Axios

NYT opinion writer Bret Stephens — formerly of the Wall Street Journal — wrote what became an extremely controversial story about climate change called "Climate of Complete Certainty" last Friday. In the piece, Stephens warned readers of overconfidence in the scientific claims about climate change. Here's some of the hot takes from left-wing and right-wing media over the weekend.

Why it matters: It yet again shows the deep, volatile divide in America, the firm expectations readers have of their news organizations, and the difficulty of allowing a different, unpopular opinion on a news site.

Jon Meacham, the author of "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House," on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning:

• President Trump told him, a year ago, that he could have struck a deal to prevent the Civil War.
• Meacham described yesterday's Jackson kerfuffle as a projection of Trump's "fundamental and enveloping narcissism."
• The kicker: Meacham said he and Trump talked last year about presidents the then-candidate admired, and "Jackson never came up".

Facebook said Monday it has found its head of news products from within its own ranks. The company is promoting 10-year New York Times veteran Alex Hardiman, who joined Facebook last summer.

Hardiman, who had been running the Pages team in New York, will start her new role in June. She will be working with Campbell Brown, who was hired in January to lead partnerships with news organizations as part of a new Facebook Journalism Project.

In a post on Facebook. Hardiman said she is eager to get back into the news business. Hardiman will remain in NY and report to Fidji Simo, Facebook's VP of product who oversees the company's news and video products.

I grew up in News, spending 10 years at The New York Times transforming the company into a mobile-first organization with products like The Times's iPhone news app. I partnered with editors to invent new forms of journalism and with the business side to launch new digital news revenue models.

Why it matters: In an era where it is under criticism for spreading "fake news," Facebook aims to show it can be an ally of real news organizations.

Engineers around the world are releasing products and prototypes that enable machine impersonation of voices and the manipulation of audio and video, "making it increasingly easy to impersonate anyone you want with amazing accuracy," the MIT Technology Review reports.

The latest inventions:

• Startup Lyrebird recently released that enables computer-generated recordings of anyone, after hearing just 1 minute of speech.
• Researchers at Stanford University are developing a program called Face2Face that enables the manipulation of video footage to change a subject's facial expressions.
• Researchers from Lyrebird and Face2Face say creating realistic images from scratch is now possible, and video will be soon.

Why it matters: We will all have to be more skeptical of pictorial, audio, and video evidence, including fake news. Lyrebird founders argue that our justice system in particular must reevaluate the dependability of evidence like audio or video recordings.

21st Century Fox is reportedly in talks with investment firm Blackstone Group, to buy Tribune Media ahead of this week's bidding deadline, according to The New York Times.

Tribune Media, which owns 42 stations nationwide, and the most Fox affiliates of any station conglomerate, was cleared for sale after the FCC voted last week to reduce the limits on broadcast ownerships.

Why it matters: Reports surfaced last week that conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns over 173 stations nationwide, was gunning to snatch up Tribune, which would extend its reach to TV markets in New York, Chicago, and Miami.

Between the lines: With all of the drama occurring around the future of 21st Century Fox, it makes sense that the Murdochs would want to diversify its revenue stream and invest in TV businesses with steady cashflows. The family is currently awaiting regulatory approval for the acquisition of Sky TV in the UK.