Dream of Californication: Rupert Murdoch at The 11th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony held in Santa Monica, California. on April 05, 2025 (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!
The California Post is one of the most audacious projects Rupert Murdoch has backed in his long career. In tonight's edition, we reveal the senior team that has been hired to staff the ambitious West Coast publication, and we have reporting about just how much Murdoch is invested in it.
Also tonight, a new book soon to hit shelves about Tucker Carlson promises to answer the burning question: “What the hell happened to Tucker?”
Plus, which “cancelled celebrity” was Donald Trump Jr trying to meet at the same bar Vanity Fair was hosting their holiday party, there’s a mouse “murder mystery” at The Washington Post, and The News Movement moves up.
Also we have scene reports from Mediaite’s Most Influential in News Media party and podcast co-hosts Brian Morrissey and Troy Young's holiday shindig.
Finally, it’s Tuesday, which means Lionel Barber’s Briefing is back. This week, the legendary Fleet Street editor reports on the British sub-plot in the Netflix-Paramount drama that involves new details about Comcast’s future in the U.K. You can subscribe to Lionel’s Substack here.
Mentioned tonight: Debra OConnell, Jonathan Karl, Megyn Kelly, Dani Dudeck, Rebekah Brooks, David Dinsmore, Mark Guiducci, Susie Wiles, Chris Whipple, Will Lewis, Bari Weiss, Oliver Darcy, Elaine Low, Maxi Tani, Brian O’Keefe, Lord Rothermere, Floyd Abrams, Ari Melber, John McDonald, Doug Brunt, Pat Kiernan, Elisabeth Vargas, Michael Cohen, David Goldin, Joe DePaolo, Colby Hall, Michael Grynbaum, Michael Calderone, Natalie Korach, Corbin Bolies, Van Scott, Jeannie Kedas, Bill Hemmer, Aidan McLaughlin, Alex Levy, Vicky Ward, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Brian Steinberg, Irena Briganti, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire, Kaitlan Collins, Brian Stelter, Emily Kuhn, Bill O’Reilly, Tom Durante, Harry Enten, Chris Balfe, Carole Cooper, Chris Hansen, Katy Tur, Tony Dokoupil, David Zinczenko, William Turvill, Graydon Carter, Malcolm Gladwell, Alec Baldwin, Kara Swisher, Adam Friedland, Pablo Torre, Audie Cornish, Don Lemon, Roxane Gay, Brian Morrissey, Troy Young, Blake Saunders, Calvin Yee,Emily Sundberg, Jesse Angelo, Joe Marchese, Neil Vogel, John Roberts, Mark Stenberg, Will Lee, Nich Carlson, Sara Fischer, Nick Thompson, Vivek Shah, Cole Mara, Max Tcheyan, Dana Brown, Charlotte Klein, and more.
The Breaker Gift That Keeps On Giving
With the holiday season now upon us, why not gift your loved one, staff, or associated scoop-addict a Breaker Gift Subscription! Twice a week, they’ll receive the Breaker newsletter and access to our weekly podcast. It’ll put them ahead of the curve with the latest breaking news and scoops, plus access to the full Breaker archive. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, literally!
California Dreaming
(Exclusive.) When reports started surfacing on Sunday afternoon, L.A. time, that cops were investigating an incident at the Brentwood home of Rob and Michele Reiner, one news outlet that hadn't officially launched yet, immediately sprang into action.
California Post Editor-in-Chief Nick “Pappsy” Papps is known for a love of breaking news and scoops, so the shocking report that Rob and Michele had been found dead hit upon a rare tabloid cross-section of celebrity and crime.
Papps wasted no time activating L.A. reporters, Vanessa Serna, Jamie Paige, and Jeremy Louwerse to start hitting the phones on a yarn that shocked Hollywood.
Tuesday's Post cover was the culmination of Papps's hard-charging news instincts. "FALL IN THE FAMILY: 'Black sheep' son killed Rob Reiner, wife: cops… Fight at Conan O'Brien party led to home horror.”
It's a sign of what Los Angeles can expect to come from The California Post and something they are not used to -- old school tabloid reporting.
Breaker has learned Papps has now assembled his entire senior team ahead of the official launch early next year. Barclay Crawford, who until last month was executive editor of The Daily Mail, is joining as deputy editor-in-chief.
Crawford parted ways with the Mail last month and will move from New York to Los Angeles to be Papps' number two. It's something of a return to the News Corp family for Crawford, a shrewd tabloid hand, who previously worked for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph in Sydney.
Breaker has also learned that such is the anticipation within News Corp about the new project, owner Rupert Murdoch…
The Catcher In The Right
(Exclusive.) It’s the on-again, off-again and now on-again Tucker Carlson book, hotly anticipated by Fox News insiders as much as political junkies.
‘Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind’ by newly minted New Yorker staff writer Jason Zengerle is set for release January 27th.
The existence of the book was originally first reported on by Keith Kelly at The New York Post (who retired from the media beat in 2021) and was set to be published by Little Brown in 2024. Politico magazine reported last year the book had been cancelled as Tucker “no longer has the kind of cultural footprint to warrant a pricey, complicated book by a top-shelf writer.” But just like Lazarus – or is that Tucker’s career – the book is…