Vaccine tipping point; guidelines will 'loosen' soon; post-pandemic tech; Earth Day news; W.W. Norton halts Blake Bailey's book; recovering from burnout

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Happy Earth Day. 🌎 Brian Stelter here at 11:01pm ET Wednesday with the latest on "Zoom fatigue," Netflix, Reuters, W.W. Norton, "Planet Possible," Spider-Man, and "Jeopardy!"

A public in need of guidance

On one extreme there are Covid deniers. On the other extreme there are "pandemic addicts" who, it seems, never want this period to end. And in between there are the vast majority of Americans who just want common-sense guidance about what to do when, where and how, now that vaccines are widely available. More than 40% of Americans have gotten a shot, according to the latest CDC data. "We are approaching an inflection point," Dr. Sanjay Gupta said Wednesday, "where vaccine supply may outstrip demand." Tensions may rise between the vaccinated and un-vaxxed. Masks may lead to more frequent fights as spats may break out between the comfortable and the cautious.

Back in March 2020 Matt Pearce of the LA Times observed that "we are all coronavirus reporters now." The pandemic touched every beat in the newsroom. And that's true again now as life edges back to normal, guidance or no guidance. In the past week there have been a critical mass of stories questioning outdoor mask mandates; trend pieces about the "power lunch" making a comeback; and features about people who are very anxious about all of that.

That provocative phrase from the top, BTW, "pandemic addicts," is borrowed from Yashar Ali, who took exception to complaints about Dr. Ashish K. Jha saying on CNN that it's safe to be "out and about walking around without a mask." The data backs him up, but Jha was heckled by some twitterers. Ali responded, "Some of you are truly pandemic addicted to the point where a reasonable physician appearing on CNN is treated like a danger to the public. If you want to wear a mask outdoors, wear one!"

To me, this is another instance of the proper authorities failing to communicate about risk and reward in a way that everyone can digest...

Time to loosen up

Dr. Anthony Fauci recently signaled that new guidance is imminent. And White House Covid adviser Andy Slavitt was more specific in an interview with Jake Tapper on "The Lead" Wednesday afternoon. He said the CDC is "in the process of putting together further guidance" for vaccinated Americans, about outdoor masking, for instance. "I'm quite confident that over the next couple of weeks and months, those questions will be answered, those guidelines will absolutely loosen," he said...

This is partly a media literacy problem

Calming details buried beneath overly-dramatic headlines. Reassuring info hidden next to alarming anecdotes. Vaccine media coverage has been quite messy, at times, so the makers of the Breaking News Consumer's Handbook over at "On The Media" created a special "vaccine edition" with advice. Check out the radio segment here... Along with this ten-point list:

"We've got to do it"

"Victory over Covid will not involve its elimination," David Leonhardt wrote earlier this week. "Victory will instead mean turning it into the sort of danger that plane crashes or shark attacks present – too small to be worth reordering our lives." To that point, on Wednesday another new study showed that "for fully vaccinated people, the risk of still getting Covid-19 -- described as 'breakthrough infections' -- remains extremely low."

Everyone brings their own wants and needs, hopes and fears to this dialogue. Everyone wants to move at their own speed. But the movement is THE dominant story now. Leonhardt quoted the aforementioned Dr. Jha, who said it was hard to go out for an unmasked drink with a fellow-vaxxed friend for the first time. But once he was there "it was awesome," he said. The key quote: "There are going to be some challenges to reacclimating and re-entering. But we've got to do it."

My favorite headline of the day

It's on this CNN Opinion piece by Greg Bardsley. The title: "The people who saved us deserve a ticker tape parade." Let's sing the praises of the scientists, he writes: "Let's give them ticker tape parades that would have made Neil Armstrong blush. Let's commission a national monument in Washington. Let's do musicals and documentaries and Oprah interviews and TikTok videos and halftime shows in their honor." Let's even name cocktails after them, he writes. I'll drink to that! 🍸

"Tech in the Post-Pandemic World"

Telecommuting, virtual education — now is the time to work through these issues, and Kara Swisher helpfully cues them up in her newest NYT column. Swisher urges "a huge amount of investment going into making online learning both accessible and engaging," because right now "it's decidedly not — and the opportunity is glaring." Can media firms help?

>> BTW, Swisher also mentions this: "After the 1918 pandemic, the 1920s saw a burst of aggressive ideas, most especially with the introduction of the television." What'll be the equivalent invention this time around?

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- In response to the growing and frightening Covid crisis in India, "people are bypassing the conventional lines of communication and turning to Twitter to crowdsource help for oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and other requirements..." (Reuters)

-- Back stateside, Kaiser is out with new #'s predicting "a tipping point on vaccine enthusiasm in the next 2 to 4 weeks..." (CNN)

-- Dan Diamond's latest: "Stop talking about the possibility of coronavirus booster shots. Don't bully people who are vaccine holdouts. And if you're trying to win over skeptics, show us anyone besides Dr. Fauci. That's what a focus group of vaccine-hesitant Trump voters urged politicians and pollsters during the weekend..." (WaPo)

-- Mia Sato wrote about the startup media company Epicenter-NYC "is helping people get vaccinated" by booking appointments... (MIT Tech Review)

-- A new phrase courtesy some Stanford researchers: "Zoom fatigue." Kate Smith says "the study's authors began looking into Zoom fatigue after experiencing it themselves..." (CBS)

-- A growing trend: "Fully vaccinated fan sections" at ballparks and other venues, with masking but without social distancing... (WSJ)

-- Frank Pallotta interviewed NBC's Seth Meyers about this strange TV season and his complex feelings about bringing studio audiences back... (CNN)

THURSDAY PLANNER

Happy Earth Day!

AT&T reports earnings before the bell... and Snap reports after the close...

President Biden will convene a two-day virtual summit on climate change...

Daunte Wright's funeral will begin at 1pm ET in Minneapolis...

The All Access Audio Summit continues, remotely...

The day after

One day after the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict, word of a DOJ investigation into the Minneapolis P.D. led the network nightly newscasts. The fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding 16-year-old girl was also in the "A" block. "Here we are," CNN's Chris Cuomo said, "trying to figure out what comes next..."

-- Via Omaha.com: A conservative radio host in Nebraska "was fired Wednesday after posting an offensive tweet" about the verdict...

"Fox News Fixates On Post-Chauvin Verdict Violence — That Never Happened"

"Updating the 'if a tree falls' thought experiment to the current political-media landscape, one might ask, 'If a jury verdict does not lead to violent protests and riots, can pundits still complain about them?' The answer is a resounding yes, at least among pundits on Fox News," Mediaite's Colby Hall wrote. Tucker Carlson led this charge but he wasn't alone... When I turned on the TV at one point in the afternoon, Fox was running 11-month-old riot footage...

-- Wednesday night's Mediaite headline about Tucker's show: "Carlson Laughs at Democratic Congressman for Tweet Condemning Replacement Theory"

-- I'll be on "CNN Tonight with Don Lemon" at 11:30pm ET with more on this subject...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- "The truth of the Floyd murder threatens the fragile white-grievance ecosystem that Carlson has fashioned on Fox News's airwaves," Erik Wemple writes. "It speaks to the systemic racism that Carlson so commonly mocks..." (WaPo)

-- Carlson is "just a front man for the larger enterprise churning along behind him. The Murdochs call the shots," Tim O'Brien notes... (Bloomberg)

-- "Reality, or even internal consistency, doesn't matter on the right anymore. All that does is advance a simple narrative: Anything that is celebrated by the left must be bad," Alex Shephard writes... (TNR)

-- Jim Acosta talks with Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the media and why he believes it is crucial reporters stand up for press freedom... (Lucid)

-- Just announced: This year's winners of the Scripps Howard Awards include NPR's David Folkenflik, WaPo's Stephanie McCrummen, and teams from CBS, WaPo, Frontline, and the NYT... (Scripps)

Five recommended reads!

-- Adam Liptak on "the Supreme Court's increasingly dim view of the news media..." (NYT)

-- Kate Lý Johnston's powerful piece about families, Facebook, and fear: "Young Vietnamese Americans say their parents are falling prey to conspiracy videos..." (BuzzFeed)

-- Alex Webb's deep dive into GB News: "Is the U.K. Ready For the Fox News Treatment? Not Quite" (Bloomberg)

-- Elizabeth Williamson's profile of an "Infowars-skewering podcast" that is now documenting Alex Jones' "downward slide..." (NYT)

-- Joe Adalian's look at AMC's niche streaming service for horror fans: "Shudder knows what you'll stream this summer..." (Vulture)

BREAKING

W.W. Norton halts Blake Bailey's book

W.W. Norton, publisher of the new Philip Roth biography by Blake Bailey, is halting the shipping and marketing of the book now that Bailey publicly stands accused of sexual assault. Bailey says the allegations are "categorically false and libelous." Multiple women have spoken on the record, and the NYT's Alexandra Alter and Rachel Abrams have details about a "previously unreported allegation" from 2015. The accuser, Valentina Rice, wrote to the head of Norton about it in 2018, "in the interests of protecting other women," and Rice said the publisher didn't respond. But Bailey did write to her -- a detail that disturbed many readers of this story...

Recovering from burnout

Kerry Flynn writes: "Kevin Roose's NYT story, 'Welcome to the YOLO Economy,' struck a nerve and sparked a larger conversation about the mental health crisis in journalism. While the thrust of Roose's piece focused on millennials joyfully quitting for what he called a 'postpandemic adventure,' he also interviewed Olivia Messer who left The Daily Beast citing 'profound exhaustion, loss, grief, burnout, and trauma.' In reaction to the piece, Messer tweeted, 'There's a 'messy conflation' here between folks who are 'flush with savings' and 'seeking post-pandemic adventure' versus folks who were grieving and didn't know how to get out of bed anymore and had to take time to breathe and recover, both mentally and physically.'"

Flynn adds: "Other journalists shared their burnout stories, including former Vice execs Derek Mead and Susie Banikarim. And Megan Greenwell, who recently announced she was leaving WIRED, offered to hold journalist coaching sessions with folks coping with burnout...'"

NYT launches quarterly "Global Days Off" to combat burnout

Oliver Darcy writes: "The NYT told employees Wednesday that it will give them an extra day off each quarter, given 'how hard the past year has felt.' In a memo sent to staff, execs said that the 'Global Days Off' are aimed at creating 'a few moments to reset as we have just come through a difficult period that has produced a sense of exhaustion, burnout and a need for respite for many...'"

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Reuters' new EIC Alessandra Galloni has appointed Gina Chua to be executive editor, with a broad portfolio, from budgets to tech initiatives... (Twitter)

-- The Reuters press release noted that "Gina transitioned in late 2020, making her one of the most senior transgender journalists in the industry." (Reuters)

-- Simon & Schuster CEO Jon Karp "is standing by its two-book deal with former Vice President Pence despite an employee petition against it..." (The Hill)

-- John Boehner's "On the House" debuted at #1 on the NYT's nonfiction lists... (NYT)

-- Well timed, in light of George W. Bush's book tour: Slate launched a new season of "Slow Burn," titled "The Road to the Iraq War," on Wednesday. Noreen Malone is the host... (Slate)

Eye on Verizon's ad biz

Kerry Flynn writes: "As Ben Smith declared in his recent column, ads are back. Verizon Media 'had its second consecutive quarter of double-digit YoY growth,' a fact that CEO Guru Gowrappan highlighted from Verizon's Q1 earnings report. To be more specific, that unit's revenue was $1.9 billion, up 10.4% from the year prior..."

"Hurricane season"

CNBC's Megan Graham writes: "Digital advertising's hot streak appeared to have lasted into the first quarter as travel starts to return and e-commerce spend persists, analysts say." Snap will report earnings Thursday, followed by Alphabet and others next week. "Bernstein analysts wrote that if the fourth quarter of 2020 was digital advertising's 'perfect storm,' then the first quarter of 2021, and perhaps the rest of the year, will be 'hurricane season,'" which in this analogy is a good thing, meaning evidence of strong digital ad growth...

>> Graham also notes that Apple's privacy change -- limiting the power of data collection features -- "goes into effect next week..."

>> And on that note, FB said Wednesday that "it is making changes to its advertising tools to comply with" Apple's update... (Reuters)

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Today's Capitol Hill + Big Tech news: "App makers blast Apple and Google in Senate hearing on app store policies..." (CNN Business)

-- Charlie Warzel writes about FB's forthcoming audio products: "In an idealized internet, these tools will help people. But we don't live on an idealized internet. And we certainly don't live on an equal one..." (Galaxy Brain)

-- Arielle Pardes writes about Angelhouse, a "Shark Tank"-like Clubhouse room in which "founders make a pitch to a panel of investors as hundreds of people listen in..." (Wired)

-- Instagram is launching a new tool "that will allow users to automatically filter out direct message requests containing offensive words, phrases, and emojis. The tool is targeted at celebrities and public figures..." (Verge)

-- Andrew Yang talks about his Twitter presence and explains that the site is his primary social platform "because it's what most journalists use..." (WaPo)

Reporters back on NYSE floor by September?

Oliver Darcy writes: "News orgs might regain access to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange by September, Fox's Charles Gasparino and Eleanor Terrett reported Tuesday. Gasparino said that sources told him and Terrett that 'they are eyeing a possible September date to reopen or at least filter back in the media to the floor.' Per the duo, the NYSE will reach out to members of the press 'in the next coming weeks to plot this return to the stock exchange and get those studios going again.' Gasparino cautioned, however, that the situation is fluid..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- "As extreme weather increases, climate misinformation adapts," David Klepper reports... (AP)

-- Just announced: National Geographic "is launching Planet Possible," a multiyear initiative to help people "live more lightly on the planet..." (NatGeo)

-- Mike Hale says this Earth Day brings "a full roster of new shows to stoke our guilt and maybe drive us to action..." (NYT)

-- The producers of "Jeopardy!" have unveiled "the final group of guest hosts who will round out" this season of: fan favorite LeVar Burton, plus David Faber, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, and Joe Buck... (Variety)

Netflix's Next Big Thing?

Frank Pallotta writes: "Netflix shares tumbled on Wednesday after the company whiffed on earnings, leading some to wonder what the future of the streamer looks like if its growth slows. 'If you hit a wall with [subscriptions] then you pretty much don't have a super growth strategy anymore in your most developed markets,' analyst Michael Nathanson told me. 'What can they do to take even more revenue out of the market, above and beyond streaming revenues?' Here are some ideas..."

>> "We do want to expand,'' Reed Hastings said Tuesday, but he also cautioned, "I wouldn't look for any large secondary pool of profits. There will be a bunch of supporting pools, like consumer products, that can be both profitable and can support the title brands..."

Sony and Disney make a deal

Frank Pallotta writes: "Sony and Disney announced a multi-year content licensing agreement Wednesday that brings Sony's titles to Disney's streaming services and channels in the US. That includes brands like Spider-Man. You're probably wondering, 'wait, didn't Netflix just make a deal with Sony?' Yes, Netflix has Sony's titles then they come exclusively to Disney's platforms (Disney has not yet announced which content is going where). Also, Disney gets library content that includes many of Sony's other titles as well..."

Five years since Prince's death

Lisa Respers France writes: "Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the death of musical icon Prince, and the world has not felt the same since he left us. Nowhere does that feel more true than in the city he both loved and helped to put on the map, Minneapolis. Racial strife existed in the city long before the murder of George Floyd -- a fellow Black man who also adored Minneapolis. But the trial of the police officer who caused his death, coupled with police recently killing another Minnesota Black man, Daunte Wright, have heightened racial tensions and attracted a global spotlight. In many ways it feels like Prince foretold that these days would come."

Read Lisa's full analysis here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- Tatiana Siegel captures the moment: "Is Hollywood's Wall of Silence on Scott Rudin Beginning to Crack?" (THR)

-- TheWrap asks another question: "Is Scott Rudin finished in Hollywood?" Beatrice Verhoeven reports that "few truly expect" Rudin "to withdraw entirely from the industry..." (TheWrap)

-- "'How I Met Your Father,' a spinoff to long-running CBS comedy 'How I Met Your Mother,' is finally set to make it to air," thanks to Hulu... (Deadline)

-- Lisa Respers France writes: "Chrissy Teigen has revealed her friendship with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex..." (CNN)

-- One more from Lisa: "Kim Kardashian West fangirled over 'Bridgerton's' Featheringtons being inspired by her family..." (CNN)

Why have an HFPA at all?

Brian Lowry writes: "In the wake the latest news of tumult involving the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- including the expulsion of former president Philip Berk, and the THR story about its diversity-and-inclusion adviser quitting -- some critics are moving on to a question that has probably been too long in coming: Has the organization outlived its usefulness, and can it be saved in its current form? "There is absolutely no reason for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to continue to exist," author Mark Harris tweeted, opening the door to a conversation not about fixing the group but scuttling it and starting from scratch. The bottom line there is that without NBC's support and platform -- and its big license fee to carry the Golden Globes -- the HFPA becomes an afterthought..."