| | | | | Exec summary: NYC is mourning the death of Liz Smith... Condé Nast is on the verge of naming Radhika Jones the new editor of Vanity Fair... No, you didn't hallucinate that, President Trump really called Kim Jong Un "short and fat..." | | | Questions to start the week: Will talks resume between 21st Century Fox and Disney? If not, what other bidders are eyeing Fox? What will happen the next time AT&T execs speak with DOJ lawyers? | | | What's next in the Roy Moore scandal? What will President Trump say about it when he returns to the U.S.? How will local media in Alabama cover the story? Zooming out to other examples of the Tipping Point: When will the Manhattan D.A. advance its case against Harvey Weinstein? Meantime, this Q continues to loom large: Who's next? And in other news: Is the NFL going to extend Roger Goddell's contract? | | "It's the liberal media lying" | | Over the weekend Roy Moore claimed, without any evidence, that the accounts of women making allegations about his improper sexual activity were an "intentional act to stop the campaign." The WashPost has been pretty clear about this -- reporter Stephanie McCrummen, an Alabama native, stumbled upon this subject -- but Moore and his defenders have rallied around the idea that it's a conspiracy.
Moore's voters are "not going to believe this Washington Post story because it's the liberal media lying about their beloved leader here," Alabama columnist Josh Moon told me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources."
I interrupted -- "You don't actually think that yourself, right?" "Oh, no, absolutely not," Moon said. He said that if the story had originally been published in a local paper, voters would "probably" be more inclined to believe it, "but I don't know that even then... They believe him first and last..." | | On Sunday evening, I corresponded with Bob Davis, the editor of the Anniston Star in Anniston, AL, who wrote a powerful editor's column on Saturday defending his newsroom against critiques from readers.
He told me: "Journalism is often a hard sell in a place where some people defend Moore over four named women and 30 sources..." | | -- Moore's promise/threat on Saturday: "In the next few days there will be revelations about the motivations and the content of this article. They will be brought to the public..."
-- The Washington Examiner pointed out that Moore's denials/defenses keep changing...
-- CNBC's John Harwood tweeted: "Alabamans who reflexively dismiss Moore allegations as Dem/liberal/media plot are the spiritual heirs of those who in 1960 said race relations were fine and blamed northern agitators/Communists/media..." | | --> Jonathan Swan's headline for Axios: "Breitbart aims to discredit Roy Moore's accusers"
All evening long, Media Twitter mocked Breitbart's latest stab at the story. Breitbart's "scoop:" Leigh Corfman's mother "told Breitbart News that the Washington Post worked to convince her daughter to give an interview about the allegations against Moore." The Post, of course, said that the accusers were reluctant to speak, so this story just had the effect of confirming the original account. But these elections are fought via links -- so don't discount the power of this Breitbart link to confirm voters' biases... As I said on Sunday's program, lots and lots of people didn't read the original WashPost story, they've only consumed the reactions to the story...
-- NYPost's Seth Mandel tweeted: "Breitbart isn't doing media criticism here. It's weaponizing the fear and shame of sexual-assault victims against themselves. Even for BB, this is some low stuff."
-- Mandel's wife Bethany joined me on "Reliable Sources" and shared her first-hand experience of abuse. "I didn't want to come forward," she said...
-- Daniel W. Drezner tweeted: "I doubt Breitbart will succeed, but there might be another purpose. A scorched-earth attack against the accusers deters other women from speaking up..." | | Negative partisanship in action | | | "Negative partisanship" is what's guiding some of the Republican reactions to the Moore scandal. People are increasingly motivated more by hatred of the other side than support for their own side. "He hates the same people I hate!" This is "the glue that holds together an otherwise fragile and fractious coalition," John Avlon said on Sunday's program. He said, "it's easier to rally people to come out against something than to stand for something..." Watch the full segment here... | | FREE PRESS: What's at stake | | | Every day from now until December 1, CNN Opinion will present a new column about the challenges facing the media, which is under attack from critics, governments and changing technology. Here's the landing page. I helped launch the series on Sunday with a video and column about how protections for the press benefit each and every one of us, whether we're reporting the news or reading about it. Press freedom protects and ensures your freedom. Read the rest here... | | Media Matters pushing Hannity ad boycott | | Media Matters for America's ongoing campaign to separate Sean Hannity from his advertisers picked up some steam following Hannity's boosterish Roy Moore coverage. The anti-Fox group said over the weekend that five companies responded to its complaints by "either removing their ads or indicating that they will not advertise on Hannity's show in the future." Keurig was one of the companies, so a smattering of Hannity fans retaliated by saying they'll boycott Keurig and pick a competing coffeemaker brand. (Not an ad: Jamie recently splurged on a Nespresso machine and we're loving it at home.)
-- Amusing vids via BI: "Conservatives are posting videos of themselves smashing their Keurigs to smithereens." Hannity is loving this, egging it on via Twitter... He says "I am buying 500 coffee makers tomorrow to give away!!"
-- Here's the deal: At the moment, this is not a repeat of the Bill O'Reilly advertiser exodus from last spring. But it's worth monitoring. Fox News is not commenting... | | "Fox News has surged back" | | The ad boycott effort didn't merit a mention by Michael Grynbaum in this Monday NYT story about the rightward "shift" at Fox News, which he says has turned prime time into a "safe space" for Trump.
"How is this playing with viewers? Superbly," he writes. "After falling behind MSNBC on weeknights among the sought-after 25-to-54 demographic, Fox News has surged back..." | | Catch up on Sunday's "Reliable" | | -- Trump chief of staff John Kelly "Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets." (LATimes)
-- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column: "Trump won, and Northam crushed Gillespie. Why believe polls ever again?" (WashPost)
-- Recommended: By Chris Cillizza: "The 29 most eye-popping lines from Donald Trump's press gaggle in Vietnam" (CNN)
-- A fun Doree Shafrir story: "Meet the People Who Listen to Podcasts at Super-Fast Speeds" (BuzzFeed) | | Graydon Carter's successor is... | | Sydney Ember broke the news on Saturday afternoon: "Radhika Jones, the editorial director of the books department at The New York Times and a former top editor at Time magazine, is expected to be named the next editor of Vanity Fair, according to two people with knowledge of the decision."
I'm expecting Condé Nast to make the news official on Monday morning.
Graydon Carter is 68... Jones is 44... She's a Condé outsider... The first woman to run VF "since Tina Brown served as the magazine's editor from 1984 until 1992," Ember notes... "Her deep familiarity with celebrity, journalism, art and publishing were probably big draws for Condé Nast..." | | As Keith Kelly said last month, Tina Brown's new book is "coming out at the perfect time..." "The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983 -- 1992," hits bookshelves on Tuesday... Brown began her book tour with a party at Michael's and an interview on "CBS Sunday Morning..." She'll be back on CBS on Tuesday morning...
>> Brown on CBS: "Gossip's irresistible. But gossip's powerful and important, too, because frequently gossip is the first way stories begin. Frequently, gossip's right." | | New York is filled with characters who think they're one of a kind, but Liz Smith really was. The legendary gossip columnist "died of natural causes in New York Sunday," the NY Daily News reported. Smith, 94, known affectionately as the "the Grand Dame of Dish," was a staple in the Daily News "for a quarter century, and was syndicated in almost 70 newspapers," CNN's Amy La Porte writes...
-- Watch: The NYT interviewed Liz Smith for its obituary video series "The Last Word..." | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday evening: Jim Rutenberg, Jameel Jaffer, Wael Ghonim, Yasmin Green, and Runa Sandvik will speak at this event in NYC...
-- Wednesday: The News Xchange conference gets underway in Amsterdam...
-- Wednesday evening: The National Book Awards ceremony...
-- Thursday before the bell: Viacom earnings...
-- Thursday: The Deadline Club's hall of hame luncheon...
-- Friday: "Justice League" arrives in theaters... | | "The Flash," "Supergirl" showrunner suspended amid sexual harassment claims | | Variety's Mo Ryan, who wrote an extraordinary column about her own experience being assaulted by an unnamed TV executive, reported this on Friday night: "Warner Bros. TV Group has launched an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior by Andrew Kreisberg, an executive producer on the CW shows 'Arrow,' 'Supergirl,' 'The Flash' and 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow.'" Ryan had been doing this reporting for weeks: "Kreisberg, who has been suspended by the studio, has engaged in a pattern of alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate physical contact over a period of years, according to 15 women and four men who have worked with him."
-- Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner, and so is CNN. The studio says, "we take all allegations of misconduct extremely seriously, and are committed to creating a safe working environment for our employees and everyone involved in our productions..."
-- Jackie Wattles' story notes: "Kreisberg denies the allegations, according to Variety. CNN contacted his agent several times this weekend but did not receive a response..." | | "People have nowhere to go but the press..." | | | Ryan tweeted: "Re: this wave of revelations: Media is acting as Hollywood's default HR dept, because who is typically protected & who is typically fired makes absolutely no sense. Toxic bullies often protected, vulnerable & powerless have zero protection. People have nowhere to go but the press..." | | A crisis? Where!? Not here! 🙄 | | "It seemed during a few moments as if the Governors Awards were taking place in a parallel dimension where the torrent of sexual harassment allegations against male stars, producers and directors did not exist," the NYT's Brooks Barnes wrote after attending Saturday's event in L.A. He says, "the topic of sexual harassment went unmentioned during the formal ceremony." Dustin Hoffman "strode onstage and was greeted with enthusiastic applause. In recent weeks, Mr. Hoffman was accused of sexual harassment by two women. He issued an apology on Nov. 1..."
-- AP's story: "Hollywood took a break" from its "crisis..." | | This weekend's other developments | | -- Page Six says "Ashley Judd has been pitching publishers an outline for a book that will talk frankly about the sexual assaults she suffered at the hands of Harvey Weinstein and others..."
-- "Star Trek" star and LBGT icon George Takei is denying allegations that he groped a former male model who says he passed out while drinking at the actor's Los Angeles condo nearly 40 years ago, per CNN...
-- Via TheWrap, new accusations against manager David Guillod... | | | In Hollywood, "several hundred survivors of sexual harassment and assault and their supporters" gathered for a #MeToo march from the Dolby Theatre to the CNN building. "Some wore T-shirts with the words 'Me Too' emblazoned across the front, while others held up signs that said 'No more sexual abuse' and 'Rape is not a joke,'" the LAT's Brittny Mejia reported from the march... | | "One of the things that actually Trump has benefited from is that, on a daily if not hourly basis, there are things he says that you could never have imagined any other American president -- left, right, up or down -- saying, and they kind of bleed into each other. And you sort of forget, 'Oh, yes, 72 hours ago, he said this...'"
--Jeff Greenfield on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | On Sunday's "Reliable," that's the question I kept coming back to. This is a bit of a media mystery. What are the DOJ's specific objections to the AT&T-Time Warner deal? Here's my essay from the show...
Later in the hour, John Avlon and David Zurawik both said they suspect that Trump's dislike of CNN is what's really driving the government's objections.
"I think it transparently is what it looks like," Avlon said. "This is partisan politics and personal grudges playing out on our economy through the regulatory apparatus. This is something we are more acquainted to seeing in banana republics than from a Republican president who allegedly wants to remove regulation..." | | "Time Warner owns the President's longtime nemesis, CNN. He's been at war with CNN ever since they started reporting the things he says and does," Stephen Colbert said on Friday's "Late Show" while explaining the controversy.
He pointed out that his boss Les Moonves has said CBS would be interested in buying CNN, if that ever became an option. "Think about it: the CBS lineup could be filled with fun CNN spinoffs," Colbert said. "I can't wait for shows like 'Young Blitzer' and 'Two Broke Don Lemons.' I'd watch that! I'd watch that show." | | Trump says the dispute will probably 'end up being litigation,' but 'maybe not' | | | During a gaggle on AF1 on Saturday, Trump was asked, "Do you want AT&T to sell CNN?" His response: "Well I didn't make that decision -- it was made by a man who's a very respected person, a very very respected person." (He's referring to DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim.) "I did make a comment in the past as to what I think. I do feel that you should have as many news outlets as you can -- especially since so many of them are fake -- this way at least you get your word out. But I do believe you should have as many news outlets as you can... So we'll see -- that probably [will] end up being litigation, maybe not, we'll see how it all plays out..." | | | -- Bloomberg's latest: DOJ officials "advised AT&T to explore alternatives such as selling Turner and then forming a joint venture with the newly separated company." But "the companies aren't actively discussing scenarios under which AT&T would sell the Turner or DirecTV satellite television units..." | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Press access during President Trump's Asia trip has been limited at best. Politico analyzes what went down, and how the White House has responded to the situation... (Politico)
-- Poynter is launching a video series to share fact-checking best practices... (Poynter)
-- Business Insider is starting a subscription service called BI Prime... (WSJ) | | Chloe Melas emails: "SNL" is being criticized for how the writers handled the Louis C.K.s scandal. The comedian wasn't mentioned by name, while Roy Moore was attacked by name in the cold open. Some fans are asking: What gives? Overall though, the show took on a growing sexual harassment epidemic that isn't just affecting Hollywood but workplaces across America...
-- Dave Itzkoff's take: "Some of the accused came in for tougher treatment than others..."
-- Host Tiffany Haddish made history "as the first black female stand-up comic to host" the show, the LAT points out...
-- My two cents: Anytime "SNL" has an excuse to have Kate McKinnon play Jeff Sessions, McKinnon plays Sessions...
-- Colin Jost's line on "Weekend Update:" "Well, it's a good weekend to stay inside, since it's 20 degrees out and everyone you've ever heard of is a sex monster..." | | | Pour one out for the design director at the Times Daily, the local paper in northwest Alabama: | | Weekend box office: "Thor" still #1, but there was a race for #2... | | | "'Thor: Ragnarok' delivered an expected #1 finish in its second weekend at the domestic box office, pushing the film's domestic total ahead of both the first and second Thor films after just ten days in release. However, just as much a story are the strong openings for a batch of newcomers, both wide and and limited, as Paramount's 'Daddy's Home 2' and Fox's 'Murder on the Orient Express' both delivered ahead of expectations and Fox Searchlight's 'Three Billboards' averaged $80,000 per theater over its limited bow," BoxOfficeMojo's Brad Brevet reports... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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