TGIT! American readers, I hope you have fun Fourth of July plans. Reliable will be dark for the fireworks on Friday and will be back in your inbox on Monday. Here's the latest on the BBC, The Bulwark, Dr. Phil McGraw, Mario Guevara, the Kennedy Center, "South Park," and much more... |
"Spineless." "Shameful." "Capitulation." Paramount Global is being hammered for bowing to presidential pressure and settling a lawsuit that it likely could have beaten in court. But this convoluted episode is really more about the plaintiff, President Trump, than about Paramount.
As veteran media reporter Paul Farhi remarked yesterday, it was "fascinating how Paramount has borne the bulk of the criticism for agreeing to this payoff. As if Trump is a passive bystander who played no role."
Indeed, even though the "60 Minutes" lawsuit is now history, Trump's bullying tactics will continue to challenge media companies for the foreseeable future.
For newsrooms and other organizations that are targeted, the question becomes, fight or fold? One follow-up question might be: How do audiences react to outlets that fold?
|
A sign of budding authoritarianism? |
When the settlement news broke, I circled back with Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton professor of First Amendment law at Harvard Law School, who told us last fall that Trump's CBS suit was "ridiculous junk and should be mocked." I wanted to hear her reaction to the out-of-court resolution, especially since her professional home is under multifaceted assault by the Trump admin.
Tushnet had this to say: "The individual incentive in a budding authoritarian state is always to capitulate; that's the point of imposing costs on speech. It's disappointing that so many of our institutions are folding especially when individual citizens can see very clearly the dangers of this path."
MSNBC's Steve Benen included the Paramount settlement on a long list of unsettling headlines from this week. Collectively, "from ICE to Harvard," Trump's "authoritarian-style vision" has come into sharp relief, he argued in this post.
Speaking of headlines, "President accepts $16 million payment for presidential library and abandons frivolous lawsuit against TV news program" would have been an absurd headline this time last year. But now, in 2025, it's the new normal.
Advocacy groups like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression say it's dangerous. "Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated," FIRE said yesterday. "This settlement will only embolden the president to continue his flurry of baseless lawsuits against the press — and against the American people's ability to hear the news free from government intrusion."
And yet — I always feel the need to interject this — the public is still being informed. The reporting work is still getting done. Day in, day out, to borrow from the great Marty Baron, we're still not at war, we're still at work.
|
John Dickerson, seen above, ended Wednesday's "CBS Evening News" by straight-forwardly explaining the settlement. Former CBS News correspondent Armen Keteyian summed up what I heard from numerous current staffers with a post on X yesterday: "This Paramount settlement is the nadir for the network — a breach of the public trust Murrow, Cronkite, Hewitt and thousands of us worked decades to build."
The great unknown is how owner-in-waiting David Ellison will manage CBS News when (if?) the Paramount-Skydance deal takes effect. Understandably, Ellison is not talking right now, in accordance with mega-merger norms. But uncertainty breeds anxiety. As one CBS News staffer said to me, on condition of anonymity, "there is great fear about what comes next." I wrote more about that in this new CNN piece.
|
The New York Post's Charlie Gasparino raised eyebrows yesterday with a report about a "side deal" between Ellison and Trump involving TV airtime for PSAs promoting Trump-aligned causes. Paramount said it has "no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement." But that's the point — Paramount wouldn't know.
🔌: I talked about all of this with Matthew Belloni on "The Town" podcast last night. Belloni and I were on the same page, wondering aloud if a PSA commitment might be tucked into eventual FCC approval of the merger. Listen in here...
|
Big difference between ABC and CBS deals |
A veteran broadcast journalist who spotted me on the PBS "NewsHour" last night wrote in with this important note: "As you report on Paramount's settlement with Trump, please acknowledge the huge difference from the Disney settlement."
The Disney/ABC case came about because George Stephanopoulos "repeatedly and inaccurately" (in Reason's words) said on air that Trump had been found "liable for rape" (he was found liable for sexual abuse). CBS merely edited an interview in a way that Trump disliked. "It appalls me that so much coverage of these travesties glosses over this distinction," the viewer wrote. Point taken!
|
Crediting owners with backbones |
As intrepid 9News anchor Kyle Clark points out, "it's easy to get upset when people and institutions fail — and forget to celebrate all the people and institutions doing the hard, right thing every day." His latest bit of commentary makes this point perfectly.
"Every news outlet that challenges power faces pressure to stop doing that," he said, and there are managers and owners who defend that work, quietly, every single day. Credit is due, he said, to the "management, leadership and ownership who stand behind the journalism that matters."
So, on that note...
|
Noem threats boost ICE-tracking app? |
Earlier this week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her department was working with the DOJ "to see if we can prosecute" CNN for reporting on the existence of an app that tracks ICE agents.
CNN responded to her threat by pointing out that the app "is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it," and "there is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN."
And what has happened since? Several other news outlets, including The Hill and The Verge, have published stories about the app. "After threats from the Trump administration, the popularity of ICEBlock surged," The Verge's Emma Roth wrote yesterday...
|
Mario Guevara remains in ICE custody |
Earlier this week an immigration judge ordered live-streaming journalist Mario Guevara to be released on bond. But "ICE has not allowed Guevara's family to post bond and has not been given a clear explanation as to why," according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. "The Spanish-language reporter is currently the only journalist in custody in the U.S. whose arrest was in relation to their work."
|
|
|
'Big, beautiful' battle is almost over |
Here's the state of play via CNN.com: "GOP holdouts fall in line, paving way for final passage of Trump bill." One media-related note via Deadline's Ted Johnson: The Trump admin "has been moving to slash cultural programs like the National Endowment for the Arts, which gives grants to groups throughout the country. The One Big Beautiful bill, though, adds $257 million to the Kennedy Center, where the audience base is mainly D.C."
|
BBC apologizes for Bob Vylan stream |
Breaking in London: "The BBC has issued a formal apology after allowing a 'high risk' act to perform live at Glastonbury, despite internal warnings about Bob Vylan's potential for controversial content," Variety reports.
>> Director-general Tim Davie's memo says "I deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behavior appeared on the BBC and want to say sorry — to our audience and to all of you, but in particular to Jewish colleagues and the Jewish community. We are unequivocal that there can be no place for antisemitism at the BBC."
>> The punk duo has been dropped from multiple upcoming festivals.
|
Dr. Phil's network declares bankruptcy |
Liam Reilly writes: Dr. Phil McGraw's fledgling TV network, Merit Street Media, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday and sued Christian TV giants Trinity Broadcasting Network and TCT Ministries for allegedly harming its business and contributing to its financial woes. Here are all the details...
|
The Bulwark's newest milestone |
A big audience is buying what The Bulwark is selling: The publication has officially crossed the 100,000 paid-subscriber mark. It also boasts 830,000 total subscribers and ranks No. 2 on Substack's leaderboard. The Never-Trump pub attributes its growth to the fact that its subscribers pay to support its mission... |
>> Activists are sounding the alarm "over US cuts to programs providing internet access and promoting democracy in Iran," Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler and Sean Lyngaas report. (CNN)
>> Comedy Central has pushed back the next season of "South Park," which the show's creators blamed on "complications from the pending merger" with Skydance. (Bloomberg)
>> G/O Media is selling off one of its last remaining sites, Kotaku, and "winding down its operations" altogether. (NYT)
>> Amazon is "sunsetting" its standalone Freevee app next month as it consolidates content offerings under Prime Video. (CNBC)
|
A new report from Similarweb shows that "referrals from ChatGPT to news publishers are growing, but not enough to counter the decline in clicks resulting from users increasingly getting their news directly from AI or AI-powered search results." TechCrunch's Sarah Perez has details here.
|
More of today's tech talk |
>> Google "has proposed fresh changes to its search results in an attempt to fend off growing criticism from rivals, a week before a key meeting that could lead to yet another EU antitrust fine," Foo Yun Chee reports. (Reuters)
>> A former UK tech minister warned that "a decision by Elon Musk's X social media platform to enlist artificial intelligence chatbots to draft factchecks risks increasing the promotion of 'lies and conspiracy theories.'" (The Guardian)
>> An intriguing new story by Clare Duffy this morning: "How Character.AI's new CEO plans to address fears around kids' use of chatbots." (CNN)
|
What the Combs verdict means |
One of the highest-profile trials of the past decade concluded yesterday when a jury convicted Sean "Diddy" Combs "on two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution" but cleared the hip-hop mogul "of the most serious charges" against him. Check out CNN's takeaways about the verdict here.
This morning's New York Post cover shows a screen grab from the infamous tape, first obtained by CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister, showing Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura at a hotel in 2016. The Post's headline: "NOTORIOUS P.I.G."
Today Wagmeister gets the last word here. She writes: "There has been so much said about yesterday’s verdict: Is #MeToo dead? Does the world hate women? Does this prove that Combs is innocent? No. The verdict proves nothing other than the prosecutors could not meet their burden of proof for charges with a high burden."
"The scope of this case was so incredibly limited," Wagmeister also points out. "It barely scratched the surface of the sweeping allegations against Combs."
So while the defense team celebrates what was, for them, a huge victory, there is a level of accountability here: "In an industry of unchecked power," known for "turning a blind eye for fame and money, Combs has been exposed. He won't spend the rest of his life in prison, but he has been exposed." Read Wagmeister's full assessment here on X or Instagram.
|
|
|
|
® © 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
