Why Amazon-MGM deal would be a milestone; how Biden tries to 'pierce the bubble;' Tuesday's front pages; Fox's promotion; John Oliver's takedown of sponsored content

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Brian Stelter here at 11:12pm ET Monday with the latest on Amazon, Andrew Yang, Instagram, The AP, Bob Chapek, AMC, Stephen Colbert, "Eternals," and more...

This week's major media deal...

"Last week: Succession pics for mega media mergers," CNBC's Steve Kovach observed. "This week: James Bond pics for mega media mergers."

That's because, in the words of the WSJ, Amazon is "nearing a deal to buy the Hollywood studio MGM Holdings for almost $9 billion including debt." Watch for an announcement as soon as Tuesday. The deal would "turn a film operation founded in the silent era into a streaming asset for the e-commerce giant," Juliet Chung, Joe Flint and Erich Schwartzel wrote.

MGM has been looking for a buyer for years. The current talks with Amazon were underway before WarnerMedia (CNN's parent) and Discovery announced a tie-up last week. The Information revealed the Amazon-MGM talks on the same day as that announcement, and the two parties have been inching toward the finish line ever since.

Why this deal would be a milestone

"Big tech companies have been eyeing big media companies for years — but they've never gotten together before," Recode's Peter Kafka wrote Monday. "Now it's finally, probably happening."

Along with the Bond library, Amazon would be picking up assets like the "Pink Panther" movies and "The Handmaid's Tale" TV show. "Amazon has spent many billions on video without much to show for it, and thinks owning a studio — and, crucially, the rights to the intellectual property the studio owns — could help it create Really Big Movies and TV Shows You Really Want To Watch," Kafka wrote. "Not so much because it wants to own streaming, but because it wants you to keep coming to Amazon..."

Is Amazon paying too much?

Last week Variety's Brent Lang and Cynthia Littleton said "industry executives are stunned" by the nearly $9 billion price tag. "Their shock comes from a belief that the price tag severely overvalues the studio," the pair reported. "Other companies have kicked the tires on MGM at various points during a stop-and-start sales process that has been dragging on for months. Industry insiders say that the true value of the studio is more in the $5 billion to $6 billion range along with the assumption of some debt. Even then, they are skeptical that MGM's prize asset, its stake in the 007 franchise, can be properly monetized." More here...

Lowry's take

Brian Lowry writes: "Seeing a few people questioning why Amazon would buy MGM amid renewed reports that the parties are close to a deal. The simple answer: To secure the content to run through its pipes, which is becoming an increasing challenge as studios hoard their libraries to stock the shelves of their own streaming services. Hence the reason I got a press release today from Netflix for 'new international films coming this week,' as services cast their nets farther and wider in pursuit of fresh titles...."

Top notes and quotes

-- "The deal would be Amazon's second biggest after Whole Foods," BI retail analyst Poonam Goyal notes...

-- "While many companies have looked and passed" on MGM, "the pandemic changed the way all the tech companies value movies," Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw writes...

-- WaPo's Steven Zeitchik: "A lot of us have looked at Amazon-MGM as Amazon getting a whole bunch of new properties to play with. And it will. But an equally valid way to view it is the embattled MGM, suddenly revived, with a whole massive distribution arm to put out its work."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Danny Fenster, an American journalist working in Myanmar, "was detained by local authorities Monday" as he "tried to board a flight out of the country..." (CNN)

-- "Are US Officials Under Silent Attack?" That's the title of this new Adam Entous piece about Havana Syndrome... (New Yorker)

-- Don't miss James Poniewozik's column about Andrew Yang, titled "The Post-Embarrassment Media Campaign..." (NYT)

-- Speaking of Yang, the next mayoral debate in NYC will be in-person, not on Zoom, thank goodness... (WABC)

Marking one year since George Floyd's murder

Memorial events and marches will mark Tuesday's anniversary of George Floyd's death. Members of Floyd's family will meet with President Biden and other politicians in DC. And many media outlets will publish special stories and reports. Here's the front page of Tuesday's USA Today, full of stories about an "American reckoning..."

TUESDAY PLANNER

Vimeo is expected to begin trading as a public company, separate from IAC, under the symbol VMEO...

New book releases include Edward-Isaac Dovere's "Battle for the Soul" and Jordan Ellenberg's "Shape..."

The "This is Us" season finale airs on NBC...

"Mike Tyson: The Knockout," a two-part documentary, premieres on ABC...

Stations initiate reviews after airing bogus 'sex blanket' spots

Oliver Darcy writes: "Two local TV stations are conducting reviews after a humiliating segment by HBO's John Oliver. The segment about sponsored content was aimed at highlighting how easy it is for less-than-honest characters to purchase their way onto shows that look and feel similar to a newscast. To do this, Oliver — not me, the other Oliver! — duped three stations into running promotional spots for a bogus 'sexual wellness' blanket supposedly using Nazi Germany-era technology. A spox for KVUE-TV told me that 'while it is a commercial spot, it was an error to air it, and we are reviewing our processes, so this doesn't happen again.' And a spox for Scripps, KMGH-TV's parent company, said it is 'vetting our review processes for non-news segments to ensure our stations follow the proper standards.' A spox for KTVX-TV parent company Nexstar, however, declined to acknowledge any error and said it had no comment..."

The blurred line is the whole point

Brian Lowry writes: "What the station responses to that John Oliver segment conveniently ignore is the whole point of this sponsored content – that it looks like one of their newscasts, and is designed to lull viewers into watching without realizing it's advertising. The central thesis of the piece, in fact, hinges on the way these paid-for spots use station talent to blur the line and mislead viewers. A 'review' of practices might prevent another blatant fraudster from slipping in, but only an altered policy will address that..."

Fox names Rachel Campos-Duffy as weekend co-host

Oliver Darcy writes: "After unceremoniously disclosing on Friday afternoon that Jedediah Bila would depart the network as co-host of 'Fox & Friends Weekend,' Fox announced Monday that Rachel Campos-Duffy will be taking her spot. The swap of Bila for Duffy represents yet another case where the network has prioritized a more MAGA-friendly personality over someone who was more critical of the Trump movement. It also suggests that Campos-Duffy is out of the running for the weeknight 7pm slot which she had tried out for recently..."

>> Justin Baragona points out: "With Fox News announcing Rachel Campos-Duffy as Jedediah Bila's replacement on Fox & Friends Weekend, let's flashback a few months when Campos-Duffy was endorsing social media attacks on Bila when she filled in as guest host on F&F Weekend..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Fox also announced that Lawrence Jones "has been named an enterprise reporter for Fox & Friends and will continue to fill in as a guest host," Alex Weprin writes... (THR)

-- Jeremy Barr talked with new-ish MSNBC president Rashida Jones about winning over younger viewers by focusing on streaming... (WaPo)

-- Rick Santorum "would rather not apologize for racist remarks than keep his job as a commentator with CNN," Erik Wemple writes. He adds: "All contributors screw up from time to time, and Santorum's resistance to apologizing isn't just a personal tic, but a banner trait of the Republican Party's leader. It tends to trickle down..." (WaPo)

-- Speaking of Santorum, he reemerged on Sean Hannity's show Monday. Hannity asked, "I assume the application's in at Fox?" Santorum laughed it off... (Twitter)

How Biden tries to 'pierce the bubble'

This Ashley Parker joint abut Biden's daily routine is the most-read story on the WaPo website right now, and it includes some info about his media habits. "Biden is not a voracious consumer of TV, but he does watch the morning shows when he's working out, usually CNN's 'New Day' or MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,'" Parker writes. "While still in the White House residence, he's delivered a hard copy of 'The Bulletin,' a compilation of the morning's news clips. It includes local and national news, TV transcripts, editorials and headlines from that day's front-page stories." Stories from the News Journal in Wilmington, Del. are sometimes included.

"Another way Biden tries to pierce the bubble is absorbing nonpolitical news," she writes. During the campaign, "Biden would regale aides with human interest tidbits from Apple News, an app that came preloaded on his iPhone and that he apparently never replaced. One longtime adviser recalled that the headlines were often oddities like 'World's largest moth' and 'Japanese woman is 119 years old.'" Read on...

So he's serious?

Oliver Darcy writes: "As NYT's Charlie Savage pointed out Monday, when Biden vowed to prevent the DOJ from seizing the records of reporters, it 'raised the question of whether administration officials would try to walk back' his statement. After all, Biden made his comments off the cuff while facing questioning from Kaitlan Collins. And, as Savage noted, 'the Justice Department, under presidents of both parties' has engaged in such behavior. But Jen Psaki appeared on Monday to sort of confirm that would be the case. Asked whether Biden had communicated his wishes to AG Merrick Garland, Psaki said that Biden had 'made those comments quite publicly, so everyone, I think, is aware.' Still, Savage noted in his story that Garland 'declined to comment on Monday when asked about Mr. Biden's remarks and whether they were now policy...'"

Belarus updates

While dissident journalist Roman Protasevich spent a second night in prison, leaders in the EU and US demanded his release and worked on potential reprisals against Belarus. Here's the front page of Tuesday's FT:

There are mounting fears for Protasevich's safety and "widespread fury over the diversion of a European commercial flight," CNN's team reports. Biden issued a statement on Monday evening, calling the episode "a direct affront to international norms" and deploring the "shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press."

--> Anne Applebaum's warning: If Belarus gets away with this, "authoritarian dictators around the world will have a new tool of oppression..."

He's a "hybrid type of media activist"

Protasevich co-founded a Telegram channel that became "a reliable source of verified information for protesters to coordinate their moves," per CNN. Different news accounts have described him as a journalist, an activist, a dissident, etc. When I came across this quote in an FT story, it all made more sense. "Many Belarusian activists realized ten years ago that activism was not enough to win, and that in journalism you can do much more. At the same time, journalism cannot win alone," Franak Viacorka said. "And this hybrid type of media activist appeared and Roman was one of them."

--> "Reporters are the heroes of our time, in eastern Europe and everywhere else," Timothy Snyder writes in a post reacting to the recent news...

--> For further context, read CPJ staffer Gulnoza Said's piece for CNN.com...

Standing up to Modi

"Indian media have gone easy on Modi," but that's "changing because of the pandemic," Diksha Madhok reports in this excellent piece for CNN Business.

The accountability journalism "has surprised many readers: India's vast media have become increasingly subservient to Modi's government since the Hindu nationalist was first elected prime minister seven years ago," Madhok writes. "The ruling party has used a range of tactics, ranging from forcing advertisers to cut off outlets that are critical of its policies to shutting down channels, to ensure the press is reshaped into its cheerleader." But the pandemic catastrophe has changed that in some cases. While some outlets have pulled punches, others have swung harder. Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- The WH press briefing room stepped up to 50% capacity on Monday... (Twitter)

-- "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday that aims to punish social media companies for their moderation decisions, a move that Silicon Valley immediately criticized and likely sets the stage for potential legal challenges," Cat Zakrzewski reports... (WaPo)

-- "The legislation also gives Florida residents the ability to sue tech companies for de-platforming," CNN's story notes. Hmmm, Donie O'Sullivan tweeted, "any Florida resident that this might apply to?" (CNN)

-- Meanwhile: Facebook VP Nick Clegg identifies "four areas" where he believes progress on internet regulation "could be made quickly with a bipartisan approach..." (CNBC)

-- NYT's Shira Ovide pointed out this hole in Clegg's logic: "Effective internet regulation in Washington does exactly ZERO about bad internet regulations in India, Turkey, China or any other country..." (Twitter)

-- Brian Fung and Rishi Iyengar recapped the closing arguments in the trial between Apple and Epic Games... (CNN Business)

Trump complains: My blog is not a "platform!"

Oliver Darcy writes: "When Fox published its ~scoop~ earlier this year that Trump was launching a blog on his website, pretty much everyone joked at the fact that the outlet had referred to it as a new 'platform.' It appears Trump himself has also been unhappy with that framing. In a statement put out Monday, Trump said, 'This is meant to be a temporary way of getting my thoughts and ideas out to the public without the Fake News spin, but the website is not a platform.' Alright, then..."

>> Darcy adds: "In his statement, Trump also claimed that he has been 'doing very limited media.' But as ABC's Will Steakin noted, it's actually quite the opposite. Trump has been calling into Fox shows, chatting with OAN and Newsmax, and even called into Dan Bongino's radio show Monday..."

>> Mediaite's Josh Feldman nailed it: "Trump Puts Out a Lengthy Statement in Response to Report That No One Cares About His Statements..."

AP leaders try to tamp down uproar

More than 100 employees at the Associated Press signed onto an open letter calling for more transparency about the firing of Emily Wilder. Later in the day, senior managers circulated a memo vowing to have new discussions about "AP's approach to social media." The memo didn't say anything new about Wilder, except that "much of the coverage and commentary does not accurately portray a difficult decision that we did not make lightly."

In short, AP leadership said they're ready to talk about possible changes to the social media policy. But the editors and execs had less to say about the problem of bad faith actors dredging up tweets to destroy careers. The open memo from employees said "we need to know that the AP would stand behind and provide resources to journalists who are the subject of smear campaigns and online harassment... Once we decide to play this game on the terms of those acting in bad faith, we can't win." Management said it is committed to supporting staffers in those circumstances, but the rank and file clearly isn't feeling that support right now...

-- On a semi-related note, outgoing exec editor Sally Buzbee's name was not on the memo. She told NPR's David Folkenflik she was not involved in the Wilder firing at all...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Kerry Flynn:

-- TIME announced it has more than 2 million paid subscribers, along with a slew of new leadership changes and new hires... (TIME)

-- Kate Dwyer writes: "The Binders isn't a secret anymore. Where does the giant Facebook group go from here?" (Nieman Lab)

-- Kayleigh Barber looks at Meredith's goals following news of it selling its Local Media Group to Gray. "Southern Living has been a blue print for this multi-platform expansion," she writes... (Digiday)

-- Holly Ojalvo is joining The Fuller Project as deputy editor, "overseeing U.S. coverage of issues involving and affecting women and girls..." (Talking Biz News)

-- Victor Hernandez is joining WBUR as the station's first-ever Chief Content Officer... (WBUR)

-- Sarah Larson writes about "Dateline" and why it "remains the true-crime king..." (New Yorker)

For a friend

CNN's Josiah Ryan writes: "Anderson Cooper ended his show tonight with a tribute to Faith Kleppinger, a former 'AC360' writer known for her talent at writing and music, as well as her ability to break Cooper with laughter in 'The Ridiculist.' Faith was diagnosed with a rare appendix cancer in February. 'AC360' executive producer Charlie Moore and Cooper visited her at home just last week, where she is 'facing it the way she has always faced things, with grace, strength and humor,' Cooper said. 'We sat in the shade outside and talked and laughed and we told Faith we loved her.' Watch the full segment here..."

Condolences to the Pantheon family

"Dan Frank, a revered and longtime editor at Pantheon Books who worked with such prize-winning authors as Art Spiegelman, Charles Baxter and Jill Lepore, died Monday," the AP reported. He was 67. He was "the public face of Pantheon" for decades, "setting the tone for the house and overseeing the list," Reagan Arthur wrote in a company memo...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Kaya Yurieff's latest: "Instagram is 'exploring' subscriptions and a marketplace for NFTs, said Instagram head Adam Mosseri in an interview..." (The Information)

-- What happened in Huntington Beach over the weekend? Taylor Lorenz has the must-read story of "how a 17-year-old's birthday party became the biggest thing on the internet..." (NYT)

-- "If you're a small investor and own shares of AMC Entertainment, don't be surprised if you get a Twitter follow" from CEO Adam Aron. He is "looking to get to know his investor base better by becoming more active on Twitter," Charlie Gasparino reports... (Fox Biz)

-- "Scrounging for Hits, Hollywood Goes Back to the Video Game Well," Brooks Barnes writes: "After decades of game-to-film flops, a new effort, led by Sony, aims to adapt big PlayStation and Xbox franchises for movies and TV..." (NYT)

"Flexibility is good"

Via Deadline, here are some of the takeaways from Disney CEO Bob Chapek's comments at the J.P. Morgan tech/media conference on Monday:

-- Regarding the plan to release "Black Widow" in theaters and online for a premium price, Chapek said "one of the things we learned" during the pandemic "is that flexibility is good..."

-- "Asked about the company's gauge on box office, he said it remains 'fairly weak' in the U.S. but has shown strength in a few international markets. 'We're seeing some hesitancy to return' by some moviegoers, he said..."

-- "Soul delivered a 'huge boost' to Disney+, Chapek said, though he did not quantify it..."

-- "The performance of Disney+ has been a helpful guide in terms of setting theatrical strategy, Chapek said. 'When we release a new piece of content, people are lined up at midnight' to watch it as soon as it goes live on the streaming service, he said." His point: Fans don't have the patience to, let's say, wait 45 days for a buzzy film to leave theaters and start streaming. They'll go to the theater to see it...

Colbert will have a live audience again starting June 14

Monday's announcement about the return "of a live audience to Ed Sullivan Theater is a big moment for late night TV," Frank Pallotta writes. "Not only does the theater house the largest audience of any of the late night shows (its capacity is 400 people), but the return of an audience seemingly closes an era in late night TV" marked by remote production and other pandemic changes.

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will welcome back a full and fully vaccinated audience starting June 14. More here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- Marianne Garvey writes: A new teaser trailer for "Eternals" dropped on Monday... (CNN)

-- "Lindsay Lohan, who has largely foregone acting in recent years, will soon star in a yet-to-be-titled Netflix holiday rom-com," Kate Aurthur reports... (Variety)

-- Nellie Andreeva speaks to TV studio chiefs about their takeaways from this year's upfronts... (Deadline)

-- Speaking of the upfronts, Lesley Goldberg "rounds up the decisions that raised" her eyebrows..." (THR)

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...

Pet of the day!

Jon Entine emails a photo of his canine and his daughter's horse: "Teddy takes Owen out for a ride this past weekend, prepping for the Belmont Stakes. He's hoping to participate…via Zoom!"