Happy Monday! Scroll down for insights from Christiane Amanpour, Marc Benioff, Donie O'Sullivan, Katelyn Polantz, David Corn, and more...
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"Over the last week, pretty much everyone in the AI space has been losing their minds over DeepSeek R1," The Neuron, a daily AI newsletter, says. Today the U.S. stock markets are sharing in the freakout.
High-flying stocks like Nvidia are "set for a steep selloff" this morning as the Chinese company DeepSeek's "surprise advancement" spooks American investors, CNN Business executive editor David Goldman and reporter Matt Egan write.
This is the surprise: DeepSeek – which soared to #1 on Apple's app store chart over the weekend – "presented a ChatGPT-like AI model called R1, which has all the familiar abilities, operating at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI's, Google's or Meta's popular AI models."
For background, check out Cade Metz and Meaghan Tobin's NYT story from last week. They said DeepSeek "built a cheaper, competitive chatbot with fewer high-end computer chips than U.S. behemoths like Google and OpenAI, showing the limits of chip export control."
That's one of Goldman's takeaways, too. "America thought it could sanction its way to dominance in a key technology it believes will help bolster its national security. But that has been proven false," he told me this morning. "It bought itself time, but you can't assume that turning off access will necessarily mean America wins. That's an important message to Trump as he pursues an isolationist and America first policy."
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>> "DeepSeek is forcing a reckoning in Silicon Valley," this morning's DealBook newsletter says. (NYT)
>> Meta "has set up several war rooms, or specialized groups of researchers, to dissect DeepSeek and use the insights to improve" its own AI... (The Information)
>> "The real treasure of AI isn't the UI or the model—they’ve become commodities," Marc Benioff opines. "The true value lies in data and metadata, the oxygen fueling AI’s potential. The future’s fortune? It’s in our data. Deepgold." (X)
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'Overwhelming the system' |
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images |
Steve Bannon's infamous "flood the zone with shit" quote has been revived as reporters try to explain the first moves of President Trump's second term.
Over the weekend NBC's Jonathan Allen wrote that "part of Trump's plan is to 'flood the zone' with actions that make it difficult for any individual move to receive the scrutiny it might get under normal circumstances, said one Trump ally familiar with his plans going into the presidency."
Bannon bragged about the "flood" strategy to the Washington Post: "It's working," he said. "It's just stunning to me what they're doing, and it's not getting covered because it’s too much. They're overwhelming the system."
Rather than dwell on this state of affairs for another 500 words, I'd rather use this space to point you toward some examples of excellent reporting:
>> Wiping away the truth? A database "detailing the vast array of criminal charges and successful convictions of January 6 rioters" has been removed from the DOJ's website, Donie O'Sullivan and Katelyn Polantz report. (CNN)
>> "Trump administration swiftly enacts retribution against political enemies," Peter Nicholas writes. (NBC)
>> The headline on Peter Baker's Sunday Page One story: "Trump is "shattering the bounds of the Oval Office." (NYT)
>> "Are you affected?" The health-focused site STAT says the administration's "pause on health communications, science meetings, and reviews" has sparked "chaos" across agencies, and asks readers to share their own accounts. (STAT)
>> Out of the 52 presidential directives (excluding pardons and appointments) that Trump signed between Monday and Friday, "28 contained language resembling text published as part of Project 2025." (Washington Post)
>> Alicia Wallace's latest: "Trump routinely calls economic data ‘fake.’ Here’s why that's dangerous." (CNN)
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Eli Stokols and Dasha Burns' Politico story titled "Trump is everywhere again" notes that press secretary Karoline Leavitt "has yet to hold a briefing, due largely to her boss' command of the media spotlight." During a Q&A with reporters on Air Force One over the weekend, he "scoffed at reporters getting 'a bit more access' than under his predecessor, Joe Biden, and joked it was 'like 5,000%' different — meaning he was willing to answer a lot more questions," the AP's Will Weissert wrote from the plane...
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>> Benjamin Wittes compiled a "user's guide to following the news" for readers who feel overwhelmed and dismayed by these news cycles. (Lawfare)
>> For The Guardian, J Oliver Conroy chronicled "how conservative media covered Trump’s first week." (Guardian)
>> "For Trump's supporters, he is the media. They see him — and embrace him — as a trusted source of information," David Corn wrote after spending inauguration weekend talking with Trump devotees. (Mother Jones)
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Political media notes and quotes |
>> Dartmouth professor Brendan Nyhan: "The level of anticipatory obedience we’re seeing from business, universities and the media is unlike anything I've seen in my lifetime." (NYT)
>> Over the weekend Sen. Bernie Sanders urged CBS to "stand tall" amid reports that the network's owner might try to settle a frivolous Trump suit. (Mediaite)
>> "I don't know about you, but I find it poetic that Secretary Pete Hegseth was sworn in on the weekend," Hegseth's friend and former co-host Will Cain wrote. (X)
>> As Hegseth starts his "first official day" this morning "he will face a daunting array of issues to tackle — from global conflicts and border security to administrative tasks." (AP)
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New 'CBS Evening News' tonight |
The "CBS Evening News" has been the third-place network evening newscast for as long as I've been covering TV. Tonight the network is unveiling another makeover – arguably the biggest, boldest revamp of the show in its history. It's a "hard pivot," as Variety's Brian Steinberg put it, from Norah O'Donnell in DC to a pair of anchors, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, in NYC. People magazine's Kyler Alvord spoke with them about the changes...
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Tech + media earnings calendar |
Wednesday: Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent) all report Q4 figures.
Thursday: Apple, Comcast, and SiriusXM release earnings.
Friday: Charter publishes quarterly results.
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Monday night: "Ladies and Gentlemen ... 50 Years of SNL Music" premieres on NBC.
Tuesday: New releases include Chris Hayes' book "The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource" and Reid Hoffman's book "Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right With Our AI Future."
Thursday: MSNBC will co-host (and live-stream) the final DNC leadership forum.
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>> Breaking overnight: "Executives at Japan's Fuji TV and parent firm resign over a sex scandal linked to a former star..." (AP)
>> Nielsen says it is ready to end the "panel-only ratings that have measured TV for decades..." (WSJ)
>> "Facing backlash over firing its meteorologists, Allen Media Group learns an important lesson: Take the 'local' out of local TV at your own peril," Michael Schneider writes... (Variety)
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CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaking to The Guardian's Tim Adams:
"Unless we can agree that the sky outside is blue and the grass is green, we have no chance. What is overtaking the public square is that every single fact is now the subject of accusations of lies or bias. Zuckerberg enabling totally permissive commentary is another arrow in the heart of truth."
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>> Over the weekend Bobby Allyn scooped that "the Trump administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app's global operations." (NPR)
>> Trump responded by saying "I never spoke to" Oracle chairman Larry Ellison "about TikTok," even though they were filmed talking about TikTok together on camera last week. Trump went on to say "I've spoken to many people about TikTok. There's great interest in TikTok." (Reuters)
>> Meta's "loosening of speech restrictions is unsettling advertisers, who say a decade of efforts to protect their reputations is at risk," Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin write. (WSJ)
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>> Reprising his "Hamilton" mantle for "SNL," Lin-Manuel Miranda attempted to “raise a glass to freedom" only to be interrupted by James Austin Johnson as Trump, Sandra Gonzalez writes. Here's the video. (CNN)
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Timothée Chalamet and Bowen Yang's "AI software" sketch was also fantastic. (YouTube)
>> I saw "Flight Plan" on Friday and forgot about it by Saturday, affirming Anthony D'Alessandro's comment that "the whole movie feels like a non-event." It nabbed the No. 1 box office spot over the weekend but brought in an underwhelming $12 million. (Deadline)
>> The recent wildfires "have given new urgency to discussions about how to revive one of Los Angeles's defining, and dominant, industries: film and TV production," Nicole Sperling and Matt Stevens write. (NYT)
>> Paul McCartney "told the BBC proposed changes to copyright law could allow 'rip off' technology that might make it impossible for musicians and artists to make a living." (BBC)
>> With another season of "The Bachelor" beginning tonight, Erik Piepenburg wonders: "We've had an Asian Bachelorette, a Latino Bachelor (that Juan Pablo) and Black Bachelors and Bachelorettes — when do we get a gay one?" (NYT)
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