BREAKING
Facebook changes livestream rules
"Two months after the mass shooting at a mosque in New Zealand was live-streamed by the accused gunman on Facebook, the company is introducing new rules for the feature," Heather Kelly reports for CNN Business.
-- Wednesday's key change: People who break FB's "most serious policies" will be immediately banned from using Facebook Live for a period of time, such as 30 days.
-- "Under the new policy, the alleged Christchurch shooter would not have been able to livestream the massacre from his account in March," Kelly wrote.
-- FB says it is investing $7.5 million in research partnerships with universities to better identify manipulated media.
The context...
Tuesday night's announcement came ahead "of a push by New Zealand and France to encourage tech companies and countries to work together to do more to limit the spread of extremist content online," Kelly wrote. "The non-binding agreement, called the Christchurch Call, is expected to be announced on Wednesday." CNN's Christiane Amanpour spoke with NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about it on Tuesday...
WEDNESDAY PLANNER
-- TV upfronts in NYC: WarnerMedia in the morning, CBS in the afternoon...
-- The Paley Honors will be held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom Wednesday evening...
-- In DC, Wolf Blitzer will receive the American News Women's Club Excellence in Journalism Award... Per the press release, "Blitzer is the first male journalist honored since the ANWC selected Brian Lamb in 2006..."
TV UPFRONTS 2019
Streaming week
This year the TV industry's upfront week is also "streaming week." At the same time that America's biggest media companies are touting their new dramas and sitcoms, they are also talking up their plans for streaming platforms that will look a lot like Netflix. On Monday NBCUniversal hyped its forthcoming service, noting that ads will be included. And on Wednesday WarnerMedia (CNN's parent) and CBS are expected to tout their respective plans.
Each streaming service is in a different phase of development. Each company's strategy is distinct. Each price point is different. Frankly it's all pretty confusing, and it will continue to be confusing for the next couple of years. But the upshot for consumers is clear: More streaming services are coming, and they're going to cost you. In the past, Netflix has resembled an all-you-can-eat buffet. But some of Netflix's biggest suppliers -- such as Comcast and Disney -- are opening their own restaurants. Lemme stretch the analogy a bit: The future looks more like a food court. If you want a bite of each, you'll have to pay separately for each, albeit with some exceptions.
Here's what happened on Tuesday | | -- On Tuesday morning Disney and Comcast announced a complex deal that will give Disney full control of Hulu right away and will unwind Comcast's stake in the years to come. The days of Hulu as a joint venture are officially over. Every network is on its own now. But NBC's exit from Hulu will happen slowly.
-- Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke at MoffettNathanson's investor conference and said "we're not purposely trying to do anything to damage the bundle, because it still has a lot of value," but "we're prepared to pivot in a new direction."
-- Speaking of the bundle, CNBC's Alex Sherman published some new details about how NBCU's service will work: The free version will require a cable or satellite log-in. The paid version, "likely around $10 per month," will include lots of library content, like reruns of past seasons. So the service will clearly favor customers who stay subscribed to the cable bundle...
-- AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson spoke about WarnerMedia's plans at a J.P. Morgan investor conference. He promoted the Warner Bros. collection of shows and movies and said, "We will be bringing a lot of these media rights, licensing rights, back to ourselves to put on our own SVOD product, video-on-demand product." This is similar to NBC's talk about bringing shows "home..."
-- Stephenson also talked about supporting the existing cable bundle: "If you're a Comcast subscriber and you acquire HBO, you will get this capability with your HBO subscription on Comcast." Over time, he said, John Stankey and Bob Greenblatt's as-yet-unnamed streaming service will be AT&T's "key video product..."
-- The takeaway from all this? Peter Kafka summed it up: "While today it's pretty easy to find most of TV's biggest hits by subscribing to Netflix and Hulu, in a few years, many of those shows will be scattered to rival services: If you want everything, you'll need to get Netflix and Hulu and NBCUniversal's thing and AT&T's thing and Disney's other streaming service."
Scroll down for the rest of the day's UPFRONT headlines...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- BREAKING: Salon Media Group "appears to be on the brink of a deal to sell itself for a fire sale price of $5 million," Keith Kelly reports... (NYPost)
-- The BBC is presenting an update about its 50:50 challenge on Wednesday: "Nearly three-quarters of BBC news and current affairs/topical programmes had an equal number of male and female expert contributors..." (BBC)
-- Here is Margaret Sullivan's new column about 50:50: "One news anchor decided to put more women on air. Now his idea has gone global..." (WaPo)
-- "The cliché about America today is that we're a country divided between two coasts." But America "is actually a checkerboard of towns and cities — some rising from the bottom up and others collapsing from the top down." Don't miss Thomas Friedman's latest... (NYT)
"SF police try to suppress the press with a sledgehammer"
That's the headline on this column by SF Chronicle editor Audrey Cooper. She says freelance video journalist Bryan Carmody -- whose home was raided by police last week -- is a "less-than-ideal" poster child for press freedoms in SF. But that's what he is now, and Cooper and so many others have his back.
"If you side with those who believe this raid is justified, for whatever reason, you open the door to officials being allowed to decide what news they like and what they don't, which journalists they like and which ones they do not. That will not end well for anyone," Cooper wrote..
>> To get caught up on this case, here is CNN's story by Amir Vera and Keith Allen...
Google's new ad placements
"The search giant on Tuesday announced an expansion of its advertising real estate to boost revenue from mobile shoppers," Reuters' Paresh Dave wrote. "It will feature ads on the homepage of its smartphone app worldwide, show more ads in Maps and place ads with image galleries in search results." | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
By Oliver Darcy:
-- Erik Wemple chronicled where various media organizations erred covering the Russia probe -- and lessons that can be taken from the mistakes... (WaPo)
-- Andrew Napolitano continues to be willing to break from the pro-Trump faction of Fox. On Tuesday, he was left stunned by Lindsey Graham's suggestion that Donald Trump Jr. ignore the Senate Intel Committee's subpoena... (Mediaite)
-- According to one of Fox's fiercest critics, here's how the network "mischaracterized a tech study to push anti-conservative censorship myth..." (Media Matters)
-- Fox held its first annual Fox Nation "summit" for super-fans in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Tuesday night...
Warren's rejection of Fox
Fox News has held two town halls with Democratic hopefuls, and has two more on the books. On Tuesday Elizabeth Warren became the first candidate to publicly reject Fox's invite. She called the network a "hate-for-profit racket" that is "designed to turn us against each other." A Warren aide told CNN's MJ Lee, "We're not giving them 60 minutes of her time for an exclusive major TV event so they can market it to their advertisers."
My impression: Dems who choose to go on Fox focus on WHO's watching. They say Fox attracts a big audience, and not all of the viewers are rock-solid Republicans. But the Dems who reject Fox focus on WHAT those viewers are watching. The content. In Warren's words, the channel "gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists" and provides cover "for the corruption that's rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class."
>> Notably, Fox had no comment on Tuesday...
Lachlan: Ad boycotts won't dictate programming on Fox News
Oliver Darcy emails: Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch on Tuesday dismissed the ad boycotts that have plagued Fox News' prime time lineup. Speaking to Wall Street analysts, Murdoch claimed, according to THR, that the boycotts "are not having a financial impact of any significance." Murdoch added that even if the boycotts were having a damaging impact on Fox News, "it wouldn't affect the way we program that channel."
...Meanwhile, Media Matters goes after the "Fox 'News' Lie"
Darcy adds: Media Matters published a 60-page report on Tuesday zeroing in on the news division inside Fox News. The anti-Fox group noted that Fox frequently touts its hard news division and stresses it is different than the opinion hosts it employs. But Media Matters says after four months of monitoring the news division, it found examples in which misinformation was spread. "Advertisers and audiences shouldn't be fooled: Fox's opinion and 'news' sides are two cogs in the same propaganda machine," the Media Matters report said...
Twitter now directs users searching for vaccine info to HHS | | More from Oliver Darcy: If you search Twitter for "vaccines" this week, you'll see something new: Instead of first showing you random tweets about vaccines, Twitter will first direct you to the Health & Human Services. The change was announced last week in a Twitter blog post, but didn't gain much attention until Tuesday.
In the blog post, Del Harvey, Twitter's VP for trust and safety, wrote, "We recently launched a new tool so when someone searches for certain keywords associated with vaccines, a prompt will direct individuals to a credible public health resource." Harvey added, "This new investment builds on our existing work to guard against the artificial amplification of non-credible content about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Beto O'Rourke, speaking on "The View" and seeking a reset, says his Vanity Fair cover story rollout was a mistake... (CNN)
-- Steve Bullock's first one-on-one interview after announcing his candidacy for the Dems' 2020 nomination was with CBS correspondent Ed O'Keefe... (CBS)
-- I missed this the other day: A newly formed radio company, Gulf Coast Media, is vowing to broadcast "Trump speeches daily" on its three stations until the end of the 2020 election... (Orlando Sentinel)
| | Another Trump shoutout for OANN
At OANN, a small but growing cable news channel with a rightward bent, the staff is a mix of young journalists and committed partisans. The chief White House correspondent, for example, is a former actress who is now both a reporter and right-wing commentator, Emerald Robinson. Trump greeted her by name during an informal Q&A with reporters on Tuesday morning. "How are you Emerald," he said, inviting her to ask a question. "Go ahead, what's up?"
Here's my full story about the channel, expanding on last night's newsletter lead...
Right-wing troll Charles Johnson met with Wilbur Ross
Oliver Darcy emails: Right-wing troll Charles C. Johnson, who operated the now-defunct GotNews website, was in communication and met with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Yahoo's Alexander Nazaryan reported on Tuesday. "Hi Secretary Ross," Johnson wrote in the email Yahoo obtained. "Great chatting with you the other day." In the email exchange, Johnson asked Ross if he wanted to meet while he was in DC. Ross, according to Yahoo, replied he could not meet because he was traveling. That said, after Nazaryan published his story, he confirmed Johnson and Ross did meet that summer. It's unclear what the two discussed...
>> Darcy adds: This certainly isn't the first example of a fringe right-wing media personality gaining access to a senior Trump administration official. But, it is a good reminder of the type of people Trump has empowered since he took office. It also makes you wonder: Who else are these Trump admin officials meeting with?
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Craig Silverman's latest: "An ambitious online disinformation campaign that impersonated major media outlets, used fake Twitter accounts to spread false articles, and targeted real journalists is likely linked to Iran, according to researchers who tracked it for close to two years..." (BuzzFeed News)
-- "Michael Clinton, former publisher of GQ and one of the longest-serving top executives in the magazine publishing world, is retiring as president, marketing and publishing director of Hearst — ending a 21-year career with the company and a 41-year media career..." (NYPost)
-- Lyz Lenz's new piece for CJR: "The heavy crown of Gretchen Carlson..." (CJR)
Howard Stern and Terry Gross together
Howard Stern spoke with Terry Gross last week. Part one aired on "Fresh Air" on Tuesday, with more to come on Wednesday. The occasion: Stern's new book. "Yeah, I know. We're kind of radio opposites," Gross said. "But we both do interviews. And in my opinion, his have gotten really good."
Hear two of radio's master interviewers here. Stern told Gross that he's the happiest he's ever been in radio: "I think where I'm at now is the perfect place..."
In defense of tech...
 I love this June cover package by WIRED: "Why We (Still) Love Tech."
The lead piece is by Paul Ford, the co-founder of Postlight, a digital product studio. "I was exceptionally lucky to be born into this moment. I got to see what happened, to live as a child of acceleration. The mysteries of software caught my eye when I was a boy, and I still see it with the same wonder, even though I'm now an adult," he writes. But: "I can't deny that the miracle is over, and that there is an unbelievable amount of work left for us to do..."
HBO's two-part Muhammad Ali doc
Brian Lowry emails: "What's My Name / Muhammad Ali," an HBO documentary devoted to the late champ that made its debut Tuesday, runs nearly three hours, and relies solely on archival footage in chronicling his life and career. Ali is a gifted narrator of his own story, but the project — from director Antoine Fuqua, which counts LeBron James among its producers — misses third-party voices to help put Ali's greatness in context. The film will be streaming here...
| | The biggest news from ABC's upfront
ABC picked up "its smallest slate of new shows in recent memory," THR's Daniel Fienberg wrote. TVLine has all the new show trailers here...
Lowry's recap
Brian Lowry emails: Disney put all its TV assets under one umbrella, in what was clearly designed to be an "Avengers Assemble" moment. "Brands matter more than ever. And we have the best," said Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-to-consumer and international, introducing a presentation that perhaps inevitably ballooned to well over two hours, and proceeded to rifle through ESPN, FX, National Geographic and Freeform before getting to ABC. The length aside, it felt like a somewhat more polished version of what NBCU has been doing the last few years, and at the risk of referencing a rival comic-book franchise, had a "Kneel before Zod" quality in terms of showcasing the studio's collective reach, which was surely the intention...
Kimmel inks new deal with ABC...
Frank Pallotta writes: Jimmy Kimmel's new contract with ABC will keep him as host of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" for the next three seasons, taking him through his 20th season. More here...
...And then skewers his bosses
Frank adds: One of the best parts of upfronts week every year is watching Kimmel lampoon his bosses and the rest of the TV world at the ABC upfront. This year was no different. Here are some of the most biting and hilarious things he said:
-- "I can't believe Channing [Dungey] left for Netflix. Who does she think she is? Our viewers?"
-- "What a year! Roseanne is gone, and measles are back."
-- "Remember last year when you guys gave Leslie Moonves a standing ovation? That was funny. Whoops!"
-- "Poor Fox. They have nothing left. Fox is now the network equivalent of a divorced dad's refrigerator."
-- "NBC has 'This Is Us,' which is so popular that it was renewed for three seasons. Or as Constance Wu would call it, 'a death sentence.'"
Constance Wu's not going anywhere
Sandra Gonzalez emails: Constance Wu is not in danger of losing her job on "Fresh Off the Boat," according to ABC president Karey Burke. The exec said at a Tuesday morning Q&A with reporters that she's choosing "to believe Constance's most recent communication about the show -- that she's happy to return" and that there have been no conversations about recasting the role.
--> Brian Lowry notes that at the actual presentation later in the day, Burke, when introducing "Fresh Off the Boat," added, "still starring Constance Wu." It got a big laugh...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- This year's noms for the MTV Movie & TV Awards: "RBG," "Game of Thrones" and "Avengers: Endgame" each received four nominations each... (CNN)
-- "The Cannes Film Festival opened Tuesday with 21 movies contending for the top trophy, the Palme d'Or. A gala premiere of 'The Dead Don't Die,' by the American director Jim Jarmusch, kicked off the 12-day extravaganza..." (NYT)
-- Mary McNamara's newest column: "The anger of 'Game of Thrones' fans is part of the game..." (LAT)
No more host for the Oscars?
Sandra Gonzalez emails: The aforementioned Karey Burke seemed to imply that the Oscars might go hostless once again. Touting its strong numbers and creative direction, she said, "I think you will see us not messing with that formula to the best of our abilities." My translation: Let's all hope the Academy doesn't mess with it. (Burke added later, "I'm not saying no to anything at this point" as The Academy won't make decisions about the ceremony "until later in the year...")
ESPN's gamble
Frank Pallotta writes: First it was Turner Sports, then Fox Sports and now it's ESPN's turn. Sports media is betting big on sports gambling. ESPN announced on Tuesday that it is partnering with Caesars Entertainment to build a new ESPN-branded studio at its LINQ Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Former ESPNer Darren Rovell, now with the betting-focused Action Network, called it a "watershed moment." He tweeted, "I remember when they wouldn't let us reference team names (only city names) whenever I referred to odds, concerned about how the leagues would react. Times have changed." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- "'Game of Thrones' set another ratings record for the show's penultimate episode. 'The Bells' delivered 18.4 million viewers across two airings and including streaming, according to HBO. That figure blows past the previous record of 17.8 million from two weeks ago..." (EW)
-- "Madonna intends to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest final in Tel Aviv, Israel, this weekend, despite calls by activists for her to boycott the event..." (CNN)
-- Deepest condolences to Tim Conway's family members and friends: He died Tuesday morning at age 85. (CNN)
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
