Welcome to a new workweek. The president is criticizing the Pope and imagining himself as Jesus Christ. The Philippines is ordering Meta to "curb fake news." X says it is cutting back on cash for clickbaiters. And there's a whole lot more to report...
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Viktor Orbán was a model for President Trump's media-bashing rise to power. But now he has fallen, showing "how populism can run out of road."
Orbán kneecapped the press in Hungary and created an "informational autocracy" using carrots and sticks, rewarding media owners who toed the party line and punishing owners who resisted. Orbán's allies captured privately owned outlets, interfered with news coverage, transformed public broadcasting into propaganda, and weaponized regulating bodies for partisan political gain.
Control over the media aided Orbán's consolidation of power and contributed to the democratic backsliding that scholars have been studying for years.
"Hungary's media landscape exists in a grey zone, where journalism's boundaries are set by the whims of regulatory power. Under Trump, America is heading in the same direction," Chris Herrmann of the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote last December.
But Hungary may now be heading in a different direction. Orbán conceded to his opponent, Péter Magyar, yesterday as Hungarians filled the streets of Budapest in celebration.
CNN's Melissa Bell described the revolutionary feel: In the run-up to election day, many Hungarians were "very reticent" to talk to her crew, "really giving you the impression that they did feel they were living under a sort of an authoritarian regime rather than a democracy," she said. "Last night that changed very suddenly, and they could not tell us enough of their joy, their feelings, their enthusiasm, their hope for the future."
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Independent reporting exposed corruption
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Analysts say that pervasive corruption in Hungary was a key factor in the fall of Orbán's illiberal Fidesz party. Outrage about corruption, CJR's Ivan L. Nagy wrote before the election, has a "lot to do with the tireless work of investigative journalists."
Some Hungarian reporters held onto their independence and found ways to be heard, and their investigations "helped Magyar build a strong anti-corruption platform," Nagy wrote.
Overnight, THR's Steven Zeitchik also highlighted the recent release of a documentary that uncovered "a wide network of bribery and blackmail."
Independent and investigative websites "brought out a steady stream of scandals" during the campaign season, Eddy Wax wrote for Euractiv. He quoted Hungarian media entrepreneur Martón Kárpáti saying "this campaign showed the importance of the free media. If you had only just read or watched the pro-government websites or outlets then you would have no idea about what's going on in the country."
So: It's easy to see why Bluesky is filled with American progressive activists feeling newly hopeful about their fight against Trump — and pressing Democrats to use the word "corruption" every time they utter his name.
"Orbán's loss brings to an end the assumption of inevitability that has pervaded the MAGA movement," Anne Applebaum wrote for The Atlantic overnight. Here's a gift link.
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Swalwell backs out of race
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Eric Swalwell's announcement that he's ending his bid for California governor was, among other things, a testament to the power of investigative reporting.
Last Friday's stories by the SF Chronicle and CNN alleging sexual misconduct by the congressman were staggering, partly because the stories contained so much corroboration. Swalwell's support evaporated almost instantly.
Allison Gordon, the first of four bylines on the CNN story, wrote on X last night, "We'll continue reporting — reach out if you’d like to discuss the congressman or others on the Hill."
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Intriguing timing to the president's Pope complaint
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I can't be the only person wondering if last night's lead story on "60 Minutes" — "Pope Leo statements on Iran war and mass deportations inspire American cardinals to speak out" — had something to do with Trump (a known viewer) going off about the Pope a short time later. Here is Norah O'Donnell's "60" story in case you missed it.
It's also worth noting that The Free Press kicked off this news cycle last week with Mattia Ferraresi's piece titled "Why the Vatican and the White House Are on the Outs." JD Vance was asked about the reporting, which kept the cycle going, and now here we are; CNN's headline this morning is "Pope says he has 'no fear of Trump administration' after president slams his Iran war criticism."
>> I suppose this is close as we'll get to a papal "zinger:" When asked about Trump's post on Truth Social, the Pope said, "It's ironic — the name of the site itself. Say no more."
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'What is going on with President Trump?'
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"There are many things for which the news media deserve criticism. Their response to President Trump's handling of his surprise war in Iran is not, for the most part, one of them," frequent media critic Becket Adams writes in this new piece for National Review.
His point: The press reaction to the war — which he calls "a mixture of confusion, repulsion, and genuine fear" — "is, this time, fully reasonable." While some Trump defenders find it convenient to deflect from the president's erratic behavior by bashing the media, Adams says, "the journalists have a point: What is going on with President Trump?"
>> Speaking of erratic: The president stayed up really late, it seemed, posting links to pro-Trump news stories on his Truth Social account until 4 in the morning, after sharing an AI-generated meme of him as Jesus Christ. As Mediaite's David Gilmour noted this morning, the Jesus meme "triggered a rare wave of backlash late Sunday from his most loyal supporters..."
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The Athletic's reporter defense raises more Qs
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There's no new info from The New York Times this morning about the internal probe involving The Athletic NFL reporter Dianna Russini. As we noted in Sunday's edition of Reliable, Russini was photographed holding hands with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
Over at Status, Natalie Korach reports that The Athletic's initial defense of Russini — Steven Ginsberg called the pictures "misleading" and lacking "essential context" — has "raised uncomfortable questions" internally, with staffers expressing concern "over the paper's judgment on the matter..."
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Philippines orders Meta to 'curb fake news'
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"The Philippines has warned Meta of possible legal action if it fails to take steps to curb the spread of 'false and panic-inducing content,' including about oil prices, on its platforms," CNN's Hanna Ziady reports. Meta has been given "seven days from receipt of the letter to outline measures to tackle misinformation..."
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X cuts back on $$ for clickbaiters
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This is genuinely good-if-true news out of X: The platform says it is "cutting back on payments to accounts that are 'flooding the timeline' with clickbait and rapid-fire news aggregation," Anthony Ha reports for TechCrunch. Supposed "news" publishers that really just rip off others' content have been complaining (on X) about the financial blows they're feeling...
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Settlement talks with ad companies in boycott probe
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The FTC "is negotiating a potential settlement with several major advertising companies to resolve a probe into whether they violated federal antitrust laws by coordinating boycotts against platforms including Elon Musk's X," the WSJ's Suzanne Vranica scoops. Any deal "would be predicated on no admission of guilt or wrongdoing" by the ad firms...
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Jurors resume deliberations in Live Nation case
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The antitrust case "pitting 34 states against the concert giant Live Nation" entered the jury deliberation stage on Friday, as the AP reported. The jurors will be back this morning to continue weighing the evidence...
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Media Matters in court today
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As you probably know, the FTC has been pursuing a probe of Media Matters for America. The liberal nonprofit watchdog group won an injunction against the FTC's civil investigative demand last year on First Amendment grounds, but now the case is being heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals in DC, with oral arguments slated for this morning.
>> Nathaniel Zelinsky of the Washington Litigation Group says the issue on appeal "is not just this investigation, but whether courts can step in to stop allegedly retaliatory government probes at all..."
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Netflix reports earnings this week
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"The video-streaming giant kicks off tech earnings season on Thursday with its first-quarter earnings," The Information's Martin Peers notes. "It's the first quarterly report since Netflix walked away from its $82.7 billion deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming and studio operations, so that distraction is gone..."
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>> Ben Mullin's new story this morning: "The Economist is putting names (and faces) to its magazine" with plans for Economist Play, a video-centric part of its mobile app. (NYT)
>> Skyhorse Publishing and Tucker Carlson are "starting a new imprint" called "Tucker Carlson Books," with authors like Russell Brand and Milo Yiannopoulos. (WSJ)
>> Anonymous Content "has brought in former top Paramount communications executive Liza Burnett Fefferman as chief communications and marketing officer." (Deadline)
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>> Here's the story everyone is talking about: Amy Chozick's profile of Lauren Sánchez Bezos. (NYT)
>> Zoe Tillman documents how "the DOJ keeps making corrections in court, and judges want answers." (Bloomberg)
>> David Bauder checks out Sky's deal with Noosphere, which promises to "give audiences access — not only to the news but to those who report it." (AP)
>> Kate Knibbs describes how "journalists and advocacy groups are rallying to protect the Internet Archive's vast collection of web pages." (WIRED)
>> "Call it the Bad Bunny Effect:" Meg James says "Telemundo no longer is an underdog" and highlights the network's news coverage. (LAT)
>> René Marsh and Tierney Sneed ask: Will Elon Musk "ever be forced to explain what he did inside DOGE?" (CNN)
>> CNN has launched a new video series, "The 1 on 1 with CNN," that pairs influential leaders for sit-downs. The first two: Chefs José Andrés and Eric Ripert, and tech execs Bill Ready and Iqram Magdon-Ismail. (CNN)
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AI and the crisis of meaning
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I told Sam Lessin that this essay was the best thing I'd ever read by him. The title: "AI Is Not a Labor Crisis. It Is a Meaning Crisis."
Lessin says people are not paying enough attention to the ways AI is threatening "human meaning itself — the stories we tell ourselves about why to get out of bed, suffer, strive, build, and continue."
The AI era may blow up a bunch of those stories. So "the central policy question," he says, "may not be redistribution but re-legitimation. How do you make ordinary people feel that their lives are still needed, not merely subsidized?" Read the rest here...
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More of today's tech talk
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>> Whoops? "Polymarket bets started popping up in Google News alongside legitimate news articles. But now those results aren’t showing, and Google says they were never supposed to." (The Verge)
>> New this morning from the aforementioned Suzanne Vranica: Meta "is expected to surpass Alphabet's Google to become the world's leading digital-advertising business," according to Emarketer projections. (WSJ)
>> Speaking of Meta, the company "must face a lawsuit by Massachusetts' attorney general" alleging the company designed Instagram social "to addict children, the state's top court ruled on Friday." (Reuters)
>> X's standalone messaging app, XChat, is expected to launch in the Apple App Store this Friday. (9To5Mac)
>> Speaking of Musk, he seems to have joined TikTok, Ryan Mac notes. (NYT)
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A big moment for the box office
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Universal's "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" "remained No. 1 at the domestic box office" in its second weekend, and has surpassed "Project Hail Mary" as "the highest-grossing movie of the year," Variety's Rebecca Rubin writes.
When I finally had a chance to see "Hail Mary" on Saturday, I was impressed by how full my local theater was. It felt like... momentum!
On that note, the movie theater industry's annual gathering, CinemaCon, starts today in Las Vegas, and "Hollywood and exhibitors alike are arriving in good spirits because people are actually going to theaters," a "change of pace from post-pandemic years," Rubin adds. Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro has a CinemaCon curtain-raiser for you here...
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