So is Ozy Media dead or what? After The New York Times’ Ben Smith wrote a column last week, it started an avalanche of coverage that revealed questionable business practices. That included a CNN story by Kerry Flynn in which Ozy staffers alleged an abusive environment. Last Friday, Ozy CEO Carlos Watson said the company was shutting down.
But on Monday, Watson told “Today’s” Craig Melvin, “We’re going to open for business, so we’re making news today. This is our Lazarus moment, if you will, this is our Tylenol moment. Last week was traumatic, it was difficult, heartbreaking in many ways.”
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Watson said announcing the company’s closing last week was “premature.” He added, “We have lots of things we have to do to improve, but I very genuinely feel like we have a meaningful, transformational voice.”
Watson told Melvin, “I think Ozy is part of this moment, and it’s not going to be easy, and I think what we do with newsletters, what we do with TV shows, original TV shows, podcasts and more, I think has a place.”
But as Flynn and Brian Stelter wrote on Monday, “Who oversees Ozy now? The company has already, in effect, dissolved. Three of the five board members resigned in the wake of (Smith’s column) about Ozy's misrepresentations.”
Grisham speaks
Stephanie Grisham was one of Donald Trump’s longest-tenured staff members and biggest supporters. But now the former White House press secretary says she regrets enabling a culture of dishonesty inside the administration. Grisham started working with Trump before the 2016 presidential election and stayed until Jan. 6. In between, she served many roles, most notably White House press secretary from July 2019 to April 2020.
Last week, I wrote about Grisham’s new book, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” which is due out this week. On Monday, she spoke with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America.”
About being a part of the culture of dishonesty inside the White House, Grisham said, “I’ve reflected on that and I regret that. Especially now when watching him, and so many people, push the false election narrative. I now want to, in whatever way I can, educate the public about the behaviors within the White House because it does look like he’s going to try to run in 2024.”
If it was such a problem, however, why did Grisham stay as long as she did?
“Yes, that’s a fair question and it’s a complicated question,” Grisham said. She said when she joined the West Wing, she “started to see what it was really like and I regretted that decision immediately.”
Grisham also was interviewed by Juju Chang for Monday night’s “Nightline” and had even more ominous comments about her former boss.
“I am terrified of him running in 2024," Grisham told Chang. “I don’t think he is fit for the job. I think that he is erratic. I think that he can be delusional. I think that he is a narcissist and cares about himself first and foremost. And I do not want him to be our president again.”
A plea for help
The Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership’s October newsletter features an open letter to President Joe Biden from the parents of Austin Tice, the freelance journalist who was abducted in Syria in 2012 and is believed to still be alive.
You can read the whole letter here, but here’s a portion of it:
Mr. President, Austin needs you to step out and boldly lead. Please say our son’s name in public. Talk about Austin Tice; let people in Washington and Damascus know you are thinking of him. Put courage in their hearts to do the right thing. We have no doubt your family will support you, and our government will unite behind you.
We would welcome the opportunity for our family to meet with your family. We’d like to tell you more about Austin. A meeting of our loving families would send a strong message across our country and overseas. It would show that you have taken the lead and we are working on this together. Together, we can bring Austin safely home.
What a retraction
One of the sickest feelings any journalist or news outlet can have is when it must run a correction for a mistake. It could be what appears nothing more than an innocent and minor mistake — a misspelled name, a wrong date, a dropped word — and yet it is not minor to the person who made the mistake. Trust me, a correction can ruin a day, if not a week.
But imagine having so many mistakes that you have to kill an entire story. That’s what the Boulder Daily Camera had to do with a story about reflections of 9/11. The Daily Camera said statements attributed to multiple sources were “fabricated.”
Here is what the retraction looked like. As you can see, and as far as I can tell, we’re talking about at least 30 errors. And the Daily Camera wrote, “This list does not necessarily constitute every error in the article.”
It went on to say, “While the Camera published this article in good faith, we regret that quotations attributed to interview subjects were materially inaccurate. In addition to retracting this article, editors have taken internal steps to prevent similar incidents from happening again.”
Interesting info on The Athletic
Last month, The Information’s Sahil Patel and Jessica Toonkel reported that The Athletic — the ad-free, subscription-based sports website — had hired LionTree to help find a buyer for the company. The story said The Athletic was looking to sell for more than $750 million.
On Monday, Toonkel had another story, writing the site “hemorrhaged nearly $100 million cash between 2019 and 2020, according to a presentation prepared for investors, exceeding the $73 million in revenue the company brought in over that same period. The heavy losses reflect primarily the cost of building up a 600-person-strong reporting staff to cover local sports in both the U.S. and Britain, said a person familiar with the situation.”
Toonkel wrote, “In a statement, The Athletic said the business was ‘materially affected’ by Covid through the first half of this year. But growth has now returned to 2019 levels and ‘we are excited to have finally turned the corner,’ adding it expects a ‘nearly profitable business in 2022.’”
Bomani Jones leaving ESPN?
New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand reports in his new weekly newsletter (you need a paid subscription) that Bomani Jones is on the verge of leaving ESPN.
Jones joined ESPN full time in 2013 and has hosted his own podcast while also appearing on shows such as “Around The Horn” and “Highly Questionable.” He and Pablo Torre hosted “High Noon” from 2018 to 2020. He signed what ESPN called a multi-year contract in July 2020.
But Marchand tweeted Monday, “Bomani Jones’ ESPN run is all but over.” He wrote in his newsletter that there is no departure agreement yet, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Jones left the network.
Media tidbits
