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National

Axios AM

Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, felt so confident in his plan to reinvent cable news that he allowed extraordinary, months-long access to a magazine writer. The result is devastating.

Why it matters: The Atlantic's Tim Alberta paints a brutal portrait of the head of one of the world's most famous, consequential and profitable brands — in what's destined to become an iconic magazine profile.

Alberta, who wrote the piece, and Puck's Dylan Byers, a very wired regular on the CNN beat, report that Licht has lost the support of CNN staff and perhaps the man who matters most — his boss, David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Alberta got access that any magazine profiler would dream of — and few other newsmakers would dream of granting: riding the Acela with him, eating Sweetgreen with him, going to the gym and chatting with his trainer, writing down his four-letter rants in the control room.

How it happened: Two sources familiar with the negotiations tell Axios that Alberta pitched the story a year ago, and said he was writing with or without cooperation. CNN said no initially, but Alberta kept pushing.

Licht and Alberta had a meal, and Alberta pitched again. Finally, CNN decided it would be better to play.

Here are the six parts of Alberta's 15,000-word piece, "Inside the Meltdown at CNN," that are causing the biggest backlash:

Town hall debacle: Backstage in New Hampshire last month, Licht told former President Trump: "Have fun." Alberta twists the knife: "Trump obliged." Licht knew in advance that the audience was what he called "extra Trumpy" — a phrase that lit up internal Slack channels. The upshot: "The only one who wasn’t angry, it seemed, was Trump, most likely because he’d succeeded in disgracing the network on its own airwaves."

Lost the room: People at CNN think he's "projecting this persona of a bulletproof badass because that’s what Zaslav wants to see. ... Licht’s circle was small and getting smaller ... Whereas he was guarded with CNN employees, our many hours of conversations began to feel like therapy sessions for Licht, safe spaces in which he vented grievances."

Bad judgment on big moves: "Licht's theory of CNN — what had gone wrong, how to fix it, and why doing so could lift the entire industry — made a lot of sense. The execution of that theory? Another story. Every move he made, big programming decisions and small tactical maneuvers alike, seemed to backfire. ... I asked Licht to explain that mission ... 'Journalism. Being trusted. Everyone has an agenda, trying to shape events or shape thought. There has to be a source of absolute truth.'"

Obsessed with press: At a holiday dinner for his D.C.-based talent at Café Milano, Licht spent much of the dinner looking at his phone, including "reading a critical story about him in Puck."

Obsessed with his predecessor, Jeff Zucker: Licht, who went from 226 pounds to 178 via a celebrity trainer, told Alberta why he was skipping a meal: "I'm a fucking machine." Working out at his Manhattan gym, Licht "squatted down to grab a long metal pole lying flat on the ground. 'Zucker couldn’t do this shit,' Licht said through clenched teeth, hoisting the pole with a grunt."

Mocks his own staff's Zucker-era COVID coverage: Licht "slapped his palms on the table between us, mimicking the feverish pace of an imaginary broadcaster. 'COVID, COVID, COVID! Look at the case numbers! ... No context. And, you know, the kind of shaming.'"

Zaslav declined to meet with Alberta on the record for the profile, but said in a statement that "we have great confidence in the progress that Chris and the team are making and share their conviction in the strategy."

Devastating profile dogs CNN boss

The Atlantic paints a brutal portrait of the head of one of the world's most famous, consequential and profitable brands.

Chris Licht speaks onstage during the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront in Manhattan in May. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Politics & Policy

Tech Policy

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) is introducing legislation that would require the products of generative artificial intelligence to be accompanied by a disclaimer, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: AI is improving at a record pace. Experts say disclosure will be crucial to combat fraud or maintain a healthy political discourse.

The big picture: Torres' bill is the latest in a wave of new legislative efforts to regulate AI as Congress grapples with the emerging technology's massive potential — both for societal advancement and harm.

A bipartisan group of senators, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), is in the early stages of developing potentially wide-reaching legislation.

Driving the news: The bill, a copy of which was first obtained by Axios, would require output created by generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to include: "Disclaimer: this output has been generated by artificial intelligence."

Enforcement would be under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission, which imposes civil fines for disclosure violations.

The legislation is even broader than a bill introduced by Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) in March to require such disclosures for AI-generated political advertising, which has already emerged as a factor in the 2024 election.

What we're watching: Federal agencies would be tasked with filling in the blanks in bills like Torres' on a number of key questions including:

How often should a disclaimer be provided?

How would attempts to remove a disclaimer be prevented?

How would generative AI be distinguished from other types of AI that don't require disclosures?

How will content generated by both a person and AI be treated?

What they're saying: "AI is the most revolutionary technology of our time. It has the potential to be a weapon of mass disinformation, dislocation, and destruction," Torres said in a statement to Axios.

Torres said regulating AI will be "one of the central challenges confronting Congress in the years and decades to come," and that disclosure is "the simplest place to start."

"Disclosure is by no means a magic bullet but it's a common-sense starting point to what will surely be a long road to regulation."

What's next: An aide told Axios that Torres' procedural strategy is to have the "nuts and bolts" of the bill end up in a larger legislative package.

A sweeping bill is what some senators are aiming for — but Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), another legislator heavily interested in AI, told Axios he believes a series of smaller bills are more likely to pass.

Scoop: House Democrat's bill would mandate AI disclosure

Rep. Ritchie Torres' bill is the latest in a wave of new legislative efforts to regulate A

Illustration of a warning label that reads "Public advisory AI content" stylized like the parental advisory label. 

Artificial intelligence

Data: Gallup; Chart: Alice Feng/Axios Visuals

The share of people worldwide who say their area is a good place for gay or lesbian people to live doubled from 25% to 50% over 10 years, according to a Gallup Poll.

Zoom in: The countries with the highest percentage were Norway (92%), Sweden (91%) and the Netherlands (90%). The U.S. ranks 15th with 80%.

Countries with the largest increases since 2012 were Nepal (+63 percentage points), India (+42) and Bangladesh (+35).

In 44 countries, at least 50% of residents said their local area was a good place for gay or lesbian people in 2021.

Reality check: Progress was not uniform across all countries.

The share who felt their area was a good place declined in Nicaragua (-15 percentage points), El Salvador (-7) and Paraguay (-5).

Charted: Growing global acceptance of gay and lesbian people

The countries with the highest percentage were Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

LGBTQ

Richmond

Axios Richmond

More than 9 million American adults aren’t taking their medications as prescribed due to the cost, with those who are uninsured or disabled among the likeliest to cut corners, according to new CDC data released Friday.

Why it matters: Skipping doses, taking less than the prescribed amount or delaying refills to save money can make health conditions worse and more expensive to manage, researchers wrote.

What they found: Income, insurance and disability status were among the biggest determinants of whether a person misused drugs as a cost-saving strategy in 2021, per the CDC report, which focused on retail prices and medication adherence.

The percentage of adults who stinted on drugs to reduce costs fell as family incomes rose.

Adults with disabilities (20%) were nearly three times more likely than non-disabled adults  (7.1%) to misuse their medication to reduce costs.

Uninsured Americans (22.9%) were 3.5 times more likely to do it than those with private health insurance (6.5%).

11.4% with other health coverage did not take their medications as prescribed followed by 8% of Medicaid recipients.

Between the lines: While the average prescription price didn’t change between 2020 and 2021, out-of-pocket spending for prescription medications jumped 4.8% to $63 billion in the second year of the pandemic.

CDC: Upward of 9 million cut corners on drugs due to cost

More than 9 million American adults aren’t taking their medications as prescribed due to the cost, with those who are uninsured or disabled among the likeliest to cut corners, according to new CDC data

Illustration of a hundred dollar bill with Benjamin Franklin dressed as a doctor and holding a prescription pill bottle.

Prescription drugs

The U.S. health system faces critical questions about cost, access and equity. Technological advances and new discoveries about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s are transforming patient care and reshaping public health.

Health

Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

In a reversal of its election integrity policy, YouTube will leave up content that says fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 presidential election and other U.S. elections, the company confirmed to Axios Friday. 

Why it matters: YouTube established the policy in December 2020, after enough states had certified the 2020 election results. Now, the company said in a statement, leaving the policy in place may have the effect of "curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm."

"Two years, tens of thousands of video removals, and one election cycle later, we recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today's changed landscape," YouTube said in a statement. 

"With that in mind, and with 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections."

Yes, but: Asked how YouTube was specifically able to make that determination, a spokesperson pointed Axios to their statement. 

YouTube said that it "carefully deliberated this change," but didn't provide further examples of what factors or instances it considered when weighing its decision. 

The platform said it will provide more details about its approach to the 2024 election in the months to come.

Details:  The policy, which will take effect Friday, doesn't change YouTube's other misinformation rules.

"The rest of our election misinformation policies remain in place, including those that disallow content aiming to mislead voters about the time, place, means, or eligibility requirements for voting; false claims that could materially discourage voting, including those disputing the validity of voting by mail; and content that encourages others to interfere with democratic processes," YouTube said. 

The big picture: Media companies and tech platforms are wrestling with how to balance curbing misinformation with freedom of speech ahead of the 2024 election. 

Finding the right balance has so far proven difficult. Former President Donald Trump and other elected officials have made election denialism a key tenet of their political platforms ahead of the 2024 election. 

CNN, for example, received widespread criticism for its town hall interview with Trump last month. Trump repeatedly pushed unproven conspiracies about the 2020 election being "rigged" during the event, despite the moderator's best attempts to fact-check him in real time. 

Go deeper... YouTube restores Trump's channel 

Scoop: YouTube reverses misinformation policy to allow U.S. election denialism

The platform said that it "carefully deliberated this change," in a statement.

YouTube

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

CIA director Bill Burns made an unannounced trip to China last month, a U.S. official confirmed to Axios. 

Why it matters: The trip to Beijing, which was first reported by the FT, was part of the administration's efforts to stabilize relations after February's spy balloon incident.

"Last month, Director Burns traveled to Beijing where he met with Chinese counterparts and emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in intelligence channels," the U.S. official said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan undertook a similar mission last month when he traveled to Vienna to meet Beijing's top diplomat, Wang Yi, though the White House announced that meeting at the time.

State of play: While both sides have expressed a desire to keep relations from deteriorating further, Beijing blames Washington for their current state and has declined multiple requests for high-level meetings.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken's planned trip to Beijing has still not been rescheduled, and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu declined to meet his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin in Singapore — though the fact that Li is under U.S. sanctions might have been a factor.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo did meet her counterpart Wang Wentao last week, marking the first visit by a top Chinese official to Washington since 2020.

The big picture: Burns, who had a distinguished career in the State Department before being tapped to lead the CIA, has been repeatedly dispatched by President Biden on delicate diplomatic missions.

Burns traveled to Moscow before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Brazil when then-President Jair Bolsonaro was threatening to reject the results of upcoming elections.

CIA director made unannounced trip to Beijing last month

Biden has tasked Burns with several sensitive diplomatic missions.

Burns arrives to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

China

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

World

Macro

Axios Macro

The U.S. economy added 339,000 jobs in May, while the unemployment rate jumped to 3.7% from 3.4%, the Labor Department said Friday. 

Why it matters: Job gains came in well above forecasters' expectations — the latest sign that the economy is still underpinned by a hot labor market.

Economists expected a gain of 190,000 jobs last month. The May jobs figures are a pickup from the 294,000 added in April, which was revised up by 41,000. Job gains in March were revised up, too.

Details: Economic policymakers have kept a close eye on other details from the payrolls report — whether more Americans are joining the workforce and how quickly pay is rising.

U.S. economy adds 339,000 jobs as labor market stays hot

Economists expected a gain of 190,000 jobs last month.

Axios

Saturday's top stories

Devastating profile dogs CNN boss

Scoop: House Democrat's bill would mandate AI disclosure

Charted: Growing global acceptance of gay and lesbian people

CDC: Upward of 9 million cut corners on drugs due to cost

Scoop: YouTube reverses misinformation policy to allow U.S. election denialism

CIA director made unannounced trip to Beijing last month

U.S. economy adds 339,000 jobs as labor market stays hot

TV networks battle for Republican debates

The GOP battle to show who’s tougher on immigration

Debt ceiling bill clears Senate, heads to Biden's desk

🐝 Florida teen wins Scripps National Spelling Bee