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Good morning. The New York Times is touting a big surge in subscriptions, The Motion Picture Association is telling Meta to cease and desist, and Erika Kirk is opening up to Jesse Watters. But let's begin with the election results...

Who gets a seat at the table?

Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images

From time to time, news outlet leaders should look around and ask: Do our stories reflect the current state of political discourse? Do our segments represent the voices of all voters?

I found myself thinking about this as Zohran Mamdani talked about "the working people of New York," whom he credited with his victory. "Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns: These are not hands that have been allowed to hold power," he said. "And yet, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater."

I love a good TV panel discussion. But it's worth asking if the typical one actually includes, or even channels the views of, people like the ones Mamdani described.

As David Axelrod acknowledged during one of CNN's (excellent!) panels late last night, "Everyone at this table is going to go home to great comfort." But "there are a lot of people in this city, there are a lot of people in this country, who have to worry every single day about how they're going to meet their bills. And that is a crisis."

That disconnect — between who we invite to talk about politics and who is actually shaping it on the ground — is a gap that journalists, especially on TV, constantly have to work hard to close.

Thus, my favorite day-after story is by CNN's Aditi Sangal, who spent the evening at Kabab King, the mayor-elect's go-to biryani spot in Jackson Heights. Check out what she heard here.

Lefty columnists are celebrating 

In the same way that media outlets sought out Trump-supporting talking heads in 2015 and 2016, it's crucial to seek out commentators who speak for a new, younger generation of Democratic voters.

For example: The Free Press election night live stream hosted Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of the socialist magazine Jacobin, last night.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Eric Blanc wrote in an essay that led Jacobin's website last night and this morning. Blanc conveyed the improbability of Mamdani's victory, then warned, "turning Zohran's vision into a reality won't be easy. Some of the most powerful people and institutions in the world are going to do everything to stop us. But transforming our city is possible, if large numbers of everyday New Yorkers join the fight. America’s oligarchs are right to be worried."

The Nation magazine editor Katrina vanden Heuvel and exec editor John Nichols published a similar editorial last night. Mamdani "has no higher responsibility than to be a great mayor of New York City," they wrote. In success, he "has the potential to transform not just a city but the politics of a nation that desperately needs a robust antidote to Donald Trump's oppressions."

From fringe to media frenzy

Just eight months ago, in March, Mamdani held a press conference in Manhattan with barely any journalists there. Now, he is constantly surrounded by cameras. Mamdani comms aide Lekha Sunder posted March and November photos side by side with the caption, "How far we've come." 

The campaign received more than 400 press RSVPs for last night's victory party, including some from international media outlets, per CNN's Gloria Pazmino. MANY "voices on the left" were there too, "including Drop Site News' Ryan Grim and Democracy Now's Amy Goodman," along with live-streaming star Hasan Piker, who drew a crowd of his own, TheWrap's Michael Calderone wrote here.

Commentators emphasized Mamdani's media savvy as well as his message consistency. Maybe it doesn't matter so much "how you use Instagram and TikTok," Errol Louis said last night on NY1. "What really does matter is going to people and saying, 'What are the issues that most concern you?' — writing down what they say; then making that your program; and not talking about anything else." 

 >> As journalism professor Jay Rosen has argued over the years, this "citizens agenda" concept also applies well to news coverage...

What the polls got wrong in NJ

Here in New Jersey, the governor's race was expected to be a nail-biter. Why? In part because of the polls showing Sherrill with only a slight lead over Jack Ciattarelli. The RCP average of recent polls had Sherrill with just a 3.3% edge. But she ultimately won 56% to 42%. Polls "said it was too close to call, and she just absolutely thumped" Ciattarelli, Joe Scarborough said on MSNBC this morning.

 >> In retrospect, the "tell" was that Sherrill was ahead in every pre-election poll, even though most of the polls overstated support for her rival...

How Fox News handled it all

Andrew Kirell writes: Because the key races were all called before Fox's special coverage started at 10 p.m. last night, we got to watch MAGA devotees Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity cope in real time. Both hosts tried to spin away any suggestion that the losses were a repudiation of Trump.

After calling Abigail Spanberger's victory in Virginia, Watters declared, "The Democrats are going to spin this: 'This is a referendum on Trump.' I mean, these are all blue states." That particular line continued into Hannity's hour. Hannity also said his phone was blowing up with texts from friends in New York who were "depressed and scared." Fox's shows leaned hard into "socialism" fears all night long.

Taunting the TV president

Here's an interesting argument from Sohrab Ahmari: "The sheer cartoonishness of the Right's attacks rendered [Mamdani] more sympathetic." (The aforementioned Michael Calderone compiled all the recent NY Post front pages here.)

Mamdani alluded to that "prism of misinformation" last night, and he also presaged the Mamdani-Trump feedback loop that we can expect to see a lot next year. He leaned into Trump's TV obsession with a big, headline-generating taunt: "Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up." And Trump likely was watching, because Fox News carried Mamdani's speech in full. Anchor Trace Gallagher invited Trump to call in immediately afterward, but no such luck.

 >> Speaking of feedback loops: During Hannity's show, GOP pollster Matt Towery blamed the losses on the shutdown and the fact that Trump's name wasn't on the ballot. Just eight minutes later, Matt Gertz noted, Trump posted that same exact argument to Truth Social.

Can we fast forward?

"After tonight," TIME's Charlotte Alter commented, "half the Dems are going to say 'look at New York, we have to run more socialists!' and the other half are going to say 'look at VA, we have to run more moderates!' and the answer is yes to both. The answer is a big-tent positivity that embraces both."

It would be nice to fast-forward through all the predictable cable news debates about this. 😉

MSNBC's promotional moment

Taking advantage of the big election night audience, MSNBC ran lots of promotional spots last night about the impending MS NOW name change. The NYT's Michael Grynbaum is out with a new story about the $20 million marketing effort.

 >> MSNBC still relied on the NBC News decision desk for projections, per MSNBC's request, as the split is implemented bit by bit.

 >> With Steve Kornacki's talents now exclusive to NBC, Ali Velshi manned the map on MSNBC.

IN OTHER NEWS...

📈 NYT earnings surge

"The New York Times Company's digital subscriptions and advertising surged in the latest quarter, leading to a 26.1% jump in adjusted operating profit compared with a year earlier," with the company adding 460,000 digital-only subscribers in Q3, the NYT’s Katie Robertson reports. Read on...

THIS JUST IN

MPA sends legal warning to Meta

CNN's Clare Duffy writes: The Motion Picture Association has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta demanding that the company stop using "PG-13" to describe its new Instagram Teen Accounts safety settings. It appears MPA does not want to be associated with whatever content Meta decides is or isn't safe for kids, saying its ratings are a "rigorous, human-driven process" and Meta’s content moderation can’t compare...

Coming up today:

The Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging Trump's tariffs starting at 10 a.m. C-SPAN will air the live audio and feature SCOTUSblog's coverage.

AMC and Snap will report earnings after the bell.

Jesse Watters' in-depth interview with Erika Kirk will air tonight at 8 p.m.

Fox tries to slow Smartmatic case

Marshall Cohen reports: Lawyers for Fox News are asking a New York judge to pause Smartmatic's 2020 election-related defamation suit until the separate criminal case against the voting technology company is resolved, likely next spring. Fox's lawyers wrote in a filing that "the game has changed" because Smartmatic was indicted. Smartmatic denies wrongdoing and would surely oppose any slowdown.

McClatchy shutting down DC operations

McClatchy, the owner of papers like The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, and Charlotte Observer, laid off "dozens of employees" yesterday, Oliver Darcy reports for Status. McClatchy's DC bureau is being "shuttered," which means it will "no longer employ reporters dedicated to covering Congress and the White House and withdraw from the White House pool where it has been a longtime member."

Briefly…

 >> Gannett "is renaming itself USA Today Company, after its flagship national newspaper." (NYT)

 >> Vox Media's board "has discussed possibly spinning out its podcast network and separating it from the publishing business," Sara Fischer scoops. (Axios)

 >> People Inc. "has struck an AI licensing deal with Microsoft to be part of the tech giant's pay-per-usage AI content marketplace." (Digiday)

 >> The Philadelphia Citizen, a nonprofit "dedicated to solutions journalism and civic engagement," is acquiring Philadelphia Magazine. (NiemanLab)

 >> ICYMI: "Marjorie Taylor Greene surprises 'The View' co-hosts with civility, praise." (Fox) 

Huge #s for '60 Minutes' 

The two-thirds-Trump edition of "60 Minutes" averaged 14 million viewers, with 3 million in the ages 25-54 demographic — the newsmag's "best audience since Jan. 10, 2021," CBS News said yesterday. The news division also said it set a new weekly record for video views across social platforms. Trump touted the #'s in a Truth Social post...

Common Crawl faces scrutiny

Common Crawl, a nonprofit that has been building a massive archive of the internet for more than a decade, "is doing the AI industry's dirty work," The Atlantic's Alex Reisner says in this in-depth report. Common Crawl "has opened a back door for AI companies to train their models with paywalled articles from major news websites," and "appears to be lying to publishers about this," he charges. The group said the report had "several false and misleading claims..."

More of today's tech talk

 >> "Google said on Tuesday it has reached a comprehensive U.S. court settlement with 'Fortnite' video game maker Epic Games." (Reuters)

 >> Mark Gurman reports that Apple is planning to "enter the low-cost laptop market for the first time." (Bloomberg)

>> Netflix is asking talent agents for ideas as it looks to "sign on more video podcasters," Caitlin Huston reports. (THR)

'We made this video because...'

Trump's official White House TikTok account used Taylor Swift's "The Fate of Ophelia" in a video "despite his previous anti-Swift comments," Variety’s Thania Garcia wrote. (It was one of those "the land, the sea, the sky" compilations that have been so popular on social media lately.) When Garcia asked the WH for comment, a spokesperson responded, "We made this video because we knew fake news media brands like Variety would breathlessly amplify them. Congrats, you got played."

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