|
Monday, December 15, 2025 |
|
|
|
Hey there. Scroll down for the latest on PolitiFact, Netflix, NewsNation, Paramount, Axios, X, and much more... |
Covering tragedy without pause |
CNN anchors keep having to interrupt coverage from one crime scene to report breaking news from another crime scene.
As word of Rob and Michele Reiner's deaths spread Sunday night, TV writer Caitie Delaney tweeted a useful reminder: "None of us are built to withstand this amount of tragedy all the time, just keep that in mind and cope how you can."
My family found some solace at our community's annual menorah lighting for the first night of Hanukkah, with the Bondi Beach attack on the minds of all the adults. As film critic Leonard Maltin wrote, "In this truly dark time we must celebrate the light."
Both the slaughter at Bondi Beach and the murders at Brown University "featured the now-routine rituals of mass shootings, including jerky cellphone footage of people fleeing for their lives," CNN's Stephen Collinson wrote. "And two communities were left shattered by the same incomprehensible reality — of death that came suddenly for people gunned down as they went about daily life."
Poynter's Tom Jones recapped "how journalists covered a weekend of mass shootings across two continents" here...
|
Waiting on word from Brentwood... |
Rob Reiner's friends and fans are struggling to process the news of his sudden death. Police are investigating an apparent homicide, and rumors are swirling about what might have happened, but there's a bit of an information vacuum this morning. You can check out CNN's live updates page here.
Reiner was, as SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin said, "one of the most significant figures in the history of film and television." He had a staggeringly successful run as a director: "This Is Spinal Tap," "Stand by Me," "The Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally," "Misery" and "A Few Good Men," to name just some. He challenged himself as an artist again and again, and was still working at age 78, telling NPR's Terry Gross earlier this year, "I still wanna tell stories."
|
Reiner's passion for politics & news |
Interviewing Reiner was an unforgettable experience. He came prepared with questions as well as answers, reflecting his passion for politics and his keen interest in the news business. When I taped with him in 2018, he immediately put everyone on the set at ease, cracking jokes and acting like the cameras weren't even rolling. He was a natural-born entertainer, literally, as the son of the comedy icon Carl Reiner.
But he also took the power of his platform very seriously. At the time we spoke, Reiner was promoting a film called "Shock and Awe," which was about journalists who bravely questioned the government's WMD claims in the run-up to the Iraq war. And Reiner was outspoken about his political activism, telling me about his contempt for pro-Trump propaganda media.
Disinformation, he presciently said, isn't about getting people "to believe the lie, it's getting them to be confused." And then, he said, "the autocrat comes to the rescue. 'Don't worry, daddy will take care of you.'" The LAT has more on Reiner as a "political force" here...
|
Student reporters on the scene |
Turning now to one of the weekend's other tragedies... Some of the first and strongest reporting on the Brown shooting came from Brown's student newspaper, the Daily Herald, which immediately filed breaking news alerts and on-the-scene updates on Saturday evening.
It was also striking to see how many national news outlets relied on campus connections — including journalists' children at Brown and former newsroom interns at the school. On Sunday afternoon, CNN's John Berman, who was anchoring from Providence, brought his son Joe on camera for a powerful eyewitness interview. Joe was visiting one of his best friends at Brown when the shooting took place. The father-and-son interview ended with a hug.
|
Fox's Pavlich jumps to NewsNation |
Nexstar's NewsNation channel is handing its 10 p.m. hour to Katie Pavlich, a conservative commentator who's been a regular on Fox News for more than a decade. Pavlich will replace Ashleigh Banfield, who is "stepping away from the linear show to focus on a true crime podcast and to lead a NewsNation vertical devoted to crime coverage," Variety's Brian Steinberg wrote. Putting Pavlich at 10 seems like an attempt to lure Fox viewers away from Greg Gutfeld's pretaped comedy hour...
|
Instead of 'Lie of the Year' ⬇️ |
PolitiFact typically chooses a "Lie of the Year" every December. This year, there were so many to choose from, the editors decided to dub 2025 the "year of the lies."
This time, Katie Sanders wrote, PolitiFact is focusing "less on the offenders who perpetuate the falsehoods, and more on those who are hurt by them." Stories will roll out all week long.
>> The readers' ballot: "In a ranked-choice poll of more than 1,000 readers, the highest-ranking claim chosen as the year's most serious falsehood went to" Benjamin Netanyahu’s "July assertion of 'no starvation' in Gaza."
|
"Former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been found guilty on two national security charges and a lesser sedition charge, in a landmark two-year trial widely viewed as a measure of the city’s shrinking freedoms under Beijing's rule," CNN's Jessie Yeung, Kristie Lu Stout, and Karina Tsui report. Lai, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, "now faces possible life in prison." Please read on...
|
'The Last King of Hollywood' |
With WBD shares still hovering around $30 and analysts still expecting more bidding, the latest cover of The Hollywood Reporter pictures "The Last King of Hollywood." The illustration imagines David Ellison and Ted Sarandos courting President Trump — with the president sitting in a gold chair and wearing a red crown. "Some in Hollywood are rooting for Sarandos to save the business from the Trump-aligned Ellisons, without stopping to ask who will save the business from Sarandos," Steven Zeitchik wrote in the cover story.
>> A new SEC filing this morning contained an email to all Netflix employees saying "we have a solid deal in place" and "we're confident we'll get it over the finish line."
|
Competing POVs about Paramount |
NPR's David Folkenflik talked with CNN staffers about uncertainty surrounding the network's future ownership and sensed "growing dread." Folkenflik described Paramount's investment partners in the hostile takeover bid for WBD, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. "In interviews, CNN staffers recoiled at the idea that the Saudi royal or the Trump in-law would have any ownership stake in the network — even given the promises they would keep their distance."
>> Notably, "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley had some cautiously optimistic things to say about Paramount's owners at an award ceremony on Friday. "It's early yet, but what I can tell you is, we are doing the same kinds of stories with the same kind of rigor, and have experienced no corporate interference of any kind," Pelley said, per Mediaite's Jennifer Bowers Bahney...
|
Bari Weiss promises more town halls |
Lots of people have lots of opinions about Saturday night's Bari Weiss town hall with Erika Kirk. CBS might call that a success. As Weiss said in her intro, "We live in a very divided country. A country where many people feel that they can't speak across the political divide. Sometimes they feel they can't even speak across their own kitchen table. And one of the goals of the new CBS News is to change that. And this town hall is just the beginning. This is going to be the first of many conversations and debates on CBS News about the things that matter most, which are often the hardest to talk about."
>> Variety's Brian Steinberg watched and noticed a "relative dearth of top advertisers" during the town hall, and asked, "If advertisers weren’t interested in the first program of this sort, will they want to associate with subsequent efforts?"
|
Vandehei's 'post-news era' manifesto |
Liam Reilly writes: Axios CEO Jim Vandehei sent staffers a "post-news era" manifesto on Friday, articulating his vision for how the outlet can fight AI slop next year. In the memo, obtained by CNN, Vandehei told staffers, "Your reality — how you see the world — is no longer defined by 'the news.'" Instead, he wrote, it's largely shaped by videos, podcasts and social media personalities. Axios will publish the memo later today as part of the company's "Finish Line" column.
>> Vandehei outlined "four big goals" for Axios, including "bluntly" covering "the good, bad and ugly" of AI, fighting "fake fire with factual fire," and the expansion of Axios Local. A source familiar with that expansion told CNN that Axios Local will add 7 new coverage areas, including in Colorado and Ohio, bringing the outlet's total to 41 local communities. Axios is also poaching ABC’s vice president of audio, Liz Alesse, to be its first-ever general manager for Local.
|
A+ reads from the weekend |
>> Eric Berger conveyed how US federal agencies are mimicking Trump on social media, "using memes and humor and insults" to provoke the public. (Guardian)
>> Kevin Goldman wrote that CBS's Tony Dokoupil "has a formidable challenge" at 6:30: "To succeed from a ratings standpoint, he will have to lure the decreasing number of older viewers away from the competition. There is no new crop of viewers attracted to the format." (Katie Couric Media)
>> Sarah Holder visited the King of Prussia mall to understand what the "Netflix House" experience is all about. (Bloomberg)
>> Kyle Chayka on the proliferation of video podcasts: "Whether you're a pundit, a politician, or an A-list comedian, the best media strategy these days is a D.I.Y. stage set and a microphone." (New Yorker)
>> Jacob Gallagher profiled Paul Grimstad, a Yale professor who has "somehow found himself acting in both 'One Battle After Another' and 'Marty Supreme'" this year. (NYT)
>> Mark Stenberg detailed "seven media trends that defined 2025." (Adweek)
|
OpenAI, Disney and the 'long play to make Google pay' |
Maybe the best way to understand Disney's deal with OpenAI is through Disney's near-simultaneous cease-and-desist letter to Google alleging "willful infringement" on a "massive scale."
"Like all other media publishers, this is a long play to make Google pay," Puck's Julia Alexander wrote on Friday. "If Disney, like smaller publishers, can prove the value of their content as seen through payments via licensing deals and impact on that product's growth, then Google has to match in some official capacity," she said. "There's a big moment coming for Google and YouTube."
>> Deadline's Glenn Garner reported that Google responded to Disney's letter by "removing dozens of AI-generated videos" featuring Disney characters.
>> The FT's question: Will the Disney deal "boost video app Sora?" Sam Lessin argued the other day that the app is "dead" and "no one cares about it" now...
|
'X wants its haters back' |
That's the headline atop Alex Heath's interview with X product chief Nikita Bier. X has rebuilt its recommendation algorithm and renovated the app partly to "send more traffic to stories and hopefully entice journalists to return to the platform," Heath wrote.
>> Meantime, Bloomberg's Carmen Arroyo obtained some revenue #s from inside X. The company "reported $752 million in revenue in the three-month period ended Sept. 30, a jump of more than 17% from the same period one year prior..."
|
>> Max Tani followed up on "why The Washington Post launched an error-ridden AI product." (Semafor)
>> Speaking of the Post, here's some excellent reporting from Cat Zakrzewski, Emily Davies and Eva Dou: "How Trump's tech advisers overcame a MAGA rebellion over AI." (WaPo)
>> A new series of "ultrarealistic AI videos," many made with Sora, appear to be "the latest disinformation salvo meant to warp public perceptions of Russia’s war with Ukraine." (NBC News)
>> A livestream shopping app called Whatnot is nearing $1 billion in revenue for this year, Ann Gehan reports. (The Information)
|
A 'little ATM machine' for Christmas |
Here's a feel-good story to wrap up with: Christmas music "is more popular than ever," the WSJ's Elias Leight writes, with cheerful songs topping the charts many weeks before Dec. 25, and artists getting into the spirit by writing new tunes. Music manager Jonathan Daniel says scoring a holiday hit is like having a "little ATM machine."
Need a pick-me-up right now? Here's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee on YouTube. Enjoy!
|
|
|
|
® © 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
