Good morning. Here's the latest from Hawaii Public Radio, Daniel Dale, Newsmax, DJ Judd, Margaret Sullivan, Alexandra Bruell, The Daily Mail, "a person close to David Ellison," and more... |
When local media steps up... |
Breitbart editor in chief Alex Marlow was on Maui with his family when tsunami sirens and text alerts urged him to move to higher ground. Once he evacuated, he wrote on X, "Where can I actually get updates about what is going on and what to expect? There are hundreds of people here and no one knows anything."
I'm not here to dunk on Marlow, but this is why local news exists. More to the point, this is why we should all want local TV, radio and digital operations to thrive.
From all that I've seen and read overnight, Hawaii broadcasters rose to the occasion. When I checked KHON2's homepage, for instance, it was list-oriented, with links to evacuation zones, shelters, contacts, and press conference recaps. The station's TV coverage showed the government's water level graphs on screen, so viewers could see the waves "rocking and rolling," as one anchor put it. Similarly, Hawaii News Now streamed its coverage live on YouTube for eight hours and answered questions from viewers in real time.
As soon as the tsunami warning was lifted, Hawaii Public Radio's homepage reflected the change with plain, helpful language: "Tsunami threat has passed for Hawaiʻi. Evacuees may return home." Over at Honolulu Civil Beat, "A History of Tsunamis in Hawaii," published in 2011, suddenly topped the site's most-read list.
This is not to say that the local outlets were perfect, though. Hawaii News Now published loads of articles and videos, including of flooding and damage on Oahu, but the content was poorly organized and the homepage was out of date. I received some complaints about rickety live streams. And I noticed that some local brands barely posted anything to X, the site Marlow was using, or Bluesky.
People expect the news to come to them — and if it doesn't, they lose confidence in the news industry. This continues to be a structural problem, since algorithms are a whole lot better at surfacing a timeless TikTok meme than up-to-the-minute hyperlocal news content.
>> Zooming out: The Japanese public broadcaster NHK's English-language live feed was impressive during the alert there. CNN went live for several hours during mainland US overnight hours. The Weather Channel also stayed live overnight.
|
The aforementioned Hawaii Public Radio is trying to find new sources of revenue now that all federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Republicans in Congress. "For years, we have been 94% community supported, with about 6% of our annual revenues coming from federal funding," the network's CEO Meredith Artley (a CNN alum) recently told listeners. "Please join us now, and help us shift HPR into being 100% community backed, and able to serve Hawai‘i now and years to come."
>> In this WaPo opinion piece, National Review economics editor Dominic Pino argues that "conservatives should be rooting for NPR and PBS" now because "it's time for Cookie Monster to teach the public a lesson about free-market principles."
|
'Back to fundamentals' at CBS? |
New from the FT this morning: "Paramount deal thrusts David Ellison into Trump’s war with US media." The four-bylined story cites a "person close to Ellison" talking about both CBS News and Stephen Colbert, seemingly in the same breath, so there's no doubt these quotes are ricocheting around CBS right now.
"The news lost its way — it became extreme, elitist, and performative," the unnamed Ellison confidant said. "People like Colbert and others act like they're the IP, the value, when it’s the brand and journalism that matter. We need to get back to fundamentals. That's what David and his team believe."
The source name-checked Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite and said Ellison plans to bring back "a performance-based culture" to CBS News, adding, "Not quotas. Not ideology. Just objective journalism."
Obviously it would be ideal to hear from Ellison directly about this, rather than anonymous sources. Here's the full story...
|
As he returned home from Scotland, President Trump made comments about Jeffrey Epstein poaching young women from Mar-a-Lago, raising "new questions about what he knew," as CNN's Aaron Blake wrote here.
Trump also dissed Rupert Murdoch; claimed that the WSJ wants to settle his lawsuit; repeated his prediction that Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel will be cancelled; and dissed the lone liberal on Fox's "The Five." Mediaite's headline: "Trump calls Fox's Jessica Tarlov a 'real loser' as she calls for gun control and honors NYC shooting victims."
All of the media criticism reminded me of what Israeli writer Etgar Keret told David Remnick for this recent piece. "The genius of Trump is that he has internalized social media and how it works," Keret said. "He knows that saying something is no different than doing something, that it’s just one damn thing after another and nothing matters. Trump realized you don’t have to do things. You just need to say things and then it's all wrapped in one big burrito of dream and fantasy."
Go ahead, try to picture that "big burrito."
Of course, Trump has been more aggressive in his second term about matching words with actions. Referring to his WSJ suit yesterday, he said, "They've treated us wrong. And when I get treated unfairly, I do things about it." He also railed against Comcast the other day, which may or may not lead to this next bit of news...
|
Carr tells Comcast it's under investigation |
FCC chair Brendan Carr "has launched a formal inquiry into Comcast and NBCUniversal, citing rising concerns about the network's treatment of local broadcast affiliates and potential violations of federal regulations," and perhaps it's telling that Newsmax was given the scoop.
Comcast confirmed receiving Carr's letter and defended its support for local stations, calling them trusted sources "for news and life-saving weather information." TheWrap has the full statement here.
>> Carr publicly laughed off Bill Goodykoontz's AZ Republic column arguing that "the head of the FCC is now the (second) most dangerous man in America."
>> The National Association of Broadcasters is running ads praising Carr for his deregulatory push, "even as he also investigates some of its members," Deadline's Ted Johnson points out.
|
Subtle intimidation in the West Wing |
The latest addition to the walls of the White House's West Wing is a POTUS-signed copy of the June 6 appeals court ruling allowing the WH to continue excluding The Associated Press from pooled events. The framed copy of the ruling was placed in the corridor between the WH press briefing room and the workspace known as "lower press" where assistant press secretaries sit — "which means any reporter that goes to ask a member of the press shop a question passes it," CNN's DJ Judd notes.
|
Political media notes and quotes |
>> The progressive media reform group Free Press has released its "Media Capitulation Index," rating media outlets on a scale from "a star (signaling independence) up to five chickens (signaling propaganda)," Margaret Sullivan writes. "There are enough chickens in these ratings to start a good-sized poultry farm." (American Crisis)
>> New from Daniel Dale this morning: "Trump's long history of fake history." (CNN)
>> Nate Silver makes the case that "The media is more interested than the public in Epstein." (Silver Bulletin)
>> MAGA influencers and "prominent QAnon-adjacent voices" are "posting a lot less about human trafficking these days," Miles Klee writes, citing a new study from Montclair State. "It's an indication, the authors say, that this group has never addressed the problem of trafficking in responsible or realistic terms, instead using it to whip up panic and grow their audiences." (Rolling Stone)
|
Daily Mail's global subscriber goal |
The Daily Mail has gained 50,000 digital subscribers in the US since launching an American paywall in February. Globally "the Mail+ digital subscription offering has more than 325,000 digital subscribers," Press Gazette's Charlotte Tobitt reports. Yesterday the publication "set a target of reaching one million digital subscribers by October 2028 as it undergoes a consolidation of its global branding."
|
LA Times reporter Stephen Battaglio's cheeky lead about "Dateline" holding a live true crime event in Nashville in September: "The victims may be dead, but NBC's 'Dateline' is going live." Here's the full story.
>> Also this week, The Free Press announced (and almost immediately sold out of tickets for) an on-stage interview with Amy Coney Barrett in September;
MSNBC said its second annual fan event will take place in NYC in October;
Crooked Media announced a two-day "Crooked Con" in DC in November...
|
Media biz notes and quotes |
>> Disney "said overall 'upfront' volume was 'consistent with last year,' suggesting that TV companies are continuing to struggle to win greater advertising support," Brian Steinberg writes. (Variety)
>> "YouTube is now the second most-watched TV service in the UK, Ofcom said on Tuesday, behind the BBC and ahead of ITV." (FT)
>> Alden Global Capital has failed in its attempt "to get its tentacles on The Dallas Morning News," Joshua Benton happily reports. (NiemanLab)
|
>> Meta and Microsoft both report earnings after the closing bell today.
>> Amazon's deal to license NYT content "comes with a meaty payday for the publisher: $20 million to $25 million a year," Alexandra Bruell reports, revealing the price tag for the first time. (WSJ)
>> YouTube is "beginning to roll out age-estimation technology in the US to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience." (TechCrunch)
>> A blunt headline from Olivier Knox: "When AI Gives an Answer, No One Cares About the Source" (U.S. News Decision Points)
|
HGTV is getting rehabbed, Deadline's Peter White reports in this intriguing story about the challenges facing the category-defining cable channel. "Falling linear ratings, the rising cost of materials needed for home renovations, the threat of further price hikes due to President Donald Trump's tariffs and the rise of DIY TikTokers have all hit the Warner Bros Discovery cable network like a slab of Italian marble to the face," White writes.
But his story also points to several opportunities, like the buzzy new show "Zillow Gone Wild," which just returned for a second season...
|
|
|
|
® © 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
