| | | | | Exec summary: How was your weekend? Scroll down for Weinstein Co. updates, the LA Times' scoop, dueling narratives about Facebook, BAFTA Awards results, and our media week ahead calendar... | | "Black Panther" reigns at the box office | | Frank Pallotta emails: "Black Panther" didn't just exceed expectations, it shattered them. Through Sunday, Marvel's first film with an African-American director (Ryan Coogler!) has made an estimated $192 million in the U.S. and $361 million globally. That total is the second biggest opening for Marvel Studios behind only "The Avengers;" the largest opening in the history of February; and the largest opening for an African-American director ever. All hail the king...
--> BTW: Those #'s are just through Sunday -- and Monday is President's Day -- Disney projects it will bring in $218 million domestically for the holiday weekend... | | | -- Andrew Wallenstein tweeted: "Looks like Disney has itself another billion-dollar franchise. The question is, how far north of 10 figures will it end up by the end of its global run?" | | "Breaking down cinematic barriers" | | | Paul Dergarabedian told Pallotta: "'Black Panther' exceeded even the grandest box office expectations while simultaneously breaking down cinematic barriers and marking a turning point in the evolution of the genre..." | | So many scorching hot "takes" | | Brian Lowry emails: The movie's enormous success not surprisingly had media outlets falling all over themselves to draft off of it, from Breitbart's predictably incendiary "review" to overreaching hot takes, such as a Variety critic declaring that the reign of the young-male demo "fanboy" is at its end.
EW's Anthony Breznican, meanwhile, offered sensible advice regarding Twitter trolls pushing racist memes, urging journalists not to give the haters any oxygen... | | -- "Risqué photos" of Donald Trump? Deals with the National Enquirer's parent company? That's just a part of this five-byline story (Jim Rutenberg, Megan Twohey, Rebecca Ruiz, Mike McIntire, Maggie Haberman) on the front page of Monday's NYT. Title: "Tools of Trump's Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids..." (NYT)
-- Speaking of: Ronan Farrow joined me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." Here's the interview... (CNN)
-- Trump retweeted another anti-CNN cartoon on Sunday. This time, it was by the "same artist who drew Clinton in blackface..." (WashPost) | | | This weekend saw the unfortunate merger of three separate stories: The school shooting in Parkland, Florida; the intensifying Robert Mueller probe; and the increasing concerns about President Trump's temperament. First, the latest from Florida... | | | A group of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas H.S. have formed an advocacy group called NEVER AGAIN. On Sunday, five of the student leaders appeared on the five main Sunday public affairs shows to announce "March For Our Lives," a March 24 demonstration in DC and across the country... | | "Parkland is not fading from the news" | | | Nate Silver tweeted Sunday: "So far, Parkland is *not* fading from the news the way that mass shootings usually do. (The graph shows Google searches for the term "gun control".) The students speaking out makes a pretty big difference." Here's the graf showing "gun control" searches for the past seven days: | | Who was Marjory Stoneman Douglas? | | With all this talk about the student activists, it's worth remembering the woman for whom the high school is named. Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a journalist turned activist who dedicated much of her life to the protection of the Everglades. She reported, she freelanced, she wrote plays, she reviewed books, she wrote the book "River of Grass," but it's her advocacy for the environment that she is best remembered for. Here's how the National Parks Service memorializes her.
--> On "Reliable Sources," I remarked to David Zurawik that Douglas straddled the line between journalism and activism, and that same issue is coming up again in the coverage of the H.S. massacre... | | "We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know" | | | The gunman's mother died last November. He moved in with James and Kimberly Snead, whose son went to school with the troubled student. Now the Sneads are searching for answers. Their lawyer says the family "tried to do a good deed and it went horribly wrong for them." The Sneads gave an exclusive interview to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Saturday... And on Monday morning, the family's first TV interview will be on ABC's "GMA..." | | "Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action" will air Wednesday at 9pm. Jake Tapper will moderate. Lawmakers Bill Nelson, Marco Rubio and Ted Deutch have all committed to attending. President Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott have also been invited...
--> One day after the town hall was announced, the W.H. said that the president would hold a "listening session" with H.S. students and teachers on Wednesday... | | | Speaking of the president... | | From the far-right fever swamp to the president's Twitter feed | | | Oliver Darcy emails: On Thursday, Hadas Gold and I wrote about a talking point that was taking hold in fringe, far-flung quarters of the Internet: That the Russia probe had drained necessary resources from the FBI needed to investigate tips about the Florida shooter and prevent the massacre from happening. At the time, we wrote in our story, "It has become common for talking points to crystallize in far-right corners of the Internet before making their way to higher echelons of the media and government." On Saturday night, Trump proved us correct. The president suggested in a tweet that the investigation into Russia meddling was connected to the bureau's failure to stop the Parkland rampage... | | Was Fox News the link between Darcy's aforementioned "fever swamp" and the president's megaphone? Here's why I ask: On Friday night, Tucker Carlson said FBI agents have been "too busy to stop school shootings" because "they've been chasing down bad Facebook trolls." (What an awful lie.) On Saturday morning, Geraldo Rivera picked up where Carlson left off, asking, "How many agents have been taken off the duty of investigating terror and domestic terror" to follow these "political dead ends?"
According to the WashPost, Geraldo had dinner with Trump on Saturday evening. Trump's tweet came at 11:08pm Saturday... | | This talking point is nonsensical | | | The FBI has about 35,000 employees. A very small # are helping with Mueller's probe. No one with real knowledge or expertise is claiming that there's a connection between the probe in DC and the FBI's field work in Florida. But the idea has been implanted thanks to Trump and his allies... | | My two cents: Twitter Trump sounds deeply troubled | | Trump's FBI slam was one of a dozen shocking statements on Twitter over the weekend. As the WashPost said, the "defiant and error-laden tweetstorm" was remarkable "even by his own combative standards."
Reporting by the Post, NYT, CNN, AP and other outlets all indicates that Trump watched a lot of cable news over the weekend and came away "incensed" (that's the NYT's word) by the coverage of Mueller's newest indictments and other matters.
On "Reliable," I said Trump might be cool, calm and collected in person, but on Twitter he sounds deeply troubled right now. He sounds unhinged. This is why questions about his fitness for office are so urgent... | | | CNN's Chris Cillizza wrote: "The Trump tweets, taken together, sound less like the views of the President of the United States and more like the sort of paranoid, conspiracy theories of InfoWars founder Alex Jones..." | | "My best advice from a national security perspective right now is, sadly, to unfollow President Trump. His Twitter feed, which is arguably U.S. policy, is filled with gross inaccuracies, misinfo, disinfo and lies, and that makes Vladimir Putin very happy..."
--Former Obama admin official Sam Vinograd on Sunday's "Reliable..." | | | GETTING BACK TO THE MUELLER PROBE... | | Sunday scoop by the LA Times | | | CNN reported on Friday that Rick Gates was finalizing a plea deal with the special counsel... On Sunday, the LA Times said the deal is essentially done and will be presented in federal court "within the next few days." The Times was out front with this for several hours... A notable scoop for the paper... | | This comment on "CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera" stood out to me. Former U.S. attorney Michael Moore said "an octopus has many legs, but they're all connected to one head. And that's what we're seeing here. These little parts of the investigation, these little cases out these, these defendants -- they're all going to tie back to one place, and that's where I think Bob Mueller is headed."
That's a helpful way to think about this investigation. The charges against Rick Gates and Paul Manafort are one "leg." The indictments against Russian trolls are another "leg..." | | Debunking pro-Trump media talking points | | | Obviously the special counsel still has lots to investigate. But, as I showed on Sunday's "Reliable," some members of the pro-Trump media are pretending like the investigation is over. Really, they're doing a disservice to their viewers... Here's my essay, a three-minute video clip on CNN.com... | | "The power of news illiteracy" | | The New Yorker's Evan Osnos says that's one of the takeaways from the newest indictments. His column inspired this segment at the end of Sunday's "Reliable." I quoted Osnos: "At the heart of the Russian fraud is an essential, embarrassing insight into American life: large numbers of Americans are ill-equipped to assess the credibility of the things they read." In fact, "even the trolls themselves were surprised at what Americans would believe."
This is a news literacy and a tech literacy problem. And it's going to get worse before it gets better. All of us have a role to play... Including Facebook... | | Dueling narratives about Facebook | | There's a "pro" and a "con" narrative out there about Facebook right now. The "pro" narrative is that Facebook's disclosures were instrumental in helping Mueller's team indict the Russian attackers. Mike Allen quoted a FB source as saying the "level of detail in the indictment wouldn't have been possible without the close cooperation of Facebook." I heard the same from a FB exec over the weekend. The company is emphasizing that it's taking these issues very seriously and making changes to avoid a repeat of 2016.
The "con" narrative is embedded in stories like this one, from Quartz: "Facebook and Trump are telling the same misleading story about Russian propaganda..." And from Wired: "Russia played Facebook..." | | Russia Today gives the W.H. a "signal boost" | | W.H. deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley has been a regular on Fox, even while spurning other interview requests. On "Fox & Friends," he asserted that American newsrooms are worse than a hostile foreign government -- he said "there are two groups that have created chaos more than the Russians. And that's the Democrats and the mainstream media."
While American journalists reacted with shock, Russia Today approvingly wrote an article about Gidley's claim -- and then the main RT Twitter handle promoted it. On Twitter, Jake Tapper pointed out that this "Russian propaganda arm" was embracing the W.H. claim and giving it a "signal boost..." | | So what should we make of all this? David Gergen's remarks on "Reliable" were more ominous than I expected. He said Trump's erratic tweeting "reminds me very much of the last days of President Nixon when he became deeply, deeply insecure, lashed out in all sorts of ways and didn't remain focused on the job at hand." But "this, I'm afraid, has been President Trump's pattern for some time."
"I don't know why he is so insecure," Gergen added. "It certainly suggests [that] as Mueller closes in more, that there is he very much does not want us to know, and he is very afraid that Mueller is going to get there..." | | I was most struck by Gergen's crystal-balling about where Trump's attacks against the FBI and the media might lead us. "We have an election that's just around the corner, later this year," he said. "What if the Democrats, you know, take the House back? Is that all going to be blamed on 'Fake News?' What if they fall short? Are Democrats going to think, 'You know, it was all that meddling?"
"This," he said, "is what split a country apart... In many other countries, it's been the beginnings of an authoritarian rule. And that's the larger threat hanging over us now... I find that the threat is growing..." | | Catch up on Sunday's "Reliable" | | -- Happy birthday to two friends of the newsletter who were on Sunday's show: Sam Vinograd and Lachlan Markay!
-- John Herrman's latest: "Google Chrome Now Blocks Irksome Ads. That's a Good Thing, Right?" (NYT)
-- "Facebook is refusing to release data to back up its claim that merely 5% of the content people see in the News Feed is news, a key figure in its recently announced plans to remake its powerful main product," Alex Kantrowitz reports... (BuzzFeed) | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday: President's Day...
-- Tuesday: Final voting for the Oscars begins...
-- Friday: POTUS will address CPAC...
-- Friday: "Game Night" and "Annihilation" hit theaters...
-- Saturday: The Samsung Galaxy S9 will be unveiled...
-- Sunday: The Olympics closing ceremony... | | "Last Week Tonight" is back | | | John Oliver has been off HBO since November. He's back Sunday night (after I send out this edition). Wonder if he has anything he wants to get off his chest? | | Deadline Club submissions due this week | | | The Deadline Club, the NYC chapter of SPJ, is taking submissions for its annual Deadline Awards contest. Yahoo's Daniel Roberts oversees the contest... It's "currently open for submissions and the entry deadline is fast approaching," he emails... Here's the info. Entries are due this Friday... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Read former Fox host Eric Bolling's op-ed for CNN.com: "An accidental expert" on the opioid crisis... (CNN)
-- Lucia Moses reports: "Vogue and Vice push ahead, awkwardly, with their editorial partnership..." (Digiday)
-- I missed this the other day: Congrats to Megan McCarthy, the new exec editor of MIT Technology Review... (Talking Biz News) | | Weinstein Co. fires David Glasser... | | ICYMI: Weinstein Co. COO David Glasser was fired on Friday night. The company's board said it had "unanimously voted to terminate David Glasser for cause." It was an apparent response to the New York A.G.'s lawsuit... Here's my full story...
CONTEXT: Eric Schneiderman's complaint did not name Glasser, but did cite the role of company management. "Weinstein Company leadership was complicit in Harvey Weinstein's wrongdoing," Schneiderman said. The suit effectively stood in the way of the pending sale of the company's assets. And Schneiderman specifically objected to the idea that Glasser would be CEO of the "new" company... | | | "The board was determined to send a clear signal to purchasers that he will not be part of any future deal," a source told me on Saturday. So the board and the prospective buyers have shown Schneiderman that they're willing to play ball. It sure seems like talks are underway... settlement talks? Stay tuned... | | Adam Rippon was going to join NBC, but now... | | | "Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon has pulled out of a job as a correspondent for NBC at the Winter Games in South Korea," Ahiza Garcia reports. Here's the backstory... | | "Three Billboards" takes top honors at BAFTA Awards | | | "Director Martin McDonagh's bleak drama about a mother's quest for answers about her daughter's murder struck a nerve with British Academy of Film and Television Arts voters. 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' won five statues at Sunday's BAFTA film awards, including best film and best British film," Sandra Gonzalez reports. "The movie also picked up best original screenplay and individual honors for Frances McDormand (best leading actress) and Sam Rockwell (best supporting actor). McDonagh missed out on best director, losing to Guillermo del Toro for his work on 'Shape of Water.' The BAFTA Awards can be a hit-or-miss indicator of what may come at next month's Academy Awards..." | | More from Sandra Gonzalez: "On the BAFTA Awards red carpet, stars took a cue from celebrities at the Golden Globes and wore black in support of Time's Up, the movement that aims to improve treatment of women in entertainment and other industries. Lupita Nyong'o, Jennifer Lawrence, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, and Angelina Jolie were among the stars who dressed in black..."
--> Via the Daily Mail, some protesters also stormed the red carpet... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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