Good morning! Here's the latest on Mike Lindell, "White With Fear," PBS, "GMA," Evan Osnos, Awful Announcing, Versant, Dua Lipa, Paramount, and more... |
"Coming up next," Abby Phillip said, "a thing I really never thought I'd have to say on television. Joe Biden is not a robot clone, and yet the current president is pushing that online."
On last night's "NewsNight," Phillip pointed out that "for two months, all the attention's been on the mental acuity of the previous president. And while the scrutiny is justified, what about the current president? After all, he's pushing a batshit conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with a clone robot."
Bill Kristol reacted by saying "Trump doesn't believe it," but he knows many of his supporters "love conspiracy theories," and "the conspiracists are a big part of the Trump administration." In other words, Trump was appealing to his conspiracy coalition — a group that is both entertained and motivated by his theories.
As the AP's Ali Swenson wrote the other day, "now that Trump is in power and has stocked loyalists throughout his administration, his supporters expect all to be revealed. Delivering on that is difficult when many of the conspiracies he alleged aren't real, said Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist who studies conspiracy theories at the University of Miami."
>> While Fox laughed off Trump's bonkers "clone" post, some media critics said it should be taken seriously. It is evidence of "Trump's disordered mental state," Stephen Robinson wrote over at Public Notice this morning. Salon's Alex Galbraith smartly pointed out that the clone post had QAnon fingerprints.
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One of the main men in Trump's conspiracy coalition, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, is now on trial for his lies about the 2020 election. A jury of eight was seated yesterday in Denver for a case brought by Eric Coomer, a former Dominion Votings System exec who sued Lindell for defamation in 2022. Coomer told CNN he was forced into hiding when conspiracy theories about Dominion rigging the election against Trump led to a deluge of death threats. He later charged that Lindell and MyPillow were "among the most prolific vectors" of the lies, with "devastating" real-world consequences.
Opening statements are set to begin this morning. Coomer is expected to take the stand later in the day.
In typical Lindell fashion, he is leaning in, attempting to make what he calls "the trial of the century" into a media circus and a fundraising opportunity. His obscure online video platform, "Lindell TV," has "promoted the showdown as a sort of boxing match," The Bulwark's Will Sommer wrote last night.
So, until the jury reaches a verdict, Lindell will probably try to relitigate 2020 and repeat his lies, though mostly outside the courthouse, since he is limited in what he can say inside. Coomer, meanwhile, will try to find justice nearly five years after the conspiracy coalition came after him — with the hope that legal victories could cause partisan talking heads to think twice before sowing doubt about future elections.
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Funding purge based on fictions |
What happens when crucial scientific research funded by the government gets in the crosshairs of conspiracy theorists? Johns Hopkins professor Gigi Gronvall says we're finding out right now; "the US is cutting science — risking health, national security, and economic growth — because of conspiracists." In this essay for Think Global Health, Gronvall says the Trump admin's funding purge "is happening in part because of a fictional, conspiratorial worldview."
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New data from The Washington Post this morning: Trump posted 2,262 times to Truth Social in his first 132 days back in office. The most notable part: That's "more than three times the number of tweets he sent during the same period of his first presidency."
Do his posts have as much impact as they did back then? Depends on how you define impact. Over the weekend Trump randomly posted a link to a year-old Awful Announcing story about Dana White praising him. The site's owner and editor Ben Koo told me the link generated fewer than 5,000 page views. It "moves the needle a little bit, but speaks to the limited audience on that platform," Koo wrote.
But as the Post story notes, the "truths" immediately get reposted on X, Instagram and other platforms, so arguably Trump has much greater reach now than he did in 2017...
>> Yesterday Avery Lotz wrote for Axios about Trump mixing "wild conspiracies with market-moving policies" on Truth Social. Lotz concluded with this observation: "With no fact-checks or consequences for falsehoods, Trump can be, as he's shared multiple posts saying, 'right about everything.'"
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Streaming now: "White With Fear" |
Many conspiracy theories sow fear (remember "they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats"?) which leads me to "White With Fear." Axios reporter Russell Contreras writes: "A new documentary investigates the long-running efforts by politicians and the media to stoke racial tensions and frame white Americans as victims." I was interviewed by the director, Andrew Goldberg, and I pop up in the film to describe the "white fear industrial complex." Steve Bannon was interviewed too, and he seems to confirm that description, as The Guardian's Adrian Horton wrote here. The documentary is being released today on VOD sites like Amazon.
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Political media notes and quotes |
>> Speaking of conspiracy theorists... Malcolm Ferguson argues that new Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson "is as extreme as they come." (TNR)
>> How does Laura Loomer get through to Trump when so many White House aides have purportedly tried to keep her out of his ear? Jake Lahut says "human printer" Natalie Harp is a key conduit. (WIRED)
>> A great, if unsettling, read by Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer: "The secret history of Trump's private cellphone." (The Atlantic)
>> New from Glenn Kessler: "Records of dead people show how the pro-Trump spin machine keeps going." The aforementioned Scherer tweeted that "this is an example of how, even after falsehoods are exposed, the spin machine keeps working. Supporters now claim DOGE has fixed a Social Security problem that never existed." (WaPo)
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🏛️ Rescission proposal expected today |
Today is supposed to be the day. "As lawmakers return to Washington, they expect a 'rescission request' from the White House to cut funding already passed by Congress," the PBS "NewsHour" reports.
The story obviously hits close to home for the "NewsHour" since the rescission package "is expected to include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the nonprofit through which NPR and PBS get federal funding." Lisa Desjardins reported on it dispassionately and in detail last night; here's the video.
>> Speaking of PBS, its lawsuit against Trump has been assigned to Judge Randolph D. Moss, who is also handling the CPB and NPR suits.
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Today's new nonfiction releases |
Let's begin with two notable new biographies. "After nearly 30 years, Sam Tanenhaus is finally publishing his biography of William F. Buckley Jr., an epic project to match an epic life," National Review reports. "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America" is "both critical and admiring, on a complicated man," this New Yorker review says.
And
Todd S. Purdum is out today with "Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television," a well-reviewed look at a TV pioneer. For a sneak peek, check out the guest essay Purdum penned for the NYT.
Also new in bookstores today: "The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich" by New Yorker staff writer (and CNN contributor) Evan Osnos, "How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir" by Molly Jong-Fast, "Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation" by investigative reporters Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov, and "The Disenlightenment: Politics, Horror, and Entertainment" by David Mamet.
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BBC finds files about Austin Tice |
"Top secret intelligence files uncovered by the BBC confirm for the first time that missing American journalist Austin Tice was imprisoned by the regime of the now-deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," contrary to the regime's past denials, Josh Baker, Sara Obeidat, and Simon Maybin report. Read on.
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>> New this morning: "GMA" is starting to run promos for its 50th anniversary, which is coming up this November, Brian Steinberg reports. (Variety)
>> "CNN's chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, whose 2021 story on a military contractor led to a defamation suit loss in court, announced Monday he is leaving the network," Stephen Battaglio reports. (LAT)
>> Byron Allen's Allen Media Group has "hired the investment bank Moelis & Company to market its local stations," Alex Weprin writes (THR)
>> Comcast's Versant will have a temporary HQ at the old NYT building on West 43rd Street. (TheWrap)
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Paramount clock keeps ticking |
Paramount has "nominated three new directors to its board and has scheduled its shareholder meeting for July 2," Paul Ziobro and Jessica Toonkel report in today's WSJ. Here's the significance: If the looming settlement with Trump "isn't reached before the new directors are elected at its annual shareholder meeting, a new board will have to approve any such settlement.
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Fresh layoffs at Disney and WBD |
Disney laid off several hundred employees yesterday, primarily in its TV operations, "part of an ongoing cost-cutting process," Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reports.
Per the WSJ's Joe Flint, the Disney cuts "were initially supposed to happen at the start of the year but the fires and its impact on so many at the company led Disney to pump the brakes on the cuts. Until now."
>> Flint adds on X that job cuts are also coming at (CNN parent) Warner Bros. Discovery's cable network group this week — "mostly the Discovery networks, per people familiar. Hearing less than 100 people."
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Entertainment odds and ends |
>> This morning TikTok is "officially launching TikTok for Artists, a new music insights platform that is designed to help artists build their careers." (TechCrunch)
>> Mattel, which is developing everything from "Bob the Builder" to "UNO" for TV and film, is formalizing all the efforts through Mattel Studios. (Deadline)
>> Season 50 of "SNL" was "the series' most-watched since Season 47, averaging 8.1 million viewers across all platforms," Kayla Cobb reports. (TheWrap)
>> "Spotify has scored a coup by signing pop star Dua Lipa's 'Service95 Book Club' podcast." (Deadline)
>> "Why Women Are Leaving This Broadway Show in Tears:" Michelle Goldberg has a compelling look at "John Proctor Is the Villain." (NYT)
>> Focus has released the trailer for "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale." (YouTube)
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