TGIF. Here's the latest from Anthropic, C-SPAN, "Today," USA Today, Meta, X, and many more. Plus: The "billionaire bypass..." |
Every so often, an hour of television showcases President Trump's reliance on "alternative facts" and his supporters' reluctance to tell him the truth.
Fox's "The Five" was that hour of TV yesterday. Trump called into the show and claimed that real polls about his meager approval rating are "fake." He said that liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov, who was absent from the segment, "uses fake numbers. She'll give, 'Well, he's only polling 42%.' That's not right. I'm polling very high, actually."
That was at 5:29 p.m. At 6 p.m., Fox released a new national poll showing Trump's approval rating stands at 41%.
"That's down two points from a month ago and eight points from a year ago," Jacqui Heinrich said on "Special Report."
Of course, many Fox fans trust Trump over Fox's reporters and pollsters. And Trump has a long history of attacking the Fox polling unit and denying statistical reality. When he complained yesterday about real polls — "I hate people that use fake polls because polls are just like bad journalists. You know, bad journalists, they write fake stories, well, fake polls do damage also" — no one on "The Five" interjected.
Too bad Tarlov wasn't there. "Was so bummed to miss the show today!" she wrote on X. "But I definitely would've said he's even inflating his numbers to 42%!"
When Bret Baier asked House Speaker Mike Johnson about the poll's findings, Baier said, "The president doesn't love Fox News polls, but these polls track with others." He showed this graphic 👇🏻 and said the "tough numbers" are "real," and Johnson concurred, "They're real."
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Another peculiar moment from 'The Five' chat... |
What the president believes — and where he gets his information, even about his popularity — has heightened relevance in wartime. Wednesday's NBC News story about Trump watching a rah-rah daily video montage about the Iran war is continuing to get picked up for that reason. NBC said the highlight reel has raised concerns among allies "that he may not be receiving the complete picture of the war."
I thought "Pod Save America" co-host Tommy Vietor was joking when he summed up another moment from "The Five" this way: "Dana Perino asks Trump how the Iranian people are doing in the midst of this horrible war. He responds that he remembers having lunch with Dana years ago, and piothat she looks hotter now."
But Vietor was simply summarizing what actually happened. Perino asked, "Do they have drinking water? Do they have food? It's upsetting."
Trump said, "I do" have insight about that, "but first, do you remember when we had lunch years ago in the base of Trump Tower... You haven't changed. You have not changed. Now, I'm not allowed to say this, it's the end of my political career, but you may be even better looking [now], okay. I don't know what you're doing..."
Trump did not circle back to Perino's humanitarian concerns. But he did invoke gruesome scenes of Iranian protesters being "women being shot right between the eyes" and people "bleeding from the brain badly." Then he somehow came back around to Fox and started complimenting "Fox & Friends" and Maria Bartiromo.
"You have so many great people," he exclaimed. "A couple of bad ones, but you can't have everything."
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'No Kings' protests tomorrow |
Sarah D. Wire's headline for USA Today asks: "Could this weekend's No Kings protests be the largest ever?"
Organizers say there are more than 3,100 events planned, in lots of small towns as well as big cities. CNN's preview story notes a "suburban groundswell of support": Two-thirds of the people who have RSVPed for a protest "live outside of major urban centers, up nearly 40 percent compared with the first 'No Kings' event in June 2025, statistics provided by the organizers show."
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C-SPAN's balanced approach |
I got a kick out of this media alert from C-SPAN: The network highlighted that it will show "both the CPAC annual conference in Dallas on Friday and the No Kings national flagship rally" in Minnesota on Saturday, where Bruce Springsteen is slated to perform.
A split-screen of America! Among the speakers at CPAC today: Steve Bannon and FCC chair Brendan Carr... |
Savannah sets 'Today' return date |
Savannah Guthrie will return to NBC's "Today" show on April 6, her colleagues announced this morning. "It's almost symbolic, after Easter, after the resurrection," Al Roker said.
"She is not going to let sadness win. Her joy is going to be her protest," Craig Melvin said, reiterating what Guthrie told Hoda Kotb in the interview segment that aired today.
"I don't know if I can do it," Guthrie said. "I don't know if I'll belong anymore. And I would like to try. I would like to try." She also said, "I can't not come back, because it's my family. I think it's part of my purpose right now." CNN's Andy Rose has more here...
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👀 Zuckerberg on Capitol Hill |
Meta shares are now down 10% since the back-to-back jury verdicts against the company earlier this week. The broader market is way down, as well, but the "court defeats add to [Mark] Zuckerberg's recent woes," CNBC's Jonathan Vanian writes.
Yesterday, Zuckerberg was seen on Capitol Hill, leaving the offices of John Thune and Mike Johnson. He ignored reporters who tried to ask about the verdicts.
The obvious context for Zuck's visit: The court losses "are adding urgency to lawmakers' push to pass legislation that could reshape how social media platforms are designed," Maria Curi wrote for Axios this morning...
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Meta Oversight: Community Notes ≠ fact-checking |
Meta's Oversight Board, the quasi-independent body that reviews the social media giant’s moderation practices, has found that "Community Notes" are "not a proper substitute for its fact-checking program," NiemanLab's Andrew Deck reports.
In a new "policy advisory opinion," the board "warned that expanding Community Notes outside the U.S. could 'pose significant human rights risks and contribute to tangible harms that Meta has a responsibility to avoid or remedy,'" Deck writes. Read on...
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How about a newsletter bundle?
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A startup called Trustfnd is launching what it calls "Bundle Passes," allowing newsletter writers and other creators to team up and sell their paywalled content together. It feels like something we're going to see more of. Journalists Marisa Kabas, Kat Tenbarge and Katelyn Burns are piloting an "indie media bundle" by selling a discounted subscription to all three of their newsletters via Trustfnd.
"For years my readers have told me that they wished it was possible for them to have one place to sign up for all the newsletters they read, with one payment for everything," Burns wrote on Bluesky. "I'm pleased to announce that is now possible!" |
Nexstar-Tegna turmoil continues |
The aforementioned FCC chair, Brendan Carr, waved through Nexstar-Tegna last week, but now he's saying there may be a full commission vote on the merger. His comment came shortly after Sen. Ted Cruz said that the matter "should have been a vote of the full commission."
However, Harold Feld of
Public Knowledge says "I would not hold my breath" for a further vote; Carr was simply "restating the law."
Talking with reporters after yesterday's FCC meeting, Carr praised CBS for "trying to do something different" and took aim at its peers: "Legacy media likes to move like a school of fish, they don't really care if they're right or if they're wrong, they just want to be together in a pack."
Pack journalism is a real problem, but journalists do care about being right.
>> Another Carr headline via Semafor's Rohan Goswami: "NFL's streaming shift could put league’s antitrust shield at risk, FCC’s Carr says."
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The FCC’s lone Democrat, Anna Gomez, coined a new phrase yesterday. She said Nexstar-Tegna is "the latest example of what I call the 'billionaire bypass.'"
"If you are a billionaire with business before a government agency and a perceived friend of the White House, your transaction will get fast-track approval," Gomez said.
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>> Emma Alpern writes about a new trend: "People falsely accused of using AI." (NY Mag)
>> Meanwhile, Thomas Germain says he "tried to prove I'm not AI," and it was a struggle. (BBC)
>> Vauhini Vara breaks down "how AI is creeping into The New York Times." (The Atlantic)
>> Isabella Simonetti introduces us to a Fortune reporter who has cranked out hundreds of stories using AI tools. AI "forces you to be unique or die," editor Alyson Shontell says. (WSJ)
>> Steve Battaglio and Cerys Davies go long on the "crisis facing local TV news." (LATimes)
>> Katie Deighton notices some podcast hosts "are bowing out or changing direction as celebrities and YouTube dominate the industry." (WSJ)
>> Bill Carter charts CBS's options for Stephen Colbert's soon-to-be vacant slot. (LateNighter)
>> Daniel Thomas argues that HBO's new "Harry Potter" series will be the "biggest thing" it's ever done. (FT)
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Gulf states crack down on videos of Iran attacks |
"In the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the authorities have arrested hundreds of people since the war began last month, accusing some of spreading rumors and others of merely sharing videos and imagery of Iranian attacks," the NYT's Vivian Nereim reports.
Officials cite security risks to justify the crackdown, but Nereim spoke with experts who said there's another motive: "Protecting the image of certain Gulf cities as islands of safety and prosperity in the region," as Sultan Alamer, a Middle East Policy Council fellow, explained to her. Read the full story here...
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>> The BBC "is targeting a 10% cut to its cost base over the next three years." (TheWrap)
>> PBS and ITVS "have launched a YouTube channel focused on documentaries in a bid to 'meet new audiences where they already are.'" (THR)
>> The digital subscription business is hard; example #135,000: Data obtained by Status shows that Business Insider's paid subscriber base has been dropping for several years. (Status)
>> Two more big Washington Post defections: Matt Viser, the Post's White House bureau chief, is headed to The Atlantic, while immigration reporter Marianne LeVine heads to the WSJ. (X)
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A federal judge "has dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk's X, which accused a group of advertisers and major companies of illegally boycotting his platform,” the BBC’s Laura Cress reports. Judge Jane Boyle "said the company had failed to show it had suffered any harm under federal competition laws."
It’s the second legal blow to X in a week. Last Friday, a California jury found that Musk misled Twitter shareholders while mounting his 2022 takeover.
>> In other X news: Musk's company "let go of its chief marketing officer and conducted a round of layoffs of nontechnical staff over the last several weeks as it looks to right-size" before "SpaceX's potential $1 trillion-plus IPO," WSJ's Alexandra Saeedy and Suzanna Vranica report, citing sources.
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'Classic illegal First Amendment retaliation' |
Last night a federal judge in California "indefinitely blocked the Pentagon's effort to 'punish' Anthropic by labeling it a supply chain risk and attempting to sever government ties with the AI company, ruling that those measures ran roughshod over its constitutional rights," CNN's Hadas Gold and Devan Cole report.
Judge Rita Lin wrote, "Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation..."
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>> EU regulators have "started an investigation into child protection safeguards at Snap." (NYT)
>> First Sora, now... this? "OpenAI has shelved plans to release an erotic chatbot 'indefinitely' as it refocuses on its core products." (FT)
>> ByteDance's new AI video model, Dreamina Seedance 2.0, "is now rolling out in its editing platform, CapCut." (TechCrunch)
>> "Wikipedia will no longer allow editors to write or rewrite articles using AI," Emma Roth reports. (The Verge)
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Netflix hiking prices again |
"Your Netflix subscription just got a little more expensive," CNBC's Sarah Whitten writes. "The streaming giant adjusted its pricing structure Thursday, with all subscription tiers rising at least $1. The company’s ad-supported plan is now $8.99 a month, up from $7.99; the standard plan is now $19.99 a month, up from $17.99," and so forth...
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A few more Hollywood headlines |
>> The Oscars are moving from the Dolby Theatre to the L.A. Live complex starting in 2029, the year YouTube begins streaming the awards. (TheWrap)
>> Paramount+ says "The Madison" is Taylor Sheridan's "biggest original series launch yet" on the streamer. (THR)
>> The aforementioned Springsteen says his upcoming US tour is "going to be political and very topical about what’s going on," and he's not worried if that angers some people. "The blowback is just part of it, I'm ready for all that," he said. (StarTrib)
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