The Covid Olympics; Hannity's latest vaccine comments; Sonmez sues WaPo; senators target online health misinfo; takeaways from AT&T, Twitter, and Snap earnings

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Oliver Darcy here at 10:35pm ET on Thursday, July 22, with Sean Hannity's latest comments on vaccines, why Felicia Sonmez is suing WaPo, details about the book Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are publishing, and more. Plus, takeaways from earnings reports from AT&T, Twitter, and Snap. But first...

The Covid Olympics

An Olympics unlike any other is set to commence within hours in Tokyo. After a year-long pandemic delay, the 2020 Olympic Games will begin, in 2021, early Friday morning — for those of us on the East Coast — with the Opening Ceremony.

Parts of the Opening Ceremony will feel familiar. There will be performances and pageantry and many of the traditional trappings that viewers expect. But the event will also feel very different, most notably playing out in front of a nearly empty stadium — a sign of the pandemic that continues to ravage the world. By definition, this will be a made-for-TV event...

NBC's plan

NBC's will be air the ceremony twice. The ceremony will first air live in the morning, starting at 6:55am, on NBC and online at NBCOlympics.com. This will mark the first time NBC has aired the event live during the morning. The broadcast will be anchored by Savannah Guthrie and Mike Tirico who will guide viewers through all the pageantry. Following the ceremony, "Today" will air a special edition of the show that will include interviews with athletes. That will be followed by NBC's first-ever "Olympic Daytime" show...

And then, at 7:30pm, NBC will re-air a packaged, enhanced version of the event. That curated version will include several extras that will not air in the live version, including a pre-show featuring Dwayne Johnson, Leslie Odom Jr., and Uma Thurman. That will then be followed by a special edition of the "Tonight Show..."

"You're going to hear the sounds of the games like you've never heard them"

Without fans at this year's event, NBC plans to rely on "sound-design plans" that highlight the sounds from athletes, coaches, and others. "We believe there's an opportunity to bring viewers closer to the action than ever," NBC Olympics executive producer Molly Solomon said on a recent press call. "And it's sports like swimming, gymnastics, track, basketball, beach volleyball, you're going to hear the sounds of the games like you've never heard them before — from the thrashing and splashing in the pool to those intimate conversations between competitors and coaches..."

What will the Olympics rate?

The headline on Rick Porter's piece for THR frames this question well: "How far will NBC's TV ratings fall?" Porter writes that "the Tokyo Games will almost surely bring NBC and its sibling cable networks their biggest primetime audiences in months." But, "They'll probably also fall well short of previous Games." Porter does leave a smidgen of hope for NBC: "The good news for NBCU is that sports on TV has experienced a ratings upswing in recent months, with events ranging from Major League Baseball's regular season to the European soccer championship enjoying bigger audiences..."

Advertisers are anxious

Companies are generally quite excited about placing ads during the Olympics. But with the coronavirus casting a large shadow over this year's games, the Olympic advertisers are "feeling anxious about the more than $1 billion they have spent to run ads on NBC and its Peacock streaming platform,' NYT's Tiffany Hsu reported earlier this week. That said, Hsu wrote that in the US, "marketing plans are mostly moving ahead" with "more than 140 sponsors for NBC's coverage..."

Covid protocols for journalists

What is it like for reporters who have traveled to Tokyo to cover the games? Well, for one, they are facing stringent pandemic protocols. "The daily coronavirus tests required of journalists involve spitting into a clear plastic tube, trying to fill the thing to an inscribed black line. It's a lot harder than it might sound," LAT's David Wharton explained. "Test officials shepherd you into a cubicle where you sit or stand facing a wall. They have taped up snapshots of citrus fruit, with the suggestion that you 'imagine,' to help generate the necessary bodily fluids. It can take minutes on end...."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg characterizes some of the Covid restrictions being placed on reporters and others as illogical: "What the protocols in Tokyo really mean are that people here are worried..." (Sports Illustrated)

-- John Otis explains how some of the coronavirus restrictions "will interfere with basic news gathering efforts." Sports reporter Juliet Macur told him that it will "be a journalistic test..." (NYT)

-- Lester Holt reflects on his 10th Olympics: "These games will be different in so many ways, and there is potentially much more to risk. But leave it to the athletes, who have waited so long for their moment, to do what they were born to do. To find a way to rise above it all..." (NBC News)

-- "The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony on Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998," Mari Yamaguchi reports... (Associated Press)

-- Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno write about "the invisible hand" behind the Tokyo Games: "Dentsu, an advertising giant hard-wired into major Japanese institutions, stood to be Japan's biggest winner of this year's Games. But the pandemic has played havoc with those plans..." (NYT)

-- "While these Olympics might well go down as the least wanted in history, they will have succeeded in bringing a nation together, just not quite in the way that their organizers envisioned," Matt Alt says... (New Yorker)

FRIDAY PLANNER

On "GMA," Michael Strahan has the first interview with country singer Morgan Wallen "since he was caught using a racial slur..."

Season two of "Ted Lasso" arrives on Apple TV+...

Bill Weir's documentary about food innovation, "Eating Planet Earth," premieres at 9pm ET on CNN...

Sonmez sues WaPo, alleging workplace discrimination

WaPo reporter Felicia Sonmez filed a lawsuit Thursday against the paper, former top editor Marty Baron, and other senior newsroom leaders, alleging she was subjected to unlawful discrimination after publicly saying that she had been the victim of sexual assault. The suit is centered around a ban that prohibited her from covering stories about sexual misconduct because she had been outspoken about being a sexual assault survivor herself. That ban was eventually lifted, but Sonmez's lawsuit said she had suffered "economic loss, humiliation, embarrassment, mental and emotional distress, and the deprivation of her rights to equal employment opportunities." More in my story here...

>> No comment: Spokespeople for WaPo did not comment on the suit Thursday. Baron also declined comment...

"I never told anyone to get a vaccine"

Sean Hannity has been credited throughout the week for a roughly thirty-second clip in which he told people to take the coronavirus seriously and consult their doctors about getting the vaccine. But Hannity stressed Thursday night that he never explicitly urged his viewers to immunize themselves from the virus. "I never told anyone to get a vaccine," Hannity said. Hannity described himself as "simply not qualified" to do so because he is "not a medical doctor" (as if one needs to have an MD after their name to understand the basic science here). The No. 2 Fox host then urged viewers to "do your own research" and "look at all the studies" and "consult medical professionals you trust." Taken in its totality, it sure seemed like Hannity was giving his viewers plenty of room to opt against getting a life-saving vaccine...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Helen Lewis warns the public against journalists, such as Nicholas Kristof, going into politics, writing that it "will end with President Tucker Carlson..." (The Atlantic)

-- "Fox News is helping kill Americans": The Lincoln Project on Thursday unveiled a blistering new ad targeting Rupert Murdoch and urging people to "call your local television provider and tell them to drop Fox News." Unsurprisingly, Comcast has refused to air the ad... (AdAge)

-- Justin Baragona writes about "how vaccine companies have bankrolled Fox News' anti-vaxx insanity..." (Daily Beast)

-- "Even as Republicans move toward being more publicly trusting of the vaccine and personally reject anti-vaccine rhetoric... many in the GOP have still been reluctant to confront one of the biggest culprits of vaccine hesitancy: misinformation being spread by members of their own party," Melanie Zanona points out... (CNN)

-- Fact-checkers Daniel Dale and Tara Subramaniam reviewed the Biden town hall on CNN and found that Biden made false claims "about Covid-19, auto prices and other subjects..." (CNN)

The state of the pandemic, as captured by Drudge

Senators target health misinfo on social media

"Two Senate Democrats are proposing to create new forms of liability for tech platforms such as Facebook and Twitter over 'health-related misinformation,'" CNN's Brian Fung reports. "A bill introduced Thursday by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ray Luján would establish an exception under Section 230."

>> "Should the bill become law — which is far from certain — the Health and Human Services Department would face the task of issuing guidance related to whether the internet posts at issue constitute health misinformation," the WSJ's Siobhan Hughes explains. "A court would still need to adjudicate any liability..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- "Facebook, YouTube and Twitter all banned harmful covid-related misinformation as the pandemic took hold throughout the world. But the false claims are still proliferating," Gerrit De Vynck and Rachel Lerman report... (WaPo)

-- "Promulgated virus-like itself through social media platforms, a miasma of uncertainties, anecdotes and outright lies has seized the imaginations of Americans hesitant to be vaccinated," Josh Wingrove, Kristen V Brown, and Daniel Zuidijk write... (Bloomberg)

-- "YouTube removed videos from President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil on Wednesday for spreading misinformation about Covid-19, becoming the latest internet platform to act against a leader whose country has one of the world's highest death counts," Adam Satariano reports... (NYT)

-- "Trump, Inc." podcast hosts Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz "have set their next project," a series "that will trace the multiple failures that led to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6..." (Deadline)

On this week's RS pod: How to launch your own news outlet

Brian Stelter writes: "My guest on this week's 'Reliable Sources' podcast is Phillip Smith, the founder and director of the Google News Initiative's Startups Bootcamp, which trains journalists to launch digital news ventures in eight weeks. We talked about what works; what doesn't work; and how to 'grow financially viable, award-winning digital newsrooms.' This is about 'a movement of people that are trying to address needs that are no longer being met' in their communities, he said. Smith is taking applications for this year's bootcamp, and the deadline is on August 1."

Tune in to the conversation via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast app...

Three big earnings reports

-- Shares in AT&T (which owns CNN) "closed up Thursday as June quarter earnings and revenue topped analyst estimates while wireless postpaid phone subscribers came in well above expectations," IBD's Reinhardt Krause reports...

-- AT&T's WarnerMedia said "HBO and HBO Max together have 47 million domestic subscribers, an increase of nearly three million from three months earlier," WSJ's Joe Flint reports. Jason Kilar touted the streaming service's momentum and revealed that Warner Bros. "will make 10 films exclusively" for HBO Max "to premiere in 2022..."

-- In a "pandemic rebound," Twitter posted its "fastest revenue growth since 2014" and beat expectations, CNBC's Jordan Novet writes. The company cited a "broad increase in advertiser demand..."

-- Joshua Green's observation: "Banning Trump hasn't hurt Twitter at all..."

-- "Snapchat is growing faster than it has in years," The Verge's Alex Heath writes, citing Thursday's Snap earnings as evidence of "one of the most impressive turnaround stories in tech..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Mark Zuckerberg talked with Casey Newton about Facebook becoming a "metaverse company..." (The Verge)

-- "Facebook content moderators in Europe and the US are calling on the company to put an end to overly restrictive nondisclosure agreements that discourage people from speaking out about working conditions," Zoe Schiffer writes... (The Verge)

-- "Facebook decided faith groups are good for business," Elizabeth Culliford writes. "Now, it wants your prayers..." (Reuters)

-- "Clubhouse no longer requires an invite, ditching the exclusive 'club' identity it was founded on," Francis Agustin writes... (Insider)

-- "Google will now show its search engine users more information about why it found the results they are shown..." (Reuters)

More changes at CBS after misconduct probe

"In a sweeping shake-up, CBS has ousted two senior managers responsible for its television stations in Los Angeles and Chicago," LAT's Meg James reported Thursday. "Jay Howell, general manager of KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles, and Derek Dalton, the head of the company's Chicago station, WBBM-TV Channel 2, were ousted Thursday following a six-month investigation into alleged wrong-doing within CBS' stations group. The moves extend a dramatic management makeover at CBS News and network's stations division in the wake of a Los Angeles Times investigation, which uncovered alleged misconduct, racism and misogyny at a handful of CBS-owned stations..."

Joe Ianniello launches SPAC with other former CBS execs

Kerry Flynn writes: "There's a new SPAC in town looking for an acquisition in media, telecom or tech, Ben Mullin reports. Joe Ianniello has launched Angus and teamed up with other former CBS execs including former ViacomCBS chief digital officer Marc DeBevoise, who is serving as COO, and former CBS chief communication officer Dana McClintock. As to the name, Mullin writes that it's 'a reference to the many-eyed giant of Greek mythology' and to Ianniello 'two-decade career at CBS, known for its iconic eye-shaped logo.'"

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Keith J. Kelly has bid farewell to the Media Ink column. The finale: A "snapshot of the most memorable behind-the-scenes moments and the larger-than-life characters I experienced in my 23 years writing the column..." (NY Post)

-- Kelly's colleagues wished the veteran media reporter an "Irish goodbye" at a party Thursday night... (Twitter)

-- One of Kevin Merida's first moves: Making Shani Hilton the managing editor for new initiatives at the LA Times. She will oversee "new areas of coverage, music, poetry, comedy, books, documentaries, scripted projects" and more... (LAT)

-- NBCUniversal has hired John Lee in the "newly created role of chief data officer as the media company aims to bolster and streamline its data operations..." (WSJ)

-- WSJ has appointed Kimberly S. Johnson as its speed and trending coverage chief... (Dow Jones)

-- Adrienne Green is joining NYT Mag as deputy editor, special projects. She is currently a features editor at NY Mag... (NYT)

Obama and Springsteen publishing a book based on podcasts

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are publishing a book based on their "Renegades" podcast series. The book is due out October 26 and will be published by Penguin Random House's Crown imprint. "The 320-page book includes introductions by Obama and Springsteen, more than 350 photos and illustrations, and archival material such as Springsteen's handwritten lyrics and Obama's annotated speeches," the NYT's Alexandra Alter previewed...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- Claire Atkinson's latest: "Hollywood insiders say there's growing tension at Disney as CEO Bob Chapek chafes at Bob Iger's 'long goodbye...'" (Insider)

-- Sara Guaglione looks at e-commerce growth at Future PLC. The media group "drove nearly a billion dollars of e-commerce revenue for its affiliate partners in 2020, driven by evergreen content and shopping holidays," she writes... (Digiday)

-- In a profile of Amazon's head of video Mike Hopkins, Jessica Toonkel reports Amazon execs have considered buying NFL Network and have exploring more content deals... (The Information)

-- Legendary Entertainment "has been in discussions to sell an equity stake or potentially merge its operations with another player," Brent Lang and Patrick Frater report... (Variety)

Here come the toys

Brian Lowry writes: "Old toys don't die, but as it happens, two of them come to screens this weekend. 'Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins' seeks to reboot the film franchise last seen in 2013, creating a showcase for Henry Golding, but without arming itself with an adequate script; and 'Masters of the Universe: Revelation' tasks director Kevin Smith with reinvigorating the Mattel toys, which produced pretty lousy cartoons that were rightly dubbed 'program-length commercials' in the 1980s. The series does treat the material more seriously, admittedly a pretty low bar..."

M. Night Shyamalan up to the same old tricks

Lowry writes: "Also, director M. Night Shyamalan is up to his old tricks with 'Old,' which focuses on a group of vacationers who visit a secluded beach, and begin rapidly aging. Yes, there's a twist, but the clunky dialogue makes it feel like less than a walk on the beach in getting to it. It feels like a step back for the director, after his breakthrough with 'Split...'"

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

-- Jordan Peele says his upcoming 2022 movie is called "Nope." He has also shared a poster for the project... (THR)

-- "NBC's canceled sci-fi drama 'Manifest' continued to rule the U.S. streaming charts for a second consecutive week per the most recent Nielsen data available," Patrick Hipes writes... (Deadline)

-- "Michelle Monaghan has been cast to play identical twins in Netflix's upcoming limited series 'Echoes,' a psychological thriller," Mónica Marie Zorrilla reports... (Variety)

-- "HBO Max has renewed the Max Original comedy series 'That Damn Michael Che' for a second season," Aarohi Sheth writes... (The Wrap)

"The Green Night" pulled from theaters in UK

Brian Lowry writes: "A24's fantasy epic 'The Green Knight' has been pulled from its U.K. release only a few weeks in advance, Deadline's Tom Grater confirmed, due to Covid concerns. The film is scheduled to open July 30 in the US..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART EIGHT

By Lisa Respers France:

-- The Rolling Stones have announced their rescheduled North American tour dates...

-- Megan Fox quit drinking years ago after getting belligerent at the Golden Globes...

-- Ice T has reacted to the hoopla over his "twin" five year old daughter...

-- Prince's "Hot Summer" will turn your pandemic blues around...

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

Pet of the Day!

Reader Charla Devereux emails a photo of her cat Hogan who is a big Reliable Sources fan in the UK...

Thank you for reading! Send us your feedback anytime. We are also always taking photos and captions of your furry companions for our Pet of the Day. I'll be back tomorrow to close out the week...

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