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Thursday, October 9, 2025 |
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The agreement between Israel and Hamas is the lead story everywhere. Check CNN's live updates page for the very latest. Now here's our look at the biggest media news of the day, from Megyn Kelly to Katie Porter, "Tron: Ares" to Sora 2, and more... |
Pope's call to protect journalists |
"It is a paradox that in the age of communication, news and media agencies are undergoing a period of crisis," Pope Leo XIV told an audience of global media officials yesterday. "Similarly, those who consume information are also in crisis, often mistaking the false for the true and the authentic for the artificial. Yet, no one today can say, 'I did not know.'"
No one can say they didn't know. Those words hit different on the day when President Trump announced an apparent breakthrough in Gaza, raising hopes about an end to the death and destruction.
"Every day, there are reporters who put their lives at risk to inform people about what is really happening," the Pope said. "If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine, and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them."
"Doing the work of a journalist can never be considered a crime, but it is a right that must be protected," he added. "Free access to information is a pillar that upholds the edifice of our societies, and for this reason, we are called to defend and guarantee it."
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Pentagon charges ahead with new press restrictions |
Military officials are pushing forward with new restrictions on the Pentagon press corps despite objections from news organizations and watchdog groups. The new rules "appear designed to stifle a free press" and will "further isolate reporters," the Pentagon Press Association said.
The association, which represents Pentagon beat reporters, said the rules will also "potentially expose us to prosecution for simply doing our jobs."
The association's statement also pointed out that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been misleading the public about press access norms. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell pushed back at the press objections via X, making clear that this dispute stems from frustration about leaks. Here's our full story...
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Some reporters aren't going to sign |
Pentagon beat reporters are supposed to "sign a statement acknowledging" the new restrictions by "next week," The AP's David Bauder notes.
Some reporters are not going to sign, which means they might lose access to the Pentagon complex if Hegseth's deputies follow through with their plan. A CNN PR rep confirmed to me that CNN journalists don't plan to sign it at this point. But here's the thing: Press credentials are not a prerequisite for covering military news. Access is helpful, yes, but it's not a necessity.
As the CNN rep said, the network’s "mission to report fairly and fully" on the Pentagon and the Trump administration "will continue regardless of physical access to the Pentagon."
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Trump boasts about criminalizing speech |
"We took the freedom of speech away," Trump declared yesterday as he talked about his administration's action against flag burning, "an activity that the Supreme Court has ruled is protected under the First Amendment," writes BrieAnna J. Frank, a First Amendment Reporting Fellow at USA Today.
Trump's comments came at a White House roundtable event in which the president listened to a panel of right-wing influencers — including Jack Posobiec, Andy Ngo and Nick Sortor — "share stories of violence at the hands of Antifa, an anti-fascist movement with no leadership or organization," reports CNN's Betsy Klein and Donald Judd. Trump's rhetoric "is likely to stoke ongoing concerns about a broad crackdown on civil liberties."
That rhetoric included the aforementioned boast about criminalizing speech in the form of flag burning, as well as Trump's repeated solicitation of names for AG Pam Bondi to hunt down and prosecute for "Antifa"-related offenses. At one point, he instructed Bondi to look into shutting down an anti-Trump protest in Austin, Texas, before it even happened.
In between various threats to prosecute his opponents, Trump spent much of the event attacking the media. He polled the MAGA influencers on which network is the worst (MSNBC, which he called "sick," was first, and CNN, which is "dying like a dog" was second), and refused to take CNN reporter Kristen Holmes' question.
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Political media notes and quotes |
>> Trump is going back to Walter Reed for a "routine yearly check up" tomorrow, six months after he had an annual physical there. "It's not clear why he is going back so soon," Kaitlan Collins said on air. "I hope that they disclose as much as possible," Jake Tapper added. (CNN)
>> Michael Grynbaum looked into the "odd TV moment" when Stephen Miller suddenly stopped speaking during an interview with CNN's Boris Sanchez the other day. A technical error was to blame. (NYT)
>> Speaking of Miller, Timothy Snyder says Miller uses bogus conspiracy theories to wield power much the same way Joseph Stalin did. (Thinking About)
>> Two social media accounts that are far-right favorites, "Defiant L's" and "Resist the Mainstream," are run by a Macedonian man who has "by his own admission never stepped foot in the United States," Jacqueline Sweet reports. (Rolling Stone)
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Previewing CNN's subscription plans |
If you care about the future of CNN (and I bet you do, since you're reading this newsletter!), you should check out Colby Hall's Mediaite interview with CNN CEO Mark Thompson. Hall writes that "Thompson's task is monumental: not just to stabilize CNN, but to reimagine it in a world increasingly indifferent to cable news."
That means dramatically expanding CNN's existing digital subscription product with a full-fledged streaming package in the very near future. Thompson shared some new details about how it will work:
"If you decide you want to become a subscriber to CNN, you're going to have, in the future, two choices. A basic layer, where you get CNN.com and unlimited access to that. And then a higher level, an 'All Access' level, which also gives you the ability to access a close relative of the CNN cable experience."
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'Our job is to be out of the ring' |
Thompson also talked about CNN's political identity in an illuminating way. "I don't think our job is to be in the center. I think our job is to be out of the ring," Thompson said. "It's more about being fair-minded across the political spectrum and recognizing that the best ideas may come actually from the political edges. It's not for us to say that the only good politics are from the middle. I just want to say, let's just point the camera at it and interrogate it and ask smart questions. But we're very comfortable to have a broad range of political voices on the air." Read the rest here...
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David Ellison on stage today |
Lucas Shaw will be interviewing Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison on stage at Bloomberg Screentime 2025 later today. Among the many Qs for Ellison: What is the status of Paramount's possible bid for Warner Bros. Discovery?
Yesterday, the NY Post's Charlie Gasparino reported that Ellison "is in talks with major private equity firms" about joining the bid. He said, "Potential investors weighing the WBD deal include Apollo Global Management."
>> Gasparino quoted LightShed's Rich Greenfield: "Look, the WBD deal might happen, or it might not, but David Ellison needs to raise tens of billions of cash. But one thing I don’t see any time soon is Larry Ellison selling $60 billion of his Oracle stock to buy WBD."
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Megyn gets her own SiriusXM channel |
Megyn Kelly, who launched her talk show on SiriusXM's Triumph channel in 2021, is now taking over the channel altogether. Channel 111 will be rebranded "The Megyn Kelly Channel" next month as part of Kelly's new multi-year deal with the company. It will "also feature brand-new programming, including the debut of an exclusive daily after show program," Sirius says. Variety's Brian Steinberg has more here...
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This week's battery of bad headlines about California gubernatorial hopeful Katie Porter — "Porter's viral videos plunge campaign into 'disaster,'" Politico says — all started after a clip hit social media from her contentious sit-down with Julie Watts, a CBS News California investigative reporter.
Watts sat down with all the candidates in the race over a period of weeks, and CBS produced a 30-minute video featuring their answers about redistricting — a video that she urged people to watch in full. But you know how this goes: The in-depth production has about 46,000 views on YouTube now, while the cringey clip of Porter has racked up millions of views across many sites...
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📱 How parents manage screen time |
A new Pew Research Center survey of parents with children 12 and younger finds that TVs and tablets are omnipresent at young ages, and "AI chatbots are part of the mix now, too." One of the notable findings: "YouTube use is ticking up overall – and has risen sharply for kids under 2."
>> No doubt this will be a 2028 campaign topic: "Two-thirds of parents (67%) say tech companies should do more to set rules around what kids can do or see online."
>> I'm surprised this % isn't higher: About four-in-ten parents "say they could be doing better at managing their kid’s screen time." (I am one of them.) More here...
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>> Hadas Gold reports: "Elon Musk and X have reached a settlement with a group of executives over $128 million in severance that they allege Musk had not paid since he bought what was then known as Twitter in 2022." (CNN)
>> Speaking of Musk... A federal judge has granted the NYT's request for a list of Musk's security clearances, Kyle Cheney reports. (X)
>> "Sora's first week on iOS in the US was nearly as big as ChatGPT's," Sarah Perez writes. (TechCrunch)
>> CAA says Sora 2 is a "misuse" of new tech that "exposes our clients and their intellectual property to significant risk." (THR)
>> Earlier this week "Twitch streamer Fandy took a break from streaming games... to broadcast herself giving birth." (The Verge)
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Kimmel ratings reality check |
"If you've seen headlines about Jimmy Kimmel Live! losing 'half its audience,' you might assume the late-night host's post-suspension bump has vanished. It hasn't," writes LateNighter's Jed Rosenzweig. "Kimmel was never going to hold on to the massive audience that tuned in to see what he would say upon his return. The more relevant question now is whether his show can retain some of that expanded audience. The numbers suggest it has." Here are the #'s...
>> Kimmel spoke about his suspension at Bloomberg Screentime last night... Variety and Reuters have the highlights...
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>> Warner Bros. Motion Picture chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy "have re-upped their deals with the film studio." They'll also be on stage at Screentime later today. (Deadline)
>> Disney's "Tron: Ares" is "tracking a debut of $45 million to $50 million from 4,000 North American theaters over the weekend." (Variety)
>> Now that Spotify and BMG have inked a deal, Spotify has "direct publishing agreements with the five biggest music publishers in the industry." (THR)
>> The Riyadh Comedy Festival (finally) ends today. Bill Burr is not backing down about his performance there, saying to his critics: "If you actually give a fuck about those people and how they're living over there, there's gonna have to be these types of things to pull them in." (THR)
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