Hi there! Rather than waiting until Monday morning, we're coming to you with a Sunday edition about the earth-shaking news out of Venezuela and how it's being covered by the global press. Plus, a few key media industry stories you might have missed over the holidays... |
The US capture of Nicolás Maduro reinforces the value of traditional reporting in a few really meaningful ways.
Starting with this: Nothing can replace on-the-ground reporting. A small number of journalists in Venezuela — a hostile environment for the press — alerted the world to the explosions that signaled the American attack.
CNN's team in Caracas said they could hear aircraft overhead and see the electrical outage. Mary Mena reported live on CNN's platforms for hours and hours. Meanwhile, NBC, the BBC and CBC lined up live shots from Ana Vanessa Herrero, a journalist based in Caracas. She also co-bylined the Washington Post's reporting from the country.
When President Trump said that the US will "run" Venezuela, CNN en Español correspondent Osmary Hernández asked Caracas residents for their reactions. "What does he mean by that?" one man asked, adding, "I think we're all in the same position, waiting to find out what the truth is."
Wire service alerts, photos and live feeds have helped with that. This is a story where a handful of global news outlets really excel. I say this with affection for the Substack and YouTube stars of the moment, but they're all relying on The AP and Reuters for raw material right now.
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A second takeaway this weekend: Expertise makes all the difference. When Trump announced via Truth Social that Maduro had been captured, CNN immediately turned to military analysts like Cedric Leighton and regional experts like Stefano Pozzebon. CBS (and The Free Press) both booked Elliott Abrams. I turned up the volume every time I saw Beth Sanner, who used to be Trump's primary intel briefer, on CNN, and when correspondents like Jim Sciutto and Isa Soares relayed info from sources in the region. In a moment when many social media pretenders suddenly pose as geopolitical experts, actual expertise stands out more.
Those experts also contribute to the third takeaway: News consumers crave explainers. If we're being honest, many readers and viewers barely know the first thing about Maduro or Venezuela's government. That's probably why two of the most-read articles on CNN's site right now are answering questions: "Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s leader after Maduro's capture?" and "Trump attacked Venezuela and arrested its president. Is that legal?"
Expertise is also essential given the flood of fake imagery on social media. WIRED's David Gilbert observed everything "from seemingly AI-generated videos to repurposed old footage" and said "TikTok, Instagram, and X did little to stop the onslaught of misleading posts."
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A smaller but still significant takeaway from Saturday: Trump is still taking phone calls from reporters on his cell phone, even in the middle of the night. NYT reporter Tyler Pager tried calling Trump just after 4:30 a.m., ten minutes after Trump's Truth Social post about the attack, and Trump picked up after three rings, Pager said.
"This is the first time I have ever called the president on his cellphone," Pager explained in this Q&A. "There is an extremely high bar to reach him directly, and I called him only after consulting with Dick Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief."
Pager kept up the questioning at Trump's midday press conference. "Mr. President," he said, "can you explain how the U.S. will 'run' Venezuela?"
White House staffers at Mar-a-Lago opened up the presser to more than just the "pool," which meant many outlets were represented, and the questions were excellent. "Throughout it all, he was quite vague," CNN's Kevin Liptak said right afterward. But that in and of itself was revealing.
Trump continued talking on Sunday morning, getting on the phone with The Atlantic's Michael Scherer and saying of Rodríguez, "if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro."
>> Secretary of State Marco Rubio fielded questions on the ABC, NBC and CBS Sunday shows this morning. CNN's latest: 'A picture is emerging of how US sees its role 'running' Venezuela..."
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'Pure televised spectacle' |
Speaking of Trump's calls, he phoned into "Fox & Friends" for a Saturday morning victory lap of sorts. After praising the US military's heroics, he marveled at the made-for-TV-like spectacle: "If you would have seen what happened, I mean, I watched it literally like I was watching a television show. And if you would have seen the speed, the violence... just, it was an amazing thing, an amazing job that these people did."
Author Michael Weiss, who publishes Foreign Office, wrote on X that "Trump doesn't like war but he loves acts of war. He sees it as pure televised spectacle, a form of entertainment, but he wants it to be over quickly, as if in time for a commercial break. Dropping the MOAB in Afghanistan, killing Baghdadi, killing Soleimani and Muhandis, bombing Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan, and now capturing Maduro."
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Presidents, they're just like us? |
In photos released by the White House, several X tabs were open on a projector screen in front of Trump as the raid was underway. In two of the photos, someone had typed in a search term that looks like the word "Venezuela." In another photo, someone had pulled up the popular "OSINT Defender" account.
The imagery suggests that US leaders were looking out for posts that might signal public awareness of the military action while it was getting underway. I wrote about it here...
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Well-sourced journalists had spent the Christmas season standing by for some sort of US attack. "We had long been ready for what ultimately transpired," Jim LaPorta of CBS wrote. "The weather however kept delaying the operation."
Both The New York Times and Washington Post learned some specifics about the Venezuela strike plans in advance, "but held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops," Semafor's Max Tani and Shelby Talcott reported. This is in keeping with a long tradition in US journalism.
"So many ironies," NPR's Steve Inskeep tweeted in response. "NYT, WaPo (and NPR and others) gave up Pentagon passes rather than sign a restrictive media policy that cast them as a security threat. It didn't stop them from learning critical information, which they handled responsibly as they so often have."
>> Rubio expressed thanks on ABC's "This Week" today: "Frankly a number of media outlets had gotten leaks that this was coming and held it... and we thank them for doing that, or lives could have been lost."
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A few more notes and quotes |
>> In Florida, today's Miami Herald front page features celebrations by Venezuelans in the city. In Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times cover says "Venezuelans in Chicago are skeptical that Trump will make Venezuela great again." You can view all the front pages via the Freedom Forum here.
>> During one of Mary Mena's live shots on CNN yesterday, she pointed out that state-run TV was trying to broadcast "a message of tranquility," and/but "the majority of Venezuelans are following the news through international channels like CNN."
>> The Maduro capture "sparked widespread discussion on Chinese social media, with many users saying the operation offered a template for how Beijing could handle tensions with Taiwan," Bloomberg reported.
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Tony Dokoupil era starts early |
CBS News has scrapped its plans for new evening news anchor Tony Dokoupil to tour the country for the first two weeks of his tenure. Instead, Dokoupil started anchoring two days early, matching his weekday rivals on NBC and ABC with a Saturday edition. The tour "will resume at a later date," CBS said.
>> The bulk of Dokoupil's broadcast was an exclusive interview with Pete Hegseth, who was described as the defense secretary, despite the "War Department" rebranding. I'm told that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss personally booked Hegseth.
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In other CBS News news... |
Speaking of Weiss... "60 Minutes" will return tonight after a holiday hiatus, but Sharyn Alfonsi's "Inside CECOT" segment still will not be shown. However, Alfonsi does have another piece running: a profile of world champion US figure skater Alysa Liu, the favorite to win Olympic gold next month.
Over the holiday break, when George Clooney told Variety that Weiss is "dismantling CBS News," she responded by ribbing him about gaining French citizenship — "Bonjour, Mr. Clooney! Big fan of your work" — then invited him to visit CBS News HQ in NYC. I hope he accepts the offer.
>> Meanwhile, "former CBS News journalists are preparing a petition urging Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to uphold editorial independence at the network," the New York Post reported, though the letter is apparently now on hold.
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Some notable stories from the Christmas-through-New Year's stretch:
>> A 23-year-old MAGA journalist's video alleging Minnesota fraud went viral. It showed "the relationship between the Trump administration and self-described citizen journalists," as the NYT put it here.
>> Tatiana Schlossberg died on Dec. 30, barely one month after The New Yorker published her heart-wrenching end-of-life essay. Michael Luo shared that it was the publication's "most-read story of the past few years." David Remnick said it needed barely any editing.
>> "Warner Bros. is planning to reject Paramount's latest offer — but not until after the board votes" in the coming days, Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reported.
>> MTV did NOT shut down on New Year's Eve despite many misinformed social media posts about the subject. Michael Schneider explained what happened here.
>> Katherine Maher, who has taken an "unyielding approach to NPR's biggest battles," was the subject of a year-end profile by Ben Mullin.
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Kennedy Center turmoil continues |
There were several news cycles' worth of drama about the Kennedy Center since we last met. Jeffrey Brown summed up some of the turmoil for the PBS "NewsHour" on Friday. Then Ric Grenell was interviewed by "NewsHour" anchor Amna Nawaz, and Grenell was in a fighting mood. He got defensive, however, when Nawaz asked about the big ratings drop for the Kennedy Center Honors telecast on CBS.
The Trump-led show averaged 3 million viewers, "down about 25% from the previous year," WaPo's Samantha Chery wrote. A Kennedy Center PR rep claimed it was a "classic apples-to-oranges comparison and evidence of far-left bias" to note the year-over-year #s...
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A blunt message about Instagram |
"In an end-of-year message posted on Threads, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that the platform would have to evolve to cope with a coming flood of AI-generated content — and warned that the rise of AI had killed off Instagram's polished aesthetic," Business Insider's Tom Carter wrote.
I winced at Mosseri's comment that "people largely stopped sharing personal moments to feed years ago," since that's the main thing I like about Instagram, but he's obviously right. Read his full message here...
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>> "With a giant evil spider monster, mysterious briefcase and a whole lot of teary characters bidding adieu, 'Stranger Things' has now become a thing of the past." Dan Heching wrote about the finale (with spoilers) here. (CNN)
>> Screenings of the finale "cleared well north of $25 million, possibly even $30 million, in concession cash to movie theaters over its New Year's Eve and New Years Day play." (Deadline)
>> "After a bumpy 2025, the new year is off to a good start at the domestic box office," with James Cameron's "Avatar: Fire and Ash" leading the way. (THR)
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