| Brian Stelter here at 10:44pm ET Sunday with the latest on NYMag, George Will, Tribune, Clubhouse, 'Wrath of Man,' and much more...
The billionaire beat
This era of extreme wealth, expanding inequality, and expected oversharing has given rise to a new beat: Covering America's billionaire class.  Consider just the past few days of headlines: Lots of news and noise about Elon Musk's turn hosting "SNL." New revelations about Bill Gates' divorce. No shortage of opinions about how Mark Zuckerberg should handle Donald Trump's suspended Facebook account.
On a more personal note, new complaints about Zuckerberg's land holdings in Hawaii. And at least two eye-popping stories about Jeff Bezos: One about his new superyacht that will come with its own "support yacht," and another about his sale of nearly $2.5 billion in Amazon stock. Bezos is also the subject of a new book, "Amazon Unbound," by Brad Stone, which hits on Tuesday.
This is a different category of coverage than, say, the classic Forbes lists, or the daily Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world's richest people. Those lists certainly have some value; both Forbes and Bloomberg have dedicated "wealth" teams that do good work. But as the world's richest men and women have an outsized impact on the rest of us, they merit an outsized amount of attention and scrutiny too.
"The other side of inequality"
On Twitter, Recode reporter Teddy Schleifer describes his beat as "billionaires in America," which means subjects like philanthropy, money-in-politics and inequality. "The media does a great job of covering inequality from the lens of the poor," he told me. "But there's actually shockingly little coverage of inequality from the lens of the mega-rich. What motivates these people? Do they feel guilty for, say, getting wealthier during COVID — or is it not their fault? How do they channel their billions into a form of soft power through political donations and philanthropy? I do see the billionaire beat as public-service journalism because it can help us understand the other side of inequality: What it's like to be outrageously rich. It's a challenging beat given all the gatekeepers and fluff, but more newsrooms should be trying to answer these questions."
How to cover the world's richest man
Amazon "is a secretive company and he's a secretive person," Stone said when I asked about his book-length coverage of Bezos and Amazon. So: How to puncture the Bezos bubble? "Fortunately there is a lot of turnover at Amazon," he said, "and there's a vast population of employees who are kind of willing to talk and describe what they saw at the revolution." As for access to Bezos directly, "he's really only done a handful of public appearances, usually with a kind of friendly questioner, and nothing recently," Stone said. Plus, "he's got a lot of channels to go directly to his customers and to his fans." All worthy of scrutiny!
The world's second richest man cracks jokes
On "SNL," Musk "didn't waste any time jumping into jokes about his Twitter account, smoking weed with Joe Rogan, and his son's name," Frank Pallotta wrote in this recap. Musk also shared that he has Asperger's syndrome. "To anyone I've offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I'm sending people to Mars in a rocket ship," Musk said. "Did you also think I was going to be a chill normal dude?"
>> Among other firsts, Saturday's "SNL" was the first time the show has ever been live-streamed internationally, via YouTube...
Musk's show – not very funny?
Brian Lowry writes: "Here's my knee-jerk, 'Old man yells at cloud' reaction to 'SNL:' It was another mostly mediocre episode, in a second half of a season filled with them. The fact that there's a need to make much more out of it because of Musk's appearance/profile frankly says as much about the current traffic-driven media environment as the show itself. And the preliminary ratings -- which show a modest lift, but not a huge one -- are pretty well indicative of how media bubbles can skew one's perceptions..."
There's nothing funny about this
The most-read story on the WSJ website Sunday night was headlined "Melinda Gates Was Meeting With Divorce Lawyers Since 2019."
Emily Glazer and Khadeeja Safdar reported that the Gates divorce was in the works for years. Like this NYT story about the "separate worlds" of the two philanthropists, the Journal story is largely attributed to insiders and other anonymous sources...
"Perhaps the billionaires can't hide any longer"
That's what Stone remarked to me after we got off the air on Sunday. "Social media has put everyone at arms-length," he said. "Everyone in their orbit has a story about them to tell. Elon is an example of someone who has embraced it and bent it to his will, conscripting his following into a fandom. Bezos and Gates are more old-school, and don't do it nearly as gracefully..." SPEAKING OF BEZOS...
Some intel about the WaPo editor search
On Sunday's "Reliable," Stone said that Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan has been leading the search process for a new exec editor, but Bezos is intimately involved: "Last week I understand that Bezos was in Washington and interviewing some of the finalists for that role..." FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- CNN.com's lead story right now: "A violent weekend across the US." The homepage notes shootings in NYC's Times Square, downtown Phoenix, and a town in Massachusetts, among others... (CNN)
-- The weekend's deadliest mass shooting was in Colorado Springs, where six were killed at a birthday party. "It was Colorado's worst mass shooting since a gunman killed 10 people at a Boulder supermarket March 22," the AP wrote. So in other words, the worst in six weeks... (AP)
-- A Sunday morning news dump? "Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit tested positive for elevated levels of betamethasone..." (CNN)
-- My better half Jamie's televised tribute to the Obamas' family dog: All of our four-legged friends should get an extra treat and belly rub in honor of Bo today..." (Twitter) Media week ahead calendar
The grand reopening continues...
Monday: Kimberly Godwin starts work as the new president of ABC News...
Monday: I'll be speaking at PolitiFact's virtual event, United Facts of America. Other speakers during the week include Christiane Amanpour and Dr. Anthony Fauci...
Monday: "The Crime of the Century," Alex Gibney's two-part dive into the opioid epidemic, premieres on HBO...
Tuesday: New books include Jake Tapper's "The Devil May Dance," Stacey Abrams' "While Justice Sleeps," and Andrew McCarthy's "Brat: An '80s Story..."
Tuesday: The IAB Podcast Upfront starts at noon and runs through Thursday...
Tuesday: The BRIT Awards will take place at 3pm ET...
Thursday: Disney will report earnings after the close...
Friday: IAC shareholders will vote on a spinoff of Vimeo...
Friday: Barry Jenkins' limited series "The Underground Railroad" disembarks on Amazon... FIRST LOOK
NYMag's Andrew Yang cover
Claire Malone authored the cover story in the next issue, which is billed as "a look inside Andrew Yang's pivot from presidential campaign to New York City mayoral campaign." The cover photo is by Mark Peterson... And the story will be online at 6:30am ET Monday...  There are 'multiple big lies'
"Allegiance to a lie..."
The AP is the most even-handed, plain-vanilla news outlet of them all. (And I mean that as a compliment. Who doesn't love vanilla?) So it's remarkable, perhaps, that the AP is publishing a lead like this:
"Allegiance to a lie has become a test of loyalty to Donald Trump and a means of self-preservation for Republicans," Calvin Woodward wrote over the weekend. It is all based on a lie, indeed, but some news outlets still struggle to say so, using weasel words like "unproven" instead...
Insurrection memory loss?
More disturbingly, some right-wing outlets are downplaying the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill and ignoring all the legal and political fallout since. Perhaps they're trying to erase the shame of the riot – in any case, I think the press needs to take this effort seriously. I interviewed a memory expert, psychology professor Dan P. McAdams, who suggested that these Trump-aligned outlets are trying to "change the meaning" of the insurrection, not so that it's forgotten per se, but so that the "meaning" is more benign. By changing the "story" that's told about the afternoon of terror, he said, it might be remembered as a largely peaceful gathering, leading folks to think that "we should cut them all a break and move on..."
ON A RELATED NOTE...
Should 'sedition caucus' lawmakers be booked on TV?
This Q has been in the ether for weeks, and Margaret Sullivan raised it in a recent WaPo column. When GOP lawmakers who backed Trump's bid to overturn the election results are booked on TV, Susan Glasser said on "Reliable," "it's most important that there be accountability in the questioning..." FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- President Biden will deliver remarks about the economy at 1:15pm ET Monday...
-- In a new piece for WaPo, Jennifer Rubin backs Biden while blasting the media's "remarkable degree of overreaction coupled with a short attention span and refusal to grasp nuance." She says "normal governance means the instant 'take' and the premature prediction of doom are often wrong..." (WaPo)
-- Ron Klain to Mike Allen on "Axios on HBO" Sunday: "I wouldn't want to estimate or underestimate Donald Trump as an opponent if he chooses to run..." (Axios)
-- Coming soon: Dana Bash's interview with Caitlyn Jenner will air Monday on "AC360..." (CNN) Nerd immunity!
I'm trying out this new phrase. What do you think of it? If we're not going to reach herd immunity as a country, we need to reach nerd immunity – enough of us have to be well-informed enough to safely come out of the pandemic coma. I suppose "nerd immunity" is whatever the opposite of Foxitis is... How to 'unlearn'
As cases dissipate, thanks in part to the vaccines, is it time to "unlearn" some Covid-era norms? Some thoughts:
-- Zeynep Tufekci's latest: "Why did it take so long to accept the facts about Covid?" (NYT)  -- "We do need to start being more liberal, as we get more people vaccinated," Dr. Anthony Fauci said on "This Week..." (ABC)
-- Meantime, on "Face the Nation," former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb said indoor mask rules could be lifted in "the states where prevalence is low, vaccination rates are high, and we have good testing in place..." (CBS)
-- Masks are still a useful tool, but "as more people get vaccinated and infection rates fall even further, we are going to have to start thinking about when we can loosen indoor mask restrictions," Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote in a new column... (CNN)
-- WH Covid response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said on "SOTU" that "the CDC guidance across time will allow vaccinated people more and more privileges to take off that mask," but I have to say, words like "allow" and "privileges" seem quite tone-deaf... (CNN)
-- From Sunday's "Reliable:" Journalists are feeling more "empowered to ask hard questions" of public health authorities, Amanda Marcotte said. At the same time, as David Zurawik pointed out, memories of the pandemic's peak are still fresh... (CNN) FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- "Tearful reunions" marked the second Mother's Day of the pandemic... (AP)
-- Dr. Jonathan Reiner on CNN Sunday evening: "I have two questions for Tucker Carlson. Number one, have you been vaccinated? And number two, why won't you tell your audience whether you've been vaccinated? I'm tired of his nonsense..." (Twitter)
-- In Monday's NYT: When Covid-19 spread around the world, China activated the "existing media infrastructure" that it "has put in place globally..." (NYT) Condemnations of the DOJ
The weekend was full of journalism-world condemnations of the Trump DOJ's newly revealed snooping on WaPo reporter call logs. "This is yet another deeply disturbing example in a series of violations by the Trump administration of America's trust in government and an outright assault against the press and the First Amendment," the leaders of the National Press Club said.
Did Trump's leak-hunters also subpoena the phone records of other reporters from other outlets? "I think it's certainly possible," WaPo's Devlin Barrett said on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." We noted that Obama's DOJ engaged in the same practice, and now the Biden DOJ is defending what the Trump admin did in this regard. "There is a culture of leak hunting that has just been growing and growing inside the government for a long period of time," Barrett said. Watch... Time is running out for Tribune Publishing
Tribune Publishing shareholders are set to vote on Alden's takeover bid on May 21. Will an alternative buyer for the papers be able to stave off the so-called "vulture" hedge fund? On Sunday's show, I interviewed two reporters at Tribune-owned papers who have issued last-hour pleas for local owners to come forward: Liz Bowie of the Baltimore Sun and Larry McShane of the NY Daily News.
>> McShane said that when he wrote "Please buy this newspaper" the other day, "we heard right away... from one wealthy New Yorker who expressed interest." Bowie said she believes there's still a chance Alden will lose out: "I'm betting on Stewart Bainum." Watch... Ethics award ceremony on Monday
The Center for Journalism Ethics at UW–Madison is hosting a virtual ceremony for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics on Monday evening. This year's recipients are Margie Mason and Robin McDowell of the AP for their investigation of labor abuses in the production of palm oil. The ceremony will feature Lynsey Addario in conversation with David Maraniss... FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR -- A must-read column by George Will: "What my 80 years have taught me..." (WaPo)
-- "After more than a year of iOS exclusivity, social audio platform Clubhouse is releasing its Android app." The move comes as Clubhouse adoption has slowed way down... (The Verge)
-- "How much is your tweet worth?" Or to put it another way: Is anyone really going to make serious money from Twitter's new Tip Jar feature? (WaPo) A SPAC pull-back
"This was the supposed to be the Summer of Digital Media," CNBC's Alex Sherman wrote over the weekend. "Amidst a boom of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), companies including Buzzfeed, Vice, Vox, Bustle and others targeted this summer as a likely timeline for going public. Five months into the year, executives and advisors now think that's not going to happen." He wrote about why...
>> Looiking ahead: "Buzzfeed is still expected to find a SPAC partner later this year," per Sherman's sources, but Vice and Bustle have "pulled back..." How to catch up on Sunday's Reliable
If you were at brunch with your mom during this morning's show, you can catch the highlights on CNN.com, watch the full episode through CNNgo or VOD, or listen to the podcast edition via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app...  "Wrath of Man" was #1 for the weekend
"Jason Statham starrer Wrath of Man easily won the weekend box office with a pleasing domestic debut of $8.1 million," THR's Pamela McClintock reports. She says United Artists Releasing and Miramax "wisely decided to relocate the film's release domestically to Black Widow's old date of May 7 after the superhero pic relocated to mid-summer amid the ongoing pandemic. They also wanted to take advantage of the popularity male-skewed films have been enjoying as some moviegoers begin returning to the multiplex..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- HBO Max has delayed "The Prince," "an animated series created as a satirical take on Britain's royal family," in light of Prince Philip's death... (THR)
-- Gal Gadot has expanded "on previous reports of director Joss Whedon's alleged abusive behavior on the set of 'Justice League,' saying in a new interview, 'he threatened my career...'" (TheWrap)
-- Sonia Rao writing about Showtime's newest series: "Can an Internet phenomenon work on cable? 'Ziwe' just might..." (WaPo) LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST...
Pet of the day!
Bill writes: "This is Dyson. He was nine years old when we adopted him from our local shelter about six weeks ago. He is available for commentary on 'Reliable Sources' and promises to do his best George Will/bow tie if invited to appear."   Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback anytime. I'll be back tomorrow... Share this newsletter:
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