Media

Why isn’t the Trump campaign hack newsworthy? Eight years ago, Wikileaks dumped a trove of emails before the public, leading to revelations about Hillary Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches and John Podesta’s secret to a great risotto. Today, we’re not sure if any amazing recipes are part of the Trump campaign hack because The New York Times, Politico, and the Washington Post have all declined to report its contents. Ben and Nayeema explore why these two campaign hacks are receiving totally different media treatments and why people are mad at Ben for celebrating today’s editorial restraint. Plus, Mixed Signals talks with Christina Reynolds, a Democratic operative and two-time victim of digital hacks.

Catch up with the latest episode of Mixed Signals.

The New York Times’ Ezra Klein problem

THE NEWS

When Ezra Klein visited 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. early this year for a series of off-the-record meetings with top officials, President Joe Biden’s cautious inner circle assumed that the New York Times opinion writer and podcaster would remind Democrats of Biden’s successes heading into the final year of his first term.

The president had pushed through a huge climate package and a series of housing and economic policies that a generation of liberals like Klein had championed. Klein’s stature as the liberal media’s top policy wonk, a man who could see the administration’s substantive achievements through the bad political optics, made him a natural messenger.

Then, in February, White House officials were stunned by the result of Klein’s trip: a series of in-depth opinion pieces calling on the president not to seek reelection, advocating for an open convention, explaining to the Times audience how a situation like that would play out, and laying out which prominent Democrats might replace Biden.

That bold and prescient move cemented Klein’s stature as a breakout media star of the 2024 election cycle, and as perhaps the most influential Democratic media figure, a place occupied over the decades by Times luminaries from Scotty Reston to Anthony Lewis.

While Klein’s call for Biden to step aside was loudly criticized in February by liberal Biden supporters, his show quickly became appointment listening for Democrats during the month between Biden’s disastrous debate performance and his decision to drop out of the race. The numbers showed it: The Ezra Klein Show wasn’t among the top 10 podcasts on Apple Podcasts last year or in Spotify’s top 25; currently, Klein’s show is No. 8 overall on Apple, and hovering in the high 20s on Spotify.

Now “Ezra” is a first-name-only figure in liberal family group chats. His show is popular among Democratic staffers and the media and Hollywood elite. NBA commissioner Adam Silver is a fan; he and Klein were spotted chatting when ESPN cut to them during the broadcast of a WNBA game. Podcast godfather Ira Glass, the creator of This American Life, is a fan too, telling audiences onstage at Hot Pod Summit earlier this year that The Ezra Klein Show was his favorite new podcast.

The former HBO executive Richard Plepler, who first met Klein when he was running Vox, briefly interrupted his summer vacation in the south of France to heap praise on Klein when Semafor asked about his podcast’s increasing popularity among liberal figures in the entertainment industry.

“He writes and thinks like [Roger] Federer swings,” Plepler told me. “There’s a kind of precision and effortlessness to the quality of his intellect and the way he expresses himself.”

⁋ Publishing

Uptown girls: At least somebody in media is having fun: The decidedly uptown Town & Country dropped a collaboration with downtown stalwart Paper.

⁛ News

McCammond departs: Alexi McCammond is leaving the Washington Post, Semafor has learned. In a video on YouTube posted earlier this week, the Washington Post opinion editor said she is launching a politics and culture podcast. McCammond has an outsized public persona for an opinion editor, typically a more faceless, behind-the-scenes role. As her podcast trailer notes, her personal life has occasionally become the source of political controversy.

THR tensions: Staff at the Hollywood Reporter are expressing frustration with leadership after the trade publication laid off several senior members of the masthead, as Semafor reported Friday.

According to two people familiar with the situation, during a call later that afternoon, staff grilled president of business operations Joe Shields, asking why the company has continued to layoff staff in piecemeal fashion and what the plan was for the publication moving forward. While Shields did not answer many of the questions directly, he acknowledged that the cuts were the result of the publication’s failure to meet its projected budget numbers. The layoffs came just days after THR’s messy breakup with special correspondent Lachlan Cartwright, a well-known media reporter who left the publication amid cost-cutting.

Fox gets paid: Harris is putting all that newly raised campaign cash to use. Last week, Axios reported that the vice president’s campaign began running several new ads on Fox News highlighting Harris’ bio and achievements, hoping to blunt some of the network’s own critical coverage of her candidacy. The campaign also announced a first-of-its-kind digital spending strategy, reserving $200 million for ads aimed at reaching people on their phones. Semafor was first to note that the campaign was up with hastily recut YouTube pre-roll ads almost immediately after President Joe Biden decided to step aside from the 2024 race.

Overdue: Byron Allen continues to throw his hat into the ring for legacy media assets. But one impediment to his dealmaking is his television stations’ increasingly late payments to network owners.

Public radio gloom: New York Public Radio’s financial woes continue to worsen. This week, Semafor reported that the organization behind WNYC told staff that it would be cutting its headcount by 8% at a minimum amid a budget shortfall.

Digital first: The national media is old news at this year’s Democratic National Convention, which is all about digital. In addition to flying out social media influencers and creators, the DNC has reserved a special area where they will be doing their posting.

Sk8er boi: Fringe political media continues to put down roots in small-town America. Pro-Trump YouTuber Tim Pool is in a dispute with local skateboarders in his hometown. Pool, the beanie-clad streamer famous for his connections to a host of online conspiracy theorists, recently bought some land in Martinsburg, West Virginia that had been a DIY skatepark for a decade. The purchase sparked an outcry among some local skaters, who say they simply want to shred in a politics-free zone.

Hudson Valley news: Meanwhile, in other local news, New York magazine reports that over the past several years, organizations with ties to the Falun Gong have acquired more than $18 million in real estate in New Middletown, New York, a working-class town of 30,000 residents. Organizations with ties to the Epoch Times and dance company Shen Yun have bought a former shopping center, a coffee roastery, a coffee shop, and a former community center, which is now “the recording studio of the Epoch-affiliated Sound of Hope radio network.”

⁜ Tech

Reddit rising: Reddit was one of the big winners of last year’s major algorithm change from Google, which simultaneously tanked search traffic to small publishers and directed it instead to Reddit. Now, some publishers are retooling their editorial strategies to capture audiences that are spending an increasing amount of time there.

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