Good morning! I'm sending early because it's Take Your Child to Work Day, so I'm taking my kids to visit NY1 and CNN. Here's the latest on Kash Patel, Comcast, Mike Vrabel, Zeteo, Bill Maher, WBD, and much more... |
Patel's FBI probed NYT reporter |
The New York Times has learned that the FBI "began investigating" Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson after she wrote a February 28 story involving FBI director Kash Patel titled "Patel's girlfriend seeks fame and fortune, escorted by an FBI SWAT team."
Times executive editor Joe Kahn called it an "alarming" attempt by the FBI to "criminalize routine reporting."
And The Times only learned about it through a confidential source who tipped off Williamson's colleague Michael Schmidt, who has been one of the leading reporters covering the weaponization of the Justice Department. Schmidt revealed the alarming FBI action in a story last night.
The FBI inquiry didn't go far, but agents still "combed through the bureau's databases" for info on Williamson, according to Schmidt's "person familiar with the matter." Then "FBI agents recommended moving forward with a preliminary investigation," but apparently ran into "obstacles at the Justice Department, where officials determined there was no legal basis to proceed."
Last night I spoke to a legal source with knowledge of the matter who said they weren't aware of anything like this happening before to a journalist. "Unprecedented," they called it.
First Amendment groups denounced the FBI inquiry. Clayton Weimers, North America director for Reporters Without Borders, said, "In the same week that Kash Patel filed a flimsy lawsuit against the Atlantic for a story he didn’t like, we also learned that his FBI desperately combed through its databases to find dirt on a New York Times journalist whose reporting embarrassed him."
"This ongoing, un-American harassment of journalists eerily echoes the Bureau’s darkest days," Weimers said. "It's time for Patel to cash out and resign."
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Last night the FBI denied that Williamson was "personally investigated" but confirmed the broad contours of the reporting, insisting that this was all about a death threat case against Patel's girlfriend Alexis Wilkins.
"Here's what actually happened: A man threatened to have Alexis Wilkins's face 'canoed by an assault rifle' after reading Williamson's article," Erica Knight, a PR strategist who is close to Patel, wrote on X. "FBI agents interviewed Alexis about the threat. They asked her about Williamson because Williamson's reporting is what set the defendant off. That is basic victim interview work in a threat case."
Evidently something Wilkins said about the NYT's outreach to her triggered some followups. An FBI spokesperson said that investigators "were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking," while adding, "no further action regarding Williamson or the reporting was ever pursued by the FBI."
Stalking is a crime. It has become unfortunately common for subjects of unflattering news stories to claim that reporters stalked them or their loved ones.
In this case, it seems like an utterly absurd charge. The Times said Williamson had a single phone call with Wilkins, and then some emails back and forth. Williamson also contacted numerous associates – all perfectly normal stuff.
"It's just unimaginable that anyone would think there's a federal crime involved in that," the legal source familiar with the matter told me.
Well, get more imaginative, then. "Show us the journalist and we'll try to find a crime," FIRE senior attorney Adam Steinbaugh said on X, reacting to the Times report.
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"We have no reason to believe that this is a widespread practice, but it marks an escalation of tactics to chill and intimidate reporters who reveal information that's unflattering to the administration," Kahn wrote in an all-newsroom memo last night.
"Most concerningly, it is an attempt to criminalize routine newsgathering — in this case interviewing people, developing sources, going to public events, giving the subject opportunities to respond," Kahn wrote. "We will continue to cover this administration fully and fairly, as we always do. And we support Elizabeth and her reporting unequivocally."
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>> Patel was back on Fox News last night, perhaps trying to appeal to President Trump through the TV in the wake of that Atlantic story. He called Williamson's story "baseless" and emphasized that the person who made the death threat has been arrested and charged. Then he pivoted to Trump praise. (Aaron Rupar posted the video clip.)
>> Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee immediately drew attention to the NYT story and asked Patel, "exactly what 'FBI databases' are you using to search for information about the journalist who dared to write a story about your girlfriend and your use of a full-time FBI SWAT team to drive her around and guard her?"
>> This dust-up is a good reason to go and re-read Williamson's February 28 story, which is full of relevant info about Patel, Wilkins, their relationship, and their use of government resources. Here's a gift link.
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Mamdani attends birthday party for Zeteo
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Andrew Kirell writes: NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani made a special guest appearance last night at Zeteo's second-anniversary party in midtown Manhattan. During a brief speech, he lauded the Mehdi Hasan-founded independent outlet: “What you all have shown, in a time where it is such a challenging media landscape, is the ability to still tell the same stories that have so often been overlooked to the very people who've lost faith in politics."
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>> David Jackson, "a longtime reporter who chronicled the White House and political campaigns for USA TODAY and The Dallas Morning News," was found yesterday of an apparent heart attack. "David was a delight to cover the White House with," Kaitlan Collins wrote on X. "What heartbreaking news. May he rest in peace." (USA Today)
>> Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, who still hasn't addressed the substance of his relationship with Dianna Russini, says "I have committed to seeking counseling, starting this weekend," which means he "won't be with the team for the third day of the NFL draft Saturday." (ESPN)
>> Comcast's Q1 earnings report card is out. The company "generated an extra $2.2 billion due to NBC’s February telecasts of the Winter Olympics from Milan Cortina and the Super Bowl." Overall, though, "profit fell 35.6% as it invested in upgrades to its crucial cable and broadband business and grappled with increased expenditures for sports rights and production,” Brian Steinberg writes. (Variety)
>> Netflix has authorized a buyback of an additional $25 billion of the company's shares in a "bid to boost its share price." (Variety)
>> The annual Harvard Youth Poll is out. It finds "a generation under pressure — and losing faith in the system." (Harvard IOP)
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Trump reminiscing about the good old days? |
One of Trump's Truth Social posts yesterday was a screen grab of an old NYT story about boffo ratings for "The Apprentice" back in 2004. The story was written by our friend Bill Carter. Trump captioned it, "Last Season of my Apprentice Juggernaut!"
Except... it wasn't. Carter told me "the truly bizarre aspect of Trump bringing this up out of the blue is that he's referring to this as the LAST season of Apprentice when it was the FIRST season." The story Trump shared was about the season one finale.
Yes, back in 2004, "the show was a legit phenomenon," Carter said. Trump "was on it for another 14 seasons, counting the later celebrity editions," and the ratings subsided, like they do for almost every show.
>> Maybe Trump was simply reminiscing about a time when he was more popular than he is today. As CNN's Aaron Blake wrote earlier this week, it looks like the bottom is falling out in Trump's polls, with AP-NORC showing him at 33%...
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Judge tosses Laura Loomer's lawsuit against Bill Maher |
Andrew Kirell writes: You might recall that Laura Loomer sued HBO and the host of "Real Time" over a televised comment that Loomer "might be" in a sexual relationship with Trump. Well, yesterday a federal judge tossed out the suit and said the comment constituted protected speech, not defamation. Details here...
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FCC's next target: 'woke' ratings |
Brendan Carr's FCC "is opening a new front in its 'anti-woke' campaign: The agency is seeking feedback about whether the TV industry's voluntary ratings system needs to be changed — specifically with regard to how shows with child-friendly ratings treat content with 'transgender and gender nonbinary' themes," Todd Spangler reports for Variety.
>> As usual, the agency's power is limited here: "While the FCC does not directly set or enforce the TV content ratings, it has the authority to review the effectiveness of the ratings system."
>> Democratic FCC commissioner Anna Gomez called Carr's inquiry "a solution in search of a problem, and another example of this commission prioritizing culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day."
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WBD shareholder vote this morning |
Quick reminder that the Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder vote that we previewed in yesterday's edition is happening this morning. The virtual special meeting to consider the Paramount deal is slated to start at 10 a.m. Eastern. The meeting won't take long, and the result should be announced shortly thereafter. Here's my overview of the vote and the remaining hurdles for Paramount-WBD...
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Journalist killed in Israeli strike in southern Lebanon |
Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, from the left-leaning, pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al Akhbar, "was killed Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon," according to Lebanese authorities. Khalil "is the fourth media worker slain by Israel in Lebanon since March," CNN's team reports. Another journalist, Zainab Faraj, was seriously wounded in the same strike.
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>> Aaron Blake says "the conspiracy-theory monster that Trump fed could be coming for him." (CNN)
>> Sunlen Serfaty's dispatch from a press tour through the bowels of the Kennedy Center: Trump's newly appointed head of the center, Matt Floca, says it was his idea to close the renowned arts institution for renovations for two years. (CNN)
>> YouTube is partnering with SiriusXM for the audio ads "that run against YouTube content like podcasts, talk shows and music." (Variety)
>> Crooked Media "is expanding to TV with a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel called SANEtv." (Axios)
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