There is no word yet if Trump plans to return to Facebook and Instagram. Meta is going to need a couple of weeks to put the various guardrails in place for his return. You would assume once he is actually allowed, Trump will start posting, considering his campaign recently pressed Meta for his reinstatement.
Elon Musk had Trump’s Twitter account restored last November, but Trump hasn’t tweeted since Jan. 8, 2021.
It figures to be only a matter of time before Trump is tweeting up a storm and posting on Facebook, especially as his presidential campaign gets cooking.
As Donie O’Sullivan said on CNN, “The really, really important thing here for the Trump campaign, particularly as we go into 2024, is in previous campaigns, Trump has spent hundreds of millions on targeted Facebook advertising. That is going to be a very, very important tool as we go into 2024.
Newsmax dropped by DirecTV
DirecTV has dropped Newsmax, the very conservative, pro-Trump network. DirecTV says it’s because of carriage fees. Newsmax blamed it on “censorship.”
A DirecTV spokesperson told The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona, “On multiple occasions, we made it clear to Newsmax that we wanted to continue to offer the network, but ultimately Newsmax’s demands for rate increases would have led to significantly higher costs that we would have to pass on to our broad customer base. Anyone, including our customers, can watch the network for free via NewsmaxTV.com, YouTube.com and on multiple streaming platforms like Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Google Play. We continually evaluate the most relevant programming to provide our customers and expect to fill this available channel with new content.”
In an article on Newsmax’s website, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said, “This is a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax. The most extreme liberal channels, even with tiny ratings, get fees from AT&T's DirecTV, but Newsmax and OAN need to be deplatformed.”
To be clear, Ruddy’s allegations are just that — allegations. There is no proof DirecTV, which has 13 million subscribers, has dropped Newsmax because of its political leanings.
Baragona wrote, “The loss of DirecTV will take a huge chunk out of Newsmax’s current cable footprint, which currently sits at roughly 50 million households. (The network claims it is available in an additional 50 million homes via over-the-top and digital platforms.)”
Meanwhile, CBS MoneyWatch's Aimee Picchi reports “41 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to DirecTV warning that they might open hearings on the issue.”
Look who’s back
It was only last August that respected media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote her final column for The Washington Post. She left on her accord and said she was off to do a little teaching (at Duke University) and work on book projects.
But on Wednesday, Guardian US announced Sullivan was signing on to write a once-a-week column on “media, politics, culture and the urgent moral and political debates of the moment.”
I reached out to Sullivan on Wednesday about her return to weekly column writing and this is what she wrote to me:
“I definitely wasn’t out job-hunting (I got an appointment at Duke and was bringing out my memoir) but the Guardian US editor Betsy Reed got in touch and suggested I do some writing for the opinion section. We had lunch in the West Village a few weeks ago and very quickly this came together.”
Sullivan added, “It gives me the chance to write beyond media, and I hope I have something to contribute at a crucial moment for democracy. I love that the Guardian makes no apology for its generally progressive stance and I appreciate that it has no paywall so it can be read by all. All in all, my big retirement from column-writing lasted only about four months; maybe if I’d taken up golf …”
Here’s to being glad she didn’t take up a new hobby.
Before the Post, Sullivan was the executive editor at her hometown Buffalo News and the public editor at The New York Times. For the past six years, her columns in The Washington Post became must-reads for those who follow the media. The Post hasn’t replaced her, and The New York Times has gone more than a year without a “Media Equation” media columnist since Ben Smith left to start his own website (Semafor). So reading Sullivan again in the Guardian US is a welcome return.
Katharine Viner, Guardian editor-in-chief, said in a statement, “Margaret is one of the most influential voices in American media, respected equally for her integrity, her sharp analysis, and her distinguished, glass-ceiling-breaking career. I’m thrilled she’s joining the Guardian to provide our readers with her intelligent commentary.”
Reed, the Guardian US editor, added, “There’s no one I would rather read on the intersection of media and politics than Margaret Sullivan, and I am delighted that Guardian readers will be treated to her bracingly clear analysis on a weekly basis. In a world overflowing with misinformation and too-hot takes, Margaret brings a cool intelligence and unsparing eye to even the most confusing and difficult issues, never shying from controversy or punting on a hard call.”
Sullivan’s first column for Guardian US is already out: “How I would fix Twitter if I were CEO.”
Sullivan wrote she would first start by “putting out the multiple dumpster fires blazing in Twitter HQ.” She also wrote she would figure out a new vision for Twitter’s future and hire a public editor — or a team of public editors.
Sullivan wrote, “Of course, there’s a real question about whether Twitter — in just a few months — has self-destructed so thoroughly that it’s no longer worth saving. And there’s another real question about whether Musk, despite his words, would really be willing to step aside enough to let a new CEO do her job.”
A farewell column
Peter Bhatia stepped down last week as editor and vice president of the Detroit Free Press. He ran a farewell column this week.
Bhatia thanked his staff and the readers — even the “regular angry emailers who really had nothing nice to say about anything, and just needed to vent.”
He talked extensively about his love and respect for the staff of the Free Press and wrote, “Please keep supporting the Free Press. Please buy a digital subscription to help support quality local journalism. The work of journalism in our society has never been more important. Democracy demands it of us.”
See ya
Well, that didn’t take long. Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier, was allowed back on Twitter this week, much to the outrage of anyone with good taste and decent morals. But less than 24 hours back on the site, he has been kicked off again.
Upon his return, Fuentes posted antisemitic catchphrases and held a Twitter Spaces live chat (attended by 14,000 people) that praised Adolf Hitler.
Fuentes had been banned in July 2021 and most figured he would never be allowed to return.
Normally, no one would care about some bigoted troll on Twitter, but Fuentes ended up having dinner in Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump last November. Fuentes was there with Ye (the musician formerly known as Kanye West). Trump said at the time that he did not know who Fuentes was, and knew nothing of his bigoted views.
Laugh of the day
