| | | | | Exec summary: VF has a new story about Matt Lauer and NBC; DOJ v. AT&T now has a trial date; POTUS is holding a rally in Pensacola on Friday night... | | What Fox is telling Trump about Mueller | | I've been watching a LOT of Fox News this week -- because I wanted to document the intensifying campaign to discredit Robert Mueller. I looked up at the TV just now, and the graphic on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" said "TAINTED PROBE."
Here's the lead from my latest column: What's President Trump hearing when he watches Fox News? He's hearing that Mueller's investigation is "illegitimate and corrupt." That it's led by a "band of merry Trump-haters" who are trying to reverse the results of the election. And that it must be stopped. He's also hearing that the FBI is becoming "America's secret police," akin to the KGB in Russia, full of "sickness" and "corruption."
The overarching message from "Fox & Friends" and "Hannity" is unmistakable: Mr. President, you're the victim of a "deep state" plot to take you down. Don't let it happen. Read more...
🔌: I'll be talking about this on "CNN Tonight" in the 11pm hour... | | "The Plot to Stop Mueller" | | | This was the lead story on Chris Hayes' MSNBC show Thursday night. "The closer special counsel Robert Mueller gets to POTUS, the harder the president and his allies are working to discredit not just Mueller's investigation, but the entire FBI and indeed the very notion of politically independent law enforcement," Hayes said... | | Check out these Fox quotes | | It's an alternate universe. It's as simple as that. All the hours dedicated to attacking Mueller mean Fox viewers aren't hearing about the newest developments in the Russia interference investigations. Here's what they ARE hearing:
-- Sarah Sanders' father Mike Huckabee on Monday's "Fox & Friends:" "There needs to be an investigation of the investigation..."
-- Lou Dobbs on Fox Biz Tuesday night: Mueller, Peter Strzok and James Comey "should be the subjects of criminal investigations and held fully accountable for crimes against a sitting president and the voters who supported him..."
-- Gregg Jarrett on "Hannity" Wednesday: "The Mueller investigation is illegitimate and corrupt. And Mueller has been using the FBI as a political weapon. And the FBI has become America's secret police. Secret surveillance, wiretapping, intimidation, harassment and threats. It's like the old KGB that comes for you in the dark of the night banging through your door..." | | "We need to stop this now" | | "What Gregg Jarrett just did is take a page out of the Kremlin playbook" by "discrediting institutions," Jen Psaki said on Jake Tapper's show Thursday afternoon.
Mike Rogers had this to say: "I can't tell you how dangerous this is." The FBI is a "very important institution across this country." So "we need to stop this now. Republicans, Democrats, everybody. STOP dragging this institution that is going to be there when you're gone, protecting your grandkids -- stop destroying its ability to do its mission..." | | | When Mueller was appointed in May, Newt Gingrich called him a "superb choice to be special counsel" and said "his reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity." Now, Newt sounds like a different person altogether. "Mueller is corrupt. The senior FBI is corrupt. The system is corrupt," he told Laura Ingraham on Wednesday... | | | Hugh Hewitt tweeted Thursday that he's hearing "conservative media" wants Mueller fired. "Some do, but lots of us don't," Hewitt said. "It would be a disaster and @realDonaldTrump should reject calls to do so. Keep [special counsel] but also demand thorough inquiry re: charges of bias of [special counsel] team members other than Mueller who is straight arrow..." | | Meanwhile, the campaign continues... | | | "Rampant political bias" is "infecting your justice system like a cancer," Hannity said Thursday night. He asked his guests about rumors "running rampant of a major shakeup coming to the FBI, possibly as early as tomorrow." He asked Q's like "What would it take to get rid of a special counsel?" | | | CNN's Chris Cillizza writes in The Point newsletter: "Looking back, historians may view this week as the week where the #metoo movement fully landed in political Washington..." | | Franken, Franks announce resignations | | | Al Franken's announcement led the news at lunchtime... and Trent Franks' decision took over at dinnertime... You can read Franks' resignation letter here... Meantime, I bet Franken's resignation will be a hot topic on late night shows... | | What is O'Reilly thinking? | | | Brian Lowry emails: What must Bill O'Reilly be thinking? The Washington Post's Steven Zeitchik flagged it, but I had the same thought: Franken in part burnished his political credentials early by attacking conservative media figures, including his books "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot" and "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," which triggered a much-sniggered-at 2003 lawsuit by Fox News. (O'Reilly was said to be particularly incensed to be featured on the book's cover.) Yet given the circumstances under which he left Fox, O'Reilly's hardly an untarnished candidate to weigh in on the senator's resignation... | | | President Trump will hold a rally not "for" Roy Moore, but "near" Roy Moore, on Friday night... Doug Jones and Moore are in the final stretch of the campaign for an open Senate seat... FiveThirtyEight just published this cautionary post about Alabama polls... | | 🎧 "Reliable" podcast with Margaret Sullivan | | | Our podcast is a weekly way to have in-depth conversations about media issues in between Sunday's "Reliable Sources." On this week's pod, I asked Margaret Sullivan about her recent trip to Alabama... Moore's campaign against the media... the optics of endorsements... and much more. Check out the podcast on iTunes... or through other podcast services... | | Chuck Todd anchoring from AL | | | Chuck Todd will anchor MSNBC's "MTP Daily" from Alabama on Friday... Part of a trip to talk with voters ahead of Tuesday's election... Highlights from the trip will air on Sunday's "Meet the Press..." | | -- Spotted Thursday night at the Polo Bar in NYC: Anthony Scaramucci dining with Dr. Phil McGraw...
-- The WashPost just posted this: "An executive at a leading Russian social media company made several overtures to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 -- including days before the November election -- urging the candidate to create a page on the website to appeal to Russian Americans and Russians..." (WashPost)
-- Erik Wemple asks: "Why is ABC News skating on its Trump-info-sharing foul?" (WashPost) | | Nightly news anchors in SoCal | | | Lester Holt, David Muir, and new "CBS Evening News" anchor Jeff Glor all anchored from the wildfire zone in Southern California on Thursday evening... | | New VF story about NBC and Lauer | | A week after Matt Lauer's termination, "NBC's efforts to stabilize the situation appear to have worked -- at least thus far," Joe Pompeo and Emily Jane Fox write in this new VF story.
They say Andy Lack "has demonstrably put his considerable experience as a crisis manager to work in the post-Lauer era. Recently, top-level managers, including Lack, NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, and editorial senior vice president Janelle Rodriguez, have hosted nearly 60 H.R.-oriented meetings with small groups of employees in order to provide reassurance and, potentially, to get ahead of any other possible scandals that could be lurking beneath the surface..." | | MSNBC decides to bring back Sam Seder | | Sam Seder was on "All In" Thursday evening, 12 hours after MSNBC reversed its decision to drop him as a contributor. Tom Kludt's story will catch you up on the controversy... Check out his interview with Seder...
--> No matter what you think of the flip-flop, MSNBC president Phil Griffin deserves credit for the candor in his statement. "Sometimes you just get one wrong -- and that's what happened here," he said... | | DOJ v. AT&T gets a court date | | Hadas Gold writes: The DOJ's lawsuit to block AT&T's purchase of Time Warner has a trial date: March 19, 2018. In a short initial status conference on Thursday, Judge Richard Leon said the trial will last around three weeks and that he expects a decision in late April or May. Either way, the decision would come after the current April 22 cutoff date for the acquisition, after which AT&T must pay Time Warner a $500 million breakup fee unless the two companies extend the deadline, which they have already done once. Read Gold's full story here...
-- Statement from AT&T general counsel David McAtee: "We will promptly discuss the Court's post-trial schedule with Time Warner. We are committed to this transaction and look forward to presenting our case in March..." | | Will the Trump admin let Rupert Murdoch sell Fox to Disney? | | That's the question CNNMoney's David Goldman set out to answer... Here's his story...
-- WSJ's Joe Flint tweeted Thursday: "If Fox deal happens, not sure how Disney owning the biggest national TV sports empire - ESPN -- and suddenly nearly two dozen powerful regional sports channels doesn't become a big discussion in D.C..." | | -- BI's Tanya Dua notes that "a Disney-Fox deal is not just about Netflix -- it also has major ad sales ramifications..."
-- Bloomberg says a role for James Murdoch at Disney "isn't part of the negotiations, according to people with knowledge of the matter," but "a deal could offer him a future there..." | | CBS holiday party sightings | | | Oliver Darcy's sightings at the CBS holiday party at Black Rock: Les Moonves, Stephen Colbert, David Rhodes, Chris Licht, Oprah, Candi Carter, Jeremy Barr, Brian Steinberg, Alex Weprin, Candi Carter, Gayle King, Bill Carter, Ryan Kadro, Vladimir Duthiers, Kelly Kahl, Lloyd Grove, Thom Sherman, Steven Perlberg and many more... | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Hats off to the NYT's "The Daily" for being the most downloaded new show on Apple Podcasts this year... (Twitter)
-- Plus: NPR's "Fresh Air" is the most downloaded podcast of 2017... (Apple)
-- Spaceship Media's newest initiative, "The Many," is geared at fostering productive dialogue among women with differing viewpoints and backgrounds in the months leading up to the 2018 midterms... (Nieman Lab)
-- Addicted to GIFs? See if your favorites made the top 25 of 2017 on GIPHY... (Medium) | | NYT tops 3.5 million subscribers | | | Julia Waldow emails: The NYT has now reached an impressive 3.5 million+ paid subscriptions and 130 million+ monthly readers (more than 2x its audience two years ago)... Plus, it's establishing three new leadership positions as part of its plan to make 2018 the "year of the audience." Here's the internal memo... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Important: "The Reporter Who Exposed Police Brutality in the Laquan McDonald Case May Be Forced to Reveal Sources" (Mother Jones)
-- "Instagram is testing a standalone messaging app called Direct exclusively for sharing private messages, photos and videos with your friends," Selena Larson reports... (CNNMoney)
-- "I'll make 100 TV shows and order them like pizzas and hopefully some of them will be good." That's Kevin Rice mocking Silicon Valley's approach to content... (Variety) | | "Will women's voices continue to be heard?" | | | NYT gender editor Jessica Bennett in her latest #MeToo Moment newsletter: "It turns out that a whole lot of women are filling slots vacated by alleged abusers. Robin Wright will now lead 'House of Cards,' replacing Kevin Spacey. Christiane Amanpour has been named interim replacement for Charlie Rose on PBS. There are reports that Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith may be replacing Senator Al Franken, who has said he will resign. Which raises the question: As more women step up into these high-profile roles, will women's voices continue to be heard? To what extent will women at the wheel change the way we report, reflect, convey and ultimately ingest culture?" | | The Academy's new standards | | | Lisa Respers France emails: In the wake of Harvey Weinstein and all the other sexual misconduct scandals that have rocked Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has established new standards of conduct for its members. Academy chief executive officer Dawn Hudson sent a letter to its members Wednesday night outlining the standards expected to be upheld by the roughly 8,500 members... | | Megan Thomas emails: This is a listicle guaranteed to make you laugh… As the debut of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" approaches next week, Vulture reflected on the late Carrie Fisher's most memorable interview moments. Here's a sample:
ON THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PAUL SIMON AND HARRISON FORD:
"They're both better after a couple of beers." —The Guardian, 2016
ON BEING BORED IN AN INTERVIEW:
"Things are getting worse faster than I can lower my standards." —The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, 2010 | | JK Rowling addresses Johnny Depp controversy | | Megan Thomas emails: JK Rowling addressed the controversy surrounding the casting of Johnny Depp in the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise on her blog on Thursday -- it's related to the 2016 domestic violence allegations made against Depp by his ex-wife Amber Heard.
"Based on our understanding of the circumstances, the filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies," Rowling wrote... | | | Brian Lowry emails: "I, Tonya" is receiving an early Oscar-qualifying run, and the movie certainly has a couple of strong contenders, including Margot Robbie as disgraced skater Tonya Harding and Allison Janney as her chain-smoking, foul-mouthed mother. It's also an intriguing look at the early days of tabloid TV, with "Hard Copy" playing a supporting role in this pre-O.J. story. Read more... | | NYT's "Great Performances" party | | | The NYT held a celebration of the NYT Mag's "Great Performers Issue" at Neuehouse in L.A. on Thursday night... A.O. Scott and Wesley Morris led a discussion about this year's picks, and Jake Silverstein, Nicole Kidman, Timothée Chalamet, and Kathy Ryan were in the audience... | | "The Post" is #1 on Stephanie Zacharek's top 10 list | | | Time's movie critic is out with her "Top 10 Movies of 2017" list, and "The Post" is #1: "Rapturously entertaining and pointedly topical... This movie's belief in the power of journalism is a head rush... There is no more galvanizing, or more important, film this year..." | | "DC Shake-Up in the Works After 'Justice League' Stumbles" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Variety says there's an executive shuffle happening at DC Films after "Justice League" -- the centerpiece of the company's attempt to create its own "cinematic universe," a la Marvel -- disappointed at the box office... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- A man who police said did some work for singer R. Kelly is now wanted for allegedly burglarizing two Atlanta area homes rented by the singer...
-- Jimmy Kimmel's wife, Molly McNearney, has opened up about their family drama and why they have chosen to go public with their infant son's health crisis...
-- To hear her tell it, Lindsay Lohan wants a big-screen "Mean Girls" sequel even more than you... | | | 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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