| | | | | Good evening, folks. It's Tom Kludt, filling in for Brian Stelter on the final day of May. Let's get to it. | | What is the press secretary doing? | | If you thought Sean Spicer's return to the podium yesterday was strange, you might have found today's off-camera briefing downright bizarre. Or perhaps "useless" is a better word.
After roughly 11 minutes in which he offered few meaningful answers to reporters' questions, Spicer abruptly ended the briefing. That's two briefings in a row that fell short of 20 minutes. At the conclusion of today's Q&A, one reporter shouted: "How short are these gonna be!?"
Perhaps even shorter, if Dylan Byers' latest story is any indication. Sources tell Dylan that Spicer (and his boss) are frustrated with what they describe "as a preponderance of fake and false news stories."
Dylan writes: "Spicer is also frustrated by the media's treatment of him, the sources said. He chafes at reports suggesting Trump is planning to shake up the communications team because he isn't satisfied with Spicer's performance," Dylan reports. "He is particularly irked by the way the media interpreted his absence from Trump's visit with the Pope as the president snubbing him."
Quick flashback: Many in the media expressed sympathy for Spicer getting left out of the papal visit. Read Dylan's behind-the-scenes look here... | | A day after the New York Post broke the stunning news that Scott Pelley is out at "CBS Evening News," the network made it official with a magnanimous press release that confirmed Anthony Mason as the interim anchor.
"Scott brought the best values of 60 MINUTES to the CBS EVENING NEWS, and we thank him for his commitment to the journalism of this broadcast every night these past six years," said David Rhodes. But all indications are that it was anything but harmonious between Pelley and Rhodes.
Over at The Daily Beast, Lloyd Grove has important details on the breakup, most notably a Pelley confidant telling him that the newsman regrets his decision to hire Ari Emanuel three years ago in an effort to land a more lucrative deal than the $5 million he was earning at the time. That, according to Grove's report, soured the relationship between Rhodes and Pelley.
Meanwhile, Page Six reported that Pelley decided to expedite his departure from the newscast, with a source telling Emily Smith that CBS News execs were surprised when Pelley's assistant brought in a removal crew to clear out his office yesterday. The announcement, Smith reported, was supposed to wait until Pelley returned next week from Syria... | | Will Pelley be back on the air at 6:30? CBS says yes | | Brian Stelter emails from baby leave: Did it have to happen this way? So brutally? TV networks know how to orchestrate these transitions. But this transition has been botched... maybe irreparably... perhaps because Pelley wanted it to leak before CBS went public with the news. Bottom line: Pelley fans will always know that he was forced out of the job.
A spokeswoman for CBS News says Pelley will be back on the evening news this coming Monday, for an unknown amount of time, before Mason takes over. Then Rhodes will take his time determining who will the permanent new anchor will be... | | 'It cannot be Scott Pelley's fault that...' | | -- Evening newscast maven Andrew Tyndall: "It cannot be Scott Pelley's fault that CBS News is so successful on Sundays and so unsuccessful on weekday evenings. The significant difference between the two is that Sunday's programing does not rely on a lead-in local news audience. Enormous damage was done to local news in CBS-TV's affiliate structure 20 years ago: that damage neither Pelley nor Couric nor Tyndall's favorite CBS Evening News anchor -- Bob Schieffer -- has been able to overcome."
-- Margaret Sullivan: "Pelley's tenure has been marked by his intelligent, truth-seeking approach to the news, pulling no punches while still remaining impartial. In recent months, his pointed assessments have drawn attention, as when, for example, he said in February: 'It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality,' and went on to detail President Trump's fictions du jour...But the ratings remained relatively anemic — an average of 7 million viewers on a typical weeknight — and showed little sign of significant movement."
-- Brian Lowry emails: Scott Pelley's exit from "CBS Evening News" is a big deal, primarily because it came out of left field. But the general reaction to it seems to reinforce how diminished the evening newscasts are, given what a major event a change at any one of the networks was even decade or so ago." | | Via Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Today's ISIS attack in Kabul that left 80 dead also killed one BBC driver and injured four journalists...
-- Poynter reports that in Turkey there are government-backed bogus fact-checking groups, appropriating a tool that is usually a bastion of resistance against fake information...
-- CJR presents "six rare images that capture Trump's TV addiction..."
-- On his program today, Neil Cavuto reflected on his scary hospitalization a year ago, which kept him off the air last summer. "I could not fathom a world going on without me," he said. "But it did." | | Hillary warns of fake news...then repeats debunked rumor | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Hillary Clinton has been warning about the dangers of fake news since she lost the 2016 election, but it appears she's not immune to it either. The former Democratic presidential candidate was interviewed at Recode's annual conference and called on Facebook to "help prevent fake news from creating a new reality." Moments later, she brought up a debunked internet rumor about millions of bots supposedly following Trump's Twitter account in the past several days. Awkward... | | "They covered it like it was Pearl Harbor."
--Hillary Clinton at Code criticizing the NYT's coverage of her private email server... | | Facing widespread outrage, CNN cut ties with Kathy Griffin this afternoon, a day after photos surfaced showing the comedian hoisting a bloody head meant to resemble President Trump.
"CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year's Eve program," the network said in a statement.
Griffin, who apologized last night for the photos, has hosted the New Year's Eve special with Anderson Cooper since 2007. Sandra Gonzalez has the full story here... | | POTUS and FLOTUS outraged by photos | | Donald Trump capped off an early morning tweet-storm by expressing his anger with Griffin, writing that his 11-year old son Barron was "having a hard time with this."
First Lady Melania Trump also commented on the controversy with a statement that questioned Griffin's sanity. "As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing," she said. "When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it." | | | Brian Stelter emails: The three cable newsers continue to post big year-over-year growth. MSNBC was the standout in May, ranking #1 in the 25-54 demo during weekday prime time, its first win in that category since 2000. MSNBC's prime time success is driven by Rachel Maddow... CNN pointed out that it still beat MSNBC in the overall total day measurement... And Fox News pointed out that it still beat both MSNBC and CNN in total day and seven-day-a-week prime time... | | | Brian adds: Maddow was sick last Friday, and was going to take the night off, but hurried into work when new Jared Kushner stories hit. Since then she's been off the air... Joy Reid filled in Tuesday night, and Ari Melber is filling in tonight... | | President's best rapid response team: Fox News | | The last two days have provided a vivid reminder that at perhaps the most dire moment of his young presidency, Trump has found refuge in the typically friendly coverage of Fox News.
-- Tuesday: Trump promoted a FoxNews.com story that, in contrast to WaPo's bombshell last week, indicating that it was the Russians -- not Jared Kushner -- who suggested a secret communications channel. Trump's promotion of the story, which was based on claims from a single unnamed source, came only days after he once again impugned journalists' use of unnamed sources.
-- Today: Trump's television set was once again set to "Fox & Friends" this morning, as evidenced by -- what else? -- his Twitter activity. Shortly after 6 a.m., the show's co-host Clayton Morris said on-air that Congressional Democrats had spurned former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page's attempt to testify on the Russia investigation. A half-hour later, Trump tweeted this: | | | There was a nearly ten-minute gap in between the two tweets. Are lawyers vetting them before Trump hits "Tweet?" | | About Fox's unnamed source... | | There was lots of chatter among media-obsessives about the "source familiar with the matter" in Fox's unbylined report this week on Kushner.
Fox News' chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge, who was listed as a contributor to the report, described the source on-air yesterday as someone "who has spoken to Kushner" -- a broad category that could, conceivably, include Rupert Murdoch.
A rep for 21st Century Fox declined to comment when I asked about that speculation, though a source close to Murdoch told me that he had no involvement in the story. Check out my piece here... | | Ailes, 'Bannon TV' and what might have been | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Axios and The Daily Beast reported today that former Fox News chief Roger Ailes had a final wish: to build another conservative media powerhouse. Mike Allen, who first reported the news, said Ailes approached White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of Breitbart, about the opportunity of working together. Bannon, according to the report, wasn't interested in leaving the Trump administration. The Beast's Swin Suebsaeng offered some more color One source joked the outfit could have been called "Bannon TV." The source added, "It would have been wild." | | Ben Smith on new 'Reliable' pod | | | In the latest edition of the "Reliable Sources" podcast, BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith talks with Brian Stelter about covering Trump, whom he calls "a media figure, and basically everybody's assignment editor." Smith also discusses the challenges of reporting accurately "through the chaos of the social web." Listen to it here! And subscribe on iTunes... | | Once again, via Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Lead of the day, courtesy of the AP: "Covfefe (cuv-fey-fey) noun: A sure sign that President Donald Trump has regained control of his Twitter account..."
-- Here's NiemanLab on how the Boston Globe is tightening up the paywall and how we're in a "second generation of digital models," focused on optimization...
-- Mary Meeker, the oracle of the Internet, was on stage today at Code Conference. Her scariest slide from last year's internet trends report just got even scarier. Full analysis on Meeker's talk at Recode... | | Megyn Kelly talks to Dylan | | Dylan Byers interviewed Megyn Kelly ahead of the premiere of her new show on NBC. He emails what he found out:
NBC is betting big on Megyn Kelly. The goal is to turn "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly," which debuts June 4, into the nation's premiere newsmagazine. Success, as Kelly explained it to me recently, means doing a show "that looks and feels different from every show that's out there, that connects people to one another, that offers good journalism, that is respected."
"Sunday Night" will run through the summer, then go on hiatus to make way for NBC's "Sunday Night Football." In September, Kelly will launch her 9 a.m. weekday show. Next February, she'll start hosting both at the same time. "Hopefully by then, I'll know what the hell I'm doing," she says... | | Highlights from the interview | | On the show: "Long-form journalism is a luxury for the viewers and the correspondents. ... If you can do it in a way that is both serious and hard-hitting, but also has heart, it's a special art form. You'll see that in the show. You'll feel a lot. Honestly, you'll cry. You may feel outraged. You'll feel uplifted. You'll feel informed. If the viewer can walk away feeling better connected with their fellow human beings, we've done our jobs. And they will."
On Fox News: "There are a lot of great journalists there who work very hard every day to put great news stories, honestly presented, on the air. But there's no question that this has been a tough time for Fox, and it's a rebuilding year for them. I have no doubt that they will find their footing and do just fine. They've got 20 years of history to prove that."
On her track record: "This is the fourth show I've launched. I launched 'America's Newsroom,' I launched 'America Live,' I launched 'The Kelly File.' Now I guess this is four and five. So I have a history of being able to hold. Those shows were fine on day one, but they were nothing on day one like they were once I was done with them after a couple of years." Read Dylan's full interview with her here... | | Kelly declined to comment on... | | | Roger Ailes' death and Bill O'Reilly's dismissal. | | Julian Assange to pinch hit for Hannity? | | Oliver Darcy emails his latest: Fox News host Sean Hannity just can't go a day without making news. Today he turned to Twitter to invite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to guest host his radio program -- and Assange told me he's exploring ways to make it happen! "I'm looking into it," Assange told me, noting his "physical circumstances means that nothing is easy."
Hannity, of course, has not always spoken kindly of Assange. In 2010 he accused him of "waging [a] war" against the US, but has since changed his tune after Wikileaks published emails from the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.
A Fox News spokesperson did not return a request for comment, but it's hard not to imagine network executives are not very happy about this... | | Correction and a mea culpa | | | Last night I sent Oliver an item about our beloved colleague here at CNNMoney, Pallavi Gogoi, taking a new job at NPR. The problem: I clumsily misspelled her last name. I have apologized to Pallavi and promised her a bottle of wine as penance for the typo. | | End of an era at the Times | | After more than a decade, the NYT is doing away with its public editor position -- a job created in the aftermath of the 2003 Jayson Blair scandal. The news, which was broken by Michael Calderone, will bring an abrupt end to perhaps the most widely criticized of the six public editors, Liz Spayd, who took the job last year and was expected to stay on until next summer. Friday will be her last day, but she tells Hadas Gold that she'll be writing a final column before she goes.
It wasn't the only big development at the Times today. Dean Baquet and Joseph Kahn announced a long-anticipated buyout program designed to "significantly shift the balance of editors to reporters at The Times, giving us more on-the-ground journalists developing original work than ever before."
The decision to get rid of the public editor job isn't a total surprise, given that other news organizations have similarly eliminated ombudsman roles. In his memo announcing the decision today, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. echoed WaPo editor Marty Baron, who cited the abundance of criticism in the internet age in justifying his paper's decision to get rid of the role in 2013.
"The public editor position, created in the aftermath of a grave journalistic scandal, played a crucial part in rebuilding our readers' trusts by acting as our in-house watchdog. We welcomed that criticism, even when it stung," Sulzberger wrote. "But today, our followers on social media and our readers across the Internet have come together to collectively serve as a modern watchdog, more vigilant and forceful than one person could ever be. Our responsibility is to empower all of those watchdogs, and to listen to them, rather than to channel their voice through a single office." Read my story on it here... | | Spayd's predecessor, current WaPo media columnist Margaret Sullivan, was probably the most celebrated of the six public editors, earning plaudits for her incisive (and pithy) critiques.
I emailed Sullivan for her reaction to the news this morning. Here's what she wrote back:
"It's a pretty abrupt move, but I can't say I'm surprised to see NYT ending the public editor position, especially in a time of newsroom cost-cutting and position-trimming. A lot of news organizations have eliminated the ombudsman position, including my current employer a few years ago. The one thing the public editor can almost always do is hold feet to the fire, and get an real answer out of management. The role is definitely a burr under the saddle of the powers that be. I did feel, while doing the job for almost four years, that I served an important purpose for the readership -- and for The Times itself. And I was honored to do it." | | Reactions from Media Twitter | | -- Jay Rosen: "Not only do I disagree with the decision to kill the job, I think they should have doubled down: two public editors."
-- Ben Smith: "Twitter is a pretty good public editor."
-- Tanzina Vega: "Eliminating the public editor role when its needed most, and also giving buyouts to editors in the newsroom? Fascinating."
-- Andrew Beaujon: "'No one but journalists cares' is not a good reason to cut the NYT public editor."
-- Sam Biddle: "I get why NYT would want to make sure Liz Spayd never happens again but [Margaret Sullivan] is proof the important job can be done really well"
-- Former NYTer Peter Lattman is right: "While everyone has their knickers in a twist over public editor, the far greater threat to its journalism is thinning of its editing ranks." | | Via Lisa Respers France:
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-- This "Felicity" mini-reunion with Keri Russell and Scott Speedman was just what we all needed...
-- Actress Vanessa Hudgens is joining Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" as a judge...
--Last year Robin Wright told the world of how she demanded equal pay on "House of Cards." She now says she still hasn't received it... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The latest Shonda Rhimes-produced ABC drama, "Still Star-Crossed," looked pretty much dead on arrival in terms of its ratings, as the Romeo-and-Juliet-themed hour attracted a mere 2.4 million viewers on Monday, tumbling off its "The Bachelorette" lead-in. That's the second straight failure to come from the Rhimes factory, following the cancellation of "The Catch." Read more at Variety... | | | Email us: reliablesources@cnn.com. Let us know what you like and dislike... what you want more of, what you want less of. We appreciate every email! | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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