NEW: The New York Times is investigating an Israeli freelancer after she repeatedly liked multiple X posts that indicated a pro-Israel bias, including one that called for the Gaza Strip to be turned into a “slaughterhouse.”
SCOOP: The
@AP
has fired reporter Jim LaPorta, one of the two bylines on a retracted report last week alleging Russian missiles landed in NATO member Poland. The report relied a single anonymous source, a violation of AP's policy.
w/
@LachCartwright
:
According to the International Churchill Society, Winston Churchill never said the words DeSantis cites to end his presidential campaign.
"We base this on careful research in the canon of fifty million words by and about Churchill..."
NEW: Howard Kurtz said he's been barred by Fox from covering the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, a decision he said he “strongly disagrees” with. “It’s a major media story,” he said on his show Sunday.
for
@thedailybeast
:
EXCLUSIVE: The
@washingtonpost
has parted ways with national political reporter
@feliciasonmez
, capping a week of fighting that stoked conversations over newsroom inequity and social media use and pitted reporters against each other.
The Washington Post's homepage earlier tonight, with its story on incoming executive editor Rob Winnett's ties to a "thief" taking the No. 2 slot on the site. I'm told managing editors Matea Gold and Scott Vance signed off on the slot and a push notification for the story.
SCOOP: Will Lewis has dragged the Washington Post into his alleged U.K. hacking scandal, yet he refuses to speak about it. Staffers I spoke with said the time for silence has long passed.
One Gannett reporter will get the chance to cover full-time the immovable force that is Taylor Swift. The new position comes nearly a year after the company laid off six percent of its news division, its impacts felt across dozens of its local newsrooms.
An emotional Rachel Maddow joins the chorus of MS/NBC hosts decrying NBC News' decision to hire Ronna McDaniel. "Ronna McDaniel will not appear on MSNBC," she says, saying the fact she was hired is "inexplicable." "You wouldn't hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener."
NEW: A source familiar says
@KamalaHarris
won't be attending NABJ due to logistical reasons, including finalizing a VP pick. She apparently tried to schedule a virtual chat during the convention or an in-person chat after the convention, but NABJ declined.
SCOOP: Chris Cuomo is coming back to TV. Cuomo’s set to host a primetime
@NewsNation
hour, giving the ex-CNN anchor a new platform and the struggling network a star boost. w/
@LachCartwright
and
@oldmcdougall
Journalists from Tribune publications including the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, the Virginian-Pilot, and Morning Call (among others) will walk off the job tomorrow for a daylong strike, according to the NewsGuild. The latest in a month of rampant media labor action.
NEW: Ronna McDaniel is out at NBC News, NBCU News chairman Cesar Conde told staff in a memo today. The news followed a two-day, on-air revolt by NBC and MSNBC talent over her hiring. Full story here w/
@justinbaragona
:
I took a look at some of the methods incoming WaPo editor Rob Winnett took while as a reporter in the U.K., including how he managed an undercover reporter. They're methods that clash with U.S. journalistic ethical standards—and the Post's policies.
NEW: St. George's School's leadership sent out a memo this evening outlining their safety concerns with Tucker coming to campus and alleging that he violated an agreement to not record the Zoom session he had with students.
Breaking: Tucker Carlson is considered by faculty and administration "too dangerous" to speak at his high school alma mater, the St George's School, despite a student invitation. He hosts a Zoom with students instead and explains what happened. Here's the clip.
SCOOP: CNN's new boss hinted to staff that
@brianstelter
's exit may not be the last big change coming. "There will be more changes and you might not understand it or like it all," Chris Licht said Friday morning.
SCOOP: We got unredacted text messages that show Tucker Carlson repeatedly used the c-word in texts to describe Sidney Powell. Who received one? Top anchor Bret Baier, who schemed with Carlson to slow-walk results post-2020 election.
w/
@justinbaragona
NEW: I spoke to reporters at
@ColumbiaSpec
, who walked me through how they're trying to get right what the national press may miss when covering the pro-Palestinian protests. "This is reporting that will have a place in the historical record."
SCOOP: The
@nytimes
faced widespread fury last month over its trans coverage, but it wasn’t the first time management had heard those concerns. I spoke to multiple staffers who elevated it to the highest ranks of editors—including Dean Baquet—years ago.
President Biden is sitting down with CBS' Scott Pelley for 60 Minutes on Sunday to talk about the war in Israel, CBS News President Wendy McMahon just said during Axios' BFD event.
Elon says Taylor Lorenz's suspension was due to past "doxxing," though he hasn't cited any specific examples. The only notable one: A woman who sued Lorenz claiming Lorenz doxxed her in a New York Times story — not a tweet on a Twitter account.
SCOOP:
@washingtonpost
has published its updated social media policy, it told staffers in an email. It says staffers shouldn't use socials "to air personal grievances with an individual or to mention a company in a way that could be construed as unwarranted criticism"
Story TK
Harris Faulkner says the audience listening to Trump speak today only really ever saw him on TV and didn't know a lot about his policies. The audience is comprised of hundreds of journalists.
Harris Faulkner, on of the panel moderators, was asked specifically about Trump's claim he's the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln and his questioning Kamala Harris' ethnicity -- Faulkner didn't address either statement by Trump.
CNN anchor
@AlisynCamerota
took
@James_E_White
to task today, asking him how Tx could take swift action on abortions but can't impose gun restrictions after shootings. "Why not act ... to protect living, breathing 10-year-olds in this school behind me?"
NEW:
@mercedesschlapp
told me they did not know Marjorie Taylor Greene (
@RepMTG
) would speak at a white nationalist conference and she was pleased MTG came to speak at
#CPAC
, saying they won’t “cancel” her as she claims the left does. “We want to make sure she has a voice.”
If Joe Biden supports women so much why didn’t he pick a woman as VP last year thereby giving her more screen time?
🤔
RT if you think he should have to answer to this in a 4th debate!
NEWS: Hundreds of Insider staffers plan to walk off the job tomorrow for 24 hours over the company’s proposed layoffs. “Maybe we just have to take our value away and maybe [management will] recognize it then,” a steward told me tonight.
My story:
hi! i'm heading to chicago for the DNC next week for
@thedailybeast
! my first convention! send me media tips, hot goss (media or otherwise!) chi-town recs, etc., and add me to allllll your party lists
In our convo,
@fred_guttenberg
said he would have asked Greene to admit the Parkland shooting happened and would have confronted her on her comments re: 9/11, saying his brother died from cancer after responding to it.
"People forget that her craziness dates back that far."
SCOOP: While
@RepMTG
’s office initially told
@fred_guttenberg
she couldn’t meet due to a scheduling conflict,
@DraperRobert
’s new book says it was actually over advice from Breitbart editor
@joelpollak
. Guttenberg told me this proved MTG is a “fraud.”
NEW: Layoffs have started at The Washington Post, a source familiar told me. It was unclear how many people were affected and what departments were hit.
SCOOP:
@feliciasonmez
has escalated her fight to get her
@washingtonpost
job back. She filed an unfair labor practice claim with the
@NLRB
last week, arguing the Post fired her for engaging in "protected, concerted" speech.
For
@thedailybeast
:
SCOOP: While
@RepMTG
’s office initially told
@fred_guttenberg
she couldn’t meet due to a scheduling conflict,
@DraperRobert
’s new book says it was actually over advice from Breitbart editor
@joelpollak
. Guttenberg told me this proved MTG is a “fraud.”
SCOOP: The Intercept, Raw Story, and AlterNet sued OpenAI on Wednesday over alleged copyright violations, two months after The New York Times filed its landmark suit. It's an extension of the battle lines drawn between news publishers and AI companies.
NEW from
@swin24
and I: Trump won’t stop talking about how great Putin is — even as he invades Ukraine. Trump’s CPAC fans don’t care and still blamed Biden.
Gannett isn't stopping at Taylor Swift. It also wants a Beyoncé reporter to cover her and “tap into stories about the Beyhive, her protective fanbase that propels the image and relevance of the artist.” All while the company has shed jobs nationwide.
The
@washingtonpost
has issued *another* memo condemning attacks between colleagues, promising to enforce its social media and workplace harassment policies. It came hours after
@feliciasonmez
called out management for ignoring enforcement for years:
Richard Langworth, who worked on 11 books on Churchill, also found no source for this quote. "Broadly attributed to Churchill, but found nowhere in his canon. An almost equal number of sources credit this to Abraham Lincoln; but none provides attribution"
I spoke to multiple White House reporters who say the WH press team's lack of transparency on Biden's health has ruined its credibility. “It doesn’t come across as credible to say that there hasn’t been a change” in his sharpness,
@peterbakernyt
told me.
The Washington Post told staff today that 120 employees have accepted a buyout offer. But it hasn't said what departments they're in—or which ones will face layoffs if it doesn't hit its 240 target in 2 weeks. If it doesn't, it said, layoffs are coming.
G/O Media editorial director Merrill Brown tells staff the company will begin testing AI-produced stories based around "lists and data" next week, though he doesn't specify if they'll publish and, if they do, through which of its brands. (G/O owns Gizmodo, The Root, Quartz, etc.)
SCOOP: A politics editor was not the first editor to leave The Messenger. Kristin Bender, a breaking news editor, resigned in the days just before its launch over its aggregation model and its workload demands. "That's not journalism," she told me.
Now that the
#CPAC
dust has settled…
Personal news! Thrilled to say I’ll be staying at
@thedailybeast
as a media reporter!
Starting in May, I’ll be contributing to our new media newsletter, Source Material, which launches TODAY. Sign up here: (1/4)
SCOOP: Will Lewis promised staffers in small meetings this week that his new executive editor, Rob Winnett, will follow the Washington Post's ethical standards when he starts in November, days after I reported on Winnett's reporting methods in the U.K.
Prince Harry and Hugh Grant, among others, sought to amend their phone-hacking lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News U.K. and rope in some current/former top brass—including Murdoch himself and Will Lewis, the new publisher of The Washington Post.
NEW: I spoke to colleagues of
@reviewjournal
reporter Jeff German, who told me what it was like to hear about—and grieve—his death, all while staking out the man who may have killed him.
For
@thedailybeast
:
BREAKING: UF will implement mandatory COVID-19 saliva testing in the Spring for students taking in-person classes, living on campus, or part of a sorority, fraternity, or ROTC. Testing will be mandatory for 6 weeks and reduced if positivity rates drop below 3%.
Story to come.
NEW: A Florida student newspaper declined to run an abortion pill ad last week in fear of a statute experts told me is constitutionally dubious—and has previously been struck down. It's the latest in Florida's yearslong shift toward restrictive speech.
The
@nypost
said it was hacked Thursday morning, which resulted in a series of racist and vulgar headlines that framed Lee Zeldin as a racist and urged for Joe and Hunter Biden and AOC to be murdered — among others.
for
@thedailybeast
:
NEW: Staffers at The Wall Street Journal were hit by another round of layoffs on Wednesday, multiple sources confirmed to The Daily Beast, with employees on the video and social media desks most impacted. Total number was unclear.
SCOOP:
@Allure_magazine
will be ending its print run after its December issue, sources said, and it will feature Jennifer Aniston on the cover. The sudden announcement to staff last week had some afraid of layoffs, though a spokes said no changes are planned right now. Read:
SCOOP: Tucker Carlson told colleagues in text messages redacted in the Fox-Dominion case how he was chained to Fox and sought to get rid of “straight news” colleagues Neil Cavuto and Jacqui Heinrich. w/
@justinbaragona
I spoke to the team behind "The Middle," a new, live public radio show by an ex-NPR host aiming to reach people in the geographic—and political—center of the country. "I want to give them an opportunity to be a part of the conversation," its host told me.
NEW: I chatted with
@karaswisher
about her (great!) memoir BURN BOOK. We talked about tech's dalliance with media, its eventual breakdown, Elon Musk, and her fears about AGI's impact on news. “It’s hard to sort through to the real stuff.”
NEW: Judith Regan wrote a 5,160-word column recounting the time O.J. Simpson kinda-sorta confessed to her that he did the 1994 murders. A week later her piece vanished from The Hollywood Reporter’s website. No one’s saying why.
NBC’s internal anger over Ronna McDaniel’s hiring seeped into public view today when Chuck Todd criticized the network—while on his old show—for her hiring. A roiled Todd even went as far as suggesting ways that her hiring could have been more defensible.
Multiple theories have been floated over what impact the Fox-Dominion settlement had on Tucker Carlson’s firing. But what about one of the hosts most implicated in the various lawsuits: Maria Bartiromo?
I asked experts how long her position at Fox lasts:
BREAKING: The two officers in the
#BridgewaterCollege
shooting have died, the college said in an email to its community. Campus Police Officer John Painter and Campus Safety Officer J.J. Jefferson were known as the "dynamic duo," its president wrote.
@thedailybeast
Trump spent just over 30 mins attacking Black reporters, the Black journalists’ association that hosted him, and Kamala Harris' race in a conversation meant to defend his record for Black Americans and his agenda for a second term. w/
@josephine_walkr
kinda late in putting this out there BUT in some ~personal news~ I'll be interning at
@thedailybeast
this summer as a breaking news intern! excited to get started next week!
Smith brings up his infamous Tucker interview, which he said Hasan (
@mehdirhasan
, my bad) gave him some advice on. Smith says Carlson agreeing with him on an issue (imprisoned Muslims) should be considered, but Hasan said that doesn’t absolve him. Also, we got this slide.
SCOOP: Since Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas purchased
@LAmag
last year, the magazine has seen a blurred line between editorial and advertising, sniping at its former EIC, and freelancers' pay delayed or stiffed.
w/
@LachCartwright
@justinbaragona
NEW: Will Lewis sends a late-Friday email to Washington Post staffers outlining more plans about the "Third Newsroom," which will get put together by a "Build It Squad" led by Matt Murray.
NEW: Staffers at The New York Times rallied outside the Times Building today to protest the paper’s decision to shutter its sports desk, which ended today. It came just after the Times’ publisher refused to answer questions sent by sports staffers.
SCOOP: A New York Times VP tried to shut down LGBTQ staffers last week from expressing their workplace concerns…in an employee resource group Slack channel. Those staffers weren’t having it.
My story:
Newly minted morning host
@donlemon
did not seem particularly happy with the network's Kevin McCarthy interview Monday, wondering aloud why McCarthy was allowed to spout false claims without a fact check.
for
@thedailybeast
:
Sen. Bernie Sanders said on
@CNNSOTU
that he agreed with Joe Biden, Democrats shouldn't abolish the debt ceiling (this counters what some Dems, including
@SecYellen
, have called for)
SCOOP: Insider, the business outlet best known for its focus on aggregated news with long headlines, went all-in on original political reporting in 2020. Nearly 3 years, its D.C. bureau is all but gone. Ten current and former staffers told me why:
NEW: Newsweek won’t say whether it will still take articles from Pedro L. Gonzalez, the prominent Ron DeSantis supporter who a report showed wrote racist and antisemitic messages in a right-wing group chat.
Read:
WaPo reporter
@feliciasonmez
calls out management for ignoring an internal report on social media use it commissioned in 2020, arguing their continued indifference toward certain behaviors contributes to an all-around disparity between WaPo reporters.
In early 2020,
@stevenjay
and
@loriamontgomery
, then the Post’s National and deputy National editors, commissioned an internal report on social media use in response to newsroom-wide outrage over my suspension.
Two years later, nothing has changed. 1/x
This morning,
@semaforben
interviewed
@TuckerCarlson
as part of
@Semafor
's pre-launch event and said at the start he wouldn't let Carlson "steamroll" their 20-minute chat.
What followed was, well...
Winning the National Magazine Award for the profile that got Chris Licht fired from CNN,
@TimAlberta
thanked Licht for trying to do his job in a world of bad media actors. “I really hope he gets another shot,” he said.
personal news (so weird but):
I’ll be
@TheAlligator
’s university administration reporter this semester! Feel free to send me tips, feedback, or story ideas!
By settling, Fox avoided some of the most egregious examples of its lies being showcased to a jury, preventing a court verdict on whether it intended to lie to millions of viewers about Dominion’s role in the 2020 election.
w/
@justinbaragona
:
The
@UF
announced that
@PresidentFuchs
will step down from his role as president at the end of this year, transitioning into a professor role once a successor is appointed. It comes as he and the university have faced much criticism over their COVID response, even as UF hit Top 5
G/O Media is shutting down Jezebel and laying off 23 people, the latest bit of turmoil for a media company that has seen no shortage of it this year.
Story w/
@LachCartwright
:
Perhaps no reporter in Tennessee is nosier than NewsChannel 5's Phil Williams, whose profile has soared over his stories on an alderman running for mayor in Franklin, Tennessee. His reporting has since been picked up *everywhere.* I got to know him a bit:
Some cool news: I'll be back at
@TheAlligator
next semester as an investigative reporter, part of our new investigations desk. I'm so happy to work with favs like
@HubbardLianna
under great guidance from
@thomasjohnweber
and doing some deeper dives. As always, send your tips!
In a hearing in Virginia this morning, ex-ABC News producer James Gordon Meek pleaded guilty to two counts involving child pornography. Each count comes with a maximum sentence of 20 years.
House GOP
@RepGregSteube
apparently believed
@SpeakerPelosi
granted CNN permission to build a TV set...within Statuary Hall.
He deleted his tweet within 30 minutes.
BREAKING: In an unanimous decision, the UF Faculty Senate has voted to delay the Homecoming holiday from Oct. 2 to Dec. 24. Story to come.
@TheAlligator
What's notable re: Kaitlan Collins' move to 9 is what it says about Chris Licht's strategy. Collins was part of the original line-up of his new AM show, she hosted CNN’s first Trump town hall since 2017, and now he's putting her against Maddow/Wagner/Fox