This special Saturday edition is chock full of weekend reads. Reliable Sources will be back in your inbox on Monday, April 13. Miss y'all already! Now to today's news... |
With US government officials saying almost nothing about the search for a missing F-15 crew member in Iran, news outlets are filling time by interviewing military experts, parsing Iranian state media dispatches, and looping short snippets of video showing search-and-rescue operations.
"More than 24 hours later, the details are still scant," the WSJ's lead story notes.
Inside the Pentagon, there has been "a tight focus on information silence as the agency worked the rescue," WaPo's story adds.
White House reporters made note of the Marine sentry outside the West Wing, which signaled that President Trump was working inside, while Trump aides batted down a ridiculous online rumor about Trump sneaking off to Walter Reed. CNN and other homepages paired Trump's latest threat over the Strait of Hormuz with the search for the missing crew member...
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Puncturing US claims of air invulnerability |
Friday's reports about downed US jets puncture Trump's and Pete Hegseth's claims of air invulnerability, as Aaron Blake wrote in this CNN.com analysis.
Trump and Hegseth "are either unaware or misleading the American people about the vulnerability of US air assets," Josh Rogin said on CNN last night. They "said very clearly that [Iran] couldn't do this and then they did it."
Rogin went on: "We've had about four weeks of the administration telling us everything's fine, everything's going according to plan. And now everyone can see with their eyes that that's obviously not the case. So now we're back to square one. How do we get out of this?"
Major news outlets are also publishing some new examples of wartime setbacks that contradict the official narrative. The WSJ's most-read story today is "Iranian Strike on U.S. Embassy Caused More Damage Than Disclosed."
The story quotes Bernard Hudson, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, saying "there's been a complete blackout on the actual amount of damage done to these places."
Along those same lines, NPR reported yesterday that "hundreds of sailors were evacuated back to the United States from their base in Bahrain after the base was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones." Steve Walsh wrote that "there have been evacuations at other U.S. military bases in the region, though the exact details are unknown at this point."
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We're losing access to satellite imagery |
This afternoon the NYT reported that it's going to get even harder to make independent assessments of the war's impacts: "A major satellite imagery provider, Planet Labs, is indefinitely withholding access to imagery over Iran and the conflict region more broadly, citing a request from the U.S. government," Pranav Baskar writes.
Planet Labs said "all satellite imagery providers" received the same request.
This will narrow "the public's visibility into what is happening in the war," Baskar writes, since "journalists and researchers often use satellite imagery to create a fuller picture of events..."
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Writers and studios have a deal |
"The Writers Guild has come to a tentative deal with studios on a new 4 year contract (yes, an extra year than normal!)," Puck's Matt Belloni reported this afternoon. "Health plan/pension increases, SVOD bumps, protection to police licensing for AI training, more." The deal "still must be recommended and ratified, but huge news." Deadline's Katie Campione has a backstage look at "how the writers made nice with the AMPTP" here...
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Trump's media-bashing 'coming back to bite him in court' |
I've been meaning to write a story about this, and the NYT's Erik Wemple beat me to it: "Judges have cited attacks on the press by the president and his appointees when ruling against the government in at least three court cases." As Ted Boutrous put it, "it's like a viewpoint discrimination festival."
"Until the Trump era, explicit statements of viewpoint discrimination were rare... But lawyers now have their pick of public statements to shore up claims of retaliatory treatment," Wemple writes in today's paper.
However, he also notes that a few lawsuits by media outlets "are little match for a wide-ranging anti-media campaign emanating from the White House..."
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In her latest column for The Guardian, Margaret Sullivan takes stock of recent court decisions siding with NPR, PBS and the Pentagon press corps, among others, calling the rulings "heartening."
But "they don't solve the larger problems, at least not immediately," she writes. "That's going to be up to a citizenry that cares enough not only to vote but to restore and rebuild America’s damaged institutions for its long-term future."
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New lawsuit against DHS drone ban |
When ICE agents flooded Minneapolis last January, the FAA issued a temporary flight restriction that prevented drones — including newsgathering drones — "from flying within 3,000 feet of Department of Homeland Security buildings and vehicles."
I wondered if it would get challenged in court. And now it has been: "Minnesota photojournalist Rob Levine and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press are suing" over the restriction, arguing it is "impossible to follow and is aimed at curtailing the First Amendment rights of journalists." 404 Media's Matthew Gault has the full story here...
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Decades-old Vegas print truce breaks down |
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has decided to stop printing its rival paper, the Las Vegas Sun, "sharpening their legal dispute over the nation's last joint operating agreement stemming from a 1970 law designed to preserve newspapers," The AP's Jessica Hill reports.
The Sun went to court yesterday, citing "irreparable" harm, but a judge declined to force the Review-Journal to resume printing it. "The Sun doesn't seem to have a lot of good options left," Vegas observer William P. Barrett writes here...
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>> Lauren Wolfe asks readers to light a candle and think of her friend Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped in Iraq earlier this week. (Chills)
>> Brianna Navarre says Kittleson's kidnapping "highlights global risks to reporters." (USNews)
>> Kerwin Speight writes about this week's widespread layoffs at WRTV in Indianapolis: "A glimpse at the cost savings brought by media mergers." (Poynter)
>> Aidan Ryan breaks down how VTDigger "finds itself set back by editorial departures and ongoing financial losses." (Boston Globe)
>> Ben Terris sits down with Jeanine Pirro at a moment when Pirro might be in the running to be Trump's next attorney general. (Intelligencer)
>> Gaby Del Valle explores why "the wives of right-wing political figures keep launching podcasts." (The Verge)
>> River Page imagines Kristi Noem's inevitable biopic: "Veep is a masterpiece, but not even Armando Iannucci could’ve written a story like Noem's off the dome." (The Free Press)
>> David Gilbert chronicles "the new era of militia influencers." (WIRED)
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'Wary of news media, Silicon Valley builds its own' |
That's the headline on Alex Pigman's analysis of the TPBN deal for AFP. He says "when OpenAI acquired the tech podcast TBPN this week, it wasn't just buying a show it was buying a message. The move laid bare a strategy that Silicon Valley has been perfecting for years: ditch the tech-skeptics of the traditional press, and build your own media."
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A new class of vanity media owners? |
THR's Alex Weprin says these three might make a trend: "Sam Altman is buying his favorite show, Larry Ellison is buying CNN to merge it with CBS News, Jamie Dimon is toying with launching a venture. It may mark a new era of vanity media owners..." |
8 more great weekend reads |
>> Elex Michaelson writes about TMZ founder Harvey Levin channeling "national anger with Washington." (CNN)
>> Jonah E. Bromwich profiles author and New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who says "I may not be part of the solution here in any fundamental way. But I'm not part of the problem. And that’s something." (NYT)
>> The aforementioned Matt Belloni explains how "Roger Goodell is blitzing the hell out of Hollywood." (Puck)
>> Evan Drellich asks: "Can regional sports networks survive, or even thrive?" (NYT)
>> Nate Rattner and Ben Fritz present a visual story showing "how Hollywood's job market is collapsing." (WSJ)
>> Isaac Tellechea and Vanessa Yurkevich detail how "Pokémon cards are igniting an international crime spree." (CNN)
>> Julie Beck says this is the "tension that defines modern life:" Having a smartphone, needing a smartphone, but wanting "to use it less." (The Atlantic)
>> Bill Weir can testify to that: He spent two weeks without his iPhone, and "scans of his brain before and after reveal surprising results." This clip is part of his special report, "50 Years of Apple," airing Sunday night on CNN. (CNN)
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Savannah returns to 'Today' |
Monday is the morning, and "here's how to stream Savannah Guthrie's return online for free" is the most popular URL on Variety's web site this weekend, in case that tells you about the level of anticipation.
NBC News isn't talking about what Monday's "Today" will be like, and it has no real reason to do so. The show will have Guthrie "set the tone," as THR's Tony Maglio put it.
In the above cover story for Variety, Brian Steinberg envisioned a Monday segment "in which the anchor, flanked by as many of her 'Today' colleagues as possible, addresses the audience, expresses her happiness at being able to return and asks viewers to 'please bear with me' as she moves through her first weeks during what is likely to be a tender time."
More from Steinberg: "Two people familiar with the show say producers are prepared for a period during which they 'play it by ear,' trying to work segments around their suitability to Guthrie..."
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Newsy new books this week: |
New nonfiction releases this Tuesday include "Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online" by Fortesa Latifi; "London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth" by the aforementioned Patrick Radden Keefe; "The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden: A First Historical Assessment," edited by
Julian Zelizer, with more than a dozen essays; and "Planet Money," from the podcast by the same name. |
Time for 'The Testaments' |
The long-awaited television adaptation of "The Handmaid's Tale" sequel comes out Wednesday on Hulu. Martine Thompson, previewing the launch for the NYT, says it "retains the previous series's tense, character-driven tone while introducing a new generation of Gileadeans — led by Agnes, played by the 'One Battle After Another' breakout star Chase Infiniti — and bringing back fan favorites like the sadistic Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd)."
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YouTube is out with its annual guide to live-streaming the festival. This year it is also something it calls Stations — "24/7 linear streams preprogrammed with videos from artists performing at the festival, perfect for playing in the background or vegging out on the couch," as The Verge's Jank Roettgers' reports here.
The stations, basically YouTube's equivalent of FAST channels, "bring back passive leanback viewing, doing away with the need to find something to watch when you just want to hit play," Roettgers writes. He calls it part of YouTube's ongoing" TV takeover."
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'Mario' on track to be 'the biggest debut of 2026' |
"Mamma mia! 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' powered up at the Friday box office and is on its way to an explosive opening weekend," Variety's Jack Dunn writes.
The movie "earned $48.3 million from 4,252 North American theaters on Friday, and is projected to make $129.4 million domestically by Sunday," which will easily make it "the biggest debut of 2026" so far...
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This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here. Reminder: We're on spring break, and back in your inbox on April 13.
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