President Trump says he is "not joking" about a possible third term. He is using the power of government to punish opponents. His foreign policy moves are unnerving allies. His tariffs are upending markets.
Are Americans paying attention? Most say yes, they are. According to a new Pew Research Center survey shared first with Reliable Sources, 40% of Americans say they're following news about the Trump admin fairly closely, and another 31% say they're following developments very closely.
Members of that 71% majority were asked why they're tuning in, and 2/3s of them said a major reason is because "I'm concerned about what the administration is doing." Lest you think those are all Democrats, nearly half of tuned-in Republicans also agreed with that statement.
Other major reasons cited by respondents: 62% said Trump news is "relevant to my life," 43% said "it's hard to avoid," 36% said "I like what the administration is doing," and 25% said "it's entertaining or interesting."
As for "the smaller share of Americans who aren't closely following" news about the admin, Pew says "the most common reasons for tuning out are fatigue and lack of interest in politics generally."
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Dems want more critical coverage |
Pew's survey asked people if the U.S. news media has been too critical of the administration, mostly fair, or not critical enough. Among Republicans and GOP-leaners, 69% said too critical, 19% said mostly fair and 10% said not critical enough.
Among Democrats and Dem-leaners, a whopping 62% said the media have not been critical enough, while 24% said mostly fair and 12% said too critical. Just as Fox News and other outlets super-serve Americans who believe the media is too tough on Trump, a constellation of digital outlets are cropping up to reach those who believe the rest of the media is too weak.
You can check out all of Pew's findings here. Overall, Pew says, "a much smaller share of Americans say they have heard about the relationship between the Trump administration and the media in Donald Trump's second term compared with his first." But maybe that's about to change 👇
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It's all about power and propaganda. The Trump White House wants to assert power over the press corps; push the White House Correspondents' Association out of the picture; and promote media outlets that provide sycophancy, not scrutiny.
The latest sign of this: The admin intends to take over the seating assignments in the press briefing room, a senior official said Sunday, confirming Mike Allen's Axios scoop. I wrote about the potential impacts here.
One big Q is whether the admin intends to remove some legacy news outlets from assigned seats or merely rearrange who sits where. (Though even a seemingly minor reordering could change the dynamic during Karoline Leavitt's briefings.) As one correspondent said to me, "it doesn't really matter where people sit. But it does matter when the White House tries to impact what questions are asked, and how stories are covered, by taking control away from an elected group."
The WHCA is considering a range of possible responses. But let's be honest – the association looks, to many outside observers and some of its own members, really weakened and wounded right now.
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Why was Amber Ruffin canned? |
On Saturday I broke the news that the WHCA had cancelled its plans to have Amber Ruffin headline its April 26 dinner. Writers like William Hughes of the AV Club called it an act of "cowardice," but quite a few reporters were relieved by the board's decision. The whole notion of speaking truth to power by roasting the president doesn't work so well when the president refuses to show up (and will use the roast to smear everyone who attends the event).
>> Answering the question I asked above: I'm told the most proximate reason for Ruffin's cancellation involved her comments on a Daily Beast podcast describing Trump officials as "kind of a bunch of murderers," among other insults.
More media + politics news in a moment, but first...
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Two key Front Office Sports hires |
Front Office Sports is expanding its business-of-sports coverage in new directions with two key new hires. Annie Costabile is joining from the Chicago Sun-Times, where she landed scoop after scoop about the WNBA, to cover women's sports, which the site says is "a major driver of engagement and conversation for FOS." Ben Horney is joining after 12 years at Law360, most recently as assistant managing editor, to launch a FOS franchise called Asset Class, a section "dedicated to sports finance, investment, and transaction activities." Appointing a full-time reporter to the private equity and finance in sports beat is a definite sign of the times...
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Today: CinemaCon gets underway in Las Vegas.
Tonight: An Oprah special on "The Menopause Revolution" premieres on ABC.
Tuesday: April Fools' Day 🤡
Tuesday: New releases include Vicky Nguyen's memoir "Boat Baby."
Wednesday: Nintendo is expected to share details about the Switch 2.
Friday: "A Minecraft Movie" opens in theaters.
Saturday: Final Four games!
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Warner Bros. Pictures watch |
"The rumor of an imminent leadership change" at Warner Bros. Pictures "is not accurate," a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent) said yesterday.
The rumor has consumed Hollywood in recent days, as illustrated by Matt Donnelly's recent Variety story about studio co-heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy being "under fire" amid "box office flops."
On Sunday Bloomberg's Thomas Buckley reported that CEO David Zaslav "has started meeting with candidates who could replace" them, though "the talks with potential successors are at an early and informal stage." That's especially relevant this week since De Luca and Abdy are set to present at CinemaCon tomorrow...
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During the second of two phone interviews with NBC's Kristen Welker over the weekend, Trump said there are "methods" for securing a third term, even though the Constitution forbids it.
Here's what some of the ensuing news coverage is missing: Trump's stay-in-power premise is predicated on his popularity, which he wildly exaggerates, imagining a "high 70s" approval rating. He literally said to Welker "I hope you're going to mention" false stats about his approval.
Yesterday's new CBS poll found 40% of Americans strongly disapprove of him; 11% somewhat disapprove; 19% somewhat approve; and only 31% strongly approve...
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Voice of America reporter Patsy Widakuswara received a very welcome email on Saturday: A notice that her termination "is on hold until further notice." She is the lead plaintiff in one of the lawsuits against Trump's attempted shutdown of VOA, and on Friday a federal judge sided with the journalists, issuing a temporary restraining order and signaling that their case is likely to succeed down the road.
So the layoffs are on hold, some of them anyway, and Kari Lake is tweeting about how VOA is going to be modernized to be "more efficient." But as Widakuswara said during last night's "60 Minutes" segment about VOA, the damage may have already been done: "If they bring back everybody next week, what kind of newsroom would that be? How can we continue to report without fear or favor with this hanging over us? Would we only have to report on things that pleases the President? It's not something that I signed up for."
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'Be real about what's at stake' |
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which also won a restraining order last week, is pressing forward with its lawsuit while it awaits USAGM's promised grant funding. (As of this morning, the $$ still hasn't come through.)
CEO Steve Capus stepped up his criticism of the Trump admin on Friday, pointing to Lake's utter lack of acknowledgement that RFE/RL journalists are on the front lines in conflict zones. "Our focus is on countries where free media is no longer readily available. If you don't know us it’s probably because you live in freedom," he wrote. "Be real about what's at stake."
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>> Heading into week two of Signalgate, "Trump boosted a vague conspiracy targeting the CEO of NPR, who also happens to sit on the board of Signal." (Beast)
>> A great majority of voters, including 56% of Republicans, say it was "not appropriate" for Trump's top advisors to use Signal to discuss strike plans. (CBS)
>> One of the Trump admin sources for this WSJ story about Mike Waltz "losing support" in the WH "said that if news of the Signal chat had first appeared in a conservative media outlet such as Breitbart, Waltz would be gone." (WSJ)
>> "The Biden book deluge" is about to begin, and Adam Wren has a detailed preview. (Politico)
>> The Daily Wire has conducted a round of layoffs. (Breitbart)
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Expect an 'extended' Disney probe |
In the Trump era, "companies are rebranding DEI efforts, not giving up," CNBC's Jennifer Elias and Annie Palmer wrote yesterday. In fact, that's partly what FCC chair Brendan Carr is accusing Disney of doing – changing "how it brands certain efforts" but not the underlying policies. Carr published his letter about the Disney probe on Friday. I asked him how long the probe will take, and he said he anticipates "an extended investigation."
"There are some concerning indications that they may have been discriminating against employees based on their race, their gender, and other protected characteristics—all in the name of promoting DEI," Carr told me. Disney says "we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions..."
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>> Elon Musk said he sold X to his AI company. (CNN)
>> Trump named Fox News contributor Sara Carter to be the nation's drug czar, even though "her background is not in drug policy, public health, or law enforcement, and she has never served in government." (STAT)
>> Trump commuted the sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson when Watson was on the way to prison. (CNBC)
>> Allan Smith wrote about "the White House's Barstool problem." (NBC)
>> Dylon Jones explained "the video game that outplayed Elon Musk." (Politico)
>> Norah O'Donnell looked for answers to this Q: "What is the future of the Kennedy Center?" (CBS)
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>> Top vaccine official Dr. Peter Marks, forced out of his job at the FDA, wrote in a resignation letter, "It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired" by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies." (CNN)
>> Eleven free speech and journalism organizations filed a joint letter condemning the detention of Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk reportedly based on opinions expressed in a student paper op-ed. (SPLC)
>> "We Are All Living in George Orwell’s World Now:" Matthew Purdy says "all seem to agree we might be slouching toward '1984,' but not on who is most Orwellian." (NYT Mag)
>> In this week's Sunday Long Read newsletter, The New Yorker's Michael Luo said "the tendency is to think of President Trump and others in his administration as the main characters in this drama. But what if we fixed more of our attention on the people living with the consequences of his policies?" (SLR)
>> Matthew Belloni wrote the definitive behind-the-scenes story about Jen Salke's tenure as Amazon MGM Studios chief, and why her time is up. (Puck)
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"In an unexpected upset, the Jason Statham thriller A Working Man took No. 1 at the box office, besting the rapidly declining Snow White, according to studio estimates Sunday," The AP's Jake Coyle reports.
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Snow White's "dismal performance in its second weekend is more bad news for Disney and puts Snow White in official bomb territory, considering it cost roughly $370 million to market and produce."
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Entertainment odds and ends |
>> Morgan Wallen got all the attention he wanted by abruptly walking off stage at the end of "SNL" and posting "get me to God's country." (USA Today)
>> "After mounting criticism following its initial response to the violent attack on Oscar-winning 'No Other Land' co-director Hamdan Ballal, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologized Friday for not acknowledging Ballal by name." (CNN)
>> Helen Lewis says "The White Lotus" is "the first great post-‘woke’ piece of art." (The Atlantic)
>> Seconding what Joyce Eng writes here: "Noah Wyle deserves Emmy love for his career-best work on 'The Pitt.'" (Gold Derby)
>> Reflecting on the most recent episode, Wyle says "The Pitt" was "always intended to show that the fragility of our healthcare system is directly proportional to the fragility of the mental health of our practitioners." (TheWrap)
>> Max has launched a "new black-and-white logo and color palette, evoking HBO branding." (Variety)
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