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Wednesday, February 11, 2026 |
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Happy Wednesday. Here's the latest on Rupert Murdoch, Don Lemon, Craig Melvin, Bad Bunny, Spotify, BBC World, Casey Wasserman, and many more... |
"I would like to hear from every single free speech warrior now," Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said last night.
Schatz's shot at conservatives who claim to champion freedom of speech came after NBC broke the news that "the Trump administration tried and failed Tuesday to indict Democratic lawmakers over a video urging members of the military and intelligence communities not to comply with unlawful orders." The New York Times, CNN and other outlets quickly matched the story.
The attempt to indict, in and of itself, warrants banner headlines. The grand jury's declining warrants a second set of headlines.
"While the indictment was rejected by the grand jury, it is also an extraordinary escalation of the Justice Department's willingness to prosecute who speak about against President Donald Trump and his administration’s actions," CNN's team wrote.
"This is really nutty stuff," Schatz wrote on X. "They are trying to imprison Senators because they don’t like the content of their speech."
One of the six lawmakers, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, said the grand jury's rejection of the government's case was "good news for the Constitution and the free speech protections it guarantees."
Another of the six, Sen. Mark Kelly, said, "Trump wants every American to be too scared to speak out against him. The most patriotic thing any of us can do is not back down."
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Op-ed deportation case update |
While on the topic of free speech... Earlier this week, "an immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk," CNN's Danya Gainor reports.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which is supporting Öztürk, said she was "facing deportation because of an op-ed in the student newspaper."
Freedom of the Press Foundation chief of advocacy Seth Stern said Öztürk's case was "arguably the most blatant press freedom violation of this century, and maybe the last century as well."
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Don Lemon's noteworthy new lawyer |
Ahead of his arraignment date this Friday, Don Lemon has added a particularly notable former Minnesota federal prosecutor to his legal team.
And the backstory speaks volumes: "Joseph H. Thompson's hiring pits him against the very US Attorney's Office he effectively ran until mid-January," CNN's Whitney Wild explains here. Thompson resigned over the handling of the federal probe into Renée Good's death.
>> Related, from the NYT's Ernesto Londoño: "The aggressiveness with which the Justice Department has pursued the church protest case has unsettled career prosecutors, according to several people familiar with events at the U.S. attorney's office in recent days."
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Will this video make the difference? |
Try to imagine what Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have been through in the past 24 hours. First, the FBI revealed that Google technicians had recovered imagery from Nancy's front door camera. The videos and screen grabs generated a torrent of new tips. Then, after dark, FBI director Kash Patel said the bureau is investigating "persons of interest," and one man was detained near the border.
The possible breakthrough triggered special reports on all the major networks – meaning NBC broke into prime time Olympics coverage – and drove hours of cable news coverage. But the man was released after questioning, and told the press overnight that he was shocked to be connected to the case. "I hope they get the suspect," he said, "because I'm not it."
Now, attention turns back to the Nest camera videos and screen grabs. "Let's go internet, do what you do," Craig Melvin said on "Today" this morning.
The recovery of the imagery is nothing short of miraculous. CNN's Hadas Gold and I have more on the Google angle here...
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Juggling sympathy and objectivity |
Right now, the "Today" show "must juggle sympathy with objectivity," Variety's Brian Steinberg writes. Savannah "is well known in media circles, which means top journalists are offering coverage of an acquaintance or a teammate — typically something they hope to avoid." In this case it's unavoidable, and best to simply be transparent about the situation...
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Parsing those Super Bowl #s 🏈 |
The ratings scorecard for Sunday's Super Bowl has something for everyone, argument-wise. The Seahawks-Patriots showdown averaged 125 million viewers across all four quarters, making it the most-watched program in the 100-year history of NBC, and the second-most-watched Super Bowl ever, after last year's telecast on Fox.
Bad Bunny's halftime show averaged 128 million viewers across TV and streaming platforms. That's huge. But the second quarter immediately beforehand had an even bigger audience, so the people who cheered TPUSA's alternative halftime stream will likely claim victory, having potentially drawn some viewers away from the NBC telecast.
>> Ratings sagged toward the end of the game, given the Seahawks' lopsided victory. Here's my full story.
>> BTW, House Republicans are getting several news cycles' worth of attention out of the Bad Bunny set, as some members are urging the FCC to punish NBC for airing "pornographic filth."
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'Activist investor pushes Warner to spurn Netflix' |
That's the headline in today's WSJ. "Activist investor Ancora Holdings has built a roughly $200 million stake in Warner Bros. Discovery and is planning to oppose Warner's deal" with Netflix, Lauren Thomas reports.
>> Ancora released its pro-Paramount-bid presentation this morning. This is obviously helpful news for Paramount, but Ancora's stake in WBD is small...
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Mr. Murdoch goes to Washington... |
Rupert Murdoch dined with the president last night at the White House, as Kaitlan Collins and I first reported. That meal, of course, came while Trump is still suing Murdoch's WSJ over its reporting on a suggestive birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump's name.
>> Breaker's Lachlan Cartwright added lots of details last night, reporting that Murdoch and Trump were joined by New York Post editor-in-chief Keith Poole and columnist Miranda Devine, plus Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio and other cabinet members.
>> Earlier in the day, Murdoch was spotted on Capitol Hill heading into Senate Majority Leader John Thune's office.
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Takeaways from Cruz's media ownership hearing |
Deadline's Ted Johnson has five takeaways from yesterday's Senate hearing about media ownership rules. At one point during the hearing, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy asserted that FCC chair Brendan Carr has inadequately advised the president. He predicted big cuts at local stations, saying, "If you're a journalist working for Nexstar, you should begin posting your resume." Johnson has some of the pushback here...
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>> A GoFundMe set up for laid-off Washington Post journalists has raised over $533,000 in one week. (GoFundMe)
>> Fox News "declined to air a new national TV advertisement from the Jewish Democratic Council of America" criticizing ICE and the Trump administration. CNN and MS NOW have been airing the spot. (Mediaite)
>> "The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks with no future deal with the government currently in place, the corporation’s director general, Tim Davie, has warned." (The Guardian)
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Pew study: Voting matters. But news? Meh. |
A new study from the Pew-Knight Initiative shows that "most people believe Americans have a civic responsibility to be informed when they vote," but that "far fewer say regularly following news is extremely or very important in general." The study also shows that Americans have changed their news habits, with two-thirds reporting "they have stopped getting news from a specific source" and six-in-ten saying "they have reduced their overall news intake." You can read the full study here...
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Meta and YouTube are 'digital casinos,' lawyer claims |
CNN's Clare Duffy and Samantha Delouya recapped the first two days of arguments in the landmark social media addiction trial here. Plaintiff's attorney Mark Lanier branded apps like YouTube and Instagram "digital casinos" in his opening statement. His argument is that the companies created addictive platforms that caused his 20-year-old client "to develop anxiety, body dysmorphia and suicidal thoughts." Lawyers for the tech firms will argue "that a difficult family life, not social media, was responsible for her mental health challenges." More here...
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>> Meta, TikTok and Snap "have agreed to undergo independent assessments of how effectively they protect the mental health of teenage users, submitting to a battery of tests announced Tuesday by a coalition of advocacy organizations." (WaPo)
>> Google has expanded a set of tools "to let users remove sensitive data about themselves from Search." (TechCrunch)
>> India has tightened rules "governing social media content and their platforms, especially for artificially generated and manipulated material." (Bloomberg)
>> Spotify's stock had its "best day since 2019" after the company reported "strong user growth in the fourth quarter of 2025." (CNBC)
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The Wasserman fallout widens |
Casey Wasserman "has dropped out of Telemundo's Playmakers event scheduled for this week in Los Angeles amid the growing fallout over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell," TheWrap's Josh Dickey reports.
>> Billboard has a running list of artists speaking out about Wasserman. So far, it's been mostly indie musicians. The question remains whether any of their superstar acts (think Ed Sheeran, Lorde, etc.) will follow Chappell Roan out the door...
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Entertainment notes and quotes |
>> "Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are set to return... for the next installment in 'The Mummy' franchise for Universal Pictures," due out May 19, 2028. They last starred together in 2001's "The Mummy Returns." (TheWrap)
>> "The first episode of Tracy Morgan's new sitcom, 'The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,' will get a special encore showing" after "SNL" on Feb. 28. (LateNighter)
>> "The Broadway production of 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' is being filmed this week" with "the intent of releasing it in the future." (THR)
>> "Warner Bros. Pictures is reuniting frequent collaborators Mike Flanagan and Stephen King on a new adaptation of 'The Mist.'" (Deadline)
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