| | | | | Exec summary: Sinclair says it is not interested in hiring Bill O'Reilly... Tensions inside the WSJ... Fox News smears Jake Tapper... Beyoncé joins the cast of Disney's live-action "Lion King..." | | | NPR's SVP of news Michael Oreskes resigned under pressure on Wednesday amid allegations of sexual harassment in his past. "I am deeply sorry to the people I hurt. My behavior was wrong and inexcusable, and I accept full responsibility," Oreskes said in a statement... | | NPR CEO Jarl Mohn under scrutiny | | My latest story: Inside NPR, there is dissatisfaction with CEO Jarl Mohn. Nine staffers throughout the organization told me they believe Mohn did not take the Oreskes harassment accusations seriously enough. "There were repeated complaints to management going back more than a year, and nothing ever happened," one of the sources said on condition of anonymity.
I've been speaking with sources within NPR for a couple of weeks. Numerous staffers said that Oreskes used his leadership position to try to curry favor with young women. I was struck by this comment from a female staffer: "I personally declined every invitation to meet" with Oreskes, "even just in his office, possibly to the detriment of my own career advancement, specifically because his reputation was so well known." And "the way Jarl has handled this since the story broke is making an already difficult situation much worse." Read the rest here... Including new details about what happened behind the scenes last month... | | Kudos to this interviewer... | | NPR's Mary Louise Kelly interviewed Mohn on "All Things Considered" Wednesday evening. It was impressive. I'm told a couple dozen newsroom staffers gathered near the studio to watch the interview. Kelly challenged him repeatedly... channeling the concerns of her colleagues... And Mohn's answers did little to assuage them. More...
-- Related: Some staffers want NPR to conduct an external investigation of Oreskes' conduct and the organization's response, establishing who knew what when. When I asked about that, NPR PR sidestepped the Q, saying that "Oreskes is no longer an NPR employee..." | | | Important detail in Paul Farhi's latest story about the NPR turmoil: "In a draft petition signed Wednesday by dozens of women, including some of its best-known hosts and correspondents, the women wrote: 'We are profoundly concerned by how NPR has handled sexual harassment reports and senior management's insufficient efforts to create a workplace environment free of harassment and one that ensures equal opportunity for all employees...'" | | Oreskes apologized to this woman on Wednesday | | Farhi's Tuesday story about Oreskes prompted other women to speak out. One of them, Isabelle Dungan, an actress and writer, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Oreskes took her to lunch several years ago -- to talk about jobs and get career advice -- and "propositioned" her. "He was totally foul and inappropriate with me," she wrote, "to the point where I had to block him on Gmail."
Dungan told me that Oreskes sent her an apology message after seeing her Facebook post... | | Sinclair says it's not interested in hiring Bill O'Reilly | | | Via Deadline: "During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley fielded a question" about reported talks with Bill O'Reilly. "We get approached by people all the time, which is probably where these reports were coming from," Ripley said. "He did approach us. We do not have any interest in hiring him..." | | | Is this just Trump pal Chris Ruddy throwing O'Reilly a bone? Or is this real? Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, told Politico that "we don't think Bill O'Reilly's career is over. He does have a market. We're very interested and exploring looking at that." The site reported that "O'Reilly and his agent are scheduled to meet in New York next week with Ruddy to discuss a show on Newsmax TV..." | | WSJ reporters v. WSJ editorial board | | Oliver Darcy emails: "Like Fox News, it seems reporters at the WSJ are also fuming over the opinion side of their outlet's operation..."
Darcy linked to Joe Pompeo's new must-read for VF. Pompeo says a series of virulent anti-Robert Mueller editorials "has reporters worried about their paper's credibility." Key quote from a WSJ reporter: "We could disprove half the stuff" the opinion writers "are saying if they just read our own reporting. It's like living in some alternate universe..." | | | Speaking of that alternate universe... | | Ingraham gets POTUS interview | | | Laura Ingraham had an interview with John Kelly on Monday... Clarence Thomas on Wednesday... and on Thursday, she'll sit down with President Trump. This will be Trump's 20th interview with Fox since inauguration day. Last week, he sat down with Lou Dobbs... | | POTUS called Haberman out of the blue on Wednesday | | Imagine: You're Maggie Haberman. Your phone rings. It's Trump's personal secretary. Surprise! A brief interview with the president. The conversation happened for a couple of minutes... Trump claimed, "I'm not under investigation, as you know..." And he said "I just got fantastic poll numbers..." Despite recent Fox and NBC polls that showed him with record low approval #'s...
-- WashPost's David Nakamura tweeted: "What it does demonstrate (again) is even with 41 mil Twitter followers, WH daily briefing and Fox News, @POTUS still feels he needs NYT..." | | Fox has been savoring this seven-game series... But Wednesday night's finale has been lopsided in the Astros' favor... I'm sending this out with one inning to go, with the Astros up 5-1...
-- Any ratings guesses? Frank Pallotta reminds me that last year's Game 7 viewership clocked in at an enormous 40 million viewers...
-- Ad watch: Brian Lowry emails: For movie studios, Wednesday's game represented the biggest platform they'll have -- especially to reach men -- before a wave of blockbuster fourth-quarter releases, including "Thor: Ragnarok" this weekend, "Justice League" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." All three were promoted in spots leading up to Game 7... | | -- "A journalist was wounded during an arrest over the weekend while trying to pose a question" to members of VA GOP gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie's campaign, "but the police involved say their actions were justified," Tom Kludt reports... (CNNMoney)
-- Erik Wemple calls Tucker Carlson the "master of misdirection..." (WashPost)
-- Correction: Last night, I said Brian Williams topped Shannon Bream in the 25-54 demo on Monday, while Bream was tops in total viewers. Actually Williams was #1 in both categories Monday. (On Tuesday, however, Bream was #1...) | | | Summing up two days of #TechHearings: Lots of grandstanding... but little new information from Facebook, Google or Twitter... Here's a recap of Wednesday's questions and answers... | | Here are the Facebook ads... well, 1% of them | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: We had expected the House Intel Committee to release all 3,000 Russian-bought Facebook ads the company gave them. However, they released only about 30. You can see our breakdown of the ads here...
Most the ads were targeted based on Facebook users' locations and interests. My favorite interest combination was for a meme that said Hillary Clinton was Satan. The ad was targeted at people who "like" "Laura Ingraham, God, Ron Paul, Christianity, Bill O'Reilly... Mike Huckabee or Jesus." (That's the order it appeared in the data — quite the line-up!)
-- FWIW: The committee still says it will release all the ads eventually... | | Dylan Byers emails: There is a radical disparity between the Silicon Valley and Washington priorities. Facebook, Google and Twitter see themselves as open, global platforms. They do not want to be "arbiters of truth" and they do not want to be in the business of working on behalf of one government over another.
Lawmakers feel just the opposite: they believe these companies need to make fundamental changes to their platforms to weed out misinformation and safeguard democracy. If this week's hearings taught us anything, it's that never the twain shall see eye to eye...
-- Facebook earnings came out Wednesday... and Mark Zuckerberg said "we're investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability..." | | Lawmakers still have a lot to learn... | | | Julia Waldow emails: Wednesday's hearings, while informative, seemed to highlight a lack of social-media savviness on the part of some lawmakers. (Among the questions asked, for example, were the difference between an impression and ad click, and a bot and a troll.) The purpose of these hearings was to get as many Russian-interference-related answers from Google, Facebook, and Twitter as possible -- so asking the definitions of words that could, in fact, be looked up on Google itself may not have been the best use of time... | | Russian trolls encouraged "both sides to battle in the streets" | | | Alex Koppelman emails: Richard Burr brought this up at the Senate hearing: the Russians were promoting two opposing events at the same time and place in Texas. Presumably their goal was violence -- and, conveniently, CNN reported just this week about how the Russians wanted to foment violence... | | Tim Cook is right about this... | | The ads bought in Russian rubles are important, but the spread of sensational and misleading "content" is more important IMHO. This is what Apple's Tim Cook said when NBC's Lester Holt asked about social media and the 2016 election:
"I don't believe that the big issue are ads from foreign governments. I believe that's like .1% of the issue. The bigger issue is that some of these tools are used to divide people, to manipulate people, to get 'fake news' to people in broad numbers, and so to influence their thinking. And this, to me, is the number one through ten issue..." | | | Journalists' local connections to the crime scene added a personal dimension to the coverage. "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie walked to work on Wednesday -- because she anchored from her TriBeCa neighborhood. "I live about three blocks from where I'm standing right now," Guthrie said on "Today." "I was about to take my kids out trick or treating" when the attack happened... | | | CNN's Chris Cuomo and Poppy Harlow also anchored from lower Manhattan on Wednesday... So did ABC's David Muir... Jeff Glor, who's about to take over the "CBS Evening News," co-anchored the broadcast from the scene both on Tuesday and Wednesday nights... Meanwhile, Lester Holtwas out west for the aforementioned interview with Cook... | | Oliver Darcy emails: Fox News deleted an extraordinarily misleading tweet on Wednesday evening that took CNN's Jake Tapper out of context. But the misleading attacks continued unabated on TV. This is what they distorted: On Tuesday, amid reports that the NYC attacker yelled "Allahu Akbar," Tapper said the suspect had shouted the "Arabic chant, Allahu Akbar -- God is great -- sometimes said under the most beautiful of circumstances, and too often we hear it being said in moments like this."
That's a fact. But far-right outlets, like Breitbart and Infowars, twisted Tapper's words to assert he thought the phrase, in the context of the terror attack, was "beautiful." On "The Five," former congressman Jason Chaffetz followed their lead. Video of the segment was posted on the Fox News Insider site and a tweet from the network was sent out that read, "CNN's Jake Tapper Says 'Allahu Akbar' Is 'Beautiful' Right After NYC Terror Attack."
The tweet came under heavy scrutiny and it was deleted. Chaffetz later issued an apology on Twitter. But the Fox News Insider story is still up. I emailed a Fox News spokesperson to ask if it would be deleted and if an on-air apology would be issued. I haven't heard back. I'm also curious: If this story did violate Fox News standards (which it seems like it did, since it was deleted) why was it posted on the website and flagship Twitter account in the first place? How did it get cleared to end up on air?
-- Tapper's tweetstorm was 🔥🔥. A sampling: "There was a time when one could tell the difference between Fox and the nutjobs at Infowars. It's getting tougher and tougher. Lies are lies..." | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Far from "failing:" The NYT posted Q3 earnings on Wednesday. It now counts roughly 2.5 million digital subscribers... (NYT)
-- This is a fascinating story about how Apple controls "previews" of the iPhone... The company has been "prioritizing early access to the iPhone X for YouTube personalities and celebrities over most technology columnists who traditionally review its new products..." (WSJ)
-- The NYC attack reaffirmed the utility of Snap Maps as a tool for real-time information discovery, as footage from the scene was posted by users... (NiemanLab)
-- Anton Troianovski is The Washington Post's new Moscow bureau chief. He hails from the Journal. (WashPost) | | | Lisa Respers France emails: Director/producer Brett Ratner is the latest Hollywood power player to be accused of sexual misconduct. Six women including actress Olivia Munn shared their allegations in a story published by the LATimes on Wednesday. Ratner, known as equal parts bad boy and golden boy in the industry, vehemently denied the allegations to CNN via a statement from his attorney... | | Ratner and Warner Bros. are splitting | | | "We are aware of the allegations in the LA Times and are reviewing the situation," said Warner Bros., which has a first-look deal with Ratner and his company. Later in the day, Ratner said: "I am choosing to personally step away from all Warner Bros.- related activities. I don't want to have any possible negative impact to the studio until these personal issues are resolved..." | | Speaking out is "still an incredibly hard thing to do" | | The Times story was co-bylined by Amy Kaufman and Daniel Miller. It has been in the works for weeks. Kaufman tweeted Wednesday morning: "I know a lot of women are coming forward about sexual harassment in the wake of Harvey Weinstein. I hope it is not lost that that is still an incredibly hard thing to do, often involving serious legal threats."
Later in the day, she posted this update: "I've been contacted by over 20 new accusers and am investigating their claims..." | | Wednesday's other developments | | -- Julia Waldow emails: An L.A.-based writer says Dustin Hoffman sexually harassed her while she was a 17-year-old production assistant for the TV film "Death of a Salesman." Hoffman said "I feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry..." (THR)
-- More from Julia: Two more men have come forward alleging sexual harassment by Kevin Spacey... (BuzzFeed)
-- CJR's latest: "Global media confronts its own Weinsteins..." (CJR)
-- "UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon resigned on Wednesday evening after an allegation of inappropriate conduct..." (CNN) | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Forbes is folding its opinion section and honing in on its contributor network... (Business Insider)
-- When "no job" turns into "new deal:" Claudia Oshry, the Insta-famous star of @GirlWithNoJob, is now being represented by CAA... (Variety)
-- The Daily Beast is launching a new science vertical... (Twitter) | | Anatomy of a Trump tweet – and White House talking point | | Tom Kludt emails: Trump's Wednesday morning tweetstorm about the diversity visa program should dispel any remaining skepticism that the president and conservative media are working in concert, forming a symbiotic relationship that shapes both news coverage and the White House messaging. By the time Trump tweeted his criticism of the program – and of Chuck Schumer for helping create it – the narrative had already been fully calcified on Fox News and right-wing websites: the suspect was here on a diversity visa, ergo the diversity visa had be eliminated.
It began on Breitbart, weaved its way through Fox News primetime and the network's morning slate before it was echoed by Trump on Twitter. I did my best to track how the sausage was made... | | Queen Bey joins "Lion King" | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Long live the Queen! Disney announced Wednesday that Beyonce has officially joined its new live-action version of "The Lion King," which is set for a summer of 2019 release. Bey's involvement in the film had been rumored for a while, but her inclusion in the reimagining of one of Disney's most beloved classics should have the Beyhive buzzing. The singer will be joining an all star cast that includes Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, John Oliver, and James Earl Jones, who will reprise his role as Mufasa from the original 1994 animated film... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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