| | | | | This is Oliver Darcy filling in for Brian Stelter and good evening on this busy Tuesday. A lot of news today, so let's dive right into it. | | Scott Pelley out at 'CBS Evening News'
| | Stunning news tonight... Scott Pelley will depart as the anchor of "CBS Evening News," Dylan Byers confirmed through multiple sources.
A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment. A formal announcement is expected Wednesday.
Pelley is currently out on assignment. Sources told Byers that he asked to have his office cleared out earlier today even though he was out of town...
The news of Pelley's departure was first broken by the New York Post's Page Six... | | Kathy Griffin: 'I beg for your forgiveness' | | Comedian Kathy Griffin ignited a firestorm of controversy this afternoon when images from a photo shoot showing her holding a bloody decapitated head resembling President Donald Trump were published online.
A few hours later, Griffin apologized and said she would ask the photographer to remove the images from the internet: "I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong."
Conservatives immediately seized on the image, holding it up as evidence the left has gone mad in the Trump era. Critics also raised questions about whether she will be permitted to co-host CNN's annual New Year's Eve special with Anderson Cooper...
Statement from a CNN spokesperson: "We found what she did disgusting and offensive. We are pleased to see she has apologized and asked that the photos be taken down. We are evaluating our New Year's Eve coverage and have made no decisions at this point.
Cooper also weighed in: "For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate."
Some more reaction from Twitter...
Los Angeles Times national correspondent Matt Pearce: "my feed today has mostly been liberals disgusted by Kathy Griffin and conservatives asking why liberals aren't denouncing Kathy Griffin"
BuzzFeed deputy news director Jon Passantino: "Guys, Kathy totally didn't know a picture of a decapitated US president would make people upset. Easy mistake." | | Sean Spicer returns as Mike Dubke resigns | | Sean Spicer returned to the White House press podium and held his first on-camera briefing since May 15. Spicer tackled the bombshell weekend reports on Jared Kushner and the media's use of anonymous sources, among other things.
Unfortunately for the press, he didn't seem to have answers on some pressing issues. On that note, Brian Lowry emails: "Among all the things that can be criticized or nitpicked about Sean Spicer's briefings, it's hard to see how he hopes to get away with his tactic of saying, 'I haven't asked the president about that.' Any spokesperson's role is to ferry questions to his or her bosses and convey their thoughts. If they can't (or won't) do that, as Dylan noted, the press conferences risk becoming virtually pointless."
The Washington Post called it a "press briefing for the ages."
One notable exchange occurred when CNN's Jim Acosta asked Spicer for evidence the media is pushing "fake news." Watch video here via the Washington Free Beacon...
Peter Baker of The New York Times had a question for Spicer immediately after the briefing. "Since he walked out after condemning unnamed sources, here's a question for @PressSec: How many times has White House briefed anonymously?"
Dubke exits White House for 'personal reasons'...
Mike Allen of Axios was first to break news in his morning newsletter that White House communications director had tendered his resignation. "His departure is a reminder of how hard it is for newcomers to thrive in Trumpland."
Dubke said he had "a good conversation with the President." He said he was resigning "for a number of reasons -- for personal reasons." More from CNN here...
Dylan Byers tweets: "Source tells me Trump could never get over Dubke saying that 'there is no Trump doctrine' in a meeting that was leaked to Politico in April."
Kaitlan Collins weighs in: "There is no list of replacements for White House comms director right now, I'm told. Mike Dubke offered his resignation 12 days ago."
"Why Mike Dubke matters. A lot," by CNN's Chris Cilliza. | | -- Fox News may tap Heat Street editor for website, according to The Wall Street Journal...
-- Ben Jacobs gets a new pair of glasses. His old pair? They're heading to the Newseum...
-- The New York Times sees record newsletter subscriptions and open rates. The newspaper says its newsletter subscriptions have more than doubled to over 13 million as of April...
| | Hannity strikes back at critics... by targeting Maddow | | Fox News host Sean Hannity spent all day promoting a campaign targeting MSNBC host Rachel Maddow's advertisers after a handful of the conservative television personality's sponsors abandoned his program last week over his relentless promotion of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.
"I'd rather not do this," Hannity said on his radio program, adding, "The left has caused this." More details in my story here...
After being encouraged by the president of programming at Fox News to drop the story, Hannity returned from Memorial Day promising an update on his television program "sooner rather than later" on Seth Rich.
"I can report that I am making progress," he said. BuzzFeed's Brianna Sacks clipped the video... | | Meanwhile, some odd retweets from a Fox News reporter | | I took a look at the Twitter profile of Malia Zimmerman, the Fox News reporter who wrote the outlet's now-retracted story citing a private investigator and an anonymous federal source to link slain DNC staffer Seth Rich to Wikileaks.
As you can see in the image above, Zimmerman retweeted a number of conspiratorial tweets about Rich's murder on Monday...
After I reached out to a Fox News spokesperson, the tweets were deleted. That said, the Fox News spokesperson did not provide comment.
It's also worth noting: Fox News has not said whether Zimmerman -- or anyone at the network -- has faced any disciplinary action for the outlet's now-removed Seth Rich story. I'm sure Fox News would like me to stop pointing that out... | | | Tom Kludt emails: It seems a fair question, given the sequence of events over the last week.
First, the paper saw its top editor (and occasional Trump speechwriter) Ken Kurson resign. And then today brought the news that for staff members were laid off, including culture writer Dana Schwartz, who made headlines last summer for her open letter to owner Jared Kushner.
In a statement, a spokesman cited Kurson's abrupt resignation as a factor in today's decision, saying his departure provided "an opportunity to consider additional changes to ensure Observer's continued growth and future success."
When I reached Kurson, who started his new job at TENEO today, he said the cuts were news to him. "I haven't heard about any layoffs," he said in an email. "You know more than I do." Kushner resigned from his role at the Observer in January, when he assumed his role as senior adviser to President Trump. The paper was sold to a family trust, and Joseph Meyer – the chairman of the Observer and Kushner's brother-in-law – took over as publisher.
Kushner bought the once-respected alternative paper in 2006 in a move that was largely seen as a vanity play. Given his hyper-influential role inside the White House, perhaps he no longer sees it as necessary… | | 'House of Cards' is back; 'The Americans' finale | | Programming note from Brian Lowry: Netflix premieres the new season of "House of Cards" today, and another show that's made headlines for its real-world parallels, FX's "The Americans," ended its fifth season tonight.
We'll have a review of the latter soon, and here's a spoiler-free breakdown of the former based on all 13 episodes. | | | More from Lowry: WGN America canceled "Underground" today, a major move in its plans to overhaul the network in the wake of Sinclair's purchase of Tribune Media. Fans aren't happy but executive producer John Legend insists they will seek a "new home" for the show.
Legend also aimed some of his frustration at Sinclair: "Be wary of Sinclair though. They're trying to make local stations mini Fox Newses, but more to the right." | | Ariana Grande's Manchester benefit concert | | Chloe Melas emails: Ariana Grande will host her Manchester benefit concert on Sunday and the lineup is impressive.
Coldplay, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Pharrell, Katy Perry, Usher, Niall Horan and Take That will all take the stage at the event, which is being called "One Love Manchester."
Tickets go on sale Thursday via Ticketmaster and it will be held at the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester. All proceeds will go to the "We Love Manchester Emergency Fund," in partnership with the British Red Cross and Manchester City Council. Read Chloe's story here... | | The future of the movie theater? | | | Brian Lowry emails: Theaters are wrestling with ways to coax people to see movies, and perhaps a bit more nervous after the Memorial Day weekend boxoffice got off to a rather thudding start.
So I decided to check out 4DX, a process that brings theme-park-ride-type effects — wind in your face, seat movement, sprays of water — to the theatrical experience. The bottom line is it's interesting but can be too much of a good thing and, ultimately, can't make a bad movie better. Read Brian's full piece here... | | Bittersweet news from the homefront | | | Tom Kludt emails: Pallavi Gogi, a senior editor at CNNMoney and one of the kindest members of our newsroom, is leaving her post to become the top business editor at NPR. As I said on Twitter earlier, I'm gutted by the news, but also beyond stoked for Pallavi – and for NPR, which is getting a top-notch journalist. Tom asked Pallavi to send along her own reaction. "To become chief business editor at NPR is a huge honor. In a way, it embodies the achievement of the American dream for me. I grew up in a very small town on a mountain top in a remote corner of India, where I couldn't even have imagined this," she wrote. "Nowhere else in the world can a person emigrate from another country and be measured not on their color, religion or creed, but on the merits of their accomplishments, perseverance and experiences of what one brings to the table. At the risk of sounding corny, I'll say it: It is what makes America great." | | | Recommended long reads from the weekend | | | | Email us: reliablesources@cnn.com. Let us know what you like and dislike... what you want more of, what you want less of. We appreciate every email! | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment