Here's the latest on James Dolan, President Trump, Lesley Stahl, Wes Moore, Trey Yingst, Scott Galloway, Ainsley Earhardt, Steven Spielberg, "Regime Change," and more... |
Knicks fever = media bonanza |
In the stirring words of Mike Lupica, the New York Knicks are now "one win away from writing a sports story as great as any sports story the city has ever known."
It's great for New York, great for the NBA, great for Disney. The ratings for ABC and ESPN's NBA Finals telecasts have proven that Knicks fever extends far past the tri-state area right now.
Through three games, the finals have averaged 19 million viewers, more than double the average for last year's Thunder-Pacers series.
"New York, of course, is the biggest TV market in the U.S. by a pretty wide margin and is trying to end a 53-year title drought," THR's Rick Porter wrote here.
Monday's Game 3 averaged 24 million viewers, the "largest Game 3 audience since the Michael Jordan era" of the '90s, Porter noted.
Did Game 4 viewers stay up past 11 p.m. ET last night to watch the Knicks erase a 29-point deficit and achieve the largest comeback in NBA Finals history? I'm going to guess yes!
It was, The Ringer's Howard Beck wrote overnight, "the single greatest New York Knicks moment of the 21st century." ESPN's Zach Kram has an "anatomy" of the comeback here...
|
Everyone's a Knicks reporter |
Geoff Burke/Imagn/Reuters
Andrew Kirell, rooting for the Knicks, writes: This has become an incredible civic spectacle both offline and online. A quick scroll through Instagram or TikTok shows how everyone is filming everything, so every angle of every dramatic moment — inside and outside Madison Square Garden — is available to watch and rewatch.
Want to know how a star on "Celebrity Row" reacted courtside to OG Anunoby's game-winning tip-in? There are dozens of clips. Curious how the watch parties in city parks and outside bodegas, bars and restaurants blew up? There's video after video. My favorites are the reaction shots of huge crowds out on the city streets — whether at makeshift watch parties with TVs propped up in the back of a minivan, or outside MSG, where former Knick Iman Shumpert joined the celebration.
And this Knicks run has turned every NYC reporter into a Knicks reporter. Traffic reports have included MSG-related restrictions; the spat between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Knicks owner James Dolan has become fodder for City Hall reporters; entertainment sites have shared in Taylor Swift or Timothée Chalamet's joy; this NY Times story about a SoHo media event became a Knicks watch-party report.
Local TV stations have added heaps of special coverage and are calling in weekday staff for Saturday's Game 5. And every aspiring man-on-the-street interviewer is taping Knicks-themed Q&As...
|
Disney's ad-sales slam dunk |
"Last year, Disney got what every network desires: a seven-game series," Deadline's Dade Hayes noted earlier this month. He said five games "generally is break-even territory, with six or seven games bringing significant revenue to networks and great opportunities for advertisers given the likely high tune-in."
Given the huge ratings this year, Disney must already be in break-even territory. An ABC spokesperson had no comment on that, but told me Game 5 ad time is now all sold out, with "very high demand" for Game 6....
|
The Baltimore media battle over Wes Moore |
Back in April, Semafor's Max Tani detailed how Maryland's biggest newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, has been "going after" Gov. Wes Moore, specifically Moore's military résumé and past claims about his service.
Moore's team has called the Sun "right wing propaganda wearing the masthead of a formerly trusted news brand" and has accused Sun owner David Smith, who also controls Sinclair, of putting his finger on the scale.
The Sun's scrutiny is clearly having an impact. Witness this morning's new story by Lee O. Sanderlin, a former Sun reporter who now works for its main rival, The Baltimore Banner. He writes that "Moore and his wife, Dawn, say they have grown increasingly concerned about the possibility of misinformation taking root."
It's way past the point of "possibility." With the Sun pushing hard for access to Moore's military records, Moore's staff provided access to the Banner instead, "and helped coordinate interviews with people who served with him or knew details of his deployment."
"Taken together," Sanderlin writes, "they form a composite of a competent, well-respected soldier." But there are also multiple examples of Moore either mischaracterizing a "defining chapter" of his life. Here's the full Banner report...
|
Kate Bolduan sat down with Moore on "CNN News Central" just now and said she could sense his anger about what he has depicted as "an effort to undermine your integrity by conservative media outlets."
Moore remarked that "people can look at the history of Sinclair and probably get a sense" of what's going on, but said, "it's not just that I'm angry. I'm sad — I'm sad that this is not just about coming after me, it's coming after the people I served with." I posted a clip to X... |
Trump rages about 'fake' war news |
Shortly after threatening to take control of Iran's oil and gas markets, Trump called into "Fox & Friends" this morning and spent much of the interview complaining about the media.
Asked about his negotiations, Trump said, "It could be the greatest deal in history, they could wave the white flag of surrender... and the fake news would say it was a great victory for Iran. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen." Trump preposterously claimed that Iranian leaders have personally bragged to him about getting good press: "It's amazing how well we're doing in the papers."
When pressed on whether Americans have the appetite for an invasion, Trump blamed the media: "Part of the problem is that they read the fake news," he said, before pivoting to praise for Fox, calling war correspondent Trey Yingst a "superstar" who "covers it so accurately, it's so beautiful to watch. And he's got a level of excitement that's amazing. But the accuracy is so good..."
>> At one point, amid his extended rants about media coverage, Ainsley Earhardt interrupted to say, "Mr. President... don't worry about it. Our viewers are watching Fox and so they see this coverage. They're not reading The New York Times."
|
Journal urges judge to toss Trump's lawsuit, again |
The Wall Street Journal "is asking a judge to toss out Donald Trump‘s revised defamation lawsuit, contending that the president’s new litigation is merely a 're-package' of claims already dismissed by the court," Deadline's Ted Johnson reports.
The Journal's filing yesterday makes some strong arguments, underscoring why many legal experts have said Trump's suit is more of a PR ploy than a court case. We'll hear from the judge soon enough...
|
Today's Paramount-WBD timeline update |
Paramount Skydance's $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery "is being reviewed under the European Union's Foreign Subsidies Regulation, with regulators probing involvement of Middle Eastern funds helping to bankroll the takeover," Bloomberg's Samuel Stolton reports.
"The EU said Wednesday it set an initial July 14 deadline for vetting the deal under the law, which adds to an ongoing investigation under the bloc's standard merger rules with a deadline a week earlier..."
|
Lesley Stahl signs up for two more years of '60 Minutes' |
Lesley Stahl has signed a new two-year deal to stay at "60 Minutes," a source says, confirming Oliver Darcy's scoop last night.
Darcy said "the deal was negotiated by CAA boss Bryan Lourd," who "largely negotiated the deal with CBS TV boss George Cheeks and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski — not the embattled Bari Weiss."
>> Dylan Byers' latest: "By all accounts, Bari Weiss could use some help running CBS News. But hiring the right executive with the right skills will be tricky..."
>> At "60," Nick Bilton has brought in TV production consultant Kelly Funke and "operations manager" Nick De Lucca to "help manage his transition to the newsroom,"
Edmund Lee, Helen Coster and
Dawn Chmielewski scooped for Reuters yesterday. Normally, these sorts of things would not be newsworthy at all!
|
'60 Minutes' and Galloway: Who approached whom? |
CBS News is pushing back against Scott Galloway's claim that he was "approached about a role at '60 Minutes'" and turned it down.
Galloway told Kara Swisher on their "Pivot" podcast that Weiss called him with an offer to be a contributor. "I said 'No fucking way,'" he claimed, later adding: "I'm not gonna add to this chorus of unqualified people, these cosplaying journalists."
A CBS rep said things went down a little differently. "We think Scott’s great," a spokesperson told the NY Post's Ariel Zilber. "When he approached us with a pitch for an Andy Rooney-esque segment in December, we were happy to consider it."
But according to Zilber, "Galloway denied that account, insisting it was Weiss who initiated the conversation and floated the idea of bringing him into the '60 Minutes' fold." Weiss is a frequent idea-floater, so perhaps she brought up "60" to Galloway generally, and then Galloway "approached" with the Andy Rooney idea...
|
Several of the speakers at yesterday's WBD-wide tribute to Ted Turner in Atlanta alluded to Paramount's looming takeover. Several CNN anchors emphasized the importance of editorial independence, and Turner's grandson, John R. Seydel III, said "Grandpa Ted" would be "the first to speak up" about this moment in media, "as the very network he built and the leaders that are in those positions these days are facing similar threats."
Former CNN president Tom Johnson received a lengthy standing ovation when he said, "CNN will not bend and will not sway during this terrible, chaotic Trump era. We can best honor Ted by continuing to keep CNN as the most outstanding news network of them all." Johnson returned to his seat, and the event's host Anderson Cooper exclaimed, "Tom, you should come back!"
"We just want you to stay here," Johnson responded. "I'm not going anywhere," Cooper said. Here's my recap...
|
>> Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's book "Regime Change" was hovering around #8,000 on Amazon's best sellers list when the pair's Epstein files excerpt came out yesterday. Now the book is up to #12. (Amazon)
>> Trump's publicly-traded (and very poorly performing) media company has "decided against spinning off" Truth Social for the time being. (Reuters)
>> The Trump admin agency that oversees prediction markets "is asking whether it should allow bets on reality shows, music competitions and other entertainment programming." (THR)
>> DirecTV's impasse with the E.W. Scripps Company is nearing the two-week mark, leaving subscribers in almost 40 markets "without access to local Scripps-owned stations." (Variety)
>> "Fubo has struck a new distribution agreement that restores NBCUniversal's programming on the service," ending a six-month blackout. (TheWrap)
>> "Property Brothers" star Jonathan Scott "will headline a new daytime talk show in the works at CBS Media Ventures." (TheWrap)
|
Spotify removed thousands of phony drug sales podcasts |
After reports from CNN and other news outlets exposed how fake podcasts on Spotify were blatantly promoting illegal online pharmacies, the platform "has removed tens of thousands of phony podcasts," CNN's Clare Duffy reports.
>> Word of the removal came via an investigation by Sen. Maggie Hassan. "The investigation’s findings, published Thursday, raise questions about Spotify's ability to proactively detect and remove potentially harmful content. Hassan said the company should have acted faster and alerted law enforcement to the content..."
|
Judge denies Meta, YouTube efforts to overturn verdict |
One more from Clare Duffy: L.A. Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl has denied a motion by Meta and YouTube to set aside the jury verdict against them in a landmark social media addition case. She also denied their motion for a new trial. Meta and YouTube plan to appeal the verdict... |
More of today's tech talk |
>> Meta will soon start using "your activity on other websites to personalize your feeds" across Facebook and Instagram, Emma Roth writes. (The Verge)
>> Speaking of Instagram, the platform "is going to let you tweak what its algorithm shows you on your main feed," Jay Peters writes, noting that a new feature will allow users to "see the topics we think you're interested in, and change them, across all the major parts of Instagram." (The Verge)
>> LinkedIn "has launched its first creator marketplace, making creator discovery easier," or "at least more scalable for marketers," Krystal Scanlon reports. (Digiday)
>> CNBC is promoting special coverage of Friday's SpaceX IPO, beginning with an "exclusive interview between Morgan Brennan and SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell on Morning Call at 5 a.m. ET..."
|
|
|
'Disclosure Day' opens in previews |
Steven Spielberg's "Disclosure Day" is "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, where the sci-fi flick is currently averaging 82%. The more conservative Metacritic has branded the film generally favorable, at 74%. THR's David Rooney eloquently called the film Spielberg's "spellbinding return to what he does best," writing that "for anyone who has loved his movies, 'Disclosure Day' will be an essential addition to Spielberg's rich body of work."
>> Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro writes that the film "is hoping to beam in around $35 million in its North American start and around $65 million around the world in 73 offshore markets..."
|
There's more to enjoy with CNN All Access |
Unlock deeper analysis and exclusive videos on the stories you care about. Subscribe here.
|
|
|
|
® © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.
1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
