| | | | Trump supports Roy Moore; opposes AT&T deal | | "The President of the United States is backing a candidate who is credibly accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl," John Berman said on "AC360." "He actually said it out loud, with words, repeatedly..."
At the same gaggle on the way to Thanksgiving, where Trump all but endorsed Roy Moore, the President was asked about the DOJ's lawsuit to block AT&T from acquiring CNN's parent co. Time Warner. "Personally, I've always felt that that was a deal that's not good for the country. I think your pricing is going to go up," Trump said. "But I'm not going to get involved. It's litigation." Keep scrolling for the latest on all things AT&T... | | 8:02 pm banner on MSNBC: "TRUMP BACKS ACCUSED CHILD MOLESTER OVER DEMOCRAT."
At the same time on Fox News: "DEMS HIT HARD BY SEX SCANDAL ALLEGATIONS." | | | Moore adviser Dean Young at a bonkers press conference on Tuesday: "Fox News can put out their fake polls and everyone else can too, but he's still winning and he's never been losing." Yep, the GOP campaign in Alabama is calling Fox's poll "fake..." Since the poll showed Moore losing by 8 points... As Alabama reporter Brian Lyman tweeted, "We're through the looking glass now people..." | | John Lasseter takes leave of absence | | Frank Pallotta writes: Pixar and Disney Animation chief creative officer John Lasseter is taking a six month leave of absence following what he called "missteps." Lasseter's statement came just before THR published this: "John Lasseter's pattern of alleged misconduct detailed by Disney/Pixar insiders." In the report by Kim Masters, an unnamed Pixar employee said Lasseter had a reputation among employees "for grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes..."
--> Pallotta's story explains why this is such big news. Lasseter is one of the founders of Pixar... Arguably the face of the brand... | | | "This is a moment that demands a frank and honest assessment." Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King's statements on Tuesday's "CBS This Morning" set the tone for the day, and it was no surprise when CBS News terminated Charlie Rose's contract five hours later. PBS and Bloomberg severed ties with Rose, too. There was no new comment from Rose on Tuesday... Though the TMZ video of him saying "it's not wrongdoings" Monday night made a bad situation even worse... | | CBS employees are coming forward with allegations | | Later in the day, CBS reported that some of the new complaints against Rose were lodged by colleagues within its news organization. "At least three women who asked not to be identified said they experienced unwanted sexual contact from Rose while working at CBS News," Bianna Golodryga reported on the "CBS Evening News." She added: "Two of the women who came forward at CBS say they are not ready for the details of their allegations to be made public. But a third woman alleges Rose whispered a sexual innuendo while touching her inappropriately at a work-related event." Golodryga said, "we reached out to Charlie and have not heard back..."
-- A CBS News spokeswoman tells me "this is new information" that was received by management after Rose was fired... | | -- Is Rose being paid the remainder of his contract?
-- Before this storm hit, CBS News execs were quietly thinking about a succession plan for Rose. What's the plan now?
-- At least four other news outlets were also pursuing info about Rose when the WashPost story hit. How much more has yet to come out?
-- Hadas Gold emails: "What happens to the twenty or so people who worked full time on Charlie Rose's show?" Are they all out of work? | | -- Gayle King is on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Tuesday night. Here's a preview. "Think about the anguish of those women," she said...
-- Irin Carmon, who co-authored the Post report, told CNN's Erin Burnett that "I first heard about this in 2010," but couldn't corroborate enough info to publish. Carmon resumed her reporting two and a half weeks ago...
-- In that same segment, Rose's former CBS co-host Erica Hill said "my blood started to boil" while reading the story. Hill said she's frustrated by a culture "in so many industries" that "has allowed this to happen for so long..."
-- HuffPost's Willa Frej: "What 3 Creepy Meetings With Charlie Rose Taught Me About Toxic Sexism And Blurred Lines" | | | -- Elle mag's list: "10 Women Who Could Replace Charlie Rose," featuring some of the reactions to my wife's viral tweet about this... | | >> NPR's Mary Louise Kelly writes for The Atlantic about the need to end "open secrets" surrounding sexual harassment -- both in and out of the newsroom.
"Like many companies, NPR is in the midst of serious soul-searching," she says, in the wake of Michael Oreskes' ouster. "A harassment support group has been created. The whistleblower hotline has been expanded. An outside law firm has been hired to investigate what happened. All good steps. But to me, the most heartening development has been NPR's policy of allowing its journalists" -- like media correspondent David Folkenflik -- "to cover our own turmoil with the same rigor we would apply to any other organization."
Many journos were similarly impressed by the coverage on "CBS This Morning" and the "Evening News" on Tuesday... | | Tuesday's other developments | | -- ICYMI: Ronan Farrow's latest for the New Yorker details Harvey Weinstein's secret settlements and how Bob Weinstein helped...
-- Do the allegations against Glenn Thrush merit his firing? VF's Joe Pompeo says staffers at the NYT are "torn..."
-- "Dozens of women who've worked on 'Saturday Night Live' have come out in support of Al Franken..."
-- Julia Carpenter's latest for CNNMoney: "Sexual harassment tipping point: Why now?" | | Coming up on Wednesday... | | -- With Rose fired and O'Donnell on vacation on Wednesday, Golodryga and Vladimir Duthiers will fill in on "CBS This Morning..."
-- Via NBC News PR: "Megyn Kelly will speak with former model Keri Claussen Khalighi" on Wednesday... An exclusive interview "about her allegations of sexual assault against music mogul Russell Simmons..." | | | 🔌: Hadas Gold and I will be on CNN's "New Day" in the 6am hour... | | -- "How CNN documented human slave auctions." Nima Elbagir and her team has been doing extraordinary work, as Al Tompkins writes here... (Poynter)
-- Lara O'Reilly's latest: "An ad-tech firm says it has discovered a large and sophisticated advertising-fraud operation in which fake websites and infected computers were used to scam advertisers and publishers out of upward of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day..." (WSJ)
-- NBC has signed NPR TV critic Eric Deggans to a contributor deal... (Variety) | | Trump FCC chair unveils plan to repeal net neutrality | | | FCC chair Ajit Pai is moving forward with plans to dismantle "net neutrality" rules. CNN Tech's Seth Fiegerman has a full rundown here. Mark your calendars: A vote is set for December 14... | | "We have one government, but two separate agencies with opposing views," Spencer Kurn, an analyst at New Street Research, told the NYT's David Gelles. While the DOJ is blocking AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner in court, the FCC is freeing up AT&T and other companies to wield its influence. Kurn: "You've got one agency saying that marrying content and distribution results in too much market power, and another agency saying there's no problem with a distributor favoring their content over someone else's." Read the full column here...
--> Tim Wu to Fiegerman: "People are just kind of confused..." | | UNITED STATES VERSUS AT&T | | CNN's David Shortell reports: Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush-appointee who has served on the US District Court in DC since 2002, will preside over the DOJ's suit against AT&T and Time Warner.
The case was originally assigned to Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama-appointee, on Tuesday morning -- but was switched to Leon's courtroom less than two hours later. The court did not provide a reason for the reassignment, but the employment of Cooper's wife at the law firm Arnold & Porter, which is lead counsel for AT&T on antitrust issues, could have posed a conflict... | | "Trump's Dubious Trust-Busting" is the title of the editorial. It says, "the lawsuit misconstrues markets and undermines the rule of law -- whether or not it was inspired by the White House."
The ed board says the looming trial "should be expedited given Justice's drawn-out investigation. Justice will have to demonstrate that AT&T's market power exceeds that of its various competitors and that it would use its clout to harmful effect. That's a high bar that Justice can't meet on all the available evidence..." | | The DOJ's suit could freeze other media deals | | Dylan Byers' latest: Tech giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook are likely to take note of the DOJ's stance on AT&T because of how it might affect their future acquisition plans. The question: Would a a deal like Disney-Apple or Fox-Verizon be permitted by the Trump DOJ?
-- BTIG's Rich Greenfield: "If you're saying distributors can't own content, could Facebook buy Fox, could Apple buy Fox? We just don't know. And if you're Fox, why would you go up for sale if you don't even know who the eligible bidders are?"
-- NYT's Dealbook asks: "Is the lawsuit taking aim at one particular transaction, or is it a signal that the White House is opposed to corporate consolidation in general?" | | | Via Hadas Gold: Sen. Elizabeth Warren sends this statement regarding the DOJ/AT&T lawsuit, similar to what other Dems said, praising the lawsuit but cautiously because of Trump's rhetoric: "The proposed AT&T and Time Warner merger would place even more power in the hands of giant corporations while harming small businesses, entrepreneurs, and working families -- and that's why I've argued that it should be blocked. The President's anti-democratic attacks on our free press have cast a cloud of suspicion over the Justice Department's decision to try to stop this merger, but at a time when power is more and more concentrated in a handful of giant companies, the courts and the public must approach this case as they would any other -- based on the law and the facts, and not President Trump's repeated efforts to punish his enemies." | | Fox giving Mark Levin a Sunday talk show | | Hadas Gold emails: Matt Drudge on Tuesday morning broke the news about another addition to the Fox News lineup: Mark Levin is getting a weekly Fox News show. Fox formally announced the show -- "Life, Liberty & Levin" -- an hour later. I called Levin, who said the show will launch in late February and will air Sundays at 10 pm. Levin said it'll be an in-depth interview show with one or two guests for the entire hour, discussing "philosophy, history, economics and the constitution as they relate to current events and the state of the nation."
--> Levin also confirmed to Gold that he had lunch with VP Mike Pence last week and met briefly with the President. Here's her full story... | | | Look, Levin is not my biggest fan. Yesterday he called me a stalker and mocked me for having a "Mickey Mouse" voice. (I don't think I do -- but my colleagues can attest to the fact that I can do a pretty decent impression when called upon!) But lemme just point out something about Fox's strategy here. The network is quadrupling down on its pro-Trump provocative-talk format and trying to lift its relatively weak Sunday evening lineup. CNN usually beats Fox on Sunday evenings in the key 25-54 demo. Surely Fox is trying to change that by adding Levin... | | -- Early Tuesday morning, local stations owned by CBS went dark on Dish Network's satellite system... Will this be resolved by Thanksgiving? (CNNMoney)
-- Jack Shafer has something to say about the NYT turning its journalists "into marketers..." (Politico)
-- Claire Atkinson's latest: "Behind the media merger talk: Everyone must stream" (NBC) | | BuzzFeed and Cernovich... | | | "Journalism can make for strange bedfellows. Case in point: BuzzFeed and Mike Cernovich." Here's Paul Farhi's explainer about why BF teamed up with Cernovich "to break the John Conyers scandal." Farhi says it's "something like Michael Moore dropping damning info about President Trump to Fox News..." | | Tom Kludt emails: Sarah Palin isn't ready to give up her legal battle against the New York Times just yet. After a federal judge decided in August to dismiss her defamation suit against the paper, Palin's attorneys on Tuesday appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The original suit was filed by Ken Turkel and Shane Vogt, two attorneys from Tampa who successfully tried Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy case against Gawker last year. Joining Turkel and Vogt for the appeal will be Libby Locke, who represented a University of Virginia administrator in a lawsuit over Rolling Stone's discredited "rape on campus" story... Full story here... | | U.S. charges Iranian man in HBO hack | | | On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's office in New York announced charges against an Iranian national who stands accused of hacking into the network's servers. The indictment of Behzad Mesri alleges that he stole proprietary data, including information about unreleased episodes of "Game of Thrones," and then sought to extort the company. Mesri is not in custody... But "he will forever have to look over his shoulder until he is made to face justice," U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said at a presser... Here's the full story I wrote with CNN's Kristina Sgueglia... | | David Cassidy, '70s teen heartthrob, dies at age 67 | | | Lisa Respers France writes: David Cassidy, who came to fame as a '70s teen heartthrob and lead singer on "The Partridge Family," has died, according to his publicist Jo-Ann Geffen. He was 67. The singer-actor had recently been admitted to the intensive care unit of a Fort Lauderdale area hospital. Cassidy was in critical condition and suffered from organ failure before his death, Geffen said... | | "Reputation" is the best selling album of 2017 | | | "It took Taylor Swift just one week to sell more albums than any artist has all year," Frank Pallotta reports... | | Another Legend is set to be born | | | Lisa Respers France emails: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have announced they are expecting their second child, and they did it the cutest way imaginable: their one year old daughter Luna proclaimed that there is a baby in her mother's belly. All together now: Awwwwwwww! | | Lowry reviews "Darkest Hour" | | | Brian Lowry emails: With the Thanksgiving starter's pistol for prestige films, Gary Oldman might settle one Oscar race early with his definitive portrayal of Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour..." | | | More from Lowry: A western miniseries with a strong feminist undercurrent, Netflix's "Godless" is both a worthwhile long-weekend binge and especially well timed... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Speaking of celebrity babies, Kevin Hart and Eniko Parrish welcomed their fist child together, a son, on Tuesday. Welcome to the world Kenzo Kash Hart!
-- Janet Jackson lost 70 pounds, but she didn't quite do it the way you might expect...
-- I talked to "Black-ish" star Jenifer Lewis about her no holds barred new memoir in which she discusses everything from her sex addiction to her struggles with mental Illness... | | | 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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