| Oliver Darcy here at 11:25pm Monday. In this edition: WaPo is calling on the WH to "speak out" against India's censorship, Tucker Carlson is telling viewers that its "child abuse" for kids to wear masks, and NYT is announcing it will no longer call articles from outside writers "Op-Eds." Plus, what outgoing Reuters EIC Stephen Adler said about objectivity, how Fox corrected its viral red meat error, and some analysis on the Oscars' record-low viewership. But first... Algorithms to face scrutiny
Usually, when social media executives are brought to testify in front of Congress, the hearings are centered on specific policies and types of content, misinfo and foreign interference, antitrust issues, and privacy concerns. What doesn't quite get as much attention are the engines that drive these platforms: their algorithms. That's what makes Tuesday's Senate Judiciary hearing with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube different. The hearing is entirely focused on social media algorithms.
"Nearly all social media platforms – including the three companies represented at Tuesday's hearing – use algorithms to curate what their users see and when they see it," Sen. Chris Coons, who is chairing the hearing, told me Monday. "These algorithms impact what billions of people read, watch, and think every single day, and it's critical that Congress and the American public understand how they work and how we can curb the amplification of misinformation and political polarization."
A second aspect that will differentiate Tuesday's hearing from others: none of the big CEOs will be in attendance. Instead, the companies are sending their heads of policy to answer questions. While that means the hearing will carry less buzz, it's possible it could lead to a more substantive conversation as the temptation for gotcha moments will be diminished. "Congress has shown that when CEOs are in the hot seat, members can't resist dunking on them," Casey Newton, who writes the Platformer newsletter covering tech, told me. "That's great for fundraising but generally terrible for advancing the conversation. Bringing in policy people could make for more constructive debate."
Another unique aspect about Tuesday's hearing: YouTube is finally testifying before a congressional committee. Usually, lawmakers call Google and its CEO Sundar Picahi to testify, allowing YouTube to avoid the scrutiny it might receive if it were present itself. But on Tuesday, the company's director of gov't affairs and public policy, Alexandra Veitch, will find herself in the hot seat.
"YouTube has approximately two billion users worldwide, and 70% of what those users watch comes from YouTube's recommendation algorithm," Coons told me. "While representatives from Google testify frequently before Congress, Sen. [Ben] Sasse and I agreed that it was critical to hear from YouTube directly given the platform's enormous influence in shaping opinions and beliefs around the world."
So what can we expect to actually see at the hearing? Renée DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory said its likely we'll — once again — see a divide between what Democrats and Republicans ask. DiResta said she expects Democrats to ask "about how algorithmic nudges are polarizing and/or radicalizing users, amplifying health misinformation, amplifying conspiracy theory communities." Republicans, she said, will likely ask "whether anti-conservative bias is built into moderation tools, or algorithms involved in the determination to down-rank content."
Joan Donovan, research director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center, will be one of the experts to testify. She said she will try to "highlight how the business model has driven design decisions at these companies in ways that put growth above all else, which has resulted in social media products that advantage media manipulators, disinformers, and other motivated misinformers." But, she cautioned, that "it's really hard to talk about all of these companies products in the aggregate," pointing out that "the problems of amplification on Facebook are not the same as YouTube or Twitter."
Lauren Culbertson, Twitter's head of US public policy, will emphasize to the Senate committee that algorithms are not all bad. "We use technology every day in our efforts to automatically improve outcomes and experiences for people on Twitter," she'll say in her prepared remarks. "We do that, in part, through algorithms. For example, our machine learning tools help identify potentially abusive or harmful content, including content that violates Twitter's Rules, to human moderators for review."
The future of regulation?
Neil Potts, Facebook's VP of public policy for trust and safety, suggested during a convo with me on Monday that Tuesday's hearing on algorithms is only the tip of the iceberg. "In the last decade, going through 2020 with the pandemic as a capstone, there has been a lot of focus on content," Potts said. "I think people are going to be moving the discussion beyond that to algorithms. And whether that is algorithms on social media, algorithms in the financial sector, algorithms in the health care space, algorithms more broadly — I think that is going to be the next wave of interest and potential regulation..." FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE Driving coverage heading into Tuesday:
-- The 2020 Census: The results from the Census Bureau are the lead story across most major news orgs. NYT's headline: "U.S. Population Over Last Decade Grew at Slowest Rate Since 1930s..." (NYT)
-- Coronavirus: "US to share AstraZeneca shots with world after safety check..." (AP)
-- Policing in America: "Attorney for Andrew Brown Jr.'s family says video of fatal police shooting shows 'execution...'" (CNN) WaPo calls on WH to "speak out" against India's censorship
India's demand that social media companies remove posts critical of its coronavirus response has received swift backlash here in the US. WaPo's editorial board on Monday said the country's "attempts to suppress" speech "can't be ignored" and called on the US and other countries to "stand up" to Modi's admin. "The White House should speak out against this encroachment on expression for an additional reason: India is teetering toward authoritarianism, but it isn't there yet," WaPo's editorial board wrote... TUESDAY PLANNER TIME is launching a new editorial initiative, called TIME Business, and within that, a new list: The TIME100 Most Influential Companies. It'll be out on Tuesday morning...
New book releases include Amy Klobuchar's "Antitrust" and Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry's "What Happened to You?"
POTUS will speak about the Covid-19 response at 1:15pm ET...
Alphabet reports earnings after the close... CDC to update mask guidance...
This is a big moment for Biden in a week full of big moments. He is expected to announce Tuesday that the CDC has updated its mask guidance. "Updated" in this context should mean loosened, especially with regards to outdoor usage of masks. Dr. Scott Gottlieb laid out the reasons in this widely shared WSJ piece over the weekend. In any case, the CDC's new guidance may merely be catching up to the ways many Americans are already living their lives. As Alec MacGillis put it the other day, "the regional divides are extraordinary now." Ideological divides, too...
Tucker goes off the deep end  On Monday, Tucker Carlson (unsurprisingly) planted the goal post in extreme territory. Carlson railed against the mandates of wearing masks at all, saying there is "no scientific justification for any mask mandate anywhere" and calling them "signifiers of shame and submission." Carlson said that when people see others wear masks outdoors, they should ask "politely but firmly" to take them off. Carlson then said having children wear masks outdoors "should be illegal" and that the correct response from bystanders in that case should be to "call the police" or "contact child protective services" immediately. He called it "child abuse" and said people are "morally obligated to attempt to prevent it."
>> Of note: Fox itself has required the use of masks indoors. Given that the face of the network is now saying there is no justification for "any mask mandate anywhere," I pinged a network rep to see if the company's policy had changed. I didn't hear back... FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- "This is really, really dangerous," Asha Rangappa says. "Listen to his tone of voice, and what he's instructing. He's moving from his viewers passively consuming his propaganda to having them act on it — against their neighbors. He's testing his audience's compliance...." (Twitter)
-- Charlie Sykes: "So now 'Freedom!' = calling the cops..." (Twitter)
-- "Our son's friend has an immunocompromised sibling. The friend wears a mask outside. So I ask our kid to do so when his friend is over to make him comfortable," The Dispatch's Rachael Larimore says. "It's called kindness..." (Twitter)
-- Will Trump film a vaccine PSA? Some of his advisers are "encouraging him to make a public service announcement encouraging his followers to roll up their sleeves," Elizabeth Cohen reports... (CNN)
Fox (very gently) corrects its report on red meat consumption
Fox anchor John Roberts on Monday gently admitted that the network's coverage about Biden supposedly trying to force Americans to eat less red meat was not accurate. "A graphic and a script incorrectly implied that it was part of Biden's plan for dealing with climate change," Roberts said. "That is not the case."
While it is great Roberts did correct — I was surprised the network addressed the matter at all — the anchor took no responsibility at all. The lie was widely shared across right-wing media and the correction was nowhere near how forceful it should have been. As Daniel Dale noted in his story, "The graphic went viral online; it was amplified on Twitter by Donald Trump Jr., the Republican governors of Texas and Idaho and others. But it was entirely wrong..."
>> Jake Tapper: GOP officials are serving "red meat lies to the base about red meat..." "Smartmatic may be frustrated," Fox says in legal brief
Fox on Monday filed a new legal brief in response to Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit, arguing that the voting tech company "strains to make this lawsuit seem like a garden-variety defamation suit rather than a glaring threat to core First Amendment freedoms." In the brief, Fox added, "Smartmatic may be frustrated that it became embroiled in a heated national controversy, but one cannot supply voting technology and expect to avoid the spotlight. Controversy comes with the territory. And it was the President's allegations, not the press's coverage of them, that put Smartmatic in the spotlight." Of course, Smartmatic disagrees with the role Fox played. In a legal brief earlier this month, Smartmatic said Fox personalities "were not innocent bystanders and the disinformation generated during their interviews was no accident..." The WSJ's NBC close-up
On Monday morning WSJ's Ben Mullin came out with the first major profile of NBCU News Group chief Cesar Conde. Among the bits of news: Lester Holt recently extended his contract to anchor "NBC Nightly News;" Tom Llamas has officially joined the network as a senior national correspondent and a prime time anchor on NBC News Now; and "top talent" will "likely be asked to produce content for streaming services including Peacock." With regards to MSNBC and CNBC, Mullin says Conde "has emphasized fiscal discipline, centralizing oversight of the news networks and cutting executive positions that each channel has had up to now" – a mere hint of the turmoil behind the scenes.
Another point of tension is captured in Tuesday's print headline for the story: "NBC News Chief Pushes Streaming as TV Fades." But as Mullin noted, TV is what's lucrative... FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- ABC News comms chief Julie Townsend is stepping down for a new role in an "entirely different industry," details TBA... (Variety)
-- Donie O'Sullivan, one of the regular contributors to this daily digest, has received a well-earned promotion: He is now a CNN correspondent... (Twitter)
-- CNN announced two other promotions on Monday: Whitney Wild is now a law enforcement correspondent and Priscilla Alvarez is now a reporter. Plus, Natasha Bertrand is joining the network from Politico... (CNN)
-- Pioneering disinfo reporter Craig Silverman is leaving BuzzFeed after six years. Silverman is heading to ProPublica to cover "voting, platforms, disinformation and online manipulation..." (ProPublica)
-- Nikole Hannah-Jones is joining UNC's Hussman School of Journalism and Media in July as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism while remaining with NYT... (UNC) No more Op-Eds at the NYT
Brian Stelter writes: "Kathleen Kingsbury is applying some common sense to the Opinion section of The New York Times. 'Editorials will still be called editorials,' written by the paper's editorial board, but the articles by outside writers that historically appeared opposite the editorials -- the Op-Eds -- will have a new name, she announced Monday. They 'will be known going forward as 'Guest Essays,' a title that will appear prominently above the headline,' she said. I think this is a big improvement, since many readers scarcely know what an Op-Ed is supposed to signify..." Adler argues objectivity is "goal worth pursuing"
Outgoing Reuters EIC Stephen Adler published a note Monday with "a few final thoughts." In the note, Adler called for reporters to "keep opinions and agendas out" of journalism. "These days, many of our peers disparage 'objective journalism' as dishonest, given the reality that everyone brings their biases and life experiences to their work," Adler wrote. "While of course no one can be completely objective, that doesn't mean objectivity isn't a goal worth pursuing."
Adler argued that, when done well, "It gives us an agreed-upon set of facts. It fights polarization. It acknowledges that life is full of complexity and that articles of faith aren't the same as facts. It aims for fairness to sources and subjects. And though our attempts at objectivity are destined to be imperfect, how well has opinionated journalism served us?" FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR -- Jon Allsop writes about the limits of the news "peg." He points out, "The idea of the peg privileges novelty over substance, and neglects problems whose broad contours tend not to change, or to change slowly: Poverty. Violence. The climate crisis..." (CJR)
-- WaPo's fact-checking team has a roundup of the "false and misleading claims" Biden has made during his first 100 years. The team says, however: "After four years of a presidency that swamped Americans with a gusher of false and misleading claims, the Joe Biden era has offered a return to a more typical pattern when it comes to a commander in chief and his relationship with the facts..." (WaPo)
-- CNN commentator Rick Santorum drew widespread criticism over comments he made about Native Americans. He said in a short statement that he had "no intention of minimizing or in any way devaluing Native American culture..." (Deadline)
-- Philip Bump wrote that in Santorum's "simplified version of American history, Native Americans are a footnote..." (WaPo) The rollout begins...
"Apple on Monday started enforcing a rule introduced last year requiring developers to use a pop-up notification seeking permission to gather data that can be used to track users across third-party sites and apps," Stephen Nellis reported for Reuters. "Facebook has said the rules could harm its customers. Some mobile advertising analysts believe fewer than one in three users will opt-in, which could diminish the effectiveness and profitability of ad targeting..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- Mike Isaac and Jack Nicas look at how Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook "became foes..." (NYT)
"After BuzzFeed News reported on an internal document that examined the social network's failings leading up to the Capitol riot, many of Facebook's employees were prevented from accessing it," Ryan Mac, Craig Silverman, and Jane Lytvynenko report... (BuzzFeed)
-- "Roku on Monday notified its users via email that YouTube TV may be forced off its platform entirely, alleging anti-competitive demands from Google that include requests for preferential treatment of its YouTube TV and YouTube apps," Sara Fischer reports... (Axios)
"Virtual tipping, long a way for fans to support their favorite creators in China, is slowly starting to catch on in the United States," Kaya Yurieff writes in her debut for The Information... (The Info) Carrie Ann Inaba announces leave from "The Talk"
"The Talk" co-host Carrie Ann Inaba will take a leave of absence from the CBS talk show, she announced on Monday. "I wanted to let you know personally that I have decided to take a leave of absence from The Talk to focus on my well-being," Inaba said in a video posted to her Twitter. "I know you guys understand: health is the most important thing." Deadline's Alexandra Del Rosario has more here...   Oscars viewership plunges to new low
Frank Pallotta writes: "The 93rd Academy Awards tried to cover for a lost year in film with a lot of intrigue, but none of that could save the Oscars from turning in the lowest-rated telecast in the show's history — by a sizable margin. The awards show drew an average of 9.8 million viewers for ABC on Sunday, according to early Nielsen numbers. That's 58% below the ratings from last year's show, the previous lowest-rated Oscars, which brought in 23.6 million viewers. The show remains one of the most-watched broadcast events, but its viewership represents a steep drop from what the show used to bring in. Just seven years ago, the Oscars nabbed more than 40 million viewers..."
Lowry's POV
Brian Lowry writes: "The producers of the Oscars acted like they were playing with house money, seemingly using the freedom that came with diminished expectations to experiment with a presentation bound by tradition. But their emphasis on creating an in-person experience for the recipients/nominees – a logistical feat – and celebrating their business forgot about the viewing audience, coming at the expense of the show. For years, we've wondered what would happen if winners were allowed to talk without fear of interruption. Alas, now we know."
>> Lowry adds: "More practically, the off-a-cliff numbers for the Oscars follow similar ratings performances by other award shows, which won't make that reality any easier to swallow – or ABC's interest in goosing the ratings less pressing. While this year can be viewed as an anomaly, given the steady decline one suspects all kinds of proposals will be on the table, including the 'popular film' category that was entertained and nixed a few years ago and potentially excising a few lower-profile categories from the broadcast. Of course, it's possible that people have simply lost the awards habit, and there's no way to fix a show built around fragmented nominees that most of the audience hasn't seen, where all the highlights are available shortly after they're broadcast..." Notes and quotes
-- Steven Zeitchik says the drop in ratings over the years "pose the question of whether the Oscars can bring Americans together over a shared love of movies — as it has for many years as the second-most-watched live TV event after the Super Bowl — or a niche event that celebrates an industry and satisfies fans but is not a unifying force in pop culture..." (WaPo)
-- Brooks Barnes and John Koblin called this year's dismal ratings a "body blow" for the film industry which they described as "already fighting to hold its place at the center of American culture..." (NYT)
-- Peter Kafka with the counter-view: "Terrible TV ratings for the Oscars are bad for the TV business, and for the Oscars. Not for the movie business or film's place in culture..." (Twitter)
-- "Although it was the streamers in this Oscar Year of the Pandemic that had hoped to break through in the big categories, in the end it was the traditional major studios — mostly thanks to their specialty divisions — that ruled the day at the 93rd annual Academy Awards," Pete Hammond writes... (Deadline)
-- "While there was some promise of a unique experience, particularly as Regina King strutted through Union Station in Los Angeles as colorful credits popped up on screen, showcasing the presenters of Sunday's program, ultimately the show slipped back into old form," Sarah Whitten writes... (CNBC) FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN -- Michael Schneider has the "lowdown on how this year's ceremony came together" via ABC's Rob Mills... (Variety)
-- Nominees and winners reflect on "an awards season unlike any other..." (THR)
-- "According to Sir Anthony Hopkins, people on the internet were not the only ones surprised by his historic Oscar win for best actor Sunday night," Lisa Respers France writes. "The 83-year-old thespian became the oldest winner in the acting category for his performance as a man grappling with dementia in 'The Father,' which was considered a bit of an upset over the late Chadwick Boseman..." (CNN)
-- Another one from Lisa: "Glenn Close has always been a national treasure, but on Sunday she literally showed us what she's working with. She may have lost out on an Oscar for an eighth time, but she still won the evening by doing 'Da Butt...'" (CNN) LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Dog of the day!
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