Forward

Exec summary: Scroll down for "Space Force," the insane popularity of "Baby Shark," the new Gawker's first hires, the end of an NBC era, and much more...

The Atlantic presents "The Case For Impeachment"

Check The Atlantic's website on Thursday morning. The magazine is coming out with a cover that's going to stand out on the newsstand. The mag's EIC Jeffrey Goldberg emailed subscribers on Wednesday night to give them "the opportunity to read it first."

The cover story is Yoni Appelbaum's "Case for Impeachment." He argues that impeaching President Trump is "the antidote to chaos," not the chaos trigger that many people fear it would be.

By making this the cover story, Goldberg and co. are making a strong statement. This cover story was going to be shared online in a few weeks, but Goldberg moved it up... In his email, he said he was motivated by two events: "The Trump-caused government shutdown, unmatched in length and consequence, and the debate over whether the 45th president of the United States is secretly operating on behalf of Russia."

"In Trump's World, Reality Is Negotiable"

Brian Lowry emails: Tom Nichols has been one of the most bruising Never Trumpers, but he makes a really sobering point in The Atlantic about what could be the most damaging legacy of the Trump presidency and his attacks on the press and experts -- namely, the idea that "reality itself, like everything else in Trump's world, is negotiable."

As Nichols writes, "Trump and his enablers have accomplished something even more dangerous than trying to run a government on gut feeling and conspiracy theories. They have, by attacking sources of authoritative knowledge beyond the president himself, inoculated a huge swath of the American public against ever being informed about anything, providing millions of Americans with a resistance to learning that will long outlive his administration."

Nichols' essay is part of the mag's "Unthinkable" series, which launched earlier this week...

Taking the "no" out of "no collusion"

The president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani wants you to know: "I never said there was no collusion between the campaign, or people in the campaign."

He made the comment in this interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night. He said he always asserted that his client, the president, did not personally collude: "I said the President of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the President of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspiring with the Russians to hack the DNC."

Rudy's comment about the "only crime" stood out to me. Obviously there are multiple potential crimes on the table...

--> DOJ rep turned MSNBC analyst Matthew Miller tweeted: "Huh. I wonder what shoe is about to drop."

--> Jim Acosta: "Sounds like collusion evolution."

--> Yashar Ali: "This is always how Rudy gets ahead of news. He goes on cable TV, does a wild interview, and shares stuff that appears to be gaffe when it's not. He did the same thing with the Stormy Daniels payments last year. It's all intentional."

--> Ross Garber: "Some poor producers are now stuck pulling an allnighter to create a Trump 'no collusion' 'no collusion' 'no collusion' 'no collusion' .. video montage meme."

FIRST LOOK

TIME takes on tech's problems

Here's a first look at this week's cover of TIME, out Thursday morning... check out the cover teases...

Tim Cook has a column about the need for new privacy laws, according to this cover... There are pieces by Donald Graham and Maria Ressa too... and an exclusive adapted excerpt of Roger McNamee's book "Zucked: The Education of an Unlikely Activist," which comes out next month...

-> TIME's new owner Marc Benioff has been outspoken about the need for social media reforms, but let's be honest, I could have easily seen the editors running this cover if Meredith still owned the mag...

It's Netflix earnings time

Netflix is forecasting 9.4 million additional subscribers in Q4... For a worldwide total of 146.5 million... We'll get the actual #'s after the closing bell on Thursday...

How much $$ is too much?

Frank Pallotta emails: Netflix's price hike got me thinking: How much is too much to pay for the streaming service? $15? $20? $25? $30? So I asked some of the industry's top analysts: What's the ceiling, really, on the cost of a streaming service?

Netflix bull Rich Greenfield's view: "If you keep adding more content that people like, then the price point is a moving target. There isn't really a ceiling." More here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Tribune Publishing "recently tried to rekindle merger talks with Gannett," the WSJ's Lukas Albert and Cara Lombardo report. So what now? (WSJ)

-- Chris Hansen, formerly of NBC and "To Catch a Predator" fame, "has been accused of bouncing checks and failing to pay for $13,000 worth of marketing materials he received from a local vendor," his local paper reports... (Stamford Advocate)

-- Don't miss Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg's deep dive into Amazon Publishing, which has 15 imprints and "tools other publishers can only dream about owning..." (WSJ)

-- Hats off to The Onion for this bit of satire: "Fox News Debuts Premium Channel For 24-Hour Coverage Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez" (The Onion)

Day 26

Stephen Colbert on the "Late Show" Wednesday night: "We have now hit day 26 of the government shutdown, and vital services are being threatened. For instance, I've run out of shutdown jokes. We might have to dip into the national reserve at this point..."

On a more serious note, CNN.com's list of very direct effects of the shutdown is up to 90 items... It keeps growing...

Right-wing media to Trump: Don't cave on wall

Oliver Darcy emails: Trump's allies in conservative media are continuing to pressure him to stand firm on his demands for border wall funding amid the longest government shutdown in US history. "Trump is assuring everyone he's not gonna cave on this, and I hope he doesn't," Rush Limbaugh said this week. "We don't get opportunities like this one presents, and I just -- hope he sticks to it." Other conservative personalties like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, and Lou Dobbs have provided support, using their respective platforms to argue in favor of building a barrier on the southern border. And Trump appears to be paying attention. On Wednesday morning Trump tweeted statistics about "significant walls built around the world" which Media Matters' Matthew Gertz noted appeared to be derived from an on-screen graphic Dobbs had used the night before...

>> Max Boot's latest: "The 'border emergency' used to justify the shutdown is a figment of the xenophobic imaginations" of Coulter, Limbaugh and Trump...

"The State of the Union is off"

That's what Steny Hoyer told Kate Bolduan on CNN Wednesday morning, shortly after Nancy Pelosi sent POTUS a letter throwing the January 29 State of the Union address into doubt.

Hoyer's quote works on two levels, if you think about it... But his office later walked back his comment, saying Hoyer "mischaracterized" Pelosi's letter.

Did he, though? "While Pelosi's letter is framed as a request to find a new date, the decision of when to host the President is very much up to the speaker of the House," CNN.com's story explains...

>> Jennifer Rubin's framing for WaPo: "Facing Trump's tantrum, Pelosi takes away the TV"

Boo to the SOTU?

All over Twitter on Wednesday, commentators and some journalists advocated for scraping the annual speech altogether. I'll confess, I didn't understand all the SOTU hate. People who want to watch, watch. Most people don't, so they don't. What's the harm? Some traditions are worth saving. But whether to hold a SOTU during a shutdown is another question...

Bill Shine's wife Darla is back on Twitter...

Darla Shine took a breather from Twitter when her husband Bill Shine became W.H. communications chief last summer. No wonder: She was criticized for posting racially charged remarks and unfounded medical theories.

But... she is back now. "Since rejoining, she has already warned that America will fall under Sharia Law in 50 years," AND attacked Erin Burnett, AND "endorsed a social media boycott organized by a Sandy Hook truther," Mediaite's Caleb Ecarma wrote Wednesday.

Burnett rightly called out Trump for sexist remarks at the W.H. celebration for the Clemson Tigers... Remember, Trump said his wife could have made "some little quick salads," but instead he ordered Big Macs... Anyway, Shine called her "Erin Burnout" and said "so sad she thinks cooking for her family or friends or guests is beneath her. Pathetic."

Yes, there is definitely something "pathetic" about this tweet....

IN THURSDAY'S PAPER:

NYT's special section about the new Congress

NYT print editor Tom Jolly tweeted about this feature in Thursday's paper: "Portraits of the record number of women in the 116th Congress, in a special section with 27 different covers." He said staffers gathered in the newsroom to check out previews of the special section. It is a print version of this portrait series from earlier in the week.

A rep for the NYT said the 27 different cover photos are each "featuring a representative or Senator from that region of the U.S. -- in effect geo-targeting."

Haskell to succeed Moss at NYMag

David Haskell, currently the editor for business and strategy at New York mag, will succeed Adam Moss as EIC on April 1, Pam Wasserstein announced Wednesday. Here's my full story...

An insider at the mag says the well-liked Haskell is not a surprise choice: "Internally, there is an impression that Haskell is a lot like Adam, but slightly more of a social creature..."

The end of an NBC era

Bob Costas and NBC Sports have parted ways, amicably and quietly, as the NYPost's Andrew Marchand reported here on Tuesday... Costas "will continue on the MLB Network," and he "is exploring doing a sports/news interview-style show..."

Thank you!

Several hundred of you emailed me last night and today to point out a mistake in the newsletter. This screw-up was painful and funny at the same time. I wrote that Barack and Michelle Obama were reportedly paid $65 BILLION for their books. What a difference a letter makes! I meant MILLION. My apologies for the oversight... and thank you, as always, for the replies... Email me anytime...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- More of this, please! NYT politics editor Patrick Healy is using Twitter to share "our intentions behind our stories." Laura Hazard Owen spoke with him about it... (NiemanLab)

-- What's the future of Slate? Read David Uberti's latest... He says "the #SlatePitch isn't dead yet..." (CJR)

-- As the parent of an almost 20-month-old, AJ Willingham's story about the insane popularity of "Baby Shark" really, really spoke to me... Jamie, read this! (CNN)

-- Former CNNer Kelly Wallace has joined TrailRunner International as managing director of its New York office... (PR Week)

-- New from Mo Rocca and CBS: "Mobituaries," a podcast series and a book... (AP)

"How will CBS leadership keep morale high?"

Katie Pellico emails: This was just one of the "thorny" questions CBS employees asked execs -- including interim CEO Joe Ianniello -- during a "live blog event" on Tuesday, THR's Jeremy Barr reported Wednesday.

Three key details from Barr's story:

-- Plans to reroute Les Moonves' severance pay? "Our priority is to continue to invest billions of dollars into the company in the form of our people and content," Ianniello answered. "That's the priority today and moving forward. Separate from that, there is an ongoing legal process regarding the $120 million that is yet to be determined."

-- "One employee encouraged management to renounce non-disclosure agreements 'in cases of accused sexual harassment or retaliation,' a comment/question that was up-voted at least 38 times by other employees."

-- Regarding Viacom, Ianniello said: "No one can predict any future mergers. What I can tell you is that we are well-positioned for the changing media landscape. We have a great organic growth story here at CBS and our focus is on building a Premium Global Content company distributed on all platforms..."

New Gawker's first hires are here

Oliver Darcy emails: Gawker has been quietly poaching staffers as the site, now owned by Bustle's Bryan Goldberg, readies for a re-launch later this year. On Wednesday, the media organization announced its first set of hires: Carson Griffith will be editorial director; Ben Barna will be senior editor; and Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw will serve as staff writers. Expect new hires to be announced in the near future...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Katie Pellico:

-- Weeks after the November layoffs that razed Mic, writers are "quietly" repopulating the site, now owned by the aforementioned Bustle. The Wrap reports it is "mostly innocuous service journalism" for now... (The Wrap)

-- Jonathan O'Connell and David A. Farenthold's eyebrow-raising scoop: "T-Mobile announced a merger needing Trump administration approval. The next day, 9 executives had reservations at Trump's hotel..." (WaPo)

-- Sinclair launched "a free, ad-supported streaming service" called "Stirr" on Wednesday, "drawing on local news, sports and other programs from the 191 TV stations it owns." But who's going to use it? (AP)

-- The Motorola Razr flip phone "is being revived as a smartphone with a foldable screen and a starting price of roughly $1500," Sarah Krouse and Rob Barry report. Manufacturers have partnered with Verizon and hope to start selling stateside "as early as February..." (WSJ)

-- A24 has dropped the trailer for this spring's "High Life," Claire Denis' well-reviewed space thriller starring Robert Pattinson and André 3000. It "looks completely bonkers..." (Vice)

-- Can we just say... Alexa's new "professional 'newscaster'" voice is just as robotic as "normal" Alexa? (TechCrunch)

About those "fake" Posts...

An activist group printed up what it called a fantasy version of the Washington Post imagining Trump's resignation. WaPo's Erik Wemple has details here.

The paper isn't laughing: "We will not tolerate others misrepresenting themselves as The Washington Post, and we are deeply concerned about the confusion it causes among readers. We are seeking to halt further improper use of our trademarks," a spokeswoman said Wednesday night...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Josh Topolsky's announcement: "We're launching a new tech news-focused publication (!!!) soon, and it's called Input..." (Twitter)

-- Chloe Melas emails: Harvey Weinstein's criminal defense attorney Ben Brafman plans to quit the case, a source says... (CNN)

-- Justin Freiman emails: For "Ellen's Game of Games," two weeks is enough to get picked up for a third season! (THR)

-- Steve Carell will star in a Netflix series called "Space Force..." Inspired by Trump's Space Command talk... Sandra Gonzalez has details here... (CNN)

Jason Katims signs with Apple

"Another top showrunner is exiting the traditional studio system for a tech company," THR's Lesley Goldberg wrote Wednesday. "In a competitive situation, Parenthood and Friday Night Lights exec producer Jason Katims has signed a multiple-year overall deal with Apple." This means he's leaving Universal this summer, though he will "remain actively involved in the two projects he currently has set up via his Universal TV pact..."

A Colbert crowd straw poll...

First things first. This is the jokey button Stephen Colbert handed to Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday's "Late Show:"

Second, I think my "Colbert primary" story the other day inspired The New Yorker's Eric Lach to survey some Colbert fans outside the Ed Sullivan Theater on Tuesday. A straw poll!

With Dems "popping by the show as if it were an early primary state," Lach did "an extremely unscientific poll of about a dozen other people in line on Tuesday..." He found some enthusiasm for Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Gillibrand. Read on...

"R. Kelly Protesters Gather Outside Sony HQ Demanding They Drop Him"

Vulture's Dee Lockett reports: "Members of #MuteRKelly, Black Women's Blueprint, Care2, Color of Change, CREDO, Girls for Gender Equity, NOW-NYC, and UltraViolet all gathered" on Wednesday "to hand deliver a letter with over 217,000 signatures to both Sony and RCA urging his contract be terminated."

Disney sets up "Hunchback"

Justin Freiman emails: Disney is continuing to raid the vault for live-action films... In addition to "The Lion King," "Dumbo" and "Aladdin," all set to release this year, Deadline's Mike Fleming reports: "Tony-winning M. Butterfly playwright David Henry Hwang has been set by Disney to write Hunchback, a live-action musical adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel." It's not on the release calendar yet...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Rihanna has filed suit against her dad and his business partner for allegedly trying to make money off of her name and successful Fenty brand.

-- Like father, like son. Jason Reitman is set to direct a new "Ghostbusters" film. His father, Ivan, directed the original.

-- Macaulay Culkin explained his friendship with Michael Jackson which he says was very "normal."

-- Justin Bieber's mom thinks her new daughter-in-law Hailey Baldwin is "a gift."

Lowry reviews "Fyre"

Brian Lowry emails: There's obviously a bit of competition in Hulu dropping its documentary series about the Fyre festival right before Netflix debuts "Fyre," its own spectacularly juicy take on what went wrong, filled with insider accounts. But beyond torching the organizers, the coverage speaks to a larger point about the "influencer" culture, and how creating an image online has become such a prominent marketing niche, one that rightly should move the snickering at the hapless attendees closer to "there but for the grace of God go I..."

That's a wrap. Send me your feedback anytime! It always makes the letter better. See you tomorrow...