| | | | | Frank Pallotta here ... it's the end of the week... so let's get to the news! | | Is the White House capable of answering basic questions? | | Tom Kludt asks: What purpose does Sean Spicer serve exactly?
What is the point in holding press briefings at all if he is incapable of answering even the most basic questions about his boss' positions on various issues? Press secretaries have of course always been spin doctors, whose role is to put any given administration in the most positive light possible. But is Spicer even serving that end?
Do he or the administration look competent when he says repeatedly -- as he did once again today when asked straight-forward questions about Trump's position on climate change -- that he hasn't discussed the matter with the president? There's a school of thought held by many people that the press briefings are pointless exercises, without which reporters would be better off.
I'm not sure I'm there yet, but Spicer might be single-handedly rendering the briefings worthless. | | This CNN banner says it all | | | Seen on "The Situation Room" this evening: "PRESIDENT'S SPOKESMAN SAYS HE CAN'T SPEAK FOR THE PRESIDENT." Wolf Blitzer said "the White House is keeping America guessing" about the president's climate change views... | | W.H. correspondents on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | Brian Stelter emails: We have a trifecta of briefing room experts booked on this Sunday's show: Kaitlan Collins, Olivia Nuzzi and John Gizzi. Scroll down for the rest of our guest list... | | BTW, Trump isn't answering many questions, either | | | Tom Kludt emails: Geraldo Rivera, typically friendly to Trump, excoriated the decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, calling it "appalling." So Hunter Walker, doing pool duty, decided to ask Trump about Geraldo's comments during a bill signing. No dice. Like Spicer, Trump isn't fielding many questions from reporters these days. According to the pool, Trump also ignored a question about whether whether he'd use executive privilege to block Comey's testimony. | | WashPost: Would the press briefings be missed? | | Kelly sits down with Putin | | | Brian Stelter emails: "It was an eye-opening exchange with a defiant President Putin in St. Petersburg today," Megyn Kelly said on Friday's "NBC Nightly News," hours after taping her exclusive one-on-one. Here's the first bite from the interview. NBC is likely to release some more sound when Kelly is back in NYC and on "Meet the Press" this Sunday morning.. | | "A new offering on Sunday night" | | More from Brian: Kelly's newsmag, "Sunday Night," premieres Sunday at 7pm ET. This initial run will last for a few months... til August... when "Sunday Night Football" takes over the time slot. Kelly is going up against "60 Minutes..." but that newsmag is mostly in summertime repeat mode...
The bearish view: Kelly comes from cable, broadcast is a different beast altogether, and "Sunday Night" will be a flop. The bullish view: NBC News is building something new with one of the biggest stars on TV.
Here's what Andy Lack said last month: "There are very few news organizations adding programs right now. We have a complete reset of the 9am hour coming with Megyn, and a new offering on Sunday night at 7pm. It's not going to be perfect on Day One, and we're not going to be in first place on Day Two – but I'd rather be holding our cards than anyone else's." | | Sunday's "Reliable" lineup | | As evidenced by his contributions to tonight's newsletter, Brian Stelter clearly can't keep himself entirely away from the news during baby leave, but he's back for real on Sunday. Along with the aforementioned guests, he'll be joined by Carl Bernstein, David Zurawik, and former Hillary Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin... and he'll have an exclusive TV interview with Andrew Feinberg, who was, until recently, the W.H. correspondent for Russia's Sputnik news agency...
(And before you ask... no, unfortunately, Sunny Stelter will not be co-hosting. Well, at least not this week.) | | The world takes shots at Trump | | The international response to President Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement was notable for the amount of scorn that came with it.
Take, for example, the new cover of Der Spiegel. The German magazine, which hasn't been too kind to the president in the past, had Trump teeing off on an inflamed Earth with the caption, "You're fired!" | | | Then there was the Twitter account for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, which tweeted a video annotating the White House's own video about the Paris Accord. The account finished its tweet with a hashtag seemingly borrowed from their country's new president, who did some trolling of Trump of his own: "#MakeThePlanetGreatAgain." | | The latest issue of CNN's "State" has a great piece by MJ Lee with an better title, "God and the Don."
The story is an account of Trump's ties to religion throughout his life. It starts with his childhood church in Queens, which is now dominated by immigrants and people of color, and goes through the days immediately following the election, when the then president-elect had a pretty awkward encounter with two pastors. Give it a read here... | | Kathy Griffin: Trump is "personally trying to ruin my life" | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: In a news conference Friday, a visibly nervous Kathy Griffin -- alongside her attorney Lisa Bloom -- talked about the death threats she says she received and the work she says she's lost following the controversial photo shoot in which she held up a severed head that resembled that of President Trump.
Griffin expressed concern about her professional future, saying, "Absolutely, I don't think I will have a career after this." | | | -- Stelter asks: Which PR people, if any, are advising Griffin? | | | Here comes "Wonder Woman" | | | How "Wonder Woman" could change Hollywood | | "Wonder Woman," which opens this weekend, won't be the biggest box office opening of all time or even this year. But the Warner Bros. superhero film is poised to set a box office record arguably more meaningful long-term: the biggest opening for a female director ever.
The film, which is directed by Patty Jenkins, has the chance to mark a big moment for female filmmakers, who haven't gotten the opportunities they've deserved in Hollywood.
"Female directors have to fight to prove their clout," Amy Nicholson, MTV News' chief film critic told me. "I'd love to see 'Wonder Woman' deliver a knockout punch -- a hit the studios can't forget."
More on this, which I wrote about today, right below. And read my full story here... | | Stop calling Patty Jenkins a "gamble" | | Jumping from indies to franchise blockbusters isn't an uncommon path for male directors -- Colin Trevorrow ("Jurassic World") and Gareth Edwards ("Godzilla"), for example, have done it, but when a female director like Jenkins is the one doing it, it's portrayed -- as the Hollywood Reporter did in a controversial tweet this week -- as the studio "gambling" on her. It's not that.
"Hiring a super-successful television and indie film director to helm a superhero blockbuster is the norm, not a gamble." wrote Vivian Kane, an opinion writer for pop culture site, The Mary Sue, in response to THR's tweet... | | Is this a watershed moment for Hollywood? | | Wonder Woman's first film comes at a time when people are demanding -- and, slowly, getting -- better female representation in media. Sofia Coppola just became the second woman in 70 years (seriously) to win Cannes' best director award, actresses like Jessica Chastain are challenging Hollywood on how it depicts women, and the issue of pay equality continues to be a subject of discussion in the industry.
And the only thing Hollywood loves more than success is replicating success, so if "Wonder Woman" really takes off at the box office it could lead to a paradigm shift at a big moment for Hollywood, according to Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com. "It's a long overdue opportunity," he told me. "But it's a win-win for everyone." | | "The Public Editor Signs Off" | | Oliver Darcy emails: A fitting title for Liz Spayd's final column for The New York Times today. The Times, of course, announced earlier this week that it had eliminated the position of public editor. Spayd wrote that the role "was a sign of institutional integrity" and nixing it sent "an ambiguous signal."
"Is the leadership growing weary of such advice or simply searching for a new model?" Spayd asked. "We'll find out soon enough." Read her column here... | | Winners of game 1 of the NBA Finals: ABC, Rihanna | | The NBA Finals kicked off last night with a couple big winners: ABC and Rihanna.
ABC picked up the third biggest overnight rating for a game 1 in its history with the series, only beaten by the other two Finals meetings between the teams facing off once again this year, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors.
The other big winner was a bit of a surprise: Rihanna lit up social media by catching the attention of ABC announcer Jeff Van Gundy, who missed a key play because she walked by court side, and also possibly heckling Warriors star, Kevin Durant during the game.
Oh, and the Warriors won too.
Game 2 is Sunday night on ABC... | | -- NiemanLab reports that the Wall Street Journal is killing its What's News app... (NiemanLab)
-- Poynter's ethicist asks if NYT editing cuts mean doing more with less... will credibility suffer? (Poynter)
-- Jenna Lee is leaving Fox News. She says it was her choice... no immediate word on what she's doing next... (Fox News Insider)
-- Winter could take awhile: HBO may push the final season of "Game of Thrones" to 2019... (The Verge) | | ABC goes to trial over "Pink Slime" | | Tom Kludt emails: ABC is heading to court on Monday for the beginning of the so-called "pink slime" trial, which will be held in my old stomping ground of South Dakota. At the center of the case: the network's 2012 news reports about a company called Beef Products, Inc.
ABC reported on a finely textured beef product, now known to many as "pink slime," that the meat producer added to its ground beef. ABC reported that the practice was widespread, and not dangerous to eat, but that BPI did not label the ingredient on its packaging. BPI has accused ABC of defamation, contending that the reporting on its use of the ingredient hurt its business. | | Will Trump's anti-media attacks be echoed in the courtroom? | | | More from Tom: The jury has been seated in Elk Point, S.D., a town with fewer than 2,000 people located in the southeastern corner of the state. The trial could be a sequel to last year's Hulk Hogan/Gawker trial, which saw antipathy toward the press play a decisive role in sinking the now-shuttered gossip website. As University of Minnesota media law professor Jane Kirtley said to the AP, "If they don't use the phrase 'fake news,' I'll be shocked, because it's something that will resonate with a jury." | | | THR's Eriq Gardner published an excellent preview of the case today. ABC's statement to Gardner: "We believe in the principle that people deserve to know what's in the food they eat and are confident that when all the facts are presented in court, ABC's reporting will be fully vindicated." | | Oliver Darcy emails: The Bannon-Kushner wars have spilled onto the front page of the Drudge Report. This afternoon, Matt Drudge rained fire down on Bannon with two headlines sure to irk the president. "BANNON 'IS THE REAL PRESIDENT,'" the Internet news titan wrote, asking, "LEAKED RUSSIA DIRT ON JARED?"
It is just the latest example in an odd alliance that seems to have formed between Drudge and Jared Kushner. In the past several weeks, Drudge has been awfully critical of Bannon, even going as far as to run conspicuously poor photos of the former Breitbart chairman. He has also stopped linking to Breitbart News stories as frequently as before, Vanity Fair noted. And Politico reported recently that Drudge talks to Kushner regularly.
It's not exactly clear why Drudge would ally himself with Kushner, instead of Bannon, who seems to share more of Drudge's worldview. But a person familiar with Drudge's relationship with Kushner told me the duo became quite close over the campaign. The person said Drudge was one of the first people Kushner would call for advice and that he took it quite a bit. I reached out to both Bannon and Drudge, but neither responded to a request for comment... | | Ariana Grande benefit concert to air on ABC | | Chloe Melas reports: People who can't make it to Ariana Grande's benefit concert in Manchester can stream and watch the show on Sunday.
Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Usher, Pharrell Williams, Niall Horan and Take That will all take the stage at the Emirates Old Trafford cricket grounds in Manchester, just miles from the site of the attack on a May 22 concert at the Manchester Arena.
ABC's Freeform channel will carry it live. ABC stations will show it on a tape delay. The concert will also be streamed online on Grande's YouTube channel and Facebook page, while the BBC will provide an international broadcast for the pop star's far-flung fans. Other live-stream partners include Twitter, Apple, Viacom and iHeartMedia... | | Even Netflix isn't immune to basic TV math | | | Brian Lowry emails: THR's Tim Goodman takes a look at Netflix's recent cancellations of "Sense8" and "The Get Down." The main message is that despite the service's insistence that ratings don't matter to its business model, it's not immune to basic TV math -- that is, the cost-benefit analysis of an expensive show that not enough people are watching... | | Johnny Carson returns as comedy king on "Dying Up Here" | | | Lowry adds: "I'm Dying Up Here" -- premiering this weekend -- is a bit of a trip down memory lane for comedy fans, but one of the things the Showtime series gets right is zeroing in on the enormous influence Johnny Carson wielded over the stand-up scene in "The Tonight Show's" heyday. As Richard Belzer once put it, an "OK" sign from Carson was, among comics, viewed as "a gesture from God..." | | -- Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" sequel will include Trump's exit from Paris Accord... BTW, Gore will be on "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper this Sunday... (Variety)
-- Politico will expand its European presence by launching a London edition of the Playbook in September... (Digiday)
-- A weekend read: Ever wonder how movies get their ratings? Here's your answer... (WSJ)
-- The Daily Beast's Erin Gloria Ryan on Donald Trump Jr.'s penchant for conspiracy theories: "He's InfoWars in a suit..." (Daily Beast) | | "There are many lessons in my fantastic journey. As I approach my eighth decade, with more fans and adulation than I could ever deserve, I can say with certainty that to be interesting, you have to be interested."
-- Jonathan Goldsmith AKA "The Most Interesting Man in the World" in a great Politico piece about his friendship with Barack Obama...
So stay interesting and stay interested, everyone. And have a nice weekend! | | | 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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