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Good morning! I hope you were all able to see the spectacular aurora last night. We might have another chance tonight. As storm chaser Brandon Copic remarked, it was so refreshing to see "nothing but northern lights on my feed" overnight. "No stupid fights or arguments, just beauty." 

Pressure mounts on BBC board

The BBC board held an unexpected meeting this morning as the British broadcaster stares down a legal threat from President Trump, a source with direct knowledge of the meeting tells me.

A BBC rep declined to comment. But the convening seems like the latest sign of a scramble inside the BBC to address the fallout from last week's Telegraph story about the bad Trump documentary edit dating back to October 2024.

Media outlets in the UK have been consumed with stories about whether the BBC will try to appease Trump, or will stand up to him, and what the consequences will be. "If the BBC decides to fold, rather than fight," Matt Frei said on Channel 4 last night, "its reputation is shot to pieces, isn't it? Around the world?" Yes, Andrew Marr said, "it will be terrible."

Frankly, Lewis Goodall said on "The News Agents" podcast, "if the BBC just backs down," then "it doesn't deserve to survive."

For now, the corporation is sticking with its original statement about Trump's legal threat: "We are reviewing the letter and will respond directly in due course."

 >> Trump continues to squeeze: Speaking with Fox's Laura Ingraham, Trump said he has an "obligation" to sue the BBC because the network "defrauded" viewers. Here's the video clip.

 >> Reality check: "Public figures in the US face steep hurdles in defamation cases," and this case would be even harder for Trump to win, for the reasons Reuters reporter Jack Queen outlines here.

Starmer defends 'independent' BBC

"Whether you are a supporter or a detractor of the BBC, I think everyone would agree these are incredibly testing times for the corporation," BBC media and culture editor Katie Razzall wrote the other day.

This morning British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in Parliament that the BBC must "get their house in order." Per CNN's Christian Edwards, Starmer dodged an opposition lawmaker's question about whether he would tell Trump to drop his threat and promise that the US president "will not get a single penny" from BBC license fee payers. Starmer said he believes in a "strong and independent BBC" and criticized those who "would rather the BBC didn't exist," in a pointed aside to the upstart Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage, Edwards notes.

 >> Marina Hyde is asking the big BBC question: "Who in their right mind would want to be its new boss?" (The Guardian)

Parallels between the US and the UK

When I was talking about the BBC turmoil with Geoff Bennett on the PBS "NewsHour" last night, my mind wandered to the similarities between Trump's push to defund PBS/NPR and the ongoing conservative campaign to undermine the BBC.

Dr. Kate Wright, a professor at the University of Edinburgh who co-authored a book about Voice of America and Trump, sees parallels to America's withdrawal from VOA and other international broadcasting efforts, as well.

"It's clear that the BBC has made mistakes with the Panorama edit," Wright told me. "But what's happening here also seems to map onto the recipe used in the capture of public service media around the world. That regularly includes allegations of 'bias' and lack of balance to move the political dial via internal governance structures, at the same time as squeezing funding and human resources, and attacking the legitimacy of the network in question in the wider media."

 >> Big picture: "Questioning edits" has become "another tool for the president to strike back at journalists who displease him, The AP's David Bauder writes.

BREAKING

Eye-opening new Jeffrey Epstein emails

CNN.com's main homepage headline right now: "Jeffrey Epstein mentioned Trump in private emails, new release shows." Kaitlan Collins reports that Epstein "referenced the president by name multiple times" in messages to Ghislaine Maxwell and Michael Wolff, according to emails released by House Democrats.

Wolff's emails – including a "heads up" message on the day of a CNN GOP primary debate in 2015 – are of particular interest. Much more to come on this, especially since the House's Epstein files petition is about to get its 218th signature...

'When people say nice about me, I join'

Trump dialed in to the Veteran's Day broadcast of "The Pat McAfee Show" and was unusually honest about how he picks and chooses his media hits. "I'm only joining you because I hear you say such nice things about me from your very large audience," Trump told McAfee.

"When people say nice about me, I join; when they don't say nice about me, I take a pass," Trump added. McAfee didn't seem to mind, telling the president, "I feel very similar about how I treat people and operate people."

A long-overdue apology 

Remember the outrageous search of the Marion County Record newspaper office? "A county in Kansas has agreed to pay more than $3 million and apologize" for the 2023 raid, CNN's Cindy Von Quednow reports. The newspaper's editor and publisher Eric Meyer told her "the important thing, and what we held out for, is that there was an admission that wrong was done." More here...

Briefly…

 >> Truth Social's AI is "doing something remarkable and unexpected," Jared Poland writes: "It's telling the truth." Poland asked the bot several Q's, including several about Trump, and received answers that would surely sting Trump. (The Bulwark)

 >> Speaking of The Bulwark, it has poached the Washington Post's head of audio, Renita Jablonski. (X)

 >> Justin Baragona hears "there are growing concerns within CBS News that Bari Weiss could gut or even disband the network's Standards and Practices team." (The Independent)

 >> Disney has extended CFO Hugh Johnston's contract into 2029. The company releases Q3 earnings tomorrow. (THR)

👀 on Paramount, Comcast and WBD

Wall Street "liked what it heard in the first Paramount earnings outing under new leadership," THR's Georg Szalai notes. The stock closed up almost 10% yesterday.

Meantime, Comcast boss Brian Roberts recently visited Saudi Arabia and met with the Public Investment Fund as his company considers building a Universal theme park there, Puck's Matt Belloni reports. Belloni wonders about possible Saudi involvement in the WBD bidding war...

Is Sora... boring now?!

Business Insider's Katie Notopoulos, who loved the slop-generating app at first, says she's bored by it now. Sora's initial pull was “the friend graph,” but that “the friend graph never expanded” and “none of my friends who don't work in tech or media ever joined, and if I've tried to explain Sora to them, they are horror-stricken at the idea of letting strangers make videos of their faces,” she writes in this new piece.

 >> But, as the NYT's Mike Isaac noted on X, that doesn't stop there being "Sora watermarks everywhere else." Notopoulos agreed, saying "I imagine the market for 'free, east to use, and good AI video' is vast in terms of consuming it; I just am not... finding a need to MAKE it anymore."

 >> Meantime, Public Citizen is demanding that OpenAI withdraw Sora 2 "over deepfake dangers," per The AP. The watchdog group cites OpenAI's "dangerous pattern" of "rushing to market with a product that is either inherently unsafe or lacking in needed guardrails."

More of today's tech talk

 >> Yesterday's news about Yann LeCun is on Page One of today's FT: "Meta AI chief to quit and launch own start-up as Zuckerberg plots overhaul." (FT)

 >> Threads is courting podcasters "with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions," Sarah Perez writes. (TechCrunch)

 >> Google is adding new AI features "to its Pixel devices, including iPhone-like message summaries and notification prioritization," Samantha Kelly reports. (Bloomberg)

 >> Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine "have teamed with AI audio company ElevenLabs to produce virtual replications of their famous voices." (Variety)

Coming up today:

Netflix House Philadelphia opens its doors to the public today at the King of Prussia Mall outside Philly. 

Warner Bros. co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are talking with The Ankler's Richard Rushfield on Substack Live at 11:30 a.m. PT. 

"South Park" is returning with a new episode tonight. The title: "Sora Not Sorry."

Curtain call

 >> "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" is taking the rest of the week off "following the death of his friend and bandleader Cleto Escobedo III, otherwise known as Jr." (Deadline)

 >> This morning Tubi "announced its first slate of exclusive digital-first creator series from Joey Graceffa, KevOnStage, Rock Squad, TheOneShu, Bigg Jah and Dan & Riya." (Variety)

 >> A new study from USC (PDF) shows that 64% of the "top 100 podcasts of 2024" were hosted by men, and 77% of hosts were white. (USC)

 >> Amazon said yesterday that "advertising on Prime Video now reaches 315 monthly viewers, up from 200 million in April 2024." (Deadline)

 >> Last but not least, Pixar has released the (very funny, if you're a parent of young kids!) teaser trailer for "Toy Story 5." (YouTube)

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