THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - WENESDAY, JUNE 16, 2021 

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Alex Cooper

One year after the Call Her Daddy podcaster went though an ugly divorce as hosts Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn split up, Barstool Sports is officially losing one of their most successful brands.

With Franklyn parting ways with the podcast for a solo venture last year, Cooper is now leaving Barstool as well, moving Call Her Daddy to Spotify in a monster deal worth more than $60 million. The three-year contract means Cooper will be pulling around $20 million annually.

“I can’t wait for this next chapter with Spotify, where I will continue raising the bar with great content and guests for The Daddy Gang,” Cooper said in a statement.

The new deal yanks Call Her Daddy from Barstool Sports, making the podcast exclusive to Spotify. All existing and future episodes will be available on Spotify as of July 21, where the show will continue to be free for listeners.

The news broke just a day after her former co-host Franklyn expressed her fears about Barstool's "crazed" fans. And Cooper, on today's episode (available on Spotify of course), talked about her own scary experience with the "creepy" former assistant to Harvey Weinstein.

The huge payday and big move are a big win, and it comes after some ugly obstacles for the extremely successful podcaster. Considering the scope of the show's popularity, seems like a nice win for Spotify, too.

MEDIA LOSER:
Tucker Carlson

Fox's Tucker Carlson said last night that Vladimir Putin is posing “fair questions” about the shooting of Ashli Babbitt in the January 6 Capitol breach.

Carlson went off on Merrick Garland over his recent comments about the riots at the Capitol, saying the government wants to “crush anyone who leads opposition to” Joe Biden.

He then invoked the Russian leader, introducing a clip by saying, “Vladimir Putin knows authoritarian systems very well, and he sees clearly what is happening in this country.” The clip was Putin asking who ordered the "assassination" of Babbitt.

"Now, under normal circumstances, we would never play tape of a foreign adversary criticizing our government," he said. "But honestly those are fair questions."

Earlier in the show, Carlson speculated about whether the riot was orchestrated by the FBI.

He cited a Revolver News piece questioning who the "unindicted co-conspirators" were that are listed in court documents. The piece, and Carlson, pondered whether they were actually informants or undercover FBI operatives.

Citing Putin to question who in the U.S. government ordered the "assassination" of a Capitol rioter and also suggesting FBI agents were behind the breach in the first place? Gee, wonder why that didn't go over well.

The A-Block

‘Who Are the Murderers?’

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to blame the crime problem in the United States on President Joe Biden, during a solo press conference in Geneva, Switzerland following the first summit between the two world leaders.

The rather stunning moment came after a Russian journalist asked Putin about whether the summit included any conversations about human rights—in particular, prisoners in Russia—and how Biden brought up that subject. Putin deflected the question by attacking the United States, in particular Biden, for a gun-related crime epidemic that does not exist in his country.

He noted that Biden had a different view from his predecessor, noting that when it came to human rights, President Biden “had a different view and this one decided to act differently and his reply was different from Trump’s.”

“You know, in principle, everything that happens in our countries one way or another is the responsibility of the leaders themselves,” Putin continued. “Look at the streets of America, every single day there are shootings and killings. You don’t have time to open your mouth and you are shot dead.”

He brought up specific recent shootings in the U.S. in detail. And he went to the same well he's been to many times before, claiming U.S. military actions in Iraq or at Gitmo are criminal or human rights abuses, in response to many questions on the subject.

He brought up Ashli Babbitt again, too.

The whole thing was a dazzling display of classic Russian attempted media manipulation.
(Stay tuned to Mediaite to see who bites.)

Speaking of wild displays, a press scrum became more of a rumble at the summit, descending into chaos and shoving that required security to intervene.


In Other News...

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Jackass Director Granted Restraining Order Against Bam Margera Following Alleged Death Threats

Reporter Fired for Going Rogue Leaks Audio of Boss Telling Her to Worry Less 'About the Viewers,' More About 'Industry Executives'

Trevor Noah Brutally Roasts 'Your Crazy Aunt's Even Crazier Friend' Marjorie Taylor Greene for Her Holocaust Apology

Must See Clip

‘This Guy’s Gotta Move!’ 

Things got competitive at the highly-anticipated first meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and one photographer hogged the foreground, refusing to budge no matter how many tines he was asked to get out of the way.

The summit may be the high-stakes news for some, but the drama that unfolded in the foreground was really quite the scene itself.

Links We Like

Education Is the Next Civil Rights Battleground
- Joe Cunningham, Substack
People Are Returning to Restaurants, Stores and Hotels. But Not Yet the Office.
- Peter Grant, Wall Street Journal
Winners and Losers of the Work-From-Home Revolution
- Derek Thompson, The Atlantic
Jameela Jamil Is About To Become A Marvel Villain In This Major New Role
- Sagal Mohammed, Glamour
Biden’s New 100-Day Supply Chain Report & Radical Economic Planning Adventure
Adam Thierer, Twitter
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