For years now, Donald Trump has considered the media to be his enemy. Not just his enemy, but the “enemy of the people.”
He says it over and over, so much so that it has become something of a catchphrase for him. And so much so that we practically have become numb to it.
Which is very troubling.
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves just how dangerous and undemocratic (note the small d in democratic) it is to have someone who was president, and wants to be again, constantly attack a profession specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
While Trump has been known to go on unhinged rants, both in speeches and on his Truth Social, it doesn’t mean his threats can just simply be brushed off as, well, unhinged rants. His words should be taken seriously.
That brings us to what he posted on Truth Social late Tuesday night. Trump wrote:
MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years. It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country. Our so-called “government” should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!
Come down hard on them? Make them pay? Much more to come, watch?
It doesn’t take a First Amendment scholar to see that Trump is threatening a cable news network just because they criticize him, just because he doesn’t like them.
Aren’t those the kind of things they do in countries with dictators?
This is hardly the first time Trump has gone after MSNBC.
Now, to be clear, MSNBC does not use public airways, as Trump wrote. It’s a cable network. But Brian Roberts, who Trump mentioned, is the chairman and CEO of Comcast, which owns NBC. And NBC does use public airways.
In September, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.’”
Trump added, “Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country!”
Deadline’s Ted Johnson points out that “Ajit Pai, who Trump appointed to chair the FCC, said … the FCC ‘under the law does not have the authority to revoke the license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.’”
That shouldn’t stop anyone from paying close attention to what Trump says about the media.
CNN commentator David Axelrod tweeted, “I think we owe it to Trump to take his words seriously. He would use the power of government to punish media outlets who do critical reporting about him. Where are those who speak reflexively about fidelity to the Constitution but apparently have not read it?”
Musk’s R-rated message
X owner Elon Musk has a message for advertisers who have boycotted (or threatened to boycott) his company because of antisemitic posts he amplified there: “Go (bleep) yourself.” Except, of course, he didn’t say “bleep.”
Speaking at the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday, Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that he doesn’t want such companies to advertise. When Sorkin asked him to clarify, Musk said, “If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go (expletive) yourself.”
Sorkin looked at Musk while some laughter could be heard among the audience. Musk then said it slowly. “Go. (Expletive). Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
He then said, “Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience” — an apparent reference to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
It seemed like a stunning moment, even for the unpredictable Musk.
When Sorkin said the reality is that X needs advertisers, Musk said, “What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company. And we’ll document it in great detail.”
When Sorkin suggested that advertisers will say they didn’t kill the company, but that Musk did with his antisemitic posts, Musk said, “Oh yeah? Tell it to Earth.”
Podcaster and journalist Kara Swisher, who knows the tech industry as well as any journalist, used her own R-rated word to describe what happened on stage Wednesday, tweeting, “Someone just (bleeped) himself for sure.” Except she didn’t say “bleep.” Swisher later tweeted, “Adult toddler says naughty words and thinks that it’s cool when it’s just pathetic.”
Musk also addressed what the White House recently called “Antisemitic and racist hate” when Musk said he agreed with a social media post accusing “Jewish communities” of pushing “hatred against whites.”
Musk told Sorkin the tweets were “one of the most foolish if not the most foolish thing I’ve ever done on the platform.” He added, “I’m sorry for that tweet or post. … I tried my best to clarify, six ways to Sunday, but you know at least I think over time it will be obvious that in fact, far from being antisemitic, I am in fact philosemitic.”
By the way, just one more thought: Sorkin’s interview skills were exceptional, specifically when staying quiet and letting Musk keep talking.
Paste Magazine acquires Jezebel in all-cash deal
For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.
Iconic feminist site Jezebel, which closed Nov. 9, could start publishing again as soon as this week, after Paste Magazine acquired the site Tuesday in an all-cash deal.
The deal, first reported by The New York Times, also included political news site Splinter, which shut down in 2019. Paste editor-in-chief Josh Jackson declined to share how much the magazine paid G/O Media for the two sites. He said he hopes to publish new stories on Jezebel this week, and the company plans to relaunch Splinter next year in time for the 2024 election cycle.
G/O Media, which also owns Gizmodo, AV Club, Deadspin, Quartz, The Root and other brands, announced Nov. 9 that it was closing Jezebel because the site did not have enough advertising support. High interest rates and “global crises” had chilled the advertising market, CEO Jim Spanfeller told staff in a memo announcing the closure, and the company failed to find a buyer for the publication. G/O Media laid off 23 staff members across its brands, including the entire Jezebel team.
404 Media later reported that G/O Media had told Jezebel staff that advertisers did not want their content to appear next to Jezebel’s stories, which touch on subjects like sex and abortion. The ad sales team also reportedly asked if it could remove Jezebel’s “Sex. Celebrity. Politics. With Teeth” tagline from the site.
Jackson told The New York Times that he wanted to bring the “with teeth” aspect of Jezebel’s coverage back when he revives the site and that he believes there are advertisers who “have the courage to go where the audience is.”
Paste, which Jackson co-founded in 1998 and now runs as a digital-only outlet, is completely supported by advertising. Asked if Jezebel will use a similar business model, Jackson told Poynter, “The site will continue to be ad-supported. It's a beloved site with a large daily-user audience, and we're confident we can be successful with that model.”
Following Jezebel’s closure, journalists, former staff and readers penned remembrances for the site, which launched in 2007 and helped usher in a wave of women-focused digital outlets during the 2010s. Many of those websites, including xoJane, The Hairpin, Rookie and The Frisky, have since shut down.
Jackson has already rehired one former Jezebel employee and plans to bring back as many former staff as Paste can afford to, Adweek reported.
Striking a deal
