News is never easy. And covering the war between Israel and Hamas has been especially difficult for news organizations.

As audiences, we must sift through what’s true and what isn’t. Which sources can be trusted? Which should be taken with a grain of salt? What was true yesterday might not be true today. And what is false today might be true tomorrow.

Throw in social media posts, often written by those who are not on the ground actually covering the war, and it’s easy to get lost in a swirl of misinformation, biased analyses and murky assumptions.

At the end of the day, we are left to wonder if the information we’re getting is accurate.

While it hasn’t all been perfect, the usual reliable news sources — the major networks, PBS, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, NPR, The Associated Press and Reuters — continue to be reliable. Although, not perfect. There have been moments of uncertainty, which has led to confusion — such as the hospital bombing in Gaza on Tuesday. In a rush to judgment, initial reports suggested it was an Israeli attack. But then both sides blamed the other, and there are still stories being published trying to get to the bottom of who was responsible.

On the latest episode of Peter Kafka’s excellent “Recode Media” podcast for Vox, Washington Post international editor Douglas Jehl talked about the challenges of covering this war, including pausing to assure accuracy.

“Every day,” Jehl said, “I would say and certainly in a conflict like this, we’ve made those decisions multiple times a day. … We encourage (reporters and editors) to stop and pause and say again, ‘What do we know? What do we not know?’ … There have been multiple claims made in this crisis that we’ve decided not to report and I’m glad we have refrained.”

This story, Jehl told Kafka, has dominated the newsroom at the Post. Jehl said, “This really is an operation in which we’ve mobilized the entire newsroom. We have about 12 or 13 people on the ground in Israel. We have more in neighboring countries, Lebanon and Egypt. We have teams in Seoul and London who focus on breaking news coverage around the clock and we have many people in Washington including our extraordinary visual forensics team that helps to authenticate the flood of images and video pouring in as people present this conflict.”

And it’s not a day-by-day story, but a 24-hour, around-the-clock story.

Jehl said, “Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of experience in the last 26 months, and even before, with what seemed to be never-ending stories. We had the coronavirus epidemic, and then … the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. We’ve had Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. … Throughout those major stories, we’ve continued to cover the major stories on a 24/7 hour basis. We built breaking news teams in London and Seoul that launched in the summer of 2021 that launched just in time for this intensive period of news.”

Jehl said, “This is going to be a story that goes on, and one we believe it’s our obligation to cover with this intensity and rigor and velocity that we’ve brought to it for the last 10 days.”

Notable coverage of the Israeli-Hamas war

• The New York Times’ Raja Abdulrahim, Hiba Yazbek and Yousur Al-Hlou with “A Sudden Blast, Then Carnage in a Hospital Courtyard.”
• Also for The New York Times, Peter Baker with “Biden Pledged Solidarity in His Visit to Israel. He Also Urged Caution.”
• For The Wall Street Journal, Chao Deng and Menna Farouk with “Gaza Hospital Explosion Stuns Overworked Doctors; ‘No Place Is Safe Now.’”
• The Associated Press’ Aron Heller with “Former AP videojournalist Yaniv Zohar killed in Hamas attack at home with his family.”

ESPN’s financials

(AP Photo/David Kohl, File)

For the first time ever, Disney is letting investors get a look at ESPN’s finances. CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo writes, “The inside look — which shows ESPN’s revenue has been decreasing in recent quarters — comes as the parent company looks for a strategic investor for what was long considered a crown jewel of the business.”

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday, ESPN delivered $16 billion in revenue in fiscal 2022, and had profits of $2.9 billion.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin wrote, “For comparison, the new ‘entertainment’ division, which includes Disney’s other TV networks and streaming services, as well as its film and TV studios, had revenues of $39.6 billion in fiscal 2022 … but profits of only $2.1 billion, thanks to Disney’s yet-to-be-profitable streaming business.”

Weprin added, “Indeed, a deeper read of the finances show that most of ESPN’s revenues came from pay TV carriage fees ($10.1 billion), compared with advertising revenue of $4.4 billion. As cord-cutting has worsened, ESPN has bore the brunt of it for Disney, thanks to its lucrative carriage deals.”

Check out Rizzo and Weprin’s stories for more details.

Happy birthday, Semafor

Semafor turned 1 year old this week. The global news site was started by Ben Smith, the former New York Times media columnist and BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief, and Justin Smith, the former CEO of Bloomberg Media. (The Smiths are not related.)

Ben Smith wrote about the website’s birthday and said, “We started in two regional markets — the world’s biggest, the U.S; and the world’s most ignored — sub-Saharan Africa. We expect to launch our third region next year. We’re pleased with our success so far: agenda-setting scoops and exclusives, unique UX and design (Semafor Yellow!) that rapidly built our distinctive identity, nearly 500,000 engaged newsletter subscriptions, three million monthly readers on and off platform, a community of thousands of live event participants and 40 global marketing partners. The response has exceeded our wildest expectations and gives us a deep sense of hope for the road ahead.”

Smith also wrote about the six lessons they’ve learned from the past year, including, “A New Talent Model for Journalism: Great journalists expect great editors, great legal and publishing support, and great platforms. They also expect and deserve the direct relationship with an audience that platforms from blogging to Substack pioneered. Legacy institutions are lumbering toward this future, for instance by modestly increasing the size of journalists’ photographs; meanwhile, creator platforms are offering half-baked legal and editing support. Successful new media companies can beat both with a talent-first approach to journalism that offers robust support both for a journalist’s work and their voice.”

Maddow on Trump

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow appeared on Wednesday’s “The View” and talked about the threat of Donald Trump becoming president again. “The View” co-host Sara Haines said, “He wants to cancel the news, so they’re done.”

Maddow responded by saying, “He wants to put MSNBC on trial for treason so he can execute us.”

Last month, Trump took to his Truth Social and wrote, “They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.’”

He added, “Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country!”

DeSantis rips House Republicans

Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, shown here at a speaking engagement last week in New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was interviewed on NewsNation’s “The Hill” on Wednesday and ripped into House Republicans over the drama of trying to elect a new speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy.

After saying he supports Jim Jordan for speaker, DeSantis told NewsNation’s Blake Burman, “I think the problem with what they’re doing in D.C. is that the drama is not leading to any results. So it’s like they’re chickens with their heads cut off. They can’t get their act together. Meanwhile, we’ve got an open border, we’ve got rising prices. We’ve got issues with crime in the streets. And of course, you now have more instability around the world. And voters want to see results. So I think they need to get their act together and focus on the American people, stop the palace intrigue, and deliver results for your constituents.”

Calling out the absurd

Apparently, it’s the Democrats’ fault that the Republicans can’t figure out who should be the speaker of the House. That was what Georgia Republican Congressman Austin Scott told CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Wednesday. But Keilar wasn’t having it.

Scott argued that it was the 208 Democratic votes, and not the eight Republican votes, that got Kevin McCarthy ousted as speaker. But Keilar quickly noted Republicans are the majority in the House. Scott, however, argued that 96% of the votes to remove McCarthy as speaker were made by Democrats.

“But sir,” Keilar said, “who is in the majority?”

Scott said, “Well, the Democrats were the majority of that vote.”

“No!” Keilar said. “Who is in the majority in the House of Representatives?”

Scott said, “The Republicans are in the majority, but the Democrats provided the majority of the votes to take Kevin McCarthy out of the speakership.”

Seemingly part exasperated and part amused, Keilar said, “It’s some interesting verbal gymnastics, I will give you that.”

The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona has the clip.

Media tidbits

• The New York Times’ Tiffany Hsu with “A New Report Documents How Easily Children Can Access Graphic Images of the War.”
• As I wrote about Wednesday, Stephen Colbert had planned on doing his CBS late-night talk show from home this week because of COVID-19. He did that Monday, but then canceled Tuesday night’s show. Now he’s out for the rest of the week. Colbert tweeted, “Sorry to say, per doctor’s orders, I’m going to be out for the rest of the week. Resting up so that I can deliver the hand crafted, artisanal talk show that we so enjoy serving you. In the meantime, a heady blend of Paxlovid and onions in my socks (thank you, Fallon) will be rebuilding my immune system.” The tweet included a photo of socks and onions and a note, presumably from NBC late-night host Jimmy Fallon.
• I was going to make a bigger deal of this, but the language is, well, rated PG-13 and some might find it a little graphic. But it’s also hilarious. It’s CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings talking about the chaotic speaker of the House vote. Click here.
• Deadline’s Ted Johnson with “NBCUniversal Seeks Video Coverage Of Donald Trump’s Election Conspiracy Case: ‘If Ever A Trial Were To Be Televised, This One Should Be.’”
• The Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi with “How a wacky Instagram account became a go-to news source.”
• Talking Biz News’ Chris Roush with “Bloomberg editorial layoffs total less than 20.”
• Rolling Stone’s Kory Grow writes that, on a podcast, country singer Jason Aldean blamed mainstream media and social media for creating a firestorm out of the lyrics of his song “Try That in a Small Town.” (Behind a paywall.)
• Awful Announcing’s Brendon Kleen with “Who are the rappers who keep joining Skip Bayless on ‘Undisputed’ to talk sports?”

Hot type

• The Ringer is coming out with its first true crime podcast called “The Wedding Scammer.” Host Justin Sayles previews the series in this piece for The Ringer: “I Searched for a Con Man for Seven Years. The Result Is ‘The Wedding Scammer.’”
• This was well done: The New York Times’ Michelle Cottle with “Jim Jordan Is a Lousy Strongman.”

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