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Good morning! David Remnick is reporting from Israel, America250 is announcing a storytelling project, and Fox Corp is showing a path forward for media companies. But first...

Epstein story's staying power

Joe Rogan says the government's refusal to release more info about Jeffrey Epstein is a "line in the sand."

They're trying to "gaslight" everyone, but it's not going to work, the podcaster predicted on his most recent episode. Rogan reacted to the DOJ/FBI's case-closed memo (and the prison video with the missing minute) by saying, "Like, do you think we're babies? Like, what is this?"

Rogan's guest Mike Baker sounded baffled by Pam Bondi and company's mishandling of the matter. "The mob wants to eat," he said, "and they've been throwing red meat to the mob about 'Epstein files' now for years." Rogan interjected, "It's part of how they got elected." And now, Baker said, "the mob is oddly bipartisan because it's got the Dems" too, referencing the Democratic leaders who have charged President Trump with a coverup.

Epstein's name came up more than 40 times on the episode. It's yet another instance of Rogan heaping criticism on his Trump administration friends — and another illustration of why this conspiracy-coded controversy isn't going away.

 >> "MAGA Influencers Don't Understand What Journalism Is:" Rogan was also offended by this Helen Lewis piece for The Atlantic, which observed that "right-wing internet personalities prefer 'just asking questions' to getting answers."

Four reasons why

The Washington Post's most-read article overnight was "Trump fumes as Epstein scandal dominates headlines, overshadows agenda." The four-bylined story says top officials "underestimated the outrage, especially from the president's base, and hoped the country would forget about the unreleased Epstein files and move on." Here are four reasons why that's not happening:

 >> It's an unsolved mystery. "As a vehicle for our worst fears about the 21st-century United States, Epstein is our Dracula," Dan Brooks opines for Politico Magazine. He says Epstein conspiracy theories capture "Americans’ deepest anxieties about how power works."

 >> It's a bipartisan cause. The Epstein case "has created the most unlikely bipartisan coalition in recent memory," the Miami Herald says. And divisions between GOP lawmakers over the "files" have "continued to intensify," as CNN's Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Julia Benbrook report here.

 >> It's a catch-all. "To the bitter survivors of a stagnant U.S. middle-class economy, whose understandable fury at billionaire oligarchs has been warped by a toxic media environment, 'Epstein' is now the language of the unheard, a one-word catchall to funnel anger about an unequal society," Will Bunch argues in this Inquirer column.

 >> It's a part of a very long tradition of conspiracy-oriented thinking, and because conspiracy theories are unfalsifiable, they never end. Julian Zelizer's latest piece for Foreign Policy explores "how the 'paranoid style' took over U.S. politics."

Hollowing out our institutions?

Over the weekend CNN's Fareed Zakaria said Trump's "ferocious response to the Epstein affair" will "likely only deepen the public's distrust towards institutions and politicians, create more online radicalization, and further hollow out our polarized political ecosystem."

Zakaria pointed out that FBI director Kash Patel went on Rogan's podcast last month and claimed "that he has now found a secret vault in the FBI full of dark secrets no one had ever seen. Forget about Epstein, they seemed to be saying; it turns out there are hundreds more conspiracy theories to dangle in front of the MAGA faithful."

Patel's deputy Dan Bongino was roasted over the weekend for "dangling." He wrote on X about FBI investigations that have "shocked me down to my core. We cannot run a Republic like this. I’ll never be the same after learning what I've learned."

AEI senior fellow Robert Pondiscio nailed it with this reply: "The country is not a reality TV show with cliffhangers and teasers: Either tell people what has 'shocked you to your core' or hold your tongue until you can. Anything else breeds suspicion, mistrust, and cynicism."

Trump's made-up claim about Beyoncé

Raven Varona/PictureGroup/Shutterstock

While Beyoncé capped off her Cowboy Carter tour in epic fashion (see above) on Saturday night, Trump pushed a long-ago-debunked lie about her. He called for her prosecution "based on something that did not actually happen," CNN's Daniel Dale reports. Dale's fact-check is really something to behold, because it conveys how this lie has metastasized over time.

 >> Speaking of "imaginary numbers," WaPo's Naftali Bendavid has an excellent new story about Trump's "wildly improbable" and sometimes "just impossible" #s.

The next stage of retaliation?

Over the weekend Trump also said some TV licenses should be revoked because "networks aren't allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party." Tom Jones' framing for Poynter: "Paramount's $16M settlement seems to have emboldened him, and now he's turning his attention to NBC and ABC with more threats of retaliation."

As I said on CNN earlier this morning, any actual attempt to target licensees would take a long time and get tied up in the courts. Still, Trump's insistent rhetoric about this topic softens the ground for more autocratic actions in the future. 

Trade deal is today's top story 

This morning's New York Post banner: "EU GOT A DEAL!" The US-EU trade deal is the top story almost everywhere. And as CNN's Lucy Bayly reports, "this could be the most consequential week for the economy in years." Here are all the reasons why.

Also coming up this week...

Tuesday: Spotify reports Q2 earnings.

Wednesday: Meta and Microsoft release earnings. 

Thursday: Apple, Amazon, Reddit, Comcast, and SiriusXM all report earnings.

NEW THIS MORNING

Remnick's report from Israel

In the newest edition of The New Yorker, editor David Remnick visits Israel and hears triumphant talk of an "imminent golden age," even as the country's future "is still shadowed by the ugly persistence of occupation, the long and bitter memory of its enemies, and the deepening moral cost of Gaza."

Among the key points Remnick makes: "The horrific scale of suffering among Gazans is nearly invisible in the Israeli media, aside from the liberal paper Haaretz and a few smaller outlets. Media executives seem convinced that they will alienate audiences if they give the subject much attention." The title of his piece: "Zones of Denial."

Briefly, global edition

 >> "Major global news organizations are calling on Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip and on the movement of reporters in and out of the enclave as Palestinian reporters there struggle to survive," Ephrat Livni reports. (NYT)

 >> The headline on Ken Moritsugu's latest: "China is suppressing coverage of deadly attacks. Some people are complaining online" (AP)

 >> Howard Lutnick talking about TikTok on Fox yesterday: "You can't have the Chinese have an app on 100 million American phones, that is just not okay. So, it's got to move to American ownership..." (Reuters)

 >> On Page One of today's WSJ: "CEOs recast staff cuts as a positive in the AI era" (WSJ)

Fox shows the way forward

"If you want a glimpse of the coming consolidation in digital media," Ben Smith writes, "take a look at Fox Corp." The media giant has struck innovative deals with right-leaning content creators, including "Ruthless," podcaster Brett Cooper and the company that produces Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson's shows.

This has been successful, Smith says, because it's "a rethinking of the relationship between corporate media and talent. Up-and-coming radio hosts and pundits used to scramble for exclusive contracts with a small number of big media employers. Now, media companies need to prove their worth to well-compensated independents who can take or leave the corporate relationship — but whose small businesses also have their own stresses and commercial gaps."

Project Veritas withdraws NYT suit

Activist lawsuits tend to get a lot of attention when they're filed, and almost no notice when they fall apart or fade away, so I'm noting this thusly: 

"The conservative group Project Veritas this week dropped its yearslong libel lawsuit against The New York Times," Katie Robertson reports. An NYT rep says it is pleased, but "the claim against The Times should never have been brought." Veritas claims "we are disappointed that the New York court system was so woefully slow to adjudicate the merits of the case."

No 'song of the summer'?

 >> "It's not just you – there are no good new songs this summer," the WSJ's Elias Leight writes, observing that "hits from 2024, and even 2023, continue to rule the charts." (WSJ)

 >> Spencer Kornhaber says "it's hard to avoid psychoanalyzing this season's musical offerings and concluding that the culture is suffering from malaise, or at least a hangover." (The Atlantic)

 >> The counterargument: "KPop Demon Hunters!" The Netflix flick might have launched the "song of the summer" with "Golden," and David Guetta is now out with a remix. (Billboard)

 >> Related: Jeff Yang penned this piece about "how 'KPop Demon Hunters' became a global phenomenon." (WaPo)

The box-office comeback continues

Disney's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" "stormed the domestic box office, topping superhero competitor 'Superman' to finish No. 1 with $118 million," CNN's Auzinea Bacon writes. "The reboot was a major comeback for the series" and "the best-performing weekend for a Marvel film this year."

🏁 Crossing the $500 million line

Warner Bros. Discovery "had two films cross the $500 million mark this weekend — DC Studio's 'Superman' and Apple's 'F1,'" CNBC's Sarah Whitten reports. Warner distributed "F1." As for "Superman," it "continues to drive weekend moviegoing as well as weekday trips." (WBD is CNN's parent.)

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

A storytelling project for America's 250th

I'm a big fan of oral history projects like StoryCorps, so I'm intrigued by this one: Later today, America250 Commission chair Rosie Rios will announce "the kickoff of 'Our American Story,' a project designed to collect and preserve thousands of personal stories from across the country as its heads toward its 250th birthday in 2026." C-SPAN will have live coverage. You can nominate someone for the "oral and visual storytelling project" here.

This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.