CNN’s plans for a new streaming service are coming into focus as the cable network’s parent company prepares to merge with Discovery Inc., reports The Wall Street Journal.
The service, known internally by the working title CNN+, is slated to feature new shows from the network’s major anchors, including Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon, according to people familiar with the matter. Those shows would be separate from the programs hosted by Cooper and Lemon on CNN’s TV channel, some of the people said.
The network’s effort coincides with recent moves by cable and broadcast competitors to bulk up streaming offerings as viewers shift away from traditional television.
CNN has struck new deals over the past year with many of its anchors that encompass their work for CNN+, the people said. Those deals locked in pay increases for anchors but they don’t include bonuses tied to the streaming platform’s eventual subscriber numbers, the people said. Across the TV news industry, anchors and show producers are sometimes awarded bonuses for drawing more viewers than rival shows in the same time slot.
CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a meeting with staffers last week that AT&T Inc.’s deal to spin off CNN parent WarnerMedia and merge that business with Discovery haven’t affected plans for CNN+, which he said would launch within the next year.
CNN is trying to catch up to the efforts of its major rivals in streaming. In 2018, Fox News launched Fox Nation, a news and opinion streaming service, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which includes news programming, made its debut last year.
Cable news ratings are down across the board from their peak around last year’s presidential election. CNN, which had soared to first place in key categories, has fallen to third place among total prime-time viewers so far in the second quarter, and second place among viewers in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic coveted by advertisers, according to Nielsen. Fox News is now No. 1 in both categories.
Cable news channels that are starting streaming services are seeking to do so without alienating their TV distributors, which pay big money for the rights to transmit their shows. Some networks, like CNN, are attempting that balancing act by creating new shows that don’t duplicate their traditional TV lineups. Others are taking a hybrid approach. Fox News said last week that it would make its prime-time shows available to Fox Nation subscribers, but only after those episodes air live. Fox Nation also includes original programs from hosts including Tucker Carlson.
Key Networks and Bloomberg Radio announce that they have entered into an agreement with Superadio Networks, LLC, to offer specialty feature The Bloomberg Black Business Beat to its radio station affiliates across the U.S.
Superadio is a multi-format producer and distributor of marquee radio programs including shows in the Urban, Urban Adult, Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic, Talk, Country, Hot AC, Rock, Dance, Alternative, Gospel and Oldies formats. Superadio programming and services air in 23 of the top 25 radio markets and on over 1,000 radio stations across America.
The Bloomberg Black Business Beat, hosted by Renita Young, is a daily look at the intersection of culture and commerce affecting Black American audiences. Topics range from the latest trends in Black-owned businesses and profiles of Black entrepreneurs, to a continuing look at diversity in the workplace and an inside look at the business of entertainment.
Eric Faison, President of Superadio Networks, LLC said: "We're excited to partner with Key Networks to bring The Bloomberg Black Business Beat to an audience that is looking for information on business trends, consumer news and finance... and deliver it in a compelling and fast paced format."
Al Mayers, Global Head of Bloomberg Television and Radio commented: “We are pleased to expand the audience of The Bloomberg Black Business Beat and are looking forward to bringing the program’s important news and insights to even more affiliates.”
Dennis Green, Chief Revenue Officer, Key Networks, noted: “Key Networks is proud to partner with Superadio to bring The Bloomberg Black Business Beat to listeners and advertisers across the country. The feature provides a wealth of information related to business and finance that is important to Black audiences. The Bloomberg Black Business Beat will inform and educate listeners and provide affiliates with high quality sponsorable content.”
Bloomberg Radio’s world class news content includes live, customized reports for stations, Bloomberg Money Minutes, and Bloomberg specialty features that appeal to a diversity of audiences and interests, including: The Bloomberg Business of Sports Report, The Bloomberg Black Business Beat, The Bloomberg Green Business Report and The Bloomberg Pursuits Report on Luxury.
To get The Bloomberg Black Business Beat for your station, contact Dennis Green, Chief Revenue Officer, Key Networks, at 844.KEY.NETS or dennis@keynetworks.com.
Townsquare Media Inc. announced today that John DiLeo has joined the Company as Market President and Chief Revenue Officer for its Danbury, CT local media cluster.
DiLeo will lead the local media team and their “Local First” strategy in Danbury, which includes two top local media brands: WRKI-FM and WDBY-FM. He will report to Townsquare Regional Vice President Matt Kiger.
“We are thrilled to add John to our leadership team in Danbury. His experience in leadership, sales, digital, and his ties to the local community will help us to achieve our goal of being the number one local media company in our community,” said Mr. Kiger.
“I am very excited to be joining Townsquare and leading the Danbury team,” said Mr. DiLeo. “I look forward to igniting our local market with best in class marketing solutions, while also reaching our community with relevant, local content. The future is bright!”
Townsquare COO – Local Media, Erik Hellum added, “John is a great coach, teacher and business leader with deep ties to the region, and we are excited to have him join the Townsquare team.”
Prior to joining Townsquare, Mr. DiLeo spent the past four years as VP, Sales at Hearst Media Group, overseeing their local and retail business in the Connecticut region.
President Biden urged national unity and warned that democracy is "in peril," during Memorial Day remarks yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery after he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in a somber ceremony. Biden centered his speech on the importance of democracy, saying, "Generation after generation of American heroes are signed up to be part of the fight because they understand the truth that lives in every American heart: that liberation, opportunity, justice are far more likely to come to pass in a democracy than in an autocracy." But he warned, "Democracy itself is in peril, here at home and around the world. What we do now, how we honor the memory of the fallen, will determine whether or not democracy will long endure."
Pres. Biden: "The mission falls to each of us, each and every day, democracy itself is in peril. Here at home, and around the world. What we do now, what we do now, how we honor the memory of the fallen will determine whether or not democracy will long endure." pic.twitter.com/G2sL1tJBgr
➤SUSPECTS STILL AT LARGE AFTER MIAMI BANQUET HALL SHOOTING THAT KILLED TWO: Three suspects are still at large after a shooting outside a Miami banquet hall shortly after midnight Sunday morning that left two 26-year-old men dead and wounded 21 other people, some of them critically. Police are asking for the public's help, releasing surveillance video Monday that showed an SUV driving into an alley at the strip mall where the El Mula Banquet Hall was located and three people getting out of it, two of them carrying "assault-style rifles" and the other a handgun. Although they opened fire indiscriminately into the crowd, police said they had specific targets, and that it appeared to be related to rivalries between two groups.
BREAKING; Police release footage of suspects and vehicle involved in mass shooting at Miami rap concert early Sunday morning.
The three men then drove away in the SUV, which was found Monday submerged in a canal after being reported stolen two weeks ago.
➤FLYNN DENIES SAYING SHOULD BE MILITARY-STYLE COUP IN U.S.: Retired Army General Michael Flynn, who was briefly former President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, denied Monday that he'd said at a QAnon-themed convention a day earlier that there should be a military-style coup in the U.S. During the For God & Country Patriot Roundup conference in Dallas, an audience member asked Flynn, "I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can't happen here," referring to a February military coup in that country. Flynn responded, "No reason, I mean, it should happen here. No reason. That's right."
The Daily Mail 6/1/21
Video of the exchange quickly spread on social media. But Flynn said in a post yesterday on the social media app Telegram, "Let me be VERY CLEAR - There is NO reason whatsoever for any coup in America, and I do not and have not at any time called for any action of that sort. Any reporting of any other belief by me is a boldface fabrication based on twisted reporting . . . " Flynn also repeated false claims during the convention this weekend about the 2020 election, incorrectly saying, "Trump won. He won the popular vote, and he won the Electoral College vote." Flynn pled guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his communications with a Russian ambassador. He later retracted the plea and was pardoned by Trump last November.
➤WORLD'S LARGEST MEAT SUPPLIER HIT BY CYBERATTACK: JBS USA, the world's largest meat supplier, which has its U.S. headquarters in Colorado, says it was hit by a cyberattack that affected some of its servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems. JBS, which has 84 U.S. properties and owns facilities in 20 countries, said it was, quote, "not aware of any evidence at this time that any customer, supplier or employee data has been compromised or misused as a result of the situation." It's not immediately known how consumers might be affected, but JBS said, "Resolution of the incident will take time, which may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers."
Cruise lines are eager to set sail, but a new law championed by Florida Gov. DeSantis banning so-called vaccine passports may keep them anchored. https://t.co/JVK0ZOIUOs
➤CRUISE LINES AT ODD WITH FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Cruise lines, Among the industries hit hardest by the pandemic as they had to shut down operations entirely, are readying to return to the seas, but have now found themselves at odds with Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week gave cruise lines approval to began working toward restarting cruises. To comply with CDC guidelines and to keep passengers and crew members safe, several cruise lines want to require that nearly everyone on board be vaccinated against Covid-19. But DeSantis recently signed legislation banning businesses from asking customers if they've been vaccinated. Florida is the biggest hub by far for U.S. cruise ships to sail out of. A court may eventually have to decide, with the cruise industry saying Florida law doesn't apply to it because of the federal rules. Travel industry analyst Patrick Scholes of Truist Securities told NBC News that in the meantime, cruise lines may just go forward with plans to require vaccinations, even if they means violating the state law, saying, "It might even be cheaper for them to just eat the fines. They are burning millions of dollars a day having their ships idle."
➤TWITTER’S APP STORE LISTING CONFIRMS $2.99 PRICE FOR ‘TWITTER BLUE’ PAID SERVICE: Twitter was really serious about launching a paid service. The company’s listing in the App Store now says the Twitter app offers in-app purchases, and the only one listed is for something called “Twitter Blue,” and costs $2.99. Researcher Jane Manchun Wong recently dug out references to Twitter Blue, as well as the $2.99 per month price, in the Twitter app. One of the presumed features is Collections, which lets you “save and organize your favorite Tweets into Collections so that they’re easier to find later.” Other potential features are bookmark collections, color customization options and an “undo tweet” option. Wong also claims Twitter is working on a tiered subscription pricing model, for which you’d get more premium features in higher-priced tiers. It’s assumed Twitter Blue must be coming fairly soon since it’s now listed in the App Store.
➤CHINA TO NOW ALLOW COUPLES TO HAVE THREE CHILDREN: China said Monday that it will now allow couples to have three children, after having previously eased the restriction in 2015 to allow two children. Before that, China had a strict one-child policy since the 1980s to control population growth. But the country is now faced with a rapidly-aging population and is concerned about the number of working people falling too fast while the number of those over age 65 is growing. However, even after couples were allowed to have two children starting six years ago, the total number of births still fell. Couples have cited the high costs of child-rearing, job disruption and the need to care for elderly parents.
➤JOHNSON & JOHNSON ASKS SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW $2 BILLION TALCUM POWER VERDICT: Johnson & Johnson is asking the Supreme Court to review a $2 billion verdict against it for women who say they developed ovarian cancer from using their talcum powder products. Johnson & Johnson is challenging the verdict in a state court trial in Missouri that led to an initial $4.7 billion verdict for 22 women, which an appeals court later cut down by more than half to $2 billion. The high court could say as early as today whether it will get involved in the case. Johnson & Johnson denies that its talc products contain asbestos and cause cancer.
➤WHO TO USE GREEK ALPHABET TO NAME CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS: The World Health Organization said Monday that it's come up with a new system for naming coronavirus variants that will use the Greek alphabet. Scientists will still refer to variants using numbers and letters, such as B.1.1.7 for the variant that first emerged in the U.K., but the WHO will name them using Greek alphabet letters, such as Alpha for that variant. The WHO said it wanted to make it easier for the general public to refer to the variants, while also not wanting to have countries be maligned. The New York Times noted that just because a variant is first identified somewhere, doesn't mean it emerged there.
➤WHAT YOUR BIRTH ORDER MEANS FOR YOUR HEALTH AND HAPPINESS: A recent study found that younger siblings are at higher risk for heart events than their older counterparts, but people have been doing studies on what birth order affects for years. A 2017 study found that first-born children are 30 percent more likely to be CEOs or politicians; and a 2014 study found that first-born women end up more ambitious than first-born men. The 2017 study also found that first-borns stay in school longer, make more money, have higher IQ, and spend more time on homework than watching television. There’s also evidence that first-borns are more likely to marry earlier than their siblings, and the odds of a happy marriage are highest when a first-born woman marries a last-born son. A different study found that later-born children are more likely to have poorer physical and mental health, and were more likely to smoke, compared to their elder siblings. But it’s not all rosy for first-borns. One study found eldest children are four percent more likely to be overweight and two percent more likely to be obese compared to their younger siblings.
A man was tackled by security after running onto the court during an NBA playoff game, in the latest incident involving fans' bad behavior at a sporting event. https://t.co/9McF8FUUCA
🏀FAN RUNS ONTO NBA COURT: In the latest incident of NBA fans behaving badly as more spectators have been allowed as the pandemic has waned in the U.S., a fan ran onto the court last night during Game 4 of the first-round playoff matchup between the Washington Wizards and the Philadelphia 76ers. During game play in the third quarter at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C., the fan ran onto the court and jumped up as if pretending to dunk, before being tackled by security. In Game 2 of the series, the Wizards' Russell Westbrook had popcorn dumped on him in Philadelphia as he walked to the locker room. In other recent incidents: Brooklyn's Kyrie Irving was nearly hit by a bottle thrown from the stands in Boston during the Nets-Celtics series this weekend; a fan spit at Atlanta's Trae Young in New York during the Knicks-Hawks series last week; and three fans were banned in Utah last week after the Grizzles' Ja Morant said they, quote, "just went too family" with him or his family. Washington's Robin Lopez said last night, "You can tell those people have been in some sort of captivity for the last year, year and change, right? It’s kind of wild to see the liberties people are taking." Washington's Rui Hachimura said, "I think they’re just excited to come back. But they’ve got to be more respectful of us as players. They think they can do whatever they want." Wizards coach Scott Brooks called it "unacceptable," saying, "I’m tired of it. We all deserve better."
Naomi Osaka is withdrawing from the French Open after being fined $15,000 for not appearing at a press conference during the tournament. She says she's been living with long bouts of depression since the U.S. Open in 2018. https://t.co/2Yfvxxun91
🎾OSAKA WITHDRAWS FROM FRENCH OPEN, CITING ANXIETY, DEPRESSION: Naomi Osaka, the world's Number Two-ranked women's tennis player and four-time Grand Slam champion, withdrew from the French Open yesterday and said she will be taking a break from competition.
The stunning development happened one day after the 23-year-old who plays for Japan was fined $15,000 for not showing up for the post-match news conference after she won her first-round match, and was threatened by all four Grand Slam events with possible disqualification if she continued to not do required press events. Osaka had said last week that she wouldn't be doing any of the required news media events at the French Open, citing protection of her mental health. She said yesterday that she has, quote, "suffered long bouts of depression," since the 2018 U.S. Open she won by beating Serena Williams in a controversy-filled final, and that she has, quote, "huge waves of anxiety" before speaking to the media. She said, "I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw . . . I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer."
🎾FEDERER, WILLIAMS AMONG FRENCH OPEN DAY TWO WINNERS: Roger Federer won his first-round match at the French Open yesterday (May 31st), the eighth-ranked player beating qualifier Denis Istomin as he appeared in his first major tournament in 16 months after two operations on his knee last year. Seventh-seeded Serena Williams also won her first-round match, as did second-seeded men's player Daniil Medvedev and reigning women's champion Iga Swiatek.
🏒CANADIENS DOWN MAPLE LEAFS 3-1 TO ADVANCE TO SECOND ROUND: The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maples Leafs 3-1 in Game 7 of their first-round NHL playoffs match-up last night (May 31st) to advance. Their 4 games to 3 win in the series came after they'd been down 3 games to 1. They will play the Winnipeg Jets in the second round of the playoffs.
🏒NHL PLAYOFFS: Results from playoff games yesterday:
First-Round: Montreal Canadiens 3, Toronto Maple Leafs 1 - Montreal wins series 4 games to 3
Second-Round: New York Islanders 4, Boston Bruins 3 (OT) - Series tied at 1-1
🏀NBA PLAYOFFS: Results from first-round games yesterday:
Washington Wizards 122, Philadelphia 76ers 114 - Philadelphia leads series 3 games to 1
Utah Jazz 120, Memphis Grizzlies 113 - Utah leads series 3 games to 1
🏀EMBIID LEAVES WIZARDS-76ERS GAME WITH SORE KNEE: Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid left last night's game against the Washington Wizards late in the first quarter with a sore right knee. The 76ers went on to lose Game 4 of the first-round match-up 122-114, missing their chance to sweep as it now stands at 3 games to 1. Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said "precautionary" tests on Embiid's knee will be done today. Game 5 is on Wednesday.
🏒VEGAS' REAVES SUSPENDED TWO GAMES FOR ACTION AGAINST COLORADO'S GRAVES: The NHL suspended the Vegas Golden Knights' Ryan Reaves for two games Monday for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct against the Colorado Avalanche's Ryan Graves during Sunday's Game 1 of their second-round playoffs series. Vegas lost 7-1. Reaves was given a match penalty for trying to injure an opponent during a third-period skirmish, having pulled out a, quote, "chunk of Graves' hair." The league also said Reaves' actions were in retaliation for an earlier hit by Graves on Mattias Janmark.
Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna given $20,000 bond, ordered not to have contact with wife https://t.co/wpDPk0APSe
⚾BRAVES' OZUNA RELEASED FROM JAIL ON $20K BOND: The Atlanta Braves' Marcell Ozuna was released from jail on $20,000 bond Monday after being charged with aggravated assault by strangulation and battery against his wife, Genesis. Ozuna had been jailed since Saturday after police in Sandy Springs, Georgia, said that while responding to a 911 call, they saw him grab Genesis by the neck and throw her against a wall, and hit her with a cast on his injured left arm. Attorneys said in court that the couple were in the process of divorcing. Genesis Ozuna was arrested on a domestic violence charge last year. MLB will review the incident and Ozuna could be subject to a long suspension.
The Radio Research Consortium has come up with some grpahics, based on Nielsen Data, which further shows in-car radio listening continues to look better.
The combined 44 Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) markets show the total week Cume Persons to radio in March (Jan-Mar) 2021 decreasing by a slight 0.6% from February (Dec-Feb) 2021, but it is still 99% of the pre-pandemic March (Jan-Mar) 2020 level. At the same time, the total AQH (Persons Using Radio) decreases by 0.7% from February (Dec-Feb) 2021; it represents 95% of the March (Jan-Mar) 2020 level
The listening location percentages for total AQH to radio in March (Jan-Mar) 2021 show the percentage of listening from the Car (40.3%) getting ever closer to the Home (40.9%) percentage.
RRC graphs indicate AQH and Cume are continuing to grow:
Total market Average Quarter-Hour listening (PUMM) and total market AVG Weekly Cume also continue growing thru APR21 across 45 non-embedded PPM markets to signify radio’s recovery from COVID-19.
2020 ended on a two-quarter uptrend with FA20; however, JAN21 and FEB21 stalled radio’s recovery with a seasonal step backward.
APR21 shows that overall PUMM is now back to 89% of where it was for WI20 and AVG Weekly Cume is now back to 95%.
Olivia Rodrigo has stormed the charts—hitting No. 1 with huge streaming numbers for an album that clinches her status as one of music’s biggest new stars, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The Disney actress and pop singer-songwriter’s debut album “Sour” tops the latest Billboard 200 chart, generating the equivalent of 295,000 in U.S. sales in the week ended May 27. It is the biggest week for a debut charting album since late 2014, when Billboard began including streaming in its flagship album-sales chart, the magazine said.
Much of the 18-year-old artist’s units—218,000—came from her album’s massive 301 million first-week U.S. streams, according to MRC Data, formerly known as Nielsen Music. That is the second-biggest streaming week ever for an album by a woman, second only to Ariana Grande’s 307 million first-week streams for “Thank U, Next” in 2019. The rest of Ms. Rodrigo’s units came from traditional sales. (For Billboard, 1,250 streams by paying streaming-service subscribers, or 3,750 streams on free services like YouTube or Spotify’s ad-supported option, equals one album sale.)
Ms. Rodrigo’s No. 1 debut is the biggest week for an album so far this year, beating Taylor Swift’s rerecorded 2008 album “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” which moved 291,000 units in its opening week. “Sour,” which Ms. Rodrigo released on May 21, features “Drivers License,” the year’s biggest hit, with roughly 800 million streams on Spotify alone, and “Good 4 U”—both of which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. With a blockbuster debut record, two No. 1 singles and a recent performance on “Saturday Night Live,” Ms. Rodrigo has successfully leveraged her fame from “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” into pop stardom.
She’s “the biggest breakout pop star of 2021 by far,” Chris DeVille, senior editor at the website Stereogum, wrote this month.
Ms. Rodrigo is part of a wave of new artists influenced by Lorde, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish. These rising musicians, many of them women, write raw, direct and often heartbroken songs that emphasize introspection and emotional honesty over the bombast associated with traditional pop divas. Among the newcomers is Norwegian act Girl in Red, who released her own debut album last month.
FOX News contributor Joe Concha said CNN's Chris Cuomo should have been fired or suspended "a long time ago" while discussing the latest "mess" embroiling the liberal host and his network on Monday.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper criticized Cuomo last week after he admitted to giving his brother New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., advice over handling sexual harassment allegations, saying he agreed Cuomo had put the network in a "bad spot." Concha said the trouble went back further than this month, pointing to a string of embarrassments for Cuomo and CNN since 2020.
"Think about what CNN has allowed Chris Cuomo to get away with," he said. "Remember, it was March 2020 when he got VIP COVID testing when no one else in New York could get testing when that pandemic began, courtesy of his brother."
Joe Concha
Concha also outlined other Cuomo incidents over the past year, such as his gushy interviews with his brother at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic and revelations he coached ex-Trump confidante Michael Cohen before an interview.
"All those things should have had Chris Cuomo gone or at least suspended a long time ago, and now this, advising his brother how to beat sexual harassment claims," Concha said. "It is a mess at that network at this point, and that's why in primetime they've lost more than 70 percent of their audience just from the beginning of this year."
Cuomo is CNN's top-rated host but his numbers have plummeted along with the rest of the network's in the Biden era.
CNN President Jeff Zucker admonished Cuomo for his conduct with his brother but did not formally discipline him, calling his conduct a "mistake" at a network staff-wide meeting last week. Tapper went further in an interview on the New York Times "Sway" podcast.
Cuomo's conduct has vexed other colleagues as well. A CNN source told Fox News last week "everyone is p---ed" at him.
Journalists continued to acknowledge Sunday that the media's longstanding dismissal of the Wuhan "lab-leak" theory was in part due to Republicans pitching it, reports FOX News.
Once widely cast aside as a racist "conspiracy theory" and "fringe" nonsense, the possibility that the coronavirus accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has gained increasing credence in recent weeks. The saga has led to yet another reckoning for mainstream media journalists about groupthink and bias in the industry. Faced with criticism that they blasted the theory last year for political reasons, some reporters have admitted its Republican origins with figures like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., former President Donald Trump, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo played into why they disparaged it.
ABC News Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl suggested on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that figures like Trump and Pompeo were not taken seriously by members of the media, saying "now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry."
"Yes, I think a lot of people have egg on their face," Karl said. "This was an idea that was first put forward by Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, Donald Trump, and look some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them. Because Trump was saying so much else, that was just out of control, and because he was, you know, making a frankly racist appeal talking about Kung Flu, and the China virus, he said flatly this came from that lab, and it was widely dismissed ... but now serious people are saying it needs a serious inquiry."
New York Times reporter David Leonhardt also conceded Sunday many journalists dismissed the lab-leak theory solely because Cotton, a Trump ally and longtime critic of China, proposed it.
NBC's Chuck Todd addressed the issue on "Meet The Press" Sunday, saying that "for many," the lab leak theory got "tangled up in politics" and was conflated with one theory that the Chinese released the virus deliberately.
While interviewing former Trump Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, Todd repeatedly suggested anti-China rhetoric was to blame for media dismissals of the virus.
"Did in some ways, the sort of irrational attacks on China, did that slow down efforts of the intelligence community to actually do some fact-finding?" Todd asked.
"Well, look, I think what slowed down efforts more than anything else were the early statements that were published by a few scientists dismissing the idea that it could have come out of a lab," Pottinger said. "And in fact, caricaturing people who thought that it might have come out of a lab."
Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin once again knocked the mainstream media for previously dismissing the theory that COVID-19 potentially originated from a Wuhan lab leak in China, tweeting on Saturday that journalists should "own up" when they "fail" their readers and encouraged them to "just report the facts."
"Most MSM [mainstream media] reporters didn’t ‘ignore’ the lab leak theory, they actively crapped all over it for over a year while pretending to be objective out of a toxic mix of confirmation bias, source bias (their scientist sources lied to them), group think, TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome] and general incompetence," Rogin, who was one of the very few journalists who previously reported on China's role in the pandemic and raised questions about the origins of the virus, tweeted on Saturday.
He went on to say that, "Also, the lab leak theory didn’t change. It didn’t suddenly become credible. It didn’t jump from crazy to reasonable. The theory has always been the same. The people who got it wrong changed their minds. They are writing about themselves, with zero self awareness."
Most MSM reporters didn’t “ignore” the lab leak theory, they actively crapped all over it for over a year while pretending to be objective out of a toxic mix of confirmation bias, source bias (their scientist sources lied to them), group think, TDS and general incompetence.
After a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that U.S. intelligence believes that at least three Wuhan scientists were hospitalized in November 2019 with COVID-like symptoms, much of the media has revisited the possibility that what they previously described as a "conspiracy theory" could actually be true.
NPR has tapped KPCC 89.3 FM’s A Martínez to become West Coast anchor of “Morning Edition,” becoming the fourth host of the drivetime news magazine, carried by 835 public radio stations nationwide.
A Martinez
He’ll join co-anchors Steve Inskeep, Rachel Martin and Noel King on the show and will also host the popular morning podcast “Up First.” He fills the vacancy left by the departure of anchor David Greene in 2020.
Martínez will start the new job with NPR on July 6, based at NPR West in Culver City, CA. His first day on-air will be announced in the coming weeks.
Martínez was a sports-talk personality, who hosted ESPN Radio KSPN- 710 AM‘s “In the Zone,” when he was hired at KPCC in 2012 to co-host a popular morning show as part of a CPB $6-million grant aimed at boosting diversity at the Los Angeles public radio station.
That grant launched the One Nation Media Project, which helped KPCC hire more Latinos and almost doubled Latino listenership from 2009 to 2015, according to a Latino Public Radio Consortium analysis published that year.
Martínez, whose family hails from Ecuador, acknowledges he had never listened to public radio until he was hired at KPCC.
➦In 1921...Conductor & musician Nelson Riddle was born in Oradell New Jersey. His career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. His work for Capitol Records kept such vocalists as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith household names.
He found commercial and critical success again in the 1980s with a trio of Platinum albums with Linda Ronstadt. His orchestrations earned an Academy Award and three Grammy Awards.
He died of liver ailments Oct 6, 1985 at age 64.
➦In 1936...the NBC Blue network’s Lux Radio Theater moved from New York City to Hollywood. On the first show from Tinseltown, program host and “producer” Cecil B. DeMille introduced Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich in The Legionnaire and the Lady. It attracted a remarkable (for the era) listening audience of 40 million.
➦In 1945...WLB-AM in Minneapolis Minn changes call letters to KUOM.
➦In 1961..WVNJ 100.3 FM signed-on (today it is iHeartMedia's WHTZ Z100). 100.3's origins date back to 1942 when it was WMGM, licensed to New York. The station went off the air in February 1955. During 100.3's down time, the frequency was allocated to WFHA in Red Bank. On June 1, 1961, 100.3 was resurrected as WVNJ, now licensed to Newark. WVNJ featured an easy listening/jazz format that continued until August 2, 1983, when WHTZ "Z100" was born.
➦In 1961...FM stereo began. At 12:01 a.m., GE's WGFM 99.5 FM (now WRVE) Schenectady, NY became the first FM station in the United States to broadcast in stereo. The station, which had been simulcasting WGY 810 AM, started airing classical music.
The first commercial FM broadcasting stations were in the United States, but initially they were primarily used to simulcast their AM sister stations, to broadcast lush orchestral music for stores and offices, to broadcast classical music to an upmarket listenership in urban areas, or for educational programming.
By the late 1960s FM had been adopted by fans of "Alternative Rock" music ("A.O.R.—'Album Oriented Rock' Format"), but it wasn't until 1978 that listeners to FM stations exceeded those of AM stations in North America.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Top 40 music stations and later even country music stations largely abandoned AM for FM. Today AM is mainly the preserve of talk radio, news, sports, religious programming, ethnic (minority language) broadcasting and some types of minority interest music. This shift has transformed AM into the "alternative band" that FM once was.
➦In 1967...The Beatles released 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album.
➦In 1968...'Mrs. Robinson' by Simon and Garfunkel hit Number One
Don Imus
➦In 1968...Don Imus started at KUTY in Palmdale, CA. He stayed at the station until 1969 when he left for a job at KJOY, a small radio station in Stockton, California. He was later fired for saying "hell" on air. After being fired in Stockton, and in 1968 he went to KXOA in Sacramento, California.
Three years later, he landed the morning spot at WNBC in New York City before his firing in 1977.
In 1979, Imus returned to WNBC and stayed at the station until 1988 when the show moved to WFAN. Imus gained widespread popularity when the show entered national syndication in 1993. He was labelled a shock jock radio host throughout his later career and his programs have been popular and controversial.After nearly 50 years on the air, Imus retired from broadcasting in March 2018.
His on-air pranks, such as calling up a restaurant and ordering 1200 hamburgers to go, made his show immensely popular and boosted ratings. He was inspired to pursue a career in radio by listening to California radio personality Don MacKinnon. The iMan died December 27, 2019.
➦In 1969...Tobacco advertising was banned on Radio and TV stations in Canada.
In the U-S, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act banned the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio effective January 2, 1971.
Bob Crane had been called a genius in radio by his radio colleagues at WICC in Bridgeport, CT, and KNX and KMPC in Los Angeles. All sound effects, gimmicks, and voices are performed by Bob Crane (who was also known in radio as the Man of 1,000 Voices), either as pre-recordings or live right at the mic. Bringing all the pieces together, Bob transforms an otherwise bland commercial reading into a dazzling comedic performance.
In this commercial for Winston Cigarettes, he sounds as if he is carrying on a full conversation with his engineer. But in all actuality, it's all Crane.
➦In 1971...Ed Sullivan's final TV show on CBS
➦In 1980…Arthur C. Nielsen, Sr., founder of the Nielsen ratings system, died at the age of 82.
➦In 1980...CNN debuted on cable as TV's first all-news station. The Cable News Network was launched at 5:00 p.m. After an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channel's first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the executive vice president of CNN at its launch, hired most of the channel's first 200 employees, including the network's first news anchor, Bernard Shaw.
Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite television providers, several websites, and specialized closed-circuit channels (such as CNN Airport). The company has 42 bureaus (11 domestic, 31 international), more than 900 affiliated local stations (which also receive news and features content via the video newswire service CNN Newsource), and several regional and foreign-language networks around the world. The channel's success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate Time Warner's eventual acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. Today, the channel is owned by WarnerMedia News & Sports, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia
A companion channel, CNN2, was launched on January 1, 1982 and featured a continuous 24-hour cycle of 30-minute news broadcasts. The channel, which later became known as CNN Headline News and is now known as simply HLN, eventually focused on live news coverage supplemented by personality-based programs during the evening and primetime hours.
➦In 1984...KWK-AM in St Louis MO changes call letters to KGLD
➦In 2014…Radio production executive Tom Rounds died. He is best known for his association with 'American Top 40'. He died of complications following surgery at 78.
Tom Rounds
After first entering the broadcasting profession at the campus radio station of Amherst College in Massachusetts in the late 1950s, Rounds worked at 1010 WINS in New York City as a newsman in 1959 before agreeing to travel to Honolulu with the station's general manager to work at station KPOI. While in Hawaii, Rounds—hoping to gain publicity for his new position as a disc jockey—set the world record for sleeplessness. The period of 260 hours awake was attained while Rounds was sitting in a department store window display. Rounds became a regional celebrity following the stunt, and eventually rose to lead the station as program director.
Ron Jacobs had been program director at KPOI before moving to KHJ in Los Angeles under influential radio programmer Bill Drake. Drake was seeking to install his signature Boss Radio format in the Bay Area in 1964; Jacobs recommended Tom Rounds for the position at KFRC in San Francisco.
While at KFRC, Rounds began promoting large multi-act concerts to benefit charity and gain publicity for the station and the bands it featured. After holding the Beach Boys Summer Spectacular at the Cow Palace in 1966, Rounds and KFRC conceived of a large outdoor festival featuring a fair atmosphere similar to the popular Renaissance Pleasure Faire. The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival was held in the second weekend of June 1967 at Mount Tamalpais State Park in Marin County, California, to support the Hunters Point Child Care Center. Featuring Jefferson Airplane, The 5th Dimension, The Doors and many other acts, it drew nearly 60,000 attendees. The Fantasy Fair produced by Rounds is considered the first rock festival in history, preceding the more well-known Monterey Pop Festival by one week.
Rounds left KFRC in the Fall of 1967; his decision to move beyond the restrictions of AM radio was documented on the front cover of the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine, with the headline "Tom Rounds Quits KFRC" on the upper right beside a large photograph of John Lennon.
In 1969, Rounds and Jacobs formed Watermark Inc., a radio production and syndication company that created a variety of programs which it then distributed to radio stations throughout North America. The most widely recognized of the programs Rounds headed at Watermark was American Top 40, which featured the team of host Casey Kasem and producer Don Bustany. The program was popular in large markets and also allowed small market stations to present a three-hour national music chart countdown show at nominal cost that nevertheless produced good ratings and helped generate advertising revenue.
The program reached audiences at over 500 radio stations in the United States by the 1980s. The show is still in syndication, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and distributed by Premiere Networks, a division of the American media conglomerate iHeartMedia.
Morgan Freeman is 84
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Singer Pat Boone is 87.
Actor Morgan Freeman is 84.
Actor Brian Cox (“Deadwood”) is 75.
Guitarist Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones is 74.
Actor Jonathan Pryce is 74.
Actor John M. Jackson (“NCIS: Los Angeles”) is 71.
Country singer Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn is 68.
Actor Lisa Hartman Black is 65.
Heidi Klum is 48
Actor Tom Irwin (“Devious Maids”) is 65.
Bassist Simon Gallup of The Cure is 61.
Comedian Mark Curry (“Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper”) is 60.
Actor Teri Polo (“Meet The Parents”) is 52.
Model Heidi Klum is 48.
Singer Alanis Morissette is 47.
Actor Sarah Wayne Callies (“The Walking Dead”) is 44.
Comedian Link Neal of Rhett and Link (YouTube’s “Good Mythical Morning”) is 43.
TV host Damien Fahey (MTV’s “Total Request Live”) is 41.
