Confider #73: A WTF-Worthy Scandal in Murdoch Land and an MIA Top Editor at The Messenger

Welcome to this week’s edition of Confider, the media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.

WTF WOOTTON: The journalist who broke Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s “Megxit” story and caused international headlines after claiming Johnny Depp was a “wife beater” is at the center of a bizarre media scandal that has erupted across the pond. Read the full Confider story here.

EXCLUSIVE — DARK SIDE OF THE SUN: An explosive new book titled “The Scum That I’ve Become: The Inside Story of a Top Sun Reporter” promises to lift the lid on life at The Sun newspaper under former editor and current News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks, Confider has learned. The book, expected to hit shelves in October, has current and former Sun staffers guessing about the author’s identity. “I’m staying anonymous until the date of publication. Why? Because Rupert Murdoch, and his CEO enforcer Rebekah Brooks, will stop at nothing to ban this book. Their henchmen will come for me,” pre-publicity material for the book states. The author says they were betrayed by News UK in the aftermath of the phone hacking scandal, causing “years of unemployment and mental illness.” “I was framed by the Met police, by the very officers who ironically I’d once championed as part of the paper’s hardline agenda,” the author says. “As journalists were arrested, and the top brass panicked, I had a ringside seat.” A spokesperson for News UK declined to comment.

Tips? We’re all ears: confider@thedailybeast.com or call/text us 551 655 2343.

EXCLUSIVE — SENDING A MESSAGE?: Jimmy Finkelstein’s well-funded media startup The Messenger continues to suffer bumps in the road just months after launching as a “non-partisan” news outlet. Several sources tell Confider that Dan Wakeford, the site’s editor-in-chief, has apparently gone MIA and is essentially ceding day-to-day newsroom duties to deputy editor Michelle Gotthelf, the former digital EIC at the New York Post. While Wakeford has faded into the background in recent weeks, he did make his presence felt about one subject in particular. According to three people with knowledge of the situation, Wakeford recently had a note sent to the editorial team via Slack chastising them for not booking conference rooms before using them. The message added that several conference rooms are being used as offices by employees and, therefore, are not available for common use. Even before the site’s rocky launch, Wakeford—the former editor of People magazine—had expressed regret to friends over taking the job at The Messenger, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Despite a hiring spree of experienced journalists and pie-in-the-sky promises of massive traffic and ad revenues, the outlet has struggled to gain much of a foothold since it went live in mid-May. Several reporters and editors have already left The Messenger, for instance, with some complaining about the site’s emphasis on churning out aggregated “clickbait” stories to drive traffic. “Dan was overseas for a family emergency and then on the West Coast for business meetings. In his absence, his deputy editor, Michelle stepped in to oversee the newsroom at Dan’s direction. He is totally involved in the running of the editorial organization,” a spokesperson for The Messenger said in a statement.

IN PLAIN SIGHT: Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH and the world’s richest man, meeting with top Bloomberg executives at their NYC HQ… Kayla Tausche, who announced late last month that she had left CNBC as its senior White House correspondent, has joined CNN in the same role… Ex-NBC News Digital politics editor Liz Johnstone has jumped ship to The New York Times to be its first politics news director.

WE HEAR WHISPERS: Continuing to cut costs following the bombshell $787.5-million Dominion settlement, Fox News has been offering buyouts to longtime employees in recent weeks.

MORE FROM THE BEAST MEDIA DESK

—Ex-ABC News producer James Gordon Meek pleaded guilty last week to two child porn counts. Confider was the first to report that the surprise FBI raid on his home last year had nothing to do with his journalism. Read more about the case here.

—After a Semafor report revealed how Showtime pulled a VICE documentary on Ron DeSantis’ time at Guantanamo Bay over political concerns, The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger got his hands on the doc’s transcript. Check out what Showtime didn’t want you to know here.

—Country singer Jason Aldean’s latest song “Try That in a Small Town” has been accused of promoting gun violence and including racist undertones—and has sent conservatives in a tizzy trying to send it to the top of the charts. Read about their outrage here.

RECENT READS

—British Vogue editor Edward Enninful announced on Instagram Monday that the mag’s March issue will be his last with the publication. It comes weeks after he said he was departing and months after Confider was first to reveal his long-standing feud with Anna Wintour. Read that here.

—Reporter Tim Burke stood for some profile shots with the Tampa-Bay Times last week, making his first statements since the FBI seized his devices after a suspected hack at Fox News. Read what he said here.

—It’s been unclear in recent years how involved Jeff Bezos has been in The Washington Post, but a New York Times profile indicates the tech baron has been intimately involved in a Post reboot—as it’s losing millions. Read more about the Post’s worries here.

***WHAT ARE WE OUTRAGED ABOUT NOW?***

In the vein of the conservative freakout over Barack Obama once wearing a tan suit, Fox News flipped out this past week over President Joe Biden occasionally rocking Skechers while traveling, likening the sartorial choice to “wearing a Speedo and flip-flops to a funeral.” In recent weeks, political reporters have noticed that the White House has quietly made accommodations to deal with the president’s advancing age. Besides now taking a shorter staircase when boarding Air Force One, the 80-year-old commander-in-chief—whose gait has stiffened since he broke his foot a couple of years ago—also sometimes dons sneakers while out and about. Over on Fox, which has long portrayed Biden as a senile zombie, this was further proof that he is unfit for office. While some network personalities likened Biden’s choice of footwear to “bumper bowling,” Fox host Dagen McDowell took it way further as she absolutely lost her mind over a president wearing athletic shoes. “That’s the equivalent of wearing your bedroom slippers outside. That’s like wearing a Speedo and flip-flops to a funeral!” McDowell shouted on Friday’s broadcast of Outnumbered, a launching pad for the network’s dumbest outrages. On top of that, she offered up an armchair diagnosis of the president’s cognitive abilities based solely on his sneakers, suggesting it was evidence he suffers from dementia.

Confider will be back next week with more saucy scooplets. In the meantime, subscribe here and send us questions, complaints, or tips here or call/text us 551 655 2343.

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