Hey, welcome to Wednesday. Here's the latest on HBO Max, Elon Musk, NPR, Jesse Watters, TIME, Anna Gomez, Turner Classic Movies, and much more...
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Drew Angerer/Getty Images |
The Senate has nine days to either approve or reject President Trump's rescissions package, which means PBS and NPR have nine days left to await their federal funding fate. There is a very interesting new wrinkle regarding NPR that I'll explain in just a moment.
But first: CNN's Capitol Hill team reports that the package "faces potential obstacles ahead." Senate Majority Leader
John Thune says he expects the so-called "DOGE cuts" to be voted out of the appropriations committee and "hit the floor next week," but Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins says she believes the package "needs some significant changes," i.e., amendments.
Reminder: If the so-called "DOGE cuts" don't pass the Senate by Friday, July 18, the rescission effort fails and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting keeps the $1.1 billion that Congress already allocated for the next two years.
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Collins is very worried about the rescission package's cuts to the global program to fight AIDS, known as PEPFAR. And she is also concerned about the cuts to public media — well, most of the cuts. She recently told Maine Public, her state's PBS and NPR network, that "she wants to preserve funding approved for public television and public radio stations, like Maine Public's."
But Collins has a problem with NPR at the national level, where shows like "All Things Considered" come from.
Collins brought up alleged bias at NPR during an appropriations hearing last month. After praising Maine-centric content like a "locally produced high school quiz show" and national TV shows like "Antiques Roadshow," she said, "I understand, however, the concern about subsidizing the national radio news programming that for years has had a discernibly partisan bent."
Close observers have noticed this dynamic — more GOP antipathy toward NPR than PBS — during the months-long funding fights. Some of it stems from NPR CEO Katherine Maher's past criticism of Trump, which she expressed years before being hired to run NPR. Collins told Maine Public that Maher's past comments were "very troubling."
(For Maher's part, she told Kara Swisher on a podcast that "whatever my personal views are, they don't enter into my work. My work is really around achieving our mission," growing NPR's trust and reach.)
Collins appears to be circling an amendment that would strip NPR HQ of its funding — she told Maine Public the amount is just $4 million — while preserving the rest of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's budget. Arguably, that's exactly the type of political meddling that public media is supposed to be insulated against.
Other amendments are possible. Mike Rounds of South Dakota told CNN yesterday that he wants to ensure protections for "the radio stations in some of the rural areas that provide emergency services," a message that may stand out in the wake of the Texas flood catastrophe.
To be sure, though, many GOP senators are eager to vote yes and zero out all the NPR and PBS funding. Only one,
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, is on the record opposing the elimination of all the funding. In a 53-47 Senate, public media loses.
Thune noted that the rescissions package is "subject to amendment... so, we'll see where it goes." If amended by the Senate, it has to go back to the House and pass again before July 18, thus public media advocates are left to hope that time will simply run out.
>> An NPR rep declined to comment on the amendment speculation.
>> ICYMI: PBS rallied support from viewers during the network's high-rated July 4 special last week with a 30-second spot that said "there's nothing more American than PBS."
>> 🔌 I talked with Slate host Mary Harris about the public media funding fight — and why it won't end on July 18 — on this episode of "What's Next."
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Cuts at the state level, too |
Liam Reilly writes: The federal government isn't the only entity putting public TV and radio funding on the chopping block. A CNN analysis found at least five states have reduced state-level funding for television and radio stations this fiscal year.
Four of the states — Florida, West Virginia, New Jersey and Kansas — have enacted state budgets with significant reductions. Indiana has eliminated state-level funding for public media altogether. Just yesterday Indiana PBS said it has to terminate "its entire statewide team of reporters and editors" as a result of the cuts.
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>> This morning TIME is out with its first annual TIME100 Creators list, highlighting digital voices like Kai Cenat, Alex Cooper and Mel Robbins – along with many names you probably don't know yet. (TIME)
>> Lachlan Cartwright has the inside story on weird-and-wild travel site Atlas Obscura's steep layoffs and pivot to AI-generated content under new CEO Louise Story. (Breaker)
>> Apple has been delaying season three of "Tehran" ever since October 7, highlighting " the trickiness of distributing a TV show ripped from geopolitical headlines," Steven Zeitchik writes. He hears the season could be released in the coming months. (THR)
>> Speaking of Apple, Samuel Agini and Michael Acton report that the streamer is officially challenging ESPN for the rights to stream F1 in the US. (FT)
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List or no list, Epstein is content |
Trump is "annoyed that people still care about Jeffrey Epstein," a senior admin official told CNN yesterday. If that's the case, he's going to stay annoyed for a while. Telling MAGA adherents to "get over it" isn't working, as the NYT's Glenn Thrush and Stuart A. Thompson wrote here.
Six years after his death, Epstein is quick, easy and conspiracy-laden fodder for content — the exact type that fuels the MAGA media content machine.
As the WSJ editorial board observed, "there’s always another coverup to unravel, or another hidden file somewhere that the evil establishment is hiding."
This is by far "the biggest fumble of the administration they've had thus far," Trump-promoting podcast host Patrick Bet-David said on Jesse Watters' show last night. Far-right commentator Liz Wheeler, who received one of those Epstein binders in February, wrote on X that "Trump is massively misreading his base on this one," adding that "he should listen now, so it doesn’t cost him the midterms."
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Tapper: 'This isn't going to go away' |
"While there may not be an official client list to be released, as the administration is now saying, there's a lot of extra information that is not being made public — despite Trump's Justice Department basically now saying case closed," Jake Tapper said on "The Lead" yesterday. "This isn't going to go away. The public, you, you're being played for fools here." |
New political pod performance #s |
"New podcasts focusing on politics and news have attracted thousands of subscribers and soared past more established competitors in the same space," according to Castbox data analyzed by TheRighting and shared with us ahead of release. Howard Polskin says the data shows a "growing consumer appetite for new programs." Check it out here...
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'Hitler AI' is not a metaphor anymore |
After Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok started to post antisemitic tropes and pro-Hitler comments yesterday, a CNN producer asked ChatGPT for its AI-generated reaction. And I suppose the bot (ironically?) took the words out of my mouth.
"If we allow unaligned or malicious AI to grow unchecked, we could absolutely face future systems that don't just parrot hate, but act on it, manipulate others with it, or even coordinate real-world harm," ChatGPT responded. "A 'Hitler AI' isn't just a metaphor. In time, it could mean a system capable of mass persuasion, surveillance, and harm—at a scale far greater than any single human leader."
>> CNN's Hadas Gold has the latest on Grok here...
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>> Front pages all across Texas this morning highlight the terribly high number of people still missing — more than 170 at last count. (Freedom Forum)
>> On "AC360," CNN's Shimon Prokupecz explained "how some local officials are refusing to answer reporters' questions after the flooding disaster." (CNN)
>> David Gilbert and Molly Taft report that post-flood disinformation about cloud seeding and a "weather weapon" is leading to death threats. (Wired)
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>> "X raised serious concerns about India's media laws after the government ordered it to block thousands of accounts, including from international media like Reuters," Swati Gupta reports. (Bloomberg)
>> A+E Global Media, the owner of the Lifetime, History Channel and A&E cable channels, is "exploring its strategic options, including a potential sale or merger," Alex Weprin reports. (THR)
>> "CNN has hired Brad Smith, previously of Yahoo! Finance and Cheddar, to serve as an anchor of its domestic FAST channel CNN Headlines." (Deadline)
>> Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson "are scoring lucrative contract extensions with Fox before the start of the new NFL season." (Front Office Sports)
>> Fox Nation's first "foray into live sports" is with Professional Bull Riders. (THR)
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FCC's lone Dem on Paramount 'payout' |
Liam Reilly writes: Last night, the FCC's sole Democratic commissioner Anna Gomez delivered a fiery rebuke of Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Trump, calling it a "desperate move by the company to gain regulatory approval of a pending transaction before the FCC."
Speaking in Wheaton, Maryland, on the latest stop of her First Amendment Tour, Gomez said, "Instead of standing on principle, Paramount opted for a payout."
The troubling "lesson learned," Gomez told the audience, "is that if you report something in a way that this administration doesn't like, you will be subject to either investigation by the FCC… or ruinous lawsuits."
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>> Yesterday's news about Apple COO Jeff Williams' retirement offered "further hints about who might eventually take over" for Tim Cook as CEO. (The Information)
>> 👀 on AI glasses: Meta has bought "a minority stake in the world's largest eye-wear maker," EssilorLuxottica, for about $3.5 billion. (Bloomberg)
>> "You can trick AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini into teaching you how to make a bomb or hack an ATM if you make the question complicated, full of academic jargon, and cite sources that do not exist," a new research paper concludes. (404 Media)
>> "Gaming commands massive attention but still doesn't attract its fair share of ad investment," Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn write. (Axios)
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The HBO is back in HBO Max |
Max is officially changing its name back to HBO Max today. Per CNBC's Alex Sherman, who tweeted the news, "the transition from Max to HBO Max will be automatic and will happen throughout the day for people globally." |
Entertainment odds and ends |
>> "Turner Classic Movies has carved out a special custody arrangement in the forthcoming Warner Bros. Discovery split," Matt Donnelly reports. (Variety)
>> Gregg Wallace "has been sacked as MasterChef presenter as a result of an inquiry into alleged misconduct," a move that comes as "50 more people have approached the BBC with fresh claims about the TV presenter," Noor Nanji and Felicity Baker report. Wallace has denied the allegations. (BBC)
>> A hearing to determine Sean "Diddy" Combs' sentence will be held October 3, per Elizabeth Wagmeister. (X)
>> "From Diddy to Spacey, celebrity #MeToo cases are proving tough to convict," James Hibberd and Winston Cho write in this step-back piece. (THR)
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