Mediaite One Sheet: Epstein Files Disruption, Bezos’ WaPo Confusion, FCC Getting Sued and More!

Wednesday, February 11, 2026
A five-minute briefing on what media newsletters are saying, reporting, and surfacing

The Big Picture

The Epstein files continue to reverberate far beyond Washington — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is fielding bipartisan calls to resign, Chappell Roan has left her agency, and Rupert Murdoch sat down for dinner at the White House with the man suing his newspaper for $10 billion. The newsletter class is also deep into the Washington Post’s future, with new insider reporting revealing what actually happened behind the scenes between Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis. Elsewhere: a Trump-allied media CEO threatens to sue Trump’s FCC, and the Super Bowl halftime show is still generating professional casualties.

Today’s sources: Status | CNN Reliable Sources | Politico Playbook | The Bulwark | The Ankler | Breaker | The Rebooting | Press Watch | CJR | Poynter | The Desk | Barrett Media | Newsbusters | Tubefilter | Page Six | Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter | Michael Tracey

Top Story

EPSTEIN FILES DISRUPTING MEDIA, DC, AND HOLLYWOOD — ALL AT ONCE

The latest batch of Epstein documents has detonated across seemingly every sector that touches media, and the newsletter class is scrambling to keep up.

The Bulwark‘s Joe Perticone delivered the most thorough accounting of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick‘s Epstein problem. Lutnick had claimed his encounter with Epstein was “one-and-absolutely-done” — a single pre-2008 visit. The newly released DOJ documents tell a different story: years of communication after Epstein’s conviction, business dealings, and a visit to the island. Even conservative commentator Erick Erickson wrote that Lutnick “clearly lied.” Bipartisan calls for resignation followed — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told CNN that Lutnick should “make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign,” while Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Lutnick’s lies “raise serious concerns about his judgment and ethics.”

But Playbook captured the political reality with devastating efficiency: “Even the Commerce secretary’s fiercest foes are greeting new revelations with a collective shrug.” A source close to the White House explained why: “He is despised by nearly everyone. I doubt Trump would easily push him out, though. The president doesn’t wanna legitimize the Epstein issue too much.”

The Ankler‘s Richard Rushfield reported that Chappell Roan — one of the biggest musicians on the planet — left Wasserman after agency head Casey Wasserman appeared in the files. “No artist, agent or employee should be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values,” Roan said, per Variety, as cited by Reliable Sources. Rushfield framed her exit as the moment “protest may be having its pop culture moment” — following Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime, the Grammy anti-ICE wave, and the VP getting booed at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Meanwhile, Playbook and Deadline report that Kevin McCarthy’s name has been floated as a potential replacement for the embattled Wasserman as LA28 Olympics chair.

Breaker’s Lachlan Cartwright reported that Rupert Murdoch dined with Trump at the White House on Tuesday — their second dinner together despite Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its Epstein reporting. Murdoch brought his editor Keith “Keefy” Poole and columnist Miranda Devine. AG Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also at the table. Cartwright notes that the infamous Epstein doodle at the center of the lawsuit “is being kept in a safe at a Manhattan law firm.”

And it’s not over: AG Bondi will face the House Judiciary Committee today, where Rep. Massie — who helped force the DOJ document release — is expected to press on why Epstein redactions “appear to go well beyond what Congress authorized.” Rep. Ro Khanna used congressional privilege on the House floor to name six individuals whose identities had been redacted in key DOJ documents.

TAKEAWAY: The Epstein files have managed something rare in 2026 — a story that touches every power center simultaneously: Washington, Hollywood, Wall Street, the White House dinner table. The newsletters are doing excellent work documenting who lied, who fled, and who dined. What nobody seems willing to say out loud is what Playbook’s source already admitted: none of it will matter much. Trump doesn’t want to “legitimize the Epstein issue too much,” which means the files will keep detonating, the newsletters will keep documenting, and the consequences will keep not arriving.

Three Takes

WHAT KIND OF WASHINGTON POST DOES JEFF BEZOS ACTUALLY WANT?

The newsletter class has been mourning WaPo all week. But new reporting suggests the real question isn’t what was lost — it’s what Bezos is trying to build.

Status, Oliver Darcy: In a previously unreported scoop, Darcy revealed that Bezos actually rejected ex-CEO Will Lewis‘s initial layoff proposal last fall, finding the plan and its broader strategy confounding. Bezos sent Lewis back to the drawing board, and the delayed cuts that eventually came — roughly a third of the newsroom — were designed as a one-time reset meant to eliminate the need for further reductions. Darcy also reports that Patty Stonesifer, a Bezos confidante who served as interim CEO after Fred Ryan‘s exit, has quietly re-emerged behind the scenes. Executive Editor Matt Murray, who helped identify the final cuts in consultation with Bezos, now faces a newsroom that blames him for the severity. The insider picture: this was less a reckless slashing than a calculated, if brutal, financial reset — but whether Bezos will actually re-invest remains an open question.

The Rebooting, Brian Morrissey: Morrissey offered a CEO-archetype framework for whoever comes next: The Visionary Journalist (Nick Thompson at The Atlantic), The Sales Leader (Meredith Levien at the NYT), The PE Mercenary, The Steady CFO (current interim pick Jeff D’Onofrio), The Media Veteran, The Tech Outsider, or The Product Guru. His diagnosis: Bezos is “a classic internet scale guy when media is moving in the opposite direction.” The boldest suggestion? Buy Semafor and tack back to an elite audience strategy. But Morrissey’s central point is that Bezos “must first decide on an identity” before picking a leader — and after 13 years owning the paper, he still hasn’t.

Breaker’s Lachlan Cartwright cited Lionel Barber: The former Financial Times editor, writing from London, dismissed the “rightsizing for future growth” narrative as “nonsense” that “merely accelerates the death spiral.” His sharpest critique targeted Bezos’s stated faith in data: “Great journalism is ferreting out stories that readers didn’t know.” Barber catalogued the management failures — missing the internet wave, ceding ground to Politico, appointing Lewis (“carrying more baggage than a Boeing 747”) — before delivering his verdict: “Data will not save The Washington Post. A new owner might.”

TAKEAWAY: Three very different diagnoses, one shared conclusion: nobody believes Bezos has a plan. Status reveals the decision-making was more deliberate than it appeared. Morrissey provides the menu of options. Barber says none of it matters without an ownership change. The newsletters have moved from eulogy to autopsy — but the patient, as Barber suggests, might need a new doctor entirely.

📰 Top Reads 📰

The Desk, Matthew Keys
🚨 SCOOP: NEWSMAX CEO THREATENS TO SUE TRUMP’S FCC OVER OWNERSHIP RULE: Chris Ruddy told the Senate Commerce Committee he’s “prepared to litigate” if the FCC eliminates the 39% local TV ownership cap, arguing only Congress has that authority. The FCC is weighing the change after intense lobbying from the NAB and Nexstar. Former GOP-appointed FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly backed Ruddy’s legal interpretation in a blog post flagged by Reliable Sources … QUOTE (Chris Ruddy, Newsmax CEO): “I believe that it’s a blatant violation of congressional law, and I think it is a very dangerous thing that an industry group which stands to make billions of dollars can just circumvent what Congress has said.” … QUICK TAKE: A Trump-allied media CEO threatening to sue the Trump administration’s FCC — the media ownership fight is making for some very strange coalitions.

The Ankler, Richard Rushfield
THE TRUMP DOSSIERS — HOLLYWOOD’S COMPLICITY SCORECARD: Rushfield published a studio-by-studio ledger of Hollywood’s relationship with the Trump administration, from Amazon’s $40M Melania documentary (plus $35M in marketing for a $13M box office) to Apple’s Tim Cook gifting Trump an engraved glass with a 24K gold base to Disney paying $15M to settle a suit against George Stephanopoulos. Comcast allegedly muted Vance boos during Olympics coverage (which NBC denied) … QUOTE (Rushfield): “It’s becoming a struggle for the survival of a republic of laws and norms, and for the survival of an industry that stands for something more than being the propaganda arm of some banana republic despot.” … QUICK TAKE: Hollywood remains the one corner of the power structure still too scared to push back — even as the NFL and NRA apparently are not.

The Bulwark, Joe Perticone
THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD ADMITS IT GOT MARIJUANA WRONG: In a rare reversal, the Times editorial board acknowledged that its 2014 six-part pro-legalization series missed the mark. Daily marijuana users surged from roughly 1 million in 1992 to 18 million. Nearly 2.8 million Americans now suffer annually from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. The board stops short of endorsing re-prohibition but calls for serious reforms … QUOTE (Times Editorial Board): “This editorial board has long supported marijuana legalization… It is now clear that many of these predictions were wrong.” … QUICK TAKE: The Times admitting error is roughly as rare as a January box office hit — and considerably more newsworthy.

Breaker, Lachlan Cartwright
🚨 SCOOP: NYT UNION’S “TICKING TIME BOMB” — 18 DAYS TO DEADLINE: The NYT NewsGuild is pushing to bring 50-plus non-union colleagues — audio engineers, puzzle editors, SEO editors, bureau chiefs — into the union. Management countered with a revised remote work proposal that would end all hybrid guarantees by March 2027, potentially requiring five days in office. The October “bomb” offer (3% annual raises, $2K signing bonus) expires February 28 … QUOTE (NewsGuild): “They have been doing this work — often literally side by side with us — without the same critical protections and benefits we have fought for under our union contract.” … QUICK TAKE: The country’s most important newsroom is fighting over remote work while its chief competitor just lost a third of its staff. Perspective is a luxury the news business can no longer afford.

Status, Oliver Darcy
PARAMOUNT SWEETENS WBD BID — BUT WON’T BUDGE ON PRICE: David Ellison’s Paramount introduced a “ticking fee” — $650 million per quarter paid to WBD shareholders if its hostile takeover hasn’t closed by year-end 2026. Paramount also agreed to cover WBD’s $2.8 billion Netflix breakup fee. But critically: no increase from the $30-per-share all-cash bid that WBD shareholders have already rejected. Activist investor Ancora Holdings is planning to oppose the WBD-Netflix deal, per the WSJ, arguing WBD “failed to adequately engage” with Paramount … QUOTE (Darcy): “While David and his billionaire father continue to reinforce their offer for the David Zaslav-led giant, they have not increased their $30-per-share all-cash bid — an offer that WBD shareholders have thus far rejected.” … QUICK TAKE: Paramount keeps sweetening everything except the one thing that actually matters — the price.

Newsbusters, Alex Christy
BILL MAHER MOURNS HE AND KIMMEL “MAY NEVER TALK AGAIN”: Bill Maher conceded on his Club Random podcast that his friendship with Jimmy Kimmel appears to be over. Newsbusters attributes the rift to fallout from Kimmel’s wife Molly McNearney’s November comments about cutting off Trump-supporting friends and family — and Maher’s reaction to those remarks … QUOTE (Maher): “may never talk again” … QUICK TAKE: When the two most prominent liberal late-night hosts can’t even talk to each other, the culture war isn’t just between left and right anymore — it’s eating its own.

Tubefilter
MRBEAST ACQUIRES STEP NEOBANK, ENTERS FINANCIAL SERVICES: Beast Industries purchased Step, a financial services app targeting kids, teens, and young adults. Donaldson trademarked “MrBeast Financial” last year, and pitch decks show a strategy to build in-house units spanning financial services, mobile phones, and influencer marketing — reducing reliance on external partnerships … QUOTE (MrBeast): “Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up. That’s exactly why we’re joining forces with Step!” … QUICK TAKE: The creator economy’s biggest star is now a banker. The line between entertainment and financial services didn’t blur — it just disappeared.

CNN Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter
FAKE SUPER BOWL RATINGS FLOODED SOCIAL MEDIA: With official Nielsen numbers delayed, social media filled the vacuum with fabricated ratings data “specifically conjured up to confirm people’s existing biases,” particularly around Bad Bunny’s halftime show. Veteran sports media reporter Richard Deitsch called the situation an “information shit show” … QUOTE (Ben Koo, Awful Announcing, via Reliable Sources): “This has become a billion-dollar industry as X and Meta let you just make up stuff and then get paid for the engagement.” … QUICK TAKE: The Super Bowl ratings discourse has become a perfect microcosm of the information economy — the fake numbers arrive first, travel farther, and pay better.

SHOWBIZ

The Ankler, Sean McNulty
JANUARY BOX OFFICE — FOUR MOVIES AND A PRAYER: McNulty delivered a deep dive into January’s dismal theatrical performance: no movie cracked $30M domestically, with literally just four wide studio releases. Only two January movies have topped $80M in five years — both horror. The “prestige limited-December/wide-January” strategy that powered 1917 ($160M), Hidden Figures ($170M), and American Sniper ($350M) has essentially vanished … QUOTE (McNulty): “If it wasn’t for non-studio theatrical players taking a shot on Super Bowl weekend, this weekend would have been a total disaster at the box office.” … QUICK TAKE: Hollywood used to make the kind of movies that could thrive in January. Now it barely makes the kind of movies that can survive it.

Page Six, Antoinette Bueno
JILL ZARIN FIRED FROM RHONY REUNION SHOW OVER BAD BUNNY RANT: The RHONY alum was cut from E!’s upcoming “The Golden Life” after posting — then quickly deleting — an Instagram video calling the halftime show “the worst ever,” complaining it was performed in Spanish, noting “there were literally no white people in the entire thing,” and calling it “an ICE thing.” Blink49 Studios cut ties immediately … QUOTE (Zarin): “They didn’t even give me a chance. I took it down right away. People make mistakes. I’m human.” … QUICK TAKE: The Super Bowl halftime culture war now has its first professional casualty — and it only took 48 hours from post to pink slip.

The Ankler, Erik Barmack
HOW HOLLYWOOD CHOKED SORA 2’S RISE: The numbers are in, and OpenAI’s AI video generator is fading fast. Downloads dropped 32% month-over-month in December, then another 45% in January. Consumer spending fell to roughly $367K. Daily active users settled from a 1M peak to about 750K and trending downward. Barmack argues Hollywood’s collective IP protection instincts and tightened platform guardrails effectively blunted Sora’s virality, buying the industry time it rarely gets during a tech panic … QUOTE (Barmack): “The numbers don’t lie. And it turns out this industry still knows how to close ranks.” … QUICK TAKE: The entertainment press has pivoted from “AI will destroy Hollywood” to “Hollywood destroyed AI’s momentum” — a narrative shift that happened faster than Sora’s downloads cratered.

👀 What Got Missed? 👀

The newsletters covered every ripple from the Epstein document dump — Lutnick, Wasserman, Murdoch — but almost none examined the government’s headline claim of “over one thousand victims.”

Michael Tracey dug into the DOJ/FBI numbers and argues the oft-cited “1,114 names” includes not only alleged direct victims but also “victim family members” under a broad definition of harm. He also points to statements attributed to prosecutor Maurene Comey indicating that of more than one million images and videos seized, investigators identified “approximately 15–20 images of commercial CSAM,” none produced by Epstein, and no videos depicting sexual abuse.

Lawmakers across parties have repeated the “over 1,000” figure, and major Sunday shows have referenced it without unpacking how it was constructed. Questioning victim counts is politically radioactive. But if the underlying categories are more complex than the headline number suggests, that distinction deserves scrutiny — not just repetition.

🏆 Newsletter of the Day 🏆

The Desk, Matthew Keys — Two genuine scoops in a single edition: Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy threatening to sue the Trump administration’s own FCC over the ownership cap, and the insider account of Court TV’s shutdown — complete with sourcing from laid-off staffers pushing back on management’s “distinctive brand” spin despite non-disparagement clauses. Keys consistently punches above his weight class, and today he delivered the kind of original reporting that larger outlets either missed or picked up after him.

The Bottom Line

Today’s newsletters were remarkably good at documenting the damage — Lutnick lied, Hollywood cowered, WaPo bled, Sora stalled, Court TV died. The scorekeeping was precise, the sources were strong, the analysis was sharp. What the chattering class struggled with, as it always does, is the uncomfortable follow-up: does any of it lead anywhere? Lutnick isn’t resigning. Hollywood isn’t changing. Bezos isn’t talking. The files will keep dropping, the newsletters will keep filing, and the consequences will keep not arriving. The media industry in 2026 has perfected the art of documentation without accountability — which, come to think of it, is exactly the problem the Epstein story was supposed to illustrate in the first place.

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