| Brian Stelter here at 9:48pm ET on Monday, July 5. I hope you had as much fun this weekend as Mark Zuckerberg had on his surfboard...  Zuck marked the Fourth by uploading a video showing him carrying an American flag while riding a surfboard -- all to the tune of "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
"It may look like one of those deepfake videos," Gizmodo's Alyse Stanley joked, "but I swear to you: It's the real deal." Stanley pointed out that it's "the latest in a string of bizarre PR moments from ol' Zuck." Bizarre? I say it's brilliant. For amusement, check out the replies on Instagram, ranging from "this is the stuff meme dreams are made of" to "Is that a robot?" IN OTHER BILLIONAIRE NEWS...
Former Murdoch exec says Fox News is "poison to America"
Preston Padden, who worked under Rupert Murdoch at Fox Broadcasting in the 1990s, calls Fox News "poison for America." In a blunt Daily Beast piece that came out on Monday, Padden said that he has tried convincing Rupert to recognize what the poison is doing. "Over the past nine months I have tried, with increasing bluntness, to get Rupert to understand the real damage that Fox News is doing to America," Padden wrote.
"I failed, and it was arrogant and naïve to ever have thought that I could succeed," he added. "I am at a loss to understand why he will not change course. I can only guess that the destructive editorial policy of Fox News is driven by a deep-seated vein of anti-establishment/contrarian thinking in Rupert that, at age 90, is not going to change."
>> Oliver Darcy's take: "There is no turning back for Fox. Thinking otherwise is fantastical. The network made the decision long ago to head down a one-way street in search of profit. And its core viewership is now so radicalized that it's impossible for it to revert back to its former self without alienating them..." The Bezos hand-off
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is no longer CEO. Andy Jassy is in charge, effective Monday. But Bezos is still executive chair. Hopefully Lauren Sanchez threw him a party to mark the handover. It's important to note that Bezos "will still have tremendous influence at Amazon for years to come, by virtue of being its largest individual shareholder," as Clare Duffy reported for CNN Business.
"The transition isn't just the most radical shake-up in Amazon's corporate ranks; it's the biggest professional shift for Bezos in the three decades that he's run the company," Jay Greene wrote for WaPo, the news outlet Bezos owns. As Ted Hearn pointed out to me on Monday, the Post will have to tweak its disclosures in news articles, now that the owner's role at Amazon is a bit more nuanced... Sun Valley time
The Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference is back, starting Tuesday. "The top executives at the biggest and most influential companies in tech and media... will get together at the Sun Valley Resort" for rafting adventures, panel discussions, and assorted mogul talk, David Gura reports for NPR. Among the expected attendees: Jassy, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Tim Cook, Brian Roberts, David Zaslav, Jason Kilar, Bob Chapek, Shari Redstone, Ted Sarandos, Reed Hastings, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett. Variety has a fuller guest list here.
>> Will any deals be done? Matthew Belloni comments in his latest "What I'm Hearing" newsletter that "Shari Redstone and Jon Feltheimer will probably be sniffing around for suitors for ViacomCBS and Lionsgate, right?" And William D. Cohan answers, "There's no question Shari will be a center of attention, if only to get her to say she's a seller, or not..."
>> "Strict protocols will be in place for the five-day event... from required vaccinations to proof of a negative Covid-19 test," the WSJ notes...
>> "The manager of the Friedman Memorial Airport tells me some 90 private jets will land in Hailey, Idaho, on the first day," Gura tweets...
>> If you want to have a laugh, here's my 2015 video about the secrecy of Sun Valley and the (related) allure of the conference... FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- "'Are we next?' Worried high-rise dwellers take photos, seek answers after Surfside... (Miami Herald)
-- The press is missing the big pandemic picture by focusing on the Delta variant, Dr. Jonathan Reiner told me on Sunday: "The big story over the last six months is really a revolutionary medical success..." (CNN)
-- But vaccine success is dependent on shots in arms. Per the new Post-ABC survey, "86% of Democrats have received at least one shot of a vaccine, compared with 45% of Republicans..." (WaPo)
-- Rates of Covid-19 cases are almost 3 times higher in states with low vaccination rates, new data shows... (CNN) In sickness and in health...
Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan, WaPo reporters who have been married for 28 years, have a Page One story on Tuesday about "the longest marriage in presidential history:"  Yes, they traveled to Plains, Georgia to interview Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter about 75 years of a "record-setting love story." The simple title of the piece: "Inseparable." TUESDAY PLANNER Tuesday is the six-month anniversary of the pro-Trump riots...
The Cannes Film Festival begins... Scroll down for details...
President Biden speaks about Covid vaccinations around 2:45pm ET...
Shakespeare in the Park returns to Central Park...
The Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks face off in game one of the NBA Finals on ABC... What is Nikole Hannah-Jones going to do?
NYT journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was belatedly granted tenure by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last week. She responded by saying "I need to take some time to process all that has occurred and determine what is the best way forward," which signaled that she might not join the faculty. There are numerous reasons why. So what is she going to do? She might answer when she speaks with Gayle King on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday. CBS is billing it as Hannah-Jones' first interview about the controversy. This has been a highly-sought-after interview -- and I know that because I was one of the seekers 😉 New books on Tuesday
This week's nonfiction releases include Michael Pollan's "This is Your Mind on Plants;" CNN legal analyst Elie Honig's unsparing look at Bill Barr, titled "Hatchet Man;" Fox jester Jesse Watters' memoir "How I Saved the World;" and CEO whisperer Gary Ginsberg's "entertaining and enlightening romp" through history, "First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our Presidents." Maureen Dowd was inspired by Ginsberg's book over the weekend... Week ahead calendar
Wednesday: The NYC's heroes parade steps off at 11am ET...
Thursday: The new "Gossip Girl" debuts on HBO Max...
Friday: "Black Widow" hits theaters, with a premium streaming option via Disney+...
Saturday: The Boston Symphony Orchestra begins its Tanglewood season...
Sunday: "History of the Sitcom" premieres on CNN and "The White Lotus" premieres on HBO... FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- A "cross-partisan group of thinkers:" Kmele Foster, David French, Jason Stanley and Thomas Chatterton Williams make a simple but crucial point in this NYT guest essay: "Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws Are Un-American..." (NYT)
-- The Big Lie never ends: In the "ramp-up to 2022 midterms," many GOP candidates are centering their pitches "on Trump's false election claims," Amy Gardner reports... (WaPo)
-- Radicalization watch: Rep. Paul Gosar's "unapologetic association" with white nationalist Nick Fuentes "is perhaps the most vivid example of the Republican Party's growing acceptance of extremism," Catie Edmondson writes... (NYT)
-- New from Ron Brownstein: "America's partisan fireworks will be hard for anyone to put out..." (CNN) Two QAnon proponents had press credentials at Trump rally
David Gilbert's scoop for VICE: "Two major QAnon influencers were given official press credentials to the latest Trump rally" on Saturday night.
Per CNN's Mike Warren, who spoke with a person close to Trump, the two men claimed an affiliation with a conservative talk radio outlet, and that's how they got in. Warren was told the Trump press team may adjust its credentialing policy as a result.
>> Speaking of that rally, Fox did not carry it live. This is the third Trump speech/rally that Fox has skipped this summer, basically leaving the live coverage to Newsmax and OAN...
>> At the rally, Trump talked about "disinformation" like he had just discovered the term. As he talked about the technique of repeating a lie over and over again, he sounded like a magician revealing how he pulls the rabbit out of the hat... Tucker Carlson is the new Alex Jones
ICYMI, Oliver Darcy and I used video clips of both men to showcase their similarities -- and their apparent chumminess -- during Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast. "Whether it's talking about vaccine conspiracy theories, false flag conspiracy theories, deep state conspiracy theories, the messages that Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones are sending are the same," Darcy said. Watch here... Flashback...
Gretchen Carlson filed her lawsuit against Roger Ailes five years ago Tuesday. "It is incredible to reflect on the last 5 years and the change that has come from choosing to bravely take a stand," Carlson wrote Monday. "I can tell you this, it was not easy, but it was absolutely worth it."
>> In "HOAX," I point out the far-reaching results of one bold legal filing: "Carlson exposed Ailes's predatory tactics, dragged Fox News into the twenty-first century, affected Trump's presidential race, and lit the match that led to the modern-day #MeToo movement. The Ailes scandal led The New York Times to look more deeply into Bill O'Reilly, which led other Times reporters to ask around about Harvey Weinstein, and now Weinstein is behind bars and the world is at least a little bit more equitable..." FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- Speaking of Murdochworld: Thomas Seal reports that David Rhodes has jumped ship from Murdoch's UK TV business to Comcast. He's going to "lead international business development at Sky..." (Bloomberg)
-- Jeremy Barr writes about Mark Levin, "the Fox News host who won't stop criticizing other Fox News personalities..." (WaPo)
-- Lost in all of Fox's recent ratings coverage "is one stubborn fact: Fox News has also suffered a precipitous drop in its viewership," Justin Baragona writes... (Daily Beast)
-- Fox stuck with regular programming instead of airing Biden's patriotic "America is coming back" speech in the 7pm hour on Sunday. However, the network ran the Biden tape later in the evening... (Twitter)
-- The upcoming, unnamed Trump book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa now has a release date: September 21... (CNN) "A perfect storm for ESPN"
In the words of NPR media critic Eric Deggans, "this Rachel Nichols scandal is a perfect storm for ESPN, which has always had a fumblefingered approach to racial diversity, gender parity and its corrosive star system."
He was reacting to Kevin Draper's exclusive for the NYT, which ran in print on Monday, titled "A Leaked Video Inflames The Racial Turmoil at ESPN."
Draper described a July 2020 recording of Nichols, who is white, saying that Maria Taylor, who is Black, was hosting NBA finals coverage because ESPN was "feeling pressure" on diversity. "ESPN has been trying, and often failing, to deal with the scandal for months," Draper wrote. "But a fast-approaching deadline is forcing the network to show at least some of its cards." The deadline is Taylor's contract, which "expires in less than three weeks, and it looks increasingly likely that those could be her last weeks at the network."
>> Nichols issued an apology at the top of her ESPN show on Monday: I "don't want to let this moment pass without saying how much I respect, how much I value our colleagues here at ESPN. How deeply, deeply sorry I am for disappointing those I hurt, particularly Maria Taylor, and how grateful I am to be a part of this team." FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR By Oliver Darcy:
-- Caitlin Flanagan pens a must-read about quitting Twitter: "Twitter is a parasite that burrows deep into your brain, training you to respond to the constant social feedback of likes and retweets ... Once you're hooked, the parasite becomes your master, and it changes the way you think..." (The Atlantic)
-- Are threads coming to Facebook? Stephanie Mlot writes that it is "testing a Twitter-like 'threads' feature that allows users to post connected messages..." (PC Mag)
-- Facebook is partnering with Africa's largest fiber company, a move that "will make Facebook one of the biggest investors in fiber networks in the region," Loni Prinsloo reports... (Bloomberg)
-- Maria Cramer writes for Times Insider that the paper's recent Amazon investigation "took months of reporting and hundreds of interviews..." (NYT)  "Everyone should be a climate reporter"
Emily Atkin's provocative point on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" is still making the rounds on Twitter a full day later: "There's no excuse for being a reporter today who doesn't understand the basic science of Covid-19. Why is it not the same for climate change?" Atkin said that every reporter "should be a climate reporter" right now, given the pervasiveness of the issue. And fellow guest David Wallace-Wells said reporters have to reorient themselves to cover climate change as a "permanent emergency." Watch the segment on CNN.com...
>> This WaPo story by Sarah Kaplan was part of my prep for the segment. It is a harrowing read, showing how "the intensity of recent weather extremes — and the certainty of still worse events to come — weighs on scientists..."
>> Atkin's bottom line: "We're just not treating it like the planetary emergency it is..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- The latest from Tbilisi: "A protest against a planned LGBT march in the Georgian capital turned violent on Monday as demonstrators attacked and injured some 20 journalists covering the event..." (AP)
-- ICYMI: Google and Microsoft have ended "their 5-year cease-fire" and neither side is eager to resume the alliance... (Seattle Times)
-- Alex Sherman's latest: "TikTok and Instagram inch closer to the streaming wars as competitive barriers blur..." (CNBC) Big Tech to quit Hong Kong?
Oliver Darcy writes: "Could Big Tech exit Hong Kong? The WSJ's Newley Purnell reported Monday that Facebook, Twitter, and Google have 'privately warned the Hong Kong government that they could stop offering their services in the city if authorities proceed with planned changes to data-protection laws that could make them liable for the malicious sharing of individuals' information online.' The companies, Purnell reported, are concerned the new rule could make their staff vulnerable to criminal probes over what users post online..." FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX -- Steve Scully signed off C-SPAN on Saturday... (Twitter)
-- Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg reports that Gannett has "doubled the number of staffers at its product-review website over the past 18 months, looking to expand its digital reach as print advertising and circulation revenues face continued pressure..." (WSJ)
-- The newest Page Six story about Meghan McCain's departure from "The View" suggests that it was linked to Kim Godwin's arrival as ABC News president... (Page Six)
-- Roger Friedman asks: "What year is it again? Over the weekend, Queen's Greatest Hits went to number 1 on iTunes. Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' is number 2. They are from 1981 and 1971, respectively..." (Showbiz411) Final night of the Stanley Cup finals?
Oliver Darcy writes: "The Montreal Canadiens are hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup finals at the time I'm writing this. The showdown, in which the Canadiens hope to avoid elimination, started at 8pm ET on NBC. Which brings me to a correction: I got my dates mixed up and said in the last edition of the letter that Game 3 was airing on Saturday. It actually aired Friday night. Thank you to everyone who flagged this!"  The Cannes Film Festival begins Tuesday
The AP's lead from France is simple: "Cannes is back."
"The lights are in position, the stars en route to the French Riviera," Nicolas Garriga and Adam Egan wrote. "And Spike Lee's face is peering out onto the Croisette from a huge banner announcing Tuesday's debut of the world's premier film festival." This is yet another milestone in the entertainment industry's reopening. TheWrap has details about the Covid protocols. There's lots of confusion on the ground, as Variety explains here... Tarantino's new movie theater
One of the top headlines on LATimes.com right now: "Quentin Tarantino buys L.A.'s beloved Vista Theatre."
Tarantino spilled the news on Monday's "Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard" podcast. Tarantino "already owns the New Beverly Cinema," and he said he plans to open the Vista in Los Feliz "by around Christmas," the LAT's Mark Olsen wrote. "Only film," no digital projection, just like the New Beverly, Tarantino said. But the Vista "won't be a revival house" like the New Beverly. "We'll show new movies that come out, where they give us a film print. We'll show new stuff." Details here... Quietly pulling the plug
Brian Lowry writes: "HBO made headlines with Deadline's report that the network wouldn't renew the sci-fi drama 'Lovecraft Country' for a second season, but it's also worth noting that Netflix rather quietly pulled the plug on a number of its multi-camera sitcoms, per THR. Combined, it's a reminder that as much as we like to think of streaming and premium services as shielded from the forces of ad-supported TV, some of the basic rules still apply even if the data are more amorphous -- like whether a series is delivering enough of a return on investment to justify keeping it..." FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN By Lisa Respers France:
-- While some slammed Vanessa Williams and PBS for her "Black national anthem" performance on the 4th, others supported Williams and chalked the whole thing up to social media doing what it does best -- outrage...
-- Matthew McConaughey declared that America is "going through puberty" in his Independence Day message and it left some people "Dazed and Confused..."
-- Between "Zola" and "Heaux Tales," women are owning their sexuality right now in pop culture... Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are married
Celebs and "Voice" coaches Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani "tied the knot on Saturday, according to a post from Stefani on Instagram in which she shared three photos from their celebration," Sandra Gonzalez writes. Read on... Remembering Richard Donner
Brian Lowry writes: "The director Richard Donner, who died Monday at age 91, enjoyed a particularly eclectic career, including the first 'Superman' with Christopher Reeve -- widely seen as a template for future superhero movies -- the 'Lethal Weapon' franchise, 'The Goonies' and the horror classic 'The Omen.' He started in TV, where his early credits include multiple episodes of 'The Twilight Zone.'"
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Pet of the day
Reader Nancy Wesley sends in a photo of her festive guinea pig Charlie hoping everyone had a fun-filled holiday weekend!   Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback, tips, and ideas anytime. We are also taking submissions for Pet of the Day! Oliver will be here tomorrow.... Share this newsletter:
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