Good morning — here's the latest on Bob Costas, Kristi Noem, Maggie Haberman, Miranda Devine, "GMA," The Nation, "Call Her Alex," Paramount, The Atlantic Festival, and much more... |
The ever-expanding protest |
The protest story is much bigger than Los Angeles now. It's time for the news coverage to be reframed accordingly. CNN's current homepage headline shows the balancing act: "Protests pop up nationwide as Trump doubles down on L.A."
President Trump's decision to send in the troops is elevating a protest movement that was already mobilizing against him. Search for "No Kings" on Google News and you'll see page after page of local news about anti-Trump, anti-autocracy protests that were already planned for this Saturday. Organizers say they want the marches to stand in contrast to Saturday's US Army parade — what they call a "made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday."
Now the Saturday plans are suddenly getting more attention, and more participant interest, thanks to Trump's deployment of the National Guard in California.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow devoted much of her Monday night program to the "No Kings" movement and interviewed one of the organizers. Maddow didn't tell viewers to participate because she didn't have to; the message from the most-watched progressive host in America was message was clear. Her language could not have been stronger.
"The most important story of our time is this one," Maddow said. "What is this country going to allow him to do? This is an attempted authoritarian overthrow of the US constitution and the US government. The attempted imposition of a dictatorial regime... The question is whether it will work." We will find out, she said, "in the streets and in the courts and in the states."
Maddow exuded confidence. She portrayed the president as "panicked," said that "protest works," and declared that "the movement against Trump is unstoppable, now more than ever." Frankly I woke up this morning expecting to see a Truth Social post about her monologue.
>> Mark Jacob, who writes the Stop the Presses newsletter, wrote to readers yesterday, "Let's make June 14 our day, not Trump's. Let's make it so well-attended and widespread that the news media can't ignore it." Jacob argued that "mainstream media generally underplayed the huge 'Hands Off' protests two months ago, and we need to increase the pressure on them to cover the resistance properly."
>> Some MAGA supporters are starting to warn listeners about these expanded protests. "This is scheduled to happen all over the country," panelist Hal Lambert said on CNN's "NewsNight" last night.
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Trump administration officials and MAGA media influencers are describing a version of L.A. that Angelenos don't recognize.
"Look at it out there, it looks like a third world country," attorney general Pam Bondi said on Sean Hannity's show last night. "They're not a city of immigrants, they're a city of criminals," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Hannity. An hour later, another Fox guest said the L.A. protester tactics came from the "Hamas playbook."
The "war zone" depictions could justify military action. But as most residents would tell you, the disruptions have been contained to small parts of DTLA, Paramount and Compton. The Arizona Republic's media columnist Bill Goodykoontz wrote a whole column about spending a fun weekend in L.A. and concluding that Fox's fear-stoking is "repulsive and dangerous."
But I think it's helpful to see this story through the eyes of Fox fans too: For years they've been hearing about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants; about Democrats allowing an "invasion;" about lawlessness in liberal cities. And now they're seeing street fires and pandemonium on a 24/7 loop. For Hannity viewers, the fear is primal and logical. Ridiculing that fear hasn't proven to be a particularly effective response.
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Protests as 'a cry of hope' |
Contrast that rhetoric ☝️ with David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, who spent time at yesterday's rally for then-jailed, now-released SEIU California president David Huerta. "While lingering images of burnt-out self-driving Waymo cars continue to play out on television and social media, the mood and spirit on Monday was overwhelmingly peaceful," he wrote overnight.
"These protests, which have been abbreviated in the media as 'unrest,' were actually a cry of hope, and a reminder of the human need for community, the need to turn to each other to find something to believe in."
It all depends on which pictures you're shown, right? Hyperpartisan and hyperactive social media accounts are wildly overstating the actual volume of unrest in southern California. And the powerful algorithms that power the platforms (yes, I'm thinking of X) are feeding users hours-old and even days-old imagery, contributing to a sense of nonstop crisis.
>> Speaking of those silos... A new Pew study of Democrats' and Republicans' levels of trust in 30 news sources shows "how the country’s political polarization has members of both parties in different media silos," The AP's David Bauder reports.
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Coverage notes and quotes |
>> At the BET Awards last night, just a few miles from the protest area, Doechii used her acceptance speech to say, "I want y'all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us."
>> The Los Angeles Press Club tells me it has counted at least 30 incidents of police violence against journalists in the L.A. area since Friday. There have also been several episodes of agitators vandalizing TV news trucks.
>> Yesterday more than two dozen media organizations signed a letter to Noem expressing alarm "that federal officers may have violated the First Amendment rights of journalists covering recent protests and unrest." Here's the letter.
>> The new cover of TIME, seen up top, is all about Trump's deportation program. Notably TIME "joined ICE officers on a pair of morning raids in the New Orleans area," and those raids "didn't lead to arrests."
>> L.A. Times columnist Mary McNamara follows up on our scoop yesterday: "Why on earth is Dr. Phil involved in immigration raids?" (His spokesperson says he was with Tom Homan, not out in the field, but he clearly received special access.)
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Costas blasts Trump, Redstone |
Andrew Kirell writes: "The free press is under attack," Bob Costas said last night while accepting a lifetime achievement Mirror Award. "Democracy as we know it is under attack."
The sportscaster called out ABC News for settling Trump's lawsuit against George Stephanopoulos — a "$15 million ransom," he called it — and blasted Shari Redstone for "besmirch[ing] and undercut[ting] the gold standard in our lifetime of broadcast journalism, '60 Minutes.'"
Costas also targeted Trump ("has absolutely no regard and, in fact, has contempt for basic American principles and basic common decency") and responded to fans who've told him they dislike him since he began talking politics: "You know what, if that's what you think and that's how you think and you think it in defense of that guy, I wear that as a badge of honor."
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Also in the news today... |
>> Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is heading to Capitol Hill for the first in a series of congressional hearings today. The hearings are "likely to be a major test of his leadership," CNN's team writes.
>> Maggie Haberman's "Confidence Man" is coming out in paperback today. VF's Natalie Korach is out with an excellent new Q&A with Haberman.
>> "GMA" is biding farewell to its famous Times Square studio this week as it prepares to move downtown.
>> The Nation is publishing its 160th anniversary double issue, featuring a cover package about "These Dis-United States," with 50 leading writers and artists reflecting on their own state and the state of our union.
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Terry Moran hasn't commented on the fallout from his middle-of-the-night X post savaging Trump and Stephen Miller. And ABC hasn't said how long his suspension will stay in effect. Meantime "ABC News staffers are 'pissed' at Terry Moran and some are calling for his head," the NY Post's Alexandra Steigrad writes. She quotes an ABC insider saying, "Everything that Trump has said about the media — that they are haters and they are biased — Moran proved it true."
>> View from the right: The Federalist says Moran "should be fired, not suspended."
>> View from the left: LOLGOP says Moran "spoke the truth about power" so Trump's "Thought Police will make sure his life is never the same."
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Trump's next podcast interview |
The New York Post's Miranda Devine is launching a podcast called "Pod Force One," and her first guest is the president. The Post says the pod will launch on Wednesday. It's unclear whether the POTUS interview has already been taped... |
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Even more layoffs at Paramount |
Will there be anyone left for Skydance's team to work with? Seriously. Paramount is cutting another 3.5% of its US staff as the company "continues to wait for FCC approval of Skydance Media’s deal to acquire it," THR's George Georg Szalai reports this morning. Here's the memo.
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Atlantic Festival's first speakers |
This morning The Atlantic is revealing some of the participants at this year's Atlantic Festival, which is coming to New York for the first time. Among the names: H. R. McMaster, Jennifer Doudna, Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, Annette Gordon-Reed, Mark Cuban, Monica Lewinsky, Tekedra Mawakana, W. Kamau Bell, Arvind Krishna, Ayad Akhtar and Clara Wu Tsai, "with many additional speakers still to be announced."
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The WSJ's Joe Flint, who's always ready with a quip, had this to say about Warner Bros. Discovery's plan to split itself into two: "The next time I break up with someone I think I'll tell them it's to unlock value of both our assets."
THR's Tony Maglio had a clever headline too: "David Zaslav Finally Cuts the Cord." Investors (at least the day-trading type) expressed some skepticism about the plan; WBD shares closed down 3% yesterday. We'll see what today. Meantime, CNN founder Ted Turner told us in a statement that he wishes the network all the best "as they navigate this new chapter."
>> This morning WBD said HBO Max will launch in 12 more countries in July.
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>> Elon Musk is "back to praising the administration," Hadas Gold reports. (CNN)
>> "The years-long saga over the fate of Hulu is officially resolved." (THR)
>> "The BBC and the Foreign Office are on a collision course over the World Service." (FT)
> At WWDC yesterday Apple showed "how it plans to incorporate artificial intelligence across all its major products, from translating phone calls to giving the Mac a smarter search bar and more." (CNN)
>> Senate Democrats are urging Meta "to investigate and limit the 'blatant deception' of Meta’s chatbots that lie about being licensed therapists." (404 Media)
>> The ad forecasters at WPP Media say "global trade disruptions and economic deglobalization have led it to cut ad revenue growth expectations for 2025 to 6%, excluding U.S. political spending, from its December prediction of 7.7%." (WSJ)
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Judge dismisses Baldoni suit against NYT |
"A judge on Monday dismissed Justin Baldoni's $400 million defamation lawsuit against Hollywood power couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds" and granted a motion to dismiss by the NYT. The Times said "we are grateful to the court for seeing the lawsuit for what it was: a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting." Elizabeth Wagmeister, Sandra Gonzalez, and Lisa Respers France have more here.
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Entertainment odds and ends |
>> The two-part Alex Cooper documentary "Call Her Alex" is premiering on Hulu today. (Vulture)
>> The Tony Awards averaged 4.8 million viewers, "a substantial uptick in viewership from last year." (TheWrap)
>> Roku "is experimenting with a new homepage that aims to make it easier to jump into your favorite apps and discover new things to watch," Emma Roth reports. (The Verge)
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