Media

1. Chicago info wars
2. Meidas gold
3. Sesame’s funding
4. DC on NOTUS
5. Paramount in pursuit

How much does something said online stick anymore? More and more, public officials are betting the answer is: less often than you’d expect.

Donald Trump figured out years ago that what he says simply doesn’t change much of what people think about him. The president’s statements — both in person and online — have not meaningfully moved his approval rating throughout his political career.

It’s a key reason that he and his staff were likely not too concerned about any blowback when they posted an AI-generated video in which Trump pilots a jet as it dumps poop on “No Kings” protesters (including, for some reason, liberal Gen Z political influencer Harry Sisson). Just another Saturday evening on the president’s timeline. Maybe you missed it.

This is also the strategy driving Gov. Gavin Newsom’s online Trump impression. Graham Platner, the oysterman running for the Democratic nomination for the Senate in Maine, is hoping voters recognize in his offensive years-old Reddit posts the frustrations that normal people experiencing hard times occasionally express in public online forums.

The brands, however, still seem perfectly cancelable. Cracker Barrel learned that earlier this year when its fairly bland rebrand became the subject of a political firestorm; even though the company abandoned its new minimalist look, its stock and sales have remained notably lower. American Eagle experienced the reverse when it benefited from a controversial campaign with Sydney Sweeney (more behind the scenes on that in next week’s episode of Mixed Signals).

Also: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker talks with us about ICE and the media, investors sees gold in MeidasTouch, and notes from our sit-down with Sesame Workshop. And catch Ben Smith and Justin Smith on Squawk talking about Semafor’s third anniversary — and what’s next.

Pritzker wages the info wars in Chicago

In tomorrow morning’s weekly Washington column, which Media subscribers can read early, Ben writes about how Pritzker and his communications team are harnessing a wave of negative viral videos of confrontation between ICE and Chicagoans to push back against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement in the city.

“I have asked everybody in Chicago: When they see ICE in the neighborhoods, pull your phone out, video everything, or send it to local media. And more and more, that’s exactly what’s happening,” Pritzker told Semafor last week. “Virtually everything that people can video, they are now.”

Soros investment fund in talks with MeidasTouch

The foundation started by George Soros is looking to expand its reach even further into media, despite a looming federal probe into Soros’ philanthropic arm. Soros Fund Management, whose media portfolio includes the liberal podcast powerhouse Crooked Media, is among the potential investors who have held conversations with the vigorously anti-Trump outlet MeidasTouch, Semafor has learned, though one person familiar with the situation cautioned that the talks were exploratory.

MeidasTouch declined to comment. But when Semafor interviewed Meidas founder Ben Meiselas in March, he touted his company’s growth, saying he was proud that his “pro-democracy content” has organically racked up millions of subscribers on YouTube and tens of thousands on Substack.

NOTUS to offer new op-ed section

On Monday, NOTUS, a new outlet covering US politics in DC, will launch an opinion vertical called “Perspectives.” “So much of the good opinion journalism right now is kind of trapped in this Substack world,” editor Richard Just told Max. “It’s been wonderful for opinion journalists, they can make a good living. But unless you subscribe to 100 Substacks, you’re not getting that diversity of opinion and the kind of broad range of voices that people used to turn to opinion pages to get.”

NOTUS said its opinion efforts will be focused on short “symposiums” published weekly, plus longform reported opinion pieces. It’ll start with contributions from three senators, a House member and a Democratic megadonor. NOTUS has been on an upswing lately: CEO Arielle Elliott said it has a readership that includes 85% of congressional offices.

Sesame Workshop CEO on life after PBS cuts

Defenders of public media funding have long invoked the specter of cuts coming for Sesame Street’s cuddly monsters — but now that the Trump administration has slashed funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the chief of the nonprofit behind the show is still confident it will survive.

Sherrie Westin, the CEO of Sesame Workshop, told CEO Editor Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson last week at Semafor’s World Economy Summit that the CPB clawbacks are not an “existential threat,” accounting for a relatively small portion of the nonprofit’s budget. But the partnership with PBS is key, she said, in part because it helps educational children’s programming reach households that can’t afford streaming services like Netflix (with which Sesame Workshop has also recently partnered).

Westin acknowledged the show’s expansion outside of TV, too. Elmo and friends have been building their social media brands for a while now, and Sesame Street’s 28.6 million YouTube subscribers is nothing to scoff at — even if there, it’s competing for youngsters’ attention with the likes of Cocomelon (198 million and counting).

— Graph Massara

Paramount pursues WBD

Investors are widely expecting a fresh bid from Paramount Skydance for Warner Brothers Discovery, after WBD CEO David Zaslav and his board rejected an initial bid of roughly $20 per share. That offer was mostly cash but lacked a mechanism, known as a “collar,” that would provide a firmer price for the portion payable in Paramount shares, according to people familiar with the matter. Larry Ellison could sell some of his Oracle stock, worth more than $350 billion, and his son’s consortium is in talks with Apollo to take over some of Warner’s staggering debt load, according to another person familiar with the matter.

It isn’t clear what price Warner’s board would find acceptable, but company executives have told investors that they are moving ahead with a planned split for the business, according to people who have met with those executives. A split, with the value to stockholders clearly laid out, could provide a bidding floor.

Representatives for Apollo, Warner, and Paramount declined to comment. Any deal would require the blessing of the government. But Trump has already indicated a willingness to meddle in the workings of media companies — and given his closeness with the Ellison clan, he’s widely expected to weigh in.

— Rohan Goswami

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Dan Towriss is the CEO of Cadillac F1.

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