Happy Monday. Here's the latest on World Press Freedom Day, Bill Maher, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Van Jones, Anna Wintour, Noah Kahan, and more... |
Trump's 'weaponized' EEOC targets NY Times |
Last week, The New York Times business desk reporter Rebecca Davis O'Brien published an in-depth look at how the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pushing discrimination cases that "match Trump's agenda."
Field staff at the EEOC "say they are being pressured to bring politically charged cases, even with little evidence," she reported.
Now there is another potential example. The EEOC, O'Brien wrote last night, "is poised to file a civil rights lawsuit" against her employer.
The agency has been investigating a complaint by a white male employee at The New York Times who did not get a deputy editor promotion and "argued it was because of his race and gender."
According to O'Brien's report, the EEOC has been investigating for many months. Something shifted in late April, and a lawsuit seems imminent.
Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha says the publication "categorically rejects the meritless and politically motivated allegations that the Trump administration's EEOC is pursuing against us."
For those wondering if this is a legal maneuver to tie the NYT in knots in retaliation for critical coverage of the Trump administration, well, here's what the spokesperson is saying:
“Throughout this process, the EEOC deviated from standard practices in highly unusual ways, blatantly weaponizing a traditionally independent government body to serve a predetermined narrative," Rhoades Ha said. "If this lawsuit moves forward, we will defend ourselves and our values vigorously as there is not a single piece of evidence to support any claim of discrimination."
>> Disney is taking a similar position, as Trump's FCC challenges the licenses for eight ABC stations — a case that is supposedly about "Disney's discriminatory DEI conduct, not any speech," but looks like intimidation and retaliation...
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Marking World Press Freedom Day |
Sunday was World Press Freedom Day — as proclaimed by the UN — spotlighting "the continued decline of press freedom globally." Most of the commemorations are happening at the start of the new workweek, like UNESCO's annual press freedom conference, taking place in Lusaka, Zambia, today. CPJ called on the Zambian president to champion the media amid troubling recent attacks in the country.
>> Pope Leo said in his weekly Sunday prayer that press rights are "often violated, sometimes in blatant ways, sometimes in more hidden forms."
>> "With rising federal interference, press freedom is facing an existential threat in the United States," Jose Zamora and Justin Mazzola wrote in this essay for Amnesty International USA marking the day.
>> CNN anchor Omar Jimenez shared this message with viewers about the day.
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This year's Pulitzer Prize winners will be announced at Columbia University at 3 p.m. ET. I served as a nominating juror in journalism this year, so I can attest firsthand to the exceptional care and deliberation that the process receives. I know the other first-time jurors came away heartened by the incredible volume of prize-worthy journalism that was published last year.
The winners will be announced online here...
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Live streaming the Met Gala |
Vogue is ready for tonight: "Where to Watch the 2026 Met Gala Livestream" is the top story on its website, plugging the 6 p.m. start time for the publication's exclusive live stream. Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour are this year's co-chairs. "It is, quite literally, the year’s most expensive costume party," David Patrick Columbia writes, and literally every media outlet can find an angle. The Washington Post came up with a unique one titled "How do stars pee at the Met Gala? An investigation." CNN's Rachel Tashjian has a rich look at "the Jeff Bezos of it all" here...
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Jeff Bezos and his now-wife Lauren Sánchez at the 2024 Met Gala. Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images |
The Milken Institute's annual conference is getting underway in L.A. this morning. Among the hundreds of speakers, there are many notable media/tech names: Tom Brady, Eva Longoria, Shaq, Neal Mohan, Laurene Powell Jobs, Dina Powell McCormick, Ruth Porat, Dan Schulman, to name a few. I'll be moderating a session on Tuesday, so let me know if you're there too...
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Media companies reporting earnings en masse |
Liam Reilly notes: Paramount will report earnings after the bell today. AMC, after the bell tomorrow. Disney, before the bell on Wednesday. WBD, after the bell on Wednesday. News Corp, after the bell on Thursday. |
Daily Wire lays off staff |
Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire, one of the most ambitious right-wing media companies, made sizable cutbacks on Friday, prompting some detractors (such as former employee Candace Owens) to claim that more than half the staff was laid off. Editor in chief Brent Scher refuted that, saying, "It was nowhere near 50% of the company. That's insane, and also insane to post without verifying."
The company said the layoffs "were largely concentrated at our Nashville production office" as "our footprint there has evolved." A spokesperson told TheWrap that the company is expanding its northeast and D.C. teams.
>> Reaction from the right: Influencers to the right of Shapiro, including Nick Fuentes, have taken the cuts as a victory for Owens and the anti-Israel wing of MAGA.
>> Reaction from the left: "The social media/podcast universe is anti-incumbent," Neera Tanden wrote. "Joe Rogan sounds increasingly anti-Trump because his voters are increasingly anti-Trump. Progressive/center-left social media is rising."
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The NYT's two-hour Tucker interview |
Andrew Kirell writes: By now, you've probably seen Lulu Garcia-Navarro's lengthy NYT interview with Tucker Carlson — especially that defining moment when Carlson claims he's never suggested Trump is the "Antichrist," only for Garcia-Navarro to pin him down with an exact transcript from his podcast. Watch that here.
But elsewhere, it's interesting to see how much Carlson now freely (rather than just privately) dislikes Trump, yet at the same time almost entirely strips him of agency. He describes Trump as "hostage" to Benjamin Netanyahu's interests and says he went to war with Iran because of "pressure" from Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.
>> The NYT took lots of heat from the left for platforming, and therefore "mainstreaming," Carlson's conspiratorial, far-right views. "My job as a journalist and interviewer is not to sanitize or demonize his beliefs — it is to try and get him to articulate them clearly," Garcia-Navarro told the NYT's Patrick Healy in a separate interview about the interview.
>> CNN's Jake Tapper asked Jeanine Pirro about Tucker's "Antichrist" comment and whether it's as "incendiary" as James Comey's "86 47" seashell picture. "Whatever Tucker Carlson says is not relevant to me right now," she said.
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Maher challenges Newsom on Fox News suit |
On Friday, I mentioned that Gov. Gavin Newsom's defamation lawsuit against Fox News had advanced in a Delaware court. Fox said, "We respectfully disagree with the court's decision and plan to vigorously defend against this frivolous lawsuit as it's nothing more than a blatant attempt to silence free speech and weaken the First Amendment."
In a sit-down with Bill Maher over the weekend, Newsom defended the lawsuit, even as Maher said, "That sounds exactly like what [Trump] does, suing media."
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Trumpworld notes and quotes |
>> Speaking of Maher, Trump bashed him in a couple of different Truth Social posts over the weekend, objecting to the Newsom interview and complaining about Fox amplifying Maher's broadcasts. "DON'T USE BILL MAHER ANY LONGER AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF YOU!" the president wrote, seemingly giving Fox some all-caps editorial feedback. He called Maher "a MORON, though slightly more talented than Jimmy Kimmel."
>> This morning it was Van Jones' turn. Trump ridiculed the CNN commentator for working with him on criminal justice reform, then calling him a "dictator" and "far worse" on TV. If this sounds familiar, it's because Trump went on a similar rant in 2024.
>> Headline of the weekend via CNN's Daniel Dale: "Trump denied he made this remark about Iran. He made it on camera one day earlier."
>> In a weekend edition of Reliable Sources, I reported that the WHCA is moving forward with plans for a makeup dinner. It's a question of "when, not if, at this point," a source says.
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Some fantastic reads from the past few days:
>> Shane Shifflett and Hannah Critchfield present this chilling look at "America's new surveillance dragnet," showing how "technical wizardry used to combat illegal immigration also funnels the personal data and whereabouts of U.S. citizens to federal agents." The tools are sometimes used to single out people who lawfully record the actions of ICE agents. (WSJ)
>> T.M. Brown, in his CNN debut, shows how "a speculative story about dead and missing scientists went from the fringe to the White House." (CNN)
>> Allan Smith details how "Trump has lost control of the conspiracy theories" and is increasingly the subject of them. (NBC News)
>> Speaking of conspiracy thinking: Kate Zernike offers this empathetic portrait of Butler shooting victim Corey Comperatore's widow, Helen, who says, "Your mind goes crazy" with theories. (NYT)
>> Chauncey DeVega analyzes what it means to have the military's "independent newspaper captured by MAGA." (Salon)
>> Shalini Ramachandran documents "how YouTube took over the American classroom." (WSJ)
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