Breaking news this morning…
>> Jeff Bezos just announced that The Washington Post’s interim publisher and CEO Jeff D’Onofrio, who abruptly replaced Will Lewis last winter, will stay on permanently. According to a spokesperson, The Post is on track to break even this year, “ending 2026 on its closest path to profitability in five years.”
>> Jessica Tarlov, who “represents the lone liberal” on Fox News, “just signed a new three-year contract,” Noor Ibrahim reports in this excellent Marie Claire profile of Tarlov.
>> ABC News just announced new additions to “GMA Weekend.” Rachel Scott will co-anchor on Saturdays, and Rhiannon Ally on Sundays.
>> BBC director general Matt Brittin has “ordered the UK broadcaster’s news division to assess its coverage of Jason Arday after the academic died by suicide last month.”
The Republican Party is producing a big fat ad for President Trump and his loyalists in Dallas this week. The ad is called the “midterm convention.”
While Republicans gather (some through gritted teeth) and Democrats hope that it will backfire on the GOP, there are already two distinct types of media coverage out of Dallas: Smart, skeptical stories that scrutinize why the pseudoevent is happening, and unserious promotion that avoids the elephant in the room (sorry, too easy).
Here’s one of the smart stories, by CNN’s Steve Contorno and Alayna Treene: “After a decade as GOP’s main character, Trump gets one more starring role at midterm convention.” They note that Trump’s unpopularity is “driving fierce headwinds against his party” and “prompting some Republicans to skip the festivities in Dallas.”
“There’s also a question of who will be watching,” NPR’s Tamara Keith wrote. “The convention is up against the NFL season opener on Wednesday night,” and “there’s a primetime football game on Thursday night as well.”
Politico led this morning’s Playbook with a quote from a “person close to the White House” saying, “My only hope is that no one watches it since it’s competing versus NFL opening games.”
But Trump-aligned outlets are encouraging people to tune in. “Fox News is broadcasting from the arena floor, The Daily Wire took over the nearest bar, and right-leaning influencers will be here in force,” The Brand Brief says.
Most of Fox’s afternoon and evening shows will emanate from Dallas today and tomorrow. Sean Hannity will host from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern, preempting Greg Gutfeld, to make sure all the key speeches and anti-Dem video montages are seen.
Newsmax and NewsNation are promoting special coverage, too. NewsNation’s press release noted that it will also feature an interview with Dem Senate candidate James Talarico tonight. That’s one example of balance; personally, my favorite example comes from C-SPAN, which says it’ll show the GOP “gavel to gavel” on its first channel while “C-SPAN2 will be on the campaign trail with Democrats,” showing Dem events for an equal number of hours. Nice touch!
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro — the recipient of Maria Bartiromo’s “leak” — has revealed what she shared. It was a directive from Fox Business exec Ralph Giordano, who said in advance of Trump’s prime-time speech about elections in mid-July, “We don’t want to promote it or push to the speech at all. We don’t want to do 2020 election segments at all Thurs or Friday.”
Navarro published the message (and confirmed that Suzanne Scott “got an angry call from the West Wing” about it) in an op-ed for the Washington Times yesterday. He accused Fox of “suppressing MAGA news” and enforcing a “shadow ban” of some Trump surrogates. (He’s clearly trying to help out his friend Bartiromo.) I wrote about the significance of his op-ed here.
>> Meanwhile… Trump’s DOJ is now taking a “closer look” at Fox Corp’s pending deal to acquire Roku, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami reported yesterday. On X, Ben Smith framed it this way: “Days after Maria Bartiromo dustup, Feds looking at a big Fox merger” 🤔
Here’s NYT reporter Katie Robertson with the irresistible lead: “Here comes ‘The Sun.’ The Washington Sun, that is — the new name for the news website NOTUS after a trademark lawsuit several months ago stymied the outlet’s plan to rebrand as The Star.”
My daughter Sunny says she approves 😉
The revamped website launched this morning with a welcome letter from editor Tim Grieve, who wrote, “Washington journalism is in a moment of generational change. We’re rising to meet it.”
Between The Sun’s rebranding and The Post’s announcement this morning, we’re seeing a good old-fashioned newspaper war in DC, and hopefully we’ll all benefit from it…
CBS News enjoyed a positive press day as it began to roll out the new season of “60 Minutes” PR yesterday. But there was something revealing about the newsmag’s meet-the-new-team post on Instagram: Comments were restricted, so only praise showed up below the image. On X and Bluesky, the unrestricted comments were harshly critical of the Bari Weiss era.
That “60” decided to limit Instagram comments is also interesting because Norah O’Donnell responded to several critics of CBS and Weiss on the platform last week. (I rather liked that she engaged!) To a commenter who likened CBS to “fascist propaganda,” which it’s not, O’Donnell wrote, “You are obviously not watching the shows.”
>> In other “60” news, former managing editor Guy Campanile broke his silence about his ouster, writing on Facebook that “editorial independence has become a casualty of corporate priorities and ideological intrusion.” The Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis and Jeremy Barr have the full story here.
Block Communications, which has owned The Toledo Blade for 100 years, said yesterday that it can’t afford the Blade’s financial losses anymore. If Block can’t find a buyer, “both the print and digital versions of the paper will stop publishing at the end of the year,” The AP’s Kate Brumback wrote.
The Blade thoroughly covered its own potential demise here. Block’s other paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was saved by a nonprofit earlier this year, so hopefully that will happen here too.
Today is the season two premiere of “The Paper,” the NBC and Peacock mockumentary about… an ailing Toledo newspaper. Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo pointed out the odd timing on X. This is “certainly a plot for future seasons of ‘The Paper,’” Koo wrote…
Someone apparently wanted to shiv Jimmy Kimmel on his first day back from summer break. Page Six ran an item yesterday afternoon — while Kimmel was prepping to tape his celebratory 4,000th episode — claiming “sources” said the show will end next year.
At some point last night, the item was stealth-edited to remove the word “sources” from the lead. But it still quotes an anonymous source claiming about Kimmel, “His contract is not getting extended.” ABC called that “inaccurate” and said “reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative.”
Kimmel famously renews his contract for one year at a time, so the Page Six item has Bill Carter wondering who planted it. Here’s his LateNighter column. Meanwhile, Kimmel really let it rip last night, calling Trump “crazier than ever,” and marking his 4,000-show milestone by mocking Brendan Carr: “We did it the hard way, Brendan, and we are still here.”
Liam Reilly writes: “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone used a Tuesday publicity stunt to take a dig at both President Trump and Paramount.
On the heels of the show’s Emmy victory (and Trump jab) and ahead of the September 16 premiere of season 29, Parker and Stone shared that the show has a new name, “South America.” Ha ha.
“Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of ‘South Park’ to ‘South America,’” Parker and Stone said. “We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation.”
Following Lonnie Bunch III’s retirement announcement yesterday, WaPo’s Philip Kennicott writes that Chief Justice John Roberts, who serves as the Smithsonian’s chancellor, “may be the only power that can keep the Smithsonian from the path of ruin.”
If Roberts wants to maintain the kind of leadership he’s previously praised in Bunch, “he may have to emerge from the usually invisible, backroom role of chancellor, guiding meetings and setting agendas,” Kennicott writes. “That would mean taking up a more explicitly political position.” Here’s a gift link to the column.
When Apple holds its annual iPhone event later today, “it’ll be the first time in more than a decade that Tim Cook won’t introduce the company’s latest products. Instead, John Ternus will debut as Apple’s new chief executive during the company’s most important event of the year,” CNN’s Lisa Eadicicco writes.
The presentation starts at 1 p.m. ET. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says the new foldable iPhone Duo will be priced at $2,000…
>> “Members of Congress are drafting legislation that would create a 20% federal film and TV incentive — with bonuses that could bring it as high as 30% — after President Trump endorsed the idea last week.” Gene Maddaus reports that “the bill is expected to be introduced this month.” (Variety)
>> In a new filing, Paramount “is continuing to press” a judge to make the states and the WGA “bear the costs of the hold up caused by their lawsuits.” (THR)
>> Netflix will show “its hand for the first time by reporting box office grosses for a slew of upcoming releases,” Matt Donnelly reports. (Variety)
Yesterday we learned that the quickest way to hear from all of you West Coasters is to refer to California as “Cali.” Consider us East Coasters corrected. We’ll only refer to California by its proper name in the future, even when it causes headline headaches. And don’t worry, we’ll also never refer to San Francisco as “Frisco!”
This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.