Happy Friday! The second half of this newsletter has your usual fix of media, tech and entertainment news. But first...
|
Last week we marked five years since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and asked, "What do you do around this time every year to reflect on the anniversary?" Your submissions were moving and illuminating. A few were even funny.
Some of you mentioned President Trump, political turmoil and disinformation. But most of you shared personal memories and realizations. Check out these answers:
Stan Friedman:
"This is more an almost nightly remembrance: I live a few blocks from Times Square and now, every time I start to curse some loud commotion outside my window, I remember how the dead silence of the street, for nearly two years, was so much worse."
Cheryl Tucker:
"That March of 2020, my mom’s care facility went into lockdown here in Washington state. She was ill with pneumonia, and I could only wave at her through the window of her first-floor room. My sister and I had a Zoom call with mom on Monday, March 30. By Thursday she slipped into unconsciousness, and we were finally allowed in to sit with her and hold her hand the last hour of her life. It is the great sadness of my life that the last time we talked was on a Zoom call. Of course there was no memorial service. Her ashes sit on my living room table, still waiting for her family to decide what to do with them. I miss my mom, Dorothy Brown, every day."
Elizabeth Harty:
"The start of the shutdown coincided with my 60th birthday. I had plans for a big celebration, but instead, a few friends gathered on my front lawn, standing apart from each other with gifts of comfort food and toilet paper. Now, my birthday will always remind me of that isolating time."
Kurt Doering:
“My wife and I were engaged at the time, and with all the fear going around we decided to get married, so if one of us got sick we would be considered family and be allowed to visit at the hospital. It took a couple of weeks to do. We had to drive out of St. Louis to an outlying county to get our marriage license as the offices were all closed in the city. The County clerk put our marriage license on the hood of a car and walked away. Since all parks were closed we had the ceremony at my aunt’s house in front of her pool. My family wanted to be invited but it was considered too dangerous to get that many people together. I had heard of the new app called Zoom so we had around 50 people attend using a Zoom call. Best day of my life.”
James J. Peters:
"I remember the stress, depression, and isolation: not seeing friends, not going to the gym, not participating in sports, for a time giving up my part-time job as tennis pro, and thinking of fellow shoppers as the enemy when they got too close or coughed in public. And then, of course, I remember my father passing away, primarily because of COVID-19, even though he had been vaccinated. It was a terrible time. The memories remain. The aftereffects remain. Some of the rituals remain. The pain remains."
|
John Paraskevas/Newsday via Getty Images |
Martha Meskutovecz:
"My husband and I always think back to the last Broadway show we saw before it all shut down – Mack and Mabel at City Center Encores in NYC. We love the theatre. I am constantly thinking back to the first show I saw AFTER shut down – Camelot at Lincoln Center. So I guess my memories surround the end and then the resumption of something very important to us."
Dan Kimmel:
"I had no idea what Zoom was but soon found out, using it to stay in touch with family and friends, and even attend a Passover seder. My college friends continue to do a monthly Zoom session."
Will Sabel Courtney:
"The first couple weeks were, of course, terrifying, as it felt like the world was falling apart. But I’ll never forget that first warm day in March, when my girlfriend (now wife) and I walked around our Brooklyn neighborhood and went to our favorite bar, which had just reopened to offer to-go drinks through the window. They served them in pint-sized plastic soup containers, the kind that you get Chinese takeout in, and cut X-shaped holes in the lids to poke a straw through. We walked the long way home, through the park, past the cemetery where the cremation center had been running constantly for days on end. We walked into the almost car-free streets to avoid other pedestrians. We listened to the birds sing all around us. That first warm breeze of spring rose up as the sunlight turned gold from the west — and for the first time in weeks, we knew things would be okay. Five years later, I still think back on that moment whenever I need a reminder — things will be okay."
David M. Mechanik:
"This time of year I reflect on how my life drastically changed when I went to the office for the last time in March 2020. I never imagined that I would enjoy working from home, and, as the founder of my law firm, I could have done so at any time, without Covid being the excuse. Sure, there are inconveniences, as my wife and I find ourselves on competing Zoom calls or bickering over whose turn it is to make lunch. One subtle benefit for me was learning that I don’t need to work 40+ hours a week to be happy, which has led me to find a path toward retirement."
Dennis Bailey:
"What I do is hand out my book, a memoir about my near-death experience with COVID, especially to those who now mistakenly believe the pandemic was no big deal. It was a big deal and people need to remember."
Bill Liebold:
I remember feeling "like we'd never get out of it. Doomed to a life of looking out the window. New sense of gratitude for past blessings, fearing there would never be another."
Angela Leverenz:
"For us, it’s not so much remembering as we are still living it; we continue to buy groceries, household items, clothing and meals online and we go out for dinner maybe once a month. We’re just starting to vacation again and trying to get out more, but are still in that isolated pandemic mode, as are so many around us."
Ashleigh Zambada:
"This time every year, I like to rewatch some of the episodes of late night talk shows from the time, like John Oliver and Seth Meyers talking about trying not to panic or Conan's Coronavirus Safety Tips from the office literally days before the shelter in place orders; Stephen Colbert's first episodes from his bathtub at home; Jimmy Kimmel's little mini monologues from his phone at home. It brings me back to a time when a lot of people tried to connect and laugh to cope with the shared global fear and uncertainty of the times."
Kay Hahn:
"In March 2020 my 30 foot bed of white daffodils had just come into bloom. I usually give them away to all my neighbors and friends. That year they just died back. I cried while I deadheaded them – I hadn't ever had to do that because I gave them away. Now I say a prayer for every armful I cut and give away. That we all stay safe and well."
Rob Volpe:
"How do I remember the pandemic? I'm still studying it and the effects on society. On my last plane flight of 2020, on March 10, I came up with the idea of a longitudinal study exploring the changes in US society based on the pandemic. Five years later we're still talking to the same 15 people that we started with. At the anniversary, we always revisit the pandemic and I explore what they've realized about themselves and how they are different now due to the pandemic. This year, in interviews last week, the one answer that came up repeatedly was that they are less social, by choice."
|
|
|
New lawsuit over USAGM's cuts |
The Open Technology Fund is the latest arm of the U.S. Agency for Global Media to file suit in an attempt to block Trump's termination order. The fund is asking the U.S. District Court in DC to stop USAGM from cancelling its grant, citing the fact that the money was authorized by Congress "to counter digital authoritarianism worldwide."
>> A judge will take up Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's lawsuit on Monday.
>> Radio Free Asia has informed readers that it is "operating with fewer staff" and will be publishing a limited amount of news while it, too, fights Trump's termination.
|
|
|
'We ran the wrong headline' |
This Sarah Jeong mea culpa is one of the best pieces of media criticism I have read this year. Jeong, an editor at The Verge, says "we ran the wrong headline about Trump firing the FTC commissioners" earlier this week. She says other news outlets got it wrong, too, by not bluntly stating that the firings were illegal and "in violation of Supreme Court precedent" in the headlines.
It is an established fact that "the FTC is an independent agency, and the president cannot simply fire its commissioners," Jeong points out. SCOTUS ruled about this in 1935. "A news headline should not quietly aid the erosion of our social consensus about the law, even if we ourselves are struggling to do our jobs because of that erosion," she comments. Read the rest here...
|
|
|
Musk blames trans people for Tesla attacks |
Liam Reilly writes: Elon Musk linked attacks on Teslas to trans people on Thursday, the same day Vivian Wilson, his estranged daughter, appeared on a digital cover of Teen Vogue. In a series of tweets, Musk repeatedly circulated or elevated posts that attempted to connect trans people to recent attacks on Tesla. But as Julianne McShane points out here, the data Musk refers to is dubious and parrots a story from The Daily Caller.
|
Earlier this week, we wrote that Musk's AI chatbot Grok called him the biggest spreader of disinformation on X. A new analysis from Washington Post reporters Rachel Lerman, Nitasha Tiku and Emma Kumer shows just how often Grok — which Musk has said would be "maximally truth-seeking … even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically correct" — disagrees with claims Musk makes. It happens a lot!
|
|
|
Will Facebook whistleblower speak with Congress? |
Clare Duffy reports: "Careless People" author Sarah Wynn-Williams says Meta is blocking her from speaking to Congress about her experiences at the company. Lawmakers in other countries want her to speak too, but Wynn-Williams' lawyers say the arbitration order against her "appears" to block her from doing so. A Meta spokesperson said the company has no intention to interfere with Wynn-Williams' legal rights...
>> Her memoir remains #2 on Amazon's new releases list behind the new "Hunger Games" book...
|
|
|
>> A collection of conservative advocacy groups are urging the FCC to reject the pending complaint against "60 Minutes" because an "adverse ruling against CBS would constitute regulatory overreach and advance precedent that can be weaponized by future FCCs." (Reuters)
>> Last month two of the Washington Post's most prominent alums, Len Downie and Bob Kaiser, urged Jeff Bezos to replace Will Lewis. Bezos hasn't responded, Ben Mullin and Katie Robertson report. (NYT)
>> Warren Buffett's only TV station, WPLG in south Florida, is losing its ABC affiliation. "Disney says that it is partnering with Sunbeam Television Group to launch a new home for ABC, called ABC Miami," Alex Weprin reports. (THR)
>> Will Sommer says there's more than meets the eye at The Daily Wire, where Jeremy Boreing is stepping down as co-CEO. (The Bulwark)
>> Lapham's Quarterly is coming back. Bard College has acquired the shuttered mag "at no cost" from the American Agora Foundation. (NYT)
|
|
|
>> "Trump voters love him more than before," and these NYT columnists say MAGA media is a big part of the reason why. (NYT)
>> John Herrman says Musk's toxicity is slowly making him a pariah among the YouTubers who helped make him popular among young men. (NYMag)
>> Joel Khalili writes about how the death of a young California man was streamed on X, allowing profit-hungry traders to pile into a cryptocurrency created in his image. (WIRED)
>> Meghnad Bose explains how "news publications are changing to protect immigrant sources." (CJR)
>> Charlotte Klein surveys "the new Substack universe." (NYMag)
>> Michael Grynbaum talks with Bret Baier about the success of "Special Report" (and about Baier golfing with the president). (NYT)
>> Hannah Miller explores how NYT Cooking “has succeeded in a crowded field.” (Bloomberg)
>> "Me and Tony:" Laurie Woolever writes about becoming Anthony Bourdain's assistant in this preview of her new memoir. (Air Mail)
>> Italy's liberal conservative daily newspaper Il Foglio says it is "the first in the world to publish an edition entirely produced by AI." (The Guardian)
>> Klaudia Jaźwińska lays out how AI companies are looking to open up copyright rules — and how news publishers are responding. (CJR)
>> Matt Donnelly and Ramin Setoodeh sit down with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos for a "25 years of Ted" cover story. (Variety)
|
|
|
>> This buzzy report by Wayne Ma says Apple TV+ "is losing more than $1 billion a year even as executives try to rein in its spending. The video-streaming service had around 45 million subscribers as of last year." (The Information)
>> Speaking of... Apple TV+ "logged almost 3 million new subscribers in January, when Severance's Season 2 came out," Hannah Miller reports. (Bloomberg)
>> And this morning Tim Cook personally announced that "Severance" has been renewed for a third season. (X)
>> Ryan Faughnder's latest: "Paramount+ gains altitude from streaming bets. Can it compete long term?" (LA Times)
>> Disney's live-action "Snow White" is out today, and it's sure to nab the top spot at the box office this weekend, with an expected $45 million to $55 million in ticket sales. (Boxoffice Pro)
>> Bob Iger confirms a second "Coco" is in the works. (Deadline)
|
|
|
|
® © 2025 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
