| | | | | HEADS UP: Ronan Farrow's much-anticipated next story for The New Yorker will be out on Friday morning... Check newyorker.com when you wake up... | | | On Wednesday there was shock and sadness about the death toll in Parkland, Florida. On Thursday, that shock turned to anger... Perhaps best expressed by this mother of one of the victims... | | | This is Rupert Murdoch's NYPost -- what former Post scribe Maggie Haberman calls "the president's favorite paper:" | | Haberman added on Twitter: "To be clear, this is a massive sea change for the Post after a mass shooting. And this is a Murdoch paper."
The paper's Friday editorial says "Mr. President, this is your moment... America is waiting on you..." But keep in mind that on Thursday, Trump's address to the nation didn't even mention the word "guns." Frank Pallotta just filed a story about the cover and editorial... Here it is... | | That's what the NYPost editors are calling for: Action. Many other media outlets, in a myriad of ways, are promoting accountability and talking about potential actions to address this uniquely American disease...
--> Don Lemon just now: "We need to turn those thoughts & prayers into action..."
--> And this extends to late night TV. Jimmy Kimmel got emotional on his show Thursday night. Addressing Trump through the camera, he said, "You still haven't done anything about this. Nothing. You've literally done nothing..." | | The WashPost's Greg Jaffe and Jenna Johnson wrote about Trump's "struggle" to say much about "the nation's unending string of gun tragedies."
"By not setting concrete goals" in Thursday's address, they wrote, "Trump seemed to be betting that he can avoid a legislative failure like Obama's. Eventually, he seemed to be wagering, Americans will move on to other issues. Eventually, they will forget." Will we? | | | On Thursday CNN's home page featured a list of school shootings since Columbine, with links to archived articles about each one: | | | Shepard Smith on Fox Thursday afternoon: "We have all the resources in the world and we can't figure out why this happens in our country and doesn't happen everywhere else. Forget your political arguments. Why can't we come together as a society and say now we're going to study this, we're going to research this, we're going to put our best and brightest together? Put them all in a room. Give them funds and give them whatever they need." Video... | | 🎧 "Columbine" author Dave Cullen on the "Reliable" pod | | | We taped this conversation on Thursday afternoon, so it's very timely. Dave Cullen, author of the book "Columbine," shared his views on how journalists should cover mass shootings differently; why these incidents have escalated over time; and whether there's any end in sight. Here's the Apple Podcasts link... The pod is also on TuneIn... | | -- The killing keeps happening. NPR's Steve Inskeep asked listeners: "Do we still feel it?"
-- HLN's S.E. Cupp says that "when it comes to guns, news anchors take off their journalist hats and put on their activist hats. And they do it without shame or disclaimers because they believe righteousness is the same thing as being right..."
-- Daniella Emanuel flagged this story: Psychologists advise against "excessive and intrusive" media coverage of school shootings to avoid distressing children...
-- What?! "Twitter says impersonating a journalist during a mass shooting doesn't violate its rules," BuzzFeed reports...
-- CBS News notes: "White House refuses to release photo of Trump signing bill to weaken gun law..." | | About all of the cell phone videos... | | | After a school shooting, we're all too accustomed to seeing videos of students fleeing campus; interviews with eyewitnesses; reunions with parents. But we're not used to being transported to the crime scene through the cell phone cameras of the victims. This is new and blood-curdling. In this column for CNNMoney, I said that perhaps these up-close views -- through the eyes of the victims -- will force Americans to see these shootings in a new way. Emphasis on "perhaps..." | | | THE PARTISAN TUG OF WAR... | | Hadas Gold emails: After BuzzFeed and later CNN reported that the Florida shooter had been flagged to the FBI last fall, right-wing internet personalities began blaming the FBI and its focus on the Russia investigation as one of the reasons they weren't able to prevent a tragedy. "The FBI was too busy trying to undermine the president to bother with doing it's [sic] freaking job," tweeted Town Hall columnist Kurt Schlichter. The idea got some high-level support from Donald Trump Jr., who "liked" Schlichter's tweet. Several other right-wing personalities, websites and message boards got in on the blame-game.
Back to reality: While there are still plenty of questions about the warning signs that may have been missed, the FBI employs thousands of people. Only a small portion of them are helping on the Russia investigation. Read Hadas and Oliver Darcy's full story here... | | How the left sees the right... | | Two headlines from Media Matters:
-- "Right-wing media figures are blaming everything but guns for the Parkland shooting"
-- "Tucker Carlson: Australian-style gun safety legislation in America is 'a recipe for bloodshed and civil war'" | | How the right sees the left... | | Two headlines from NewsBusters:
-- "Nets Push Fake News Trump Made It Easier for Mentally Ill to Buy Guns"
-- "Washington Post Thrashes Media for Pushing 'Flat Wrong' Shooting Stat" | | -- Via NPR PR: "Starting soon Ailsa Chang will host 'All Things Considered' along with Audie Cornish, Mary Louise Kelly and Ari Shapiro; and Noel King will join David Greene, Steve Inskeep and Rachel Martin as the fourth host of 'Morning Edition' and the Up First podcast..." (NPR)
-- Amazon, YouTube and Twitter "are all weighing bids for streaming rights" to "Thursday Night Football" games... (Bloomberg)
-- Speaking of the NFL, I hear Friday is Natalie Ravitz's last day with the league... The former NYC school system spokesperson and Rupert Murdoch chief of staff has been SVP of comms for the NFL for the past two seasons... She's moving on and looking to move back to the broader media/entertainment space... | | NYT: "F.C.C. Watchdog Looks Into Changes That Benefited Sinclair" | | Did FCC chair Ajit Pai and his aides push for changes to FCC ownership rules specifically to aid Sinclair Broadcasting? Or to put it another way: Did this Trump-appointed official do a favor for a Trump-allied broadcaster? That's what the FCC inspector general is apparently investigating.
The NYT's Cecilia Kang broke the news: It's an investigation "into whether Mr. Pai and his aides had improperly pushed for the rule changes and whether they had timed them to benefit Sinclair, according to Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey and two congressional aides..." Read more...
>> This IG probe follows the NYT's August investigation, "How a Conservative TV Giant Is Ridding Itself of Regulation..." | | The NYPost's headline: "Vanity Fair, Glamour begin purging editorial staffs." These budget cuts were expected, especially at VF. Both mags have new editors, and both editors are setting up their staffs. "Vanity Fair and Glamour are taking the first steps in reshaping their teams to reflect the new editorial directions of the brands -- with new additions and initiatives to be announced shortly," a Condé spokeswoman told me.
It's unclear exactly how many people were let go, but once the new hires are in place, it looks like VF will have about a dozen fewer positions than it did before, and Glamour will have about five fewer positions. Fashionista has details here... | | "There are no plans in the works for her to run." | | That's what Oprah Winfrey's spokeswoman told me in a new statement on Thursday: "No plans in the works for her to run" for president in 2020. Now, as with any political comment, this line could be parsed multiple ways. The Dems who WANT her to take on President Trump could take this to mean "she's really not running." But they could also interpret the remark as "she's not ruling it out." Winfrey, after all, wouldn't need to plan a 2020 campaign this far out.
What's clear is that Winfrey herself wants to tamp down the recent buzz about possible presidential ambitions. In a new interview with her employer CBS, she pointedly said, "I am not running for president of the United States." (But at the same time, Winfrey confirmed that some of her friends and business associates have been urging her to run and offering to help.) Here's my full story...
--> Context for this: Winfrey is out promoting "A Wrinkle In Time," which means she's doing lots of interviews, and she has another piece on "60 Minutes" later this month... | | Here's my latest reporting on O | | | There is, obviously, a long history of candidates saying "no" until they say "yes." In recent days, three of Winfrey's confidants told me that she has not explicitly ruled out a presidential bid. But at the same time, two of the sources said she is not encouraging the speculation or taking steps to start a campaign. This lines up with her spokeswoman's statement... | | -- Ahiza Garcia reports: "A radio host has been fired for sexually inappropriate comments he made" about 17-year-old Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim... (CNNMoney)
-- Here's Brian Steinberg's recap of CBS earnings... (Variety)
-- Former USA Today and NPR and NYT exec Kinsey Wilson is becoming the president of Automattic's "flagship commercial venture, the WordPress.com publishing platform..." (Poynter) | | Why Peter Thiel is leaving Silicon Valley | | | Dylan Byers reports: Peter Thiel is leaving the Bay Area after four decades and stepping back from tech due in part to his dissatisfaction with the industry's liberal politics. Citing what they called Silicon Valley's "sclerotic" culture and "conformity of thought," a source close to Thiel said that the investor would soon move to Los Angeles, where he will "focus on a number of new projects including creating a new media endeavor..." | | Snapchat CEO on redesign complaints | | Some people are very upset with the new Snapchat redesign. One million people have actually signed an online petition to scrap the whole thing altogether. And how does Evan Spiegel feel about it? Well, pretty unfazed. He feels that the redesign does "validate those changes," according to CNN Tech's Seth Fiegerman.
"One of the complaints we got is, 'Wow, I used to feel this celebrity was my friend and now I don't feel like they're my friend anymore,'" Spiegel said on stage at the Goldman Sachs tech conference. "Exactly. They're not your friend." So there you have it, celebrities are not your friends... | | Boston Herald sells for $11.9 million | | Hadas Gold emails: Boston's second-largest newspaper has a new owner: Digital First Media. Last December the Boston Herald, which also has a radio station, filed for bankruptcy, and today the newspaper company that owns hundreds of publications across the country including big papers like the Denver Post, won the bidding war.
Digital First Media will pay $11.9 million for the Boston Herald, the paper reported. As part of the deal Digital First Media in an agreement with the unions, also agreed to hire at least 175 of the paper's current employees and recognize their paid time off and seniority. | | If he's asking, you should want to know the answers. Ken Doctor's new list of "11 questions the news business is trying to answer in 2018" includes:
-- "What's at the top of PSS's to-do list" at the LA Times?
-- "Is The Washington Post really profitable?"
-- "Is The New York Times a radio station?"
-- "Where would the state of our republic be absent The New York Times' and The Washington Post's incisive reporting?" | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- "The work of a journalist is to be accessible, discerning, and persistent. For a woman, this also makes her a target." Anne Helen Petersen relays "the cost of reporting while female" for CJR's Winter 2018 issue... (CJR)
-- Katie Notopolous's latest for BuzzFeed: "How I Cracked Facebook's New Algorithm and Tortured My Friends..." (BuzzFeed)
-- With Instagram Stories such as "Fake or For Real" and "Brexit Bites," the Guardian is capturing the hearts -- and views -- of more readers... (Digiday) | | Hulu's "Looming Tower" premiere | | Hulu's ten-part series "The Looming Tower" starts streaming in two weeks... The NYC premiere was on Thursday night at the Paris Theater...
Spotted: Alex Gibney, Gay Talese, Jeff Daniels, Dan Sutterman, Joel Stillerman, Peter Naylor, Jonathan Alter, Tara Setmayer, Craig Erlich, Lawrence Wright, Ron Claiborne, Gaude Paez, Darin Pfeiffer...
Not spotted: John Miller. I thought the former journalist/NYPD official might be in attendance, since he shows up twice in the first episode, via an actor playing him. Miller's 1998 interview of bin Laden is a key part of the episode. But during the screenings Miller was across town at an NYPD press conference -- announcing the arrests of two men who are accused of building bombs in the Bronx... | | | Frank Pallotta emails: The box office is ready to roar. Marvel's latest superhero film, "Black Panther," hit U.S. theaters on Thursday night. This is Marvel's first film directed by a black director and starring a predominantly black cast. Like "Wonder Woman" before it, it could stand as a watershed moment for the genre and the industry. So far it's off to a good start, bringing in $23.2 million since opening overseas... | | So just how big will "Black Panther" be? | | Frank Pallotta emails: "Black Panther" is the first true blue blockbuster of 2018... if projections hold steady. It could also end up being one of the biggest films of the year when it's all said and done. I've heard everything from $140 million on the low end to $160 million to even $170 million on the high end for the three-day weekend... with the number going even higher when accounting for the four-day holiday. That's unheard of $$$$ for the dead of winter.
It's also looking like it will take the record for biggest opening for an African-American director, $98.7 million for F. Gary Gray's "The Fate of the Furious," without even blinking an eye... | | It's more than a movie, it's a movement | | For millions of people, "Black Panther" is more than a movie. It's a cultural touchstone and a movement. That's how CNN's Lisa France described it in her write-up of the film earlier today -->
"Consider this: a film that explores what it means to be black, centered on a black superhero, featuring a mostly-black cast, and helmed by a black director is on pace to be one of Marvel's biggest blockbusters," she wrote. "Tickets have sold out around the country. Teachers are planning to take entire classes. Facebook gatherings have sprung up around screenings. Actress Olivia Spencer went public with her desire to buy out a movie theater in Mississippi to give fans, who otherwise not may not be able to afford it, a chance to see the film." | | Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux say they've split | | | Sandra Gonzalez reports: "Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have revealed they have been separated since late last year, according to a joint statement. The couple, who wed in 2015, said they intended to keep their decision private, but 'given that the gossip industry cannot resist an opportunity to speculate and invent, we wanted to convey the truth directly.'" They say they are "determined to maintain the deep respect and love that we have for one another..." | | Jeffrey Tambor not returning to "Transparent" | | Sandra Gonzalez reports: The next season of "Transparent" will go on without Jeffery Tambor. "The decision was made after Amazon completed an investigation into allegations of harassment by two people who worked with Tambor on the series."
He says he is "profoundly disappointed." Here's his full response... | | | Brian Lowry emails: While you can make a case for continuing "House of Cards" without Kevin Spacey, however awkward the transition might be, it's hard to envision "Transparent" without Tambor. Simply put, his character is too central to the story, after what was already, critically speaking, a subpar fourth season. If the producers and Amazon were going to cut him loose, they might as well pull the plug on the show... | | Apple orders more "Carpool Karaoke" | | The James Corden/CBS produced "Carpool Karaoke" will drive on for another season.
The series, which is based off the very viral sketches from "The Late Late Show" host, that has celebrities sing their hearts out while driving around in varying automobiles, has been available to subscribers on Apple Music. | | Lowry reviews "Everything Sucks!" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Beyond introducing some promising young stars, Netflix's "Everything Sucks!" — a comedy series set in the mid-1990s — features a central plot about a young girl coming to grips with being gay. It's also interesting to contrast that with "Champions," an NBC comedy premiering after the Olympics, which also features a gay teen in a much broader, contemporary setting... | | | For the record, part four | | | -- Lisa Respers France emails: "Annihilation" is the latest project to be accused of whitewashing. Its director, and one of the stars, has responded to the criticism...
-- And let's end today on a happier note via Chloe Melas: Amy Schumer is married... Here are all the details on her surprise wedding... | | | 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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