| Oliver Darcy here at 11:00pm ET on Thursday, August 19, with the latest on Fox News' anti-vaccine rhetoric, the FTC's fresh antitrust complaint against Facebook, Twitter's new newsletter subscription feature, the future of OnlyFans, the "grave concern" about "Jeopardy!" and Mike Richards, and Marvel's final trailer for "Eternals." Plus, some news about Knewz. But first... News orgs exit Afghanistan
Western news organizations are starting to head out of Afghanistan. Spokespeople for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CBS News, and NBC News all told me on Thursday evening that their reporters have exited the country as the security situation intensifies with the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
The Journal said it no longer has "reporters on the ground in Afghanistan" but remains "committed" to its coverage. The Post said it is relying on "stringers on the ground" and has journalists assisting in nearby countries with "wide past experience in Afghanistan." CBS said its correspondent, Roxana Saberi, had flown out to Doha where she continues to cover the situation. And NBC said Richard Engel and the rest of the network's team are now out of the country.
News outlets are making real-time decisions, weighing a variety of factors as they decide whether to keep their personnel in the country or pull them out. Some outlets, such as The Los Angeles Times, are still there. Others are keeping their movements very close to the vest for security reasons. The New York Times, for instance, told me that the paper continues to "cover Afghanistan with reporters and photographers in country and abroad," but would not clarify on whether that means it still has correspondents on the ground or is relying on freelancers...
The journalists in Afghanistan have been providing valuable reporting that has repeatedly poked holes in how the Biden Administration has portrayed the situation on the ground in Kabul. They've pointed out everything from the bureaucratic mess Afghans have had to navigate to apply for a visa to the logistical difficulties of simply getting to the airport. But what happens as these reporters leave? It's hard to say that the bright light the press has been shining on the mess won't, like a flashlight slowly being drained of its battery, become dimmer and dimmer...
NYT's Peter Baker tweeted Thursday that the Biden team's "cold political calculation is that Americans won't care what happens in Afghanistan as long as Americans are safe." Baker pointed out that on Thursday there were "no front-page stories on Afghanistan in cities like Boston, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Fresno or Miami." And to Baker's point, TV ratings also tell a similar story. Channels like CNN and MSNBC simply aren't seeing a tremendous boost in viewers...  As Brian Stelter wrote here, "White House aides and Biden allies say this week's news coverage is overheated and out of step with the American public's views of the matter. Biden critics say the coverage is appropriately channeling moral outrage..."
"I appear calm, but that doesn't mean I am calm"
Make sure you don't miss Kate Storey's piece in Esquire that takes you "inside Clarissa Ward's 19-hour days reporting from Kabul." Ward told Storey that during tense moments with the Taliban, "I appear calm, but that doesn't mean I am calm. I don't panic because you can't panic in those situations. If you are someone who panics, then you probably should be doing a different job, because it will get you into more trouble. But it doesn't mean I'm calm on the inside. That's just the way I deal with fear: I get quiet and very focused..."
LA Times photographer attacked
The LA Times said that photographer Marcus Yam was trying to photograph a Taliban flag-raising at a traffic circle in central Kabul "when a Taliban fighter emerged out of nowhere and punched him on the side of the head. The fighter continued to beat Yam and another photographer working for a major U.S. newspaper and then to demand they erase the images they had shot. Yam said at one point he was on his knees urging the armed fighter not to hurt him." Eventually an "English-speaking militant" intervened, "aware that attacking Western media was not in keeping with the image that the Taliban leadership is trying to project. He offered the photographers an energy drink and released them..."
Afghan journalists also face assault
"Beaten, homes raided, turned away from work for being a woman: the complaints made by some Afghan journalists in recent days are sowing doubt about assurances made by their new Taliban rulers that independent media would be allowed," Reuters reported Thursday. In one instance, Radio Television Afghanistan reporter Sahar Nasari said the Taliban confiscated his camera and physically attacked his colleague who was trying to gather footage for a story on Thursday.
>> From the Reuters piece: "A Taliban spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on accusations that it has harassed journalists, and in particular women in the profession..." FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- "A free press was trying to take root in Afghanistan. Now journalists are bracing for Taliban rule," Elahe Izadi and Sarah Ellison report... (WaPo)
-- Rebecca Davis writes that Afghan female directors "fear the end of filmmaking" under the Taliban... (Variety)
-- A must-read story from Michael Grynbaum, Tiffany Hsu, and Katie Robertson on how news orgs "got Afghan colleagues out of Kabul." The Trio write that it was "an exfiltration that came after a global rescue effort stretching from American newsrooms to the halls of the Pentagon to the emir's palace in Doha, Qatar..." (NYT)
-- Photographer Kiana Hayeri says she has an "enormous amount of guilt" for having left Afghanistan behind: "I have a passport that means I can get out and these people cannot. That is the guilt..." (NatGeo)
-- Azmat Khan argues, "Western journalism and American journalism especially has had a problem in which people too often are very exploitative of locals they hire..." (The Intercept)
-- Thursday marks "seven years since James W. Foley was killed by ISIS in Syria." The James Foley Foundation tweets that it remains "dedicated to advocating for #journalistsafety worldwide..." (Twitter)
-- As Justin Baragona observes, Sean Hannity is "now outright calling for Biden to resign or be removed..." (Twitter)
-- Meanwhile: A new AP/NORC poll showed that 62 percent of American adults believe the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting... (AP)
-- Chris Cillizza notes that Biden "isn't talking" much to the media... (CNN)
-- Two photographs of Biden "neatly illustrated the White House's fight to contain the fallout of the biggest crisis of his presidency," CNN's WH team writes... (CNN)  FRIDAY PLANNER President Biden will deliver remarks on the evacuation of US citizens, SIV applicants, and vulnerable Afghans at 1:00pm from the East Room...
"Reminiscence" and "Cryptozoo" hit theaters and streaming platforms...
"The Chair" arrives on Netflix... Scroll down for Brian Lowry's reviews... Quantifying Fox's anti-vaccine rhetoric
Every day there are new examples of anti-vaccine rhetoric coming out of Fox News. But to what extent has such rhetoric saturated the channel's coverage? We have some answers via the progressive watchdog Media Matters, which published new research Thursday. "In a six-week period from June 28 through August 8, Media Matters found that nearly 60% of the network's vaccine segments included claims undermining or downplaying vaccinations," the group reported. Even more alarming was this finding: "Thirty-three percent of segments included claims suggesting that vaccination was unnecessary or dangerous." You can read the full report here... FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- "There are structural reasons people are swayed by anti-vaccine propaganda," Melody Schreiber writes. "Sneering at the unvaccinated won't solve them..." (TNR)
-- The White House Correspondents Association notified members on Thursday evening that a fully vaccinated member of the press corps who recently served in the pool tested positive for Covid...
-- The big Covid headline heading into Friday: "3 US senators announce positive Covid tests" despite all being vaccinated... (CNN)
-- Mark Zuckerberg defended Facebook's handling of vaccine misinformation in an interview with Gayle King... (CBS News) What's the future of OnlyFans?
On Thursday morning, Axios' Dan Primack reported that OnlyFans "is struggling to find outside investors." Hours later, news broke that the company had made the decision to ban the content that made it a money-making machine. As Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reported, "OnlyFans is getting out of the pornography business. Starting in October, the company will prohibit creators from posting material with sexually explicit conduct on its website, which many sex workers use to sell fans explicit content." The company said it needed to take such action to "ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform," specifically, to "comply with the requests" of "banking partners and payout providers..."
>> This is a big business story: "The decision to pull the rug out from millions of creators who have helped put OnlyFans on the map, many of whom left their full-time jobs to pivot to making content full-time, is a slap in the face," The Daily Beast's Cheyenne Roundtree and Laura Bradley report... FTC files fresh antitrust complaint seeking to break up Facebook
Brian Fung writes: "The FTC renewed its bid to break up Facebook on Thursday by filing an amended complaint in federal court alleging the tech giant has monopolized social media and harmed competition. The new complaint comes nearly two months after a federal judge tossed out the original complaint, arguing that the FTC had not provided sufficient evidence that Facebook holds a monopoly in social media to warrant allowing the case to continue. Here's my full story..."
Meanwhile, Facebook shares some news of its own
"For those who don't think Zoom meetings are a good enough substitute for the real thing, Facebook has another idea: a virtual reality app that lets you and your coworkers feel like you're sitting around a table in a conference room," CNN's Rachel Metz wrote. "On Thursday, Facebook unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a free app for users of its Oculus Quest 2 headset, a device that starts at $299. The app stands out as the company's most ambitious effort yet to enable groups to socialize in VR and move the still niche medium beyond entertainment uses such as gaming..."
>> Stelter tweeted out Metz's story and thousands of people responded by dunking on the product...
>> BuzzFeed's Katie Notopoulos has some thoughts: "It's 'cool,' it looks pretty fun, I bet it's nice to use. Is it life-changing? Mind-blowing? I don't know. 'A different kind of productivity experience' is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of 'metaverse....'"
>> NYT's Mike Isaac wonders: "After years of fizzled hype cycles, is mainstream virtual reality….*actually* around the corner?"
This week's RS podcast: Joe Bernstein on "Big Disinfo"
Brian Stelter writes: "BuzzFeed reporter and Nieman fellow Joe Bernstein joined me on this week's podcast to talk about his Harper's cover story on 'Big Disinfo,' the rise of a new industry dedicated to combating disinformation. 'What I wanted to push back against is a kind of a dominant framing in the media... that implies or outright says that lies and propaganda on social media, specifically on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, are measurably responsible for the deep issues in American society,' he said. Tune in via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app..." FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- FB has "slapped warning labels on CrowdTangle," NYT's Kevin Roose observes. Roose says this is "funny" because "measuring engagement is *the core feature of CrowdTangle*." He put it like this: "Facebook is basically saying 'please do not use our data product for its intended purpose, it's very bad...'" (Twitter)
-- Snap "is looking to do more with augmented reality ... and it's tapping a longtime Facebook executive to oversee the effort. Konstantinos Papamiltiadis... will become VP of platform partnerships at Snap," Naomi Nix reports... (Bloomberg)
-- "Google's new publisher group shows a willingness to collaborate, say members including AccuWeather and Advance Local," Kate Kaye reports... (Digiday)
-- Twitter has rolled out a "series of improvements to its Direct Message system," Amanda Silberling writes... (TechCrunch)
-- Casey Newton writes about "what Twitter should copy from Tinder..." (The Verge)
-- Heidi Chung writes about "how Spotify stock lost its mojo..." (Variety) Twitter tests a newsletter subscription button
"Twitter is testing a feature that makes it even more enticing to use its recently acquired Revue newsletter platform: the ability to subscribe to a newsletter directly from a Twitter profile, without having to follow a link to a separate website," The Verge's Ian Carlos Campbell reported Thursday. As Campbell pointed out, "It's a super simple feature, but possibly a very meaningful one for someone considering starting a newsletter — or transitioning to Twitter's platform..." Dylan Howard has bought ... Knewz?!
"Rupert Murdoch has sold his failed online aggregator Knewz to Dylan Howard," The Daily Beast's Lachlan Cartwright and Maxwell Tani scooped Thursday. In a call with the duo, NewsCorp CEO Robert Thomson confirmed the news, saying of the site, "Let's give it a second chance." Cartwright and Tani cited sources that said the deal will be officially announced soon. As they wrote, "The purchase of Knewz represents Howard's latest attempt to return to media relevance after leaving AMI last year..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR -- "Top California recall candidate Larry Elder has a long history of making disparaging remarks about women," Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck report... (CNN)
-- USA Today commentary editor Jill Lawrence has some things to say: "I'm going to become a USA Today columnist starting the week of Sept. 5..." (Twitter)
-- "Vox Media announced today that it has hired Eric Karp, formerly the SVP of global brand licensing at BuzzFeed, as its new svp, brand licensing, an appointment that signals the growing product licensing ambitions of Vox Media," Mark Stenberg writes... (AdWeek) "Grave concern" about "Jeopardy!" and Mike Richards
Brian Stelter writes: "Will Sony stand by Mike Richards as the new host of 'Jeopardy!' or will the studio cut him loose? Claire McNear's reporting for The Ringer -- about Richards' past insults on a podcast, and more -- continued to make waves as taping of the new season began on Thursday. Matt Belloni said in his Puck newsletter that 'internal pressure is building on Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra over the selection' of Richards. Belloni said the CEO 'still wants to keep Richards, but if the backlash overwhelms the show — or, presumably, if fingers start pointing more directly at Vinciquerra himself — don't be surprised if he makes a change.'"
>> The ADL even weighed in on Thursday, saying that Richards' "disparaging remarks about Jews, women & Asians are no laughing matter. Stereotyping is an entry point to hate and his apology lacks acknowledgment of its harm. This reported pattern warrants an investigation."
>> Variety's Michael Schneider said Sony "declined to comment on the ADL's statement. But multiple sources close to the situation say the discovery of offensive remarks from the podcast has sparked grave concern within the studio about whether Richards' public image may already be too damaged for him to be the face of the beloved quiz show..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- One of the wildest stories of the day: Brooks Barnes reports on the coming "sentient Disney robots..." (NYT)
-- Rebecca Rubin writes about how movie theaters are "anxiously" holding out hope for a late "box office rebound..." (Variety)
-- "The women of 'The Daily Show' know when to make you laugh: Correspondents Dulcé Sloan and Desi Lydic joined The 19th and some of the women running the show behind the scenes for a conversation about how they bring humor to the country's biggest problems..." (The 19th)
-- "Gutfeld!" on Fox News "finally beat every other late-night show — including Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' on CBS — Tuesday in total viewership and the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54." It's still not quite a fair fight since "Gutfeld!" starts at 11pm ET and the network shows start later, and since his show is a different breed, but this is a ratings win Fox very much wanted to tout... (TheWrap) ACM ditches network TV
"The Academy of Country Music Awards will be streamed live on Amazon Prime Video starting next year, Amazon said on Thursday," the NYT's Brooks Barnes wrote. This means the ACMs will be "the first significant awards telecast to move entirely online." Barnes noted that "Amazon has been looking for ways to create synergy between its Prime Video service and its Amazon Music song and podcast platform..." Are streamers getting too much coverage?
Brian Lowry writes: "As I pointed out on Twitter, the Nielsen-reported percentages of time people spend viewing different media – including cable, streaming and broadcast TV – certainly aren't reflective of the amount of media coverage each of those spheres garner. While it's tough to know how accurate those figures, noted by USA Today's Gary Levin, actually are, if they're even close it would indicate Netflix and Disney+ in particular draw a disproportionate amount of attention, no doubt because their offerings (especially the latter's Marvel and 'Star Wars' shows) are more likely to trend..."  Marvel prepares to roll out its next generation of heroes  Brian Lowry writes: "Marvel's sequel-heavy roster of movies will be rolling out some fresh blood in the next few months, with 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' premiering Sept. 3 and the latest trailer for 'Eternals,' due in November, landing today. Both films are notable, the former featuring a predominantly Asian cast, the latter representing an ambitious concept from legendary writer-artist Jack Kirby that actually wasn't particularly successful or well-received when it made its debut in the 1970s. Kirby – the co-creator of signature titles like 'Fantastic Four,' 'The Incredible Hulk,' 'X-Men' and 'The Avengers' – had left the company, returning to Marvel after a stint at rival DC..." FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX -- "Marvel Studios unveiled a whole new mythology at the center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the final trailer for Chloé Zhao's 'Eternals,'" Richard Newby explains... (THR)
-- "Taylor Sheridan's 'Yellowstone' has firmed a November 7 Season 4 launch on the Paramount Network with a two-episode premiere," Mike Fleming Jr. writes... (Deadline)
-- "Just one month after the second season of 'Never Have I Ever' launched on Netflix, the coming-of-age comedy has been renewed for a third season," Danielle Turchiano writes... (Variety)
-- Stephen Battaglio's latest: "Meet the archivist who saved the historic footage that became 'Summer of Soul...'" (LAT) "The Chair" examines generational divides
Brian Lowry writes: "Netflix's 'The Chair' fritters around the edges of a really interesting look at the generational divides within a college English department, with Sandra Oh as the first woman of color to serve as its chair. Despite an exceptional cast, the six-episode series – created by actor Amanda Peet, who produced it with her husband, 'Game of Thrones'' David Benioff – goes off on tangents at times while contemplating its big ideas, like a dissertation that doesn't fully deliver..." "Reminiscence" eclipsed by better Hugh Jackman films
Brian Lowry writes: "Hugh Jackman plays a guy living in a dystopian future who helps people experience old memories in 'Reminiscence,' the directing debut of 'Westworld' series co-creator Lisa Joy. But this Warner Bros.-released mashup of 'Blade Runner' and old 1940s film noir mostly evoked memories of better movies..." FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN By Lisa Respers France:
-- Eminem stars as "White Boy Rick" in 50 Cent's "BMF" drama on Starz...
-- Daniel Craig reportedly made more than $100 million thanks to streaming... SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
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