Good morning! Elon Musk says he is "spending 24/7 at work" again. A press advocacy group says it will sue Paramount if the company settles with President Trump. Plus, the latest on Scott Pelley, Billie Eilish, Tim Cook, TBPN, Patti LuPone, "Lilo & Stitch," IMAX, and more... |
In Trump's first term, I would not have expected to write that ☝️ headline. In Trump's second term, it was just a matter of time.
This morning National Public Radio filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump admin, alleging that the president's order telling the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to defund NPR is a "clear violation of the Constitution."
The lawsuit says Trump's order violates both "the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment's bedrock guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association." Moreover, it "threatens the existence of a public radio system that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information."
>> Several NPR member stations from Colorado joined the national network in filing the suit today. "The differing profiles of the three stations joining... capture the appeal and reach of the broader public radio system," NPR's David Folkenflik reports.
>> PBS has also been preparing to take legal action but has not yet filed suit.
>> And you'll recall that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has filed its own lawsuit against Trump's attempt to fire three of its board members. A ruling in that case is expected soon.
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Read Scott Pelley's speech |
A week-old commencement address by Scott Pelley suddenly became partisan media fodder over the weekend. Daily Mail: "Pelley rages against Trump in furious graduation speech as critics slam 'pompous POS.'" HuffPost: "'60 Minutes reporter rips into Trump in viral commencement speech."
My advice: Read it for yourself. Here's the text of Pelley's speech to Wake Forest grads, along with one key part, alluding to Trump's lawsuit against "60 Minutes":
"Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power. First, make the truth seekers live in fear. Sue the journalists. For nothing. Then send masked agents to abduct a college student, a writer of her college paper who wrote an editorial supporting Palestinian rights, and send her to a prison in Louisiana and charge her with nothing. Then, move to destroy law firms that stand up for the rights of others.
"With that done, power can rewrite history. With grotesque, false narratives, they can make heroes criminals and criminals heroes. And they can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. 'Diversity' is now described as 'illegal.' 'Equity' is to be shunned. 'Inclusion' is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends..."
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>> Elon Musk says he is getting "back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms." (Yahoo)
>> This morning TIME is out with a new cover story about Sam Altman's iris-scanning device the Orb. "If this really works, it's like a fundamental piece of infrastructure for the world," he says. (TIME)
>> Fox's marketing campaign for the Indy 500 paid off: More than 7 million people tuned in on Sunday, "the most to watch an Indy 500 in 17 years." (The Athletic)
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Today: New books include Stephen King's novel "Never Flinch," which is already #1 on Amazon's new releases list.
Wednesday: The season finale of "Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney" on Netflix.
Thursday: The National Spelling Bee finals take place after two days of preliminary competition.
Friday: Lester Holt's final day anchoring "NBC Nightly News."
Saturday: "Mountainhead" premieres on HBO.
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Pentagon restricts press access |
Step by step, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is working to stifle independent media coverage of the US military. The most recent restrictions, on Friday night, make key parts of the Pentagon building off-limits to journalists. The Pentagon Press Association called it "direct attack on the freedom of the press and America's right to know what its military is doing."
Further restrictions are likely in the coming weeks, since the DOD's memo alluded to a forthcoming pledge to protect military secrets and tougher scrutiny of press credentialing. Here's my full story...
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Bruising headlines for Apple |
Why did Trump repeatedly take shots at Apple CEO Tim Cook during Trump's recent Middle East trip? Maybe because of this: Cook "declined" to join Trump on the trip, while numerous other CEOs attended, the NYT's Tripp Mickle reports, citing "two people familiar with the decision." Mickle says Trump's iPhone tariff threat is "deepening the company’s woes in a very bad year."
>> WSJ's front page headline today: "Bad Year for Cook Keeps Getting Worse"
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Political media notes and quotes |
>> Ron Brownstein's analysis for CNN subscribers: "As Trump aims to expand presidential authority, can anyone stop him?" (CNN)
>> Playbook helpfully recapped "Trump's weird weekend." (Politico)
>> Meg James' new story this morning: Trump, ‘60 Minutes’ and corruption allegations put Paramount on edge with sale less certain." (LAT)
>> Speaking of... The Freedom of the Press Foundation "has sent a warning letter to Paramount mogul Shari Redstone, outlining plans to file a lawsuit if the media company settles" with Trump. (Wired)
>> Lauren Egan describes the era of "the Substack election" and the implications for both media and politics. (The Bulwark)
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The Diddy trial influencers |
Right nearby the TV reporters covering the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial in lower Manhattan are "another gaggle of correspondents" — social media influencers who aim "to entertain as much as inform," the WSJ's Isabella Simonetti writes.
Simonetti interviewed some of them. Influencers "have raised thousands of dollars from fans looking to support their work," she writes. "Their dispatches from the Combs trial are often heavy on personal impressions and suspicions, and short on such traditional journalism staples as fact-checking and comments from all sides."
>> Most people don't want just-the-facts coverage, Instagammer Emilie Hagen told her: "They want new media to be more salacious." |
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Five great reads about the media biz that you may have missed over Memorial Day Weekend:
>> Ben Smith and Max Tani went "inside the identity crisis in anti-woke media." (Semafor)
>> Theater critic Naveen Kumar examined the Trump-run Kennedy Center's upcoming performance schedule. He found that theater producers "are divided about whether it will continue to be such a coveted venue." (WaPo)
>> Michael Schulman's rich profile of Patti LuPone has generated lots of followup press and online commentary. (New Yorker)
>> Nicole Sperling explained why "movie studios are putting more emphasis on the IMAX brand as it stands out as a bright spot in the theater business." (NYT)
>> Abram Brown explored why John Coogan and Jordi Hays' daily tech news talk show "TBPN" has captured Silicon Valley's attention. The show is on track to makae $5 million in revenue this year. (The Information)
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>> Trump Media & Technology Group plans to raise up to $3 billion "to spend on cryptocurrencies" as it tries to turn a profit. (FT)
>> Apple has stepped up efforts "to fight Texas legislation that would require the iPhone-maker to verify ages of device users." (WSJ)
>> Allison Johnson says Google's Veo 3 AI video generator "is a slop monger’s dream." (The Verge)
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'Jaw-dropping' success for 'Lilo & Stitch' |
Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" "blew away all expectations with a record-smashing, four-day domestic debut of $183 million, and a jaw-dropping $341.7 million globally," THR's Pamela McClintock reports. (I contributed $80 and my kids adored it.) The movie came in well, well ahead of Paramount's "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning," but that flick, too, earned "series-best" box office revenue.
>> For more, check out Anthony D'Alessandro's Deadline piece about why "Lilo" outperformed, and Brooks Barnes' NYT story about the "box office boomlet."
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The Cannes Film Festival "served up its richest edition in years," and the presentation of the Palme d'Or to persecuted Iranian director Jafar Panahi made for "the most thrilling and moving closing ceremony I can remember," The New Yorker's Justin Chang writes. He ranked all the films in competition here.
>> CNN's Thomas Page described the "Hollywood ending" for Panahi in this fantastic dispatch from France...
>> Netflix "has won out in a tug of war" for Richard Linklater's Cannes favorite "Nouvelle Vague," Deadline scooped yesterday.
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>> Later today TheWrap is announcing Roger Cheng as managing editor for business and PRO subscribers.
>> Last night Billie Eilish won big at the American Music Awards, taking home laurels in all seven categories where she was nominated. (Variety)
>> Disney has paid big for "the exclusive streaming rights to the children’s TV series CoComelon," taking it from Netflix starting in 2027, Lucas Shaw scoops. (Bloomberg)
>> Season two of "The Rehearsal" concluded "with the ultimate simulation," reviewer Lili Loofbourow says. (WaPo)
>> I was going to lead today's newsletter with an essay about the series finale of "The Handmaid's Tale." Due to breaking news I'm going to save it til tomorrow. In the meantime, this THR oral history of the show is excellent. (THR)
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