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Thursday, January 8, 2026 |
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TGIT. Here's the latest on Elon Musk, Paramount, Zohran Mamdani, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Deadline, The Economist, Bill Maher, and more. But first... |
What you believe is what you'll see... |
"Seeing is believing." That's what we used to think. But now the old adage, "What you see is what you believe," feels outdated.
In this era, "What you believe is what you'll see."
That's what a veteran news producer observed during the breaking news coverage of Renee Nicole Good's death at the hands of an ICE officer. People with different ideological positions saw different videos of the incident, from different angles, and reached totally different conclusions about what happened. "Domestic terrorist." "Murderer." And so on.
"Nuance" is the word CNN has been emphasizing: "Multiple videos of the shooting reviewed by CNN show nuance."
Indeed. But it was striking, though not surprising, how political partisans picked one video or another to promote their own POV, discarding any nuance. Personalized social media algorithms and hyperpartisan media bubbles help cause this. If you believe the shooting was justified, you'll see an endless stream of content supporting that view. If you believe the authorities are lying, then you'll see that.
"All In" co-host Jason Calacanis called it "the saddest Rorschach test we've ever seen." Tangle News founder Isaac Saul said on X that he wanted to call it a Rorschach test, "but that doesn't do it justice. It's a reality test. If you believe the president's claims — that this woman tried to kill ICE with her car and injured an agent — you are in a different reality."
And that's the point, right? In an era of competing realities, "what you believe is what you'll see." I wish we could see more of the humanity of everyone involved...
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I'm sure you are watching and reading the live coverage from Minneapolis this morning. CNN's Ryan Young has been covering protests and describing aggressive behavior by some law enforcement officers. He said he didn't expect to "be gassed three times before the day got started here," but that's what happened.
>> I also want to flag this important new reporting from CNN's Priscilla Alvarez: Multiple Department of Homeland Security officials privately expressed shock "over the department's immediate response to the fatal shooting," seeing it "as a break from precedent that generally points to an investigation before reaching a firm conclusion."
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Don't forget about this angle |
You can draw a rather direct line from the right-wing media's late December frenzy over Nick Shirley's viral video to the current tensions.
As Julia Ainsley pointed out during NBC's first special report about the shooting yesterday, "There was a right-wing YouTube video that alleged fraud at daycare centers that came out just after the holidays. And that was the reason, as it was explained to me by senior DHS officials, for this escalation of ICE... We're seeing a very quick response from the Trump administration based on that. That video is what led us to this point."
>> Shirley's work was another example of "what you believe is what you'll see." Getting back from vacation on New Year's Eve, I peeked at a burner X account that exclusively follows Elon Musk and other right-wing figures. The feed was nearly 100% about progressive "fraud" and criminality. It was all-consuming. If you missed it, check out Jay Caspian Kang's New Yorker column about Shirley, virality, and the future of journalism...
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How local news led the early reporting |
Andrew Kirell writes: Twin Cities outlets played a pivotal role in uncovering new details of the shooting — a reminder of the power of a robust local press during major on-the-ground news.
The Minnesota Star Tribune first identified Good and spoke with her mother and her late husband's father for a heartbreaking story, remembering her as an "extremely compassionate" mother of three. The Minnesota Reformer, a nonprofit newsroom, obtained two crucial visuals: video from the scene that's been widely zoomed and slowed down across social media, and a harrowing photo of Good's vehicle with its passenger-side glove box full of stuffed animals.
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More Minnesota coverage notes |
>> Laura Coates, who grew up in Minnesota, anchored from near the scene of the shooting on CNN last night. "People are grieving, and they are downright angry," she said.
>> Gov. Tim Walz was (wisely) hyperaware of the cameras yesterday, and of the Trump admin's interest in blue state battles: "They want a show. We can't give it to them."
>> Fox's Brit Hume: "I don't think I’ve seen a conflict between the federal government and the states as intense as this since the civil rights movement of the 1960s..."
>> Another interruption to Tony Dokoupil's cross-country tour plans: After anchoring from Dallas last night, he is in Minneapolis for tonight's "Evening News."
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Trump's long sit-down with the NYT |
Trump is actively suing The New York Times for defamation. But he evidently trusts the paper enough to spend much of the afternoon on the record with its White House correspondents. Yesterday's sit-down will be rolled out "over the coming days," including with a full transcript, the NYT says. Here's the first big story: "Trump Says U.S. Oversight of Venezuela Could Last for Years."
>> During that interview, Trump busted out a laptop to play slo-mo video of the ICE shooting to justify his claim that Good "behaved horribly" and "ran him over." The Times reporters said "we told him that this angle did not appear to show an ICE officer had been run over," and that the president responded, "Well... I — the way I look at it…"
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One year ago today, The New York Post coined the term "Donroe Doctrine" on its cover. The Economist invokes it again with this new cover, out this morning: |
Steel City suffers big loss |
"Will Pittsburgh become America's most important city without a newspaper?" That's the headline for Joshua Benton's latest for NiemanLab, published hours after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced it will shut down in May.
"The Pittsburgh metropolitan area of 1.2 million people will be without a daily newspaper specifically dedicated to covering the city," Julia Maruca wrote for 90.5 WESA, the city's NPR station.
In the Post-Gazette's own story about the closure, Kris B. Mamula reported that Block Communications, which owns the Post-Gazette, says it "has lost more than $350 million in cash operating the newspaper."
But the main trigger for the decision was apparently the ownership's clashes with its union workers. Earlier on Wednesday, Block "failed to convince the US Supreme Court to halt a lower court order requiring the company to make changes to its health insurance coverage for union workers," per Bloomberg Law's Robert Iafolla. Block said the ruling imposes "outdated and inflexible operational practices" on the Press-Gazette and that, as a result, the paper would fold...
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Paramount sticks with $30 per share |
Before the opening bell, Paramount responded to Warner Bros. Discovery's latest rejection by reiterating its $30-per-share proposal. "Paramount's offer is superior to WBD's existing agreement with Netflix and represents the best path forward for WBD shareholders," the company said.
One big point of contention: The value of Discovery Global, the company that will house CNN and other channels in the future. Paramount's new analysis put a $0.00 per share value on the cable assets, citing — among other things — this week's poor stock market performance for Versant. Here's my full story...
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👀 on Tony Dokoupil's ratings |
So, how well is the new Tony Dokoupil iteration of the "CBS Evening News" doing? It depends on the Nielsen #s you compare it with. His first Monday edition of the newscast averaged 4.4 million viewers, far behind ABC and NBC, as expected. The broadcast was "down from past recent introductions of the network anchors of the broadcast," Deadline's Ted Johnson noted. And it was "off by 23% from the same day last year."
But CBS highlighted Dokoupil's gains versus the "season-to-date average" for the newscast, meaning its September-through-December performance: "CBS said that Dokoupil’s debut was up 9% in viewers and 20% in the demo versus the season-to-date average."
>> Turmoil behind the scenes: "Javier Guzman, a senior broadcast producer for 'CBS Evening News,' was dismissed from his position following Wednesday’s broadcast," TheWrap reports.
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WaPo says 'good riddance' to CPB; readers not so much |
WaPo Opinion writer Dominic Pino published a divisive piece that left readers peeved. The piece, titled "Good riddance, Corporation for Public Broadcasting," pulled in almost 1,000 comments within five hours of publication. (By comparison, the Opinion piece with the second-largest number of comments yesterday was about the Patriots being "lovable" this season, with 196 after 10 hours.) The commenters largely came to public media's defense, expressing deep appreciation for PBS and NPR...
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Musk was 'unhappy' with restrictions on Grok |
Hadas Gold reports: Amid Grok's ongoing "undressing" scandal, Elon Musk and xAI have said they're taking action "against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary." Yet Grok's responses to user requests are still flooded with images sexualizing women.
Before the scandal erupted, Musk was privately "unhappy" with restrictions on his chatbot, sources told CNN. And around that same time, three xAI staffers who'd worked on the already small safety team publicly announced their own exits. Read on...
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Early AI harm lawsuits settled |
Character.AI and Google have "agreed to settle multiple lawsuits alleging the artificial intelligence chatbot maker contributed to mental health crises and suicides among young people," CNN's Clare Duffy reports. The settlement "marks the resolution to some of the first and most high-profile lawsuits related to the alleged harms to young people from AI chatbots." Read on...
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>> Influencers played a crucial role in Zohran Mamdani's rise. Yesterday, he "returned the favor, inviting dozens of 'new media' figures to City Hall for a tour and a private news conference,” Michael Grynbaum writes. (NYT)
>> Disney plans "to roll out a new vertical video product on Disney+ over the next year that will feature short-form content from the company's entertainment portfolio, as well as news and sports," Alex Weprin reports. (THR)
>> Fox is launching Fox Creator Studios "to court creators and develop next-generation content for multiple platforms," Cynthia Littleton reports. (Variety)
>> Deadline has named Nellie Andreeva its sole editor in chief "as her co-editor, Mike Fleming Jr., moves into an editor-at-large role." (TheWrap)
>> RIP: “CBS chief research and analytics officer Radha Subramanyam died Monday after a battle with cancer. She was 55.” (Variety)
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No plea from Nick Reiner yet |
Nick Reiner "made no plea Wednesday in a L.A. courtroom, where he was expected to be arraigned on murder charges in connection with the fatal stabbing of his parents," CNN's Nick Watt and Alli Rosenbloom reported. "Instead, Reiner’s high-profile attorney, Alan Jackson, asked the judge’s permission to withdraw as counsel and a public defender took over, asking for a later arraignment date."
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Entertainment world notes & quotes |
>> "A worldwide theater network expansion helped Imax post $1.28 billion in global box office for 2025, a new company record." (THR)
>> "A two-part drama about the undoing of disgraced BBC News presenter Huw Edwards is on the way from 5," formerly Channel 5, in the UK. (THR)
>> "Real Time With Bill Maher" has been renewed for two more seasons. (THR)
>> Geese's meteoric rise continues: They'll perform on the Jan. 24 episode of "SNL." (Pitchfork)
>> Julia Alexander tweeted: "The Pitt tonight. Traitors tonight. College Football semifinals tonight and tomorrow. NFL Wild Card Weekend on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Maybe one of the most exciting five days of television in recent memory — and just a couple of weeks before the Olympics kick off." (X)
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