TV News Terror: Joy Reid Pay Cut; CNN Anchor Switch; Stephanopoulos Deal Talks
SCOOPS! Plus: A new name emerges as a contender for MSNBC chief
Lachlan Cartwright writes about media. He previously covered the lucrative growth of Joe Rogan’s comedy universe and broke news of Rachel Maddow’s pay cut at MSNBC, CNN’s star-salary “beheadings” and the paltry Amazon election night payday for Brian Williams.
This Ankler feature is an 11-minute read.
On Saturday night at the Manhattan home of writer and journalist Holly Peterson, New York’s media elite, including current and former New York Times executive editors Joe Kahn and Dean Baquet, respectively, gathered for Peterson’s annual holiday party.
Just hours earlier, Fox News had broken the scoop: a $15 million settlement between ABC News and Donald Trump over remarks made by star host George Stephanopoulos that Trump had raped E. Jean Carroll.
“Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury,” Stephanopoulos told Republican Nancy Mace in a This Week interview in March (a New York civil court jury found him liable for sexual abuse). Trump sued in Florida for defamation. Disney folded like a cheap suit.
Stephanopoulos and his wife, Ali Wentworth, arrived early to Peterson’s Upper East Side party and left early, I’m told. When a guest asked him about the shock settlement, the Good Morning America co-anchor made it clear he was unhappy about ABC caving to Trump but said he couldn’t talk about it further.
The deal has generated shockwaves among journalists over the last few days. It’s been well covered in the New York Times and on CNN, but ABC News hasn’t reported on the matter. On a March online post covering Stephanopoulos’ interview with Mace, they appended an editor’s note expressing “regret.”
Stephanopoulos did not make mention of the settlement on Sunday’s edition of This Week.
The episode reinforced two key concerns amongst journalists and talent at major news organizations for 2025: Litigation and layoffs. Across the board, there is heightened anxiety. “They have money to pay defamation settlements but don’t have money to pay for journalists,” one senior network reporter told me. Staffers at CNN, MSNBC, CBS and ABC are all bracing for more rounds of pink slips come the new year — even as many revered top talents, including Norah O’Donnell, Jeff Glor and Chris Wallace, have exited high-profile anchor perches amid shrinking economics.
Trump’s appetite for litigation shows no signs of abating — see Tuesday’s lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and its pollster, J. Ann Selzer, for publishing a poll indicating Kamala Harris had a sizable lead in Iowa, a state Trump would go on to win handily. Meanwhile, on cable, ratings everywhere but Fox are absolutely tanking.
The overwhelming sentiment from my conversations with 20 network journalists and executives for this story is that they are exhausted and ready for 2024 to be over — even if they are scared by what next year will bring. “It’s pretty bleak,” one long-serving cable network producer told me. “It’s past the point of hard alcohol.”
In my report today from the C-suites and newsrooms of TV’s top news outlets, you’ll learn about:
The pay cuts on the table for top MSNBC talent, including Joy Reid and Stephanie Ruhle
The name on people’s lips who could take over at MSNBC after Rashida Jones exits
How Rachel Maddow is stepping up her output to help justify her $25 million a year salary
Mark Thompson’s new nickname inside CNN, and the plan to fill Chris Wallace’s time slot
The comms pro who may be tapped to help SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus spin the changes — and his unconventional programming idea for daytime
What George Stephanopoulos’ contract negotiations may have had to do with ABC News’ settlement with Trump and how staffers learned of the deal
The politicking at Politico around its franchise Playbook newsletter
Trump 2.0’s plans to “blow up the briefing room” at the White House
How D.C. journos are gearing up for a hostile administration
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Image credits: Reid: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCE; Ruhle: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company; Stephanoplous: Raymond Hall/GC Images; Phillip: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for CNN
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