| | | | | Exec summary: Alabama's biggest newspapers say Roy Moore has got to go... Jeff Sessions is testifying on Capitol Hill on Tuesday... Taylor Swift is about to top one million... Fox is declining to comment on the anti-Hannity ad boycott... Jimmy Fallon is back... | | WikiLeaks used to be a media outlet, albeit a highly unusual one. But it's become... something else. For proof, look no further than Julia Ioffe's big scoop for The Atlantic: "The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks."
Someone using the @WikiLeaks Twitter handle was sending Donald Trump, Jr. advice and tips via direct message right up until Election Day... The account urged the campaign to challenge the results of the election if Donald Trump lost... And said "congrats" when he won...
-- How did these DMs leak? And why now? Per CNN's Manu Raju, Congress has been aware of these docs for months...
-- Rachel Maddow on Monday night: "If you think these contacts are all benign, why have you been hiding them for more than a year?"
-- At the same time, over on Fox, Gregg Jarrett reassured Sean Hannity's viewers: "It's not a crime to communicate to a foreign national, including a Russian." Then he said the Dems committed crimes by helping to fund the dossier... | | Julia Ioffe on Chris Hayes' show: "Wikileaks has continued to insist that it's just a radical transparency organization, that it has no dog in this fight, that it's just about transparency."
If you still believe that, read the messages... Trump Jr. tweeted out the exchanges after Ioffe's story hit. "At this point, I think the jig is up for Wikileaks," Ioffe said... | | | Election laws stipulate that "it is illegal for an American to solicit anything of value from a foreigner," David Frum said on "AC360." But "there is an exception to that rule, which is, none of the election laws apply to a media organization. So one of the defenses the Trump people were preparing" was to say "even if we did cooperate with WikiLeaks, that's legal, because WikiLeaks is a media organization." The messages with Trump Jr. contradict that. "WikiLeaks is not acting like a media organization," Frum said... "Media organizations do not call on defeated candidates to contest the validity of an election. But cutouts for Russian intelligence do..." | | Maybe that's the wrong question. The wrong c-word. As James Clapper said on "AC360:" "This certainly has the feel of a developing conspiracy..."
-- Bianna Golodryga to Anderson Cooper: "It once again makes you ask the question, what does Robert Mueller know that we still don't know? Every single day, a new shoe seems to drop..."
-- Remember this?: In April 2017, Jeff Sessions said that arresting Assange was a "priority" of the U.S... | | | I last interviewed Julian Assange on CNN on July 31, 2016. Looking back now, the segment is rather eerie. The tease: Is Julian Assange "planning his own October surprise against Hillary Clinton?" Then I asked Assange about Clinton's charges that he was working with Russia, and he did not deny it -- instead, he just dodged and attacked Clinton some more... Here's the video and the transcript... | | Sessions reacting to right-wing media narratives? | | This is a victory for the pro-Trump, anti-Clinton right wing media: "Jeff Sessions is entertaining the idea of appointing a second special counsel to investigate a host of Republican concerns -- including alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation and the controversial sale of a uranium company to Russia," the WashPost's Matt Zapotosky reported Monday evening. Prominent conservative writers and entertainers have been promoting "Clinton Foundation" and "Uranium One" storylines for months... And President Trump has been watching...
-- Former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer tweeted: "Fake scandals promoted by Fox News fake journalists now get their own fake criminal investigation paid for with real taxpayer dollars..."
-- CFR fellow Max Boot tweeted: "How long before we have a pizzagate special counsel?" | | Will Sessions be asked about the AT&T deal? | | | A.G. Jeff Sessions is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee at 10am Tuesday. It's an oversight hearing... the Dems will be asking lots of Russia Q's... but I'll be watching to see if anyone asks about the DOJ's review of the AT&T-Time Warner deal... | | Bloomberg: "AT&T Ready to Probe the White House's Role in Time Warner Deal" | | Bloomberg's Monday night scoop: "In the event of a trial over the $85.4 billion deal, AT&T intends to seek court permission for access to communications between the White House and the Justice Department about the takeover... AT&T will also try to get any evidence about whether Rupert Murdoch tried to influence the review..."
-- ICYMI: This was my overview of the controversy on Sunday's "Reliable..." | | -- Bloomberg's editorial board says DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim "might have a good reason" to block the deal, "but if he does, he ought to explain it more persuasively than he has so far..."
-- The WashPost's editorial board says "the president's behavior has cast a cloud of doubt over the work of these honorable civil servants," and "the Senate subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights should exercise its oversight responsibility and convene a hearing on the matter..."
-- Jonathan Peters' latest column for CJR is a reminder that the FDR and Nixon administrations leveraged antitrust principles to punish news organizations... | | Roy Moore accuser speaks on camera | | The largest newspapers in Alabama, owned by Advance Publications, published an editorial on Monday night calling Roy Moore "grossly unfit" for office. He "simply cannot be a U.S. Senator," the papers said. This was in the wake of Monday afternoon's testimonial from Beverly Young Nelson, who accused Moore of sexual assault and said she'd be willing to testify under oath. Gloria Allred organized the press conference. Nelson was the fifth woman to be named publicly, but the first woman to speak on camera... And her heart-wrenching comments were shown all evening long on local and national newscasts...
-- Moore held a hastily organized "news conference" for local media, and denied Nelson's allegations, but then refused to answer any Q's...
-- Moore threatened to sue the WashPost on Sunday night, but I don't know anyone who believes he really will... | | | Via THR's Jeremy Barr, "Marty Baron says at Columbia University event that it took 3-4 weeks to pull together Roy Moore story... Baron says that the women were initially 'very reluctant' to talk on the record and have their names used. 'They have not backed off their stories, despite all the pressure and the criticism,' he said... Baron says that Breitbart went down to Alabama to disprove the story, but said: 'From what I can tell, so far they've just confirmed the story...'" | | Frustration and embarrassment in Alabama | | Today I wrote about the frustration that some Alabama reporters feel. But there's another emotion as well: embarrassment. There's some sheepishness about the fact that these rumors about Moore made the rounds for decades, but no local outlet published a detailed story about it. The WashPost came in from 750 miles away and scooped everyone.
Now reporters in Alabama are playing catch-up. In a story published on AL.com on Monday night, Anna Claire Vollers quoted a local resident who said "these stories have been going around this town for 30 years. Nobody could believe they hadn't come out yet..." | | -- Oliver Darcy wrote about how some prominent conservative talkers "sought to discredit or cast doubt" on the allegations...
-- Some of Hannity's guests criticized Moore on Monday night... But Fox's prime time lineup featured a lot of Clinton bashing and obscure stories..
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest: "The ugly echo chamber of Hannity and Breitbart is why women wait so long to report abuse..." | | -- Hadas Gold reports: "The production company behind the American version of the Russian state-funded network RT has officially filed as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice..." (CNNMoney)
-- CNN political analyst Rebecca Berg is now joining the network full-time as a political reporter...
-- Strangest story of the day? Sean Hannity "calls for Keurig protesters to stand down after company CEO apologizes for pulling ads..." (Fox)
-- Media Matters, which has been urging a Hannity ad boycott, says Volvo and several other advertisers have also dropped Hannity... Fox has no comment... (Media Matters) | | Radhika Jones taking the reins at VF | | Tom Kludt and Jackie Wattles write: "For the first time in more than 20 years, Vanity Fair has a new editor in chief. Radhika Jones, the editorial director of the NYT's books department and former editor in chief of Time magazine, will take over as top editor of Vanity Fair, replacing Graydon Carter..."
-- Jones spoke with VF media reporter Joe Pompeo on Monday afternoon. "What's one thing you'd want people to know about you?" "That I'm an omnivore, culturally speaking, and story-wise too. I'm always ready to be interested in something..."
-- Dylan Byers tweeted: "The buzz is that Graydon Carter annual salary = ~$3 million, and that Radhika Jones annual salary will = ~$500k... Changing times in the magazine industry..." | | | CNNMoney's Julia Carpenter emails from the 2017 Glamour Women of the Year awards: Nicole Kidman, Maxine Waters and "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins are among the honorees. But in the midst of all the A-list glitz, NYT reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor took the stage to discuss the impact of their investigation into Harvey Weinstein. "We have a chance to shift the narrative," Anita Hill said. Oh yeah, because Anita Hill was there too. Hill was welcomed onstage along with three other survivors of sexual harassment: Ann Cardenas, Cameron Russell, and Aly Raisman, who recently said she was abused by her team doctor for 15 years. "Women deserve to go to work, to go to school, to compete as Aly does, free of harassment," Hill said... | | T. Swift on the brink of 1 million | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Taylor Swift is about to sell a million copies. The pop star has sold more than 925,000 copies of "Reputation" since releasing her new album on Friday. Assuming she sells another 75,000 copies (safe assumption), it'll be her fourth consecutive album that has sold 1 million copies in its first week... | | Amazon's "Lord of the Rings" deal | | Sandra Gonzalez writes: Amazon is going to Middle Earth. The streaming service on Monday announced it is bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic to television, with a multiple season commitment. Read more...
-- More: The deal includes potential for spin-off series as well...
-- Sandra's story notes that this is "Amazon's first major programming announcement" since Roy Price's departure... | | Just how much $$$ is Amazon spending? | | | Staggering #'s in Nellie Andreeva's Deadline story: "Amazon, Netflix and HBO had been approached by the Tolkien estate, who had been shopping the project. It came with an upfront rights payment said to be in the $200 million-$250 million range, and I hear Amazon landed the rights by paying close to $250 million. That is just for the rights, before any costs for development, talent and production, in proposition whose finances industry observers called 'insane.' It is a payment that is made sight unseen as there is no concept, and there are no creative auspices attached to the possible series. On top of that, the budget for a fantasy series of that magnitude is likely to be $100 million-$150 million a season..." | | Why spend so much? Think global... | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Amazon's deal for a "Lord of the Rings" TV series makes a lot of sense because the company is trying to make a name for itself in international markets. "Lord of the Rings" is one of the most popular brands globally. In fact, international ticket sales accounted for no less than 63% of the grosses for each of Peter Jackson's six "LOTR" and "Hobbit" films. That's the allure of fantasy brands like "LOTR," "Game of Thrones," and "Star Wars" for streamers trying to build an audience. Those stories don't take place in any one world, so they go beyond translation and can be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere... | | -- CBS's "The Talk" will announce its new co-host on Tuesday... (Twitter)
-- Colin Kaepernick is one of GQ's citizens of the year... (CNNMoney)
-- Via Ahiza Garcia and Dylan Byers: "The NFL expects that a contract extension for Commissioner Roger Goodell will be 'done shortly,' a league source says..." (CNNMoney)
-- A+E Networks is taking a "substantial minority investment" in Dan Abrams' LawNewz Network... (WSJ)
-- "Two U.S. House Democrats on Monday asked the FCC inspector general to probe whether FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was biased in favor of Sinclair..." (Reuters) | | Rebecca Traister's must-read | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: Make sure you read Rebecca Traister's thoughtful analysis about grappling with the recent wave of sexual harassment stories. What I really appreciated here is how Traister teased out many of the engrained, penalizing dynamics that women have internalized. Things like: "Despite the talk of witch hunts, and the satisfaction of finally seeing a few men penalized in any way whatsoever for their wrongdoing, most women I know feel torn about both the vague prospect and the observed reality of these men losing their jobs. We think of their feelings and their families, fret that the disclosure of their misdeeds might cost them future employment, or even provoke them to harm themselves. But this is something else we're now being compelled to notice: how we're still conditioned to worry for the men, but somehow to not afford the same compassion for women -- their families, their feelings, their future prospects -- even in a reckoning that is supposed to be about them, about us." | | Monday's other developments | | -- Via Recode: "Steve Jurvetson is out at his own venture capital firm after allegations of sexual harassment..."
-- CJR is asking for info: "We're looking into how newsrooms address internal reports of sexual misconduct. Please help us by filling out our survey..."
-- "Financial pressures on The Weinstein Company keep mounting," THR's Eriq Gardner reports...
-- Variety's Brent Lang says Weinstein Co. "is trying to find a buyer for 'Paddington 2' before the indie film studio files for bankruptcy protection..."
-- Via NYT's Cara Buckley: Louis CK's former manager Dave Becky apologized on Monday...
-- +1 to this tweet by Josh Barro: "The deluge of ugly stories is a sign of a country starting to come to grips with an old problem, not a country getting worse..." | | | On "The Lead," Jake Tapper highlighted President Trump's "hah" reaction to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte calling journalists "spies," and he said, "We do remember when American presidents thought that the principles of free speech and freedom of the press were not a laughing matter..." | | Joe Biden was on all four hours of NBC's "Today" show on Monday, jump-starting the tour for his new book "Promise Me, Dad," which comes out on Tuesday. Biden is dropping hints about his interest in running in 2020... Which led Chris Matthews to say this on Monday's "Hardball:" "Hey, look, he's running. Let's stop the game here. Don't be coy here Joe, Uncle Joe, you're running!"
-- 📺: Biden is also on the "Late Show" Monday night... | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Matt Drudge fired back at the Washington Post on Monday for a story it published last week noting his popular site has linked more than 1,000 times to RT, Sputnik, and Infowars. Drudge tweeted "I've linked to @washingtonpost over 10,000X in 25 years of doing DRUDGEREPORT. I currently give them 37% of their referral traffic, according to SimilarWeb.com. It's a brutal business. Not even a thank you. Instead: YOU'RE A RUSSIAN OPERATIVE!" | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Journalists working with Facebook on its fact-checking effort say the project is largely a failure... (The Guardian)
-- An interesting experiment in newsroom transparency: "The Swag Project." Racked discloses all the gifts and freebies its newsroom has received over the year (worth a whopping $95,000), and outlines its ethics policy... (Racked)
-- Elaina Plott's stunning account of a day in the life of Omarosa Manigault... (Daily Beast)
-- Charles Ornstein is the new senior editor at ProPublica in charge of the Local Reporting Network... (ProPublica) | | A notable opponent of Murdoch's Sky bid... | | | Hadas Gold emails: A founding chairman of Sky and a former Murdoch lieutenant is urging the British government to block 21st Century Fox's attempted takeover of Sky. Andrew Neil, a former editor of the Sunday Times, said he opposes the deal not because of what he thinks Murdoch might do to the company, but rather because he fears that British media is increasingly becoming foreign-owned. "We are in danger of ending up in the situation where nearly all our commercial broadcasters will be foreign-owned," Neil told the British regulator currently investigating the deal. "We will have given away the crown jewels. I take the view that as Britain makes its way in the 21st century, one of the 12 industries in which we will make our way is broadcasting, because we are good at it and the rest of the world likes what we do." This was first flagged by the Telegraph, but the original testimony is here from last week... | | Every day from now until December 1, CNN Opinion will present a new column about the importance of a free press. Here's the landing page...
>> Here's my contribution: "Press freedom" protects and ensures your freedom. | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Jimmy Fallon returns to the "Tonight Show" Monday night... His first show since a week's worth of shows were canceled due to the death of his mother, Gloria, last week. I'm guessing that Fallon will take a moment to speak about his mother at the top of the broadcast... | | Lowry reviews Hulu's next two series | | | Brian Lowry emails: Hulu scored a streaming breakthrough with its Emmy win for "The Handmaid's Tale," and follows that up with two potentially commercial but fairly undistinguished series premiering over the next two weeks: "Future Man," a sci-fi comedy produced by Seth Rogen, and starring "The Hunger Games'" Josh Hutcherson; and Marvel's "Runaways," a comic-book adaptation that's basically a teen soap from the producers of "Gossip Girl..." Read more here... | | | More from Lowry: THR appeared to confuse cause and effect regarding the weekend box office, proposing that Mel Gibson might be "family friendly" again because of the solid $30-million opening for "Daddy's Home 2." What those figures don't reflect is how many people saw the movie -- a sequel to a popular comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg -- in spite of Gibson's presence in a co-starring role, or opted not to see it... | | | Catch up on Sunday's show | | | | 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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