Happy Sunday. I'm back from a spring break trip to London and catching up on all the media news I missed. Here is a not-quite-exhaustive look back, featuring the BBC, Anna Wintour, Tucker Carlson, The Athletic, Brendan Carr, ProPublica, Sam Altman, plus my favorite tabloid cover from the UK... |
President Trump called into his friend Maria Bartiromo's Fox News show this morning to renew his threats against Iran and preview US plans to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Trump used a playing cards metaphor repeatedly, saying of Iran, "they have no cards," and predicting that the country would return to the negotiating table. "I could take out Iran in one day," Trump said.
About the "no deal" moment last night: It was a "real split screen," The Bulwark's Sam Stein wrote, as VP JD Vance "announces there is no deal with Iran after a full day of talks while Trump is watching a UFC match in Miami."
Marco Rubio was there ringside with Trump. Reporters at the fight scrutinized their conversation (and Trump's interaction with Joe Rogan) for bits of news.
But the bottom line, this month just like last month, is that public opinion against the war is not budging. Most Americans still believe the conflict is not going well for the US. A new CBS News poll, out this morning, has 59% saying it's going very badly or somewhat badly.
In describing their feelings about the conflict, "Americans pick worry, stress and anger far more than feeling safe or confident," CBS polling boss Anthony Salvanto reports.
Two in three Americans say the Trump administration has not clearly explained US goals. And a strong majority object to Trump's "a whole civilization will die tonight" post from April 7.
Trump defended that post to Bartiromo, saying "that statement got them to the bargaining table and they haven't left it." Bartiromo said she'll be interviewing POTUS again, this time on camera at the White House, on Wednesday. But Trump's chats with his Fox friends aren't going to move overall public opinion...
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Media messages from the war zone |
>> Kidnapped American journalist Shelly Kittleson was released by a pro-Iran militia in Iraq. Her friends are encouraging donations to her GoFundMe page.
>> The BBC's Matt Murphy wrote about Planet Labs restricting access to images of the Middle East "following US pressure" and how the decision "has limited how journalists, humanitarian groups and analysts can use satellite images to assess the impact of the US-Israel war with Iran."
>> NPR's Geoff Brumfiel filed this excellent big-picture look at "how governments have tried to hide information about the Iran war online."
>> The NYT's Stuart A. Thompson, Steven Lee Myers and Tiffany Hsu went inside "how Iran's information war machine operates online."
>> WIRED's David Gilbert examined the "pro-Iran meme machine," Explosive Media, that has produced "a dozen viral videos mocking Trump and the US."
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Trump's MAGA pitbulls turn on him |
CNN's Steve Contorno called this "the week that supercharged MAGA media feuds over the Iran war." This was some truly incredible stuff: "Tucker Carlson encouraged US officials to resist Trump's orders if it stopped nuclear war, Megyn Kelly effectively accused Trump of gaslighting Americans to 'save face' for an unpopular conflict and Candace Owens has called for Trump to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment."
It was revealing about Trump's old-school media mentality that he hit back by saying they "aren't even invited on TV because nobody cares about them." And yet he still posted a 482-word rebuttal about the "NUT JOBS."
>> On Friday, The Dispatch’s David Drucker pointed out on "Morning Joe" that the president "brought figures like this along with him" and "accommodated their sometimes very outlandish, wacky views." But "when they turn on him, now they’re idiots who are not welcome in the party," Drucker said...
>> CNN's Harry Enten, citing a new UMass-Lowell/YouGov poll, showed that Carlson "has been in absolute free fall among the GOP."
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Corroborating claims of wrongdoing by Eric Swalwell |
Rumors about misbehavior by Eric Swalwell have made the rounds for quite some time. And those rumors were recently "broadcast by a group of progressive social media influencers," as CNN noted here.
But the matter necessitated real, rigorous reporting. Friday's stories by CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle – detailing many allegations of sexual misconduct, which Swalwell denied – showcased the big differences between internet whispers and investigative reports.
For instance: "CNN found corroboration for key elements of each of the women's claims, including the former staffer who said she was sexually assaulted." Read Allison Gordon, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan and Pamela Brown's full report here...
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'Preemptive strike' by Melania? |
I was out to dinner in London Thursday night when a BBC producer called to ask if I'd come on air for the breaking news coverage about Melania Trump. I thought, what breaking news? And then I saw the push alerts about her surprise statement about Jeffrey Epstein.
Four days later, it still doesn't make total sense. But sources told CNN that the decision to speak was "driven by her monthslong fixation on press coverage and internet speculation about her ties to Epstein."
But was it effective to generate so much more coverage? "The first lady has put the Barbra Streisand effect in overdrive with a PR nightmare of her own making," Arwa Mahdawi wrote for The Guardian. It was a "preemptive strike, as they would say in the military," Ezekiel Emanuel told Bill Maher Friday night...
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Judge rebukes Pentagon for restricting press, again |
"The curtailment of First Amendment rights is dangerous at any time, and even more so in a time of war," US District Judge Paul Friedman wrote Thursday. "Suppression of political speech is the mark of an autocracy, not a democracy — as the Framers recognized when they drafted the First Amendment."
With those words, Friedman rejected Pete Hegseth's latest attempt to push journalists out of the Pentagon. CNN's Devan Cole recapped the ruling here. The next day, Hegseth's team asked to "keep in place a policy requiring escorts for journalists in the building while it appeals" the overall decision, as the NYT's Erik Wemple reported in this followup...
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'FCC's Brendan Carr goes after CNN' |
Strange headline, right? The FCC has no jurisdiction over cable properties like CNN. Nevertheless, Brendan Carr accused the network of "outrageous conduct" for reporting on an Iranian statement about the war. "Time for change at CNN," he wrote on X.
Brent Skorup of the Cato Institute wrote in response, "Though CNN's current parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, owns no broadcast television stations, there is a pending acquisition bid for WBD by Paramount Skydance, and Paramount does own CBS and some CBS television stations, all of which require FCC licenses. It is likely that the prospect of this regulatory hook will catch the attention of media executives."
And that, Skorup wrote, is precisely the problem: "The FCC shouldn't have the power to threaten CNN." Here's his full column proposing a remedy...
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Trump admin ups pressure on NFL |
Carr has also been critical about the NFL moving some games from free broadcast platforms to paid streamers. Now, per sources, the Justice Department is probing whether the league "is forcing viewers to pay too much in subscription fees," as CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz, Liam Reilly, and Jill Martin reported here.
"Beyond football, a DOJ probe that upends how the NFL and streamers do business could bleed into other sports, changing how exclusive streaming and bundling work in the US," they wrote...
>> Awful Announcing's Matt Yoder commented: "Given how active the Trump administration has been in protecting political friends and prosecuting political foes, it is quite the coincidence that the move to protect broadcast television comes with the Ellison and Murdoch family standing with the most to lose at CBS and Fox respectively. Both families are two of Donald Trump's most prominent billionaire supporters."
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The Athletic investigates star NFL reporter |
The New York Times "has sidelined top NFL reporter Dianna Russini after Page Six published photographs that showed her holding hands with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel," the NY Post's Oli Coleman wrote Friday.
The photos are the talk of the sports media world. The NYT published its own story on the matter Saturday, saying her relationship "and her coverage are being reviewed and she will not be reporting while the investigation is underway..."
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Here are a few other announcements and scoops from the past week that we'll surely be hearing more about:
>> Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan announced that their book "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" will come out on June 23. Mike Allen called it "the Trump book that even Trump is waiting for." (Axios)
>> Matt Belloni revealed that Disney "has hired pitbull anti-media litigator Charles Harder" to push back on Robbie Whelan's forthcoming book about Bob Iger. (Puck)
>> The Associated Press offered buyouts to some US-based journalists "as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s," The AP's own David Bauder reported. (AP)
>> "CNN boss Mark Thompson elevated Alex MacCallum to COO — quietly signaling his preferred succession plan at the network." (Status)
>> Astead Herndon introduced his new weekly show for Vox, called "America, Actually," which will explore what US politics might look like when Trump "is no longer at the center of it." (Vox)
>> CBS said it would rent Stephen Colbert's time slot to "Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen" for a year, even as sources told Lesley Goldberg that "the network remains committed to figuring out a lower-cost alternative for Colbert's 11:35 p.m. slot." (The Ankler)
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>> In the "first major labor action" at ProPublica, journalists "walked off the job on Wednesday, for 24 hours, after more than two years of negotiations that failed to yield a deal for a union contract," Katie Robertson wrote. (NYT)
>> "An unexpected issue" at the heart of the dispute is "how much of ProPublica's work can be off-loaded to artificial intelligence," Liam Scott explained. (WaPo)
>> "Savannah Guthrie's first week back could’ve been a media circus. But the 'Today' anchor was a paradigm of grace and resolve as she returned to the news desk," Patrick Ryan wrote. (USA Today)
>> Reuniting with Guthrie, Hoda Kotb will fill in for Craig Melvin this week. (People)
>> "For the first time in three years, YouTube is hiking the subscription prices for its YouTube Premium plans," Alex Weprin wrote. (THR)
>> Amazon passed the "Masters test" when it debuted coverage on Thursday, David Rumsey noted. CBS is airing the final round this afternoon. 👀 (FOS)
>> Paramount president Jeff Shell resigned, and a filing showed he will "receive $5 million in severance payments plus several million dollars in stock." (Variety)
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Sam Altman responds to 'incendiary' profile |
"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman published a blog post on Friday evening responding to both an apparent attack on his home and an in-depth New Yorker profile raising questions about his trustworthiness," TechCrunch's Anthony Ha wrote.
Altman called the article "incendiary." Decide for yourself, and also make sure you read Altman's blog post. He says "the fear and anxiety about AI is justified; we are in the process of witnessing the largest change to society in a long time, and perhaps ever..."
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Musk's $72 million voter file? |
Marshall Cohen reports: Elon Musk and America PAC, his political group, have amassed a voter database that's potentially worth a whopping $72 million, according to an expert who analyzed the super PAC as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit.
It's normal for super PACs to build files with valuable targeting information on individual voters. The size and value of Musk's dataset is notable, considering he was the single largest political donor in 2024 and is playing an active role in the 2026 midterms.
The $72 million estimate came from a Democratic campaign pro and was submitted as a sworn declaration as part of a lawsuit stemming from Musk's $1 million giveaways to voters in 2024. Musk's lawyers said last week that the judge "should disregard the declaration," and they’re trying to get it removed from the court record.
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I found it surprisingly hard to find print newspapers in central London! But here's some of what I read in the tabloids:
>> "Wireless Festival is cancelled as Kanye West is blocked from traveling to UK for headline slot because his presence in country 'is not conducive to public good.'" (Daily Mail)
>> BAFTA "apologized 'unreservedly' to the Black and disabled communities over the N-word debacle" at last month's BAFTA Film Awards. A review found "a number of structural weaknesses" in "planning, escalation procedures and crisis coordination arrangements." (Deadline)
>> Anna Wintour's Vogue cover appearance with Meryl Streep "may be to promote The Devil Wears Prada sequel, but it also marks a shift from elusive editor to carefully curated personal brand." (The Guardian)
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Saving the best for last... |
Artemis II was a perfect mission and a perfect splashdown. (Now I hope we can see all the 4K video from the spacecraft ASAP!) I brought home this cover of the UK's Metro tabloid because it told the story so poignantly:
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Alright, that's it for today, Reliable Sources will be back Monday at our regular time. This edition was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.
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