The Tucker paradox; ratings reality check; 'sorry not sorry;' Wednesday's pivotal UNC meeting; Bulletin updates; back en Vogue

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It's 10:52pm ET on Tuesday, June 29. Brian Stelter here with the latest on Bulletin, Spotify, Nikole Hannah-Jones, The Daily Beast, Amazon, "America: The Motion Picture," and more...

The Tucker paradox

People sometimes ask why we spend a significant chunk of time covering Tucker Carlson. The answer is apparent in the daily ratings scoreboard. Fox's ratings at 8 o'clock sharp look like a rocket lifting off into outer space, which, coincidentally is where some of Carlson's ideas belong.

Carlson generates the single biggest rocket-like spike in ratings across cable news, pretty reliably, practically every weekday. On Monday, for example, Fox's 7pm hour ended with about 1.8 million viewers, and the 8pm hour started with 3 million. That's all thanks to Carlson – more than a million people tune in just for him. That's his power source. He hosts the single biggest gathering of GOP diehards anywhere on TV. He is trusted by his base. When he says something is "confirmed," they believe it's actually confirmed. So his crazed theories like "the NSA is spying on this show" reach millions of people and drive the conspiracy-laden right-wing conversation. And the rest of us have to decide: Ignore what he spews, or scrutinize it and supply a reality check, knowing that's going to cause him to double down?

On Tuesday night he lashed out at the scrutiny of his Monday night claim about having a "whistleblower" who said the NSA is conspiring to hurt him for "political reasons." He called the NSA's denial -- published at 8 o'clock sharp -- a "paragraph of lies." So it goes on and on...

Do Tucker's own colleagues believe him? No.

Oliver Darcy writes: "Carlson's own colleagues aren't buying what he is selling. The day after Carlson delivered his explosive claim, none of his colleagues covered the 'story.' I searched transcripts and could not find a single mention throughout the day Tuesday. And the Fox website didn't carry any coverage of his spy claim for most of the day either – although, after inquiries, the site added a simple transcript of Carlson's remarks. This brings us to a larger Q: If Carlson's own colleagues don't even appear to believe what he says, why should anyone else?" Great point." Read Oliver's full story here...

Where are the network execs?

Didja notice that Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace haven't said a single word about Carlson's claims? They haven't released a statement condemning the NSA's supposed behavior, which is really remarkable – unless, of course, they don't believe Carlson. As a thought exercise, just imagine this: A network's top host alleges that the US government is secretly spying on him to leak his communications in a bid to knock him off the air... and the network doesn't do anything about it? In the Obama era, Fox released a blunt statement regarding the leak probe involving then-Fox reporter James Rosen, because that's how these things work.

Conversely, imagine this: A network's top host goes rogue and makes ridiculous claims... without getting the blessing of management ahead of time? The host claims to have a "whistleblower" source... but doesn't get the source vetted by the newsroom? Then he doubles down and spends even more time talking about it the next day... and no one intervenes?

Either way, this is an abject failure of Fox News leadership.

We reached out to Fox spokespeople multiple times on Tuesday. The network never responded – meaning they never defended Carlson's craziness or distanced themselves from it...

Trump (of course) says he believes it

Darcy adds: "Making his first appearance on the new radio show 'Clay and Buck' Tuesday, Buck Sexton asked Trump about Carlson's claim. After Trump responded by talking about how he himself was 'targeted,' Sexton finally got him to answer the Q on Carlson. 'I think it's true,' Trump casually said. 'It's totally unbelievable.' Of course, Trump rarely encounters a conspiracy theory about his political opponents that he doesn't embrace..."

About the government's responses...

The intelligence community apparently ended up in the same position that media reporters are often in – weighing whether to ignore Carlson's commentary. I'd love to know more about the eventual decision to respond. The statement was quite clear: "This allegation is untrue," the agency said. "Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air."

CNN's Zachary Cohen pointed out that "the NSA rarely, if ever, comments publicly on things like this. So you can take that for what it's worth."

Earlier in the day, WH press secretary Jen Psaki was also asked about Carlson's claim, and she answered by pointing out the agency's purview: "The NSA, as I think you're well aware... is an entity that focuses on foreign threats and individuals who are trying, attempting to do us harm on foreign soil, so that is their purview." The only real wiggle room, in both Psaki's words and the NSA's statement, pertains to a foreign target who could have been communicating with Carlson. Were his emails swept up that way? Was a "whistleblower" actually concerned enough to contact him about it? Or is Carlson simply off the deep end? I don't recall Carlson speaking out when the DOJ admitted that reporters from CNN, WaPo and the NYT had their comms secretly seized by the government during the Trump era...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Tucker, meanwhile, led his show by speaking of an immigrant "invasion" at the southern border, claiming the Biden administration is "changing the population of America" on a "huge scale," etcetera...

-- Chris Hahn, who sometimes appears on Fox as a Democratic commentator, tweeted Tuesday night: "Tucker Carlson is not well." (Twitter)

-- Erik Wemple writes: "Carlson knows enough to choose his story lines carefully: As far-fetched as the NSA snooping story may be, it'll be hard for anyone to prove it wrong. And that's all the breathing room he needs..." (WaPo)

-- Lloyd Grove's scoop on Tuesday: "Fox News agrees to $1 million fine for violating human rights law" in NYC... (Beast)

-- "As part of a settlement agreement announced Tuesday, Fox also agreed to mandate anti-harassment training for its New York-based staff and contributors and to temporarily drop a policy requiring people who allege misconduct to enter into binding arbitration," David Bauder wrote... (AP)

-- In other news, the NYC Board of Elections came under near-universal scorn on Tuesday for, in the words of the NYPost, appearing to "botch" the vote count. This story just keeps getting worse... (NYPost)

Cable ratings reality check

Oliver Darcy writes: "For weeks now, right-wing megaphones have been mocking CNN and MSNBC for recent ratings declines. Fox's website has been downright gleeful about it. Donald Trump picked up on this theme on Tuesday and sent out a statement celebrating the ratings lull. But something else also happened on Tuesday: Nielsen released cable #'s for the second quarter of the year and for the month of June. And the #'s showed that Fox is dramatically down from its highs, as well."

>> Darcy continues: "In Q2 of 2021, Tucker Carlson averaged 2.9M viewers, down from 4.3M viewers in Q2 of 2020. That's a 33% drop. Carlson isn't alone either. Sean Hannity averaged 2.7M in Q2 of this year, down from 4.3M during the same quarter last year. Laura Ingraham averaged 2.1M, down from 3.6M. The point is that when you see Trump and Fox pushing propaganda about ratings declines, it is not happening in a vacuum. The context is key. The news has slowed, prompting declines across the entire landscape..."

Garbage in, garbage out

Brian Lowry writes: "Anyone who has covered ratings knows (or should) that it's appropriate to use apples-to-apples comparisons, whether that's the same part of the year (say, Q2 2021 vs. Q2 2020) or dayparts, since HUT (homes using TV) levels fluctuate depending on the time of day. Partisan stories that compare current cable news #'s to the insurrection and inauguration period in January are nonsensical. It's like saying that the ratings for CBS plummeted the week after the Super Bowl. Well, yeah, duh. Using ratings as a partisan political cudgel tends to produce garbage-in, garbage-out analysis..."

"Sorry not sorry"

☝️ That was a sick burn by WH chief of staff Ron Klain as he shared an Axios story titled "boring news cycle deals blow to partisan media." The story said "outlets most dependent on controversy to stir up resentments have struggled to find a foothold in the Biden era," per traffic trends.

Another key line from the story: "Web traffic, social media engagement and app user sessions suggest that while the entire news industry is experiencing a slump, right-wing outlets are seeing some of the biggest plunges." Engagement is down for left-leaning publishers as well. Klain's quip re: the overall piece: "Sorry not sorry..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Three different leads on three network nightly newscasts: ABC led with extreme heat emergencies, NBC with Covid concerns and a Dr. Anthony Fauci interview, and CBS with condo collapse updates...

-- The Miami Herald's homepage headline on Tuesday night: "Death toll grows to 12 as rescue workers forge ahead at collapsed Surfside condo..." (Herald)

-- Disaster expert and CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem: "There should be a time very soon -- hours, not more than a day -- when officials need to announce that this is no longer a recovery mission. This was a concrete structure that fell like a pancake. False hope can be cruel. It is Day 6." (Twitter)

-- Opening statements began on Tuesday in the trial of "the man who gunned down five Capital Gazette employees in 2018..." (Capital Gazette)

-- "The Annenberg and Knight Foundations will provide a total of $6 million in grants to support the early stages of building out the Fallen Journalists Memorial..." (Axios)

WEDNESDAY PLANNER

POTUS and the VP will hold an on-camera event to "discuss the devastating intersection of drought, heat, and wildfires in the Western United States..."

"America: The Motion Picture" starts streaming on Netflix... Scroll down for Brian Lowry's review...

Pivotal UNC meeting on Wednesday

"The University of North Carolina's board of trustees is scheduled to hold a special meeting on Wednesday amid intensifying pressure over its failure to approve tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones," the NYT's Katie Robertson reported Tuesday. Hannah-Jones has many people in her corner -- including Susan King, dean of the university's Hussman School of Journalism and Media, who has been seeking to bring the 1619 Project creator aboard. "She has earned this distinction," King tweeted.

-- But what will the trustees do? "There are enough votes on the board to approve Hannah-Jones's tenure," NC Policy Watch reported, citing sources. "But members said they continue to face political pressure from the UNC Board of Governors, political appointees of the North Carolina General Assembly's Republican majority..."

-- On the eve of the hearing, Margaret Sullivan filed a column about "why it's so important that UNC trustees give" Hannah-Jones the "tenure she deserves..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- "Microsoft on Wednesday will argue forcefully before Congress that the US government has abused the use of gag orders to keep subpoenas and warrants secret in law enforcement investigations, and will call for new restrictions on their use," Brian Fung and Katelyn Polantz report... (CNN)

-- "Facebook's antitrust win doesn't put Big Tech stocks in the clear," Julia Horowitz writes... (CNN)

-- On a related note: "For antitrust reformers, Facebook's court win might not be the setback it would seem," Will Oremus writes... (WaPo)

-- Lauren Feiner outlines how the FTC "could keep fighting Facebook..." (CNBC)

It's a rich time to be an antitrust lawyer

The NYT's Cecilia Kang and David McCabe surveyed the field and showed how the legal industry is "already one clear winner" from "the mounting legal and regulatory scrutiny facing Big Tech." Here's the story...

Chris Cox on the meaning of Bulletin

As previewed in last night's edition of Reliable, Facebook's invite-only newsletter product Bulletin launched on Tuesday, with letters from writers like Malcolm Gladwell, Jane Wells, James Hamblin, and Jessica Yellin. "This is the first time we've built a project that is directly for journalists and individual writers," Mark Zuckerberg said.

"We're starting small" on purpose, with a dozen partners on Tuesday and more launching soon, FB chief product officer Chris Cox told me. He said Facebook wants Bulletin to scale up, but first wants to ensure it's a "really, really high quality product." FB's differentiator against Substack and other platforms is its ability to put Bulletins in front of billions of users. Cox spoke of helping writers "reach new audiences."

All of the initial participants are being paid by Facebook to jump-start their newsletters. Down the road Bulletin accounts are going to be available by application, if all goes well, "but we don't want to jump the gun," Cox said.

>> Big picture: Cox says FB wants to reach the point that "millions of folks can make a living on our platform across the variety of tools," from "matching folks with branded content" to Instagram creators to video game streamers...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Madelyn Webb writes about how Amazon "is helping fund conspiracy theories..." (MMFA)

-- Lucy Hicks explores how doctors on TikTok are fighting misinfo... (WebMD)

-- Sonam Joshi explains how anti-vaxxers are using "multiple social media platforms and tricks to beat moderators" and spread misinfo in India... (Times of India)

-- Ashley Carman reports on Instagram's test letting anyone share links on their stories. Head of Product Vishal Shah said the team is keeping an eye on misinfo and spam... (The Verge)

-- Howard Polskin says that in May, Trump's website saw a YOY decline in unique visitors of 72%, despite the launch of his 'From the Desk' blog that ultimately folded... (The Righting)

-- Mark Stenberg looked at the rise in "future of work" coverage, featuring Quartz, Protocol, Kevin Delaney's Charter, Reuters and Bloomberg... (Adweek)

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST

A new reporter on the billionaire beat

Forbes magazine staff writer Noah Kirsch is joining The Daily Beast as a wealth and power reporter. According to EIC Noah Shachtman, Kirsch will take over The Beast's "Power Trip" column, "which looks at the eccentricities, actions, and misdeeds of the boardroom elite."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- One of Keith J. Kelly's newest pieces is about Choire Sicha: "Ex-New York Times Styles editor says he suffered from burnout, wished for death..." (NYPost)

-- Meanwhile, Thom Geier is out with a story about Kelly, saying the NYPost media columnist is set to retire in July "after more than two decades at the tabloid." Kelly has yet to confirm... (TheWrap)

-- Joe Pompeo has a preview of next week's Sun Valley shindig for media CEOs: He says the Covid protocols are intense... (VF)

-- HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys talked with reporters about the state of the streaming Olympics on Tuesday... (THR)

Back en Vogue...

"It is back en vogue for the first lady to be back in Vogue," CNN's Kate Bennett reports. "After a four year hiatus of first ladies gracing the cover of the fashion magazine, Jill Biden is on the August issue, which goes on sale on July 20." Biden was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and interviewed by Jonathan Van Meter.

>> About that "hiatus:" "Almost every modern first lady has been photographed for the magazine. The exception was Melania Trump," and "there have been conflicting arguments as to which side -- Trump's or Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour's -- was responsible for keeping Trump, a former model, from being featured..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- "After almost nine years at Twitter, top sales exec Matt Derella is leaving the company," Todd Spangler writes. "Sarah Personette, currently Twitter's VP of global client solutions, is being promoted to step into his role..." (Variety)

-- New BFFs Jonah Peretti and Rich Antoniello shared insights on how their media businesses compare and contrast on the Digiday podcast... (Digiday)

-- "Group Black, a collective aimed at deepening the pipeline of Black-owned media companies, launched Tuesday with an ad-spending target of $75 million from a WPP PLC unit," Nat Ives writes... (WSJ)

-- "Advertisers' continuing interest in live sports helped ViacomCBS close its upfront sales process even as the company met resistance from Madison Avenue over the rate increases it sought to bolster its business," Brian Steinbeg writes... (Variety)

-- Spotify's advertising marketplace has expanded to Canada, the UK, and Australia, David Cohen reports... (AdWeek)

Lowry reviews "America: The Motion Picture"

Brian Lowry writes: "'America: The Motion Picture' is billed as 'tongue-in-cheek animated revisionist history,' which is basically a long-winded way of saying this Mad magazine-style satirical movie – which, among other things, presents George Washington as a chainsaw-wielding hero, and Benedict Arnold as a werewolf – throws a ton of gags against the wall and hopes that a few stick. While seemingly designed to be provocative, it appears far more pleased with itself than it really ought to be." More...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

-- Amazon acquired exclusive rights to "SmartLess," a podcast hosted by actors Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes, by agreeing to pay "as much as $80 million," Lucas Shaw reports... (Bloomberg)

-- "Counting On" has been "canceled by TLC after 11 seasons" ahead of the Josh Duggar child porn trial... (Deadline)

-- The New York Comedy Festival will return in November after skipping last year due to the pandemic... (Deadline)

-- "Apple is developing a drama series about Negro League Baseball," Joe Otterson reports... (Variety)

-- Delia Fiallo, known as "the mother of the Latin American soap opera," has died. She was 96. Abel Alvarado has details here… (CNN)

-- Dua Lipa is the July-August cover star of Vanity Fair... (VF)

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

By Lisa Respers France:

-- When A'Ziah "Zola" King posted 148 tweets about an epic trip she said she took to Florida with a fellow exotic dancer, that dancer's boyfriend and a pimp back in 2015, who knew that it would go viral and turn into a must-see summer film? Actors Taylour Paige, Riley Keough and director Janicza Bravo recently talked to me about their film "Zola" and said making it was easily as fun as they hope moviegoers have watching it...

-- Megan Fox's kids crashed her "Today" interview...

-- Former "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star NeNe Leakes has revealed that her husband's cancer has returned.

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...

Pet of the day

Reader Shari Weiss emails: "This is Winky, named for a character in the 'Harry Potter' book series. Her magical powers include making sure I'm safe while I'm going to the bathroom..."