| | | | | Exec summary: Hello from the "CNN Heroes" gala at the American Museum of Natural History... Scroll down for sightings... Plus Tamara Holder's message for Rupert Murdoch, Sheila Nevins' big announcement, "Last Jedi" $$$'s, and the quote of the day courtesy Pope Francis... | | "No, I'm not" considering firing Robert Mueller, President Trump said Sunday night in response to a reporter's shouted question. If that's true, many of his media allies are going to be disappointed. They have been urging him to fire Mueller -- and more. Jeanine Pirro wants to see FBI officials in handcuffs.
I said on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" that these FOTs, friends of Trump, sound like propagandists. Every day, multiple times a day, they're telling Trump and millions of other viewers that Mueller's probe is a corrupt plot to reverse the outcome of the election. Case in point: This Saturday segment by Jesse Watters featuring Kellyanne Conway. The banner: "A COUP IN AMERICA?" | | | Here's my column about the "anti-Mueller feedback loop" for CNNMoney... | | Reactions to this dangerous rhetoric | | -- Defense One exec editor Kevin Baron tweeted: "Coup?! I cover wars. Militaries. Actual coups. Where citizens violently rise up and kill each other for power over each other. This is alarmingly irresponsible language, even for Fox. Inflammatory. Baseless. Dangerous."
-- Former Ted Cruz campaign national spokesman Ron Nehring: "Use of the word 'coup' by Fox News after Russia has deliberately worked to destabilize US democracy is extremely irresponsible and should be roundly condemned..."
-- Regarding Pirro comparing FBI officials to a "crime family," Maggie Haberman tweeted: "Reminder that Pirro recently met w Trump in the Oval and told him Mueller was pursuing a classic mafia prosecution..."
-- Former acting CIA director (now MSNBC analyst) John McLaughlin: "Collusion? Clearest example is among congressional GOP, Fox, and Pres. Trump to delegitimize Bob Mueller's inquiry. Pretty obvious really..."
-- Kurt Bardella on "Reliable Sources:" Fox News is "getting its cues directly from the White House..." You can watch the rest of our discussion here... | | | I had to get this off my chest: The American people need to know exactly how Russia interfered in the election last year. We need to know if the Russians had any help. We need to know if the Trump campaign knew about the Russian attack. We need to know if the president of the United States is somehow compromised by a foreign government. We need to know if he obstructed justice. THAT'S what Robert Mueller is probing. We deserve the answers... And all the shouting from pro-Trump noisemakers distracts from the answers... | | | Via Monday's WashPost, inside the West Wing: "Advisers who have spoken recently with Trump about the Russia investigation said the president was sharply critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as well as Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller operation -- but did not broach the idea of firing Mueller..." | | -- Josh Barro's smart theory (via Twitter): "This strategy of delegitimization is a *substitute* for firing him..."
-- ICYMI: "Things that might appear to be bad in the press have more innocent explanations," A.G. Jeff Sessions said Friday... | | | 🔌: Bill Carter and I will be talking more about this on CNN's "New Day" in the 7am hour Monday... | | Sheila Nevins leaving HBO | | Sheila Nevins wanted to announce her news her way: Through a Maureen Dowd feature on the front page of the NYT's Sunday Styles section. The story hit online on Saturday morning: "The Grande Dame of Documentary Is Leaving Her Home at HBO." It notes that Dowd has been working for 38 years "day and night, through weekends and vacations, supervising the production of over 1,200 documentaries."
"There's something exciting about leaving a job," Nevins told Dowd. "I can't explain it. I have deprived my life of a life. All I did was work. I was, like, born at HBO and I don't have to die there. If I stayed any longer, I probably would have died at my desk. I just regret that there's so little time left."
Per Dowd, Nevins "is taking several projects with her when she leaves that she will finish at home. She is musing about a radio show with Sirius called 'Kicking Ass With Sheila Nevins' and maybe another book..." | | HBO will send out an announcement on Monday... | | HBO will make the Nevins news "official" with a press release on Monday. Word about a successor will probably come later in the week -- definitely not Monday.
(Full disclosure here: I had a couple of meetings with Nevins about a project earlier this year.) | | | Brian Lowry emails: It's hard to overstate the clout that Nevins -- and the resources to which she had access -- has had in the documentary business, where filmmakers always seem to be scrounging for money. Other players, most notably Netflix but also CNN and others, have gotten into the game, but for years the road for documentarians began and sometimes ended with earning her support, and in the process Nevins championed an eclectic and impressive array of programming... | | | I missed this on Friday, but it's significant: Bill Moyers, who retired from his weekly PBS series three years ago, is now retiring his web site too. At least that's what it sounds like. "It's time for another farewell, and with this note I am signing off," he wrote Friday. He notified readers that BillMoyers.com "will go into archive mode" on Wednesday... | | TicToc launches on Monday | | On Monday morning Bloomberg Media will launch TicToc, its "24/7 global news network" built for Twitter... It'll go live at 8am ET... Here's the landing page... Mark me down as very skeptical, but curious...
--> How Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait describes TicToc: "It's early days, but what makes TicToc by Bloomberg unique is that consumers will be able to watch live news and the conversation around it at the same time, all while a dedicated team of Bloomberg editors verifies the facts..." | | -- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column: "What Meryl Streep and 'The Post' can teach us about the power of being a female boss..." (WashPost)
-- Congrats to WashPost's Ashley Parker and WSJ's Michael Bender! He proposed and she said yes... (Instagram)
-- Speaking of W.H. reporters: "After two wonderful years at The Daily Caller, I'm leaving to join Fox News," Alex Pfeiffer announced. "I'm starting the new year at Tucker Carlson Tonight as an associate producer..." (Twitter) | | "Last Jedi" is a box office force | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Tell me if you've heard this one before... "Star Wars" now rules the box office galaxy. "The Last Jedi" ranks as the second biggest U.S. opening ever, with a $220 million haul this weekend. "The Force Awakens" remains #1. Around the world, "Jedi" made $450 million. That's impressive since it has yet to open in China, the world's second biggest movie market. It opens there January 5... | | | -- Frank's favorite "Last Jedi" stat: 62% of this weekend's U.S. audience was over the age of 25. So much for this being a kid's movie. Read his full story here... | | What's next? Well, more "Star Wars" | | | Frank Pallotta adds: The next stop in a galaxy far, far away is the Han Solo prequel "Solo: A Star Wars Story" in May... And then we get a bit of respite from blasters and the Millennium Falcon until "Episode IX," which closes out the new trilogy, in December 2019... | | Brian Lowry emails: The sharply divided reaction to "The Last Jedi" among "Star Wars" fans -- as expressed through social media and movie-review sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic -- shouldn't come as a big surprise.
Fan communities are basically groups of people with a shared interest, but that doesn't mean they all harbor the same views on how they would like to see the story go. In that regard, they're not all that different from the friction we're seeing in the two major political parties, albeit this is over the question of how to manage a fictional universe.
The disparity between fan reaction and critical praise is a little harder to parse, but one theory would be a lot of critics come to these movies with relatively low expectations – they're easy to dismiss as consumer-products-vending mechanisms – and were likely more sanguine about some of the moments that irritated a sizable part of the fan base... | | A big end to a big week for Disney | | | Frank Pallotta adds: The House of Mouse had a helluva week. The big "Last Jedi" box office follows the massive $54 billion deal the company made to buy up most of 21st Century Fox. Disney is hoping it can turn some of those assets into record box offices as well... | | Rich Greenfield's "Reliable" debut | | | On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," BTIG's Rich Greenfield dismantled the White House's suggestion that the Disney-Fox deal could be a job CREATOR. He projects that it will result in thousands of job losses. Here's the video of the segment, also featuring Amy Chozick and David Folkenflik... | | NYPost says Time Inc. is shedding its name | | | "The name Time Inc., one of the most iconic in publishing the last 95 years, will soon disappear," Keith Kelly reported Friday night. His sources said Meredith will take the name off Time's HQ building... "The only place it will remain, in part, is on Time magazine..." | | Olivia Metzger on the way out of CAA | | | Lots of eyes in the TV news biz on this Yashar Ali scooplet: Olivia Metzger has resigned from CAA. She "plans to continue representing clients whether she ends up going to another agency or starting her own firm." Her client list at CAA includes Jeff Glor, Poppy Harlow, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin, Kristen Welker, Stephanie Ruhle, Martha MacCallum, Ainsley Earhardt, and Ryan Kadro, among others... | | Hoda Kotb is continuing to co-host the 7 and 8am hours of the "Today" show with Savannah Guthrie... It feels strange calling her Matt Lauer's fill-in at this point, since Lauer has been gone for three weeks... While CBS has had a different replacement for Charlie Rose each week, NBC has stayed with Kotb each week... "If it ain't broke, why fix it?"
>> This week on "CBS This Morning:" Anthony Mason is co-hosting... | | -- "A man stabbed two Danish journalists in Gabon's capital, declaring it was in retaliation for U.S. attacks against Muslims and leaving one reporter in serious condition..." (AP)
-- Michael de la Merced's latest: "As giants like Disney and AT&T strike huge takeovers, Aryeh B. Bourkoff and his boutique, LionTree, are seeking to seize the moment to grow...." (NYT) | | Tamara Holder's testimony | | If you were watching "Reliable Sources" live this morning, you probably felt how I felt -- blown away by Tamara Holder's extraordinary statement to Rupert Murdoch.
Here's the ten-minute video in its entirety. CNNMoney's Jackie Wattles wrote a full story about her remarks here. Holder, a former Fox News contributor who settled with the network, said she was breaking her NDA because Murdoch's dismissive comments ("nonsense!") had freed her to speak out. Still, "they will probably sue me," she said.
"Either Mr. Murdoch is a liar, or he's delusional and old and needs to get out," Holder said. Read/watch here... Or check out Mediaite and The Hill's followup coverage... | | Murdoch "complicit in wrecking careers?" | | Murdoch's comments on Sky News were outrageous. He DID acknowledge there were serious cases, and hers was clearly a serious case... And some folks at Fox object to Holder's claim that the network "got rid of all the women who were abused," since Megyn Kelly was offered a huge contract, etc... But Murdoch's contemptuous tone has done real damage...
-- More: Juliet Huddy tweeted: "Rupert Murdoch is not just a media mogul. He's a perpetrator, complicit in wrecking careers of hardworking, talented people while protecting their tormentors..."
-- Yashar Ali shared a quote from an anonymous current Fox News host: "It's not fair that Rupert can speak out about us with such a broad brush while we can't say a word about what we've been through and/or speak out about the behavior of management and the culture that's has festered for over 20 years." | | | Due to the uproar over Rupert's comments, 21CF issued this statement on Friday night: "Rupert never characterized the sexual harassment matters at FOX News as 'nonsense.' Rather, he responded negatively to the suggestion that sexual harassment issues were an obstacle to the Company's bid for the rest of Sky. Under Rupert's leadership and with his total support, the Company exited Roger Ailes, compensated numerous women who were mistreated; trained virtually all of its employees; exited its biggest star; and hired a new head of HR. By his actions, Rupert has made it abundantly clear that he understands that there were real problems at FOX News. Rupert values all of the hard-working colleagues at FOX News, and will continue to address these matters to ensure FOX News maintains its commitment to having a work environment based on the values of trust and respect." | | Daily Caller reveals 1999 complaint against Chris Matthews | | In 1999, Chris Matthews was reprimanded by execs after a female staffer came forward with a complaint about his behavior. The staffer received a payout -- not a settlement per se, but there was a financial resolution.
The Daily Caller broke this news on Saturday evening... and an MSNBC spokesperson confirmed... "In 1999 this matter was thoroughly reviewed and dealt with. At that time Matthews received a formal reprimand." I asked whether there were any other complaints or payments in Matthews' past, and the spokesperson declined to comment... | | Anita Hill is leading this commission | | ICYMI on Friday: Hollywood execs are forming the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace. Anita Hill will chair the group. Jackie Wattles has the full story here...
The execs who agreed to "form and fund" the commission: Ari Emanuel, Bob Iger, Bryan Lourd, Carol Lombardini, Chris Silbermann, David Young, Dawn Hudson, Gabrielle Carteris, Jeff Blackburn, Jeff Shell, Jeremy Zimmer, Jim Gianopulos, Karen Stuart, Kevin Tsujihara, Maury McIntyre, Mike Miller, Russ Hollander, Lucian Grainge, Susan Sprung, Ted Sarandos, Tony Vinciquerra, Julie Greenwald, Leslie Moonves, Neil Portnow. | | | "For Hotel Workers, Weinstein Allegations Put a Spotlight on Harassment" is Benjamin Mueller's story about the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel, "where Harvey Weinstein often stayed," and where "female employees said they often felt helpless next to Hollywood titans whom the hotel went to extreme lengths to please..." | | New name for "A Prairie Home Companion" | | When MPR terminated its contract with Garrison Keillor last month, it lost the legal rights to the name "A Prairie Home Companion." So this weekend Keillor's successor, Chris Thile, announced a new name for the weekly variety show: "Live From Here."
(Coincidentally, after I wrote this item, I found out Thile and his wife Claire Coffee are seated with me at CNN Heroes. They say hi!) | | | Matt Drudge tweeted this 👍 on Sunday: "Mike Allen is DC's top reporter. Bold, plugged in, mysterious and controversial. In this extremely polarizing era, Allen answers with news. His Axios work reminds of the late Robert D. Novak. With treacherous 2018 looming, watch him!" The proximate cause of the tweet seemed to be Allen's Saturday scoop about Mueller's team obtaining Trump transition emails. Hey, "answering with news" is always the right answer... | | The effects of "fake news" talk | | Committee to Protect Journalists advocacy director Courtney Radsch joined me on Sunday's "Reliable..." She said that in 2017 "the whole 'false news' issue has landed more than twice as many journalists in jail as last year." She said CPJ is seeing that the "fake" slur is being used "not only to imprison and attack journalists, but to kick them out of the country."
--> Watch the full segment here... It also features the attorney for Emilio Gutierrez Soto, the Mexican journalist in U.S. detention who's facing deportation back to Mexico. Read Polo Sandoval and Linh Tran's full CNN.com story about the case here... | | Catch up on Sunday's show | | | You can read the transcript... Or watch the videos of each segment on CNN.com... Or listen to the show as a podcast through iTunes and other streaming services. This week's episode will hold up pretty well as a podcast for the next few days... | | "You shouldn't fall into the 'sins of communication:' disinformation, or giving just one side, calumny that is sensationalized, or defamation, looking for things that are old news and have been dealt with and bringing them to light today."
--Pope Francis speaking with Catholic media organizations on Saturday... | | This is one of the best days of CNN's year. Click here to meet this year's ten heroes...
The telecast is still on CNN as I type this, but here are my sightings from the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life: Anderson Cooper, Kelly Ripa, Diane Lane, Gaten Matarazzo, Christopher Meloni, Diane Warren, Megan Boone, Sterling K. Brown, Jim Gaffigan, Don Lemon, Brooke Baldwin, Samantha Barry, John Berman, Andra Day, Common, Angela Rye, S.E. Cupp, Ashleigh Banfield, Alisyn Camerota, Dave Briggs, Polo Sandoval, Amy Entelis, Jeff Zucker, David Leavy, John Martin, Michael Bass, Rick Davis, Allison Gollust... | | "War on Christmas," SNL style | | Frank Pallotta writes: It's the most wonderful time of the year... and "SNL" had a special Christmas message from "President Trump" on Saturday night.
"The war on Christmas is over," Alec Baldwin's Trump said. "It will soon be replaced by the war with North Korea."
Baldwin's Trump stood alongside his wife, Cecily Strong's Melania Trump, as the two wished a Merry Christmas to all from the White House. "It's Christmas time. Soon white Santa will be coming from house to house, taking presents from Muslims and illegals and giving them to American children," Baldwin's president cracked. Read/watch here... | | | 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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