by tyler | Sep 5, 2023 | CNN, media
Warner Bros. Discovery trimmed its full-year earnings guidance for 2023 on Tuesday by $300 million to $500 million because of the continued strike by actors and writers, which has stopped production of most shows and movies.
The corporate parent of CNN had previously told investors that it expected the strike to be over by early September. But WBD now says it cannot predict when the strike will ultimately end, and it assumes the impact will continue through the rest of this year.
“WBD is hopeful that these strikes will be resolved soon,” said a filing the company made with the Securities and Exchange Commission with its new guidance early Tuesday.
The company said even with the $300 million to $500 million hit to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, (EBITDA) it expects that key earnings measure to come in at $10.5 billion to $11 billion for the year.
Shares of WBD were up more than 1% in early trading following the filing.
Cash flow is expected to be somewhat higher than previously expected due to a combination of money saved from the lack of film and show production and continued strong box office from its hit movie “Barbie.” The film has reported global ticket sales of $1.4 billion, through this past weekend, according to Comscore, making it the biggest box office movie of the year.
The Writers Guild of America, which represents more than 11,000 writers working on movies and shows for the nation’s leading studios and streaming services, has been on strike since May 2. SAG-AFTRA, which represents about 160,000 actors, joined the writers on strike on July 14. There has been little signs of progress between the two sides since the strikes started.
Other companies that are being struck include Apple, Amazon, CBS, Disney, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount Global and Sony.
by tyler | Jun 30, 2023 | CNN, media
Two news directors at a Michigan NBC affiliate were ousted on Thursday following the circulation of an internal memo calling for scaled-back coverage of Pride Month events and directing the station’s journalists to “get both sides” on LGBTQ issues, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
The email, sent earlier this month by Stanton Tang, news director of Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV, and Amy Fox, the station’s assistant news director, said the “polarizing” nature of Pride events had upset some of its conservative viewers, CNN previously reported.
“We need to recognize that some stories related to LGBTQ issues are going to be controversial and polarizing in our community,” the memo sent by Fox said. “While you personally may not agree with a certain position, people are entitled to their opinions and they are our viewers.”
“If we are covering Pride events we need to consider how to make the story balanced and get both sides of the issue,” she added.
The memo sparked fierce backlash from the newsroom’s staff, prompting the station’s owner, Texas-based Nexstar, to launch an investigation into the matter. In a statement to CNN earlier this month, Nexstar said the email was “not consistent with Nexstar’s values, the way we cover the news, or the respect we have for our viewers” and apologized for offending members of the LGBTQ community and WOOD-TV’s viewers.
On Thursday, Gary Weitman, a Nexstar spokesperson, confirmed to CNN that the company had made changes to WOOD-TV’s newsroom leadership team to “ensure its ability to continue providing outstanding local news coverage and service to the Grand Rapids community and surrounding area.”
“As these are internal personnel decisions involving matters of personal privacy, we will decline further comment,” Weitman said.
Two of the station’s executive producers, Luke Stier and Madeline Odle — who had, among others, publicly voiced their concern over the directive — have also left the station, the pair announced Friday on Twitter.
“We’ve had a front row seat to history for countless events in the city we love, working with the best journalists in the industry,” Stier and Odle wrote. “We are heartbroken to not be with our team today continuing the incredible legacy we have fought so hard for.”
by tyler | Jun 19, 2023 | CNN, media
Spotify executive and popular podcaster Bill Simmons has hit out at Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, labeling them “grifters,” after their multi-year partnership with Spotify ended on Friday.
“I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation,” Simmons said on his self-titled podcast Friday.
“‘The F**king Grifters.’ That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories … F**k them. The grifters.”
The partnership between Archewell Audio, the couple’s production company, and Spotify was intended to include numerous programs but, ultimately, only one series and a holiday special were produced.
Their series “Archetypes” aimed to “investigate, dissect and subvert the labels that try to hold women back,” according its description, and featured Meghan’s interviews with celebrity guests including Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Trevor Noah.
Archewell Audio and Spotify announced that they had “mutually agreed to part ways,” just two weeks after the audio streaming company said it had cut 200 jobs within its podcast unit, amounting to 2% of its global workforce, in a “strategic realignment.”
CNN has reached out to both Archewell and Spotify for comment on Simmons’ remarks.
Simmons previously criticized Harry in a January 2023 episode of his podcast, saying that he was “so embarrassed” to share Spotify with him.
“What does he do? It’s one of those things where it’s like, what’s your talent? Why are we listening to you? So you were born in a royal family and then you left … You live in f**king Montecito and you just like, you sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the royal family and you just complain about them.”
Spotify acquired Simmons’ sports and culture site “The Ringer,” with its slate of more than 30 podcasts, for more than $200 million in 2020, Forbes reported at the time.
Since then, he has become the head of podcast innovation and monetization at Spotify where he also hosts multiple podcasts including “The Rewatchables.”
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by tyler | Jun 12, 2023 | CNN, media
A version of this article first appeared in the Reliable Sources newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.
Susanne Craig says this investigation was, without a doubt, the hardest story she’s ever done.
“Imagine,” she says, “someone tossing a million white puzzle pieces into Times Square and being asked to put it back together.”
Those puzzle pieces were about the Trump family business. Craig, David Barstow and Russ Buettner pieced it all together for an extraordinary story, published by the NYT on Tuesday afternoon. It will fill eight special pages of the print edition on Wednesday. Here’s the front page:
If you haven’t read it yet, click here. The Times also (helpfully!) published a list of 11 takeaways from the investigation. And here’s CNN’s story about it.
NYT assistant managing editor Sam Dolnick called this “investigative reporter serendipity:” Exactly two years ago, on October 1, 2016, “the same NYT crew published a Trump taxes story after an anonymous source sent Susanne Craig 1995 tax records,” he tweeted.
Trump, of course, was elected without ever disclosing his taxes.
Flash forward five months. In March 2017, David Cay Johnston obtained a copy of Trump’s 2005 returns. (Remember when he broke the story on Rachel Maddow’s show?) “That triggered our journey,” Craig told me. So it’s fair to say this was an 18-month investigation…
The trio obtained confidential tax returns. Financial records. Depositions. And so on. How? I’ll leave that up to you to speculate.
“We had thousands of documents. Hundreds of tax returns,” Craig told me. “Piecing all that together, understanding what they did, was beyond hard. We triangulated documents. Compared tax returns to financial statements and bank statements. And then talked to sources on it. Today we put it into one story, all explained. But it started with piles” of information sitting in the corner of the room.
A room with a locked door
Buettner, Barstow and Craig worked in a small room on the fourth floor of NYT HQ. One of the only treats: a bottle of Jameson on the shelf.
Most NYT reporters work from open cubicles. But the trio needed privacy. So the room was kept locked, and they were the only ones with keys…
I mentioned the “takeaways” list earlier. The NYT also had a video ready to go on Tuesday. And the same documentary crew that made “The Fourth Estate” for Showtime also tagged along on this investigation. Showtime will air the resulting “documentary short,” titled “The Family Business: Trump and Taxes,” this Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET. It’s directed by Jenny Carchman, produced by Liz Garbus and Justin Wilkes… And it’s still in the works… It’ll run approximately 30 minutes on Sunday…
When the story dropped on Tuesday, many journalists commented – in awe and envy – on the super-confident tone of the story. The NYT reached what NPR’s David Folkenflik likes to call “earned conclusions.” These are not opinions – these are conclusions that come from months and months of obsessive hard work. For example, the lead of the story: Trump “participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s” that included “instances of outright fraud.” That is quite a conclusion.
One of Trump’s pitbull lawyers, Charles Harder, sent a statement to the NYT on Monday after the paper sent him a “detailed description of its findings.”
Harder said “The New York Times’s allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory. There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate.”
Harder’s statement was followed by a release from Sarah Sanders. W.H. reporters pointed out that it sounded like it came straight from Trump’s mouth.
“But the statement doesn’t dispute any facts in the story,” the NYT’s Peter Baker tweeted. “Instead it attacks the newspaper and repeats the lie that the NYT apologized for 2016 coverage, which it did not.”
Here’s the thing about an 18-month investigation like this: There’s no real way for other news outlets to “match” the story for days… or more realistically for weeks or months. So other outlets have to report it with attribution to the NYT. I found it funny when Fox’s Kevin Corke told viewers, during the 4 p.m. hour, “we’ll keep digging.” How? Well, he said he had reached out to W.H. officials. I can’t think of a worse possible way to report on Trump’s taxes.
Anchor Neil Cavuto, meanwhile, downplayed the story by saying “I don’t know if there’s a there there.” This is one of those times when Fox’s coverage actually does a disservice to its viewers…
This story is about the Trump family, with documents dating back decades. But what about Trump’s more recent tax returns? His more recent accounting practices? “The records reviewed by the Times did not include Trump’s personal tax returns or his recent business dealings,” CNN’s story notes.
Craig tweeted, “It really underscores the need for presidents – Donald Trump in particular – to release their tax returns.”
Baker tweeted a similar point: “Trump could help clarify anything he thinks is misleading by releasing his tax returns, as every other president has done for decades.”
– MORE TO COME? Craig told me, “We have a lot more we want to dig into…”
– TUNE IN: Craig is booked on “GMA” and Barstow is booked on “New Day” Wednesday morning…
Oliver Darcy emails: Earlier on Tuesday, before the Trump wealth story came out, the NYT tried to put out a fire about its Monday night story involving Brett Kavanaugh and a 1985 bar fight. The Times said it made a mistake by allowing an NYT Mag staff writer who had tweeted negatively about Kavanaugh, Emily Bazelon, to co-byline the story.
Read more of Tuesday’s Reliable Sources newsletter… And subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox…
A spokesperson defended the story – it was “straightforward, fact-based and we fully stand behind it” – but said “editors should have used a newsroom reporter” to get ahold of the documents in New Haven, CT. Apparently they tapped Bazelon because she’s based in New Haven… Read on…
by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | CNN, media
An exhausted CNN is breathing a sigh of cathartic relief.
After enduring unprecedented internal strife that generated an unrelenting storm of negative press coverage over the past year, staffers at one of the world’s most iconic news outlets are hoping to move on and put a tumultuous chapter behind them.
CNN staffers don’t want the organization to be known for and consumed by a never-ending soap opera starring the C-suite. They want the world to read about the news that its journalists break. They want the news to be the star.
With Chris Licht’s dismissal as chairman and chief executive of CNN on Wednesday morning, staffers are aiming to get back to that mission. They are deeply yearning for it.
Licht’s brief 13-month tenure as network boss was stained by a series of severe missteps that ultimately made it impossible for him to lead the company. Not all of the tumult that occurred over the past year was his fault, to be sure. The poor advertising climate and business realities of a mega-merger made some cost-cutting necessary. And taking the reins from previous network boss Jeff Zucker, who was revered by staff, was never going to be easy.
But a number of self-inflicted wounds kept Licht, and thus CNN, in the press for all the wrong reasons. Employees never fully trusted Licht’s leadership skills, business chops, or editorial vision — a disastrous cocktail that certainly contributed to why there were so many damaging leaks to the press.
In recent months, David Zaslav, chief executive of CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery, also started to have serious concerns. That was evidenced by Zaslav’s move last week to install his top lieutenant, David Leavy, as chief operating officer of CNN.
But an already bad situation took a turn for the worse when The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta published his devastating 15,000-word profile on Licht. It was the death knell. The piece, in which Alberta spoke to more than 100 CNN employees, called into question Licht’s ability to lead the organization moving forward.
The damning magazine story crystalized Zaslav’s concerns, a person familiar with the matter said. The WBD chief over the weekend started seriously considering relieving Licht of his duties. The final decision to remove Licht was made earlier this week. And, on an early morning stroll through a smoke-filled and apocalyptic Central Park on Wednesday, Zaslav informed Licht that his time was up.
CNN’s 4,000+ employee base — including anchors — learned of the seismic shakeup soon after, during the network’s editorial meeting, which takes place daily at 9am. Zaslav walked into the Hudson Yards conference room in which New York staffers gather and informed employees there and around the world that Licht was out. Licht, notably, was not present for the meeting and never sent a final memo or goodbye to the staff he once led.
Zaslav, who took responsibility for the chaos that has gripped CNN in recent months, said that Licht’s job was “never going to be easy.” He praised his “amazing career” and wished him well on his future endeavors. “For a number of reasons, things didn’t work out and that’s unfortunate,” Zaslav said. “It’s really unfortunate. And ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.”
Zaslav told CNN employees that the company is “in the process of conducting a wide search,” both internally and externally, for a new network chief. Despite the fact that the search is already underway, Zaslav cautioned that it will “take a while” to identify a new network head.
In the interim, Zaslav said the leadership team will be comprised of three veteran network executives: Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development; Virginia Moseley, executive vice president of editorial; and Eric Sherling, executive vice president of U.S. programming. Leavy will continue overseeing the company’s commercial activities.
“We have great confidence in this group and will fully support them until a new CEO is named,” Zaslav said in an emailed statement to CNN staff. “We are in good hands, allowing us to take the time we need to run a thoughtful and thorough search for a new leader.”
Many staffers also have great confidence in the group, comprised of experienced hands who have already demonstrated their ability to lead the organization through turbulent waters. But that is not to say that the anxiety among the rank-and-file has totally dissipated.
While staffers might have breathed a sigh of relief upon learning of Licht’s dismissal, there is still significant apprehension in the air about what comes next. Will there be more cost cutting? Will decisions made by Licht be undone? Will the next network chief be an improvement over Licht? Or will employees come to regret his dismissal?
And perhaps, most pressing after Alberta’s profile hinted at corporate meddling: Will WBD ensure CNN can operate, from an editorial standpoint, independent of the parent company?
Those are very real questions that are floating around the halls of CNN right now. And the answer to each of them remains to be seen.
by tyler | Jun 8, 2023 | CNN, media
Sourcing, suspicion and speculation – terminology that has been frequently explored over the last day and a half as Prince Harry testified in a London courtroom in his lawsuit against a major British newspaper publisher over claims of historic phone hacking.
The Duke of Sussex returned to the witness box on Wednesday, for another grueling showdown with the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), who he is suing alongside three other claimants representing dozens of celebrities.
His appearance focused on 33 articles – covering various events over a roughly 15-year period of the duke’s life – published in MGN titles, the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People. Prince Harry alleges that the publisher used unlawful methods to produce stories about him and others in his vicinity.
The publisher has denied any illicit acts, with its lawyers arguing that the stories selected to be discussed at trial (out of around 140 articles) could have been sourced through legitimate information gathering means or were already in the public domain. However, MGN has previously admitted and apologized for one instance of unlawful information gathering nearly two decades ago.
Seated once more in the witness box behind several computer monitors where he was able to view documents being methodically picked over, the 38-year-old royal appeared more spirited on Wednesday than a day earlier.
Under the bright lights of the simple court room, the prince largely remained softly spoken but also seemed more confident when responding to questions. At times, he also sparred with Andrew Green, the lawyer representing MGN. The day before he had seemed more measured and took on a more deflective approach with brief, clipped replies.
At one point during Wednesday’s proceedings, while Green was quizzing Harry on his time in the Armed Forces and discussing the issue of public interest, the duke responded sternly asking, “Are you suggesting that while I was in the army, everything was available to write about?”
Harry’s job in court was to present specific examples of compelling proof to back up his claims that he was a victim of phone hacking. The duke once more recalled being deeply affected by the numerous articles when they were first published but was frequently unable to remember specific dates when pressed by his questioner.
Instead, he often spoke of what would make him suspicious in the tabloid coverage, such as the attribution of quotes to unnamed sources, which would often lead Harry to believe the information had been obtained through the hacking of his cell phone or those of people close to him.
Sources can play a key role in royal reporting. Journalists will go to them for context on a press release, statement, at a royal engagement, or to confirm or disprove rumors. It’s a long-accepted practice in the United Kingdom that harks from a time when Buckingham Palace didn’t have an official press office. Journalists would use unnamed sources within the institution to find out or clarify what was going on. Prince Harry argued during the trial that some tabloid reporters have used the blanket term of “royal sources” to shield more nefarious practices.
Many observers pored over Prince Harry’s courtroom behavior but he kept his cool throughout and failed to reveal any bombshells that might further embarrass his wider family. Though that’s not to say there weren’t points that were awkward to hear about.
In representing MGN, Green forensically went through the tabloid articles in question in excruciating detail. There were times when we learned more about bust-ups with former girlfriends and club nights out.
During the course of the cross-examination, Green pushed for specifics from Harry for his phone hacking allegations, saying there was “not a single item of call data at any time” between the royal’s phone and any Mirror Group journalist. The duke told the court he firmly believed that phone hacking was at an “industrial scale” across “at least three papers,” before adding that it would be an “injustice” if his claim was not successful.
The toll of being the first senior royal to testify in court in over 130 years appeared to emotionally push Prince Harry toward the end of proceedings. He seemed to choke up when asked by his lawyer how the cross-examination had been. Answering after a lengthy pause, Harry admitted that “it is a lot.”
“For my whole life, the press misled me, covered up the wrongdoing, and sitting here in court knowing that the (respondents have) the evidence in front of them and for (opposition lawyer) Mr. Green to suggest I’m speculating… I’m not sure what to say about that,” the duke said.
Harry’s cross-examination in his case against MGN is now over. But this is just one of a series of ongoing legal actions the duke is pursuing. For Harry, it isn’t just about highlighting the intrusive press coverage he has faced but speaks to his wider years-long mission to reform the media.
Whether he wins the case is for the court to decide but after two days in the witness box, he has once more triggered a conversation about journalistic practices, and he may ultimately succeed in helping changing approaches in the long run.
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