Can CNN Survive the Paramount Merger? Plus: The Next Host of ‘Inside the NBA.’

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David?

Yes?

You might have seen the news the other day that Charles Barkley is retiring from telephs.

Is this the news he made on Bill's podcast?

Was it?

Yeah, we was.

He asked a double down later.

This is Charles Barkley's 14th retirement from television, so he wanted to congratulate

him on finally leaving the medium that is paying him many millions of dollars to discourse

on the NBA.

If he doesn't retire, do we just stop talking about him in protest?

Just pretend he's retiring?

That's why he's clearly not retiring, because he would not like that to happen.

An interesting thing in this retirement announcement was that he said his retirement was tied

to that of Ernie Johnson.

He told Bill that he and Ernie are a package deal, and unless Ernie changes his mind,

this following season will be Charles's last on TV.

Funny note about that Ryan Glass-Beegel reported, front office sports, that Ernie Johnson has

not actually decided to retire.

Another good reason to just treat any Barkley proclamation with the word I'm looking for.

Handle with kickclubs?

Take it with a grain of salt.

Kenny Smith is just like setting things on fire in the studio just trying to get someone

to pay attention to his job security, but to no avail.

Let's take Barkley at his word in one area.

Okay.

Ernie Johnson might retire.

And let's say that you and I were working at ESPN or perhaps Turner Sports.

And we were trying to find a host of Inside the NBA, who would not only be great on that

show, but whose presence might cause Barkley to reconsider.

Who would be the next host of Inside the NBA?

Well, we've thought about this.

The other thing, there's a lot of people you could go to.

I mean, I think that that that right off the bat, you start thinking of who does Barkley

have relationships with.

Any of the various fill-in hosts over the years, you know, would that evoke some sort

of loyalty pledge from Charles Barkley?

But if the question is like, who should replace Ernie?

I think that there would be, I know, I think if this was two years ago, there would be

a lot of theorizing that it would be like Stephen A Smith and people would be up in arms

about whether you know, you just go to like the biggest names.

Like is it Mike Greenberg?

You know, I mean, like he's he's done some turns for some NBA stuff for them.

And certainly has everything on his head.

And certainly has the greatest, you know, maybe like universal competence at such things.

You know, it's sitting in the middle of the table and taking a good ribbing, you know.

But if it was up to me, if we were making this decision, I don't know if this is like

a moonshot.

I don't know if this is wild.

But I think that the right answer is Scott Van Pelt.

I think temperamentally sort of he's he is more expansive than Ernie, but is a very he's

a temperamental match.

He's clearly able just to I mean, anybody that's done a one man booth is has a leg up on

the competition, you know, and he's done solo sports center for how long?

How long has that been going on now?

No offense to Stanford see you, but gone on for years and years and years almost as long

as the rear has been alive.

And listen, I'm not saying those two jobs are mutually exclusive, but whatever he set

out to do when he when he started his sports center gig, he has accomplished, right?

I mean, like he's like, it would be totally fair game to for him to say I'm moving on

to something else.

Um, I don't know if he'd be interested in that.

I mean, it's hard, hard to imagine he wouldn't be interested in the job on some level,

but I don't know if that would be the next step in his career.

But he's writing that sweet spot.

He's a decade younger than Ernie and writing that and certainly, you know, feels very youthful

for his age.

Uh, I think he would just be a perfect I think he'd be perfect for that.

I think if you're going to do the exact same show and bring somebody else into Ernie's

spot, Kenny, Jack or still there.

I mean, sorry.

Charles Jack or still there.

And you don't just want, you know, a soup can and they're just filling up space.

I think, I think SVP would be the move.

SVP is right where my mind went to.

You say temperamental match.

That's exactly right.

The thing about Ernie Johnson is that he can host a show.

He can be the traffic cop.

But he also has this ability to talk about things outside of sports to be a little bit

personal and emotional when the time is right.

That's exactly what SVP is on sports center.

He's a guy when he drives off road, you trust that he's not going to steer you into a

ditch that he knows how to handle those things.

He's also not going to be manipulative or go there too much when the occasion calls for

it, he can work on that terrain.

I think I can just easily imagine him on that show.

And I don't think you'd have to give up midnight sports center either.

I mean, he is doing it from Washington DC.

So maybe there'd be some plane flights to Atlanta and some

jury rating of the thing.

Also, you know, can we just don't we have when we have inside the NBA after a late game

on ESPN?

Do we need sports?

Can we just let it roll into the night?

He can do the highlights from that show and let Barclay and Jet and Shack just

talk about the whether we just make it one thing.

Hey, tonight we're doing inside the NBA slash sports.

It also sort of bridges the gap between inside and ESPN in a way that the season,

you know, that they haven't quite figured out yet.

They've ESPN to their great credit has let it operate on its own.

There's good, you know, and the season will see a lot of that.

But you know, I'm sure they would prefer there to be some sort of connective

tissue there.

You also mentioned like, what does S we people want to do with this life?

There was that idea that he might get a late afternoon show on ESPN, which to me

was like, why would you want a late afternoon show on ESPN?

Yeah.

This is a time of day when people are just doing other stuff and the idea that

people are sitting there waiting for a show on the linear television at that time

of day, just that just struck me as a terrible idea.

This is actually interesting.

Now inside the NBA now is a strange kind of beast where it's produced by

Turner and licensed by ESPN.

So maybe there's some contractual hurdles that would have to be the,

they would someone would have to leap over there.

But I like the idea.

SVP as the next host of inside the NBA, if only for any Johnson is indeed retiring.

Again, let's not trust Charles Barkley too much on that.

And you keep the show as intact as you possibly can.

Yeah.

There's something there.

All right, David coming up on the press box, the paramount Warner Brothers deal

has finally closed.

What's going to happen to news at the new company and what's going to happen to

sports?

I want to have some literary Halloween costume talk with you.

Some decisions must be made plus Lockland Cartwright of the newsletter,

Breaker joins me to talk about Rupert Murdock and his adult sons,

all that much more on the press box.

A part of the ringer podcast network.

Hello, media consumers.

It's Brian.

It's David.

It's Isaiah Blakely and John Notbone's Jones twisting and tweaking the dials.

I would like to direct everyone before we begin our intense discussion of the media today to my new newsletter over at Substack.

It's called Now They Tell Us.

The first edition is up.

You can watch it.

Over at Substack, it's called Now They Tell Us.

The first edition is up.

You can read it right now.

There will be a column that is landing in your inbox very soon about Tony Romo.

David knows that because David did the art for it.

And by the way, the art treatment told you the soft line, but the art treatment for now they tell us it's absolutely fantastic.

Thank you.

As always, you also came up with this awesome idea where we're going to have photos of

whoever I'm writing about.

And they're going to look like a photo that is on a physical, you know, physical newspaper.

Have that quality.

When your stuff is designed by David Schumacher.

It's a little stuff.

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David, I want to talk to you about the Paramount Warner Brothers merger.

Let's do it.

And finally, closed on Tuesday, how many months of our lives have we've been waiting for this merger to finally reach its end point?

If you want to know about the movie parts of this deal, I direct you to the law firm of fantasy and Bellany.

White shoe lawyers, David, not injury, personal injury attorneys.

I thought we should talk about news and sports in particular.

News, of course, means seeing it.

We got news this week that Mark Thompson who runs CNN is going to stay on and continue to run CNN under the ages of David Ellison.

Yep.

That is a big old short term win for CNN.

But I underline the word short term.

Yeah.

Barry Weiss is not running both CBS news and CNN right now.

But there's absolutely nothing stopping Ellison from changing his mind.

Six months from now.

We're a year from now.

Putting the news divisions under the leadership of one person.

I would also say this.

I am still bearish on the idea that CNN is going to remain recognizable CNN in the new company.

And I'll give you three reasons why I'm bearish.

Number one, CNN is pretty much counting on David Ellison's benevolence.

Oliver Darcy had an interesting note in his newsletter status the other day that Ellison, when he gave this press conference after the deal closed,

said, well, you know, you know, we were having these relationship with the Trump administration.

But now the deal is closed.

Almost as if, hey, you know, we were having to do some things and say some things and throw some parties.

Because we didn't want the administration to interfere with the giant business deal.

Now that it's closed, hey, cut loose and reveal my true self.

I am pretty dubious about that.

But like I said a minute ago, it just goes back to, does he really want CNN to be the CNN we recognize?

Does he not want it to be politically tingeed?

Yeah. Well, first of all, I don't think that the first part, I don't know that I'm that dubious of it.

I mean, when you think about the amount of money that was in play here,

whether or not he did anything he wouldn't have done, that had to be the guiding principle.

Let's get this thing across the finish line.

You know,

and I'm sure they made a lot of decisions that that in their mind helped make that happen.

But to be dubious about like, well, when he have not hired Barry White, I mean, that, yeah, sure, maybe I presume he still would have like, you know, whatever.

But it is entry.

And you said for the time being at the beginning of discussion, I think that's the real operative term.

And I think it's really hard to

foretell much beyond that.

I know over in the, if I may, over in the pro wrestling sphere, wrestling fans are constantly freaking out because

it turns a part owner in AEW wrestling, the number two wrestling organization.

They have a big time slot, time slot on on TBS on, on TNT and, you know, or a presence on HBO Max.

And everybody's worried that due to, you know, pre-existing personal relationships with TKO, the owners of WWE, that they'll just sort of like show AEW the door.

And what I've been preaching since the beginning is like this whole, like, not just AEW, but like wrestling in general is a rounding error right now.

And whatever you want to say about, about what the future may hold, there are so many bigger things on, on Skydance's agenda.

It'll take them years to get to this decision, right?

And I think that in some sense CBS, I mean, sorry, CNN is like that as well.

A bigger fish, but still that's down the road.

And you certainly don't want to be just doing, just upending, well, you, I mean, you don't want to sink some of the value of what you're doing.

And then you know, the value of what you just bought as when they're in the process of streamlining this and turning it into a positive investment.

So I think that it'll probably be safe for a while.

And like I said the last time we talked about this, I think it's good if they ever do want to change CNN, let's let CNN, let's let's see it and keep seeing it in the same and let, and so we can blame them when we make the change, you know, they didn't, they didn't meet the challenge.

Yeah, no, they didn't, they, whoever, you know, they didn't do everything they could have done.

And there's also the PR aspect of this.

You think it was bad PR for the Ellicons when a couple of semi notable anchors left 60 minutes.

I mean, just imagine if the mass head of CNN walked out the door, you know, I mean, it could be that could be you want to keep CNN as a viable thing.

So I think that's why I separate from CBS news, no matter what the, no matter what your political or business ideology is.

If everybody, if everybody whose name was on a show walked out the door, you couldn't do that.

The only thing you could do is just to absorb them and cross your fingers and hope for the best.

All right, so that's part of the bullish case that I subscribe to because I think there is a scenario where Ellicin believes in Barry Weiss.

He wants Barry Weiss to lead CBS news going forward, but he is very cognizant of the damage she has done to CBS news.

He has also done to CBS news.

Very much so at his, at his, at his best done to CBS news.

So he looks at CNN and says, Hey, let's not do that again.

Let's not sink the value of this thing or at least not, let's not do that again right away.

Right. Yes, let's not have Anderson Cooper didn't want to continue on 60 minutes.

We don't want Anderson Cooper to then walk out the door at CNN.

Yep.

I think that, but again, you're counting on his benevolence or his mood or his decision making.

But there's nothing installed in here that's going to keep him from just changing his mind.

Sure.

But that's, but that benevolence is what every legacy media institution counts on in some form or fashion now every publishing house, every,

every newspaper and, and increasingly every television, every like, you know, terrestrial TV station.

It's all dependent on the, on the benevolence of some rich person or, or hedge fund.

Another reason I'm bearish on CNN remaining CNN.

There's always one of everything.

At a newly merged company stealing this idea from Dylan buyers, right?

Okay, we got one of this over here and one of this over here, we got a company we got to pick one person.

The new company Skydance has already done that with sports.

They had David Berson who run CBS sports and they had Louise Silberwasser who ran TNT sports.

Alex Sherman broke the story of the other day that silver wasters out and person will be the new sports guy at the company.

So are you really going to have two different news chiefs going for it?

You might think CBS news and CNN are different entities.

We may say, okay, we're combining some of the reporting on the back end.

Are you really going to have two people?

Long term, I'm skeptical.

Yep.

Here's reason number three. I'm a little bearish.

We don't know how CNN is going to make money going forward.

Remember every time we have a cable news person on this podcast and I always ask them, I'll definitely roll the summer.

Okay, what is going to happen that's going to make people under the age of 40 pay for cable news?

What is going to happen?

CNN's been trying to figure this out.

Thompson has some ideas. They put the website behind a paywall.

By the way, website got better when it went behind a paywall.

Yeah.

What it wasn't like less interesting daily mail and was like, oh, you paid for this year or some quality articles.

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I click on a CNN.com link now.

But they're figuring out the whole business of what CNN is going to be viable going forward.

And when you're in that position of vulnerability, that's when somebody swoops in and says, hey,

forget the ideological parts of this.

Forget how respected you are in the industry, Mr. Thompson.

We got to take over and do something different.

That's what makes you vulnerable.

And again, that's why I'm a tad bearish.

I drove past sports illustrated stadium on the way here.

So I just want to speak of entities that are not what they want to say.

I guess being the name, having the naming rights to a soccer stadium is better than just being like the logo on a random shirt at Marshalls.

So, yeah, I mean, so SI might be turning in the right direction.

But, but you know, the value, the whatever value of the brand of CNN could mean different things to different people.

Truly can.

I want to take you to sports.

Over its guidance, awful announcing Sam Newman had a great recounting of everything that is going to be in this new company.

So CBS brings the NFL.

College football and golf.

TNT slash Turner brings MLB including the postseason in a shell, NASCAR and tennis.

Also, you'll remember the NCAA tournament has had this weird schism for years and years now, where we get to see part of it under CNN part of it.

Excuse me on Turner.

Now that's going to be under one corporate roof.

Yep.

TNT and Turner sports also has been really, really desperate to retain its viability.

After the NBA rights walked out the door.

Yeah.

One of the strangest things they've done or I mean, again, it's strange that makes a ton of sense is basically lease.

College football playoff games, ESPN.

Yep.

ESPN, a present owns the entire college football playoff, but they lease certain games to Turner.

Which helps ESPN get some money back and also gives Turner sports a reason to exist.

TNT sports.

Yeah.

Be interesting to see how that continues under the new company.

But that's a pretty good sports portfolio.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that the leasing of games might be the first thing on the chopping block, both in terms of like bouncing the books and also just necessity when you're one empire, you know, you don't need you're not just looking for sports anchors to keep people coming back to the other rights that you're that you're 100% in.

But that is it is that is really healthy.

I mean, I don't know in the last time you would have gone to like the sports tab on the HBO go app or the sorry the HBO now app.

But it's pretty sparse at times, you know, and the thing that we always talk Bill talks about it a lot that didn't know, you know, in the streaming era.

Sometimes the hardest thing is just to like figure out where the thing is that you want to watch even though you know you own the ability to watch it.

You pay for the ability to watch it. The more that you can the you know, the more that you can lay claim to in one spot that pretty quickly has.

Is that the best sports portfolio? I mean, I guess.

Yes, he is. I think would still be better.

The ESPN doesn't have a full Sunday of NFL games. That's an interesting question.

Because yeah, I mean, really it's just how much NFL can you lay claim to, you know, how much NBA can you lay claim to in terms of like anchors.

But it's I mean, that's it. That is a huge portfolio.

Not to mention the UFC.

Yeah, it's on Paramounts app. I should add that in there for the new company. Can we talk Halloween for a second?

Yeah, please.

Been putting together some Halloween costume ideas with the fam.

We went to this place in Burbank. It's like the year round Halloween store.

So not spirit Halloween, but the actual like this is a cool brick and mortar business. They were looking at all the costumes.

And I had a few ideas. And then I was like, wait a second. Halloween is on a weekend this year.

You and I do the press box on Thursdays in a normal week. Should we have literary themed press box Halloween on our final episode before the holiday.

Yes, absolutely.

This does sort of this.

This does sort of limit my mask, man show Halloween options. I was looking at some face paint things. I don't know if I could do.

I don't feel mutually exclusive to me, but okay.

But yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Why not? What are you? Do you want to talk through some ideas? Are we talking about a surprise?

Let me talk to a few ideas. Okay, just to kind of get your sense of this.

One idea I had and I only had this idea because I bought a bust of this gentleman last year to be part of our Curtis family Halloween decor. Edgar Allan Poe.

Sure. It turns out that Edgar Allan Poe is actually a packaged Halloween costume.

With an old-fashioned looking suit. Oh, you can get him at the costume shop. Yeah, he's like sexy, sexy nurse.

And Edgar Allan Poe or two things you can buy in a package. And he has a raven on his shoulder.

Great. As he was famously known to have. Yeah, when I found out this. It's really really sold the really sold the bit pretty well.

When I found out it was a packaged thing, I was a little less excited about being at Grail and Poe, but that's one idea.

Here's my other idea. I'm more excited about this one. What if I were 70s Stephen King for Halloween?

I got kind of a full 70s man hair wig. Uh-huh.

I got some appropriately retro glasses.

Stephen King is just a scat like I would got like a bottle of prescription amphetamine is falling out of your pocket.

The 70s 80s Stephen King was a fun time guy. I thought I could wear a sports coat. And then I was like, okay, now what would Stephen King wear?

How would anybody notice this? But you know, there's a t-shirt that just says based on the novel by Stephen King.

Oh, that's cool old-timey movie credits writing. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I pulled that off in a way that would make our press box audience happy.

Yeah, I think I think that there's definitely a way to go with I mean, there's definitely a direction here for sure.

Okay. His face is such an important part of his.

I don't know like if they did Stephen King on SNL, there would be like a prosthetic, some prosthetic teeth or something.

So I don't know of just I don't know of just the everything else really drives the point home. But yeah, maybe so.

I kind of think you need to go with more of a meta approach to t-shirts a good idea. You need to go with more of a meta approach though and have and introduce blood into it somehow or you know something.

Just have a bunch of takes about Troy Jackson versus Susan Collins and the Senate race up there in Maine.

Exactly. That's a Stephen King. We know.

If you have ideas for David or for me, press box wringer at gmail.com.

These must be literary journalistic. It must be in our press box zone. I guess it could also be a concept like occupied CNN.

The list of writers who people would recognize who we just identify the photo is pretty short. I'm not talking about modern, like you know modern people who appear on ESPN or something sure.

But like just famous writers who you would know just from the photo. How long is that list pretty pretty short.

I'm just trying to like novelist from our lifetime. I mean, you would have instantly recognized like you have to go. It'll be like Mark Twain.

At Graham Poe at Graham Poe.

You could you could go like, you know, Dosto Esquire Tolstoy, but I'm not sure anybody would know the difference. I don't I do. They do look different.

James Joyce for the ball. No, or like people that James Joyce is definitely a unique looking fellow. Good one.

A normal mailer cut a certain figure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a mailer is not a bad idea.

If you want Norman, David to be Norman mailer for Halloween also you may lose David Foster Wallace, although I'm not sure. Yeah, for the ball. No, he's absolutely.

I think there's probably a really incredible costume in like Thomas Pinch and costume that you could pull off out there just the like the grit something like a grainy black and white photo of you in for a vase or something like no one knows where what you look like.

There is a recent photo of him that was no I know, but the gimmick would be that he's mysterious, right.

Tom Clancy with some Coke bottle glasses. Oh, yeah, Grisham. Like people know, but that's like, but he's not interesting.

Yeah, the Clancy one is really good. I don't know. I don't know who else. Okay. Press box from your Gmail. Right.

It's recognizable writers that David and I could be on a Halloween episode of this podcast. Our David time for our special guest.

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All right, let us welcome in our special guest. He is Lockland Cartwright. He writes the essential media newsletter breaker, which I gobbled up last night.

Fast forward to the Sharon Waxman mentions if you want a good laugh. This week our friend Lockland broke out of breaker to write about the Murdoch boys for the revived newest staff.

An issue of anti-fair or he is a contributing editor. We're always so happy to have him and his Fedora here at the press box. Lockland welcome back to the show.

Get a brine. Thanks to having me back home. Great to be here.

So I try to remain neutral in the issue of media newsletters. You're all my sons. You and Oliver and Max and Dylan and everybody else.

I had a friend in media tell me this the other day. I'm going to share this with you. He said, I prefer breaker because there's actual news in it.

That's very kind. I must throw that person money. But I have new competition because you've launched your yourself.

Well, let's just reading. So you're going to get a breaker run for some money.

Well, but if they want actual news, they're still going to be turning to you. Let's just put it that way instead of you know chin stroking and finger pointing in my place.

Let's talk about your stories about the Murdoch boys. And we'll start with James Murdoch who is the Murdoch outside the empire.

He's creating his own media empire now. He bought Vox and with it New York magazine, which once upon a time was owned by his father, Rupert.

Why did James Murdoch want to own New York magazine?

Yeah, it's a tale of two Murdoch brothers. Vanity Fair reached out to me several months ago and said we were bringing back the new establishment list.

And we're assigning you the two brothers, James and Lockland. And so I put in the the ask for interviews and one brother said yes.

And said yes to interview with his wife and the other said no. So I sat down with James and Catherine and spent about an hour at their offices at Lupa.

And I put that question to them. You know why are they you know forking out 300 million for Vox and your magazine and the pod network.

And they really see this as a key part of what they're building at Lupa, which up until now had been a collection of different properties, including the Tribeca Film Festival, including our basil, including this ideas festival that they're looking to get off the ground.

And really they're sort of building a culture company and they see New York Mag as a as a key part of it and investing in long form journalism and and the pod network.

And I think what part of it will be leveraging these assets together. So you're going to see New York Mag collaborate with the likes of the Tribeca Film Festival with the likes of our basil as they as they build this this company out.

But really if you take a look back, this is James's real reentry into media. He did not like when I sort of brought that up because that's a touchy subject for obvious reasons.

But it really is his his come back into into media since leaving Fox and and news court behind.

And you know, you can see in his eyes that you know, they they really have big plans and ambitions for this. And I think part of it will be investing more in your mag, bring your bringing alive more there, the politics coverage as well and and and events.

He made a lot of noises to you about New York Mag there were what we would say in the media of the right noises said he did not want to be a slave to the algorithm.

He had a great phrase where he called it mechanized pandering right I don't want to turn this into some kind of you know AI bot that's just spitting out stories you want.

You can tell you what to how that right.

Yes, exactly. That's the kind of that's the kind of metaphor you get to kind of phrase you get over at that place.

I didn't want to ask you this though nobody buys immediate entity just to keep it like it is.

And other than sort of coordinating with the Tribeca film festival other than pouring more money into podcast or it's giving politics coverage.

What do you think he wants to do with New York Mag?

Yeah, I think he wants to sort of take it to the next level to compete against the likes of the Atlantic and the likes of the New Yorker.

I mean, I have to give Jim Bankoff a tremendous amount of credit for for landing the plane here when all of the other digital media properties around him have crumbled and ended up in the digital media graveyard, including the likes of Buzzfeed and Huff Poe and and and vice and also David Haskell for keeping the consistency of this magazine intact.

But I think that James and Catherine have real ambitions for this publication to be you know in the same conversation as as the likes of the Atlantic and the New Yorker.

Is it true that in your interview James wouldn't even mention his father's name.

That's correct and I pressed him several times and I use several different inroads to try and you know get in there and he just was having having none of it.

He just shut down on me every single time the only little bit that I was able to sort of you know get out of him is when I said did did project harmony the non so ironic title code name for this audacious plot by lock on a rupee to rewrite the family trust.

Which saw them all in Nevada in that in that courtroom you know did that bring him closer to his sister's Elizabeth and prudence and he said it was lovely to spend quality time weeks on and in in Nevada jokingly but you know any time I tried to get near anything about his father's legacy I also tried to draw him out on you know what he thinks of the current state of Fox news bearing in mind I was the journalist several years ago the daily beast that went to them and other members of the mental family to us their opinions.

About coverage in middle properties about the Australian bushfires and he came back with it absolutely stinging statement criticizing them and that led to his stepping down from the board of news call but led to this rift with his brother and father which ultimately led to project harmony and the fact that they are now estranged but those were the two words that were really off limits that was rapid and and and lock Lynn.

How does he square being a good steward of New York magazine and also sitting on the board of Tesla with Elon Musk so that's something I again pressed him on and something I think that he was not too happy about me bringing up but I asked him that I said look mate you know here you have all these political causes that you're invested in whether it's climate you know they're donating to all of these candidates right now including Tel Rico and and Mary Patolla.

Through majority Democrats a centrist group here are all these altruistic causes you're invested in but yet you're sitting on the board of Tesla which is obviously Elon Musk company Elon Musk who owns X and has turned that into a misinformation cesspit and he really tried to steer that question back to say you know Tesla's a separate entity.

Test is doing incredible work he asked me if I've sat in one of their their self-driving cars which I have not and then I asked him again about that which he just sort of batted away but it is it is really a wrinkle in this that he still is you're on the board of Tesla which you know Elon has done you know some real sort of harm and also was an architect of George.

You mentioned the political donations that James and Catherine Murdoch have made.

Salarico Peltola and also Josh Turic in Iowa the through line there is there looking for centrist.

Yeah that's I mean that's kind of this organization that they're a party of majority Democrats this is how a lot of the money is being distributed when you go through the the filings the actual commission filings you start to see drops of money coming in from them and then also from majority Democrats on the board of the government.

Majority Democrats on on their behalf but I think this is their way of trying to sort of balance the scales I asked Catherine Murdoch do they see this is a way to sort of reset after Trump and that that was something that she she confirmed to me.

But this is a real a real thing for them and it's not just those three candidates there's there's dozens and dozens and dozens that they are that they are giving money to and it's you know it's clear to me that they really do want to try and you know reset.

The conversation politically after after this administration.

Let's talk about lock Lynn Murdoch the other lock Lynn as it were with the down with me would not sit down with with this lock Lynn he still inside the empire Fox bought Roku recently that was a huge deal what do you think makes Fox a viable media company going forward.

I think lock Lynn has been very smart with you know just sticking to a couple of plays which is life sports and live news so Fox has had tremendous success with you know the world cup rights with their NFL rights and also with with with Fox news and I think that you know that's been the place that he has kind of really sort of you know concentrated on.

And now by bringing Roku in is really the biggest the biggest bet that that he has made you know it's it's a 20 billion dollar bet James Murdoch the bill strain billionaire a friend of his who he used to go and business with you know said it's it's lock Lynn's bet not Rupees it's the biggest bet he has made and it's sort of the bet after you know him coming out of the shadows and really coming out of rupee shadows sorry and and being named the successor and and it's you know now you own sort of the infrastructure on which people stream you know rupee did an incredible job of controlling.

You know distribution and content and I think this is lock Lynn's way of making sort of a digital you know play on that.

So if we think about Fox for the next 10 years is the media world changes beneath our feet it's Roku it's live sports especially football and it's Fox news yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The lands when you when you listen to him speak whether it's at an investor conference or on earnings or I speak to people in his inner circle he doesn't talk about the newspapers you know that's going to be something to watch when Rupert does go to the big news from the sky because there is going to be a lot of movement that will go on on that front I can tell you that much but he does talk a lot about life sports and life news and that's where they've had you know a lot of success financially because the ratings you know for for those have been a lot of success.

You know for for those have been have been sky high although it was fascinating and I had a column in breaker last night is sort of just to watch Fox news start to turn away from Trump and that is in part because their numbers have taken a hit you know I was looking at at Fox's ratings from September last year compared to September this year they're down 32% total viewers 44% in the key demo during prime time and even on Monday nights Rachel Matt out up against Hannah.

Which usually is is is Hannah T's time slot matter 1.9.

Hanley 1.4 million in that 25 to 54 demo so you are starting to see noticeable changes on air at Fox and his one former executive told me that's because they see where the viewers are going and the viewers are starting to switch off from Trump for instance for yesterday they were running water wall coverage of the French riots another TV exact compared it to me as if they're watching the BBC.

So there is some really interesting stuff going on with with Fox news now you know there was always going to be a break with Trump it was just when would it happen right how dramatic would it be correct and we're a month out of the midterms and and you know his popularity is an all time low.

Fox a masterful about following the audience and that's where the audience is going that they're switching off on Trump always had this image of Rupert just holding a dial you know someone to control room and say you know we got a we got a tack 15 degrees this way.

Well the other interesting juxtaposition made is that I broke a story last Thursday that last Tuesday Rupert Murdoch Robert Thompson Rebecca Brooks the editor of the post Keith Paul Emma tucking the editor of the journal and Paul you go the Wall Street Journal opinion editor were all having did it with Trump at the White House also with Scott Bessett Marco Rubio Steven Chung Caroline Lover Susie Wiles and that was part of a reset.

For the journals relationship with with Donald Trump very in mind the $10 billion lawsuit about the empty story they broke there are a number of opinion pieces that that Bessett took on breach with and so you have just these different split screens that are going on right now with Murdoch's relationship with Trump that are just really fascinating to watch.

And to add another one another reset to your pile there how about Rupert and Trump with when it comes to the NFL with Roger Gidell right you know Rupert encouraging Donald Trump hey you know these guys need to be investigated.

And they put the screws on them I was reporting out a piece for vanity for another vanity fair piece to their sports issue about Roger Gidell over several month period and I watched in real time as as the Murdoch's do what they can do which is they leverage all of their entities.

Against someone or something and in this case they put the full force of the Wall Street Journal of Fox of the New York Post on the NFL about about the right steals and about how it wasn't great for fans.

And then that led to investigation starting to open up into the into the Trump administration and and and then you know Lockland announcing that they weren't you know talking to the NFL about about a new right still which is something I think the NFL had had had been sort of guiding the process along to.

You think Rupert won the NFL standoff for now for now but those rights as you appreciate will come back around and and that's when Roger Gidell and and his and his some posse will be will be standing firm as David Hill the former Fox News Fox sports sorry executive told me when they went to go negotiate with the NFL for sports rights for NFL rights he felt like it was arriving to a couple of blocks in ski mass with with with.

With the bombations shotguns because it's very much a stick up so the NFL still has has the leverage and those those deals will come back around and and Lockland will have to find the money to to pay.

It's quotes like that that's the reason we all have hilly still on speed dial when we need something for our stories before you go Lockland you were listening to the David Ellison press conference now that the paramount measures finally finally finally complete.

Are you bullish on CNN going forward.

I am now that that this whole.

Shemozal about who was going to lead it has has for at least for now being settled you know we don't know the terms of the deal with Mark Thompson we don't know how long that agreement is for is it just up until you know a year is it through the next election.

I mean if Ellison is smart he wants Thompson in that chair through the next election because things are going to get pretty bad shit crazy after the midterms if if the Dems have the Senate and the House to talking about investigations possible impeachment so you want a real safe pair of hands running CNN marks not a young bloke and was kind of brought out of retirement to do this so at some point is going to have to be some succession does that mean I'm a column.

I am more bullish now that we know that it is not Thompson and not say Barry wise because we saw that movie has has played out at CBS and it's been a horror film.

The short term bullishness though is it not because this is all I mentioned this with David early in the podcast this is all counting on David Ellison's benevolence if that's the right word that he's not just going to change his mind and actually you know Barry should run both companies sure and then the other thing we haven't mentioned is there's going to be a lot of pain yet they're taking on a humongous amount of debt to get this deal through.

So there's going to be a lot of pain there's going to be a lot of layoffs there's going to be a lot of haircuts so CNN is not not in the clear by a long stretch but at least they have a leader who is a safe pair of hands someone who is respected in the building someone who talent likes and and I think someone who can guide them through this insane moment we're about to go through.

And so I am I am more confident now that say I was a week ago but you know Ellison to your point at any moment can change his mind this editorial board is is total Malachi you know that is just he's pointing this I mean it's like the ombudsman they put into CBS news and ombudsman and and I met him at White House correspondents at a party and I said mate how hard's the job you've got to deal with all these complaints and you know must be you know a lot of headaches he said I need I need work one day a month.

What do you do this one day a month so it's those types of little you know things that really aren't aren't as they as they seem and as they appear and and the jury still out on David Ellison you know a lot of stuff happened during the steal that people are still dirty on so he has to win back a lot of people but certainly by by reupping mark he's he's showing the right the right signs.

All right, lockling cart right if you like this podcast you will like breaker if you don't like this podcast you will probably also like breaker we appreciate it thanks for coming on the press.

Right thanks to having me appreciate it.

All right, it's time for David Schumaker guesses the strained pun headline yeah I'm going to swing over to the other side of the studio to get my phone so I can read you the headline.

Okay, what we call skillful podcasting here at the ringer today's headline David comes from our good friend Jerry Sloan not the coach you talk jazz coach no he is the last no longer with us it's from the Detroit free press it involves a player I know you've been spending a lot of time thinking about Dylan Larkin of the Detroit redways.

Okay, Larkin oh excuse me he plays with the way just let me just start it's time for David Schumaker guesses the strained wait three two one it's time for David Schumaker guesses the strained pun headline yeah David today's headline comes to us from Jerry Sloan not the late you talk jazz coach the other Jerry Sloan.

The other Jerry Sloan it's from the Detroit free press it's about a hockey player I know you've been spending a lot of time thinking about one Dylan Larkin.

The headline reads amid booze for Larkin rangers back up blanks red wings.

Okay, amid booze for Larkin rangers back up blanks red wings we're going to go with Mr. Larkin's first name Dylan.

Want you to ponder what was the Detroit free press the strained pun headline.

Um is it a Bob Dylan joke is what would what about with our go to bag of Dylan phrases free wheel and Dylan like what the what we got my Dylan knowledge is not great.

Um does it have Dylan in it.

Dylan chose to play things in a certain way it would be Dylan.

Oh Dylan went electric. Yeah, this is Dylan Dylan comma electric is the press headline that's great.

There we go.

Pretty good for the old sports page.

He is David Schumaker.

Um Brian Curtis.

Pretty magic by Isaiah Blakely and John Jones.

One more plug of the old newsletter. Now they tell us over on some stack check it out.

A column in your inbox within the next 24 hours about the legacy of one Tony Romo.

Instagram we are at press box ringer press box ringer gmail.com for Halloween costume ideas and all of their concerns about this year podcast.

David I will see you next Thursday with more look on takes about the media.

I will see you later Brian.

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