| | | | | Exec summary: Scroll down for fresh reporting about Ryan Lizza, Vanity Fair, Casey Affleck, Oprah Winfrey, FiveThirtyEight, and much more... | | Will Trump try to fire Mueller again? | | | The news cycle took a startling 90-degree turn at 8:16pm ET Thursday. The NYT's headline says it all: "Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, but Backed Off When White House Counsel Threatened to Quit." | | The NYT's Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman co-bylined the story. Carl Bernstein, on CNN, called it "yet another remarkable scoop" by the paper. The WashPost, Politico, CNN, and other outlets quickly matched the story...
--> In the 8pm hour, Schmidt called into MSNBC while Haberman called into CNN. Fox remained in its alternate universe and ignored the breaking news for a full hour...
--> Erik Wemple tweeted: "A few weeks ago: Schmidt is attacked for insufficiently critical interview of Trump. Today: Breaks one of this presidency's biggest stories with Haberman..." | | "I'm a little surprised at how effective people in the White House were at lying to us about what was actually going on at the time," Haberman commented on the air. Remember, Chris Ruddy said in June that Trump was considering firing Mueller, and W.H. aides "insisted Ruddy was wrong."
CNN's Kaitlan Collins amplified this point on Don Lemon's show later in the evening. "The White House has spent the last seven months lying to not only reporters, but the American people because they have said the President did not consider firing" Mueller, she said. For example, Kellyanne Conway said on ABC in August that "the president has not even discussed that..." | | | Bernstein on "AC360:" This report shows once again "that the president, at all costs, does not want this investigation to go forward. He does not want to allow the facts to emerge..." | | Fox trashed NYT... until Fox confirmed the story | | Around 9:35, Fox's Ed Henry relayed the NYT's blockbuster story and Sean Hannity began making excuses. "I'm sure the president did look at conflicts of interest! as he should!" Hannity said. He complained about "phony anonymous sourcing" while Gregg Jarrett told viewers that "these are not reliable sources." But then Henry confirmed the story. Hannity had to flip-flop. Mediaite has the "absolutely priceless" moment here...
--> More: Most of Hannity's show was about -- what else?! -- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. "We know she's a criminal! We know she had accomplices!" Seb Gorka exclaimed. Herman Cain said "somebody is going to go to jail. The only question is who and when?" | | -- Anthony Scaramucci to Chris Cuomo: The NYT report is "totally irrelevant because he actually didn't fire Mueller." This is a "water balloon" dropped on the president "when he's about to make a historic speech..."
-- Larry Sabato tweeted: "We nearly had another Saturday Night Massacre. It proves Trump is more than willing to fire Mueller. If he does, he'll end up like Nixon, or worse..."
-- Tim Naftali to Cuomo: "There is a crisis atmosphere hanging over the White House right now..."
-- Michael Bender wonders: "How many times did Don McGahn threaten to quit last summer?" | | | W.H. aides are "very worried about when he goes before Mueller," Haberman told Anderson Cooper. They're "worried about what he will say in that interview..." | | Trump's interviews were already taped... | | | ITV's Piers Morgan and CNBC's Joe Kernen both interviewed POTUS in Davos on Thursday, *before* this new revelation, so the interviews are dated before they even air... | | What I would have led with... | | Before the NYT story came out, the lead story would have been the debunking of the "secret memo" and "secret society" and "missing texts" conspiracy theories that dominated conservative media earlier this week. As Shep Smith said on Fox Thursday afternoon, "a memo can be a weapon of partisan mass distraction."
Notably, Hannity used a similar word on Thursday night... He told viewers the NYT "is trying to distract you" with the scoop about Trump and Mueller... | | | That's the breaking news from the WashPost's Erik Wemple... Here's the statement from CNN: "Upon learning of The New Yorker's decision to sever ties with Ryan Lizza in December, CNN pulled him from future on-air appearances while the network conducted an extensive investigation into the matter. Based on the information provided and the findings of the investigation, CNN has found no reason to continue to keep Mr. Lizza off the air." | | -- A HUD official called April Ryan "Miss Piggy" in a Twitter war that was sorta triggered by Ryan's appearance on "Reliable Sources" last Sunday. Lynne Patton apologized, but Ryan is not accepting the apology... (People)
-- Seung Min Kim is joining the WashPost's W.H. reporting team in a unique way... She'll be based on Capitol Hill to cover "the relationship between President Trump and Congress..." (WashPost)
-- The AP is setting up a reporting team "focused on marijuana legalization and regulation..." (AP)
-- Steven Perlberg's new profile of Mike Allen says Axios is valued at "more than $100 million..." Lots of other details here... (BuzzFeed) | | CNN pulls the plug on Beme | | BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg had the scoop on Thursday: CNN is closing down Casey Neistat's video company Beme. Tom Kludt's story for CNNMoney notes that "CNN dropped around $25 million" for Beme in November 2016. "At the time, CNN said that Beme would be a standalone company focused on producing 'timely and topical video and empowering content creators to use technology to find their voice.' But that lofty vision never materialized..."
And on Thursday, Neistat and Beme co-founder Matt Hackett said they are leaving CNN... Per CNN rep Matt Dornic, Beme "will no longer be a standalone business," but the "brand and products will live on at CNN..." | | Casey Niestat says he owns the failure | | Tom Kludt emails: It seems clear that Neistat -- who didn't respond to my request for an interview -- was unable to come up with a strategy for Beme at CNN. He told Perlberg that he increasingly found himself absent at his own company. "I couldn't find answers. I would sort of disappear, and I would hide, and I would make YouTube videos for my channel because at least I would be able [to] yield something," Neistat said...
--> He also tweeted: "Beme was never just me -- its successes were the work of many, but today's announcement, Beme's failure, is mine to own..."
--> CNN president Jeff Zucker, for his part, told staffers at a CNN town hall on Thursday that he'd do it all over again. "The only mistake we could make would be to stop taking chances," he said...
Speaking of the town hall... | | Zucker "intends to stay" at CNN | | | Via THR's Jeremy Barr: "Zucker said he's not leaving and has not had any talks with ESPN or parent company Disney. 'I fully intend to stay at CNN and have no desire to work at ESPN,' he told his employees..." | | Where will FiveThirtyEight end up? | | "By the time mid-term election season really heats up, Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight will in all likelihood have a different platform than ESPN," The Big Lead's Ryan Glasspiegel reports.
ESPN confirmed that it's thinking about a sale: "We are exploring, with Nate, a variety of options for the future, and any discussion of exactly what that might look like would be premature..."
Via Glasspiegel: "According to a person with knowledge of the news, there is 'significant interest' in FiveThirtyEight. Among the several potential options are a sale to The Atlantic or another outlet, or moving the platform elsewhere in the Disney umbrella, most likely integrating it with ABC News." So: Where will FiveThirtyEight end up? | | -- "Advertising revenue from in-game NFL programming declined 1.2% to $2.42 billion during the 2017 regular season..." (WSJ)
-- "MoviePass has withdrawn its subscription service from several high-traffic AMC theaters without revealing the reason why..." (Variety)
-- Ricardo Bilton goes inside NBC Left Field, a "12-person experimental video unit..." (NiemanLab)
-- Hey media reporters and columnists: The deadline for the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism is Jan. 31... (Penn State) | | | "This is my final issue of Vanity Fair." Graydon Carter's letter in March's VF was published on the web on Thursday. He's on the cover of the issue... In between Gal Gadot and Robert De Niro... | | Photoshop fail? In one of Annie Leibovitz's photos for March's VF, Oprah appears to have three hands. In the cover photo, Reese Witherspoon appears to have three legs.
Reese joked on Twitter: "Well...I guess everybody knows now...I have 3 legs. I hope you can still accept me for who I am." Oprah replied: "I accept your 3rd leg. As I know you accept my 3rd hand..." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Twitter seems to be taking a cue from Snapchat, with a new video-posting tool in the works... (Bloomberg)
-- A new ad setting in Google lets you mute reminder ads for products and services you don't want... (TechCrunch)
-- Congrats to the 28 women selected for this year's Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media! (Poynter) | | Oprah says she doesn't "have the DNA" for 2020 | | Oprah Winfrey told In Style EIC Laura Brown that running for president is "not something that interests me." But she also alluded to how her friends are urging her to run.
The interview came out on Thursday, but it was conducted three weeks before the Golden Globes. Oprah hasn't commented since the Globes. But she'll be doing more press for "A Wrinkle In Time," and 2020 will keep coming up...
--> In the interview, Oprah's comment that "I don't have the DNA for it" -- for running -- is the closest thing to a denial IMHO. But her concerns about the Trump era also come through loud and clear... | | | "Multiple talent representatives, none of whom would talk on the record, told THR that" that Megyn Kelly's takedown of Jane Fonda "has made them think twice about booking their clients on Megyn Kelly Today," Marisa Guthrie reports. "Others said it was the last straw. 'Actors don't trust her,' said one." However: "An NBC News representative says Kelly has not lost any bookings since Monday's show..." | | Byline strike in Pittsburgh | | | Tensions still running high at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Per TribLive: Readers "will not see bylines from staff writers indefinitely as journalists pulled their names from news articles Thursday in protest of stalled contract talks between the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and the paper's owners..." | | | For the record, part four | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Via Eli Rosenberg: "Their school deleted an article on a teacher's firing. So these teens published it themselves..." (WashPost)
-- ICYMI: Jia Tolentino's reflection on the #MeToo backlash is a must-read: "From the beginning, there's been a reflexive cry: we shouldn't lump all male misbehavior together. There has been little insistence on parsing and making room for the gradations of women's resistance. When women push back on sexual misconduct, the viability of the entire movement seems to hinge on each act..." (The New Yorker)
-- At a time when print media keeps scaling back and cutting costs, the NYT profiles an archive that's "heaven for magazines..." (NYT) | | Julia Waldow emails: Nightly news guru Andrew Tyndall's 2017 "year in review" report is out. The number one story on ABC/NBC/CBS was... no surprise... the Russian election meddling probe, with a total 677 minutes of coverage (245 ABC, 266 CBS, and 166 NBC). Coming in second was the fight over Obamacare (444 minutes total), followed by North Korea (300), Hurricane Harvey (272), and James Comey's firing (241).
Also included in Tyndall's report: Reporter airtime. Three ABCers ranked highest: Jonathan Karl was #1 with 374 minutes, Mary Bruce with 363, and Cecilia Vega with 352. CBS's Nancy Cordes was on for 318 minutes and NBC's Hallie Jackson was on for 306. Read the full report here... | | Russell Simmons accused of rape | | | Lisa Respers France emails: Russell Simmons has been accused of rape in a lawsuit. Documentary filmmaker Jennifer Jarosik alleges that the mogul used a potential business venture as a guise to assault her in 2016. Simmons said in a statement her allegations are "absolutely untrue..." | | Casey Affleck withdraws from presenting this year's best actress Oscar | | Chloe Melas emails: It's Academy tradition for the previous year's best actor winner to present the best actress Oscar. Casey Affleck won the best actor award in 2017 for his role in "Manchester By the Sea." But his rep confirmed to me that he will not be attending this year's Academy Awards. No comment about why.
A rep for The Academy said "we appreciate the decision to keep the focus on the show and on the great work of this year." The obvious backdrop for all this: The sexual harassment allegations in Affleck's past... | | Lowry reviews "Dirty Money" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Alex Gibney's "Dirty Money" -- a six-part documentary series on Netflix -- will likely draw some extra attention for its chapter subtitled "The Confidence Man," which takes a look at President Trump's business dealings. But the more pointed aspect of the project, in its totality, is a look at corporate scandals and corruption at a moment when the administration is moving to pare back regulations wherever possible... Read more... | | Celeb attorney Laura Wasser's new venture | | Lisa Respers France emails: It's not every day you get to interview Angelina Jolie's divorce attorney. Laura Wasser is THE celebrity divorce attorney and has repped everyone from the Kardashians to Stevie Wonder. She's launched a site, It's Over Easy, which boasts being able to help couples divorce in five easy steps (four if no kids are involved).
But isn't it a bit weird for a lawyer to be pushing a service that could make her services obsolete? Wasser told me she's not in the least bit worried... | | Remembering Allison Shearmur | | | NYT's Katie Rosman reports: "Allison Shearmur, a studio executive and independent producer who helped bring a string of box-office hits to the screen, including the 'Bourne' franchise, the 'Hunger Games' series and the yet-to-be-released 'Solo: A Star Wars Story,' died on Jan. 19 in Los Angeles. She was 54. The cause was lung cancer..." She had "received the diagnosis in 2016 but disclosed it only to her family and closest associates as she continued working on movie projects..." | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I love the feedback, corrections, suggestions, and tips. Thank you... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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