The Biden administration is calling for Fox News prime-time host Jesse Watters to apologize for what it said were Islamophobic remarks made during Wednesday’s edition of “The Five” on Fox News.

Watters said on air, “We — and when I say we, I mean, the West and Western technology — have created the Middle East. We made them rich. We got that oil out of the ground. Our military protects all of these oil shipments flying around the world, making them rich. We fund their military. We respect their kings. We kill their terrorists, OK? But we’ve had it. We’ve had it with them.”

He continued, “Obama, Trump, now Biden, have tried to get the heck out of that stupid desert. Just as we’re about to get out, because we have this great balance of power we’re arranging, these crazy Muslim fanatics come in and massacre over a thousand of our allies and hold Jewish people hostage, hold Americans hostage. And so, if you are an Arab American in this country and you ripped down posters of Jewish hostages, American hostages, no! No, no, no. Someone is gonna get punched in the face. When you rip down posters of the hostages like that — this is — absolutely not.”

In a statement to several news outlets, including The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates condemned the Fox News star’s comments, saying, “These hateful lies about ‘Arab Americans and … the Muslim world’ highlight the urgency of President Biden’s work to ensure hate has no safe harbor in America, and why he committed to the first national anti-Islamophobia strategy in our history.”

Those who defend Watters might say he was specifically criticizing those who tore down posters of Jewish hostages. But the overall commentary did seem problematic.

Bates also mentioned the recent murder of Wadea al-Fayoume, a Palestinian boy who was allegedly stabbed and killed by his landlord in what appears to be a hate crime.

Bates said, “These unacceptable remarks come just weeks after the heartbreaking killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child, and during a spike in threats against Muslim and Arab Americans. Fox News owes an apology to every single viewer for this sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans. President Biden will always stand up against Islamophobia, antisemitism, and all forms of hate. Fox News should learn from his example.”

This is the second time in a week that President Joe Biden or one of his spokespersons have complained about coverage regarding the war between Israel and Hamas.

Semafor’s Max Tani and Liz Hoffman reported that, last week, Biden blasted The New York Times regarding its initial headline after the bombing of a hospital in Gaza City. The headline was based on Hamas’ claim that Israel was responsible for the attack. It’s still unclear who launched the attack, but the U.S. now believes the rocket was fired from within Gaza. Biden’s complaints about the Times’ headline were to a small group of Wall Street executives in the White House

By Tom Jones, senior media writer

Digital progress stalls at Gannett

For years now, the big strategic objective at Gannett has been to transition from a legacy print company to a digital one. Still is. But 2023 has mostly been a bump in the road, and Gannett was candid in saying so while releasing third-quarter financial results Thursday.

“As you may expect,” CEO Mike Reed said in a prepared statement, “no evolution from an analog business to a digital business is a straight line. We are making substantive progress on our evolution in key areas.”

In a conference call with analysts, he elaborated, “We have reframed our customer acquisition strategy (for) profitability and lower churn” as trial subscribers leave. The company has stepped back from a tight paywall and high digital subscription price, now also emphasizing the more traditional measure of pageviews.

“Only some of them will pay,” Reed told the analysts. So Gannett is adding products and partnerships for audiences who won’t, most recently an app that facilitates buying lottery tickets by phone.

With the changes, revenue per paid digital customer has increased and digital now accounts for more than 40% of total revenues. On the other hand, the number of paid digital subscribers was down during the first two quarters and grew just 1% year over year in the third quarter to 1.96 million.

That is minimal progress toward another of Reed’s announced goals — 5 million paid digital subscribers by the end of 2025.

Reed said that the company would “continue to exercise prudent cost management” but was not more specific. That hints that further layoffs or reduction in head count may not be coming soon.

The company, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, publishes more than 200 regional dailies and USA Today. In its most recent public report at the end of 2022, it had 11,200 employees, 3,300 of them journalists. Spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton said there have been net additions in 2023.

Gannett stock has been slumping lately and shares were down another 24% in midday trading.

By Rick Edmonds, media business analyst

Press Forward: Time for communities to step up to support local news

Press Forward, a consortium of 22 funders, has committed more than $500 million to address the local news crisis in America over the next five years.

“But that $500 million will not be enough, as many have been quick to point out,” writes MacArthur Foundation president John Palfrey in an article for The Atlantic. “America is a big country. Divide that amount by 50 states and spread it over five years, and even half a billion dollars starts to look grossly inadequate.”

Palfrey urges communities to “stand up and support their local news providers — whoever that may be in any given area. … They will need to add it to their list of philanthropic commitments—or at least to their list of subscriptions, alongside Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix.”

American democracy is in crisis, Palfrey writes, and the growth of news deserts is a major part of it.

“We can come out the other side of this crisis with a more robust, sustainable, and equitable local-news system than we have ever had in this country,” he writes. “But to get there, we will need to invest broadly, deeply, and intentionally in the most promising work being done by local journalists.”

By Ren LaForme, managing editor

Katie Sanders is PolitiFact’s new editor

Katie Sanders has been named editor-in-chief of PolitiFact, the top post at Poynter’s Pulitzer-winning fact-checking site.

Sanders served as PolitiFact’s managing editor for the past five years. She has also held positions at PunditFact and PolitiFact Florida, and in the statehouse bureau of the Tampa Bay Times. She is the current president of the Florida Society of News Editors.

“Our work is urgent and needed,” Sanders said in an announcement. “When you come to work for PolitiFact, you are almost overcome by this sense of mission to help voters make sense of confusing issues in their lives. That’s what kept me here, and why I’m so excited to lead such a dedicated team of journalists.”

Sanders becomes PolitiFact’s third editor in its 16-year history, following Bill Adair, now the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism & Public Policy at Duke University; and Angie Drobnic Holan, now the director of the International Fact-Checking Network.

Next week, she will co-host PolitiFact’s United Facts of America online fact-checking festival, and lead the team in fact-checking the third GOP presidential debate in partnership with ABC News.

Staff report

Media tidbits and notable links for your weekend review

• To provide news and information in Gaza, where phone and internet connectivity keeps going dark, the BBC has launched an emergency radio service. The emergency station is produced out of London and Cairo and, according to the BBC, will “provide listeners in Gaza with the latest information and developments as well as safety advice on where to access shelter, food and water supplies.” The BBC has a history of providing news services to conflict zones, most recently in Ukraine and Sudan.
• Kara Swisher has joined CNN as an on-air contributor. The podcaster and journalist will be a regular panelist on “The Chris Wallace Show,” which debuts this Saturday, Nov. 4, on CNN and CNN Max. She will also appear during breaking news coverage of stories related to technology, culture and media. Swisher is the host of the podcast “On with Kara Swisher,” co-host of the “Pivot” podcast and editor-at-large at New York Magazine.
• Stand-up comic Taylor Tomlinson will host “After Midnight,” which will take over “The Late Late Show’s” former time slot following “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS. “The list of women getting such opportunities on network television is extremely limited,” The New York Times’ Jason Zinoman notes. “Joan Rivers was the first in the modern era, becoming host of a short-lived Fox series in 1986. In 2019, Lilly Singh replaced Carson Daly in the late-late slot on NBC. But when that show went off the air in 2021, network television became an all-male club.”
• John Branch, who worked in The New York Times sports department and is known for his outstanding features, many about outdoor and extreme sports, will now be a domestic correspondent. Times editors Claire Gutierrez and Mike Wilson write, “Now he will seek out big themes beyond the arena of sports, applying his great talents and broad interests to a wide range of subjects.” Branch has been with the Times for 18 years. His feature “Snow Fall” about a deadly avalanche in Washington state won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
• Nieman Lab’s Sarah Scire with “Can reporters make bets on sports they cover? We asked a dozen newsrooms.”
• Vanity Fair’s Charlotte Klein with “‘What Do We Want to Be?’: The Washington Post at a Crossroads.”
• The New York Times’ John Koblin “HBO Chief Calls His Effort to Attack Critics a ‘Very, Very Dumb Idea.’”
• Futurism’s Victor Tangermann with “Adobe Caught Selling AI-Generated Images of Israel-Palestine Violence.”
• The Washington Post’s Chico Harlan with “Years into a climate disaster, these people are eating the unthinkable.”
• Towson University professor Richard E. Vatz with a commentary in the Baltimore Post-Examiner calling Fox News’ Trey Yingst the “Current Generation’s Top War Correspondent.”
• In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Wilco singer and guitarist Jeff Tweedy writes, “I Thought I Hated Pop Music. ‘Dancing Queen’ Changed My Mind.”
• Retired New York Giants linebacker Carl Banks, who won two Super Bowls with the team, had been doing a regular guest appearance on New York’s WFAN sports-talk radio station. But he has resigned after an on-air verbal dustup with co-hosts Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata. Banks was calling in remotely and, after arguing over a Giants player, Licata said he had “heard enough” and Banks’ feed was cut off. So Banks has said he is done doing the show. Tierney and Licata both said they regret what happened, and the station tried to smooth things over, but it appears Banks won’t return. The New York Post’s Ryan Glasspiegel has more, including video of Banks’ last segment.
• Finally, a musical artist you might have heard of released a new single on Thursday. NPR’s Miguel Perez with “How producers used AI to finish The Beatles’ ‘last’ song, ‘Now And Then.’”

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