| Say hello to the weekend! Oliver Darcy here at 8:25pm ET on Friday, July 9. Stephen Colbert will host Virgin Galactic's livestream, the FTC will reportedly probe Amazon's MGM deal, and Knewz is no more. Plus, Fox News denies Michael Wolff's new reporting, Jim Rich resigns from G/O Media, and "Black Widow" is set for the biggest opening in years. But first...
It is becoming more and more evident that right-wing outlets that give oxygen to the Big Lie are helping to foment possible violence next month when some far-right conspiracy theorists believe Donald Trump will be reinstated as president. And you don't have to simply take my word for it. The Department of Justice is making the case.
CNN's Marshall Cohen reported Friday that the DOJ argued this week that Trump's "delusional claims that he'll be reinstated to the White House could fuel more political violence from his supporters."
"Trump continues to make false claims about the election, insinuate that he may be reinstalled in the near future as President without another election, and minimize the violent attack on the Capitol," prosecutors wrote in the filing. "Television networks continue to carry and report on those claims, with some actually giving credence to the false reporting."
It's notable that the DOJ is taking notice of some of the nonsense being peddled by far-right networks. But it isn't just occurring there. Sites like The Gateway Pundit — which, yes, are on the fringe, but have significant viewership and frankly represent where the GOP base is these days — are also feeding into the theory. And some pro-Trump influencers, such as Mike Lindell, are also playing it up...
Donie O'Sullivan writes: "Two weekends ago outside a Trump rally in Ohio a man told me that Trump would be reinstated as President in August. When I asked him what would happen if he wasn't, he said there would be a 'civil war.' The comment stopped me in my tracks as another man had said pretty much the same thing to me at a Trump rally in Georgia 48 hours before the insurrection. There is a lot of highly charged rhetoric around all of this. For a lot of people I speak to, the talk is just that. Those people might never act on it — but others are quite serious. There was conspiracy theory talk of a Trump return on March 4th that led to heightened security at the Capitol. What is different about the talk of Trump's reinstatement now, as opposed to March 4th, is Trump is flirting with the notion himself. He seems to have pulled back a bit from the notion in his recent rallies but continues to tell people to watch and see what happens in Arizona..."
On the topic of Arizona: Newsguard on Friday released findings from a study it conducted that took notice of The Gateway Pundit's "outsized role" in promoting the election "audit" in Arizona and "spreading related false claims" about it. According to Newsguard, The Gateway Pundit accounted for over five percent of all social media engagement on news articles about it from Jan. 20 to June 20. In fact, according to the study, The Gateway Pundit is running more stories about the Arizona "audit" than reliable local news sources, effectively flooding the zone with B.S.
>> Another key point: The Newsguard study found that The Gateway Pundit's coverage has driven coverage among other unreliable news sites which "published an additional 485 articles about the audit from Jan. 20, 2021, to June 20, 2021, that explicitly reference The Gateway Pundit..."  Media diet matters
If you haven't read it yet, this piece in FiveThirtyEight from the Public Religion Research Institute's Natalie Jackson breaking down how the various degrees of extremism in the Republican Party relate to media diet is worth your time. One key point Jackson makes is that while polling shows most Fox News Republicans believe the Big Lie, they are less enthusiastic about it than those who get their news from fringier outlets such as OAN.
"We don't yet know whether Republicans are choosing their different media sources based on preexisting views, or whether the media sources are actively shaping those views," Jackson wrote. "It's likely that both forces are at play. But what we do know is that far-right news sources are attracting a small but growing proportion of Republicans — many of whom either already held or developed extreme views — while Fox News, once the go-to source for many on the fringe of the party, may no longer be a hotbed for some of the GOP's most extreme beliefs."
Marshall Cohen writes: "The irony is that Trump and the media ecosystem that pushes his baseless claims never suffer any consequences from their words. But their most loyal supporters are paying the price. Prosecutors have, for instance, used Trump's rhetoric — and its inciting impact — to argue against freeing Capitol rioters from jail, or against loosing their release conditions..." FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- "A California man arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection showed up disguised as a member of the press, prosecutors alleged in newly unsealed charging papers," Zoe Tillman reports... (BuzzFeed)
-- Philip Bump says that Tucker Carlson's NSA claims "are the latest example of the right wing's rhetorical bait-and-switch..." (WaPo)
-- Matt Gertz points out that vaccine hesitancy on the right, "which Fox hosts have done little to combat and much to encourage, will almost inevitably lead to the premature deaths of some members of its audience..." (MMFA)
-- Here's just one of many examples: Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt on Friday said that "when it comes to medical privacy, [the Biden Administration has] become like the Taliban..." (Raw Story)
-- "Although Trevor Noah is technically on his summer hiatus, someone on 'The Daily Show' team took on the task of compiling a 15-minute supercut showcasing Sean Hannity's 'worst...'" (Mediaite) WEEKEND PLANNER The 2021 ESPYS, hosted by Anthony Mackie, air Saturday at 8pm on ABC...
On Sunday, the 2021 MLB Draft airs at 7pm ET on ESPN...
Game 3 of the NBA Finals airs 9pm ET on ABC...
"The History of the Sitcom" premieres on CNN at 9pm...
"Forensic Files II" premieres on HLN at 10pm...
And "Shark Week" begins on Discovery and discovery+... Colbert to host Virgin Galactic's livestream
Billionaire Richard Branson will launch into space on Sunday morning -- and, in addition to coverage destined to appear on cable news, Stephen Colbert will host the official Virgin Galactic livestream of the event. That event is set to begin at 9am ET and will be streamed on Virgin Galactic's site here. CNN Business will also be sharing the livestream and running a live blog. Our Jackie Wattles has a primer here...  This Sunday on "Reliable"
Brian Stelter writes: "On the morning of Branson's voyage, I'll be joined by Nicholas Schmidle, author of 'Test Gods,' his inside look at Virgin Galactic. Plus: Teddy Schleifer, Karen Attiah, Donie O'Sullivan, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Philip Bump, and more. See you Sunday at 11am ET on CNN..." FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- Some more space-related news: Kristin Fisher is joining CNN as a space and defense correspondent after leaving Fox earlier this year. She says she's "absolutely thrilled..." (Twitter)
-- Paul Farhi reports on how TV news crews "are increasingly threatened with violence" on the job. "In recent months, local TV news crews have faced verbal and physical abuse while on the job," Farhi writes. "A few reporters have been injured. Some have been robbed or had equipment damaged..." (WaPo)
-- "Six months since Trump left office after dispatching a mob to ransack the Capitol, the journalists who covered Trump are still not fully adjusted to the post-Trump reality," Julia Ioffe writes... (Tomorrow Will Be Worse)
-- "Media companies used to be the biggest sellers of advertising globally. Then tech giants took that title. Now, in a post-pandemic world, every industry that has a digital presence is trying to build an ad revenue line," Sara Fischer reports... (Axios) FTC probe of Amazon's MGM deal?
That's what it seems like, per The Information's Josh Sisco. "Any hopes that Amazon had of completing its $8.5 billion purchase of movie and TV studio MGM anytime soon may have just gone out the window," Sisco wrote. "The Federal Trade Commission on Friday opened an in-depth investigation into the deal, according to people familiar with the matter, setting the stage for a lengthy probe that could last six months or more..." "I'm a Twitter addict and I don't care"
That was the headline on a fantastic piece from FT's Henry Mace. The piece was inspired by an article from The Atlantic's Caitlin Flanagan, which suggested people should quit the site. Mace said he chose to do so for a day. "I read a book without thinking which excerpt I would photograph and share later. For 24 hours, my purpose in life was not to entertain users named Owllookout and The Levitate Guy with my offhand opinions. But I also missed Twitter because a lot of the stuff on there is . . . quite good. A lot of the people I have met there are now . . . my friends. Of all the delusions of Twitter addiction, the biggest one is that we would be better off without it." FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- That said, while Twitter is great, it does have a dark side: On Friday, Twitter booted white nationalist Nick Fuentes. "Long after a bevy of other platforms—among them YouTube, PayPal, and TikTok—had booted him, Twitter finally stripped his access for unclear reasons," Ali Breland wrote... (Mother Jones)
-- More nuggets of info are dropping from Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang's Facebook book, "An Ugly Truth." Mike Allen obtained an excerpt detailing how Facebook discovered Russian meddling... (Axios)
-- Peter Weber writes that "the Trump presidency left Facebook deeply unpopular and wealthier than ever..." (The Week)
-- "TikTok will start automating video removals for nudity and more in the US," Jacob Kastrenakes reports... (The Verge)
-- Addison Del Mastro writes about "experiment YouTube" and notes that "at its best, it points to a decentralization and democratization of knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing..." (Bulwark) Fox denies two of Michael Wolff's claims
Brian Stelter writes: "Michael Wolff's 'Landslide,' which is in the top 50 on Amazon's best sellers list ahead of Tuesday's publication date, is beginning to be picked apart. (If you feel like you've seen this play before, it's because you have.) Fox denied two specific claims in the book on Friday: First, that Rupert Murdoch was personally involved in Fox's decision to call Arizona for Biden; Fox says 'this account is completely false.' And second, that Bill Hemmer called Jason Miller to give Team Trump a heads up about the projection ahead of time. Neither of these claims made sense to me; I devoted several chapters of HOAX to Fox and election week, including to Hemmer's televised surprise about the Arizona call. But Miller told Erik Wemple that Wolff's account is correct, which Wolff also pointed me toward. 'I checked back with Fox News, which utterly stands behind its denial,' Wemple wrote. Bottom line: This is familiar terrain for Wolff. Every time he releases a book, there are doubts and disputes and denials..." "Knewz is no more"
News Corp. finally put the kibosh on Knewz, the befuddling news aggregation site it launched in early 2020 with the hopes of taking on Big Tech titans such as Google. "We started Knewz as an experiment in news aggregation because we wanted to gather a diverse range of quality journalism, to highlight all sides of every story and to protect and project provenance," a message posted to the site Friday read. "We certainly had provenance, but not profits, and so we bid Knewz farewell." The message added, "Knewz is no more, but here are links to some of the world's most trusted news sources." That was followed by links to News Corp. properties such as WSJ and New York Post, but also strangely Realtor.com and Mansion Global.
>> More details here from WSJ's Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg: "About half a dozen staffers have been working on Knewz.com, including some News Corp employees on a part-time basis. Those people will continue with their other work, the company said. News Corp said it was encouraging the remaining staffers to apply for other company openings..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR -- Erik Wemple writes that "awards buoyed" former NYT international photo editor David Furst and gave him "tremendous leverage over champing-at-the-bit independent photojournalists..." (WaPo)
-- Nicole Childers will be NBC News' exec editor of business, tech, and media... (Twitter)
-- Jane Lytvynenko says she has left BuzzFeed for Joan Donovan's team at Harvard... (Twitter)
-- Missed this yesterday: WaPo's Tony Romm has switched beats. He's now a congressional economic policy reporter... (Talking Biz News) Jim Rich resigns from G/O Media
"G/O Media's top editorial employee has left the company following internal clashes with other higher-ups," The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani scooped Friday, citing multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. "Jim Rich, who oversaw the portfolio of popular digital media publications including Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Onion, Lifehacker, and several others sites, resigned on Friday afternoon. He confirmed to The Daily Beast that he was no longer with the company, but would not elaborate on the circumstances for his departure..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- "In his new HBO docuseries 'Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes,' which premieres July 12," Ronan Farrow "doesn't hold back from accusing NBC of cozying up to Weinstein and derailing his story — but stops shy of connecting the dots like he did in his 2019 book of the same name," Cheyenne Roundtree writes... (Daily Beast)
-- "THE INK IS BLACK, THE PAGE IS WHITE and the matter involving Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor at ESPN is replete with enough third rails to make a hot-coal walker put on boots," writes Jim O'Donnell... (Daily Herald)
-- Rafia Zakaria writes that Nichols' words "confirm the fears faced by women of color..." (CNN)
-- Kailyn Rhone writes about Ohio University's student newspaper: "The Post faces an existential crisis after more than 100 years of operation..." (Teen Vogue) Apple in talks with NFL about Sunday Ticket games
"Apple has expressed interest in the streaming rights for a package of National Football League games the NFL is now auctioning, said people familiar with the situation, a possible sign the tech giant is looking to beef up the audience for its Apple TV+ streaming service," The Information's Sahil Patel reported Friday. Patel noted, however, that Apple is "one of a number of companies, including TV networks and other tech firms, that have had discussions with NFL executives lately about the package of games, including at this week's Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley for tech and media executives." And, the tech giant isn't seen as a serious contender... Weekend reads...
By Katie Pellico:
-- Eric Levitz writes that "Tucker Carlson's populism is for the small-town rich..." (Intelligencer)
-- Did you read "Cat Person"? Alexis Nowicki says the viral story "draws specific details from" her own life: "I've spent the years since it published wondering: How did she know?" (Slate)
-- Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, the organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi, writes: "New Khashoggi revelations show we don't have the full story about his killing. The Biden administration must disclose what it knows..." (WaPo)
-- A must-read from Noor Brara. With insights from reality TV stars and producers, Brara reveals how an editing trick known as "Frankenbiting" has "hurt people on both sides of the camera" -- and why TV stars are pushing back... (Vanity Fair)  "Black Widow" set for biggest opening in years  Frank Pallotta writes: "'Black Widow' opened Thursday night to $13 million and is set to become the biggest opening since 2019. That's welcome news for a theater industry desperately trying to rebound from a pandemic that put the future of movie-going into serious doubt. 'The return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to cinemas has long been one of the keystone dates circled on the calendar,' BoxOffice.com chief analyst Shawn Robbins told me..."
"I think this impacts the culture of re-watching movies"
Marvel's next phase
Brian Lowry writes: "The long-delayed arrival of 'Black Widow' bids farewell to one of the original cinematic Avengers, as Marvel pivots to the next phase of its master plan – one that will mix old and new, as well as movies and streaming. Up next are two new movies based on 1970s comics, Shang-Chi and Eternals, with a lot of sequels to follow. But the real prize might be Marvel's ability to put its stamp on a Fantastic Four reboot, after two previous adaptations under 20th Century Fox before its acquisition by Disney..." FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX -- "Oscar-nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig has officially signed on to direct 'Barbie,' the highly-anticipated big-screen take on the iconic Mattel doll's story, starring Margot Robbie," Angelique Jackson reports. Filming is slated to start in 2022... (Variety)
-- Brooks Barnes has the deep-dive into "Hollywood Barbie's moment" and how Mattel, "in the throes of a financial comeback, has 13 films in the works..." (NYT)
-- "TV movies are starting to get a bit of heat in the digital age. The classic movie of the week genre was a staple of the 1980s but has subsided over the last few years," Peter White writes... (Deadline)
-- Here is the first look image from HBO Max's "And Just Like That," the reboot of "Sex and the City." James Hibberd notes, however, that "absent from the project is the fourth series regular from the original series, Kim Cattrall..." (THR) Lowry recommends "The White Lotus"
Brian Lowry writes: "It's early, but HBO delivers what looks to be one of the summer's best shows with 'The White Lotus,' a six-part limited series from Mike White that focuses on the tension and class divide between staff and guests at a luxury resort. 'Fantasy Island' this isn't, and it might make you think twice before striking up a conversation at a hotel pool..." Streaming services aren't immune from larger industry forces
Brian Lowry writes: "Netflix has canceled some very expensive first-year fantasy/sci-fi series, with 'Cursed' — an adaptation of the graphic novel built around the Arthurian legend -- being the latest, Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reported Friday. That follows the recent one-and-done run of 'Jupiter's Legacy.' It's a reminder that the streaming services and pay networks — see HBO's recent decision not to continue with 'Lovecraft Country' — aren't immune to the forces that shape the rest of television; they're just better at hiding them..." AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Pet of the day!
The Revelator editor John Platt emails: "Lulu lost her hearing a few years ago, but she still has a better nose for news than two cub reporters combined..."   Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback and send us your tips anytime. We will be back in your inbox Sunday evening! Share this newsletter:
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