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Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Follow us on Linkedin! Vision Pro reviews drop, Google shares fall, William Lewis chats with The WaPo newsroom, TikTok moves into horizontal video, Linda Yaccarino preps for her first congressional grilling, The Athletic poaches Andrew Marchand, Universal Music threatens to pull artists from TikTok, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Never Ever Getting Back Together

CNN Photo Illustration/Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports/Reuters

Conservatives are going into self-exile.

The movement that once championed small, business-friendly government is now led by far-right media forces hoping to cash in on attention from raging culture wars, sealing off its adherents from the rest of society.

From a bird's eye view, the state of affairs among MAGA Media diehards as it sits today is remarkable. A subset of America actually purports to boycott Disney, the world's preeminent entertainment company; Bud Light, once America's most popular beer; Target, the quintessential brick-and-mortar shopping destination; Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that produced life-saving Covid-19 vaccines; Major League Baseball, the nation's favorite pastime; and now Taylor Swift, a generational icon and one of the most successful musical artists of all time.

"There's something striking about watching the far-right tying itself in knots and attacking Swift and [her boyfriend Travis] Kelce that demonstrates how badly the far-right media has alienated itself from most of society," Charlie Warzel, a staff writer at The Atlantic who covers the intersection of politics, technology, and culture, told me Tuesday. "They've built out this alternate universe and reality of grievance and it feels like instead of using it to wage an effective culture war, they're fully lost in it and can't see that they've chosen as their primary enemy the person with the literal highest approval rating in American life right now."

"This isn't the first time it's happened," Warzel added. "The far-right is systematically alienating itself from many of the institutions and people that normal Americans frequent, like, and associate themselves with. And I don't think they can see how exhausting and off-putting that is to people who don't spend their days mainlining Fox News or on X."

A crucial factor in this bleak reality is that the incentive structure in conservative politics has gone awry. The irresponsible and dishonest stars of the right-wing media kingdom are motivated by vastly different goals than those who are actually trying to advance conservative causes, get Republicans elected, and then ultimately govern in office.

For a right-wing online influencer, the top incentive is to amass video views and shares — all in a bid to increase one's social media footprint and, thus, power and treasure. When viewed from that vantage point, peddling increasingly outlandish, attention-grabbing junk makes sense. The same goes for Fox News hosts and talk radio personalities, who are simultaneously quietly worried that more provocative newcomers to the scene might eat into their audiences if they aren't hardline enough.

In effect, declaring war on popular institutions like Disney and celebrities like Swift makes business sense for these media personalities. It delivers them the attention they so desperately crave while appealing to a sliver of the population — enough to carve out a lucrative career in this arena.

"Within the conservative base, it's great strategy, but when you are trying to win over swing voters, it isn't going to help, as they'll see it as weird," Evan Siegfried, a GOP strategist who has written extensively about how Republicans can try to attract new voters to their causes, candidly told me. "Right now, the GOP does not seem to have a real interest in growing, but rather prefers to stick with grievance politics."

The problem is that lies and conspiracy theories can cause enormous harm to the body politic. And the figures who traffic in mis-and disinformation have amassed great power in the Republican Party. In fact, right-wing media stars have far more power over the GOP's direction than most of its actual leaders, like Mitch McConnell. Don't believe me? Just talk to Kevin McCarthy. The people standing at the helm of the ship, actually charting its path, are the handsomely paid talk-show hosts who command legions of fans and excite them into participating in the culture war battles on a weekly basis. Not the boring Washington politicians. Donald Trump is successful because he falls into the former camp far more than the latter.

The problem for the diminishing few in the Republican Party who hunger for responsible conservative governance is that these MAGA Media celebrities are leading the GOP down a path of isolation, which could ultimately result in its irrelevance with the rest of society. These conspiracy talk hosts have little-to-no incentive to behave in a way that results in Republicans getting elected to higher office. In fact, arguably it's just the opposite. The right-wing media kingdom thrives when Democrats are in office and there are political opponents whom they can demonize.

That's not to say the right-wing media machine holds no power. It certainly does. Just a tiny percentage of the population falling under the trance of its stars translates into millions of people who can, for example, be convinced to head to the nation's Capitol to try to overturn a democratic election. And polling indicates that a good chunk of the country has bought some of the nonsense MAGA Media has been relentlessly selling.

But heading into the 2024 election, alienating the rest of the country — which still handily outnumbers the MAGA loyalists — with absurd conspiracy theories about Swift, Kelce, and some of its most treasured institutions makes little sense as an electoral strategy.

As Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former Trump White House communications director turned vocal critic of the former president, put it on "The View" Tuesday: "I cannot think of a dumber political fight to pick than one with the Swifties."

TARGETING TAYLOR

Donald Trump's allies are pledging a "holy war" against Taylor Swift, Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng report. ( Rolling Stone)
Trump's spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, waded into the waters with far-right host Benny Johnson: "They're calling it their Hail Mary pass to drag Biden over the finish line." ( Mediaite)
"I cannot believe anyone thinks this is strategically wise," Jake Tapper noted. Kara Swisher said it just makes GOPers "look old." ( CNN)
Former White House press secretary turned MSNBC host Jen Psaki: "Guys, I mean, are you all OK? Seriously. Take a walk. Shake it off, as she would say." (TheWrap)
While Jesse Watters has questioned on his prime time Fox News program whether Swift is a "Pentagon asset," some of his colleagues think the latest version of the conspiracy is simply too much: "If there's going to be a fix of the Super Bowl, it'll be the biggest scandal in the history of the world," Brian Kilmeade noted. "It's the biggest game, the whole world watches now. Nobody told the 49ers because I'm pretty sure they play tackle football pretty well too. So it's a crazy statement." (Mediaite)
Haters gonna hate — and watch. The Chiefs-Ravens delivered a record breaking viewership for the AFC championship game, with CBS averaging a staggering 55 million viewers, and peaking at a whopping 64 million simultaneous viewers. ( CBS Sports)
Mediaite's headline: "People Are So Angry with Taylor Swift Coverage That CBS Delivered Most-Watched AFC Championship Game Ever." ( Mediaite)

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Tim Cook's Vision: The embargo lifted Tuesday on reviews for the Vision Pro, arguably the biggest product launch Apple has executed under Tim Cook since the death of Steve Jobs — and while the consensus among critics was that the device is easily the best headset out there (it should be, given it is also, by far, the most expensive, at $3,500), the other theme that emerged was that it is still not a product for the masses. "Apple's headset has all the characteristics of a first-generation product: It's big and heavy, its battery life sucks, there are few great apps and it can be buggy," The WSJ's Joanna Stern wrote. "And come on, have you seen what this thing thinks I look like?" Over at The Verge, Nilay Patel wrote, "The shocking thing is that Apple may have inadvertently revealed that some of these core ideas are actually dead ends — that they can't ever be executed well enough to become mainstream." And regarding its potential to serve as a really expensive television? "I doubt I'll ever want to watch a 2 ½ hour movie this way," The LAT's Ryan Faughnder wrote. Over at Peta Pixel, Jeremy Gray has a more complete roundup of reviews.

► A part of Patel's review that stuck with me: "The biggest tradeoff of all is that using the Vision Pro is such a lonely experience, regardless of the weird ghost eyes on the front. You're in there, having experiences all by yourself that no one else can take part in. ... I don't want to get work done in the Vision Pro. I get my work done with other people, and I'd rather be out here with them."

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration/Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

The Tech Talks: Shares in Google fell nearly 5% in after-hours trading, while Microsoft's remained rather flat, after both tech companies delivered their respective quarterly earnings reports to investors. Google saw an increase in advertising revenue from the same period last year, generating $65.5 billion in sales. But that figure fell short of analyst expectations, sending its stock price dropping, even though it did show a recovery from the much softer ad market of 2022. Meanwhile, Microsoft beat analyst expectations, crediting its A.I. services for contributing to its revenue in cloud computing. "We've moved from talking about A.I. to applying A.I. at scale," Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said. "By infusing A.I. across every layer of our tech stack, we're winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector." Nevertheless, Wall Street had a muted reaction, with the stock standing frozen. Other highlights from the earnings reports:

► "Alphabet's suite of digital subscription services — including YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, YouTube TV and Google One cloud storage — generated $15 billion in revenue for 2023," Todd Spangler reported.

► "In a blowout quarter, YouTube saw its advertising revenue soar to $9.2 billion in Q4 of 2023," Alex Weprin reported.

► "Google spent $2.1 billion on severance and other expenses as it laid off more than 12,000 employees over the course of 2023. And the layoff charges keep coming: in just the one month of 2024 so far, the company has already spent $700 million on employee severance," The Verge's Amrita Khalid reported.

IN THE MARKET

🚨 Developing: Universal Music Group said it has failed to strike a deal with TikTok and warned it will pull its songs from the short-form video app after it expires on January 31. UMG artists include Taylor Swift, Drake, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, and countless other music superstars, with major implications for the social platform. ( Variety)
Nelson Peltz believes Disney "can achieve profitability in streaming by bundling its ESPN+ online service with a larger player interested in sports, such as Netflix," Thomas Buckley and Lucas Shaw report, citing sources. (Bloomberg)
Sky Media is looking to cut some 1,000 jobs in the U.K. ( BBC)
Always read Sean McNulty:"The Wakeup" newsletter author wrote a smart piece about how Nielsen's 2023 streaming list revealed "the growing value in the streaming business of not just having hits… but shows that people will rewatch for years to come." (Ankler)
Adrienne So argues that AppleTV+ is "the new HBO." (WIRED)
John Ourand's new Puck column hasn't even debuted and the sports journalist is already landing major scoops, reporting Tuesday that "several plugged-in sources" told him Baltimore Orioles team owner, John Angelos, "has agreed to sell the franchise" to David Rubenstein and Mike Arougheti. ( Puck)

CNN Photo Illustration/Carlotta Cardana/Bloomberg/Getty Images

First in Reliable | Will's Way: Newly minted The WaPo boss William Lewis on Tuesday held the first pair of what is being dubbed "Post Connects" sessions — internal events offering a more intimate discussion than company-wide town halls. At the events on Tuesday, I'm told, Lewis vowed to staffers that he will outline a more detailed "fix it, build it, scale it" plan in May. The new timeline means staffers looking for specifics on the future of the paper will have to wait a little while longer. But Lewis, I'm told, said his goal is to increase the newspaper's subscriber count from its current 2.5 million to 3 million by 2025. "We have a lot of people rooting for us," Lewis told staffers.

► Of note: Both executive editor Sally Buzbee and chief technology officer Vineet Khosla participated in the "Post Connects" sessions for conversations on the 2024 presidential race and artificial intelligence, respectively.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

The Onion Union is set to call a strike Wednesday, barring a last-minute union agreement with management. It will be the latest work stoppage to rock the tumultuous news media industry.
The U.K. has moved to stop the Jeff Zucker-led RedBird IMI from modifying the terms of its proposed takeover of The Telegraph and Spectator while the government continues its regulatory probe. (Reuters)
Buzz Bissinger laments Sports Illustrated's prolonged demise and recounts how the magazine first gave him the idea for "Friday Night Lights." (Air Mail)
In an interview with Lester Holt, Microsoft boss Satya Nadella responded to The NYT's lawsuit against OpenAI: "I think one of the things that is going to be very, very important is both what is the copyright protection, as well as what is fair use, in a world where there is transformative new technology." (Threads)
A victory for The Oregonian: "A federal judge on Tuesday overturned an order that required The Oregonian/OregonLive to return or destroy documents in its possession and refrain from publishing information from them," Matthew Kish reports. ( Oregonian)
The WSJ is planning layoffs as it restructures its D.C. bureau, Sara Fischer reports. ( Axios)
Another from Fischer: The Ankler struck a deal with the LAist to carry its reporting onto other platforms. ( Axios)
The NYT debuted a new format for its byline pages. (NYT)
Emma Moody will exit The WSJ after 15 years at the newspaper. (TBN)

MEDIA MOVES

The NYT poached Andrew Marchand as a senior writer covering sports business and media for The Athletic. (NYT)
The Ankler hired David Lidsky as executive editor. ( Axios)
The LAT promoted Hector Becerra to managing editor. (LAT)
The New Yorker hired Justin Chang as a film critic. (Threads)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illiustration/Idrees Abbas/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/AP

TikTok Turns the Table: After reshaping the internet to widely adopt vertical video, TikTok is flipping the script. The dominant short-form video app "now wants you to turn your phone sideways," Business Insider's Peter Kafka reported Tuesday — "at least some of the time." The move, of course, is the latest sign that TikTok is chasing YouTube's dominance in online video, just as the Google-owned company chases TikTok's dominance in the short-form space. "I also wonder," Kafka added, "if this is an effort to get more content that will play well on an actual TV — an ambition TikTok has held for a long time but has yet to really figure out." Read Kafka's full story here.

► And yet another sign of TikTok becoming more like YouTube: The platform is opening up a Los Angeles studio designed for creators.

TOO MANY TABS

Coming Wednesday: The titans of Silicon Valley are making a pilgrimage to Capitol Hill, where they will testify on protecting child safety online. For Mark Zuckerberg, this ordeal is nothing new. But it will be the first time X's Linda Yaccarino, Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, and Discord's Jason Citron testify before federal lawmakers.
"Many of the tech CEOs are likely to use Wednesday's hearing to tout tools and policies to protect children and give parents more control over their kids' online experiences," Brian Fung and Clare Duffy write. (CNN)
But! Despite Meta's claims their parental controls will protect children across its platforms, very few parents seem to actually be making use of the tools, Naomi Nix reports. (WaPo)
✂️ Cuts, cuts, cuts: PayPal is expected to lay off some 2,500 employees, or 9% of its workforce. (Bloomberg)
Speaking of which, Mike Isaac has a smart, broader look at the painful workforce cuts depleting morale in Silicon Valley: "The new layoffs are the latest correction to years of a booming global economy and near-zero interest rates, which gave tech companies the ability to throw off gobs of cash to attract top talent in the pandemic." (NYT)
Elon Musk's X, the supposed bastion of free speech, is defending its move to fire an employee for a social media post that protested the company's return-to-office policy. (Fortune)
Despite how many people seem to be discussing whether they should cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions, the data show that the platform is actually growing, Eugene Kim reports. (Business Insider)

THE INFO WARS

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

"I think it's borderline treasonous what this guy has done": Right-wing media rhetoric on immigration continues to boil out of control, with Fox News host Jesse Waters saying Joe Biden has "subverted the territorial integrity of this country," "put our national security at risk," and "facilitating human trafficking with the drug cartels." (MMFA)
Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman apologized for promoting conspiracy theories years ago — including a film produced by Alex Jones — after old blog posts were uncovered by William Bredderman. (Daily Beast)
Hulu ran a 30-second anti-Hamas ad that was probably generated using A.I., Amanda Hoover reports. (Wired)
A deluge of videos deploying a mix of A.I.-generated and manipulated content have flooded YouTube, specifically targeting Black celebrities with salacious disinformation, Kat Tenbarge reports. (NBC News)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Everett Collection

RIP, Rivera: Iconic singer and stage performer Chita Rivera, who shaped the world of theatre through iconic roles in "Chicago" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman," died on Tuesday. She was 91. The Tony-award winning actress' publicist said she died "peacefully" in New York after a "brief illness." Her death, naturally, prompted an outpouring of tributes, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who described Rivera as "the trailblazer for Puerto Rico on Broadway." CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has more here.

OFF STAGE

WME will partner with Vermillio, a technology firm, in the hopes of protecting its clients from having their likenesses stolen and misused by generative A.I., Nicole Sperling reports. (NYT)
Universal Orlando Resort unveiled a first look at one of the five new parks slated to open at its Universal Epic Universe park. (USA Today)
"Wonka" is now available on-demand across Prime Video and Apple TV, and is expected to be streamable on Max following the conclusion of its theatrical run. (THR)
"Westworld" writers have remain tight-lipped about the canceled HBO show's planned conclusion, a fact that keeps Evan Rachel Wood, who played Dolores on the show, "up at night." (THR)
Production has commenced on Paramount+'s Michelle Yeoh-led "Star Trek: Section 31." (TheWrap)
Milly Alcock, of "House of the Dragon" fame, will play Supergirl in James Gunn's D.C. movies. ( TheWrap)
Keke Palmer will star in Aziz Ansari's "Good Fortune," alongside Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves. ( Variety)
Amazon MGM is working on a Celine Dion documentary, titled "I Am: Celine Dion," that highlights the musician's health journey. ( Guardian)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn . We will see you back in your inbox tomorrow.

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