Now that Donald Trump is the president-elect, might he really go after what he generally and constantly calls “the enemy of the individuals?”
You’ve heard his rhetoric. Faux Information. Enemy of the individuals. Fixed verbal assaults. He clearly has a disdain for the press.
Does he simply say that stuff to rile up his supporters? Or does he imply it? Does he actually plan to go to conflict with the press?
Uh, it’s actual, says Kelly McBride, Poynter’s senior vice chairman and chair of the Craig Newmark Middle for Ethics and Management. She and Poynter managing editor Ren LaForme had been my company on the newest “Poynter Report Podcast,” which debuts at this time. (Pay attention on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Amazon Music, and don’t neglect to go away us a score and evaluation.)
McBride says on the podcast that there are three issues that Trump can do as soon as he turns into president:
- “The primary is he might attempt to affect federal regulation that can have an effect on the homeowners of media; so licensing of broadcasting after which different homeowners who produce other enterprise pursuits,” McBride mentioned. Assume Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Submit and different companies, together with Amazon.
- Two, McBride says, “He can order the Justice Division to go after nameless sources of reporters. (The Justice Division) can subpoena reporters and threaten them with jail in the event that they don’t reveal their sources. That can each damage these particular person reporters and people organizations, and it’ll have a chilling impact, as a result of it’s going to make sources much less prone to come ahead, and it’ll make different journalists much less prone to push exhausting on vigilant protection.”
- And, three, McBride says, “He can use the Sedition Act to go after leakers. He can persecute individuals who need to get data out to the general public. So if you concentrate on one of many greatest tales out of his first administration was the kid separation, proper? Stuff that was leaked initially about that, after which plenty of data was leaked — he might go in spite of everything of these individuals and threaten them with sedition costs for destabilizing authorities safety. … That can intimidate the rapid individuals, and it’ll have a chilling impact on individuals down the street. So he can do quite a bit to intimidate or destabilize the atmosphere wherein reporting occurs.”
Ought to we be nervous about all this?
LaForme mentioned, “Trump is just not a really disciplined individual, so I don’t assume we’ll see all of it, except he actually leans into this. However the enterprise of journalism ain’t good. We write about that daily, proper? There are some vivid spots. … It’s native people who actually care, who’re doing nice work. However total, the construction that underpins a number of the legacy information organizations is trying fairly rickety, and I believe we’ll see a few of it collapse. I’m nervous.”
We speak about loads extra, together with how the media did with protecting the campaigns of Trump and Kamala Harris, if Trump and Harris had been each coated equally and pretty, the affect new media (corresponding to podcasts) performed within the campaigns; and that dreaded phrase of each election protection: polling.
And McBride and LaForme additionally supply their ideas on what the press can do to fight Trump if he’s hellbent on going after them.
I believe you’ll discover this newest episode to be particularly attention-grabbing as we put a lid on election protection and open a lid on what media protection would possibly appear like within the second Trump administration.
Ann Selzer, the revered pollster, introduced in a column on Sunday that she is retiring from The Des Moines Register’s famed Iowa Ballot. The announcement comes simply a few weeks after the Register’s stunning remaining election ballot had Kamala Harris main Donald Trump by three factors in Iowa. That ballot turned out to be spectacularly improper after Trump simply received the state by 14 factors.
Nonetheless, Selzer, 68, mentioned she informed the Register greater than a yr in the past that she could be retiring after the 2024 election. She wrote, “Would I’ve appreciated to make this announcement after a remaining ballot aligned with Election Day outcomes? After all. It’s ironic that it’s simply the alternative. I’m pleased with the work I’ve finished for the Register, for the Detroit Free Press, for the Indianapolis Star, for Bloomberg Information and for different private and non-private organizations desirous about elections. They had been nice purchasers and had been pleased with my work.”
The ultimate Iowa ballot however, Selzer has at all times been thought-about a top-notch pollster. She wrote in her column, “Polling is a science of estimation, and science has a manner of periodically humbling the scientist. So, I’m humbled, but at all times prepared to study from sudden findings.”
She later added, “My integrity means quite a bit to me. To those that have questioned it, there are probably no phrases to dissuade.”
The Poynter Institute honored ABC Information’ “Good Morning America” co-host Robin Roberts this previous Saturday with the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism. Roberts was honored in Tampa at Poynter’s annual Bowtie Ball.
The gala additionally acknowledged journalists who had been part of the protection of two hurricanes that impacted the Tampa Bay space, in addition to journalists from AL.com, which received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Native Reporting.
My Poynter colleague Angela Fu talked with Roberts and has all the details in her story from the Bowtie Ball.
In a seismic sports activities TV improvement, TNT’s “Contained in the NBA,” thought-about among the many greatest sports activities studio exhibits ever, will shift over to ESPN subsequent season. Not less than often. It’s the results of a settlement between the NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery, the homeowners of TNT, following a lawsuit involving future NBA rights. TNT misplaced out on the rights within the newest spherical of negotiations.
The Wall Road Journal’s Joe Flint, who broke the story, wrote, “The accord offers Warner Bros. Discovery the power to develop new exhibits with NBA content material within the U.S. and overseas, and worldwide NBA rights in elements of Northern Europe and Latin America excluding Mexico and Brazil. The deal is predicted to be introduced early subsequent week. Whereas Warner Bros. Discovery is dropping rights to common and postseason video games for its TNT community after this season, the settlement will give it rights to a major quantity of NBA content material domestically and overseas, the individuals mentioned, and the league will keep away from a continued authorized battle in court docket.”
The excellent news is that “Contained in the NBA” — which stars Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and host Ernie Johnson — will stay on the air. Though that, too, is a bit sophisticated. The Washington Post’s Ben Strauss wrote, “The deal for ‘Contained in the NBA’ is a licensing settlement. The expertise and crew will stay Turner workers, and its Atlanta studio will nonetheless deal with manufacturing. The present is not going to seem weekly on ESPN and ABC, because it did on TNT, however just for key occasions all through the season corresponding to opening evening and the playoffs. ‘Contained in the NBA’ will now not air on TNT, however Barkley, Smith, O’Neal and Johnson most likely will seem in different codecs throughout Warner platforms.”
After all, this all raises some questions.
The largest is that this: “Contained in the NBA” has at all times brushed up in opposition to the sting of excellent style and political correctness. Will ESPN be OK with that? (The truth that it lets Pat McAfee be himself signifies it’d permit the “Contained in the NBA” crew a little bit of leeway.)
As well as, Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder asks what impact this may need on ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. Yoder writes, “(Smith) has been the central focus of ESPN’s NBA studio protection lately, even going to ridiculous ranges of displaying him strolling into the sector like he was one of many gamers! Will ESPN need Stephen A. Smith to be a part of the Contained in the NBA crew, or will the TNT crew really be allowed to exist in its personal universe? Smith has made some crossover appearances on TNT earlier than and appears to be pleasant with them. However it will actually change the dynamic if his very giant character tried to slot in regularly with such a well-oiled machine.”
Jake Paul lands a left to Mike Tyson throughout their heavyweight boxing match on Friday in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photograph/Julio Cortez)
Friday’s so-called “combat” between YouTuber/boxer Jake Paul and 58-year-old former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson on Netflix had a little bit of the anticipated, a little bit of the sudden and now some controversy.
First, the anticipated: Tyson regarded each single day of 58 years outdated. Anybody who thought {that a} 58-year-old man who hasn’t had a severe boxing match since 2005 could possibly be aggressive absolutely was fooling themselves. Though the match had two-minute rounds (versus the conventional three) and was scheduled for less than eight rounds, Tyson regarded terribly winded midway by the match, to the purpose the place you stored questioning if he would be capable of get off his stool for the following spherical.
In the long run, it was a boring and terrible combat, with Tyson touchdown solely 18 punches and Paul, maybe out of respect for Tyson, holding again in order to not embarrass the boxing legend. Paul received a unanimous determination in a combat that ended with boos from the 72,000-plus at AT&T Stadium — house of the Dallas Cowboys.
So all of that was anticipated. Put it this fashion: When you thought this could be an thrilling combat, that’s on you, not the boxers.
The sudden half, nonetheless, was the published, most notably how Netflix struggled to satisfy the second.
Writing for his Substack, NPR TV critic Eric Deggans wrote, “However man, did Netflix drop the ball in every single place else. Presumably as a result of so many individuals had been making an attempt to look at the combat, I skilled the form of severe technical points a number of different followers complained about on social media – photographs which might freeze for lengthy seconds or develop fuzzy, sound which might get skinny and distant with out warning, and moments once I’d simply get kicked off the livestream utterly, forcing me to return to Netflix’s house web page and re-enter.”
I had the identical expertise, having to reload Netflix a number of occasions throughout the night. And so did many others, judging by the deluge of feedback on social media.
Now the controversy. Netflix claims that greater than 60 million households watched the combat, peaking at 65 million concurrent streams. However Fox Sports activities president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill identified that it was Netflix and never Nielsen that supplied that quantity, tweeting on Saturday, “Nielsen is totally able to producing a U.S.-only viewership quantity for Netflix on a subsequent day foundation however they will’t do it if Netflix doesn’t ask for it.”
On Sunday, Mulvihill tweeted, “To be clear, the intent of the tweet cited right here wasn’t to counsel I do or don’t imagine the Netflix declare of 60m houses worldwide. It’s solely to level out {that a} US quantity might simply have been produced by Nielsen however it wasn’t ordered.”
Sports activities Enterprise Journal editor/author Austin Karp tweeted, “Sorry however I simply can’t actually belief internal-only Netflix numbers for Tyson-Paul (plus the numbers reported are international). I’m certain true numbers would’ve been good, however we might probably by no means know. Reported numbers aren’t Third-party verified and there’s each incentive for exaggeration.”
Regardless, it’s protected to imagine that the combat drew large site visitors numbers. So the actual concern is how viewers had such a irritating expertise with fixed freezing and buffering. Netflix higher determine it out shortly. On Christmas Day, it’s going to air two NFL video games, together with what’s setting as much as be a marquee matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs. The opposite recreation figures to be good, too: Houston vs. Baltimore.
The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch wrote, “The NFL needs to placed on a present much more entertaining than Tyson-Paul, and you may make certain Friday evening spooked league officers a bit. Given the trajectory of the 4 groups taking part in Christmas Day, the video games are shaping as much as be of significant consequence for playoff seeding. There may be cash and repute at stake, and also you don’t get a second likelihood at a primary impression. Each entities will probably be crushed by NFL followers if Christmas brings buffering and dropped streams.”
Only one story right here this morning as a result of I would like you to take a couple of minutes to look at it. From “CBS Information Sunday Morning,” correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp go into the houses of households who misplaced kids to high school shootings. They’re there to take a portrait of the bedrooms of the youngsters. Please watch “How do you make a portrait of a child who isn’t there? Photographer Lou Bopp found a way, but it wasn’t easy.”
Have suggestions or a tip? E-mail Poynter senior media author Tom Jones at [email protected].
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