Journo jailed in Kuwait after posting war video
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, a journalist well known for his work at VICE, HuffPost, Al Jazeera and other outlets, is apparently behind bars in Kuwait, six weeks after posting a video of a US Air Force fighter jet crash west of Kuwait City.
“It is understood that authorities have charged him with spreading false information, harming national security, and misusing his mobile phone — vague and overly broad accusations that are routinely used to silence independent journalists,” the Committee to Protect Journalists says.
This morning, Shihab-Eldin’s friends and allies went public about his case, hoping publicity would help win his release.
“Campaigners are not certain what social media posting has led to Shihab-Eldin’s detention,” The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour wrote. “He had published other social media footage of damage being inflicted in the Gulf and inside Iran itself.”
But the broader backdrop is clear: “Many Gulf states, fearing the erosion of internal national unity, are using anti-terror laws to restrict publicity about attacks on its infrastructure.”
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights has been tracking this since the war started. The group says the war “is being used as a pretext to stifle free speech, confiscate citizens’ public freedoms, and target journalists, bloggers, and online activists who express opinions that do not align with government policies. These individuals are subjected to arbitrary imprisonment and detention, and unfair trials on fabricated charges using counter-terrorism and cybercrime laws.”
Detained in Dubai, an advocacy and legal group, has counted many instances of people being arrested for sharing photos of missile strikes. The Times in the UK had a new report about that just the other day.
As for Shihab-Eldin, he is Kuwaiti-American and was visiting family in Kuwait in early March when he was apparently detained. I know him personally because I used to book him as a guest on “Reliable Sources.” He has many friends throughout the journalism world, and they are calling attention to his case now…
Trump keeps stepping in his own AI slop |
AI imagery keeps tripping up President Trump. Yesterday, it was the blasphemous image depicting Trump as Jesus Christ, which he removed under pressure and dubiously claimed was an image of him as a doctor. (JD Vance muddied things further by saying the post was a “joke” — something the president never claimed.)
Each episode has stoked controversy. And yes, this administration likes to meme and troll, but these controversies don’t always boost the president’s standing. Far from it…
>> Jon Stewart had this take last night: “God, do you even care about lying to us anymore? Is it over? Is this relationship gone stale? Your lies used to have a real spark: ‘They’re eating the cats and dogs, Venezuela stole the 2020 election,’ and now the best you’ve got is, ‘Eh, no, it wasn’t Jesus; I’m a doctor!’ You need to find your happy place, and fast. We expect better lies, sir.” >> Stewart also had a very funny riff about how he looked like the bedridden patient Trump’s “doctor” was treating. Here’s the clip. |
A real image strange enough to seem AI |
The proliferation of AI imagery taints everything else. For instance, when the White House and DoorDash set up a photo op to promote “no taxes on tips,” and the NYT posted a strange-but-real photo of the delivery outside the Oval Office, Times WH correspondent Katie Rogers said, “People are emailing to ask if this photo is real or AI which is an actual sign of the times in every way.” |
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST… |
Traffic declines for ‘right-wing’ sites — except one |
Traffic to all right-wing news websites monitored by TheRighting, save one, “dropped precipitously in March,” according to SimilarWeb data that TheRighting first shared with us. The Free Press is the only site that TheRighting IDs as right-wing that saw a year-over-year increase in visits. Howard Polskin says “it’s surprising that more eyeballs weren’t driven to right-wing news websites after the February 28 start of the war with Iran… This could represent a wave of consumer news avoidance, signifying that audiences are fatigued from the constant noise and drama of the Trump administration.” I think it reflects the fact that sites like The Federalist and The Daily Wire weren’t adding much in the way of value on the war. CNN, on the other hand, saw a year-over-year traffic increase in March… |
Donie’s must-watch/must-read |
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The latest episode of Donie O’Sullivan’s “Devoted” series is out, and it’s about “Emilycc,” who has streamed “almost every waking (and sleeping) moment of her life online” for the past four years. In this companion essay, O’Sullivan explains why his road trip with Emily, “perhaps more than any other case of online extremism that I have reported on, stuck with me.” It’s because of the dopamine hits he felt when he filled in on the live-stream. “There was instant reaction, instant gratification.” Read all about it here… |
Judge rejects Trump’s WSJ lawsuit |
This ruling was a big deal yesterday because last summer’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal was the first time a sitting US president had sued a news outlet over a story he disliked. But experts said at the time that the suit was meritless, and yesterday Judge Darrin Gayles agreed: “Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that defendants published the article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed.” Now Trump’s lawyers have two weeks to refile, and they say they will. The takeaway, as we’ve said before, is this: Trump is highly litigious, but when news outlets defend themselves in court, they almost always win. Speaking of… |
‘Trump media company drops lawsuit against the Guardian’ |
That’s the headline on Richard Luscombe’s story. Trump Media and Technology Group had been suing The Guardian and Variety “over a report that federal prosecutors were investigating $8 million in payments the company received from entities with ties to Vladimir Putin as possible money laundering.” But the company abruptly dropped the suit yesterday without giving any reason why, one day ahead of an expected hearing… |
Judge issues a stay in Pentagon case |
The judge presiding over New York Times v. Pentagon has given Pete Hegseth’s comms operation “a 14-day stay on his orders in the N.Y. Times case with regard to reopening the Correspondents’ Corridor and ditching the escort requirement,” WaPo’s Scott Nover reported. |
Today’s big nonfiction releases |
Rep. Elise Stefanik has hit #1 on Amazon’s new releases list on launch day for her tome “Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.” A weekend interview on Mark Levin’s Fox show propelled her early sales. Personally, I’m looking forward to reading Sarah Isgur’s “Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today’s Supreme Court.” Also newly on sale today: “Famesick” by Lena Dunham, “The Manbook” by Nick Freitas, and “I Choose Me” by Jennie Garth… |
Arrested Nashville journo back on job, but ‘scared’ |
Estefany Rodríguez, the Colombian journalist who was detained by ICE last month, is the subject of a new CJR profile by Carolina Abbott Galvão. Though Rodríguez is back to work in Nashville now, she says, “I don’t feel I’m able to go out and do what I was doing before, because I’m scared.” You can read the full profile here… |
The Thirty Mile Zone now includes DC |
Yesterday, TMZ officially launched its DC operation, appropriately titled TMZDC, formalizing a long-gestating push to cover the capital. The tabloid had plans for a DC operation as far back as 2007, but the success of their pics exposing members of Congress on vacation during the shutdown apparently sealed the deal. Three producers — Charlie Cotton, Jacob Wasserman and Jakson Buhaj — “arrived over the weekend,” the outlet said. “So we’re in D.C. … on the hunt for good stories.” According to Politico, some House staffers are already working to connect directly with TMZDC… |
3️⃣ headlines out of the UK |
>> This is being called “ominous”: The BBC is planning to hold an all-hands meeting tomorrow to inform staffers about “saving plans.” (Deadline) >> British regulators have given Axel Springer “the green light to press ahead with its 575-million-pound deal to buy the Telegraph Media Group.” The deal still needs approval in Ireland and Australia. (City AM) >> Britain’s antitrust watchdog “is expected to launch an investigation into Paramount Skydance’s planned $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in ‘the coming weeks,’ a spokesperson said.” (Reuters) |
>> Yesterday Trump confirmed to Norah O’Donnell that he watched her “60 Minutes” report right before blasting the Pope as “WEAK on Crime.” (CBS) >> Speaking of getting Trump on the phone… Andrew Kaczynski called up POTUS “to ask him about a top FEMA official who said he teleported to Waffle House.” (CNN) >> Congratulations to Kaitlan Collins and this year’s other winners of the White House Correspondents’ Association’s journalism awards. (WHCA) |
Some of today’s tech talk |
>> My gut says the targeting of Sam Altman should be getting even more news media attention than it’s getting. Yesterday, “the man who allegedly threw an incendiary device” at the OpenAI CEO’s home was charged with attempted murder and attempted arson, Hadas Gold reports. (CNN) >> Jasmine Sun filed this thoughtful piece about the attacks, wagering “that incidents like these are only warning shots for how nasty AI politics will get.” (Jasmine’s Substack) >> Meta “is building an artificial intelligence version of Mark Zuckerberg that can engage with employees in his stead, as part of a broader push to remake the Big Tech company around AI,” Hannah Murphy reports. (FT) >> Stanford’s annual AI industry report has highlighted a “growing disconnect between AI insiders and everyone else.” (TechCrunch) >> “CNN has tapped Chris Wiggins, who has served as chief data scientist at the New York Times for more than a decade, for a newly created role as head of machine learning and AI science.” (Variety) |
“Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is accusing Amazon MGM Studios of committing ‘bribery in plain sight’ after the media giant spent lavishly to land a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump,” even as “the company disagrees with that assessment and maintains it has done nothing wrong,” Variety’s Rebecca Rubin reports. |
Hollywood’s open letter against the Paramount-WBD deal |
Yesterday, as the NYT’s Ben Mullin first reported, “more than 1,000 writers, actors and directors released a letter” opposing Paramount’s acquisition of WBD, “saying the deal would harm Hollywood’s already distressed entertainment industry.” The intrigue mainly revolved around signees who are currently in business with one of the studios, such as Damon Lindelof, who has an overall deal at Warner Bros. He wrote on Instagram that he was initially afraid to sign his name even though he “absolutely” opposes the deal. But he decided to sign, he wrote, because “when two storied backlots are owned by the same company, the outcome is intuitive — one becomes a Ghost Town. I’m scared. But I’m not a ghost. And a fight is already lost if it’s never fought.” >> In response to the open letter, Paramount repeated its commitments to Hollywood artists and said a combined Paramount-WBD will offer “more avenues for their work, not fewer.” |
Lots of news out of CinemaCon |
>> Ted Sarandos “came to Las Vegas on Sunday night and met with several heads of exhibition… talking over the possibility of putting more Netflix films into theaters,” Drew Taylor and Sharon Waxman scooped. (TheWrap) >> Sony shared a new scene from “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.” (Deadline) >> And Aaron Sorkin came on stage to debut a trailer for “The Social Reckoning,” his follow-up to “The Social Network.” Puck’s Matt Belloni said Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg “might be the thing that actually breaks the internet. Five stars no notes yes yes yes.” The October 9 release date can’t come soon enough… (THR) |