EXEC SUMMARY: Happy Friday and welcome to the Reliable Sources newsletter! This is Oliver Darcy, your host here for the next couple of weeks. Send your feedback -- and tips -- to my email. I'm also on Twitter, so feel to direct messages of love/hate/support to my handle there. Now with that housekeeping note out of the way, let's dive into the news...
Big Tech's unenviable position
| | Large technology companies currently find themselves in an undesirable position.
On one end, they're being hammered for not doing enough to stymie the extremists who use their platforms -- or prevent people from being radicalized into extremism.
On the other, when these technology companies do take action to enforce their rules, they are skewered by conservative politicians and right-wing media organizations with erroneous claims of political bias.
There is no winning. And as I absorbed the news throughout the day, I observed this tension in several separate -- but also related -- stories. So let's walk through those...
White House hosts online extremism meeting
After the El Paso and Dayton shootings, the White House announced it was convening a meeting with internet and technology companies. That meeting occurred on Friday. According to the White House, the conversation "focused on how technology can be leveraged to identify potential threats, to provide help to individuals exhibiting potentially violent behavior, and to combat domestic terror."
But here's the key line from the White House: "We urge internet and social media companies to continue their efforts in addressing violent extremism and helping individuals at risk, and to do so without compromising free speech."
What a line that is. In one breath, the White House is demanding technology companies do more to curtail extremists. In the other, they are demanding technology companies don't limit free speech. Can one be done without at least accusations of the other?
WaPo spotlights YouTube's "arbitrary standards"
Fairly regularly, when technology companies attempt to enforce their standards, people are quick to point out instances in which other users are committing a similar violation of the rules and appearing to face no consequences. Because of the uneven enforcement, the rules appear arbitrarily enforced. On Friday morning, WaPo published a big story spotlighting that issue.
The newspaper characterized YouTube's policies as "arbitrary standards." Reporter Elizabeth Dwoskin interviewed 11 current and past YouTube moderators who she said have "worked on the front lines of content decisions." What's their take? According to Dwoskin, the workers "believe that popular creators often get special treatment in the form of looser interpretations of YouTube's guidelines prohibiting demeaning speech, bullying and other forms of graphic content."
Inside the story was a line that stood out to me. It came from one of the YouTube moderators, who said, "YouTube's stance is that nothing is really an issue until there is a headline about it." In other words, enforcement of the rules is largely subjective.
Mitch McConnell's "major war" with Twitter
While WaPo's story focused on YouTube, Twitter served up an example on Friday of a large technology company appearing to subjectively enforce a policy. Earlier this week, Mitch McConnell's campaign account tweeted a video that included some of the violent threats directed at the Senate leader.
Twitter responded by saying the video, which included graphic threats of violence, violated the company's "violent threats policy." The social media company locked McConnell's account. To regain access, McConnell was required to delete his tweet.
But McConnell and his team didn't give in. McConnell characterized himself as being in a "major war" with Twitter. The RNC, NRCC, and Trump campaign announced they'd suspend advertising on the platform until his access was restored. And McConnell's allies portrayed the situation as evidence of political bias by a large tech platform.
Twitter quickly caved. The company said, "After multiple appeals from affected users and Leader McConnell's team confirming their intent to highlight the threats for public discussion, we have reviewed this case more closely." Twitter added that it would allow the video to remain online. McConnell's team celebrated the victory shortly after.
Trump admin's draft executive order
For some time now, Trump has leveled allegations of political bias -- which are often unfounded -- at major technology companies. He's repeatedly promised his base that he will do something about it. This week, Politico reported a draft executive order aimed at tackling the problem was being circulated. On Friday, CNN's Brian Fung obtained a summary of the order, which is tentatively titled, "Protecting Americans From Online Censorship."
"The Trump administration's proposal seeks to significantly narrow the protections afforded to companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996," Fung reported, adding, "The White House draft order asks the FCC to restrict the government's view of the good-faith provision."
What's that mean? "Under the draft proposal," Fung reported, "the FCC will be asked to find that social media sites do not qualify for the good-faith immunity if they remove or suppress content without notifying the user who posted the material, or if the decision is proven to be evidence of anticompetitive, unfair or deceptive practices."
>> Key line from Fung: "Some people close to the tech industry expressed frustration that the White House seemed to be trying to have it both ways — excoriating tech companies for allegedly censoring conservative speech, a claim the platforms vigorously dispute, while castigating them for failing to block enough violent or hateful content..."
This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"
John Avlon will be in the anchor chair, filling in for Brian. Joining him will be S.E. Cupp, Jane Coaston, Noah Schactman, Julia Angwin, Jackie Kucinich, Mark Brown, and Enrique Acevedo... plus El Paso Times Executive Editor Tim Archuleta. Sunday at 11 a.m. ET!
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Sunday's episode of "The Weekly" will feature Max Fisher and Amanda Taub going down "the rabbit hole" of YouTube. Specifically, Fisher and Taub travel to Brazil to meet "YouTube stars-turned-politicians..." (NYT)
-- Charlie Gasparino reports the boards of CBS and Viacom are working through the weekend to "complete the final details on their long-awaited merger in time for a Monday announcement..." (Fox Biz)
-- Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera attended one of Trump's fundraisers in the Hamptons on Friday night... (THR)
-- NBC News' Harry Smith ended Friday's "Nightly News" with a powerful package, ending with a scroll of the names of recent victims of mass shootings... (NBC News)
-- Erin Burnett laced into Trump on Friday for his "broken promises" on gun control, noting that "history shows you can't take him at his word..." (Mediaite)
-- The state of play, summarized in a Friday evening chyron on CNN: "At Least 10 Dems Running For 2020 Call Trump A White Nationalist Or Supremacist; Biden, Harris Stop Short..."
"The media failed Latinos in America"
NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro said she wrote her latest piece with a "great deal of anger and shame" at her own industry. On Friday, she published a story in The Atlantic arguing that "the media failed Latinos in America during what was perhaps our darkest hour in my lifetime." Garcia-Navarro pointed out that "despite the fact that the attacker purposefully targeted Latinos, that is not what most outlets chose to emphasize."
"The headlines in our largest papers and the cable-news chyrons omitted or downplayed the historic nature of the carnage in El Paso," she wrote. "Instead, they gave top billing to calls for unity by a president who has for years used angry rhetoric that dehumanizes and maligns Latinos."
>> Jorge Ramos weighed in: "You're right...This should have been the headline all over the country. 19 out of the 22 victims in El Paso had Hispanic last names. It was a direct attack on our community...."
USA Today study documents Trump's anti-immigration language
Speaking of the abrasive language Trump has used to talk about immigration, USA Today tallied it up. The newspaper found that Trump has used the "predator," "invasion," "alien," "killer," "criminal," and "animal" more than 500 times at his rallies while discussing immigration.
>> Crucial point from USA Today's report: "Those who study political rhetoric question Trump's insistence that his rhetoric is not aimed at stirring up divisions. The word invasion, some analysts have said, conjures up the image of an incursion by a foreign enemy force."
Remnick channels Morrison
David Remnick's Friday piece about "what Toni Morrison understood about hate" is worth your time. In it, Remnick recalled a lecture Morrison delivered in 1993 about the power of language: "Words, she said, have the capacity to liberate, empower, imagine, and heal, but, cruelly employed, they can 'render the suffering of millions mute.'"
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Trump isn't the only political figure taking cues from Fox News. The progressive group Media Matters looked at the House Republicans doing so as well... (Media Matters)
-- Aaron Freedman spoke to Archie Carter, the man who apparently tricked Quillette into running a hoax hit piece on the DSA... (Jacobin Mag)
-- BuzzFeed is "sharing more content insights than ever before with its advertising partners..." (The Drum)
-- I'm actually surprised this number isn't higher: 46% of social media users surveyed by Pew said they are "worn out" by political posts and discussions... (Pew)
Why Tucker Carlson's comments were "poorly reasoned"
If you want to understand why Tucker Carlson's white supremacy "hoax" comments were "poorly reasoned," read Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic. Friedersdorf zeroes in on the heart of Carlson's argument that white supremacy is not a problem because "the combined membership of every white-supremacist organization" could, he said, fit inside a college football stadium.
"The 9/11 terrorists would fit in a locker room," Friedersdorf writes. "Every MS-13 gang member in America would fit in the Great Western Forum. The worldwide membership of ISIS might well fit in Michigan Stadium. 'Fits in a football stadium' is an idiotic proxy for 'a real problem,' especially when only official 'members' are counted as part of that problem."
Fox reporter rebukes Carlson
Carlson might have told his audience that the problem of white supremacy in America is a "hoax," but not all his colleagues are buying it. On Friday, Fox reporter Cristina Corbin publicly rebuked Carlson, tweeting, "White supremacy is real, as evidenced by fact. Claims that it is a 'hoax' do not represent my views."
Still absolute silence from Fox's board
As this week comes to an end, the seven members of Fox Corporation's board of directors -- Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Paul Ryan, Roland Hernandez, Anne Dias, Chase Carey, and Jacques Nasser -- continue to remain silent. Do they condone Carlson's remarks? Disapprove of them? It's unclear. I reached out to each of them several times this week, and never heard anything back...
Trump trashes Hollywood for "movie coming out" as "The Hunt" controversy is covered repeatedly on Fox
| | The controversy around Universal's "The Hunt" appears to have finally made its way to Trump's bully pulpit. The Blumhouse movie, a satirical horror film that features "elites" hunting down human "deplorables" for sport, has been all the rage in right-wing media for the last couple of days. THR wrote on Tuesday about the forthcoming film and revealed that the studio is "evaluating" its marketing strategy in the wake of the recent mass shootings. Some ads for the film have already been pulled.
But Fox News is spreading the word: I've spotted numerous segments on the network and its sister channel Fox Business about the film, including a Lou Dobbs discussion on his Thursday evening show. One of the segments must have caught Trump's eye. On Friday, Trump targeted Hollywood, bizarrely claiming the movie industry to be "racist at the highest level." He said the "movie coming out" was "made in order to inflame and cause chaos." It's due out on September 27...
No comment from Universal
I checked in with Universal to see if the company had any comment, but did not hear back. Deadline's Dominic Patten quoted a number of anonymous Hollywood insiders pushing back against the president. One insider told him, "I bet he saw one of his pals on Fox ranting about The Hunt and now he believes Hollywood wants to hunt down conservatives."
Media descends on Des Moines
| | Jeff Zeleny emails: Judging by the chaotic crush of cameras and reporters trailing presidential hopefuls in Iowa, you might think the trend of media cutbacks and consolidation was a myth. Joe Biden could barely make his way through the crowded Iowa State Fair. The scene will surely repeat itself for Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other candidates this weekend.
There may be fewer political reporters regularly traveling with candidates, particularly from regional newspapers. But since nearly everyone has a camera in their pocket -- not the case the first two times Biden ran for president -- the number of citizens crowding in for pictures only amplifies the chaos often surrounding the 2020 field. The Iowa State Fair: an exception
Zeleny adds: While more reporters have been forced to cover races from afar via live-streams or tweets, given the expense of travel, the Iowa State Fair and other events here this weekend is a notable exception. More journalists seem to have descended on the state than at any other point of this cycle, making the campaign trail crowded not only with Democratic candidates, but also with a swollen press pack.
This week on the "Reliable Sources" podcast
"Is it possible to stop a mass shooting before it happens?" Cosmo's features editor Andrea Stanley went undercover with a top-secret investigator of online extremism to find out.
Brian spoke with Stanley on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast. You can read about it from outgoing "Reliable" summer intern, Laney Pope, or listen via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify or your app of choice...
Brian emails: "I'm at the hospital with Jamie and our new arrival Story, but I just wanted to give Laney a shoutout... She's been an outstanding addition to our team this summer... Thank you to Laney!"
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "Even Rotten Tomatoes admits that movie-review aggregation is biased and broken. Is anyone ready to fix it?" (CJR)
-- Imagine having the name Jeffrey Epstein, and not being THAT Jeffrey Epstein. One Disney publicist is living through that nightmare right now... (THR)
-- ICYMI: Bravo announced the first-ever BravoCon, a three-day event in November featuring more than 70 "Bravolebrities," to be held across three NYC venues. Tickets go on sale Tuesday... (ET)
MNG Enterprises reveals 9% stake in New Media
CNN Biz reporter Paul R. La Monica emails: A deal between the nation's two largest newspaper chains to merge appears to be in serious doubt. MNG Enterprises -- the owner of Digital First Media backed by hedge fund Alden Global Capital -- said in an SEC filing Friday that it has taken a more than 9% stake in New Media Investment Group, the parent company of GateHouse Media. GateHouse, of course, said earlier this week that it plans to merge with Gannett.
What it means
La Monica adds: MNG has previously made offers for Gannett that Gannett has turned down. So it looks like MNG's purchase of a New Media stake might be a way for MNG to try and kill the Gannett deal. MNG was not immediately available for comment when it bought its 5.7 million shares in New Media.
But MNG said in the SEC filing that is "evaluating the terms" of the New Media-Gannett merger and believes the consummation of the deal may "not be in the best interest" of New Media's shareholders. MNG added that it may vote against the deal or suggest other strategic alternatives to it.
Hmm. Let me guess. MNG might want New Media to walk away so it can scoop up Gannett itself? The gambit may work. Investors clearly are not happy. New Media's shares plunged 9% Friday while Gannett's tumbled about 5%. Both stocks have plummeted since the merger was announced earlier this week.
>> Related: Ken Doctor writes about the "perils and promises" of the new Gannett...
Deepfakes and the Information Wars
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Greeting from Las Vegas where this morning at DEFCON, one of the world's largest conventions for hackers, the DNC showed a deepfake video of its chair, Tom Perez, saying something he never really said. The DNC worked with artificial intelligence experts to make the deepfake, which that it says serves as a warning of what may be to come in 2020.
The intel community has warned Congress that deepfakes could be used in future disinformation campaigns targeting the U.S. Russian bots and fake websites were the big problems in 2016, but we might not have seen anything yet…
"I tried 5G. It will change your life — if you can find it"
CNN Biz Tech editor Samantha Kelly emails: I spent some time in the last few weeks testing out 5G networks in a handful cities across the US. The technology could offer a doorway into what's next -- think self-driving cars, robotic surgeries and toothbrushes that can tell when you're sick -- but carriers have a long way to go before they deliver on that promise. When 5G worked, it really worked. The trouble was the rest of the time. Read Kelly's full story...
Recommended reads for your weekend... 👓
-- Shaydanay Urbani spoke with three reporters who covered the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton "to hear their biggest challenges in reporting on mass shootings in an age of disinformation" and extremism... (First Draft)
-- Anna Wiener writes about the "lonely work of moderating Hacker News," a link aggregator and forum she describes as "something of a Silicon Valley institution..." (New Yorker)
-- Sarah Needleman profiles 8chan owner Jim Watkins, who says he's "not an extremist..." (WSJ)
-- Robin Givhan breaks down why the SoulCycle and Equinox controversy "hits close to home." She writes that the "fundamental product" of the companies "is the same one that Seventh Avenue sells: an idealized version of you..." (WaPo)
-- Tyler Coates interviews Ruth Reichl on her "40 years in food journalism -- and what's missing from Instagram restaurant pics..." (CJR)
-- Roxane Gay writes about the "legacy of Toni Morrison," which she describes as "unparalleled..." (NYT)
-- Roy Peter Clarke shares what he's "learned about writing from reading" Morrison... (Poynter)
STORY Update
| |
"Loudest Voice" ends, "Succession" begins
Brian Lowry emails: It's an odd Murdoch-ian baton pass on pay cable Sunday, as Showtime's "The Loudest Voice" -- documenting the fall of Roger Ailes, and the Murdoch family's role in it — ends and "Succession" begins, launching the second season of the HBO drama about a very Murdoch-esque media dynasty. That link seems even more pronounced this season, as the fictional company tries to fend off an acquisition by pursuing a prestige news operation...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Here's how Dax Shepard embarrassed Kristen Bell in front of Jay-Z and Beyoncé...
-- Taylor Swift's lyrics have sparked speculation that she is engaged to her boyfriend, British actor Joe Alwyn...
-- Lego is celebrating the 25th anniversary
of the show "Friends" with a Central Perk set...
"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" brings spooky spin to horror
Lowry emails: There's a fairly sizable flurry of August movie releases this weekend -- five, to be exact -- although few to shake up the box-office picture. Among the more interesting is "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," which Guillermo del Toro produced and helped write with an eye on directing, before passing those chores elsewhere. The result is an effort to do what he called "a gateway movie" -- a PG-13-rated horror film for younger audiences. But it's still pretty scary for kids and tame for aficionados, landing in a sort-of creative no-man's land. Read Lowry's full review...
"The Art of Racing in the Rain" goes to the dog
Lowry adds: Elsewhere, Milo Ventimiglia stars in "The Art of Racing in the Rain," a somewhat pretentious adaptation of the bestselling book with a Golden Retriever narrator, determined to make you shed tears if "Marley & Me" was the last time you cried in a movie. Read Lowry's full review...
| | Thank you for reading. I always enjoy your feedback, so send me a note via email or find me on Twitter... See you Sunday night!
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