Jan 22, 2025

Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest. I’m Abby Livingston. Washington is still in the shock phase of processing Trump’s return to power, and still feels far away from moving on to awe. Indeed, 45/47 blasted through day three, signing one executive order after another. And while the political class continues to process the deluge of news emanating from D.C., my partners and I have a few choice updates from around town. In tonight’s issue, we start with Peter Hamby’s breakdown on how the youngs are processing the TikTok ban drama; I have a few updates on the potentially unshackled future for America’s ostensibly most boring political livestream; Bill Cohan presents an incisive analysis of the Trumps’ dueling memecoins; and then Dylan Byers closes things out with a chilling update from Hudson Yards. Let’s get started…

Peter Hamby

The People v. Gen Z: Here’s a shocker: Young TikTok users don’t trust the U.S. government on the subject of kicking their precious platform out of the country. That’s according to a new survey from youth polling outfit Generation Lab, which asked TikTok users between 18 and 34 what they believe is “the biggest reason for the proposed ban.” While 42 percent said “national security or privacy concerns,” almost as many—39 percent—said “government control and censorship.” Another 8 percent said “protecting U.S. business and economic interests.” When asked the simple question, “Do you trust the government’s justification for banning TikTok?” 50 percent of TikTok users said no. Only 25 percent said yes, with the rest unsure. A majority of users said banning TikTok would “limit your freedom of expression,” echoing talking points from the company and its lawyers. A healthy majority of TikTok users—55 percent—said they strongly or somewhat oppose a ban on the platform, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. An intensive lobbying campaign by TikTok, including a Mar-a-Lago visit by C.E.O. Shou Zi Chew in December, paid off on Monday, when President Trump signed an executive order delaying for 75 days the law that would have removed the platform from the app stores, unless they find a U.S. buyer. (Chew also scored a spot on the dais at Trump’s inauguration, right next to director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard.) Meanwhile, the company continues to use its own platform to run a brazen influence campaign, often promoting content critical of the ban. After the app went dark for a few hours over the weekend, TikTok blasted an alert to its millions of American users thanking the incoming president for saving the company. Generation Lab, which polled 516 young Americans from January 15-19, found that almost all of them—96 percent—were aware of the coming ban. Asked who they would blame if TikTok went dark, 25 percent of users said Republicans, 25 percent said China, 12 percent said Trump, and 8 percent said Joe Biden, who signed the divest-or-ban law last year.The poll also asked users which platforms they would use more if TikTok were banned. Most (54 percent) said Instagram, while 41 percent said YouTube, and 14 percent said Snapchat, where I also work. Smaller percentages of users said they would migrate to the Chinese-owned RedNote and Lemon8, which is owned by ByteDance and frequently promoted on TikTok.

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Abby Livingston

A cord-free C-Span?: Given the perennial instability of Congress—the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy last term, the suspense over Mike Johnson’s speaker’s vote, and now, a slate of electric Senate confirmation hearings—it’s hard to argue that the ostensibly boring C-SPAN stream isn’t often as riveting as anything else on television. But how much appetite is there beyond die-hard political junkies?Perhaps we’ll find out soon. Earlier today, Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden and Nebraska Republican Rep. Mike Flood released a letter calling on Fubo TV, Hulu, and YouTube to add C-SPAN to their livestreaming services. Currently, cable and satellite services fund and carry C-SPAN as a public service. “We write to urge you to make the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) channels part of your streaming live television offerings,” the letter says. “As greater numbers of Americans ‘cut the cord’ and migrate from cable to streaming services, it is vital that C-SPAN’s non-partisan coverage of Congress and the White House continue to be accessible.” The authors argue that since cable companies recognized “the importance of offering their subscribers access to critical information about their government, … [s]o too should live TV streaming services.” I’m hearing that more than a handful of members of Congress in both chambers back this effort.

William D. Cohan

The $TRUMP bump: Like many on Wall Street, I’m still trying to make sense of Donald and Melania Trump’s dueling memecoins, which were issued on the eve of the inauguration and instantly generated billions of dollars in unregulated, largely untraceable paper wealth for the president and first lady. $TRUMP, the first of the two digital currencies, exploded in value early Sunday to some $75 per coin. Since then, it’s plummeted to around $40 a unit, according to CoinMarketCap.com. It still has a total market value of $7.7 billion, and the fully diluted value of the coin—that is, coins held by Trump and everyone else—was nearly $39 billion.This is all beyond ridiculous, of course. Notably, the crypto community, already a bit miffed that their would-be champion conspicuously left crypto off his inaugural address to-do list, sees nothing but trouble (although it did get a sop from Trump today in the form of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s full pardon.) The $TRUMP coin, many worry, will imperil Bitcoin—regulated as a commodity by the C.F.T.C.—and discredit the entire crypto project. Paul Atkins, Trump’s nominee for S.E.C. chair, and crypto czar David Sacks are less likely to crack down on what remains a legal gray area in the market if their boss is one of its biggest beneficiaries. That may be good news for Trump, but it’s probably a negative signal for real crypto businesses and institutional investors seeking the security and respectability of a stable regulatory regime. On Sunday, for what it’s worth, $MELANIA also soared to a market value of some $2.2 billion—taking some of the air out of her devoted husband’s memecoin, for reasons that I couldn’t even attempt to explain. $MELANIA has since shed more than half of its ridiculous valuation. Can someone please explain to me why people buy this crap, knowing they stand to lose real money when the first family and its cronies inevitably cash out?

And now, here’s Dylan on the latest woes at CNN…

The Contracting News Network

With a defanged and fully demoralized staff, and a mandate from Mark Thompson to drop the resistance posturing, could the new year be any gloomier at the most trusted name in news? Layoffs are on the way…

Dylan Byers

On Sunday, on the eve of Donald Trump’s second inauguration, CNN chief Mark Thompson held an editorial planning meeting with the network’s top anchors, correspondents, and producers to prepare for the next day’s historic proceedings. In the meeting, which was held virtually, Thompson stressed the need to provide dispassionate, open-minded coverage of the incoming president and focus on his future term, rather than relitigating the past or dwelling on his convictions or impeachments. His remarks were broadly interpreted by staff as a directive to avoid the often critical, and occasionally emotional, stance that characterized CNN’s coverage of Trump’s first term, when the network was led by Jeff Zucker. The edict was hardly surprising; CNN has been tilting, in fits and starts, toward a less polarizing posture ever since Warner Bros. Discovery took over the network in 2022—either because that’s what John Malone wants, or it’s what more than half of the country appears to want, or just because it makes for a larger business opportunity. Nevertheless, when compared to the past two inaugurations, the result was an awkward volte-face that felt almost like a hostage video. On Monday, star journalists who years ago railed against Trump now offered little scrutiny whatsoever. Oliver Darcy, the former CNN media reporter who earlier reported on Thompson’s remarks to staff, likened it to Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

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To wit: Four years earlier, Jake Tapper had described Trump’s first term as a “time of cruelty,” a “time when truth and fact were treated with disdain,” and an “era of just plain meanness.” Now, he offered almost no criticism and made little effort to contextualize false or misleading statements with fact. As Darcy noted, “Outside the physical body, the Tapper of 2025 shared little in common with the pugnacious Tapper of 2020.” Of course, CNN’s editorial transmogrification epitomizes a broader pivot taking place across the news media—and American culture—that has been well accounted for by this point. Outside of stalwart liberal venues like MSNBC and The Atlantic, mainstream media organizations that positioned themselves as part of the anti-Trump or pro-truth #Resistance now aspire to a less adversarial and more impartial approach in Trump’s second term. Hence The Washington Post’s evolution from the Baron-era “Democracy Dies in Darkness” to the Lewis-era “Riveting Storytelling for All of America”—or, back at CNN, Jim Acosta’s migration from Brady briefing room soapbox stardom in the Zucker era to his impending banishment to midnight in the Thompson era (if he doesn’t walk instead). Depending on who you ask, this is either a long-overdue correction to the polarizing leftward pivot and emotional hysteria of the previous decade, or a gross abdication of the Fourth Estate’s responsibilities to hold power accountable. (A similar debate is ensuing about Meta’s decision to forgo fact-checking.) Either way, it is indisputably awkward—most notably for the journalists whose righteous indignation was either performative then or easily bought off now. In any event, Thompson’s decree was yet another blow to morale for a network that now sits alongside Job, Antoine Doinel, and Umberto D. Ferrari on the Mount Rushmore of Eternal Suffering. And the hits kept coming. After being restricted to supplying background noise for a pivotal moment in world history, CNN learned the next day that it had averaged less than one-fifth of the audience it had during Joe Biden’s inauguration just four years ago. Between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on Monday, a mere 1.7 million people were watching CNN, down from 10 million in 2021. Meanwhile, more than 10 million watched Trump’s second inauguration on Fox News.

Layoffs…

Alas, the most devastating blow is still to come. In November, I reported that Thompson was planning to implement another round of layoffs that would impact hundreds of employees across the organization, offsetting the company’s financial burden as it strives to simultaneously manage costs and drive a new direct-to-consumer strategy that will, alas, never fill the gaping hole in the P&L created by the decline of linear. This, of course, is part of his long-term effort to slim down the organization, facilitate capital allocations, and manage decline while—one still hopes—creating a more formidable and sustainable digital business. But, increasingly, it all seems like requisite business hygiene preempting an inevitable sale or spin-off.

I am now told that Thompson is planning to formally announce those layoffs tomorrow. He and other network leaders like Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling spent Wednesday in back-to-back meetings with divisional leaders, top producers, and top talent in order to prepare them for the impending news. I am told that certain divisions and show teams will be consolidated or eliminated entirely. Production on some shows will also move from New York or Washington to Atlanta in order to save costs. As I noted in November, Thompson is also planning to create new positions across the organization to service his long-awaited digital transformation. In a recent town hall, he said he had $70 million to spend on those investments this year. Then again, as I’ve also noted, the investment would be far more meaningful if it weren’t offsetting the tens of millions in losses the network will face as a result of its diminished linear influence. Anyway, this is all sad, even semi-tragic—and the lingering sense of hopelessness was the true leitmotifof the inauguration broadcast. But if Trump can come back from the wilderness, albeit slightly changed, perhaps CNN can too.

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