EXEC SUMMARY: AT&T is selling its stake in Hulu, Vox is buying Epic Magazine, Vice is canceling "Vice Live," Netflix is preparing Q1 earnings, and more... Scroll down for details...
All we could do was watch
In Paris, people gathered in plazas and street corners, eyes trained on the terrible fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral. The rest of the world gathered via screens big and small. We were united in helplessness. Unsure of what to say. But compelled to watch.
"What an uncanny, horrible feeling: history about to disappear on a livestream," BuzzFeed's Anne Helen Petersen wrote on Twitter.
Parisians held their phones aloft, so they'd have their own copies of history burning, or so that they'd have something to do besides just watch in dismay. Outside the city, word of the fire spread from person to person, mostly digitally, through text message chains and Facebook groups and emails.
Dawna Friesen, one of the top TV news anchors in Canada, tweeted, "I don't want to sound too dramatic...but why do these flames destroying 700 years of history feel like a representation of the times we are living?" The whole world was able to watch live — but, sadly, that was all we were able to do...
Front pages of history, for history
Here are eight of Europe's Tuesday morning front pages: | | Hadas reports from Paris
Hadas Gold emails: I am in Paris to moderate panels at a conference. I had just left the bureau on Monday, and was en route to a dinner, when the first reports came in around 7 p.m. local time. I did a phone "beeper" on CNN from the train station as I tried to figure out the fastest way to the scene.
When I did arrive a few minutes later, it was chaos. Police were cutting off access to the island where Notre Dame sits. I saw a man with his dog forcibly removed by police, as he tried to enter the neighborhood (he was shouting that he lived there). Soon I found my camerawoman and producer and we started going live. As I write this at 1 a.m., people are still gathering by the thousands along the river as close as they can get to the cathedral.
What struck me the most about the crowds was the quiet. It was hushed as people took in what was happening -- some hugging, others crying. Later, groups of people started singing hymns. One group I was by sang for two hours straight. One man started conducting and directing the songs. There were many references to Mary and "our lady," the English translation of "Notre Dame."
I spoke with many Parisians who said Paris without Notre Dame is not Paris -- that like the Eiffel Tower, it is an ultimate symbol of the city and is actually literally the center. There is an immense sadness here -- but at the same time -- the bistros are full. I spoke to Herve, owner of the L'Etiquette wine shop, just down the street from the cathedral, who told me, as he held a glass of wine, "I'm toasting to life. That's the way you have to do it. It's really sad, but you have to move forward."
How the live coverage unfolded
The American cable news networks went into breaking news mode shortly after 1 p.m. ET. They relied on a mix of citizen videos, photos and affiliate live shots until crews arrived at the scene. CNN had a head start thanks to its Paris bureau -- CNN correspondent Melissa Bell was there within minutes.
NBC, ABC and CBS all aired lengthy special reports about the blaze, with NBC breaking in at 1:55, ABC at 1:59 and CBS at 2:04. Producers, radio correspondents, freelance journalists and eyewitnesses in the city were all part of the coverage. In one case, CBS News correspondent Carter Evans, who's based in L.A., filed a report for the "Evening News" because he was on vacation with his wife (they are newlyweds) in Paris...
"Comfort in concrete and stone..."
On CNN, Chris Cuomo anchored some of the afternoon coverage... And dedicated the entire hour of "Cuomo Prime Time" to the fire... He closed the show with this: "Notre Dame isn't just another church in Europe. 'Our Lady' in French, a mother: comfort in concrete and stone. She reminded us there was something better if you sought it, in yourself and maybe in others. That no matter what had your head down, there was something beautiful above."
"How could Notre Dame be burning?"
That's what The Atlantic's Rachel Donadio wrote as she watched it happening in Paris on Monday night. "How could Notre-Dame be burning? How could Notre-Dame, which had survived for eight centuries—survived plague and wars of religion, survived the French Revolution, survived the Nazis—be falling?" She noticed the cell phones I mentioned earlier: "Hundreds of people filming, photographing, sharing the tragedy, so many that the networks were jammed. Trying to capture in a few pixels what had stood for centuries, a symbol of endurance, of architectural achievement. Built in the Gothic era, destroyed in the social-media era."
Parisians will have a much clearer view of the damage when the sun comes up Tuesday... We all will...
YouTube links Notre Dame to 9/11
Donie O'Sullivan emails: A YouTube feature designed to combat misinformation offered some of its own during a major news event Monday: It linked the fire at Notre Dame to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The company blamed the mix up on…. its algorithms, of course. But didn't offer any explanation how the mix-up actually happened. Details...
--> The takeaway: Silicon Valley is having a really tough time getting to grips with live content...
TUESDAY PLANNER
-- The pre-spinning will continue ahead of Thursday's release of the redacted Robert Mueller report...
-- David Brooks' new book "The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life" hits bookshelves...
-- Maria Ressa "is due to be arraigned on charges her backers say were fabricated as retribution for her reporting..."
-- After the bell: Netflix reports earnings...
Four takeaways from the Pulitzers presentation
1: The judges recognized outstanding reporting about mass shootings in three different categories. "The South Florida Sun Sentinel claimed the Pulitzer for Public Service for its reporting on the 'failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after' the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School," CNN's Tom Kludt wrote, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette won the breaking news prize for its coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. The board also gave a special citation to the Capital Gazette to honor its "courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018." | | 2: The WSJ newsroom -- which sometimes seems to get the Pulitzer board's cold shoulder -- picked up its first win in four years. The paper beat out the AP and the NYT in the national reporting category "for uncovering President Trump's secret payoffs to two women during his campaign who claimed to have had affairs with him." Addressing the newsroom, EIC Matt Murray said "it's a classic Wall Street Journal piece of journalism. It's a follow-the-money story. That's how it started." The above picture by Stephanie Aaronson captured the reporting and editing team's joy...
3: The investigative reporting prize presented to the LA Times was also quite meaningful, given that the paper is "undergoing an unprecedented period of rebuilding," as the LAT's Meg James put it in her story. One of the winning reporters, Harriet Ryan, told the newsroom: "The L.A. Times is going to win many awards over the next 100 years — Pulitzers and everything else. I don't know if any award will ever be as sweet as this one. There are so many people in this building who know that we almost died. There are so many of my colleagues in the newsroom who fought to save the paper..."
4: Two reporters who remain behind bars in Myanmar, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were recognized when the prize for international reporting went to Reuters...
Check out the full list of winners here... Plus this video of the celebration in the New Orleans Advocate newsroom when they won the paper's first-ever Pulitzer...
Three more Pulitzers takeaways
Who am I kidding? I couldn't limit myself to three takeaways! I have to point these out too:
-- NYT reporter David Barstow "won his fourth Pulitzer, tying him with Washington Post and former Miami Herald photographer Carol Guzy as the only journalists to win four Pulitzers," Poynter's Tom Jones noted...
-- Aretha Franklin became "the first individual woman to receive a special citation prize, which was first awarded in 1930," Sandra Gonzalez wrote...
-- And on a personal note, I'm overjoyed for Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post, who earned the criticism prize for what the judges called "trenchant and searching reviews and essays." He doesn't know it, but I am Lozada's biggest fan... As WaPo's Paul Farhi wrote here, Lozada "often reviews multiple nonfiction books about a common subject, bucking the traditional one-book-per-review format. The approach enabled him to assess broader themes. Many of his reviews last year addressed the flood of newly published Trump books..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- William D. Cohan's latest: Leon Black's Apollo Global Management "is building a local TV empire to rival Sinclair and Fox..." (VF)
-- The ratings for Tiger Woods' big Masters win were impressive, but were hurt by the early start time... (CNN)
-- By Richard Deitsch: "Inside the CBS truck as Tiger Woods made his move..." (The Athletic)
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...
Poynter consulting with Newsweek
Newsweek mag is doing something interesting: It is retaining the Poynter Institute "in a consultative role to review and support newsroom standards, ethics and processes." The deal will be announced on Tuesday. Poynter SVP Kelly McBride will be an "editorial advisor" to Newsweek EIC Nancy Cooper "to ensure that the newsroom is educated in best practices and to provide Poynter resources accordingly."
Per the press release, "this initiative with Newsweek will represent the first formalized ethics consulting project" since the Institute launched the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at Poynter in February. Poynter plans to do more of this...
Netflix earnings coming Tuesday
"It's the moment of truth for Netflix" a CNBC headline blared on Monday evening. Earnings drop Tuesday after the bell. "Shares of Netflix headed lower Friday and again Monday, on worries about competition from Disney," one of CNBC's stories noted...
Disney tightens its grip on Hulu
Hulu was born in 2007 as a joint venture among network owners. But the partnership has been unwinding for a while now... And Disney is consolidating control. "The company became the majority stakeholder in the streaming video service after it closed a deal for most of Fox's assets last month," CNN's Frank Pallotta wrote Monday, after AT&T said it is selling its 9.5% stake back to Hulu. Now Comcast "is the only other owner with roughly 30%." And Comcast is eyeing an exit, per a reliable source familiar with the matter.
As Pallotta wrote, it's "a sign of how the streaming wars have evolved in the last few years..."
By the #'s
NYT's Edmund Lee tweeted out the math: "Time Warner paid $583 million for a 10% stake in 2016. New owner AT&T just sold it to Disney for $1.4 billion at a $15 billion valuation. Hulu's worth more than doubled in 2+ years. But... Hulu loses $1.5-$2 billion/yr and Disney will have to consolidate those losses now."
So, $15 billion? "That's about one-tenth of Netflix's valuation," The Information's Martin Peers wrote. "Netflix has 5.5 times as many subscribers as Hulu, however, suggesting that if Hulu were being valued in line with Netflix, it would be worth nearly twice as much. Many in traditional media would argue Netflix is overvalued, of course, so presumably Hulu and its owners are just being conservative..."
Apple hires a docs chief
"The streaming service AppleTV+ has hired former A+E executive Molly Thompson as the company's head of documentaries," THR's Bryn Elise Sandberg wrote. "She brings with her three decades of experience in the field, having founded A&E IndieFilms, the feature film production arm of A+E Networks, and served as head of documentary films for A+E Networks..."
James Murdoch, a Buttigieg supporter
Oliver Darcy emails: James Murdoch maxed out to the Pete Buttigieg campaign, donating $2,800 to the 2020 Democratic contender, according to filings released on Monday. It's, of course, a noteworthy contribution, given the Murdoch family's stewardship of Fox News. But, it's also not terribly surprising. As was documented by NYT's big investigative piece into the Murdoch's, James is one of the more moderate members of the Murdoch family, while his brother Lachlan Murdoch is considered further to the right. James and Lachlan battled for control of the Murdoch empire for years, with Lachlan ultimately coming out as the victor...
Shep Smith shuts down baseless speculation (again)
Darcy emails: Shep Smith continued to live up to his reputation as the Fox News anchor with zero tolerance for the peddling of conspiracy theories. While Smith was live on-air covering the Notre Dame blaze, a French official suggested during a phone interview -- without providing evidence -- that the fire was perhaps the result of an arson. Smith said he was not going to "speculate the cause of something that we don't know." But the official kept going down that path, prompting Smith to end the interview. "No, sir. We are not doing that here. Not now. Not on my watch," Smith said. Watch video of the moment here, via the Contemptor...
| | Trump has a primary challenger
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld formally entered the race for president on Monday through a statement and an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. Weld told Tapper that it would be a "political tragedy" and he would "fear for the Republic" if the country had six more years of Trump as prez...
TVNewser's A.J. Katz tweeted: "A Weld-Trump debate would yield outrageous ratings for Fox News." I agree... Except that the chances of Trump agreeing to debate are exactly 0...
Bernie held a town hall on Fox -- here's what happened
On Monday Bernie Sanders released his taxes AND became "the first Democratic candidate to appear on a 2020 town hall event on Fox News," the NYT's Maggie Astor wrote.
So how'd it go with Sanders and the moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum? Other campaigns were surely paying close attention. Here's one review, by Vox's Dara Lind: "When speaking directly to audience members or to the TV audience watching at home, Sanders was sincere and open." But "when speaking to Baier and MacCallum, however -- or, in a couple of moments, directly to the Fox News-watcher-in-chief -- Sanders was as prickly as you'd expect." Lind says it was "uncomfortably tense" sometimes, "and that worked great for Sanders. For one thing, the audience was on his side..."
DNC chair criticizes Fox's senior leadership
Town halls are one thing. But DNC chair Tom Perez is not budging re: this "no Fox primary debate" decision. "I don't have faith in your leadership at Fox News at the senior levels," Perez told Bill Hemmer in a remarkable moment on Fox Monday morning.
Perez praised some of Fox's journalists but then said (unnamed) execs have "pierced that line between editorial and your Sean Hannity shows." Hemmer disagreed... Mediaite's Colby Hall has a recap here...
Gayle still urging Oprah to run
👀 on this Page Six item: "CBS' Gayle King is still hoping her best friend Oprah Winfrey will throw her hat in the ring for a 2020 run, but Winfrey frequently protests she's not interested."
I had missed what King said to THR at last week's NYC party: "Oprah says to me many times, 'The only way I'm running is if I get a call from Jesus.' And I said to her, 'Jesus called me, what should I tell him?'"
AOC calls social media a "public health risk"
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery" and talked with Michael Isikoff and Dan Klaidman about why she supports impeaching POTUS; why she's not endorsing any 2020 Dems yet; and other topics. She called social media a "public health risk" that results in issues like increased isolation, depression, addiction, escapism and anxiety, per this write-up by CNN's Rachel Metz. She has dropped her personal Facebook account, although she still has a professional presence, campaign ads on FB, etc. "She said she's started to impose 'little rules' on herself in other social domains such as Twitter, which she tries to stay off on the weekends."
--> "I get it," Metz wrote, describing why she quit FB a few months ago...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Former 20th Century Fox Film studio chief Stacey Snider is talking with Liz Murdoch about a job, Jessica Toonkel reported Monday. "The discussions are in early stages and it's unclear whether the two are discussing Ms. Snider running an extension of Locksmith Animation, a female-run animation studio that Ms. Murdoch co-founded, or something else..." (The Information)
-- The new Court TV says it will launch on May 8... (Deadline)
-- Nora Zimmett is now chief content officer and EVP of the Weather Channel... (Variety)
-- ICYMI, new research from Pew: "For many rural residents in U.S., local news media mostly don't cover the area where they live..." (Pew)
Vox's first entertainment acquisition is...
THR's Natalie Jarvey broke the news on Monday night: "Vox Media has agreed to acquire publisher and producer Epic Magazine, boosting the media company's video storytelling capabilities and giving it a stronger foothold in Hollywood. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, will see the 25-person Epic, producer of Apple anthology series Little America, become an independent division within the newly established Vox Media Studios division that will house all of the company's film, television and podcast production and distribution efforts."
Bankoff: "This deal just made sense"
Vox CEO Jim Bankoff tells me via email: "This deal just made sense. From the first moment we met Josh Davis, Joshuah Bearman, and Epic's team, we knew we cared about the same things: building a successful business by finding and telling stories that entertain and inspire." For more, here is Vox's blog post about the deal...
Gasparino says CBS-Viacom talks are back on
"The on-again off-again merger talks between CBS Corporation and Viacom are now on-again, and have delayed CBS's naming of a new permanent CEO to succeed Les Moonves," Fox's Charlie Gasparino reported Monday. He says the talks "have heated up" in "recent weeks," and Viacom CEO Bob Bakish still has the "inside track on the CEO job" of a combined company, if it happens...
"Vice Live" is over
"Vice canceled its flagship show, 'Vice Live,' just weeks after its debut," The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani reported Monday. The reason is obvious: The prime time talk show never had a ratings pulse. In fact, the Viceland channel's small 8 p.m. audience almost always dropped precipitously when "Vice Live" came on at 9. Last month Vice cut the show in half and only ran it at 10 p.m., but the ratings report cards weren't any better. This is definitely a disappointing result for Nancy Dubuc and her team...
--> An internal memo says Vice will be "breaking out some of the most popular talent and formats from Live..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Lori Loughlin pleaded not guilty on Monday... (CNN)
-- "Jimmy Smits, Olga Merediz and Gregory Diaz have joined 'In The Heights,' the Jon M. Chu-directed Warner Bros film adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical..." (Deadline)
-- "Avengers: Endgame" will feature Stan Lee's final film cameo (VF)
-- Tim Cook was seen partying at Coachella over the weekend... (Cult of Mac)
-- Megan Thomas emails: Sunday night's episode of "Veep" tackled several women's issues through Selina Meyer's misogynistic lens. THR has an insightful breakdown with showrunner David Mandel... (THR)
| | Winter has arrived with record ratings
Frank Pallotta emails: This will come as no surprise to anyone reading this newsletter, but a LOT of people watched "Game of Thrones" Sunday night.
The season eight premiere brought in a series record 17.4 million viewers. About 11.8 million of those people watched on HBO at 9 p.m., and the rest were viewers who watched two encore presentations, combined with those who streamed the show. It was also the "largest night of streaming activity ever for HBO," according to the network...
Lowry's analysis
Brian Lowry emails: A rising tide lifts all boats, but as Sunday's ratings remind us, when it comes to audience levels "Game of Thrones" is a battleship surrounded by tugboats. The rest of HBO's lineup enjoyed a halo effect from the big tune-in for the show, but it's still worth noting that HBO's model -- essentially a quilt stitched together to suit a variety of tastes -- isn't built around the kind of mass-appeal hit that "Thrones" embodies. As proof, just to keep things apples to apples, look at the 17.4 million Sunday-night viewers compared to "Barry" (a best-ever 2.2 million) and "Veep" (1.5 million, highest since 2016) and "Last Week Tonight" (1.7 million, the biggest audience in more than 18 months)...
--> Also, one key and often overlooked asterisk: As a premium channel, HBO is received in far fewer homes than the broadcast or even basic cable networks, which makes the "Thrones" rating even more impressive...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- On Monday Wendy Williams became her own "hot topic." The daytime talk host broke her silence about her divorce from her husband of more than 20 years during the popular segment on her show...
-- Joe Jonas and other stars were excited about the "Game of Thrones" return too...
-- Khloe Kardashian's baby, True Thompson, turned 1 with a big party befitting reality show royalty...
-- Madonna has announced her new album...
Going to "Guava Island"
Have you watched Donald Glover and Rihanna's short film "Guava Island" yet? I'm going to stream it after sending out this newsletter. Lisa Respers France says the film "finds love in a hopeful place..."
| | ICYMI...
Catch up on Sunday's "Reliable Sources"
Listen to the podcast version via Apple, Spotify, TuneIn, or your favorite app... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or watch the full episode via CNNgo or VOD...
How Trump v. Omar happened
On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I went back in time to the moment when Ilhan Omar's "some people did something" comment was posted on YouTube by The Daily Caller. A Muslim scholar in Australia helped the comment go viral. A day later, it was on Sean Hannity's show. The right-wing media set the frame early on: "Omar downplayed 9/11." Trump's anti-Omar video catapulted the "controversy" onto the nightly news.
This news cycle is going to continue into the new workweek, now that Omar is saying she's experienced an increase in death threats since Trump's video came out. As we continue to cover this, I just think the stories should widen out -- to explain how and why this controversy was created in the first place. Here's my video essay...
--> Waleed Shahid, Karen Finney and Matt Lewis discussed the Omar coverage with me... Here's part one with Shahid and part two with everyone...
Notes and quotes
-- Does the Assange case pose a threat to press freedoms? Ryan Grim and Bradley Moss shared two different POVs...
-- Olivia Nuzzi (who wrote the NYMag cover story about Pete Buttigieg) said Buttigieg's accessibility to reporters "really counts for a lot..."
-- Sarah Ellison discussed the pending sale of the National Enquirer...
-- And we talked about Lou Dobbs' influence in the Trump White House...
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime! See you tomorrow... | | | |
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