| Oliver Darcy here at 10:45pm ET on Wednesday, July 28, with the latest on Gawker, Facebook, Spotify, the "CBS Evening News," the "pivot to video," and much more...
Six ideas for news coverage
Covering coronavirus has never been easy — and the task journalists face has become even more complex in the recent days and weeks. Sometimes, in such scenarios, it can be helpful to step back and question some of the basic aspects of the way stories are being reported and discussed. That is what I did on Wednesday and I was left with six ideas about how to improve coverage across the board...
>> Focus on the geographical regions driving key numbers up: States like Florida, and Louisiana, and Alabama and others in the South are primarily responsible for driving the hospitalization numbers up in the US. There might be an uptick in cases in other areas, but because more of the population is immunized against the coronavirus, hospitalizations and deaths remain lower. That should be clear in coverage....
>> Ask probing questions of the CDC and gov't officials: The CDC says that areas of the country seeing more than 50 cases per 100,000 people amounts to "substantial" spread in the community. How did the agency arrive at that threshold? Do news orgs agree with the CDC on that? And why isn't the latest CDC guidance tied to local vaccination rates? We know the spread of the virus is much slower in areas that have higher vaccination rates, but this is not reflected in the CDC's guidance...
>> Ask for the data: As Dr. Sanjay Gupta said on CNN Wednesday, the CDC owes the public the data on breakthrough cases that it said was a major factor in its new guidance. When will we get to see it?
>> Make sure people affected by policy recommendations are represented: Eli Klein, an art gallery owner in NYC where hospitalizations and deaths are low, tweeted Wednesday, "A mask mandate is a slowdown for all indoor entertainment venues, stadiums, gyms, theaters, concert halls, clubs, malls, stores, OFFICES, etc.. People don't want to do these things if they have to cover their face." He pointed out that a mask mandate in NYC "would diminish tourism & beat up those already crushed by Covid restrictions." Let's hear more from voices like his...
>> Reframe the conversation: Much of the conversation playing out on cable news is about masks. But that should only be one part of the conversation. Masks are the Band-Aid while vaccines are the permanent solution. What about asking why the Biden admin abandoned the idea of vaccine passports, which doctors keep saying would help encourage vaccinations and allow those who are vaccinated not to live under mask mandates?
>> Don't erase unvaccinated adults from the picture: Let's hear more, not less, from eligible adults who have chosen to not protect themselves. Why have they made that decision? Where do they get their news from? What could/would change their mind? Less than half of the US population is fully vaccinated, which means we're talking about a lot of people who feel like this -- and a lot of people at risk... FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- WaPo's editorial board: "If we truly want this miserable pandemic to end, we have to act — together, and with a clear sense of what it will take to put it behind us..." (WaPo)
-- Tucker Carlson continued fear mongering about the vaccines Wednesday. Dartmouth's Brendan Nyhan remarked, "We're so desensitized but Fox is choosing to beam this nonsense out to millions of people every day during a deadly pandemic. Lives are literally at stake..." (Twitter)
-- Dr. Aaron E. Carroll notes how reality is very different for vaccinated and unvaccinated people: "Despite this difference, reporting on the relative percentage of Delta cases every day is causing vaccinated people to panic and sowing some doubt about the effectiveness of vaccinations..." (NYT)
-- A reminder there is so much we don't know about Covid: "This is a puzzler. Coronavirus cases are plummeting in Britain. They were supposed to soar. Scientists aren't sure why they haven't..." (WaPo) Tech and entertainment giants react to changing circumstances
>> Twitter said that it has "made the decision" to close its opened offices in New York and San Francisco and "pause future office reopenings..."
>> Google said that it will delay its return to office from September until October. The company also said that it will mandate vaccinations for employees....
>> Facebook said that all of its employees will need to be vaccinated before they return to the office...
>> Apple said it will restore a mask mandate at most of its stores in the US for employees and customers. That will apply to those who are vaccinated as well...
>> Netflix said it will mandate that staff working adjacent to talent will need to be vaccinated...
>> Disney said it will require masks, regardless of vaccination status, at Disneyland and Walt Disney World...
"Corporate America's vaccine floodgates are opened"
That's how journalist Benjy Renton put it, linking to this CNN story. David Frum on "Erin Burnett OutFront" predicted Wednesday night that "by this time next month, the majority of Fortune 500 companies will be saying you have to be vaccinated if you want to work for us. This is the pandemic of the willfully unvaccinated — the anti-socially unvaccinated..." FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- "Researchers found that vaccine resistance among people who get their info from Facebook was second only to Newsmax viewers," Whitney Kimball writes... (Gizmodo)
-- "A year-old watchdog group placed body bags in front of Facebook's offices in Washington, D.C., as part of a protest over disinformation on the social network," Erin Carson reports... (CNET)
-- "Let's keep the vaccine misinformation problem in perspective": Gilad Edelman says that "social media is not the reason the pandemic hasn't been conquered..." (WIRED) Wednesday's other big story  WaPo's A1 once again did a great job at balancing the two big stories facing the country. On the left column, the paper spotlighted the confusion prompted by the CDC's guidance. And on the right, it noted that the Senate advanced a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal. That deal is also featured prominently on most news sites right now as it drives much of the conversation in Washington... Fox fans turned the channel during 1/6 hearing
Brian Stelter writes: "Well, I suppose this is the least surprising news of the past 48 hours: Fox News ratings fell nearly in half during the 1/6 hearing on Tuesday, per Nielsen, and recovered after the 'bad news' went away. Newsmax ratings were also rather low during the live coverage, but rebounded for opinion shows later in the day. Fox bottomed out at noon ET with just 736,000 viewers during the hearing, a far lower audience than usual for Fox at that hour. At 8pm, when Tucker Carlson insulted lawmakers and instilled doubt about the riot, the channel averaged 3.01 million viewers. That should tell you everything you need to know about the right-wing audience..."
-- Stelter's point on "New Day:" If anything, the House hearing "intensified the whataboutism and denialism of right-wing media stars..."
-- Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz says "Fox exists in part to manufacture dissent," presenting "narratives that are more palatable to its right-wing audience..." FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- Margaret Sullivan's latest column: "Our democracy is under attack. Washington journalists must stop covering it like politics as usual..." (WaPo)
-- Cameron Joseph points out that Tucker Carlson keeps interviewing GOP Rep. Jim Banks without disclosing that his son is Banks' comms director... (Vice)
-- Aaron Rupar chats with Jason Campbell about the "sudden rise and precipitous fall" of Newsmax. Campbell's point: "Fox News made a lot of changes to their programming" to win back Trump supporters they alienated after the election... (Vox)
-- Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker's "I Alone Can Fix It" debuted at #1 on the NYT's combined nonfiction list on Wednesday. Mark Levin was #2 and Michael Wolff was #2. Julie K. Brown's "Perversion of Justice" debuted at #15... (NYT) NYT's Cairo bureau chief briefly detained
NYT's Cairo bureau chief, Vivian H Yee, and a freelance reporter who has contributed reporting to the newspaper, Massinissa Benlakehal, were "detained by Tuniaian authorities" on Wednesday, the outlet said. NYT said the duo was eventually released and "continue the important work of reporting on the political crisis in the country." Yee thanked those who expressed concern for their "good wishes..." THURSDAY PLANNER Lollapalooza begins at Grant Park in Chicago...
CNN Business holds a virtual discussion at 11am ET with the CEOs of Microsoft, DocuSign, Vimeo, and BetterUp about the "workplace revolution..."
Amazon reports earnings after the bell... Facebook records increase in earnings, but...
"Facebook's business is soaring, but the boom times may not last." That's how Clare Duffy summed up the company's Q2 earnings report. While Facebook reported revenue of $29.1 billion, a 56% jump from the same period last year, the "outlook for the rest of 2021 is not so sunny," Duffy wrote. CFO David Wehner said growth could slow due to "regulatory and platform changes." Specifically, Apple's new iOS app tracking rules. Duffy has all the details here... Spotify's triple-digit ad revenue jump
Kerry Flynn writes: "Spotify missed its guidance of monthly active users in its Q2 earnings report. But the bright spot was growth in podcasts and in turn its ad business. Spotify reported ad revenue of $325 million, up 110% from the year prior. CEO Daniel Ek said on the call that 'the days of our ad business accounting for less than 10% of our total revenue are behind us, and going forward, I expect ads to grow to be a substantial part of our revenue mix.' There are now 2.9 million podcasts on the platform, up from 2.6 million the prior quarter. Spotify attributed revenue growth to work across its studios, including The Ringer, and exclusive licensing deals." FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR -- In other podcasting news... The NBA is developing daily and weekly podcasts in a new deal with iHeartMedia, Lucas Shaw reports... (Bloomberg)
-- "The social audio space is bigger than just Clubhouse," Phoebe Bain points out... (Morning Brew)
-- "YouTube is a proven juggernaut that rivals Netflix in the streaming wars," Steve Kovach writes... (CNBC)
-- "Twitter this morning will launch a pilot in the U.S. aimed at testing the potential for e-commerce on its platform," Sarah Perez writes... (TechCrunch)
-- "Snapchat's built-in map will start recommending places for you to visit," Alex Heath reports... (The Verge) Gawker returns and asks for your "open mind"
Kerry Flynn writes: "Gawker has returned. Well, the version of Gawker now owned by Bryan Goldberg. The CEO of BDG, formerly known as Bustle Digital Group, bought the brand out of bankruptcy in 2018, and now after a failed first relaunch, the site is officially back. EIC Leah Finnegan, formerly of original Gawker who later worked at defunct BDG site The Outline, wrote in her welcome letter from the editor, 'I ask you to approach this new iteration of Gawker with an open mind and an open heart.' Alright. One post I thoroughly enjoyed: How Much Money Do You Have: Bryan Goldberg." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- "Al Ortiz, a longtime veteran of CBS News, is returning to the CBS Evening News as interim executive producer," Ted Johnson reports... (Deadline)
-- The NYT has named Paula Szuchman as its director of audio... (NYT)
-- Kristen Hare interviewed Monica Richardson about her role as exec editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald... (Poynter)
-- Politico announced that it will now offer "24 weeks of parental leave for all family expansions..." (Twitter) Vice brings back the pivot to video
Kerry Flynn writes: "Maybe don't call it a pivot, but Vice is pushing more into video. NYT's Katie Robertson reported that Vice spox Van Scott said 'the company will reduce the number of old-fashioned text articles' on Vice.com, Refinery29 and i-D by 40 to 50% and increase 'the number of visual stories, including videos suited to mobile-friendly formats like Instagram's Stories feature' by likely the same amount. Scott said Vice plans to hire more producers but there was no word of layoffs due to the strategic shift."
>> Flynn adds: "In other Vice news... Defector's Laura Wagner first reported on how a Vice operations employees posted an anonymous survey asking people about their 'associations and perceptions of Saudi Arabia' in a Slack channel with hundreds of Vice staffers on Wednesday. The Hollywood Reporter wrote about Vice's controversial relationship with Saudi Arabia in April. Vice declined to comment about the survey..." FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX -- Chad Finn writes that NBC "got the Simone Biles saga right by turning to Michael Phelps for his insight..." (Boston Globe)
-- Justin Peters contends NBC "seems oblivious to its own role in the ramping up the pressure" on Biles... (Slate)
-- Austin Karp's ratings summary for Tuesday: "NBC averaged 13.967 million TV-only viewers for Tuesday's primetime Olympic coverage. Streaming will likely add anywhere from 500K-800K viewers. Not sure on out-of-home. TV-only is down 58% from same night in Rio in 2016 (33.44 million). Streaming brought that to 36.1 million..." (Twitter)  Bob Odenkirk stable after "heart-related incident"
Bob Odenkirk is in "stable condition after experiencing a heart-related incident," his reps said in a Wednesday afternoon statement, amid widespread concern about his condition. Odenkirk collapsed while on the set of "Better Call Saul" Tuesday. "He and his family would like to express gratitude for the incredible doctors and nurses looking after him, as well as his cast, crew and producers who have stayed by his side," the statement from his representatives said. "The Odenkirks would also like to thank everyone for the outpouring of well wishes and ask for their privacy at this time as Bob works on his recovery." THR's Lesley Goldberg has more here... FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN -- "Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi is set to retire at the end of the year, with Sean Gamble, CFO & COO, named as Zoradi's successor from Jan. 1, 2022," Etan Vlessing reports... (THR)
-- "After an eight-year streak on the Culver City lot, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman will continue to lead the film studio, this time adding CEO to his title as the global media conglomerate has extended his contract," Anthony D'Alessandro reports... (Deadline)
-- Brent Lang's must-read: A profile of Netflix film chief Scott Stuber... (Variety)
-- "Fox Nation has enlisted a new face to help it navigate TV's streaming wars," Brian Steinberg writes. "As part of a licensing pact with WarnerMedia's Warner Bros. studio, the Fox News-backed streaming outlet will offer six classic films featuring Clint Eastwood throughout the month of August..." (Variety)
-- Mercedes-Benz Stadium is embracing Kanye West's residency at their venue. Their name on Twitter is now "DONDA Studio at Mercedes-Benz Stadium" as he is currently there working on that album, Lisa Respers France reports... (CNN)
-- Another one from Lisa: Britney Spears is "feeling overwhelmed" these days, so she she has taken to painting... (CNN) LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Pet of the day!
Reader MK McCarroll emails: "We just moved in so Bear needed to check out the digs from the top of the fridge..."   Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback anytime. Brian will be here tomorrow as we trade days back and forth... Share this newsletter:
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