Good morning. check cnn.com for the very latest on the Israel-Iran conflict. President Trump told reporters on Air Force One this morning that the next 48 hours will be revealing. Now for our whip around the media world... |
Nielsen says streaming has "reached a historic milestone." According to the company's monthly report about different TV viewing modes, called The Gauge, streaming's share of all TV usage outpaced the combined share of broadcast and cable "for the first time ever" during the month of May.
We all feel it happening, of course, and the data backs up the vibes. But The Gauge report also reflects how different viewing modes are blurring. If I watch a brand new episode of Fox's "Family Guy" via the YouTube TV app, Nielsen counts that as broadcast viewing. If I watch a rerun of the same show on TBS via Hulu Live, it counts as cable viewing. If I watch an on-demand episode via Hulu, it counts as streaming. But each instance feels like streaming, and my relationship is with the show, not the platform.
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Social media overtakes TV |
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism's 2025 Digital News Report is full of valuable info about news consumption around the world.
The big, bleak picture: At a time of economic uncertainty, tech disruptions and shifting geo-political alliances, "evidence-based and analytical journalism should be thriving," but instead traditional media is "struggling to connect with much of the public, with declining engagement, low trust, and stagnating digital subscriptions."
Read Nic Newman's exec summary here. He says the data supports "a sense that traditional journalism media in the US are being eclipsed by a shift towards online personalities and creators."
One of the survey questions is about which types of news sources people have accessed in the last week. "The proportion accessing news via social media and video networks in the US (54%) is sharply up — overtaking both TV news (50%) and news websites/apps (48%) for the first time," Newman writes. But, of course, much of what people consume on social media originates from legacy media.
Angela Fu digested the data for Poynter here, and NiemanLab's team sorted through the findings here.
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It's all about the relationships |
Whether we're talking about streaming entertainment platforms or social media news sources, the dynamics are really all about relationships.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher hit the nail on the head in a recent sit-down with CNN's Max Foster. "We're seeing a real rise in people's trust in media influencers, news influencers," Maher said. While those influencers are often relying on reporting from established media outlets, "I don't know that that's necessarily a bad thing. I think
what it teaches us is that people want a relationship, not with an institution, but with an individual."
"We have a historic belief in media that the brand name of our organization is enough to convey trust, confidence, integrity, but people right now are really looking for relationships with the reporter," she added. "They want to understand why someone is saying what they're saying. That is as meaningful now as the brand of the organization itself." The news outlets that enable and empower those individual relationships will win.
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Trump hits 'kooky' Tucker Carlson |
MAGA media commentators Mark Levin and Tucker Carlson have been at each other's throats for weeks. While the name-calling is petty, the back-and-forth has serious foreign policy stakes. Levin wants regime change in Iran; Carlson wants the US to stay out of it. The clash is exposing a "deep foreign policy divide within Trump's MAGA circle."
There are some signs that, rhetorically, Trump is siding with Levin. Two weeks ago, Trump and Levin dined at the White House. Yesterday, when a reporter asked Trump about Carlson's comment that the president was "complicit" in Israel’s strikes on Iran, Trump said "let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen." (This was both a reflection of Trump's old-school TV habits and Carlson's post-cable habitat.) Trump followed up on Truth Social and said "somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that 'IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!'"
Levin is back at it this morning, accusing Carlson of being "far worse than a NeverTrumper." But some MAGA A-listers are siding with Carlson: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tore into Fox News and the New York Post for allegedly pushing pro-war "propaganda." Carlson made a similarly brash accusation against his former employer, telling Steve Bannon that Fox is "doing what they always do — turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and trying to knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to a new war."
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>> Truth be damned, "far-right conspiracy theories about the Minnesota shooting" had been evolving "to protect MAGA," as David Gilbert shows here. (WIRED)
>> How did one specific lie about Social Security fraud harden into fact on the right? This NYT story documents "how DOGE invented and spread" the damaging claim. (NYT)
>> KFILE reviewed some Jeanine Pirro's past WABC radio episodes and found lots of "extreme and conspiratorial rhetoric," including some that relates to the US attorney's office she now runs. (CNN)
>> This powerful essay by Joon Lee laments just how expensive it's become to be a sports fan, due in part to the streaming wars. I saw one sports media exec call it the most important piece written about the sports biz so far this year. (NYT)
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ICE 'moves to deport' Salvadoran journalist |
Last month the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a terrific profile of Spanish-language reporter Mario Guevara, who "has made it his journalistic calling card to provide live, first-hand documentation of immigration arrests and their emotional aftermath." Now the paper is out with a followup: "ICE moves to deport Atlanta-based Hispanic reporter who covered immigration raids."
Guevara was live-streaming when he was arrested during a "No Kings" protest on Saturday. CNN's Marlon Sorto confirmed that federal authorities have requested an immigration detainer, so Guevara remains in custody this morning...
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Lindell loses (but wins?) |
Yes, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell defamed former Dominion exec Eric Coomer, a Colorado jury ruled yesterday. The pro-Trump election lies of 2020 were reaffirmed to be lies. And Coomer has lots of other lawsuits pending.
But as KUSA's Kyle Clark reported from outside the courthouse, "Lindell lost — and he's thrilled. Because while the MyPillow founder was ordered to pay $2.3 million... Lindell avoided a monster judgment, something thirty times larger, what his opponents had requested." Plus, "his beloved company was sparred any financial judgment." Clark's kicker: "Despite being found liable for defamation, Lindell told me... he will keep saying the same things."
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Moran cites truth as defense |
Terry Moran doesn't regret his "way hot" X post that cost him his job. He talked with the NYT and dismissed speculation that he might have been under the influence when he tore into Trump and Stephen Miller. "It was not a drunk tweet," he said. It was, instead, his sober and considered observation abouht Trump and Miller's "venom" and their corrosive impacts on the public discourse. In a live stream with The Bulwark's Tim Miller, Moran said, "I wrote it because I thought it was true."
As for ABC's decision to drop him, Moran said "I became bad business, it feels like." But he is might be good business for Substack, where thousands have already become paid subscribers to his publication. Moran surpassed 100,000 subs total overnight. (Which brings us back to the point up top about relationships.)
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L.A. lawsuit over press treatment |
"The Los Angeles Press Club has filed suit against the city of Los Angeles and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell in the Central District of California's federal courts over its actions toward journalists covering anti-ICE protests in recent days," NPR's David Folkenflik reports.
>> Folkenflik also interviewed a veteran photographer Michael Nigro, who was hit by a non-lethal bullet last week and thought "it felt very very intentional." Read on...
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Today's new nonfiction releases |
Helen Lewis chose an ingenious topic for a book. "The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea" is out today, and having devoured an early copy, I highly recommend it.
Also new in stores today: "Toni at Random," a book about Toni Morrison's "legendary editorship," by Dana A. Williams; "Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet" by Kate Marvel; "Behind the Badge," a new Fox News Books release by Johnny Joey Jones; and "The Möbius Book" by Catherine Lacey, which is "both an elliptical novella and a seething memoir."
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>> "Warner Bros. Discovery said creditors have lent their support to a debt deal that allows the company to separate into two public businesses." (WSJ)
>> Speaking of WBD, CEO David Zaslav's "pay package is about to change — and at least partly due to popular demand." (THR)
>> "The Detroit News will begin operating independently at year's end following the conclusion of its 36-year partnership with the Detroit Free Press." (Detroit News)
>> RIP: "William Langewiesche, a magazine writer and author who forged complex narratives with precision-tooled prose that shed fresh light on national security, the occupation of Iraq and, especially, aviation disasters — he was a professional pilot — died on Sunday in East Lyme, Conn. He was 70." (NYT)
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>> A scoop on Page One of today's Journal: "OpenAI, Microsoft tensions are reaching a boiling point" (WSJ)
>> Meta and Oakley are teasing "a smart glasses announcement for June 20." (Engadget)
>> CNN's Lisa Eadicicco recently explained the "renewed buzz around smart glasses" here. (CNN)
>> Instagram users are complaining about "a significant increase in accounts being mistakenly banned or suspended," Sarah Perez reports. "Many suspect, without direct evidence, that the issues may have to do with the use of AI automation." (TechCrunch)
>> Threads is "launching a new tool meant to encourage users to discuss TV shows and films on the platform... without fear of spoiling them." (THR)
>> Bill Wasik is out with a smart piece that questions how AI will "change the stories we tell about the past." (NYT)
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>> DirecTV is adding a premium channel called Lionsgate Collection to "draw upon the studio's 20,000-plus title film and TV library." (Deadline)
>> The Supreme Court has declined to hear a copyright suit against pop star Ed Sheeran. (CNN)
>> Sabrina Carpenter's "Manchild" has debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 while Mariah Carey has landed "her landmark 50th career hit" on the list, "as her new single, 'Type Dangerous,' debuts at #95." (Billboard)
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