| | | | | Happy birthday to us! This newsletter launched two years ago today. Thank you for your readership, tips, and ideas. There is a LOT of news -- so let's get to it... | | | Exec summary: Two billionaires pulled their money out of websites: Joe Ricketts abruptly shut down DNAinfo and Robert Mercer sold his stake in BuzzFeed... President Trump had a busy day of interviews... and I have questions about the WSJ's report that the Justice Department may sue to block the AT&T-Time Warner deal. Scroll down for details about that... | | "House of Cards" crew members allege wrongdoing by Kevin Spacey | | | An exclusive report by CNN's Chloe Melas: "Kevin Spacey made the set of Netflix's 'House of Cards' into a "toxic" work environment through a pattern of sexual harassment, eight people who currently work on the show or worked on it in the past tell CNN." They "described Spacey's behavior as 'predatory,' saying it included nonconsensual touching and crude comments and targeted production staffers who were typically young and male." One former employee told Melas that Spacey sexually assaulted him. Read the disturbing full story here... | | After reading Melas's story, you may never think about Netflix's first breakout hit show the same way again. Production on season six was shut down earlier this week, in response to allegations against Spacey from decades ago, but these accounts are from the past few years. How much did Netflix and Media Rights Capital know? The companies say they were only aware of one alleged incident on set... Some staffers told Melas they were afraid to come forward...
-- This just in: Spacey's publicist at Polaris PR and his agent at CAA have parted ways with him... | | It's been four weeks since the first NYT story hit... | | | ...And every day there are disturbing new allegations about prominent men abusing their power. Every day, belated apologies and corporate consequences. Every day, new rumors about who's next. Journalists are pursuing many more leads about alleged abuse -- some of them involving household names, others about high-profile people in various industries. Here's my latest story... | | Kantor: "Journalism works" | | Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's story about Weinstein was the beginning of a long-overdue reckoning about sexual assault and harassment. Kantor told me on Thursday that she hopes one of the takeaways "is that journalism works."
"Though the allegations we and others have brought to light are very painful, the past month speaks to what happens when journalists, sources and readers join together to ask tough questions of the powerful and make difficult topics easier to discuss," she said... | | NPR CEO will face staffers on Friday | | "I let you down," NPR CEO Jarl Mohn wrote to staffers on Thursday. "I should have acted faster and more decisively." He added: "I am committed to fixing what is broken."
As I reported yesterday, Mohn is under fire for his delayed handling of harassment allegations against former NPR news chief Michael Oreskes. Mohn is going to hold a town hall meeting on Friday... And from everything I've heard, it's going to be confrontational... | | NPR bringing in an outside law firm... | | Mohn also said he is retaining an outside law firm "to conduct a review of how we handled the matter." Meaning, a review of his own actions/inaction...
-- NPR's David Folkenflik on the radio Thursday: "There are a lot of people in our newsroom, not just women, who are deeply upset..."
-- Sunday on "Reliable Sources:" Folkenflik, Ronan Farrow, Indira Lakshmanan and more... | | -- Recommended: CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin's reporter's notebook about the week she spent with U.S. troops in South Korea... (CNN)
-- Shoutout to Fox's Martha MacCallum... She hosted an impressive edition of her show "The Story" from Pearl Harbor on Thursday, previewing Trump's trip to Hawaii and Asia...
-- On the same day that Fox smeared Jake Tapper and Sean Hannity said Tapper had "low ratings," "The Lead" was #1 in its time slot in the 25-54 demo... (TVNewser) | | Ricketts shuts down local news web sites | | Tom Kludt reports: A week after they voted to unionize, journalists at DNAinfo and Gothamist learned that their websites have shut down. On Thursday evening, visitors to the sites -- two leading suppliers of local news in New York City -- were met with a farewell message from billionaire owner Joe Ricketts.
Staffers were floored by the sudden shut-down. "It was literally like the daily flow of the newsroom came to a screeching halt," said Scott Heins, a photojournalist at Gothamist. "It was just an absolutely normal day at the office and then someone said 'oh my god the email' and then everyone checked their work email. Some of my colleagues burst into tears really quickly, others shouted. It was immediate shock when we got the email." The closure also affects DCist, LAist, SFist, Chicagoist, etc. Read more... | | The loss of these beloved local news sites hurts journalists, but beyond that, it hurts communities. Right now the archives of the sites are offline; hopefully they will be resurrected.
-- Molly Crabapple tweeted: "This is on par with burning a library. DNAInfo and Gothamist did some of the finest local journalism..."
-- Per the NYT, "the decision puts 115 people out of work..."
-- Peter Sterne made this Google doc "of all the journalists you should hire because Joe Ricketts laid them off..."
-- Lydia Polgreen tweeted: "HuffPost just spent seven weeks traversing America. Local journalism is struggling to survive everywhere we went. It's a national emergency..." | | -- Lawyers for the Russian tech executive who's suing BuzzFeed are arguing that BF is not a real news organization... Tom Kludt and Katelyn Polantz have the full story here... (CNN)
-- Univision CEO Randy Falco's contract has been extended through January 2020... (Variety)
-- CNN is "the latest publisher to chase e-commerce dollars with a new online shopping guide called CNN Underscored..." (Digiday) | | A Twitter customer service employee on their last day at the company briefly shut down @realDonaldTrump's account on Thursday evening... Jeff Sessions is coming under even more scrutiny... CNN's latest scoop: "Jared Kushner has turned over documents to Robert Mueller as investigators have begun asking in witness interviews about Kushner's role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey..." BTW, Comey's upcoming book will be titled "A Higher Loyalty..."
-- 🔌: I'll be on "CNN Tonight with Don Lemon" in the 11pm hour... | | Is the government going to block the AT&T-Time Warner deal? | | | Time Warner stock slumped 6% on Thursday when the WSJ reported that the Department of Justice may sue to block AT&T's acquisition of the media company. The stock recovered a bit, but still closed down 3.75%. (Reminder: Time Warner owns CNN and this newsletter.) The Journal story was a big surprise to media execs and journalists like yours truly. Until Thursday, all my sources were under the impression that the DOJ and AT&T reps were close to a "consent decree" that would apply some predictable conditions to the deal. But the WSJ says the two sides are not close to an agreement. Here's my full story... | | Theory #1: Analysts at Cowen Research said they believed the leak to the WSJ is likely just "a negotiating tactic" by the government -- "and that the deal is still likely to close." Doug Creutz pointed out that "it would be unprecedented for the DOJ to block a vertical merger" like this one. And even if the DOJ does sue to block the deal, "we think AT&T would fight and likely win," his colleague Colby Synesael said...
Ok, here's theory #2... | | What did Trump and Sessions discuss at lunch on Monday? | | During a segment on CNN International on Thursday, Richard Quest asked me if President Trump could be playing politics by impeding the deal. It's certainly a possibility. (VF's Joe Pompeo wrote about some of these concerns earlier in the week.) As I said to Quest, Trump publicly vowed to block the merger while campaigning last year. And we all know how frequently he criticizes CNN on Twitter and in public appearances. There's been ongoing speculation that Trump might try to use the AT&T deal to punish CNN.
After the segment, I thought about it some more. Since this story evidently surprised some people at AT&T... Did something change? Well... Consider what happened this week. Trump had lunch with attorney general Jeff Sessions on Monday. Did the two men discuss the AT&T-Time Warner deal? Consider: We know that CNN broke the news last Friday about impending charges by Robert Mueller's team. We know that CNN aggressively covered the indictments on Monday morning. And we know that POTUS spent that morning watching cable TV coverage, "seething," and lashing out on Twitter. Then he went to lunch with Sessions, apparently in a foul mood.
Now, three days later, the DOJ is "actively considering" blocking the AT&T deal? 🤔 | | Trump says he'd "love" to be involved in DOJ matters | | Coincidentally, Trump called into Larry O'Connor's right wing radio show on Thursday evening... and when he was asked about why the DOJ hasn't prosecuted Hillary Clinton, he said this:
"I'm not supposed to be involved in the Justice Department. I am not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I'm not supposed to be doing the kinds of things I would LOVE to be doing, and I'm very frustrated by it..."
-- Reminder: the Sinclair-Tribune deal is also undergoing DOJ review... | | Trump had a busy day of interviews on Thursday... | | | Along with O'Connor, he also spoke with conservative radio host Howie Carr... Fox's new 10pm host Laura Ingraham... and Sharyl Attkisson, the host of "Full Measure" on Sinclair stations... | | What we learned from the #TechHearings | | | Here's CNN's Seth Fiegerman with a recap: The impact of Russian meddling was worse than previously believed... Facebook is throwing $$$ at the problem... Congress is not satisfied with the tech cos' promises... Read more here! | | -- Mathew Ingram says the tech companies want to "have their cake and eat it too..." (CJR)
-- ICYMI: Michael Flynn followed a number of fake Twitter accounts tied to Russia, and retweeted them in the days before the election, The Daily Beast reports... | | This week's "Reliable" pod: Claire Wardle | | | First Draft exec director Claire Wardle says the term "fake news" is "woefully inadequate" to explain all the types of "information pollution." On this week's "Reliable" podcast, she told me she prefers using the terms "mis-information," "dis-information," and "mal-information" to describe the problems. We also discussed the #TechHearings... Listen here via iTunes... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Vox's David Roberts says America is facing an epistemic crisis, as "crazy conservative fairy tales have become numbingly common..." (Vox)
-- Donna Brazile started her book tour with a bang... through this excerpt in Politico... the book, "Hacks," comes out next week... (Politico)
-- About one in four Americans now get some of their news via multiple social media sites, a new Pew study says... (Pew)
-- The Unicode consortium, the organization that oversees emojis, is embroiled in a controversial debate around new emojis, including a "Frowning Pile of Poo" emoji... (BuzzFeed) | | | Julia Waldow emails: Condé Nast is ending Teen Vogue's print run as part of publisher-wide cuts that also include a "hiring freeze" estimated to affect 80 jobs by the end of next week, WWD's Alexandra Steigrad reports. Teen Vogue EIC Elaine Welteroth "may remain working on the title in some capacity," Steigrad says. In addition, Condé Nast is decreasing the number of issues per year for GQ, Glamour and some other pubs... | | Robert Mercer selling his Breitbart stake to his daughters | | Oliver Darcy emails: Robert Mercer, the billionaire conservative donor, distanced himself from Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos in a stunning letter to colleagues on Thursday. Mercer also announced he would sell his stake in Breitbart to his daughters -- he cited "personal reasons" -- and said he had decided to step down as co-CEO of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies.
Mercer wrote that he has "great respect" for Bannon, but stressed his politics and who he supports "do not always align" with him. Then, in an extraordinary rebuke, Mercer wrote that Yiannopoulos has "caused pain and divisiveness" through his actions and that he was "mistaken" to have ever supported him. Yiannopoulos told me via text that he was "grateful" for Mercer's support and wished him and his family "all the best."
Of course, Mercer's letter comes just weeks after BuzzFeed's Joe Bernstein published an explosive exposé linking Breitbart and Yiannopoulos to white nationalists. According to Bernstein's sources the report angered people inside RenTech... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- A former president of AOL TV and the EP of "The Voice" are among the creators of a new media company centered on all things sneakers... (Deadline)
-- A new Facebook AR filter lets you "catch" marshmallows as part of a promotional campaign for Ben and Jerry's... (AdWeek)
-- Move over, Netflix: With $80 million, Pandora takes the top spot in non-game app revenue in the U.S. for Q3... (TechCrunch) | | Brett Ratner suing accuser | | | Lisa Respers France emails: The same day the LA Times published a story with six women accusing him of sexual misconduct, Brett Ratner was filing suit against a women for alleging he raped her about 12 years ago. The director/producer is accusing Melanie Kohler of defaming him with her allegation, which she made via her Facebook account. In a statement to CNN, her attorney had a simple message for Ratner: "See you in court." | | Thursday's other developments | | -- A nuanced story by Michael Calderone: Mother Jones investigated David Corn for inappropriate workplace behavior three years ago...
-- A must-read Variety story: "Sexual harassment allegations rock talent agencies, force recent departures at CAA, ICM..."
-- Thought-provoking read by the WashPost's Callum Borchers: "How media outlets cover their own sexual harassment scandals..."
-- Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King discussed this "moment in history" during a broader Paley Center event in NYC... | | Game 7 ratings: Strong, but not the Cubbies | | Frank Pallotta emails: 28 million viewers tuned in to see the Houston Astros win their first World Series title by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers. The number was down 30% year-over-year, but that's because last year was the historic Cubs victory. Plus, it's a pretty strong # for a game that wasn't close.
The entire 2017 series, which had its fair share of exciting and crazy moments, averaged 18.9 million viewers over seven games... Read the full story here... | | "Stranger Things" ratings* | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Nielsen released data on Thursday showing that the first episode of "Stranger Things" averaged 15.8 million viewers. That's big deal seeing that Nielsen may now have finally cracked the mystery that is Netflix's viewership, but let's pump our brakes a bit. The numbers come with a bunch of asterisks (it's just the U.S., this measurement is still new, Netflix may not agree nor care, etc.). So, yes, it matters because we have a glimpse at the possible viewership of the company's biggest show, but there's a long way to go before we have a distinct Netflix number... | | | For the record, part five | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Wendy Williams has explained why she fainted live on-air during her morning show and assured fans she's not going anywhere anytime soon...
-- Fans are worried about Tyrese Gibson who in the midst of going through a contentious custody battle for his daughter is also beefing with "Fast and Furious" co-star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and threatening to quit the popular franchise... | | | 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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