Good morning. Here's the latest on Nielsen, Michael Grynbaum, "KPop Demon Hunters," Stephen Colbert, Adam O'Neal, The Information, Beyoncé, and much more... |
The written word. The printing press. The world wide web. "About half a dozen times throughout human history," Alex Aleksic writes, "we've reached inflection points that fundamentally changed the nature of our communication." And we're at another such point right now, "characterized by personally recommended, short-form video content."
In Aleksic's new book "Algospeak," out today, the Harvard-trained linguist says "all channels of communication — advertising, education, news, entertainment — are gravitating toward the medium by necessity, because that's what people have been conditioned to consume. If you want to go viral, you must make short-form video, and
that means you must mold your language to the constraints of short-form video platforms."
For example: Posting about "seggs" to get around content restriction settings for the word "sex." Or using the word "unalive" instead of suicide. Aleksic documents how algorithms are transforming language — giving rise, he says, "to entirely new accents, dialects, grammatical rules, and morphological processes."
Aleksic's @EtymologyNerd content has won him millions of followers across TikTok and other video sites. He told the NYT that each minute-long explainer takes four or five hours of prep time. "He appears to be fashioning himself as Bill Nye for Gen Z language enthusiasts," Callie Holtermann writes.
So... why write a book? (Other than the financial incentive, I mean. "Algospeak" is already high up on Amazon's best selling new releases list, thanks to Aleksic's promos to all his followers.) Books are one of the few remaining ways to transcend virality, tackle complex topics and build intellectual cred.
"I want to funnel people toward my Substack and toward my book because I feel like I can express my thoughts in more nuance," Aleksic told The Publish Press. "This again comes back to the limitations of the algorithm medium and how we have to communicate differently there."
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Today's other new nonfiction releases |
At the top of the list: Michael Grynbaum's highly-anticipated "Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America." Reviewer Hadley Freeman says Grynbaum "skillfully shows how the story of Condé Nast is a story of America rather than just media gossip. Although, rest assured, there's plenty of that too." BTW: This book-adjacent NYT quiz — "Could You Have Landed a Job at Vogue in the ’90s?" — is a lot of fun.
Also out today: "The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy" by James Patterson and Vicky Ward; "JFK: Public, Private, Secret" by J. Randy Taraborrelli; "The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief" by Tom Zeller Jr.; and "The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon" by Laurie Gwen Shapiro.
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Falling in line on Epstein |
Andrew Kirell writes: Fox News has taken President Trump's plea for his allies to stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein almost literally. The network didn't mention Epstein at all yesterday until a panel discussion in Bret Baier's 6 p.m. hour. Questions about the admin's handling of the "files" were totally absent from primetime, a stark contrast from last week.
Laura Ingraham did make one brief mention — during a snarky aside about “conservative influencers eating their own.” But she was among those fanning the flames of the MAGA revolt, including at a TPUSA event last Friday, as Mediaite noted.
>> At that same TPUSA confab, Charlie Kirk asked the audience to choose between Dan Bongino and Pam Bondi. (They chose Bongino.) Come Monday, after receiving a phone call from Trump, he backed off. "I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being," Kirk said on his podcast. "I'm going to trust my friends in the administration."
>> Other prominent MAGA media influencers, including TikToker Chaya Raichik, who received one of Bondi's Epstein binders, have also made a hard pivot away — instead posting relentlessly about Joe Biden's use of an autopen.
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Not all of MAGA media has gone silent on Epstein. Newsmax, which often jockeys with Fox for Trump's approval, mentioned the name at least 60 times yesterday — albeit mostly to defend the president or somehow blame Democrats.
A group of "Epstein dead-enders," including Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Steve Bannon aren't backing down, Will Sommer writes for The Bulwark. "Much of the debate over whether to move on from Epstein is divided along the same lines as the earlier intra-MAGA debate over whether to go to war with Iran," he explains.
>> "No issue has exposed the underlying fault lines in the MAGA tent quite like the so-called Epstein files," writes Politico's Ian Ward while looking at the various MAGA factions to emerge from this ordeal.
>> What are the real unanswered Q's about Epstein? Here's what Julie K. Brown told Jake Tapper on "The Lead."
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AI's antisemitism problem is bigger than Grok |
With Grok's antisemitic responses to queries in the news, CNN's Hadas Gold conducted experiments with xAI's Grok 4, Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro and OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o Plus to understand how the chatbots can be nudged into reflecting antisemitic, misogynistic or racist statements. Here's what she found...
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Awaiting Senate rescissions action |
"GOP senators are still hammering out prospective changes" to the "rescissions" package that could zero out federal funding for NPR and PBS, CNN's Capitol Hill team reports. Senate Appropriations Committee chair Susan Collins expressed frustration yesterday with some of the proposed cuts.
>> As you know, the Senate has to pass the bill by Friday, or otherwise the cuts won't take effect. This morning the NYT's Ben Mullin is out with a story about public media's "last-ditch fight to save funding..."
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Smallest stations face biggest dangers |
If Trump gets his way and the bill passes, "we're going to have to make very hard decisions about what we would be able to afford to do," PBS CEO Paula Kerger tells WaPo's Scott Nover. "Ironically, I think PBS would exist in some form, but it would be different. And if the goal is to take PBS out, this actually doesn't accomplish that. What it does do is it removes stations from a lot of communities. It's just heartbreaking to think about..."
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Colbert gets back to business... |
Returning to "The Late Show" after a two-week break on Monday, Stephen Colbert immediately dealt with the Paramount settlement with Trump that was struck while he was away. He likened it to a "big fat bribe." Here's the video clip... |
New WaPo Opinion editor wants optimism |
Liam Reilly writes: In the first day on the job as The Washington Post's new Opinions editor, Adam O'Neal told staffers that "advocating for free markets and personal liberties will be critical as we rebuild trust with more Americans and scale our high-quality journalism," adding, "it's also important that we communicate with optimism about this country in particular and the future in general."
>> With buyouts on the table, O'Neal offered dissatisfied Post Opinion staffers an off-ramp, saying "we want those who stick with us to be genuinely enthusiastic about the new direction and focus."
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>> "Foreign journalists in the U.S. are self-censoring to protect themselves from the Trump administration," Angela Fu reports. Some examples of protective actions: "Wiping their social media accounts, canceling travel plans and pulling bylines." (Poynter)
>> "The Daily Beast has asked a court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit" filed by Trump's former campaign manager Chris LaCivita. (Daily Beast)
>> Next week ABC News will start producing a short daily show that will be exclusive to Disney+. "What You Need to Know" will come online weekdays at 6 a.m. ET. (THR)
>> Nielsen's monthly Gauge report came out this morning. June was the first month when "over-the-air networks accounted for less than 20 percent of viewing." Streaming hit another new high. (THR)
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The Information has launched its first live video show, TITV, streaming weekdays at 1 p.m. ET. "I think this could become a very significant part of our business," co-founder Jessica Lessin told Axios. The debut episode's interview with Mark Zuckerberg was marred by technical difficulties but made news anyway.
In tech media circles, TITV is seen as a response to TBPN, the daily tech talk show that has been developed a serious fan base. (The Information profiled the show earlier this year.) TBPN starts at 2 p.m. ET, so the new competitor is seizing an earlier time slot. The co-hosts of TBPN had a very clever response on Monday: A two-minute riff about the "TBPN Derivative Works Clause in our Terms of Service."
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>> Google is upgrading NotebookLM by adding "a series of featured notebooks from various authors, publications, researchers, and nonprofit," Sarah Perez reports. The first wave of additions will include notebooks from The Economist and The Atlantic. (TechCrunch)
>> Meta has "removed about 10 million profiles for impersonating large content producers through the first half of 2025 as part of an effort by the company to combat 'spammy content,'" Zach Vallese reports. (CNBC)
>> "The European Union has begun testing age verification software which is being developed as part of a wider strategy to protect minors online across its 27 member states," Melanie Goodfellow reports. (Deadline)
>> "Another Chinese AI model is turning heads:" The Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot has released a "low-cost, open source large language model," Evelyn Cheng reports. (CNBC)
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This year's Emmy nominations will be rolled out at 11:30 a.m. ET via this live-stream. Two categories were unveiled early on "CBS Mornings." In the reality competition race, the nominees are "The Traitors," "RuPaul’s Drag Race," "The Amazing Race," "Survivor" and "Top Chef." NBC's "The Voice" missed out on a nom for the first time since 2012, per Deadline. For outstanding talk series, the nominees are "The Daily Show" "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
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>> Alli Rosenbloom reports: "Hard drives containing Beyoncé's unreleased music and several other items were stolen from a car that had been rented by her choreographer during a Cowboy Carter tour stop in Atlanta last week, according to police." (CNN)
>> Now that's not a headline you see very often: "'The Daily Show' Hits A Ten-Year Ratings High." The fine print: It's a ten-year high in terms of audience share among 18- to 49-year-olds. But still! (Deadline)
>> My son is obsessed with Netflix's "KPop Demon Hunters" movie, specifically because he learned one of the songs at camp, so this ranking caught my eye: "Golden" from the movie soundtrack has hit #1 on Billboard's global charts. (Billboard)
>> FYI if you're thinking about going to the theater today: AMC's 50% ticket discount is in effect on Tuesdays and Wednesdays now. CNN's Auzinea Bacon took a look at the promotion. (CNN)
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