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If you visited The Atlantic’s website on Monday, there it was, right up at the top on the left side of the homepage: “The FBI Director Is MIA.”

It’s the bombshell story published over the weekend from reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick about FBI director Kash Patel. Fitzpatrick talked to more than two dozen people, including current and former FBI officials, staff at law enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality industry workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists and former advisers. They described Patel as erratic, suspicious of others and prone to jumping to conclusions before he has the necessary evidence. The story included allegations of “excessive drinking” as well as “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” while Patel has been in charge of the FBI.

On social media and in a Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo, an angry Patel threatened to sue The Atlantic.

On Monday, he followed through with that threat. Patel filed a defamation lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He is seeking $250 million in damages. The suit claims the magazine and Fitzpatrick published a “sweeping, malicious and defamatory hit piece.”

The suit goes on to say, “Defendants are of course free to criticize the leadership of the FBI, but they crossed the legal line by publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office. Indeed, Fitzpatrick could not get a single person to go on the record in defense of these outrageous allegations, instead relying entirely on anonymous sources she knew to be both highly partisan with an ax to grind and also not in a position to know the facts.”

The Atlantic put out a statement that was short and to the point: “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit.”

Can Patel actually be successful in his suit? Sure, anything is possible, but it’s unlikely.

During an appearance on CNN, Brian Stelter, CNN’s media reporter, said, “Actual malice is the very high legal standard that public figures have to prove in order to win a defamation suit. They have to prove that The Atlantic knew these claims were false or had a reckless disregard for the truth.”

Jeremy Barr, media reporter for The Guardian, tweeted, “Patel’s team will have to prove that Sarah Fitzpatrick and/or the people who were directly overseeing the story either knew it was false or was highly likely to be false and let it run anyway, the very high bar to meet since Patel is a public figure.”

It seems unfathomable that The Atlantic, a respected outlet with responsible leadership, would run such a story without complete confidence that it was true.

So why would Patel sue?

First off, once Patel went on TV and acted so angrily on social media, threatening to sue, he pretty much had no choice but to follow through.

Patel’s suit claims that allegations that there are concerns within the FBI and the Trump administration about excessive drinking are not true. It also claims that The Atlantic had published the article “despite being expressly warned, hours before publication, that the central allegations were categorically false.” The suit says Patel was given less than two hours to comment on the allegations in the article.

Whether Patel can actually win such a suit might not be his objective here. Perhaps the suit is meant to sow doubt in the minds of Trump supporters about The Atlantic piece, as well as simply become a hassle for the magazine and Fitzpatrick to deal with. It could also be a far-fetched attempt by Patel to discover who would leak such information to a national magazine about his behavior.

And, perhaps Patel was worried about what the narrative would be if he didn’t sue.

As many have noted, the Trump administration often files lawsuits against media companies. The New York Times’ Katie Robertson wrote, “The lawsuit is the latest in a series from the Trump administration against media outlets over unfavorable reporting. Last week, a federal judge dismissed President Trump’s complaint against The Wall Street Journal over a birthday message to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, though Mr. Trump may refile that suit. The president has also filed lawsuits in recent months against The New York Times, the BBC, CNN and The Des Moines Register.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Isabella Simonetti put it this way: “Patel’s defamation suit adds to the growing list of legal disputes between the Trump administration and news outlets over coverage and press access, reflective of the administration’s increasingly combative approach to relations with the media.”

Former CNN journalist Don Lemon said after his arrest for covering an immigration protest in Minnesota earlier this year that the “process is the punishment.” In this case, it means The Atlantic will have to spend time and resources fighting off Patel’s suit.

However, do not expect the magazine to back down. The fact that the story was still prominent on its website (and was still the second-highest story on the site on Monday) tells you all you need to know about The Atlantic’s confidence in its reporting.

A new cook in the kitchen

Apple CEO Tim Cook, shown here last September. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Tim Cook announced Monday that he will step down as CEO of Apple, a groundbreaking company that has only become more powerful and influential under Cook’s leadership.

Cook, 65, will move into a new role as Apple’s executive chairman in September. John Ternus, the 50-year-old head of Apple’s hardware engineering, will replace Cook as CEO.

The New York Times’ Kalley Huang and Tripp Mickle wrote, “The retirement of Mr. Cook will end one of the most successful management runs in the history of American business. During his tenure, Apple’s annual profit quadrupled to more than $110 billion, while its value ballooned more than tenfold to $4 trillion.”

Cook replaced Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, as CEO shortly before Jobs died in 2011.

Ternus has been with Apple since 2001 and has overseen the development of Macs and iPads.

Huang and Mickle wrote, “Mr. Ternus will take over a company that has not created a new mainstream product in a number of years and faces questions about its business. Apple has lost several top executives in recent months, worrying investors about the depth of its next generation of managers and its long-term strategy, particularly with artificial intelligence. The company has largely stayed on the sidelines as the rest of the technology industry has committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars developing A.I.”

They added, “Apple is also navigating increasingly choppy political waters, including whiplash over the Trump administration’s tariffs, a looming antitrust trial and geopolitical tensions with China.”

Much more will come from this shakeup in the days, weeks and months ahead. Cook will move to his new role in September.

Showing some disapproval

The White House Correspondents’ Association will have its big annual shindig this weekend — a dinner to, in part, celebrate the First Amendment. It’s typically a playful night when the media, politicians from both sides of the aisle, and other bigwigs from news and entertainment gather to poke a little fun at one another and then wrap it up by recognizing the importance of a free press in this country.

For years, U.S. presidents have attended and shared in the fun back-and-forth with a notable exception. Donald Trump has never attended as president. He went once as a private citizen, but did not attend the dinner during his first term or last year.

However, this year, Trump will attend — a fact that has rankled many, considering it’s hard to find a president in history who has been more anti-press than Trump. The president has constantly referred to the press as the “enemy of the people” and “fake news” and has filed lawsuits and put up hurdles to keep the media from doing their jobs.

So on Monday, more than 250 journalists — including legendary anchors such as Dan Rather and Sam Donaldson — signed a letter condemning Trump’s attacks on the press.

The letter called upon the WHCA to “forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”

It went on to say, in part, “The dinner has long served as a symbol of the vital and irreplaceable role of a free press in American democracy and a celebration of the First Amendment and the journalists who uphold it. President Trump’s systematic, sustained, and unprecedented attacks on the free press (detailed below) render his presence at such an event a profound contradiction of its purpose.”

The letter then added, “​​We understand that some journalists plan to wear pocket handkerchiefs or lapel pins with the words of the First Amendment. And continuing in that spirit, we believe the White House Correspondents Association should take stronger action by issuing — from the podium — a forceful defense of freedom of the press and condemnation of those who threaten that freedom, followed by a standing toast to the First Amendment and a pledge to continue upholding such a critical cornerstone of our democracy. Speak forcefully, in front of the man who seeks to undermine our country’s long tradition of an independent, strong, and free press. We also urge the WHCA to reaffirm, without equivocation, that freedom of the press is not a partisan issue and that the Association will not normalize this behavior but instead fight back against any officeholder who has waged systematic war against the journalists whose work the dinner celebrates.”

It then listed 22 examples of Trump’s attacks on press freedoms.

Aside from Rather and Donaldson, other notable names to sign the letter included former NBC News journalist and anchor Ann Curry and “PBS NewsHour” correspondent Stephanie Sy.

Speaking of the WHCA dinner …

Check out this piece from Eric Deggans, the longtime media critic and the Knight Professor of Journalism and Media Ethics at Washington and Lee University: “Why I don’t completely hate the White House Correspondents Dinner…”

The Onion tries again

You might remember that a couple of years ago, when Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory website InfoWars came up for sale, something rather funny happened. The satirical site, The Onion, won an auction to take it over. It seemed so absurd that it felt like a story from, well, The Onion.

But the deal stalled after a federal bankruptcy judge stepped in with questions about the auction and other bids.

On Monday, however, The Onion said it has once again reached an agreement to buy InfoWars in a deal that could help repay the more than $1 billion Jones owes the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims.

In 2022, Jones was found liable for defamation for his repeated untrue claims that the Sandy Hook school shootings, in which 26 people (including 20 children) were killed, were a hoax. The families won a judgment of more than $1 billion, but have yet to receive any money. Because of that, Jones’ assets, including InfoWars, went up for sale.

CNN’s Hadas Gold writes, “Under the agreement, and with the support of the Sandy Hook families, The Onion will initially pay a monthly licensing fee to the court-appointed receiver overseeing InfoWars. (The Onion CEO Ben) Collins said the company has also signed a deal to purchase the full assets once the current judicial stay expires.”

The deal still needs to be approved by a judge, and Jones could appeal.

The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson reported, “That means the fate of Infowars remains in limbo until the court rules, probably sometime in the next two weeks. Mr. Jones continues to operate Infowars.com and host its weekday program, ‘The Alex Jones Show.’”

However, Jones’ time with InfoWars could soon come to an end.

Collins said, “It’s been eight years and three days since the Sandy Hook families initially filed this lawsuit, and they have not received a (expletive) penny. So, we’re excited to get them immediate pennies with some merch sales — but also longer-term pennies once we do wind up eventually straight up buying this thing.”

Of course, if this deal ends up going through, The Onion will turn it into the kind of site The Onion is known for.

Gold writes, “The new InfoWars will operate as a digital platform and comedy network led by ‘creative director’ Tim Heidecker of ‘Tim & Eric’ fame, who will parody Jones himself. The outlet will aim to feature newer, independent comedians who ‘don’t have a mountain to climb in the comedy world,’ Collins said. ‘We want to give them that mountain.’ There will be plenty of The Onion’s signature style of news satire, Collins said, noting that much of the initial content will parody social media influencers and media figures like Jones who peddle questionable supplements.”

Breaking up

Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird pose for photographs before a WNBA basketball game in 2023. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Who would be on the list of your all-time sports power couples? That is, a couple where both partners had major success as athletes. The short list would certainly include tennis superstars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim and NFL star pass rusher Myles Garrett, and former soccer great Mia Hamm and baseball’s Nomar Garciaparra. (Those are just a few.)

I’d put Agassi-Graf at the top of this list, but certainly up there would be Megan Rapinoe, one of the greatest American soccer players ever, and Sue Bird, whose resume in basketball includes two college national championships and four WNBA titles, as well as being a 13-time WNBA all-star.

But they stunned the sports world last week by announcing their separation after nearly 10 years together.

In an Instagram post, they wrote, “This hasn’t been an easy decision, but it’s one we’ve made together with so much love, respect, and care for each other. We’ve shared a whole life over the last decade, through big moments and in quiet ones, and that is something we’ll always carry with us.”

The end of their relationship also means the end of their popular podcast, “A Touch More: The Podcast,” which focused on the intersection of women’s sports and pop culture. Bird said they will host six more special episodes of “A Touch More” with her and Rapinoe alternating as hosts.

Bird said she will continue with a second season of her own podcast, “Bird’s Eye View,” while Rapinoe is planning to start her own podcast.

Media tidbits

• CNN’s Aaron Blake with “Trump is savaging allies who criticize the Iran war. But he’s treating Joe Rogan very differently.”
• The Hollywood Reporter’s Kimberly Nordyke with “Frank Marshall Says ESPN Pulled His Doc ‘Rachel, Breathe’ ‘An Hour Before Broadcast’ Over Rights Disagreement.”
• Variety’s Brian Steinberg with “One of TV News’ Most Respected Consultants Says Format Is Breaking, Needs to Change Quickly.”
• Media Matters’ Matt Gertz with “GOP lawyer Joe diGenova, now running Trump’s ‘Grand Conspiracy’ probe, said Bondi had ‘nixed’ him from the role.”
• Advocate’s Christopher Wiggins with “MS NOW’s Vaughn Hillyard on becoming a new father and life on the White House beat.”
• Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes with “Travis Kelce thinks he’d have a ‘blast’ working at ESPN.”

Hot type

• The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and Jeremy B. Merrill with “He spreads hate online — and fans pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
• Quite the piece here from The Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey and Annie Linskey: “Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears.”

More resources for journalists

• Gain access to top courses and members-only webinars. Become a Poynter Member today.
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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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