Here's the latest on USA Today, Shawn McCreesh, Reagan Reese, CNN, YouTube, David Pogue, Jeff Shell, Bill O'Reilly, Bluesky, Drew Barrymore, and much more... |
Trump's say-anything approach |
President Trump will say just about anything — anything — to get through a news cycle. That's the simplest way to explain his evasions and contradictions about the US military action in Iran.
One minute, Trump will say up is down and left is right; the next minute, he'll say cardinal directions are a hoax; and then he'll say he didn't say that at all and he'll blame a reporter for asking about it.
We've all been listening to Trump do this for a decade, so it's not surprising anymore, though it's certainly unnerving to see his approach applied to wartime questions of life and death.
Shawn McCreesh of The New York Times essentially caught him in the say-anything act. On Saturday, McCreesh asked him about the evidence pointing to US culpability for the deaths at an elementary school in southern Iran. "Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran," Trump told him.
Since then, even more evidence has contradicted Trump's claim, so McCreesh followed up yesterday: "Mr. President, you just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that, when he was asked, standing over your shoulder, on your plane, on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?"
Trump's response: "Because I just don't know enough about it."
He confidently said "that was done by Iran" to dodge the question and deflect blame toward his adversary. But in truth, "I just don't know enough about it."
Trump pointed toward the US military's investigation of the strike and said, "Whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report."
McCreesh's question — the way it was composed, the way it was asked — won widespread praise yesterday. Tech investor Chris Fralic shared the video on X and asked, "Are there Pulitzer Prizes for reporters questions?"
>> Further reading: CNN's Aaron
Blake has a fantastic rundown of the ways Trump "repeatedly" contradicted himself (and his own government) "in the span of just a few hours."
>> BTW: The president does not have any open-press events or on-camera appearances scheduled today, though the day is young...
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Hegseth on open-source reporting |
The elementary school didn't specifically come up at this morning's Pentagon press conference. One reporter asked a general — and rather softball — question about what the US does to minimize civilian casualties, and Pete Hegseth said those efforts aren't "appreciated enough."
Curiously, Hegseth then referenced a "shouted" question — apparently about the school — and said "open source is not the place to determine what did or did not happen." Open-source tools, however, are proving invaluable to news outlets trying to establish exactly that...
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"We've been hearing different reasons" for the war, and "now we're hearing kind of mixed messaging on what has been accomplished so far," Audie Cornish said on "CNN This Morning." The president "is saying 'I think the war is very complete, pretty much.' And then if you check the social media for DOD, they say 'no mercy' and 'we have only just begun to fight.'"
Her guest, Jennifer Gavito, said, "In my view, this really is reflective of the fact that we don't yet know what the overall objective is."
But reporters keep asking. Reagan Reese of The Daily Caller got the final question at this morning's presser, and she asked, "The president has indicated that maybe the operation will wrap up sooner than he thought it was going to. What's the plan once the U.S stops military action? Will the U.S. play a role in the aftermath or will they leave Iran to sort it out?"
>> One of these things is not like the others: Other questioners included Alexandra Ingersoll of One America News, Jordan Conradson of The Gateway Pundit and... Eric Schmitt of The New York Times.
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Sources say Kari Lake weakened VOA's wartime reach |
This new CNN story, "How Trump and Musk's spending cuts are hampering US government readiness amid the Iran war," is an impressive team effort. One section is devoted to Kari Lake's actions at the US Agency for Global Media. Key quote:
"While VOA brought back some furloughed employees before the war began, employees told CNN the efforts over the past year to dismantle Voice of America significantly harmed the agency’s ability to quickly and successfully broadcast in Iran — and to connect with Iranians as Trump was calling on them to 'take over your government.'" Read on...
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CNN deletes outrageous X post |
CNN was rightly criticized this morning for a post on X that said this:
"Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could've been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home."
The story itself was solid. But the tweet was outrageous — and quickly addressed by CNN management. The tweet was deleted and replaced by a message saying the post "failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted."
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USA Today names new editor |
Jamie Stockwell, most recently the deputy managing editor of news at The Washington Post, is the next leader of USA Today. (Not a bad way to bounce back after being laid off by the Post!)
Stockwell "will hold the title of vice president of news rather than the traditional editor in chief label," the NYT's Katie Robertson notes...
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Speaking of Post alums... |
Yesterday ESPN made a splash by hiring "six sports journalists who were cut from The Washington Post when it eliminated more than 300 jobs in early February," as Brian Steinberg wrote here. Among the hires: Ben Strauss, who was the Post's top-notch sports media and business reporter.
>> Awful Announcing's Sam Neumann says the hires "are the latest sign of a genuine — and complicated — recommitment to journalism" at ESPN. Read his assessment here...
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Live Nation settlement meets resistance |
After Trump's Justice Department announced a settlement deal with Live Nation yesterday, "some state attorneys general said they had been left out of negotiations and vowed to continue their fight against the live entertainment behemoth in court," WaPo's Jeremy Roebuck, Ethan Beck and Will Oremus wrote. And not just Democratic AGs — some Republicans too.
Meanwhile, "some concert industry insiders and consumer advocates expressed doubts that the plan to allow other companies to list tickets through Ticketmaster would ultimately drive down costs." First, though, the settlement has to be approved by a judge, and he seems perturbed...
>> View from the left: "The first week of testimony was going really badly for the company. But corruption won out," The American Prospect editor David Dayen wrote, linking to this report.
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YouTube is now the 'world's largest media company' |
That's what MoffettNathanson declared in a new analysis yesterday. TheWrap's Lucas Manfredi recapped the firm's math here. In short, "YouTube's $62 billion in revenue during parent company Alphabet's fourth quarter slightly exceeded Disney's media revenues of $60.9 billion. That figure excludes Disney's experiences division."
>> Over the next few years, YouTube will be "a major beneficiary of both the structural tailwinds and headwinds facing technology and media companies," Michael Nathanson and co. wrote...
>> I caught my 8-year-old watching a MrBeast video last night ("caught" because we try to limit YouTube around the house) and was flabbergasted by the #s: More than 50 million views in two days 🤯
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👀 New from YouTube this morning |
THR's Alex Weprin calls this a "significant move given obvious global events." YouTube "is expanding its likeness detection tool to political and civic leaders, as well as journalists, in a bid to curb AI-generated content that may seek to misinform or mislead users of the platform." Weprin has more details here... |
Today's new nonfiction releases |
David Pogue is out today with "Apple: The First 50 Years," which is billed as "the iconic company's entire life story: how it was born, nearly died, was born again under Steve Jobs, and became, under CEO Tim Cook, the most valuable company in the world."
>> Also new today: Major Mark Hertling's "If I Don't Return: A Father's Wartime Journal," Shannon Bream's "Nothing Is Impossible with God," Valerie Bertinelli's "Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect," and Liza Minnelli's "Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!"
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>> "Las Vegas gambler and self-professed 'fixer'" Robert James 'R.J.' Cipriani has followed through on his threats to sue Paramount Skydance president Jeff Shell, Stacy Perman writes. (LAT)
>> The lawsuit "looks to be putting the Paramount executive in both legal and corporate peril," Dominic Patten writes. (Deadline)
>> The Washington Reporter, a small right-wing startup, has named former Sen. Krysten Sinema as a contributing columnist. (X)
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'We'll do it LIVE,' now a podcast |
Honestly, this is kinda clever on Bill O'Reilly's part. He's reuniting with Fox via its digital production arm, Red Seat Ventures, for a weekly interview podcast called "We'll Do It LIVE," a knowing wink at his infamous "Inside Edition" meltdown that's gone viral for decades. The podcast will debut on Thursday with a Rob Schneider interview and will be posted to YouTube, O'Reilly's website and First TV, a right-wing opinion site, the aforementioned Brian Steinberg reports.
>> O'Reilly told Steinberg he's trying to "resurrect" Mike Wallace's late-night show, "Night Beat," which "featured Wallace asking all kinds of unpredictable questions to famous people. The show is largely forgotten, but it was brilliant and we would like to try to bring it back in a very entertaining way."
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>> Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is "stepping down and transitioning to the company’s chief innovation officer." Toni Schneider, former CEO of WordPress parent Automattic, will be the interim CEO. (CNBC)
>> Kyle Tharp reports that Facebook "has become a major boon to political and news creators, resulting in a surge of growth and engagement — and cash." Brian Tyler Cohen tells him Facebook "is allowing more political content to be seen right now, and obviously, revenue and engagement go up accordingly." (Chaotic Era)
>> Dutch intelligence warned yesterday that "Russian government hackers are targeting Signal and WhatsApp users, particularly government and military officials, as well as journalists all over the world," Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai writes. Signal addressed the attacks in an X thread, stressing that "encryption and infrastructure have not been compromised and remain robust." (TechCrunch)
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Wasserman gets a dotty rebrand |
Variety's Jem Aswad reports that The Wasserman Agency has a new name: The·Team. Yes, that includes a dot in the middle.
The rebrand comes as the agency is being sold, following the revelation in the Epstein files that the firm's namesake, Casey Wasserman, had a close relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell.
"A rep later sent a follow-up message to media outlets noting that the dot in between the two words is part of the title," Aswad writes, "although widespread adoption of that punctuation seems like a stretch." Agreed.
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Entertainment odds and ends |
>> "Peacock will be the U.S. streaming home for 'Saturday Night Live UK,'" as it should be! (LateNighter)
>> "The Drew Barrymore Show" has been "renewed by CBS Stations for two more seasons, extending the daytime talk show's run through 2028." (TheWrap)
>> "Jeff Daniels has joined the upcoming fifth season of Apple TV's drama series 'The Morning Show.'" (Deadline)
>> "Kanye West will perform a one-night Los Angeles concert at SoFi Stadium in April," which'll be his highest-profile US show in years after his scandals involving antisemitic and pro-Nazi remarks and his recent public apology. (THR)
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