This reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
The latest developments from the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine rightly overshadowed the big media news of the weekend: Puck reporter Dylan Byers broke the news that CBS exec and Colbert showrunner Chris Licht will replace Jeff Zucker as the new president of CNN.
But the scoops and scandals from inside our media’s boardrooms and newsrooms wait for no one. Week in and week out, Confider will pull back the curtain on the nexus of media, politics, and entertainment without fear or favor. There’s no time to waste, so let’s get going.
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NYT SUCCESSION PLAN: The long-awaited confirmation that Joe Kahn will succeed Dean Baquet as executive editor of The New York Times is expected to come following the Pulitzer Prize announcements in April, insiders at the Gray Lady told Confider. Speculation as to who’ll fill Kahn’s managing editor shoes has ramped up in recent weeks, with the latest scuttlebutt—according to three people with knowledge of the matter—suggesting a three-headed cabal of current Deputy Managing Editor Carolyn Ryan, Assistant Managing Editor Marc Lacey, and Deputy Managing Editor and standards supremo Cliff Levy. There is precedent for such a possibility: In 2014, Baquet named four staffers to the title of “deputy executive editor.” Baquet, who has taken to ordering pizza for the newsroom every Wednesday, will stand aside before his 66th birthday this September, according to two people familiar with his thinking, and hopes to do a proper in-person sendoff in the summer. “The Times has always recognized the critical importance of executive leadership and works to ensure that effective plans are in place for both short-term and long-term executive succession at the Company, including for the executive editor,” a Times spokesperson told Confider.
WHERE KUSH GETS HIS NEWS(WEEK): Media observers have recently noted how Newsweek, once The Daily Beast’s partner publication, has lurched further and further rightward in its editorial voice. Confider has learned that readers can at least partly thank Trump adviser Jared Kushner, who, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, has maintained a cozy relationship with the outlet. Throughout his father-in-law’s presidency, people familiar with the matter said, Kush often sought positive story placement, frequently talked as an unnamed source, and, where politically expedient, granted access to the White House (see: “Exclusive: Jared Kushner Gets Candid About Struggling Trump Campaign, Mideast Peace, More”). Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad is believed to have helped foster the relationship. Meanwhile, under conservative firebrand Josh Hammer, who once caused a staff revolt over a racist birther op-ed, the outlet’s opinion page has seemingly gone off the deep end, publishing far-right “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and MAGA diehard Charlie Kirk, whose utterings have become fodder for generic news write-ups at the outlet. “News organizations are in contact with White House advisers as a matter of course, and our coverage of the Trump administration speaks for itself,” wrote a representative for Newsweek. “Our Opinion section also reflects our commitment to offering views and voices from across the spectrum, as our mission statement says.” Kushner didn’t immediately respond to Confider’s requests for comment.
ZERO BOND FOR YOU: As The Daily Beast reported last year, Zero Bond has become the hottest social club in the city thanks to Mayor Eric Adams’ regular patronage alongside models and star athletes. Wherever celebrities flock, media personalities are never far behind—and plenty have attempted to obtain membership at the NoHo club. Confider has learned that Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, and NBC personality Donny Deutsch are members, while a number of media stars are still waiting on whether their applications were approved. One person you won’t catch hanging out with Adams at the club is Ronn Torossian, the “toxic” PR guru who brought hizzoner to Zero Bond and stuck to him like glue until The Daily Beast, The New York Times, and the New York Post reported on his dubious practices and raised questions about his ties to the mayor.
DEVINE INTERVENTION: When Australian columnist Miranda Devine joined the New York Post in the run-up to the 2020 election, she was only meant to be on an 18-month loan from the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sydney Daily Telegraph. But the columnist has since become a stateside conservative media fixture, with frequent Fox News appearances, a popular column, and a bestseller on the Hunter Biden laptop saga, titled Laptop From Hell. Rather than send her back to the land down under, Confider has confirmed that Devine will permanently join the Post as a full-time employee, with plans for another book—this time for Murdoch-owned HarperCollins—and a continued focus on the first son’s business dealings. “It is very exciting,” Devine told Confider. “There is never a dull minute at the New York Post. I’ve loved my time here and I look forward to lots more.”
WHO FUNDS THE SMITHS?: No, not the Morrissey-fronted band that will never reunite. Since Times media columnist Ben Smith announced in January that he was leaving to join Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin B. Smith (no relation) and start a new media venture targeting a global readership “who are college educated, who read in English, but who no one is really treating like an audience,” it’s been unclear who exactly will fund the project. Confider has been digging into the mystery, with usual suspects like Laurene Powell Jobs and the Emerson Collective (which has backed The Atlantic and Axios) and TPG (who’ve thrown millions at Vice, Airmail, and Puck) both denying any involvement. A Bloomberg spokesperson declined to comment but a source close to Mayor Mike told Confider that he has not written any checks. And so the most likely suspect remains Atlantic Media partner David Bradley, who told WSJ earlier this year he’d be interested if asked. The last thing we’d want is for Justin and Ben—who is yet to enjoy his much-touted liquidity from BuzzFeed’s IPO—to go wanting, so if you have a buck or two to help The Smiths achieve their dreams, email sourcematerial@thedailybeast.com and we’ll be sure to pass along any and all investment opportunities.
NBC LOOKS TO PLUG LEAKS: Every news organization loves a good leak. Whether it’s a cache of classified documents or a salacious internal memo, leaks make for juicy exclusives, and the esteemed journos at NBC News chase them every day. But as insiders tell Confider, the network is now on a mission to end leaks from within its own ranks. Several insiders with knowledge of the situation told us that former Times reporter Stephen Labaton, who was recently installed as EVP of comms for NBCUniversal News Group (replacing NBC vet Mark Kornblau who joined SoftBank), has been given orders from chairman Cesar Conde to find and stop leakers. “It is categorically false. No one has given me any orders and I’m not spending any time finding leakers,” Labaton told The Daily Beast. But according to our insiders, Conde has become increasingly concerned with internal leaks, which makes you wonder: What’s he scared of emerging from 30 Rock? Say, if you have any leaks, email us at sourcematerial@thedailybeast.com.
WHAT THE PUCK?: Star media reporter Dylan Byers had a doozy of a yarn for Puck on Wednesday, headlined “Is Jen Psaki the Next Rachel Maddow?” According to Byers, the Biden press secretary’s super-agent, Jay Sures, co-president of United Talent Agency, has been shopping her around for a gig as a future cable-news host. Interesting story, indeed, but what Byers failed to disclose to readers is that he is also represented by UTA. Byers’ dispatches for Puck, where co-founder Jon Kelly recently described him as “peerless,” have actually touted Sures and UTA before: Earlier this month, Byers reported that Sures was a potential replacement for Jeff Zucker—he disclosed his professional relationship in that piece, however. Byers did not respond to a request for comment.
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—MORE FROM BEAST MEDIA DESK—
—“Jennifer Griffin Once Again Brutally Fact-Checks a Pro-Putin Fox News Segment.” As we’ve noted, the Fox News reporting vet has become “the only adult in the room,” routinely bursting her network’s pro-Putin narratives about the Ukraine invasion.
—“MTG Claims She Doesn’t Know White Nationalist—Despite Pic of Them Together.” The deranged congresswoman spoke at a far-right CPAC rival event put together by a Holocaust-denying radio host and then acted like she had no idea what she’d gotten into.
—“I’m a Former Russian TV Anchor. Fox News Mimics State TV.” Liz Wahl used to work at RT and, as she writes in an opinion column, sees no difference between the Kremlin-funded network’s propaganda and the pro-Putin spin spewed nightly by Tucker Carlson.
—“Witnesses to History: Journalists on the ‘Total Terror’ in Ukraine.” Four reporters relayed the “profound shock, horror, disbelief” they’ve witnessed on the ground in Ukraine.
—RECENT READS—
—Deadline first reported new CNN chief Chris Licht’s first staff-wide memo. “I know you have a lot of questions,” he wrote. “Perhaps the biggest one is how will CNN change? The honest answer is that I don’t know yet.” The former Late Show boss added that he plans “to do a lot of listening,” and that “Together, we will double-down on what’s working well and quickly eliminate what’s not.”
—Speaking of CNN, The Wall Street Journal had the exclusive on how WarnerMedia determined that Allison Gollust, the CNN exec and Zucker girlfriend who resigned last week, violated CNN standards and “provided guidance” to Chris Cuomo as he assisted his brother, former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in combating sexual-misconduct allegations. Gollust, through a spox, called the findings “patently ridiculous.”
—The Hollywood Reporter wrote about the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA) condemning some of the “orientalist and racist” coverage of the Ukraine crisis, particularly calling out the language some journos have used to compare the conflict to those seen in the Middle East.
—The UK’s Press Gazette got the inside scoop on Mail Online publisher and founding editor Martin Clarke’s farewell to staffers, in which he joked that “being an editor does make you a monster. Or in my case more of a monster.” Read our coverage of the controversial Mail boss’ “bombshell” exit here and here.
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Subscribe to the Confider newsletter here and have The Daily Beast media team’s stellar reporting sent straight to your inbox every Monday night.
