Afghanistan's 'dark hours'; Hurricane Ida barrels toward US; inside Carlson's 'ugly feud' with Swalwell; ivermectin interest surges in South; how 'Jeopardy!' succession plan 'went sidewise'

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Oliver Darcy here. It's 7:25pm ET on Friday, August 27. Inside this edition: Hurricane Ida barrels toward the US, Max Tani takes you inside Tucker Carlson's "ugly feud" with Eric Swalwell, Google Trends shows a spike in ivermectin interest in the south, the House 1/6 committee is demanding answers from social media platforms, and Steve Herman signs off the White House beat. But first...

Seven long-reads on Afghanistan

>> David Frum writes about the "propaganda" blow the Taliban must grapple with: "Offering refuge in the West to tens of thousands of Afghan allies is a dramatic humanitarian act. It's a display of power, too—not only the organizational and economic power involved ... but also the cultural and social power of the superior attractiveness of the modern world that so appalls the Taliban..."

>> Hunter Walker takes you "inside Seth Moulton's secret trip" to Kabul: "Moulton argued that oversight was necessary, particularly since foreign journalists have largely left Kabul..."

>> Marie Lamensch writes about "when platforms enable propaganda." She says, "Social media companies face an increasingly urgent ethical dilemma about the use of their platforms by Taliban officials and supporters..."

>> To that point, Emerson T. Brooking writes, "The Taliban insurgents who conquered nearly all of Afghanistan in just two weeks counted social media among their weapons. They deployed Facebook and WhatsApp to help prevail over their opponents on the battlefield. They issued hundreds of premature declarations of victory via Twitter—using spam to amplify their messages and create a sense of inevitability. Their smartphones proved just as handy as their rifles when they entered Kabul..."

>> Alex Shepard is the latest to critique the press. He argues that the news media "is blowing the Afghanistan story," arguing "the abysmal coverage of the U.S. withdrawal is a sharp reminder of how two decades of failure were foisted on us in the first place..."

>> Kiana Hayeri "set out to photograph Afghans who grew up after the U.S. invasion in 2001. Instead, she wound up documenting the end of life as they knew it..."

>> Nicole Narea has a helpful explainer about "the long road to resettling Afghans in the US..."

"Another terror attack in Kabul is likely"

With just days to go before the US fully withdraws from Afghanistan, President Biden is being warned that "another terror attack in Kabul is likely," CNN's Kaitlan Collins reported Friday. Collins cited a White House official who added to her that the US is taking "maximum force protection measures at the Kabul Airport" and that the final "next few days of this mission will be the most dangerous period to date..."

The Pulitzer Board issues special citation for Afghan journalists

The Pulitzer Prize Board announced on Friday that it would issue a special citation to honor Afghan journalists "who have dedicated themselves at great personal risk to create and support journalism that has chronicled decades of life and war."

The citation is for "staff and freelance correspondents to interpreters to drivers to hosts, courageous Afghan residents helped produce Pulitzer-winning and Pulitzer-worthy images and stories that have contributed to a wider understanding of profoundly tragic and complicated circumstances," the Pulitzer Board said. In addition, the Pulitzer Board said the special citation came with a $100,000 grant. Those funds, it added, will be "administered by the Committee to Protect Journalists for the emergency relief of such individuals and their families..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- The BBC's Lyse Doucet is one of the few western journalists still currently in Afghanistan. "These are dark hours," she said while hosting special coverage from Kabul on Friday... (BBC)

-- "The well-established media infrastructure in Kabul, which had developed over two decades, has basically evaporated," CNN SVP of international newsgathering Deborah Rayner tells Charlotte Klein... (Vanity Fair)

-- Philip Bump writes about Biden calling on Peter Doocy after his remarks Thursday, saying it shows his efforts to "puncture the Fox News bubble..." (WaPo)

-- "A lawyer for the famed all-girls Afghan robotics team has sent a cease-and-desist letter to an Oklahoma woman, telling her to stop taking credit for the girls' escape from Kabul and warning that her numerous media appearances endanger their organization's remaining members in Afghanistan," Sarah Ellison and Elahe Izadi report... (WaPo)

-- "Afghan director Sahraa Karimi, the head of national cinema body Afghan Film, who last week escaped Kabul ahead of Taliban militants, will travel to the Venice Film Festival to speak on the plight of her country and its filmmakers," Scott Roxborough reports... (THR)

Hurricane Ida expected to make landfall Sunday

"Hurricane Ida to be catastrophic Category 4 storm affecting most of Louisiana Gulf Coast," blared the banner headline Friday evening on The Advocate's site. Indeed, meteorologists are now forecasting that the storm will strengthen as it barrels toward the US. It is expected to ultimately arrive on Sunday evening with sustained winds of 140 mph. Some mandatory evacuations are already underway and Louisiana's governor has already asked for a state of emergency declaration. The CNN team has the latest here...

This Sunday on "Reliable"

Brian Stelter writes: "In addition to coverage of Hurricane Ida, I'll be joined by James Fallows, Azmat Khan, and Eric Boehlert to analyze Afghanistan coverage; plus Reporters Without Borders' USA executive director Anna Nelson, Sacramento Bee editor Colleen McCain Nelson, WSJ reporter Joe Flint, and Insider chief media correspondent Claire Atkinson. See you Sunday at 11am ET..."

WEEKEND PLANNER

The 2021 college football season officially kicks off on Saturday...

And the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular season ends...

On Sunday, the 2021 NFL preseason comes to an end...

The season finales of "UFO" and "Godfather of Harlem" will air...

Spike Lee's "NYC Epicenters 9/11 - 2021½" is on HBO at 8pm and "9/11: One Day in America: First Response" is on NatGeo at 9pm...

How Carlson's feud with Swalwell has "sucked in family"

The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani reported Friday on Tucker Carlson's "ugly" feud with Rep. Eric Swalwell, detailing how it has even "sucked in family." Tani reported that after Swalwell pointed out in a tweet that Carlson's son, Buckley Carlson, is the comms director for Rep. Jim Banks, Buckley worked with Breitbart on a story that smeared the Democratic congressman. That story, Tani noted, then "received extensive coverage on Tucker Carlson's Fox News primetime program, including a photoshopped graphic of Swalwell in bed with the suspected spy." The sequence of events suggests that the father and son were working together to attack Swalwell...

>> Swalwell to Tani: "When the son works for the House of Representatives and is doing his father's bidding on official House email and at his desk on his official phone, that crosses the line. The House of Representatives is not supposed to be air support for Fox News..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Big headline heading into the weekend: "US intelligence community review does not determine origin of Covid-19..." (CNN)

-- "There is a growing call among medical groups to discipline physicians spreading incorrect information," Davey Alba and Sheera Frenkel report... (NYT)

-- "It just — it boggles the mind why people would say, hey, look, we want to take ivermectin because we don't trust the vaccines, which have all this data and ivermectin really has none," Sanjay Gupta told Jake Tapper... (Mediaite)

-- Seth Meyers: "One day we're gonna wake up and Brian Kilmeade's gonna be telling people you can cure COVID by eating kibble and sleeping in a bed of kitty litter..." (Vanity Fair)

-- "TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook are dealing with waves of content about ivermectin," Kat Sanchez reports... (The Verge)

Google Trends shows spike in ivermectin interest in South

The CDC warned Thursday about a spike in interest in ivermectin, the anti-parasitic drug commonly used for livestock that has been promoted by right-wing media as a supposed Covid-19 treatment (it's not). Google Trends data affirms this. And, according to the data from Google, the areas in which people are most interested in the dewormer are some of the states with low vaccination rates. The top five states most interested in Googling the term are Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Wyoming, and Louisiana...

>> Related: "The Texas Department of State Health Services is issuing a health advisory over the improper use of ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 after calls to the Texas Poison Center Network for people exposed to the drug increased 150%," Frank Heinz reports...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- "Apple has changed its App Store rules, and Apple's critics aren't satisfied," Peter Kafka writes... (Recode)

-- Joshua Benton suggests what publishers will benefit from Apple's new subscription policies and News Partner Program... (Nieman Lab)

-- Sam Lessin talks with CNBC about why he's "worried about declining competition in Big Tech..." (CNBC)

-- "The feds want to break up Facebook. Good luck with that," Irina Ivanova writes... (CBS News)

-- Wired wonders: "Can the metaverse thrive if it's fully owned by Facebook?" (Wired)

-- "In a new investor note by financial advisor Toni Sacconaghi, the analyst claims Google's payment to Apple to maintain the status quo could reach $15 billion in 2021, up from $10 billion last year," Tim Hardwick writes... (MacRumors)

1/6 committee seeks answers on misinfo from social platforms

CNN's Ryan Nobles and Annie Grayer report: "The House Select Committee investigating the deadly January 6 Capitol riot sent letters to 15 social media companies on Thursday seeking to understand how misinformation and efforts to overturn the election by both foreign and domestic actors existed on their platforms. The group specifically asked the wide range of social media companies for data and analysis on domestic violent extremists affiliated with efforts to overturn the 2020 election, particularly around the January 6 attack. The letters sent to massive social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have become a breeding ground for conspiracy theories and violence especially in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. Chairman Bennie Thompson asked for the information they requested to be provided in two weeks." More details from the CNN team here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- "Russia's leading independent media have appealed to Vladimir Putin and other top government officials to halt a crackdown on journalists under which some of the countries' top outlets have been declared foreign agents or banned outright over the last year..." (Guardian)

-- Eric Levitz comments: "Glenn Greenwald speaks truth to reply guys..." (NY Mag)

-- Kim Hastreiter talks with Mel Ottenberg who was named EIC of Interview magazine earlier this month... (NYT)

-- What happened with the review of The Philadelphia Inquirer following its insensitive "Buildings Matter, Too" headline? Temple University's Andrea Wenzel shares a progress report and what other newsroom can learn... (Poynter)

Steve Herman signs off White House beat

VOA's Steve Herman is leaving the White House beat behind. Friday was his final day in the briefing room, which was recognized by press sec Jen Psaki who applauded him for his work along with others in the room. Herman will head over to VOA's standards and practices division next. In a note he sent colleagues, Herman wrote, "After an estimated 700,000 words in web and broadcast scripts during my tenure here, let me part with just three words from the White House: Ave atque vale!"

"How the 'Jeopardy!' host succession plan went sideways"

That's the headline on the inside story from WSJ's Joe Flint and Khadeeja Safdar. The duo reported that Sony execs "thought they had an ideal successor" to Alex Trebek with Jen Jennings. But then old tweets from Jennings resurfaced. "Reaction to the tweets gave Sony executives pause," sources told Flint and Safdar. "Focus groups also didn't react well to Mr. Jennings afterward," they also reported, citing a source. Read their story here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- "Following Tina Tchen's departure, Time's Up has named Monifa Bandele the interim CEO," Elizabeth Wagmeister reports... (Variety)

-- Gene Maddaus asks: "Does #MeToo need Times Up?" (Variety)

-- Alexandra Stevenson, Amy Chang Chien and Cao Li write about how China wants to change its "raucous" celebrity culture... (NYT)

-- Charles Barkley says athletes should "definitely get the vaccine" and blasts "idiots" who are behaving "selfish" by refusing to do so... (Mediaite)

Weekend reads

By Brian Stelter:

-- "The social-media stars who move markets:" Robbie Whelan writes about "a new generation of Jim Cramers" as well as the perils of the role... (WSJ)

-- "I regret not doing it sooner," Bari Weiss says, talking about her move from the NYT to her own Substack brand. Brett Arends reports that "her revenues are running at an annual rate of more than $800,000 a year" and rising, and she's using the $$$ to "hire other people..." (MarketWatch)

-- Lacey Rose's latest THR cover story is a joint interview with Monica Lewinsky and "Impeachment: American Crime Story" star Beanie Feldstein. "The collaborators turned friends opened up about the process, wigs, therapy and all..." (THR)

Ted Bundy is the "Boogeyman" who won't go away

Brian Lowry writes: "Few things in movies and TV are more reliable than the fascination with serial killers in general, and Ted Bundy in particular. But having two Bundy-themed films arrive within a few weeks of each is still a bit unnerving, as well as a sign of the current content glut. 'No Man of God,' a look at a profiler who interviewed Bundy on death row, turns out to be worth the time. The exploitative 'Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman' is most decidedly not..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- "Jason Statham and Miramax are partnering for a third time with 'The Bee Keeper,' a spec script by Kurt Wimmer which the studio has shelled out seven figures for," Anthony D'Alessandro reports... (Deadline)

-- "Kristen Stewart's Princess Diana drama 'Spencer' has been acquired by Amazon Prime Video for distribution in France," Elsa Keslassy reports... (Variety)

-- "Season four is still months away, but Netflix has already decided to punch out more 'Cobra Kai,'" James Hibberd writes... (THR)

-- Chip Gaines "said goodbye to his flowing red locks for a partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital so it could be made into a wig for kids undergoing cancer treatment," Alex Noble writes... (The Wrap)

Inside Kanye West's latest listening event

Marianne Garvey writes: "Kanye West's latest 'DONDA' listening party featured him leaving the stage hand in hand with Kim Kardashian West in a wedding dress. West appeared at Chicago's Soldier Field for his third listening party, where he had a replica built of his childhood home. But that was just the beginning. Throughout the event, Kanye wore all black and had his face covered by a mask. He brought out special guests Marilyn Manson and DaBaby, who have both been under scrutiny in the news recently. Here's my full story..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

By Lisa Respers France:

-- After decades, the group ABBA has something coming — we just aren't completely sure what...

-- I talked to actress Vanessa Estelle Williams about reviving her role from the original "Candyman" in the new sequel, the cultural significance of the film and why she's not into scary stuff...

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...

Pet of the day!

CIMKO Strategies President, and newsletter reader, Chris Cimko emails a photo of four-year-old Charlotte "showing off her 'Lioness Cut' for the summer..."

Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback and tips and send us photos of your pet for consideration to be featured! Enjoy your weekend and we'll be back Sunday...

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