Exec summary: Is this 1991 all over again? There are "echoes of Anita Hill" in the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, as CNN's Joan Biskupic wrote here. Scroll down for details... Plus, the rest of the weekend's media news... My interview with Michael Avenatti... And the week ahead calendar...
Buying Time
"Why don't you buy a news outlet?" When this question is posed to a tech CEO nowadays, the exec is not caught off guard. Far from it. Usually the person has a very thoughtful answer. Some of Silicon Valley's richest are intrigued by the idea. Others are resolutely opposed. And others are... busy writing a big check.
Sunday's case in point: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. He is paying Meredith $190 million in cash for Time magazine. Benioff and his wife Lynne say it is a family investment, unrelated to Salesforce. They are calling themselves "caretakers." The WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg was first with the news. Here's my follow-up piece.
Welcoming Benioff to the club:
-- Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
-- Laurene Powell Jobs owns a majority stake in The Atlantic.
-- Biotech king Patrick Soon-Shiong owns the L.A. Times.
They've all pledged a hands-off approach to their respective news operations, while pushing for big improvements on the product side...
What's Benioff getting? | | Well, he calls the mag a "treasure trove of our history and culture." In an email to CNN's Laurie Segall, he said "the power of Time has always been in its unique story telling of the people and issues that affect us all and connect us all."
He added: "Lynne and I will take on no operational responsibility for Time, and look only to be the stewards of this historic and iconic brand."
Despite those reassurances, there will surely be -- and should be! -- scrutiny about a Silicon Valley CEO taking over Time, a magazine that frequently covers subjects like tech's impact on society. Salesforce has been mentioned more than 200 times by the mag, per my quick search of Time.com...
Segall's take
Laurie Segall has been covering Benioff for years. She emails: We're seeing tech leaders take a greater interest in preserving fundamentals of society that are increasingly under attack. With the narrative around tech changing... And everyone questioning the impact of these companies and their algorithms... tech execs are taking a broader role in society, widening their roles and burnishing their legacies. Maybe that's a part of this.
The annual Salesforce conference, Dreamforce, is next week, and Benioff has a cult following of folks who buy into the ethos of the company. It's about a lifestyle and a lot more than work -- so it doesn't completely surprise me to see him branching out...
Details about the deal
-- Meredith says the deal is expected to close in the next 30 days...
-- And Meredith will still provide "services such as consumer marketing, subscription fulfillment, paper purchasing and printing. Meredith will also be able to include the TIME brand in large corporate advertising buys..."
-- WSJ's Ben Mullin tweeted: "Meredith paid $1.85 billion for Time Inc. It just sold *one* of those properties for $190 million. That's roughly 10% of the total transaction value. And it still has SI and Fortune on the block. Not bad..."
-- Some comps: Bezos paid $250 mil for the Post five years ago... Axel Springer paid $442 million for BI three years ago... Tronc paid nothing for the NY Daily News last year...
Felsenthal remains EIC
"We are extremely fortunate to have Marc and Lynne's guidance and mentorship as we set out to build a new company," Time EIC Edward Felsenthal told staffers. I've posted his full memo here. Note his "new company" reference...
>> Felsenthal: "One of the first challenges Marc and Lynne gave us is to think big, really big. Beyond the five-year plan, what will TIME look like in 2040? What will it mean to people decades from now? That's what we'll all be thinking about as we create a new home for TIME rooted in what we know how to do so well, with the resources we need to reach our greatest potential as individuals and as a team..."
Ok, what about the other mags Meredith is selling?
Meredith officially started trying to sell Time way back in March. The process took much longer than expected. Three other titles are still up for sale: Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated. Benioff is not buying those. A Meredith spokeswoman told me that deals for the other three titles should be announced in the "near future." Any guesses?
Peter Kafka reports that many Fortune and Money employees had been hoping Benioff would buy them. Kafka also has some sobering details about SI's financials. "Whoever does buy them will have to be comfortable with the fact that they're buying businesses in decline..."
Media week ahead calendar
Monday: Apple is expected to push out its newest iOS update...
Monday morning: Jim Sciutto will join Poppy Harlow as the co-host of CNN's 9/10 a.m. hours...
Monday afternoon: "All Of It with Alison Stewart" debuts on WNYC...
Monday evening: The Emmy Awards on NBC...
Tuesday morning: Civil will start selling tokens...
Tuesday night: Tom Arnold's "Trump Tapes" show debuts on Viceland...
Thursday: Trump is holding a rally in Las Vegas...
Friday: Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9" hits theaters...
Will Julie Chen be back on "The Talk?"
She took last week off from the talk show, in the wake of her husband's exit from CBS. But she still hosted "Big Brother" and pointedly signed off as Julie Chen Moonves. Will she return to "The Talk" on Monday? I asked CBS, but so far there's no answer...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- NYMag just published "Introducing Soon-Yi Previn," a story about "the daughter of Mia Farrow and wife of Woody Allen," written by Daphne Merkin, a longtime friend of Allen's... (Vulture)
-- And the story is already incredibly controversial. "Both Ronan Farrow and Dylan Farrow tweeted statements refuting Previn's account" and criticizing the mag... (Variety)
-- Sam Grobart is joining Quartz in a new role, "editor for premium journalism," responsible for figuring out the content for Quartz's forthcoming subscription service...
-- "The Knight Foundation and the Lenfest Institute are each putting $10 million into a joint fund targeted at local news." So $20 million total, and maybe more in the future... (NiemanLab)
-- I missed this on Friday: Tronc is in "early stage" discussions about a sale to McClatchy... (Tribune)
| | Will Kavanaugh be confirmed?
The Senate Judiciary Committee is still scheduled to vote on Thursday. But Brett Kavanaugh's path to confirmation just got a lot more complicated. Get caught up via CNN.com's story here.
The woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, went public on Sunday through an interview with Emma Brown of The Washington Post. Brown had been working on the story for weeks. The tick-tock of her reporting process reveals a lot about how reluctant Ford was to speak out...
A reluctant voice
Brown's 1:30 p.m. story included all of the key details. Ford first contacted the Post through a "tip line" in early July, after Kavanaugh was on the SCOTUS short list, but before he was nominated. "Though Ford had contacted The Post, for weeks, she declined to speak on the record as she grappled with concerns about what going public would mean for her and her family — and what she said was her duty as a citizen to tell the story," Brown wrote.
First, Ford wrote to her local congresswoman, Anna G. Eshoo; then, via Eshoo's office, she wrote to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. All of this happened in July. Ford also hired a DC lawyer. But she saw Kavanaugh breezing toward confirmation and thought -- these are her words -- "why suffer through the annihilation if it's not going to matter?"
Per Brown, Ford decided "by late August" to stay quiet, "calculating that doing so would upend her life and probably would not affect Kavanaugh's confirmation."
As I said on CNN TV on Sunday, all of this detail supports the impression of a woman who agonized over this decision, who didn't rush to speak out for political purposes. Quite the opposite.
But then reporters from other news outlets started knocking at her door and calling her colleagues. BF's Kate Nocera tweeted Sunday that "BuzzFeed News had attempted to speak with her prior to news of the letter breaking. She declined to comment."
Ford told Brown that she heard people repeating untrue things about her. She feared being exposed and feared losing control, so she decided to share her name and story.
"I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation," she told Brown...
Will she speak on TV?
So far Ford's only interview has been with The Post. Will she sit down with a television interviewer? For better or worse, a TV segment could have more impact.
CNN's MJ Lee, reporting live outside Ford's home in Palo Alto, spoke with a friend who said, "She's fine. She's not interested in talking to you guys, though." Regarding her whereabouts, he said, "She's not going to be coming back here, no..."
The latest details
-- CNN obtained a copy of the letter Ford sent to Feinstein. Ana Cabrera read the entire letter aloud on "CNN Newsroom..."
-- Brown "has spent weeks talking and trying to confirm the claims" contained in the letter, her colleague Aaron C. Davis tweeted...
-- In The Post interview, Ford "named two other teenagers who she said were at the party." Those individuals "did not respond to messages" when The Post called. Their recollections could be very important...
-- Brown will be on CNN's "New Day" in the 7am hour on Monday...
IN OTHER NEWS...
My interview with Michael Avenatti | | This was Michael Avenatti's first TV interview since his bonkers appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." He called it a "clown show," but defended his decision to appear on Fox. He said, "If you're going to be a fighter, and you're going to fight for the future of this country and lead the Democratic Party, then you can't be ducking fights. Frankly, sometimes you have to go into the belly of the beast, as they say, and take on some of these individuals even if they're entirely unprofessional, like Tucker Carlson." Here's Jackie Wattles' recap of the interview...
>> I also challenged Avenatti about his "Trumpian tactics," like that time he threatened The Daily Caller...
My hunch...
Before the interview, I brought up a prediction that I also recently shared on Jamie Weinstein's podcast: That every U.S. president from here on out will be a television star of some sort. Not a reality show host necessarily... But they'll be media savvy, they'll have TV starpower, they'll know how to connect through the camera the same way Trump does. (Obama had this, too.)
Avenatti, who definitely knows his way around a TV studio, said he agrees: "People may not like this -- and we could have a debate about whether it's good for America or not -- but we live in a different media age... And whoever is going to aspire to the presidency is going to need to understand what that realm entails and how to navigate it..."
Lowry's take
Brian Lowry emails: In a way, Avenatti contradicted himself about the wisdom of going on certain Fox shows. The bottom line is Carlson isn't looking for a fair-fight debate with progressives; he brings them on as tackling dummies, using the tools of hosting to steer the conversation. To use his boxing analogy, it's like letting your opponent's corner control the bell and referee...
ICYMI:
Speaking of Carlson, this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast guest was Lyz Lenz, the author of that outstanding Carlson profile for CJR. How did she convince him to talk? Here's what she told me, recapped by Julia Waldow...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Hillary Clinton has adapted the new afterword to her book into an essay for The Atlantic titled "American Democracy Is in Crisis." Here it is... (The Atlantic)
-- "GMA Weekend" news anchor Ron Claiborne signed off on Sunday... He's leaving ABC at the end of the month after 32 years with the network. "A good, long run," he tweeted. "Now it's time to go..." (Twitter)
-- Bill Geist retired from "CBS Sunday Morning" on Sunday... (CBS)
Following Florence...
Florence has been downgraded to a "tropical depression," but that term could be misleading, given how powerful the storm system still is. As CNN's story notes, "authorities say the worst flooding is yet to come."
CNN correspondent Nick Watt awoke on Sunday in North Myrtle Beach... but he ended the day in Cheraw, more than 100 miles inland. That's where "the real threat of this storm now exists," he said on the air Sunday night. "River levels are rising..."
NYT called on carpet for curtains correction
On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I spoke with Oliver Darcy and Amanda Carpenter about the NYT's highly misleading story re: Nikki Haley and curtains. Here's the segment...
Fresh reporting about "Fear"
Also on the show, I mentioned that Bob Woodward's "Fear" has now sold well over 1 million copies in all formats, from hardcover to e-book to audiobook. Simon & Schuster is working overtime to keep up with demand. The publisher will share updated sales data sometime this week...
Catch up on Sunday's show
Watch the video clips via CNN.com... Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or TuneIn... Or watch the full program via CNNgo or VOD... 👍
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant left WNYC to form a podcast production company with Civil Media... The first pod is about trying to "understand blockchain technology and its possible implications for journalism..." (NYT)
-- Fox's Chris Wallace was awarded the "Tex" McCrary Award for Journalism by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society on Friday night... (Fox)
| | Trump is the conspiracy theorist in chief
From his doubts about the death toll after Hurricane Maria, to his claims of a "witch hunt," President Trump has become the "conspiracy theorist in chief," Brendan Nyhan told me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." Watch here...
Trump's trick: He keeps repeating false info
"It's pretty astonishing," WaPo fact-checker columnist Glenn Kessler said, now that Trump has uttered 5,000 false or misleading statements since inauguration day. I featured Kessler's work on Sunday's show. The rate of falsehoods is rapidly getting worse. So is the repetition. "Even after it's been repeatedly fact checked as false, he continues to say these things," Kessler said. This sure sounds like a propaganda technique. Kessler and I discussed that... Here's the video...
GOP voters dismissing 'blue wave' as 'fake news'
Key graf in this Sunday NYT story: A pro-Trump PAC has been holding focus groups, and the results have revealed a big problem. Conservative-leaning voters "routinely dismissed the possibility of a Democratic wave election, with some describing the prospect as 'fake news,' said an official familiar with the research."
Axios' Jonathan Swan reported something similar last month, and followed up on Sunday evening. Swan says GOP strategists are seriously worried that voters' rejection of poll results and media reports will depress turnout and help Democrats. We talked about it on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." Video here...
| | | Secretary Mattis "has batted down multiple requests from the White House to go on 'Fox & Friends' to praise the president's agenda..." | | --A revealing line in Helene Cooper's story about "fraying ties" between Mattis and Trump...
Chloe's interview with Michael Moore
As I mentioned up above, "Fahrenheit 11/9" comes out this week... Chloe Melas spoke with Michael Moore at the NYC premiere, and he called Trump an "evil genius." Moore thinks Trump either wrote the unsigned NYT op-ed or knew it would be leaked. (Oh c'mon!)
Key quote: "I think the man is an evil genius and he was able to outsmart the smartest person ever to run for president. He figured out how to win by losing the election. How did that happen? Historians are going to deal with this for years to come." Moore also said that Trump will most likely get re-elected. Check out the full interview here...
| | -- "20th Century Fox's release of 'The Predator' topped the weekend box office, but "the film delivered the lowest opening weekend gross for a live-action film debuting in over 4,000 theaters," Box Office Mojo reports...
-- Via the LAT's David Ng: "A year into #MeToo, some movies, including four Weinstein titles, are still stuck in distribution limbo..."
-- 🙏 to Carrie Underwood, who spoke on "CBS Sunday Morning" about her three miscarriages. She is now expecting her second child... (CBS)
Lowry's Emmy preview
Brian Lowry emails: Because all the cool (and traffic-minded) kids are doing it, I indulged in Emmy picks -- highlighting some nominees that are especially deserving, even if a few are unlikely to win. Read on... | | | We'll have a special post-Emmys edition of the newsletter tomorrow. Thanks for reading! Email me your feedback... | | | |
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