Happy Monday. Here's the latest on Mark Levin, Megyn Kelly, Nexstar, Brendan Carr, CBS, Peter Alexander, Politico, "Love Story," and more... |
The Pentagon has not held a press briefing about the war in Iran in a week and a half.
Pete Hegseth's spokesman Sean Parnell has responded to a Washington Post story about the US supply of Tomahawk missiles by claiming the media is "obsessed with portraying the world's strongest military as weak."
And the Pentagon's rebuffing of the press has intensified. This morning, government lawyers are back in court defending Hegseth's sweeping restrictions on press access to US military headquarters.
Those three facts, taken together, might not fill you with confidence about the leadership of "the world's strongest military" (emphasis on the leadership, not the military).
"We learn more of what the U.S. military has been doing from bystander videos than DoD," Obama admin spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on X over the weekend, decrying the "historic lack of transparency and accountability."
During past wars in the Middle East, especially at the early stages, US military officials stuck to a regular briefing schedule and often provided daily updates.
The Trump administration evidently feels no obligation to do so – perhaps because of President Trump's repeated boast about MAGA Republicans firmly backing the war.
There is little visible effort to persuade the rest of America about the merits of the ongoing bombing campaign and the possible deployment of ground forces. (Unless you count the memes, which the White House continues to post with regularity.)
There were hardly any Trump administration officials present on the Sunday public affairs programs. The networks asked just like they always do; the interview requests were declined.
>> Right before I was about to hit send this morning, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that she will hold a 1 p.m. ET press briefing. But a WH briefing is no replacement for a Pentagon press conference.
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Retiring those 'boots on the ground' |
Can members of the media think twice before using the term "boots on the ground" in every other sentence about the war? Those boots belong to people. We're talking about American service members in harm's way.
I know reporters and editors aren't thinking too deeply about it when they use the phrase, but it really does abstract people into objects and soften the very serious stakes of warfare. It's euphemistic when we need to be direct.
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Levin makes case for escalation — with Trump's backing |
Iran war hawks and Trump allies are clearly softening the ground in support of a wider military effort. In a Truth Social post on Saturday afternoon, Trump urged everyone to watch Fox News host Mark Levin's prime-time talk show. Trump specifically plugged Marc Thiessen's appearance, indicating he knew what would air on the show.
Levin proceeded to advocate for US escalation in Iran. He said there are "lots of reasons" to deploy specialized troops. Among them: "We've gotta get the uranium."
Then on Sunday night, the Wall Street Journal (elaborating on earlier reporting elsewhere) reported that Trump is "weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran." The WSJ pointed out the Trump-Levin connection in its story.
>> In other Levin news, Levin and Megyn Kelly "continued mocking each with high school-esque sexual insults" over the weekend, "extending their smutty feud that began two weeks ago," Mediaite's Sean James dutifully reported.
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TV as a backchannel to Trump |
This latest demonstration of the Trump-Fox feedback loop reminded me of something that SE Cupp said on CNN's "Table for Five." Some GOP lawmakers, she said, are going on TV to discourage Trump from sending ground forces into Iran:
"They are trying to communicate to Trump that they don't want this because they have no other way to do it. He's not listening to them. He's listening to Laura Loomer and Lindsey Graham, and he's being shown videos of stuff blowing up, and that's his briefing. So you can sense the desperation among a lot of Republican lawmakers who know they can't get to Trump any other way than by going on to CNN or Fox News or all the cables to beg him, sort of indirectly, please don't go farther than we've already gone."
Some Fox personalities are among the voices urging caution. Marine Corps veteran Johnny "Joey" Jones said yesterday on "The Big Weekend Show" that he's "personally torn on this," and then spoke directly to Trump and Hegseth, arguing that further military action should be swift if it happens at all: "Don't nation build. Don't 'win hearts and minds.' Don't spread democracy..."
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Mixed and muddled messaging |
"Listening to President Trump's words at any given moment, it sounds like the war is about to end, or it's about to intensify," Jon Karl said on ABC's "This Week."
The reality "on the ground, however, is affected by more than a president’s words," Karl said. "The military force is growing. The attacks from both Israel and the United States haven't slowed down. And Iran's response to it all has shaken the global economy."
Last night on Air Force One and this morning on Truth Social, Trump continued to send mixed and muddled messages. CNN's main homepage headline right now is "Trump threatens to obliterate Iran's energy sources if deal isn't reached." I highly recommend Stephen Collinson's newest piece about Trump trying to "conjure a new reality" about the war...
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MAGA media's Iran war debate turns inward |
The right-wing media's split over the war continues to warrant daily attention. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has always had a strained relationship with Fox News, wrote on X yesterday that the network is "brainwashing boomers to support what we voted against." The other day, Tucker Carlson called his former network "the world headquarters for 'boots on the ground.'"
And I noticed this tweet from Ann Coulter getting widely shared yesterday: "Watching Fox News assure viewers the Iran war is going SUPER well and Trump is a total stud is like watching the same network assure viewers that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the 2020 election and Trump was the winner."
Trumpworld's usual response is to promote the polls showing solid MAGA support for the war. Podcaster Matt Walsh, who opposes the war, suggested there's something more nuanced going on:
"I've talked to dozens of normal conservatives in real life about the Iran War and I haven't met a single one who's actually enthusiastically in favor of it," he tweeted. "At best they're warily optimistic. In most cases they're opposed. In some cases they're not only opposed but deeply furious."
Breitbart DC bureau chief Matt Boyle chimed in and said ordinary people (I think he meant ordinary Trump voters) "take the president at his word on the 4-6 weeks timeline that ends next weekend. If it goes longer, a lot of the trust that he’s built starts wavering. People trust Trump, but only to the timeline he said it would happen on."
>> Related: The Atlantic's Elaine Godfrey published a new piece titled "The Manosphere Turns on Trump" yesterday. In it, she describes "bro-casters" like Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz moving from the "initial thrill of Trump's triumph over wokeness" to a disillusioned sense of "confusion and disappointment."
>> Rogan recently called Trump a "TikTok president," suggesting Trump doesn't have the attention span to fully grasp the reality of the war, and said unnamed people "tricked" the president into striking Iran.
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Lest we lose sight of this: "It has now been over 720 hours since Iran fell off the global internet with the digital blackout entering its 31st day," NetBlocks said this morning. "As the shutdown continues into its second month, misinformation and propaganda increasingly fill the void both domestically and internationally."
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Israeli military suspends battalion involved in assaulting, detaining CNN crew |
On Saturday, CNN's Jeremy Diamond published a harrowing account of Israeli soldiers detaining his CNN crew in the West Bank. Photojournalist Cyril Theophilos was put in a chokehold, "bringing him to the ground and damaging his camera."
"The two hours we spent detained by them laid bare the settler ideology motivating many of the soldiers who operate in the occupied West Bank — and the ways in which soldiers frequently act in service of the settler movement," Diamond wrote.
"And, obviously, this is not just about what happened to our crew, but these actions by Israeli soldiers and settlers that take place against Palestinians almost every single day in the West Bank," Diamond told Jake Tapper yesterday.
One day later, the entire reserve battalion involved in the detention and assault was suspended by Israel's top general, Tal Shalev and Diamond wrote in this follow-up...
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America's "first human moon mission in more than half a century is on track to launch" on Wednesday, Kate Bolduan said on "CNN News Central" this morning.
NASA says the Artemis II flyby's launch "is targeted for no earlier than 6:24 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 1, with a two-hour launch window. Additional opportunities for launch run through Monday, April 6." CNN's Jackie Wattles profiled the four crew members here...
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🚨 Judge pauses Nexstar-Tegna deal |
"A federal judge late Friday put a hold on the $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar Media Group and Tegna," NBC's Daniel Arkin writes. "U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in California granted a request from DirecTV, which argued in a lawsuit that the pending merger violates federal antitrust laws. Eight attorneys general, led by California's Rob Bonta, filed a separate lawsuit on similar legal grounds."
>> "As state AGs challenge federal enforcement decisions, a key question has been whether they have the resources — and time — to have an impact," the NYT's Lauren Hirsch wrote. "This ruling indicates they can, at the very least, complicate deal timelines."
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FCC chair brands media shakeups as Trump 'wins' |
The man who waved through the Nexstar-Tegna deal, FCC chair Brendan Carr, went to CPAC on Friday and listed off a string of news industry shakeups as examples of Trump "winning" against the "fake news media."
In case you missed it, here's the key quote: "President Trump is winning. Look at the results so far: PBS defunded. NPR defunded. Joy Reid gone from MSNBC. 'Sleepy-Eyed' Chuck Todd, gone. Jim Acosta, gone. John Dickerson, gone. Colbert is leaving. CBS is under new ownership, and soon enough, CNN is going to have new ownership as well.”
Of course, those changes in TV hosts had nothing to do with the FCC. But the agency did have a hand in the change of CBS ownership. And Paramount is now trying to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, including CNN.
Carr's comments were widely criticized, including by Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, who wrote on X, "the FCC chairman himself is stating that CBS's new ownership is 'Trump winning.' That should deeply embarrass and offend CBS's leadership. When the FCC Chair brags that you're state TV for the Trump administration, a reassessment of one's values is in order."
>> I noted on "CNN News Central" this morning that some CBS journalists were privately perturbed by Carr's commentary...
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'No principle or virtue here' |
On X, Derek Thompson summed up the situation this way: "The Trump FCC sees its job quite explicitly as the destruction of all opposition. There's no principle or virtue here. What’s being celebrated is the destruction of any liberal principle or shared value. MAGA folks can say 'well we kind of feel like you did this to us, or want to do this to us' but notice that’s not a principle. 'We're violating this rule bc we think you did' is the opposite of virtue. It’s a justification for why you can violate a virtue that you still believe should apply when the shoe is on the other foot."
"Virtue signaling can be annoying," Thompson added. "But it’s being replaced with the open celebration of vice and authoritarianism. Which is so much worse."
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Politico names new editor |
Jonathan Greenberger, a longtime ABC producer and DC bureau chief who joined Politico in 2024, will be the publication's new editor in chief, succeeding John Harris effective May 1.
>> "A big part of what I’m going to be doing is thinking about how we embrace new platforms — how do we use technology to bring our journalism to broader audiences," Greenberger told the WSJ's Alexandra Bruell, who broke the news of his appointment...
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The White House tried to dismiss Saturday's "No Kings" protests in advance by saying: "The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them."
Well, the videos and photos from across the country showed that many ordinary people cared, too. Scott Jennings quipped on Sunday: "That's a lot of free speech for a country with a king..."
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ICYMI over the weekend... |
>> Daniel Dale showed how "Trump keeps saying ‘nobody’ knew or expected things lots of people knew or expected." (CNN)
>> "Charles Barkley criticized United States' 'sad' treatment of immigrants" during March Madness coverage. (USA Today)
>> Adam Wren described how Hasan Piker is "driving a wedge in the Democratic Party." (Politico)
>> Peter Alexander announced that he is leaving NBC News for MS NOW. He will anchor the 11 a.m. ET hour, appear on other shows as chief national reporter, and "handle breaking news coverage throughout the day." (LAT)
>> Ben Mullin and Jessica Testa reported that MS NOW parent Versant is one of the companies pursuing a deal for Vox's podcast business. (NYT)
>> Berber Jin and Jessica Toonkel went long on Sora, tracking the "sudden fall of OpenAI's most hyped product since ChatGPT." (WSJ)
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"Project Hail Mary" is "officially Amazon MGM's highest-grossing film ever," raking in "$300.8 million globally after earning another $54.1 million from 86 markets this weekend," Variety's Brent Lang writes. Meanwhile, "Disney and Pixar's 'Hoppers' also performed well internationally," adding “$37 million globally to its haul this weekend, $24.8 million of which came from foreign markets," bringing its gross to $297.6 million, Lang writes.
>> "Family movies are where the $$$ is at," the WSJ's Ben Fritz tweeted after surveying how family-friendly flicks performed: "Project Hail Mary domestic grosses down just 32% this weekend. Hoppers down 31%. GOAT down 36%."
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'Love Story' prompts trips down a '90s rabbit hole |
Did you finish watching FX's "Love Story" over the weekend? When I did, I immediately asked my wife who season two could/should be about.
As for the story of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, I appreciate how NYMag has resurfaced some of its coverage from the 1990s, like this cover story about the "Instant Princess" and another titled "Does John Kennedy Sell Magazines?"
Websites like People are also chasing the traffic from viewers who want to know what was fact and what was fiction. The show "has prompted an unexpected surge of history lessons on TikTok," the NYT's Shivani Gonzalez wrote in this story about the '90s themes.
>> CNN's Dan Heching followed up with journalists who covered JFK Jr.'s 1999 plane crash. They say the memories are still vivid...
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