Hey, hope you had a meaningful Memorial Day weekend. This is an unusually long "summer season," with 105 days until Labor Day, so proceed accordingly! Here's the latest on President Trump, Ben Rhodes, X, Dana White, Stephen Colbert, "Obsession," and more... |
Why 'slush fund' has stuck |
Some Trump outrages come and go quickly. But the creation of a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization fund" is not one of those blink-and-you-missed-it news stories. It's more like the Trump ballroom: An ongoing controversy that distills so much of Trump 2.0 into one sticky story.
In this case, the catchy phrase is "slush fund," which has seen a sudden spike in Google searches ever since the compensation program was announced. Four of Politicon's six most recent YouTube videos have "slush fund" in the title.
"The entire arrangement reeks of self-dealing on a scale impressive even for Trump, an in-plain-sight raiding of the Treasury to reward the President's allies," Ruth Marcus writes in The New Yorker this week.
Marcus highlights the Republican lawmakers who have stepped out to oppose the fund and writes, "It is always a risk to overestimate Congress's courage in the face of Trump's overreach, but this may be the rare moment when it says, Enough."
Chief among those GOPers: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who has been doing TV hit after TV hit opposing the fund. Last Wednesday, on the same day Fitzpatrick said he'd draft legislation to stop the $$$ giveaway, Trump saw Fox correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who is engaged to Fitzpatrick, and said, "Her husband votes against me all the time — you better ask him what's with him."
Turns out, Fitzpatrick has some good answers. He told Michael Smerconish that everyone "viewing this through objective eyes knows that it's absurd." And this morning on CNBC's "Squawk Box," he said, "We shouldn't be talking about ballrooms. We shouldn't be talking about DOJ slush funds. That's not what our country wants us to be talking about."
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Critics calling the DOJ's bluff |
The Justice Department has claimed that the $1.776 billion fund is party-blind. Some Trump critics want to put that to the test.
"Former US Capitol riot prosecutors, fired federal officials and journalists who say they were past targets of President Donald Trump's retribution tell CNN they may seek compensation from the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund," CNN's Marshall Cohen and Annie Grayer report in a new piece this morning.
Some of them "have already sent letters to the DOJ outlining their claims, hoping to draw attention to how the president has harnessed government powers in an effort to punish his political opponents. Others are still debating whether filing a request could legitimize a fund they see as brazenly corrupt."
"Mueller, She Wrote" podcaster Allison Gill and independent journalist Scott Stedman have both sent letters requesting compensation. Stedman wrote that "the money will be used to fund investigative reporting into corruption and abuses of power." Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta has also mused, "Shouldn't I be compensated?"
Speaking of weaponizing...
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Heading into the long weekend, Brendan Carr announced the next step in his multi-front Disney drama. The FCC is now seeking public comment on whether "The View" is a "bona fide news interview program," since that's the qualification that allows "The View" to exempt itself from equal-time rules.
The Hill's Dominick Mastrangelo wrote more on the process here. Disney, which says the FCC is threatening the First Amendment, will continue to defend the talk show through this bureaucratic slog...
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A new era in late night TV sorta starts tonight |
"Comics Unleashed" replaced "The Late Show" on the CBS schedule last Friday. But the other late-night network shows were running repeats that night. Today, "Comics Unleashed" will be up against a new episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on ABC. So ratings gurus will be watching to see how much of Stephen Colbert's old audience moves over to Kimmel's show. (NBC's late-night shows are running repeats all this week.)
>> In its previous 12:35 a.m. time slot, "Comics Unleashed" has averaged about 1.1 million viewers this season, per Nielsen #s. The audience will certainly grow in the new 11:35 a.m. time slot. "The Late Show" averaged 2.7 million viewers toward the end of its run, and the finale netted 6.7 million, a weeknight record for Colbert...
>> On the latest episode of the "One Thing" podcast, Michael Ian Black of CNN's "Have I Got News For You" says Allen's show is "a demotion entertainment-wise." It's "fine. It's inoffensive, it's vanilla, and you know, I guess that's what CBS wants. Fine. They can have it."
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👀 Colbert's new YouTube channel |
Colbert bookended his "Late Show" years by guest-hosting "Only In Monroe," a public-access show in Monroe, Michigan. His return to the Monroe show, released late Friday night, was honestly funnier than his CBS finale. The hour-long episode, produced by CBS and posted on Colbert's new YouTube channel, is streaming right here. For background about the Monroe of it all, LateNighter has got you covered.
Colbert's surprise appearance lit up social media. And then, "in the usual online rush to judgment we've all become far too used to, a digital firestorm spread this weekend that the David Ellison-owned CBS Studios is sending out take-down notices to try to crush people watching the very low-tech Only in Monroe episode," Deadline's Dominic Patten wrote.
Patten explained what really happened here, and pointed out that Colbert's creation of a new YouTube channel is "way more interesting" than the censorship claims. Colbert topped 100,000 subscribers overnight...
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Why 'CBS Mornings' didn't cover Colbert's finale |
Gayle King was at the "Late Show" wrap party on Thursday night. But Friday's "CBS Mornings" totally ignored the big finale, Puck's Matt Belloni reports: "No highlights, no anchor discussion, not a single mention of a pretty major event on its own network."
Belloni scoops that "the ghosting was a specific directive from CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, who hated Colbert's recent bit mocking their failure to secure a China visa for anchor Tony Dokoupil." A source conveying Cibrowski's view sai Colbert "kicked colleagues when they were down..."
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'X is cracking down on content thieves' |
That's the headline on Lakshmi Varanasi's write-up for Business Insider. The news: "Elon Musk's social media platform is now cracking down on large accounts that have been 'programmatically reuploading content from smaller accounts' to game its creator revenue-share program, X's head of product, Nikita Bier, said."
Over the weekend Bier pretty explicitly communicated this to a ripoff account that reposted ABC reporter Selina Wang's gripping cameraphone video from the moment when gunshots were heard outside the White House...
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Iran to end internet blackout? |
CNN's top homepage headline right now is "Iran threatens to retaliate after US strikes on launch sites and boats." Here are the latest updates.
Mostafa Salem writes that the Iranian president "has ordered authorities to begin restoring internet access for the population, ending the longest blackout in any country's history – but the delayed decision underscores how deeply the Islamic Republic fears unrestricted information access for its citizens."
And it "remains unclear whether the directive will be fully enforced." Thus The Guardian's headline right now is "No sign of end to Iranian internet blackout despite regime claims..."
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Tonight: Who will face the Knicks? Game 5 of the Western Conference finals tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Also tonight: News networks like CNN and NBC will be streaming special coverage of the Texas primary runoffs.
Wednesday night: The Scripps National Spelling Bee semifinals air on Ion, with the finals following on Thursday night...
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Today's new nonfiction releases |
You'll be seeing a lot of Sen. Chris Murphy on cable news this week. Murphy is out today with "Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America."
>> Also newly on sale today: "All We Say: The Battle for American Identity," billed as "a history in 15 speeches," by former Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes, and "How to Win a Trade War" by Soumaya Keynes and Chad P. Bown...
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'The creation of a new Murdoch empire' |
That's what WaPo's Scott Nover calls it, assessing James Murdoch's deal for Vox.com, Vox's podcast network and New York mag, and finding "cautious optimism" among employees about the takeover.
Nover quotes a magazine staffer saying James "is publicly saying what people want to hear — that he values the long form journalism and cultural criticism we do. That's all we can go on for now even if we're well aware of billionaires who come in saying the right things and then lose interest or change their minds."
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Some more worthwhile reads from over the holiday weekend:
>> Sean Gregory pens TIME's new cover story on "how Dana White took the UFC from fringes to the White House." (TIME)
>> Max Tani says "the California governor's race has shown how creator marketing has infected political campaigns, revealing how influencers and creators accept sums small and large to promote candidates on their platforms." (Semafor)
>> Rachel Monroe goes long on "how 'The Chosen' spurred a golden age of Christian filmmaking." (New Yorker)
>> Will Oremus says "AI-writing scandals are getting very confusing." (The Atlantic)
>> Tariq Panja explains why Fox "is getting an enormous bargain to broadcast the 2026 World Cup," paying less than $500 million to air the tournament. (NYT)
>> Drew Goins says the secret to winning on "Jeopardy!" is to "know a little about a lot." (The Atlantic)
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>> New this morning: "Tegna has named Fox Television Stations veteran Patrick Paolini CEO as the station group looks to resolve litigation seeking to undo its merger with larger rival Nexstar." For the time being, Nexstar has to keep Tegna separate, thus the new separate CEO... (Deadline)
>> In the first major theological document of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV "says control of artificial intelligence must not remain in the hands 'of a few' while warning that technology is fueling world conflicts." (CNN)
>> "An American journalist and political commentator who has lived in China for more than a decade is facing a criminal charge in the U.S. of acting as an agent for the Chinese government." (Politico)
>> A federal judge has dismissed Michael Wolff's lawsuit against Melania Trump, "concluding that the journalist's litigation was an 'inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship.'" (Deadline)
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Box office's new 'Obsession' |
"Disney's 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' ignited to $100 million at the domestic box office over the Memorial Day holiday weekend," Variety's Rebecca Rubin reports.
But the biggest box office story is about Focus Features' "Obsession," which made another $30 million over the weekend, "an unprecedented 39% increase from its strong debut," Rubin writes.
So far, the horror film "has generated $58.5 million in North America and $74 million worldwide. It was produced for less than $1 million and will easily become one of the year’s most profitable releases." 🤯
>> So how'd YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker do it? Well, a big part of the answer comes from that hyphenated title, with YouTube coming first. NBC's Saba Hamedy and Greg Rosenstein interviewed Barker about it here...
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>> "Romanian director Cristian Mungiu took home the top prize at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday for his culture-war drama Fjord." (NPR)
>> Nicholas Barber IDed "nine buzzy Cannes films that could become Oscar contenders." (BBC)
>> IMAX stock is up again this morning after shares surged 15% on Friday amid "speculation over a possible takeover." (THR)
>> "Drake is the first artist to ever occupy the top three spots on the Billboard album chart." As Bethy Squires writes, "no one else was really trying to release three albums at the same time, but a record is a record nonetheless..." (Vulture)
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"K-pop dominated the American Music Awards in Las Vegas last night, with BTS winning artist of the year and 'Golden' — a song from 'KPop Demon Hunters' — winning song of the year." Here is CNN's video recap... |
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