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TGIF! Here's the latest on Jimmy Lai, PBS, Sam Altman, Roblox, Rumble, the LA Times, the Duffer Brothers, and more. But first...

Trump-Putin will be Hannitized

No matter what happens at President Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, Trump will have Sean Hannity there right afterward to help him spin it positively.

The two old friends will tape an interview tonight that will spread Trump's talking points all across MAGA media. Because, as  Politico put it, "On 'Hannity,' Trump's summits are a smashing success."

...And that story was from 2019. See, having Hannity on the sidelines of a high-stakes summit — for reassurance, for MAGA marketing, for whatever you'd call it — is a time-honored Trump tradition. 

Hannity had the first sit-down with Trump after the June 2018 Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Later that summer, Hannity had an exclusive debrief with Trump after the Helsinki press conference with Putin that was widely seen as disastrous. "Even on Fox, Trump's Helsinki performance was 'ridiculous' and 'surreal,'" The Atlantic wrote afterward. But Hannity pumped Trump up anyway: "You were very strong at the end of that press conference," he claimed, defending his friend to the hilt. 

The list of Hannity pow-wows with Trump also includes a chat right after a 2019 meeting between Trump and Kim in Hanoi, and an Air Force One interview earlier this year during Trump's trip to the Middle East. 

Last night, Hannity hosted his show from the Air Force base in Anchorage, and he'll do so again tonight. His Trump sit-down will take place mere minutes after the summit concludes with what is expected to be a joint press conference. While reporters from dozens of outlets will jostle for a question, Hannity will get unfettered one-on-one time to ask the president a series of supportive questions while Air Force One waits on the tarmac.

 >> Fox News anchor Bret Baier is also taping interviews with Trump on the flights to and from Alaska. All in all, it's a perfect summary of Fox's central place in Trump's America and Trump's own media diet.

Trump is in 'spectacle mode'

Before taking off for Anchorage, Trump began the morning by writing two words, "HIGH STAKES," on Truth Social. He also gaggled with reporters on Air Force One just now. "Trump is in spectacle mode," CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier told Audie Cornish. "He's got this big production, he wants it to look great to the world, to his base. He wants to prove he is the only guy who could make peace."

 >> Check out CNN's live updates here. Jake Tapper, Kaitlan Collins and Jim Sciutto are all anchoring from Anchorage today.

Russian state media's framing

"The Russian media are acting triumphal even before the summit has happened," Max Boot said on "Laura Coates Live" last night. "They've basically been saying that the very fact that Trump is agreeing to receive Putin is a huge victory for Putin, and they see a real prospect here of dividing the United States from Ukraine and from Europe."

 >> CNBC's Holly Ellyatt has more on that here: "Russian media is buzzing over Trump–Putin talks. The mood in Kyiv is very different."

 >> On MSNBC, Lawrence O'Donnell argued that "Putin knows Donald Trump needs this meeting... to help Donald Trump distract attention from his involvement in the Epstein files."

IN OTHER NEWS...

PBS cutting its budget by 21%

"PBS is cutting its current budget by more than a fifth" in the wake of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's defunding, the NYT's Ben Mullin reports. The cutback is necessary because about 15% of its budget comes from the federal grants that are about to stop flowing. PBS stations are also going to be pinched in the months to come, so the system is reducing the dues paid by those stations – another reason for the national-level budget cut. Mullin has more here...

OAN's fake women soldiers

Liam Reilly writes: Wednesday evening on the MAGA cable channel OAN, as Defense Department spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson gushed to host Matt Gaetz about a year-over-year increase in female military recruits, four images of women soldiers in combat fatigues were displayed on-screen. All four were AI fakes.

The images were apparently generated by Elon Musk's Grok, as small watermarks in the bottom corners clearly indicated. A DOD spokesperson said the images were not provided by them, so we asked OAN whether its staff generated the photos and if the network has any policy regarding AI-generated content. The far-right network did not respond. Here's the clip.

Trump wants 'woke' out of Smithsonian

During an Oval Office Q&A yesterday, The Daily Wire's Mary Margaret Olohan cited your humble correspondent's analysis of the Trump admin's Smithsonian content review to tee up a softball to Trump. "I know that your administration is seeking to weed out a lot of this left-wing spin that’s in the museums," she said, but "people like Brian Stelter" are "insinuating that you are trying to change history according to your narrative. What's your response?"

"Well, we want the museums to treat our country fairly," Trump said. "We want the museums to talk about the history of our country in a fair manner, not in a woke manner or in a racist manner, which is what many of them, not all of them, but many of them are doing." 

'I've done pretty well on these lawsuits lately'

"You know, I've done pretty well on these lawsuits lately. And I said, go forward," Trump told Fox's Brian Kilmeade yesterday, confirming that he told First Lady Melania Trump to pursue legal action against Hunter Biden. "The legal threat centers on a claim Biden made in an interview on YouTube about the Trumps' relationship to Jeffrey Epstein," as CNN's team reports here...

Judge tosses ad boycott lawsuit

This week a district judge in Texas dismissed right-wing video platform Rumble's lawsuit "accusing spirits maker Diageo and other advertisers of conspiring to withhold ad spending on its platform," Mike Scarcella reports for Reuters. This is noteworthy because allegations of anti-conservative ad boycotts have fueled Rumble, Elon Musk's X, and their political allies. In fact, the same Texas court is weighing a similar case lodged by X right now...

Briefly…

 >> "A court in Hong Kong adjourned a national security trial hearing of media mogul Jimmy Lai on Friday due to concerns about his health after his defense said he had been experiencing heart palpitations." (CNN)

 >> "Trump said on Thursday that he would like to see foreign journalists granted access to the Gaza Strip by Israel. 'I’d like to see that happen, sure,' the president told reporters." (The Hill)

 >> A coalition of press freedom groups have sent a letter to DHS secretary Kristi Noem "calling for the immediate release of journalist Mario Guevara," who remains in ICE detention. (Free Press)

 >> MLB execs "are in negotiations that could result in new broadcast packages" with Netflix, ESPN, NBC and Apple, Andrew Marchand reports. (NYT)

 >> Kimbriell Kelly is the new editor-in-chief of the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ. (Sun-Times)

LAT plans vote to strike

Liam Reilly writes: Some 80% of unionized Los Angeles Times journalists have pledged to vote "yes" in a strike authorization vote, a first for the union that was formed in 2018, the LA Times Guild said yesterday. Times management and the union have been in negotiations over a new contract for three years. Guild leadership will decide whether and when to hold a secret ballot vote; no vote has been scheduled yet. Neither the Times nor Patrick Soon-Shiong responded to a request for comment.

📈 Tracking Taylor's podcast views

The Taylor Swift episode of the "New Heights" podcast has racked up 15 million views on YouTube so far. And, as the AP's David Bauder notes here, "that's only a fraction of its circulation — clips distributed on Instagram, TikTok, X and elsewhere have received more than 400 million views, and the episode was also available for streaming on audio platforms." 

Today in tech talk

 >> "Leading US online publishers reported an average fall in referral traffic from Google search of 10% in May and June compared to a year earlier," according to a new report from Digital Context Next. (Press Gazette)

 >> OpenAI CEO Sam Altman held an on-the-record dinner with tech journalists in SF last night. Ina Fried of Axios and Casey Newton of Platformer published recaps overnight. (Axios / Platformer)

 >> Roblox is down more than 8% in premarket trading amid an avalanche of new headlines about lawsuits "accusing the gaming giant of ignoring warnings about exploitative content and failing to protect children." One of the latest suits is from the Louisiana attorney general. (People)

 >> The Supreme Court has "declined to block Mississippi from enforcing its social media age-verification law against nine major platforms, for now." (The Hill)

Duffer Brothers to Paramount?

The new Paramount is backing up the money truck: "The Duffer Brothers, creators of the Netflix juggernaut 'Stranger Things,' are in advanced negotiations to exclusively create film and TV — with an emphasis on tentpole movies — at the legacy studio just taken over by David Ellison's Skydance," Variety's Matt Donnelly and Adam B. Vary report. "The move would reunite the Duffers with Cindy Holland, Paramount’s new head of streaming, who greenlit 'Stranger Things' at Netflix..."

Entertainment notes and quotes

 >> "And Just Like That" came to an end yesterday "with what's sure to be considered a highly polarizing ending," Dan Heching writes. Sandra Gonzalez recaps some of the reactions here. (CNN)

 >> Paramount Pictures "has countersued the cousin of a writer on 'Top Gun: Maverick,' who alleges he co-wrote the screenplay, opening another front in the legal battle over alleged copyright infringement in the writing process for the film." (THR)

 >> "Call it a symphony for dissolution. American thrash metal giants Megadeth have announced their forthcoming album will be their last. They will also embark on a farewell tour in 2026." (AP)

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