Busy morning of media news. NBC says Savannah Guthrie plans to come back to "Today." Penguin Random House says it is publishing Eric Dane's memoir. Dario Amodei says Sam Altman has given "dictator-style praise to Trump." And David Ellison just spoke about his vision for CNN for the first time. Let's get to it... |
Selling the war as 'Call of Duty' |
What steps will the White House take to sell an unpopular war in Iran to the American people?
Well, here's one answer: A social media video that literally likens the war to a video game by mixing "Call of Duty" game footage with clips of American missile strikes.
Commenters replied to the video with a mix of astonishment, amusement and disgust. Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Independent Veterans of America, called it "inappropriate, juvenile and unacceptable." Harvard professor and former NAACP president Cornell William Brooks said the people "left out of this 'video game' are the Iranian school girls blown to bits & American troops killed."
Of course, as The Washington Post's great tech reporter Drew Harwell said in a TikTok last night, "this has been a meme presidency." And sometimes the trolling is the point. The outrage is the goal.
In this case, White House comms director Steven Cheung welcomed the finger-wagging criticism: He responded to another Harwell post about the video, writing, "W's in the chat, boys!" As Harwell explained, that's "basically Twitch-speak for 'let's celebrate.'"
I used to run a video game website. I don't view gaming as a sideshow; I view it as one of the most influential types of media. And I'm struck by how gaming news sites are covering this controversy without mincing words.
The headline over at Kotaku this morning is "Trump White House Uses 'Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare' Killstreak To Celebrate Killing People In Iran." Reporter Zack Zwiezen noted that "Call of Duty" publisher Activision and parent company Microsoft have yet to weigh in on the White House's repurposing of the game.
>> When I recapped all of this on CNN International just now, anchor Becky Anderson, from her desk in Abu Dhabi, said, "We've had 1,072 drone attacks here; eight cruise missile attacks; and 196 ballistic missile attacks here. So I can tell you it's not a video game."
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Trump critics on Bluesky pointed out that Iranian propagandists have also been using video game imagery to push pro-Iran talking points.
The NYT's Tiffany Hsu, Steven Lee Myers and Stuart A. Thompson pointed this out in a new story titled "Iranian TV and Social Media Project Defiant and Distorted View of the War."
They said Iran "is waging an information war parallel to the real-world fighting, blending fact and fiction, often using unproven claims and fake videos generated using artificial intelligence." Read on...
>> For more on this, Lucy Carter and Michael Workman of Australia's ABC News wrote about how footage from the military simulation game "War Thunder" has been mistaken for real war footage.
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CENTCOM's social media fact-checks |
While we're talking about the war as seen through social media, it's worth noting that the US military is also using X and other platforms to refute claims by the Iranian military.
Earlier today, for instance, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said "rumors circulating on social media of a U.S. F-15E crash in Iran early Wednesday are baseless and NOT TRUE." The post was accompanied by a big "FACT CHECK" graphic. Yesterday, the command also posted a longer fact-check ridiculing "fake news from the Iranian regime."
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Pentagon presser this afternoon |
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's shocking claim about the press covering the deaths of service members to "make the president look bad" was called out by journalists like Jake Tapper yesterday.
The claim was "false" and "frankly historically illiterate," Tapper said: "We have covered fallen veterans under Bush and Obama and Trump and Biden, and now Trump again. And we will continue to honor troops by memorializing them and discussing their sacrifices. The only difference is that Bush and Obama and Biden didn't have secretaries of defense who would petulantly complain about our coverage of fallen warriors."
Hopefully Hegseth's comment did not foreshadow even uglier rhetoric to come, but it's easy to imagine that he will demean journalists as unpatriotic and un-American as this conflict continues.
Hegseth will be at CENTCOM HQ later today, and he'll be holding a 4:30 p.m. ET press conference with Adm. Brad Cooper. Expect another contrast in styles, a la Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine yesterday.
And if you missed it, here's my CNN.com story about what Pentagon reporters are up against right now.
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Chris Meagher, the chief Pentagon spokesman during the second half of Joe Biden's term as president, told me there should be transparency about the military's operations, while accounting for national security implications.
"Nearly $1 trillion in taxpayer money flows into the department," he said, "and decisions being made by the secretary are literally life and death decisions about putting American troops in harm's way — the public deserves to know what their military is doing, especially in times of war."
This morning's new cover of The Economist calls it a war "without a strategy:"
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CNN is the first US network in the country since the start of the war with Iran. "We just crossed the border and are now inside of Iran," senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen said in a brief video from the car.
"The Iranian government has granted us a visa to come here and to report from the Islamic Republic of Iran," Pleitgen said. He is currently en route to Tehran, though he said it will take "many, many hours" to get there.
"CNN operates in Iran only with government permission," anchor Erica Hill noted when she showed Pleitgen's dispatch.
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The Dubai influencer messaging |
Andrew Kirell writes: Scroll a few minutes on IG Reels or TikTok and you'd likely see one of many videos featuring the phrase "You live in Dubai, aren't you scared? No, because I know who protects us."
The trend features Dubai-based influencers posing in front of the city's lavish amenities before pivoting to footage of the royal family. And the comments on these posts all tend to be similar as well: lots of "safest place on earth" remarks.
In a very helpful explainer video, CNN notes that influencers in the UAE are heavily regulated by the state, mandating that they follow a long set of guidelines to post, "and when Dubai was attacked by Iran, authorities restricted content influencers were allowed to post."
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Savannah 'plans to return' to work |
Savannah Guthrie "plans to return" to her "Today" show co-host chair at some point TBD, NBC said this morning, in the network's first public comments about her future on the telecast.
The network said Savannah "stopped by the studio this morning to be with and thank her 'Today' colleagues. While she plans to return to the show on air, she remains focused right now supporting her family and working to help bring Nancy home."
"Whenever you are ready, we are here," Sheinelle Jones said at the top of the 10 a.m. hour, describing Savannah's visit and channeling what the co-hosts told her. Here's my full story...
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Ellison's first comments about CNN |
When Paramount CEO David Ellison was interviewed on CNBC just now, David Faber asked about CNN. Ellison said "editorial independence will actually be maintained. It's maintained at CBS, it'll be maintained at CNN."
Then Ellison pivoted to the "70%" audience concept that he conveyed when he took over Paramount last summer: "Who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans and really around the world that identify as center left, as center right."
"We want to be in the truth business, we want to be in the trust business, and that's not going to change," Ellison added.
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What Gayle King's contract renewal signifies |
Two things. First, editor in chief Bari Weiss is overhauling CBS News shows while also moving away from "shows" as the end-all, be-all. Here's what Weiss said about Gayle King's contract renewal: "We’re thrilled to have her on in the morning — and equally excited to work with her on new, enterprising projects that bring her talents to new audiences."
"New, enterprising projects" for "new audiences" — that's the key.
Second, Weiss is brainstorming how to reinvigorate "CBS Mornings." Soon she'll be trying out new co-hosts for King and Nate Burleson, as Status reported this week.
This morning, the show's exec producer, Shawna Thomas, told staffers that she will exit in the coming weeks. "Frankly, I'm tired y'all," she wrote, a sentiment every AM TV producer can sympathize with...
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Streaming's new pecking order... |
The Paramount-Warner deal promises to alter the streaming landscape, John Koblin writes in today's NYT: "The deal would put the combined company in the same league as Disney and Amazon. But Netflix and YouTube will still easily outrank everyone." Read on... |
More Netflix bonds in Trump's portfolio |
"As Paramount sought to pry Warner Bros. away from the streaming giant, Trump was adding more Netflix bonds to his personal portfolio," THR's Alex Weprin reports. New financial disclosures from the White House show that Trump "bought between $600,000 and $1.25 million worth of Netflix debt in January, adding to the $500,000 to $1 million in Netflix bonds that he purchased in December." The White House says Trump's portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions...
>> Netflix shares are up about 17% since it backed out of the WBD bidding war last week — a partial recovery from a months-long slide.
>> In other Netflix news, CFO Spencer Neumann "boasted that its newly minted podcasting division saw high mobile engagement in its first quarter." TheWrap has headlines from his investor conference remarks here...
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>> "Nexstar CEO Perry Sook says the company is 'highly engaged' in active discussions" with the DOJ and FCC re: its Tegna deal. (TheWrap)
>> Makena Kelly says "the Texas Senate primary was a preview of creator wars to come." (WIRED)
>> Speaking of the primary: NBC says its "Kornacki Cam" livestream "received a total of 2.4 million video starts" on Tuesday night. (People)
>> The BBC says "it is facing 'permanent and irreversible' trends that mean it cannot survive without a major overhaul, as it revealed a stark divergence between the number of people consuming its content and those paying the license fee," Michael Savage reports. (The Guardian)
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Strange bedfellows unite on AI |
"An unlikely band of prominent business, religious, government and academic leaders have set aside their political differences and signed onto a new declaration of human rights for the AI age," NBC's Jared Perlo reports.
The declaration, backed by 40-plus organizations, argues for "trustworthy and controllable AI tools" that "amplify rather than diminish human potential." Signatories on "The Pro-Human AI Declaration" range from Steve Bannon and Glenn Beck to Ralph Nader and Susan Rice. Perlo has more on the declaration here…
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'Dictator-style praise to Trump' |
That's the quote ricocheting around the AI world today. It comes from this scoop by The Information's Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo, and Sri Muppidi:
"Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Friday told employees that a deal OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman struck to provide AI to the Department of Defense was 'safety theater,' adding that the Trump Administration didn't like Anthropic in part because the company hadn't 'given dictator-style praise to Trump.'"
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More of today's tech talk |
>> Wikipedia editors "have implemented new policies and restricted a number of contributors who were paid to use AI to translate existing Wikipedia articles" after the AI translations were found to contain "hallucinations." (404 Media)
>> Grammarly is giving "feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers — without their permission," Miles Klee reports. (WIRED)
>> "Nebraska became the latest state to sue Roblox on Wednesday, alleging that the popular gaming platform exploits children and misrepresents its safety practices." (NBC News)
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Eric Dane's posthumous memoir coming in November |
This morning, Penguin Random House Group announced that it will publish a posthumous memoir by actor Eric Dane, who died last month. The book will be published by Maria Shriver's imprint, The Open Field.
"After receiving his ALS diagnosis, Eric made the deliberate decision to complete his memoir as a way to share his story in his own words," the publisher said, adding, "He was working on the manuscript right up to the end." The memoir, titled "My Book of Days," will come out in November...
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A few more Hollywood headlines |
>> Jared Harris is the latest actor pursuing legal action over an AI deepfake of his likeness. (Deadline)
>> My kids are so excited for this flick: Disney's "Hoppers" is "poised to lead in North America with $35 million to $40 million from 4,000 theaters," and "box office watchers think the animated comedy could beat expectations." (Variety)
>> ABC has renewed "Abbott Elementary" for a sixth season. (TVLine)
>> And FX's "The Bear" will "end with its upcoming fifth season." (THR)
>> HBO Max dropped the official teaser for "Lanterns," a new Green Lantern superhero series. (YouTube)
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Fallon visits Colbert tonight |
"More than a decade into its run, CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has never had Jimmy Fallon of NBC's The Tonight Show in for a proper sit-down interview. Until now," LateNighter's Matt Webb Mitovich writes. Fallon will drop by the Ed Sullivan Theater tonight for a chat with his longtime rival.
>> Fallon has not remained mum throughout the Trump era late-night rollercoaster. "I don't like what’s going on one bit," he said when Colbert was cancelled last summer...
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