Happy Friday. Here's the latest on Brendan Carr, Sean Hannity, David Letterman, GB News, OpenAI, Graydon Carter, Shakira, and many more... |
Brendan Carr's shock doctrine |
What makes FCC chair Brendan Carr tick? Anna Nicolaou gets at that in this week's edition of the long-running "Lunch with the FT" column.
Dining at a "somewhat random seafood chain," Nicolaou finds that Carr sounded "almost pleased by the shock" that his Disney license challenge caused.
"If you didn’t take us seriously, now you should," Carr told her.
Carr also invoked a famous line from "Gladiator" — "Are you not entertained?" — and said he is trying to make the FCC more "aggressive."
The lunch profile also underscores Carr's Trumpian use of the press to get attention and advance his agenda. (When, during the meal, he sees that I had just texted him for comment on Disney's response to the FCC's pressure, he derisively calls me "tater," then says, "I actually really like him.")
"In Carr's telling, he is trying to save local journalism," Nicolaou writes. Here's a gift link to the piece. Two key quotes:
>> About Trump's attacks on the media: "I say it all flows from Trump. But in my view it flows from him deciding that you can run at these legacy national news media. And then what they do at that point does get dictated by market forces."
>> When asked what Carr wants his legacy to be: "I got my time, I got my shot, I took my shot."
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Loss of local news is 'like an invisible tax' |
Since Carr brought up the state of local news, let's stay on that topic for a little bit...
"If there were a dictator of the internet who intentionally set out to destroy your ability to get accurate information, the result would look a lot like what’s already on your screen," Matt Pearce writes, then explores why in this new Substack essay.
"The decline of original news by traditional media has not nearly been offset by the rise of newer media, mostly to the detriment of our democratic societies," the LA Times veteran writes.
"The loss of local media in particular is associated with greater loneliness, lower awareness of public officials, and more corruption," he continues. "It's like an invisible tax levied on our communities that we pay civically, cognitively and sometimes even literally, in the form of higher local bond prices due to more wasteful government spending." Read on...
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And/but: 'Local media is thriving in e-mail newsletters' |
This new column by The New Yorker's Kyle Chayka highlights "the rise of hyperlocal neighborhood email newsletters, solo shoe-leather operations telling you what's going on on your block."
"There are strategic benefits to going narrow but deep," he writes. "Beehiiv has found that the so-called click-through rate for neighborhood newsletters is two and a half times higher than that of the average newsletter across the platform." I worry, though, that the neighborhood newsletter trend is mostly benefiting urban and affluent areas, and isn't solving the broader need for local news...
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The pivot to gambling slop |
...And then there's the less romantic side of local news on the internet.
This excellent reporting by Judd Legum reveals how Advance Local's newspaper websites are leveraging the high search-engine rankings they've earned "through decades of producing high-quality journalism" to... promote articles pushing promo codes for sports books, online casinos and prediction markets.
"At the current pace, the award-winning outlets in the Advance Local network will publish more than 14,000 pieces of gambling-related slop in 2026," he writes. Advance basically defends the strategy, saying it's "unique" and legit content...
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Sometimes a snippet of video sums up a relationship better than any words can. So here's a YouTube video of Trump gaggling with the news media aboard Air Force One on the way home from Beijing. Chilling in the background behind the president, chatting with Trump's family, is Fox host Sean Hannity, fresh off taping the first post-summit interview with the president. Schmoozing with the family, not slumming it with the press... that's Sean!
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Trump's latest 'treason' rant |
During that gaggle, Trump went on yet another rant about journalists committing "treason" by reporting unflattering news about the war in Iran. "You're a fake guy, and guys like you write about it incorrectly," Trump told the NYT's David Sanger in response to a tough question about Iran. "You should write the truth. I actually think it's kind of treasonous what you write. You and the New York Times, and CNN, I would say, are the worst." Trump interrupted another questioner to continue targeting Sanger and the Times: "I actually think it's treason." It's not.
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NBC's Beijing bet pays off |
Much has been made of Tony Dokoupil's travel trouble this week. (Colbert's show even lampooned it last night.) But it's just as notable to check out NBC's coverage from China. After all, NBC announced last week that Tom Llamas would anchor from Beijing, which may have sent the other networks scrambling to come up with their own plans. Llamas delivered real on-the-ground reporting — hiking the Great Wall, talking with college students, showing off humanoid robots, interviewing Marco Rubio. I bet NBC Newsers are happy about the contrast.
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Paramount is plotting a podcasting push. Streaming execs at the company "told tech and product staffers in a Thursday meeting that they see video podcasts as a growth opportunity," James Faris reported for Business Insider.
That may (or may not) help explain this report by Axios's Sara Fischer and Mike Allen: "Paramount is evaluating a potential distribution deal with Katie Miller as it considers expanding its podcast business beyond creative and more into distribution and monetization."
The pair wrote that Paramount has been talking with "a number of podcasters and platforms," including Jubilee Media, known for its provocative debate shows.
But the potential deal between Paramount and the wife of a top Trump admin official is what got people talking yesterday. "Given the paltry numbers on Katie Miller's podcast it's hard to see how this isn't another politically motivated deal to appease the Trump admin," VF's Aidan McLaughlin tweeted.
He pointed out that Miller "has been able to book major guests, from Trump cabinet members to CEOs like [Elon] Musk, and she sometimes makes news! But there isn't much of an audience there..."
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'Ellison's eyes on the Europrize' |
Paramount CEO David Ellison "quietly slipped away to Brussels and London this week with his chief lawyer, Makan Delrahim, for additional meetings with regulators," Puck's Matthew Belloni reports. The key Q: "What 'remedies' is Ellison willing to concede to get a greenlight?"
>> Potentially related: Deadline's Jake Kanter writes that the WBD deal "is expected to create complications for its SkyShowtime partnership with Comcast" in 22 European markets.
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'You can take a man's show, you can't take a man's voice' |
That's what David Letterman said to Stephen Colbert last night on "The Late Show," before adding, "What I'm really worried about is: What will become of the Jimmys? Are they going to be alright?" Colbert's humorous response: "We've got a plan to put them in a captive breeding program."
As Bill Carter put it, the interview was "a Love Letter With Teeth." The pair later engaged in "wanton destruction of CBS property," as Letterman put it, tossing CBS office furniture off the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater onto a target shaped like the network's logo.
"Thank you for everything you’ve done for the country," Letterman told Colbert, ending with a pointed message: "To the folks at CBS, in the words of the great Ed Murrow: Good night, and good luck, motherfuckers."
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>> Richard Tofel sits down with Baltimore Banner chief executive Bob Cohn to discuss the future of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (Second Rough Draft)
>> Kalley Huang, Eli Tan and Kate Conger detail how "Meta's embrace of AI is making its employees miserable." (NYT)
>> Ruth Fowler writes that in Tinseltown, "AI gig work is the new waiting tables." (WIRED)
>> Nick Vivarelli asks whether the Paramount-WBD merger will help Saudi Arabia rebound in Hollywood. (Variety)
>> Todd Martens says "everyone loves to hate on grown-up fans of Disney theme parks. But what's the harm in letting people experience a bit of joy, especially now?" (LA Times)
>> Frank Landymore writes about Halupedia, "a new Wikipedia-style site is purportedly made entirely of AI-hallucinations, treating visitors to preposterous insights beamed from a nonexistent reality." (Futurism)
>> Rob Waugh tried chasing down four cryptocurrency "reporters" who have "written" 1,000+ articles to prove they're real. No luck. (Press Gazette)
>> Charlotte Klein interviewed Byron Allen on his plan for BuzzFeed — a chat that's made waves in media circles because, well, there doesn't seem to be much of one... (NY Mag)
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>> GB News and Britain's media regulator Ofcom have been in the news all week. Michael Savage's latest: Adam Boulton, a 25-year veteran of Sky News, "said GB News should lose its broadcasting license as he accused Britain’s media regulator of failing in its duty to protect impartial television news." (The Guardian)
>> Graydon Carter and Harrison Vail have launched a production company, Par Avion Pictures, to "develop projects across narrative and non-fiction formats." (Variety)
>> ESPN "has named Mike Foss to succeed the retiring David Roberts as executive VP, executive editor, Sports News and Entertainment, with the promotion effective immediately." (E&P)
>> Correction: Yesterday, we referred to Alex Cooper's show as "Call Me Daddy." It's "Call Her Daddy." |
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