EXEC SUMMARY: Hey there, and happy Friday! This is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter. Scroll down for our weekend guide, an update on the Vox Media union, Sunday's "Reliable" guests, and more. But first...
BREAKING NEWS Trump calls off tariffs, says U.S. and Mexico have reached deal
The banner headlines on CNN, Fox News, NYT, WaPo, and other news sites are all about Friday night's breaking news: Trump has just gone on Twitter to announce a deal with Mexico and, as a result, his backing off tariffs on that country's imports. In a tweet, Trump wrote that he was pleased to say the United States "has reached a signed agreement with Mexico" and that the "tariffs scheduled to be implemented" have been "indefinitely suspended."
As Jeremy Diamond noted for CNN's story, "The announcement was a dramatic reversal of a sudden tariff threat that Trump himself had announced last week in an attempt to put more pressure on the Mexican government to stem the flow of migrants into the US." More info in Diamond's story for CNN.com here...
Big Tech to face more scrutiny
It's been a wild week for Big Tech, and relief does not appear to be in sight. Next week, companies like Facebook and Google will once again be under the magnifying glass, as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to hold a Tuesday hearing on "online platforms and market power." This is the first in a series of hearings by an antitrust subcommittee led by Rep. David Cicilline -- and it is focusing specifically on how Big Tech has affected "the free and diverse press."
Cicilline is the Democratic congressman who introduced the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act alongside his GOP counterpart Rep. Doug Collins. The bill would provide newspapers with a four-year antitrust exemption, allowing them to band together in negotiations with online platforms. You can expect the bill to come up repeatedly on Tuesday...
What to expect...
Brian Stelter emails: Ahead of the hearing, I brought News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern, Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor Kevin Riley, and Sally Hubbard of the Open Markets Institute together for a podcast conversation. All three will be testifying at Tuesday's hearing.
Chavern's group has been spearheading the legislation. He says publishers need the legal right to strike a "better deal" with tech giants. Hubbard told me that she supports the bill, even though "ordinarily I don't support exemptions from the antitrust laws." And Riley talked about how regional papers like the AJC are adjusting to the digital world. He asked: "Does it make sense that at a time when our audience is at its biggest point, our financial difficulties are at their most difficult point?"
>> Listen to the pod: It's available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your preferred app...
Sullivan's view
To Riley's point, Margaret Sullivan addressed this subject in her most recent column, pointing out that "while Google and Facebook gave media organizations new, and popular, ways to distribute their journalism, they also sucked up much of the advertising revenue." Sullivan explained that "newspaper publishers hoped that digital advertising would make up the difference" -- but, she noted, "That hasn't happened." She endorsed the bill that's on the table...
>> Related video: CNN Business' Jon Sarlin breaks down why Google and Facebook's domination of the online ad market is "bad for journalism..."
The big picture
Earlier this week, CNN's Zachary B. Wolf summed up the recent headlines about the executive and legislative branches training their sights on Google and Facebook in particular, and Big Tech more broadly: "The US government and the political mood are turning on tech companies for being too big, crowding out competition, violating users' privacy, squeezing government for tax incentives and scrimping on wages for their lowest-paid employees," Wolf wrote.
The regulatory reviews and House hearings are resulting in some dramatic talk. But what will all this talk actually amount to? We'll see...
| | Weekend guide
Saturday: E3 pre-show events get underway ahead of Tuesday's official start to the expo...
Saturday: CNN and the Des Moines Register will release their third Iowa caucus poll...
Sunday: The Tony Awards! Scroll down for our preview...
Sunday: The season finale of "Billions" on Showtime and the return of "Big Little Lies" on HBO...
Monday: The Code Conference begins in Scottsdale... | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The Barnes & Noble deal is official: The bookseller is going private in a $683 million purchase by "a fund run by private equity firm Elliott Management..." (CNN)
-- Alex Sherman goes "inside AT&T vet John Stankey's first year running WarnerMedia..." (CNBC)
-- Vox EIC Lauren Williams and head of video Joe Posner write an open letter to Susan Wojcicki: "This Pride Month, your LGBTQ creators deserve more than just a rainbow logo..." (Vox)
-- A lawsuit that accuses Google of harboring bias against conservatives in the hiring process will move forward. The case was originally brought against the search giant by James Damore... (The Verge)
| | Vox Media and employees come to deal on union contract
Vox Media employees and management struck an agreement on Friday for a union contract. "After 29 straight hours of final negotiations, and well over a year of organizing and collective action, we are thrilled to announce we have reached a tentative agreement with Vox Media for our first-ever collective bargaining agreement with the Writers Guild of America, East," the Vox Media Bargaining Committee said in a statement Friday evening. The deal came after more than 300 Vox Media employees walked out on Thursday.
>> What's next: Per the bargaining committee, "Our unit still needs to ratify our contract, but we are proud of what we have won in this agreement and can't wait to share the details."
Bankoff says he's "thrilled"
Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff said in an email to staff on Friday evening that he was "thrilled" both sides were able to come to an agreement. "I want to thank all the individuals who have helped us get here — especially those serving on the two bargaining committees," Bankoff wrote. "You have dedicated significant time and made tremendous sacrifices. I am very grateful for your efforts to make Vox Media even stronger." You can read his full note here...
Is this Sinclair meteorologist out of a job for criticizing the company?
WICS-TV meteorologist Joe Crain spoke out earlier this week on-air against Sinclair's "Code Red" warning system, which is supposed to alert viewers to dangerous weather. Crain said in a segment that the warning system is a mandatory "corporate initiative" that "doesn't recognize that not all storms are equal." He noted that "a lot of people" are "not happy" with it, saying it was "evident by the thousands of comments on social media, letters to the editor, frequent calls to local talk-radio shows." And he said that "behind the scenes" some "have tried to dissuade" Sinclair from using it.
But the segment didn't seem to go over so well with management. The State Journal-Register observed that the bio page for Crain, who has worked at the station since 2004, has been removed from WICS-TV's website. And WaPo's story said "he might be out of a job," noting a company spokesperson declined to discuss his employment status, saying "policy is not to comment on individual matters." Crain was also off air on Thursday, according to WaPo...
Sinclair stands by the alert system
Sinclair spox Ronn Torossian told WaPo that the company was "glad" it has issued code reds, noting on that particular day there "was significant storm damage in the area including trees falling on homes, downed power lines, and hail storms."
Per WaPo, Sinclair's statement said the amount of Code Red alerts has had to do with the number of "severe weather-related events across the country in recent weeks."
Recommended reads for the weekend 👓
-- The Harvard Business Review dug into BBC's success in "Tackling the Underrepresentation of Women in Media" with the 50:50 Project. Read the "three key lessons" from "over 35 hours of interviews with more than 25 journalists, producers, presenters, and top leaders at the BBC..."
-- Les Rose for Poynter: "Advice for TV journalists you might not know (but really should)..."
-- CJR's Michael Edison Hayden offers this guide to open-source reporting, or, "the effort of retrieving information that is publicly available online..."
-- Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik explores the "surge in non-fiction TV programming." Between "the start of the second season of 'Axios on HBO' and the debut on FX of 'The Weekly' from the New York Times," he asks, "Can journalism find new audiences on Sunday night TV?"
Sunday on "Reliable Sources" | | Brian Stelter emails: On Sunday I'll have one of Jim Acosta's first interviews about his new book "The Enemy of the People." It comes out on Tuesday. I'll also be joined by the aforementioned David Cicilline... Plus three of the experts who will be testifying at Tuesday's House hearing... And S.E. Cupp, Irin Carmon and Bill Carter. See you Sunday at 11 a.m. ET on CNN!
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
By An Phung:
-- The Athletic is heading across the pond: "The direct-to-consumer media company plans to hire a U.K. team of between 50 and 55, mostly writers, ahead of a mid-August launch..." (Digiday)
-- The "32-member editorial and photo staff of the progressive business media outlet Fast Company unanimously has ratified its first collective bargaining agreement with the WGA East..." (Deadine)
-- Mail Online's traffic plummeted after Google's latest algorithm change... (PressGazette)
-- WBBM Newsradio's Kris Kridel signed off for the last time after 34 years on the job... (WBBM)
More un-redacted portions of Comey memos coming
"A federal judge has ruled that the FBI must un-redact more portions of former Director James Comey's memos about his meetings with President Donald Trump, in response to a lawsuit from CNN," Katelyn Polantz and Caroline Kelly reported on Friday. They note that "much from the memos has been released publicly, but some parts remain redacted." More info in their story here...
Keilar grills Biden spox on abortion funding shift
| | If you watch one interview on Friday, you should watch this one with Brianna Keilar. Keilar relentlessly grilled Biden campaign comms director Kate Bedingfield over Biden's sudden change in position on the Hyde Amendment, asking repeatedly what prompted the Democratic candidate to switch his position. "I don't think you've answered it," Keilar said after asking the question multiple times. Watch the interview via Mediaite here...
Why Rob Kardashian once again has a presence on Instagram, despite being banned
In 2017, Rob Kardashian was banned from Instagram for posting revenge porn against his ex, Blac Chyna. So it was surprising to a lot of people when Kris Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian directed their fans to follow a new verified account for him this week. Rob was banned for violating the platform's rules, so why was he allowed back on the platform?
Well, as it turns out, he's not technically allowed to return. In this case, Instagram says the account is being permitted to remain online because it's a fan account operated by Jenner Communications, and not a personal account run directly by Rob. "@robkardashianofficial is a fan account and is run by a management agency, not by Rob himself," Instagram told me in a statement. "Per our policies on non-consensual intimate image sharing, Rob Kardashian is not permitted to create, run, or manage an account on Instagram."
But that raises a question: Is this a way for banned individuals to regain a presence on Instagram? This loophole seemingly allows people who have been barred from the service to return to market merchandise and stay in touch with their fans so long as the account is classified as a "fan account" and is run by a third party...
>> Related tweet via Later Media's Taylor Loren: "its pretty wild that instagram is working this closely with the kardashians, to basically create a workaround for violating their own terms of use, and to *verify* that account no less..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- This is a big problem: "YouTube's campaign against hateful and racist videos is claiming some unintended victims," including researchers and advocates who are "working to expose racist hatemongers..." (LAT)
-- "As YouTube continues to take heat for its defense of conservative pundit Steven Crowder, LGBTQ employees within Google are angered by the company's decisions," Megan Farokhmanesh reports... (The Verge)
-- ICYMI: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti is focusing on the "post-TV world," he tells THR. Head of programming Cindy Vanegas-Gesaule will take on the budding BuzzFeed Studios, looking to develop ways to "apply digital advantages to video, like we did to print," per Peretti's memo to staff... (THR)
Why Trump may have flip-flopped on the moon
Trump, as he tends to do, stunned the political world for a moment on Friday when he lambasted NASA for its plans to return to the moon. "We did that 50 years ago," Trump tweeted, adding that NASA "should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing." The tweet made little sense, as Trump had tweeted in mid-May that under his administration, "We are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars."
So what caused Trump to reverse positions in such stark terms? Media Matters' Matthew Gertz noted that an hour before Trump's tweet, Neil Cavuto had hosted a segment on the moon plans, saying, "refocusing on the moon, the next sort of quest, if you will, but didn't we do this moon thing quite a few decades ago?" So perhaps that was what prompted the tweet. It's also worth noting that Brian published an interview with Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins on Thursday in which Collins criticized Trump for not focusing on Mars.
"You almost have to stand in awe at the complete lack of shame"
MSNBC personalities ripped into Sean Hannity on Friday after the Fox host attacked Nancy Pelosi for reportedly saying she wanted to see Trump behind bars. If you missed it, Hannity said on his Thursday night program that Pelosi calling for a "political opponent" to be "locked up in prison" was "beyond despicable behavior." (Yes, Hannity actually said that with a straight face.)
"The irony meter is like one of those at Chernobyl, it was going off of the charts," Willie Geist said on "Morning Joe," adding, "You almost have to stand in awe at the complete lack of shame." Later in the day, Nicole Wallace's panel upped the ante. Wallace said Hannity might be "worth what they pay him," considering his ability to make the comments "with a straight face."
But I found John Heilemann's comments to be really on point. "The business model of Fox News is to create an alternative reality that is destroying the country." Heilemann explained, "Sean's not crazy, he gets what he's doing. That's his business model."
Come work with us!
The CNN Media team is hiring! We are looking for a New York-based reporter to join the team and help deepen our coverage of the media landscape. Interested? There is more information on the job posting, which just went up...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Another day, another erroneous accusation of social media bias plays out in right-wing media. Friday's example: "Country singer accuses Twitter of 'banning' his song with Fox News after posting sketchy link..." (Mediaite)
-- "Lip-syncing jumpstarted TikTok's rise to the center of teen culture, arguably displacing Instagram," TechCrunch's Josh Constine writes. So naturally, now IG is launching its own lip-syncing feature... (TechCrunch)
Colbert on Trump, faith and "Lord of the Rings"
Frank Pallotta emails: I'm a sucker for great Q&A's and this weekend's NYT Mag has a great one with Stephen Colbert. The "Late Show" host spoke about a wide range of topics from his Catholicism to his love of "Lord of the Rings."
You should read the whole thing, but my favorite exchange is when Colbert is asked, "Is President Trump good for comedy? How do you come up with a fresh joke about him?" Colbert responds, "I make no claim that we do. Sometimes it's the same joke. But sometimes there's still meat left on that chicken. Trump consumes the news cycle, and our mandate, as we've established for ourselves, is that I want to inform the audience of my opinion about what they've been thinking about all day...."
| | Can the "X-Men" beat the "Secret Life of Pets"? | | Frank Pallotta emails: The X-Men are taking on some formidable foes at the box office this weekend: a group of super cute computer-generated pets. "Dark Phoenix," the latest X-Men film, is projected to have an opening in the $40 million to $50 million range this weekend. That may not be enough to beat out "The Secret Life of Pets 2," however. Universal's animated film is expected to make around $50 million this weekend.
>> Related: "Dark Phoenix" has been hammered by critics. It holds a meager 23% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes. Yikes!
Mindy Kaling's "Late Night" pulls back the curtain on late-night TV
Brian Lowry emails: Mindy Kaling wrote, produced and co-stars in "Late Night," a movie that's defined by Emma Thompson's performance as an imperious late-night host but which doesn't feel terribly sophisticated in terms of pulling back the curtain on such an enterprise – a bar set pretty high, admittedly, with "The Larry Sanders Show."
>> "Late Night" is out in NY and L.A. this weekend... It'll expand to other markets later... Read Lowry's full review here...
Time for the Tonys
James Corden will host the 83rd annual Tony Awards on Sunday night, celebrating the best of Broadway. "Hadestown," starring Reeve Carney, Amber Gray and André De Shields, leads the way with 14 nominations. The show airs live on CBS starting at 8 p.m. ET...
>> Corden told Chloe Melas that he gets "nerves to an almost crippling degree" before hosting an event like the Tonys...
LBGTQ TV: A history of gay characters, from Stonewall to 'Batwoman'
Lowry emails: Back in 2012, Joe Biden credited "Will & Grace" with helping to change the conversation about gay rights. But amid a spate of programming tied to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, it's worth remembering some of the other TV programs that explored those issues across the decades – from "All in the Family" and "Soap" to "Thirtysomething" and "An Early Frost" – which, on broadcast TV, often meant absorbing financial hits thanks to the skittishness of advertisers.
Netflix renews "Lucifer," drops new season of "Designated Survivor"
Lowry emails: Netflix just renewed "Lucifer" — picked up from Fox — for another (and final) season, and dropped a new season of the former ABC series "Designated Survivor" on Friday. Obviously, the service has been shrewd about cashing in on titles that have already established some viewer-equity elsewhere, but now that it has matured into an industry leader, the assumption that Netflix is essentially the last-chance stop for discarded shows doesn't necessarily reflect the kind of shiny, best-of-the-best branding to which premium services aspire.
Layoffs at "Access"
Lowry sends one more: "Access" has let go a number of veteran producers, according to Variety, amid a makeover of the show and staff after the departure of longtime executive producer Rob Silverstein...
| | | Thanks for reading! Send me your feedback, tips, ideas here. Brian will be back on Sunday... | | | |
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