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Friday, September 12, 2025 |
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TGIF. Look out for a special Saturday edition of Reliable full of "weekend reads" tomorrow. Let's get right to the breaking news... |
President Trump announced Charlie Kirk's death on Wednesday and announced that a suspect was in custody this morning.
While Trump almost always tries to dominate the news cycle, this time feels different, because Kirk's death was so personal for Trump and his inner circle. It was fitting to have the president break the news. And this morning, for millions of "Fox & Friends" viewers, it was an incredible moment of relief – to learn directly from the president that a suspect in the shooting had been turned into the authorities.
For Fox, it was also quite a scoop, and an unexpected one. Trump was already booked on his favorite morning show, in part because he spent the night in NYC after attending a Yankees game yesterday. The co-hosts' questions immediately shifted once Trump announced the breakthrough in the case.
Announcing the headline also helped Trump to frame the news on his terms. He urged a "quick trial" for the suspect and said "I hope he gets the death penalty" – talking points that are already being amplified by pro-Trump influencers and cheered by supporters.
A press conference about the suspect, IDed as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is happening now. Here are CNN's live updates...
>> This NYT headline sums up the collective mood at the end of the workweek: "After Kirk Killing, Americans Agree on One Thing: Something Is Seriously Wrong"
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Social media algorithms and online screaming matches are severely distorting the political debate in the wake of Kirk's murder. Looking at the online rage, "you think the world has lost its mind when most of it is grieving," Axios CEO Jim VandeHei wrote last night. His advice about how to "break the fever" is spot on.
We should reread what Kirk wrote on X back in June: "When things are moving very fast and people are losing their minds, it’s important to stay grounded. Turn off your phone, read scripture, spend time with friends, and remember internet fury is not real life. It's going to be ok."
Noah Smith's theory makes a lot of sense: "Why is political violence spiking in America, even as most Americans tune out politics? Because the politically engaged minority is mainlining hate on social media all day long, and getting radicalized."
Smith pointed out in his latest essay that "a lot of the people you read on social media are simply fake," and in some cases, they're creations of "foreigners seeking to divide and weaken the US." Utah governor Spencer Cox eloquently warned about this at a presser last night, asserting that bots from Russia and China are "trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence." Speaking of...
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Social media moderation Q's |
"All sorts of conspiracy theories are already circulating on the left as well as on the right, made all the more easier by lax regulations from social media platforms that once attempted to monitor, flag and restrict disinformation," Jason Kyle Howard wrote for Salon.
At the same time, the graphic videos of Kirk's shooting death and Iryna Zarutska's stabbing death have reignited the debate "over social media moderation," as CNN's Hadas Gold reported here.
"Tech platforms have been taking action to try and contain the very graphic videos of the shooting that many of us couldn't avoid even if we wanted to thanks to autoplay," Gold said. "But it's a cat and mouse game, and those videos keep popping up." Read on...
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If you haven't re-read it, here is a gift link Robert Draper's NYT profile of Kirk earlier this year. The title: "How Charlie Kirk Became the Youth Whisperer of the American Right."
Draper told Jake Tapper that he doesn't sense any lowering of the temperature right now. On the right, "to the extent that there's any unity, it will be unity against the left," he said, pointing out that "from the moment his assassination was confirmed, people were using third-person plural, they, 'they' did this to Charlie Kirk in the way that we heard frequently after the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler." Conservatives, he said, are viewing this as "an us-versus-them moment."
Indeed, sites like Breitbart are also running story after story vilifying the left for Kirk's death. Here's one: "Demons [Are] Running the American Left and They Want Us Dead." The Daily Caller is likewise highlighting victories over "left-wing terrorists" and "heartless leftists." The Federalist is promoting a piece by its White House correspondent saying "it is time to designate the Democrat Party a domestic terrorist organization."
On Fox, when Ainsley Earhardt noted "we have radicals on the right as well" and asked Trump about how to fix things, Trump asserted that many on the radical right are simply opposed to crime, while "the radicals on the left are the problem."
He seemed to acknowledge, though, that Kirk wouldn't want retribution in the form of further violence. He'd "want revenge at the voter box," meaning through elections, Trump said.
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Five more notable reactions |
>> "Pointing his finger at members of the Capitol press corps" yesterday, GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden said "every single one of you here, you’re at fault... You are responsible for that assassination."
>> The American Conservative: "The present moment feels hugely consequential, yet the consequences are hard to predict."
>> Jacobin, the socialist magazine, published a powerful column criticizing some of the left-wing unsympathetic reactions to Kirk's death: "Escalating political violence corrodes democratic norms and poses a unique threat to the Left."
>> DC Comics cancelled a just-released comic book series after author Gretchen Felker-Martin allegedly wrote on social media, after Kirk's death, "hope the bullet's OK."
>> "Comedy Central will not air reruns of a recent 'South Park' episode poking fun at Charlie Kirk," but the episode will stay up on Paramount+, Liam Reilly reports.
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Comcast sends memo after MSNBC controversy |
Comcast execs Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh and Mark Lazarus sent a memo to all employees this morning about "division" in the country.
"You may have seen that MSNBC recently ended its association with a contributor who made an unacceptable and insensitive comment about this horrific event," they wrote. "That coverage was at odds with fostering civil dialogue and being willing to listen to the points of view of those who have differing opinions. We should be able to disagree, robustly and passionately, but, ultimately, with respect. We need to do better."
"Something essential has fractured in our public discourse, and as a company that values the power of information, we have a responsibility to help mend it," the execs added...
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Jessica Toonkel's big scoop for the WSJ: "Paramount Skydance is preparing a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery that is backed by the Ellison family. The bid will be for the entire company, including its cable networks and movie studio," though it hasn't been submitted yet, "and the plans could still fall apart."
WBD, as you know, is CNN's parent company, and it's currently preparing to split itself in half, with the streaming service and studio becoming "Warner Bros." while CNN and other TV channels become "Discovery Global." Wall Street analysts have expected M&A activity in the months ahead. That's why, regarding the report about Paramount's intentions, "the only surprise is the timing," Bank of America Securities senior media and entertainment analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich told me.
"They're not the only ones who are going to be bidding" for WBD's assets, "in our view," she said.
That's my impression as well: The leak about Paramount's planned bid is an inkling of the bigger bidding war that might already be underway. Comcast, Amazon and Netflix have been named as other potential bidders for all or part of WBD. Here's my write for CNN.com...
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How will the bidding war play out? |
MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wonders if this was all part of David Ellison's plan: To take control of Paramount, form Paramount Skydance (just last month!) and then immediately make a move for all of WBD. "A core competitive advantage of this approach is that it could preempt a potential bidding war for only the Warner Bros. Streaming & Studios assets post-split," Fishman wrote last night.
"The good news for WBD and its shareholders," he added, "is that there are a number of different potential dance partners for either the whole company or its valuable pieces that could still lead to some competition for PSKY."
Ellison has some advantages, like his relationships with the Trump administration. "The odds of the deal clearing regulatory review may be higher for the Skydance team given its recent success in closing the Paramount transaction," Fishman noted.
>> Thinking ahead: A successful Paramount bid would bring together "two of the most influential news networks, CBS News and CNN," though CNN could also be a "sticking point," the NYT noted. NPR's David Folkenflik is out with a new story this morning about how CBS News under Ellison has been shifting "to appease the right."
>> Shares of WBD surged 29% yesterday to close at a three-year high, which in part reflects just how poorly the stock performed ever since Discovery and WarnerMedia were brought together in 2022. Shares in Paramount also soared more than 15% on the news. WBD shares are rising again this morning...
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Puck set to acquire Air Mail |
Lachlan Cartwright of Breaker broke this news last night: "Puck, the media company founded by Jon Kelly in 2021, has entered into an agreement to acquire Graydon Carter's Air Mail." The two startups, which share some investors, then confirmed the deal, saying "this will unite Air Mail's distinctive journalism, stable of luxury advertisers, and sophisticated commerce platforms with Puck's portfolio of venerated journalists, scale, and proven subscriber engagement model." And it will unite Carter and Kelly...
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CNN launching new West Coast newscast |
"CNN has hired veteran California political reporter and anchor Elex Michaelson to lead a new late-night newscast" from the West Coast, the LAT's Stephen Battaglio reports. "The program will air from 9 to 11 p.m. on the West Coast and midnight to 2 a.m. in the east," and will air/stream around the world during morning hours in Europe and lunchtime hours in Asia.
>> Cable news networks typically run repeats in those "overnight" hours, but CNN US – thanks to the tireless teams at
CNN International – frequently stays live past midnight ET during busy news cycles, like the one we're in right now. Michaelson's new L.A. program means live will be the norm on the US channel every weeknight. Welcome, Elex!
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A court win for journos covering protests |
"A federal judge in Los Angeles imposed sweeping restrictions barring federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security from using crowd-control weapons against journalists," WaPo's Scott Nover reports.
>> "Under the guise of protecting the public," U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera wrote, "federal agents have endangered large numbers of peaceful protesters, legal observers, and journalists — as well as the public that relies on them to hold their government accountable."
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>> The New York Times has rebuffed Trump's latest threat to sue the publication. (NYT)
>> Fox News anchor Eric Shawn shared that he has been diagnosed with cancer related to his exposure to 9/11 toxic dust while covering the terror attacks 24 years ago. (Fox)
>> Newsmax withdrew its lawsuit against Fox News filed in Florida's Southern District and … refiled it in Wisconsin, Jeremy Barr reports. (X)
>> "A Turkish holding company that owns one of the country’s last remaining independent broadcasters has been seized by the government as part of a probe into money laundering, tax evasion and organized crime," John Paul Rathbone reports. (FT)
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>> This could be big: The FTC "has launched an investigation into seven tech companies around potential harms their artificial intelligence chatbots could cause to children and teenagers," Clare Duffy reports. (CNN)
>> Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster are suing Perplexity AI, accusing it "of misusing their content in its 'answer engine' for internet searches." (Reuters)
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Entertainment notes and quotes |
>> "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle," "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale," and "The Long Walk" are opening in theaters this weekend. (Deadline)
>> Netflix and AMC "have extended and expanded their streaming pact." (THR)
>> Production on Season 2 of Amazon Prime Video's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" has "been pushed, with its future uncertain," due to cast issues. (Deadline)
>> "A day before its season three finale, Apple TV+ is officially bringing back 'Foundation' for a fourth season." (Deadline)
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