| You made it to the end of the week — and to Brian Stelter's birthday! Please join me in congratulating him on completing another trip around the sun! This is Oliver Darcy at 8:05pm ET on Friday, September 3. Quick housekeeping note: This newsletter is taking Sunday off for the Labor Day weekend and will resume on Monday. And with that said, let's get started with some recommended reads to for your three-day break...
Longreads for Labor Day weekend >> WSJ's Erich Schwartzel and Joe Flint have a must-read, scoop-filled story on "how Disney and Scarlett Johansson reached the point of no return..."
>> NiemanLab's Joshua Benton examines the Politico-Axel Springer deal and "some of the smart moves" Politico made to sell for more than $1 billion...
>> WaPo's Carlos Lozada has an essay you should spend some time with: "9/11 was a test. The books of the last two decades show how America failed..."
>> Janet Reitman talks to Terry Albury, an "idealistic F.B.I. agent, [who] grew so disillusioned by the war on terror that he was willing to leak classified documents" to The Intercept and "go to prison for doing it..."
>> The New Yorker's Daniel Gross has a fascinating story about the "surprisingly big business of library e-books..."
>> NYT's Jessica Testa looks at how "at top magazines, Black representation remains a work in progress..."
>> Vox's Aja Romano writes about how the "Jeopardy!" hosting saga "has become a cautionary morality tale..."
>> CNN's Max Foster and Lauren Said-Moorhouse explain how the Duchess of Sussex was "dealt a blow this week" in her fight against the media...
>> The New Yorker's Kyle Chayka makes an interesting observation about ivermectin and the milk crate challenge: "The two phenomena have more in common than they seem to: both gained traction as memes ... and both have been suppressed in the same digital spaces that they thrived in..."
>> NYT's Taylor Lorenz profiles Li Jin, "the investor guru for online creators..."
>> WSJ's Robbie Whelan writes about the "social-media stars who move markets" and how "young investors are turning to a new generation of stock pickers — many without formal training — for advice..."
>> Vox's Beatrice Forman tackles how "wealth inequality exists among influencers, too..."
>> Allie Volpe explains in The Atlantic "how Shrek is connecting people" during the pandemic: "To understand why, you have to go to Bella Vista and look for a chartreuse newspaper box that says from our swamp to yours..."
>> NY Mag's Bridget Read writes about "the red-pilling of Kitson" and how "the boutique that defined early-aughts L.A. style has taken an unexpected turn..." WEEKEND PLANNER College Football airs all day Saturday...
The Tokyo Paralympic Games will conclude with the closing ceremony airing Sunday on NBC at 7pm...
Notre Dame takes on the Florida State Seminoles at 7:30pm on ABC...
The "DC Legends of Tomorrow" season finale airs at 8pm on The CW... The "Rick and Morty" season finale airs at 11pm on Adult Swim...
The penultimate episode of Spike Lee's "NYC Epicenters 9/11 → 2021½" airs at 8pm on HBO...
"Billions" season five premieres at 9pm Sunday on Showtime... This Sunday on "Reliable"
John Avlon will be in the anchor chair. He'll be joined by Ayesha Tanzeem, Leonard Pitts, Spencer Ackerman, Michael Daly, Laura Edelson, Liz Mair, and Julie Pace. Plus, a one-on-one with Ken Burns. This Sunday at 11am ET! Holiday weekend news dump?
As we sail into the holiday weekend, keep your eyes posted for a news dump. As I write this item on Friday evening, there (thankfully) hasn't been one. But we still have plenty of time in the next few days for a company to try and bury some news while everyone is trying to enjoy some time off... FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE "We are working around the clock"
Labor Day weekend won't bring time off for everyone in the media this year. Case in point: Journalists down in New Orleans who are still covering the damage left behind by Hurricane Ida. WDSU News reporter Jennifer Crockett tweeted that staffers are "bunking at the TV station" as they continue to report. "We are working around the clock to continue SHOUTING for the people suffering greatly," Crockett tweeted...
To that point...  The Advocate's Peter Kovacs tweeted the above photo with this caption on Friday: "We have no internet, no power. The mail isn't delivered. My Amazon order was supposed to arrive 9/2 but I haven't seen any of their trucks. Yet an ancient device for conveying information, relying on ink & paper, has been sitting on my driveway every morning since Hurricane Ida..." WSJ editorial board trashes new Texas abortion law
The WSJ editorial board is ripping into Texas' abortion bill, declaring that it "sets an awful precedent that conservatives should hate." The board wrote in a scathing assessment that Texas Republicans have "handed Democrats a political grenade." And it even went so far as to say, "Sometimes we wonder if Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is a progressive plant. His ill-conceived legal attack against ObamaCare backfired on Republicans in last year's election and lost at the Supreme Court. Now he and his Texas mates are leading with their chins on abortion. How about thinking first?" US sanctions Iranians over alleged plot to kidnap journalist
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jennifer Hansler report: "The US Department of the Treasury has sanctioned four Iranian intelligence operatives behind an alleged plot to kidnap a U.S. journalist and human rights activist living in New York and Iranian dissidents in other countries. Those four Iranian intelligence operatives targeted 'a U.S. citizen in the United States and Iranian dissidents in other countries as part of a wide-ranging campaign to silence critics of the Iranian government,' The U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a statement released Friday. This comes after US prosecutors charged the four individuals in July in an alleged plot to kidnap US journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad living in New York..." FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- Glenn Greenwald has apologized for his comments responding to Chelsea Manning... (Mediaite)
-- "Politico appears to have ended, or is trying to hide, a sponsorship deal between Lockheed Martin ... and its popular newsletter National Security Daily," Ethan Paul reports... (Responsible Statecraft)
-- The FEC board has unanimously rejected an absurd complaint that Maggie Haberman, John Harwood, and several news organizations "illegally contributed to Hillary Clinton's campaign with favorable coverage," Jake Lahut reports... (Insider)
-- Important not to forget: "Right-wing cable network One America News is continuing its months-long campaign against public health by spreading dangerous and bizarre conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and vaccines...." (MMFA) Andrew Neil to quit GB News?  The fledging GB News continues to be plagued by trouble. The Telegraph's Ben Woods reported Friday that its main star, Andrew Neil, is "expected to quit GB News amid a bitter rift with its senior management and board." According to Woods, insiders anticipate Neil will resign without ever appearing on the channel again after he took time off for a summer break. "The veteran broadcaster and GB News bosses have failed to set aside their differences, sources said, after relations between Mr Neil and chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos suffered a total breakdown over the direction of the company..." Kristof moves closer to an Oregon run
NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof is inching closer toward a possible run for Oregon's governorship. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist "has been making inquiries to high-level Democrats about staffing his possible bid," Politico's Christopher Cadelago and Zach Montellaro reported Friday. The duo reported that the "outreach to campaign consulting firms and advisers has come in recent days" and "is the most concrete sign yet that the famous chronicler of human rights around the world is laying the groundwork for a run in his home state..."
>> Additional context: Kristof has been on leave from NYT since June... FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- James Fallows, whose seminal book "Breaking the News" came out 25 years ago, has launched a Substack with the same name... (Breaking the News)
-- "Slate and podcast host Mike Pesca have 'mutually agreed to part ways,' per an email to staffers from CEO Dan Check and EIC Jared Hohlt," WaPo's Erik Wemple reports... (WaPo)  Politico's Alex Wickham published a scoop Friday, revealing "the UK government's plan for what will happen in the days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II." As Wickham wrote, "snippets have trickled out over the years," but the documents he obtained detailed operation "LONDON BRIDGE" in "granular detail" revealing "the full extent of the preparations undertaken." Read about the report here... Study: Untrustworthy publishers get more Facebook engagement
For those who have been paying attention, this will come as no surprise. WaPo's Elizabeth Dwoskin reported on a forthcoming peer-reviewed study from researchers at New York University and the Université Grenoble Alpes. Per Dwoskin, the study found that "news publishers known for putting out misinformation got six times the amount of likes, shares, and interactions on the platform as did trustworthy news sources, such as CNN or the World Health Organization." Facebook (predictably) disputed the conclusions of the report, saying it looked "mostly at how people engage with content, which should not be confused with how many people actually see it on Facebook..." Apple walks back plans for child safety tool after backlash
"Apple made headlines — and not the good kind — last month when it announced a test of a new tool aimed at combating child exploitation. Critics quickly decried the feature's potential privacy implications, and now Apple is taking a long pit stop before moving forward with its plans," CNN's Clare Duffy and Samantha Murphy Kelly wrote Friday. "The company said it will pause testing the tool in order to gather more feedback and make improvements." Read all the details here...
WaPo refuses statement attributed to unnamed Apple spox
WaPo's Reed Albergotti made a decision seen rarely in journalism while reporting on Apple's delay: declining to accept a statement attributable only to an unnamed spokesperson. "Apple spokesman Fred Sainz said he would not provide a statement on Friday's announcement because The Washington Post would not agree to use it without naming the spokesperson," Albergotti wrote in his piece.
The decision triggered significant chatter — and praise — among journalists. "I'm always amazed and appalled at these supposed spokespeople who refuse to be named," WaPo's Margaret Sullivan tweeted. "Including those for media companies. That's their job!" CNN's Alexander Marquardt added, "If only journalists and media orgs could band together and universally enforce this..." FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR -- Nicole Perlroth reports on how TikTok users are flooding a Texas abortion site with fake tips... (NYT)
-- GoDaddy will be "cutting off" the site, Sean Hollister reports... (The Verge)
-- Teddy Schleifer details why Silicon Valley "gave up on Gavin Newsom..." (The Stratosphere)
-- "The first family of TikTok has landed on Hulu," Kalhan Rosenblatt writes about Charli and Dixie D'Amelio's new docuseries... (NBC News)
-- "A startup called Playbyte wants to become the TikTok for games," Sarah Perez reports... (TechCrunch) Rashida Jones talks about Rachel Maddow's new deal
Deadline's Ted Johnson published a profile Friday on MSNBC President Rashida Jones. And, as one would expect, he asked the newly-installed cable news boss about the network's recent deal with Rachel Maddow. Jones alluded to the fact that Maddow will eventually give up her nightly show. Jones said that it "will continue as she's doing it now," but also said that "one of the things we are looking at is she is so interested and excited in doing things in so many different areas within NBCUniversal, so we are figuring out how to juggle all of that, but her show continues on." Jones added about Maddow, "This has been a home for her for a long time, and we are grateful to have her, and so I think [the negotiation] ended where it intended to end, and this is just kind of part of the process..."  "Shang-Chi" opens to $8.8 million  Brian Lowry writes: "'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' opened to $8.8 million for Thursday previews, which, as Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro noted, is difficult to read until you know just how front-loaded those figures are. The story of the pandemic has been that people willing/wanting to see movies in theaters have shown up right away, with totals quickly dwindling. But the Marvel title isn't available via Disney+, so those who do want to see it early don't have the instant at-home option that was at play with 'Black Widow...'" FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX -- Manori Ravidran and Ramin Setoodeh report that "Dune" was a hit at its Venice World Premiere, earning "a six-minute standing ovation..." (Variety)
-- Joe Coscarelli and Ben Sisario write about how Drake and Kanye West, whom they describe as "occasional collaborators turned friendly competitors turned bitter rivals," will "tangle on the charts..." (NYT)
-- "Nicole Scherzinger agreed to a reunion of The Pussycat Dolls, the big girl group musical act of the early 2000s. Then, COVID-19 hit. Now, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, she's threatening to walk away from the big tour unless she's given a majority share and complete creative control in relaunching the group," Eriq Gardner reports... (THR)
-- "'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' creator Malcolm Spellman has partnered with Chromatic Black on the Ida B. Wells Fund, a scholarship of $100k to be invested in 10 Black creatives (at $10k each) to produce independent film and documentary projects," Rosy Cordero reports... (Deadline) SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day!
Kerry Flynn writes: "My sister Erin got a puppy this week, and I had the honor of taking care of her for a day. She's a mini dachshund named Zero (after the ghost dog in 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'). It's been a little more than a year since I welcomed home Falkor, so I was quickly reminded how much work puppies can be. But even with all the messes, she was so fun. I can't wait to see her again!"   Thank you for reading! Email your feedback anytime. Enjoy the Labor Day weekend! John Avlon will see you on 📺 Sunday and we'll be back newslettering Monday night... Share this newsletter:
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