, "I didn't want to come back and be in the school, but I had to because it was part of a lawsuit and the agreement with Paramount."
And then the fourth wall breaks: "You guys saw what happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount. You really want to end up like Colbert? You guys got to stop being stupid," the Jesus character says. "He also has the power to sue and take bribes and he can do anything to anyone. It’s the f**king president, dude... South Park is over." Then the town agrees to settle and produce pro-Trump PSAs. Sound familiar?
There's plenty more of that throughout the episode. And if those digs weren't overt enough, at one point the show depicts Trump in bed with Satan.
>> The backdrop: Paramount just inked a new "South Park" streaming deal worth $1.5 billion, a source familiar with the matter confirmed. This is a testament to the fact that the huge "South Park" back catalog is incredibly valuable in an on-demand world — much more so than, say, timely episodes of "The Late Show."
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Skydance's music to FCC's ears? |
"In a pair of letters filed Tuesday with the FCC, Skydance committed to a post-merger 'comprehensive review of CBS,' including a promise to install an ombudsman to evaluate complaints of 'bias or other concerns,'" Liam Reilly reports. Also: An anti-DEI pledge. It all demonstrates David Ellison's "eagerness to complete the deal to merge with Paramount."
So what does FCC chair Brendan Carr think? Well, he shared the Skydance letters with associates — a possible signal that he is pleased. He did not respond to my request for comment about whether he is any closer to approving the merger now. In the meantime, as Jake Tapper said last night, "they're certainly getting a lot from Skydance, CBS and Paramount..."
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Selling out 'principle for profit' |
The FCC's lone Democrat, Anna Gomez, recently said that companies "are coming to the FCC to negotiate their capitulation." On Wednesday she said that's what Paramount's owners-in-waiting are doing, granting the FCC "never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial content." She went on to say, "They are also happy to undermine efforts to combat discrimination and expand equal opportunity. How easy it is to sell out principle for profit."
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"French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, filed a 22-count defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing podcaster Candace Owens Wednesday over the claim that Brigitte could be a man," CNN's Saskya Vandoorne and Joseph Ataman report.
The Macrons have retained Clare Locke, one of the most-feared defamation law firms in the US. "What they're going to have to prove, though, is that there's malice, that Candace Owens actually doesn't believe what she is saying," Donie O'Sullivan pointed out. "And given all the stuff that Candace Owens has said in the past, that could be trickier than expected." Owens has made it clear she intends to keep pushing the claims about Macron...
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Is a Joe Biden memoir worth $10 million? Hachette Book Group evidently believes so. That's the "range" of the book deal Biden has signed, according to the WSJ's Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg. In a deal brokered by CAA, Hachette will have the worldwide rights to the memoir. Trachtenberg notes that "Biden's health will likely determine the timeline for completing a manuscript and any book publicity plans..."
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>> Yesterday Trump suggested (dreamed?) that "the next show to be canceled would be ABC's hit daytime talk show 'The View.'" (TheWrap)
>> Scott Nover has new details about how Kari Lake has moved "to consolidate her power to dismantle Voice of America." (WaPo)
>> Charlotte Klein's headline unfortunately sums it up well: "Things are somehow getting worse for the Washington Post." (NYMag)
>> Yesterday Catherine Rampell became the latest columnist to quit. Her final piece is titled "11 tips for becoming a columnist." Highly recommended! (WaPo)
>> While the "brain drain" from the Post's Opinion section continues, the section's new editor Adam O'Neal is "actively attempting to recruit from outside the paper, including from The Wall Street Journal," Oliver Darcy reports. (Status)
>> While on the topic of media outlets owned by Jeff Bezos, I'll note this New York Post headline about Bezos "weighing" an acquisition of CNBC, just to add that CNBC insiders don't believe a word of it. Of all the assets in Versant's portfolio, CNBC is the last it would sell... (NYPost)
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Remember the NBC Sports Network? |
The channel was retired in 2021. But maybe it's coming back. A fun Joe Flint scoop: "NBCUniversal is discussing launching a sports cable network that could debut as early as the fall, people familiar with the matter said." The channel would mainly carry sports that are already streamed on Peacock. It's an "upside-down move," as Deadline's Dade Hayes wrote, but it reflects the all-of-the-above realities of media these days...
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>> YouTube is "giving Shorts creators access to new generative AI features, including an image-to-video AI tool and new AI effects." (TechCrunch)
>> Meta unveiled experimental technology that "lets you control a computer from across the room simply by moving your hand." (NYT)
>> TIME has dropped a list of "the 100 best podcasts of all time." (TIME)
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Switch 2's blistering sales pace |
Nintendo's new Switch 2 console "sustained its blistering start to sales globally by setting a new record for the fastest-selling video game device in US history," selling "1.6 million units of its $450 console in the US in June, the highest launch month for any console in the country," Bloomberg's Vlad Savov reports. This reminds me: I need to check out the new "Donkey Kong Bananza" game!
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