| | | | | Exec summary: Lots of news out of the White House in DC, the NYT in NYC, and Netflix in CA. Hey, don't forget about your Valentine! 💖💖 | | On Tuesday evening CNN.com's headline was "Trump still doesn't believe it." He still doesn't believe that the Russians mounted a campaign to interfere in the 2016 election. He still doesn't believe his hand-picked intelligence chiefs.
"Three sources familiar with the president's thinking say he remains unconvinced that Russia interfered in the presidential election," CNN's Sara Murray and Jeremy Herb reported. "While this issue is separate from the question of whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian officials, to Trump the issues are interwoven, the sources say..." | | "The U.S. is under attack" | | | Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intel Committee on Tuesday that "the United States is under attack." Coats said "we expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople, and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States." So: it's happening again. But the president doesn't believe it... | | "Are you listening, Mr. President?" | | Sam Vinograd wrote this op-ed for CNN.com after the intel briefing. She says she hopes POTUS was really listening to what Coats and the other officials said. More...
--> BTW: Per Donie O'Sullivan, Facebook says it is cooperating with the FBI's new task force re: election interference... | | Leaks, leaks, leaks against Kelly | | Backstabbing leaks from within the W.H. are going from bad to worse. It's been one full week after the Rob Porter story broke. And as a result of the scandal, chief of staff John Kelly "does not enjoy the confidence of an increasing # of his subordinates," the WashPost reported Tuesday night. The story quoted an anonymous official saying Kelly is "a big fat liar" and noted that "Trump has been seeking counsel from friends about whom he might bring on as a new chief of staff."
CNNers are hearing the same. Check out this five-byline story -- by Dana Bash, Gloria Borger, Jamie Gangel, Jim Acosta, and Jeremy Diamond -- the story says Trump hasn't decided to replace Kelly, but "conversations over who could succeed him have heated up." Here's the story... | | The White House is stonewalling | | | Tuesday's briefing created even more confusion about who knew what about Porter and when. The W.H. is obviously stonewalling. The Daily Beast's latest story cites "multiple senior West Wing officials" who fear the scandal "will only get worse in the days to come..." | | | "Several White House officials are now prefacing or concluding their sentences in convos with reporters by making clear they can't swear by the information they've just given," Maggie Haberman tweeted Tuesday night... | | Sarah Sanders has lasted longer than Sean Spicer... | | | It's been more than six months since Sarah Sanders replaced Sean Spicer. She deflects questions even more skillfully than he did. In this package for Tuesday's "AC360," I said Sanders is keenly aware she has an "audience of one," the president himself. Here's the video of the segment... | | Ryan Murphy defects to Netflix | | Ryan Murphy's deal with 21st Century Fox was set to expire this summer. On Tuesday night, Netflix announced that Murphy is jumping ship... He will join the streaming service in July... "Under the multi-year overall deal, Murphy will produce new series and films exclusively for the service," CNN's Sandra Gonzalez reports...
The NYT's John Koblin, who broke the news, cited sources who said "the five-year deal is worth as much as $300 million," i.e., "one of the biggest deals ever made for a television producer." Here's Koblin's full story... | | Brian Lowry emails: This is another huge Netflix poaching on the heels of Shonda Rhimes. And an opportunistic one, given that his status at Fox has been clouded by the pending merger with Disney. At TCA, Murphy cited his long ties to Fox, and said Disney CEO Bob Iger had called to reassure him. But apparently that wasn't enough to prevent him from jumping ship as Netflix aggressively courts talent...
--> Stephen Battaglio tweeted: "Has anybody checked in on John Landgraf tonight?" | | THE VIEW FROM NETFLIX HQ: "American Horror Story" and "American Crime" have performed well for Netflix, so the execs really like his storytelling... And they were willing/able to pay big $$$...
NETFLIX'S APPROACH: "Netflix M+A strategy is to buy people, not companies," Recode's Peter Kafka tweeted...
WHAT ABOUT FOX CO-PRESIDENT DANA WALDEN?: Does this increase the chances that she will leave Fox? Walden and Murphy are very close... | | USA Today announcing new editor on Wednesday | | | Joanne Lipman stepped down as EIC of USA Today and chief content officer for Gannett back on December 31. On Wednesday, Gannett will name her successor... a new EIC for one of the most widely circulated papers in the country... My sources said they don't know the name, but the conversations lead me to believe that it's an internal candidate... | | The LAT's Daniel Miller had the scoop: Elizabeth Rose, a former Vice Media employee, "alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the company discriminates against female employees, systemically and intentionally paying them less than their male counterparts." The suit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, is seeking class-action certification.
--> Key point: "The complaint alleges that Rose, as part of her job, received internal memos that showed the salaries of about 35 Vice media employees," so she saw the pay disparity up close... Several Twitter users supported her allegation after it came out... | | -- Driving Wednesday's news cycle: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen "says he paid Stormy Daniels out of his own pocket..." (NYT)
-- Coincidence? Maxwell Tani says Cohen is pitching a book... (The Daily Beast)
-- The WashPost is opening bureaus in Rome and Hong Kong and adding a second Mexico City-based correspondent... (WashPost)
-- WashPost head of innovation Jarrod Dicker is becoming "CEO of Po.et, a media blockchain company." Sara Fischer says "if he's making this bet right now, we should all be paying attention..." (Axios)
-- Two notable wins for CNN over the weekend: Episode two of "The Van Jones Show" was #1 in the 25-54 demo in its time slot on Saturday, and so was Sunday's premiere of "The Radical Story of Patty Hearst..." (TVNewser) | | NYT hired a new op-ed writer, but then... | | On Tuesday afternoon the NYT announced that Quinn Norton "has joined the NYT editorial board as lead opinion writer on the power, culture and consequences of technology." There was an instant backlash on Twitter. Commenters pointed out that she has called herself a friend of prominent neo-Nazis (while disagreeing with their views) and has used words like "fag" repeatedly. Many of the tweets in question are several years old, HuffPost noted.
On Tuesday evening an NYT rep said "we are very concerned about the tweets that are circulating today and are looking into the matter." By the end of the evening, "Norton said on Twitter that she would no longer be working with the Times," Tom Kludt reported.
Editorial page editor James Bennet issued a statement that read, "Despite our review of Quinn Norton's work and our conversations with her previous employers, this was new information to us. Based on it, we've decided to go our separate ways..." | | New details about CNN layoffs | | CNN's plans for a restructuring of CNN Digital were shared with staffers in town hall meetings on Tuesday. Executives confirmed Monday's reports that a round of layoffs will take place later this week. A CNN spokeswoman told me the number of layoffs is "fewer than 50" out of a digital staff of 600.
My story for CNNMoney contains some new details about what's happening and why. At one of the town halls, CNN Digital GM Andrew Morse cited several factors: Internal "financial targets were overly aggressive," structural impediments got in the way of growth, CNN "tried to do too much too fast," and the squeeze of the Google and Facebook "digital duopoly" got tighter. His restructuring plan is intended to address this. Some units are being consolidated. Read more...
--> Morse also shared a new mission statement with the staff: CNN Digital, he said, should be "the world's most essential and engaging digital news source." | | Tweeters fooled by old "Joy Reid cancelled" story | | Some bursts of social media activity just make you shake your head. This is one of them: An old story from 2015 about Joy Reid's MSNBC show being cancelled was suddenly recirculated on Tuesday, and hundreds of commenters gleefully celebrated what they thought was a brand new development. C'mon, people. Reid's weekend show is one of the bright spots in MSNBC's weekend schedule -- and I say that as a competitor of hers! She's not in line to get cancelled, she's in line to get promoted. But some people will fall for anything that supports their view of the world...
--> ICYMI: the NYT's Sunday Styles profiled Reid last weekend... | | Fiorina hosting a town hall on Sinclair stations 🤔 | | | Hadas Gold emails: Sinclair-owned TV stations promoted a town hall on tax reform this week... But it was not moderated by one of the company's journalists. Tuesday night's event was led by former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina… | | -- Ben Jacobs tweeted Tuesday: "Worth noting that Friday will be the one year anniversary of Trump's first, last and only formal White House press conference..."
-- Joe Pompeo's latest: "BuzzFeed is suing the DNC over issues involving the Russia dossier..." (VF)
-- Just how much are media companies benefiting from the recent passage of tax reform? Brian Steinberg has the details here... (Variety)
-- "Hulu's been a breakout success. It also lost $920 million last year." How can both things be true? Here's Jill Disis' story... (CNNMoney) | | The Daily is coming to radio! | | | The NYT "will bring its popular podcast The Daily to public radio this spring through a distribution deal announced Tuesday with American Public Media," Current reports. The announcement was made at the Code Media conference. "The Times will produce a daily 30-minute radio version of the podcast for distribution to stations starting in April. Though the podcast is released at 6am Eastern time, public radio stations will be able to air the radio version between 4pm and midnight..." | | Highlights from the Code Media conference | | -- To kick off the conference, CollegeHumor created a satirical "nature documentary" about the media industry...
-- Verizon's mobile video service Go90 might be going away: Tim Armstrong "says [that] the company plans to fold Go90 back into Oath and start redistributing the content on Go90 to Oath's other properties..."
-- Janice Min revealed that Tronc approached her to edit the LA Times... But she had reservations... One of the concerns: "They were terrified of their newsroom. They clearly didn't want to interact with them..." | | "The government is clueless" | | Strong words! Recode's Johana Bhuiyan writes: "Turner CEO John Martin thinks the DOJ is going to lose its bid to block AT&T from buying Time Warner -- Turner's parent company. In fact, Martin said, he thinks the government is 'clueless.'"
Martin's key quote from the conference: "As a person who's actually going through the process and has been in depositions, the theory of the case just makes absolutely no sense. In the history of the country, what vertical merger has tilted the landscape of the competitive environment? Let me give you the answer: Zero..." | | A new crop of Olympian endorsers | | | Brian Lowry emails: It's early yet, but the Winter Olympics are already making good on one of their most reliable historic functions -- namely, creating a new group of ready-made product pitch-people. Gold medalist Chloe Kim, 17, immediately vaults to the head of the class, but she could have some company from the figure-skating contingent, including Mirai Nagasu -- who became the first American women to land a triple axel at the Olympics -- and Adam Rippon, the first openly gay man to earn a Winter Games medal. Rippon does bring some political baggage, based on his comments regarding VP Mike Pence, but that will only make him more attractive to certain sponsors... | | Hey, how's the ESPN search going? | | | A reminder from investor Eric Jackson, who tweeted this on Tuesday: "It's been 57 days since John Skipper resigned as head of ESPN... The self-imposed deadline to name Skipper's successor by Disney is Friday, March 16... 31 days to go..." | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Tyler Perry says there "absolutely" should be a "Tyler Perry streaming" service... (Cheddar)
-- Check out Variety's cover story on "DOUBLE AGENTS:" Talent agencies "face conflicts of interest as parent companies storm into the production arena..." (Variety) | | Why AT&T still isn't spending ad $$$ on YouTube | | The latest on the advertisers-demanding-accountability beat: "AT&T, one of the nation's biggest marketers, has yet to return to YouTube nearly a year after pulling its advertising from the platform because of concerns that it could appear alongside offensive material," the NYT's Sapna Maheshwari reports.
AT&T wants YouTube to get "as close to zero tolerance for this issue as possible," chief brand officer Fiona Carter says.
Key quote from Carter: "Our findings are that no matter the algorithm or the filters or the formula that you currently apply, nothing beats human review..." | | "My editor Gregg Birnbaum at The New York Post was once cautioning me that I was overthinking a complaint from a subject on a story. 'Their problems are not our problems' was what he said. I think about that a lot..."
--Maggie Haberman in this Times Insider interview... | | About "Big Brother" and Omarosa... | | Brian Lowry emails: THR's Daniel Fienberg issued a plea to stop taking Omarosa Manigault-Newman's "story time" comments on "Big Brother" seriously, citing the absurd notion that "seasoned political reporters and entertainment reporters alike have been forced to glue their eyeballs to the live feeds" to consume whatever she might reveal next about her time in the White House. Given the venue she has chosen and her reality-TV history, he has a point...
Counterpoint from Stelter: Trump hired her to work in the White House! Her job was something of a mystery. And now she's spilling details about her time there. Journalists can't and shouldn't ignore that... | | | "As bad as y'all think Trump is, you would be worried about Pence," she said on Monday's show. "We would be begging for days of Trump back if Pence became President, that's all I'm saying. He's extreme." And "scary," she said: "I'm Christian, I love Jesus, but he thinks Jesus tells him to say things — I'm like, 'Jesus didn't say that.' Scary." CNN's story notes that Pence's office declined to comment... | | T-minus two days til "Black Panther" | | | Screenings start on Thursday evening... In the meantime, this is a really interesting piece by Vulture's Kyle Buchanan: "Why Marvel Spent More on Getting Black Panther Just Right..." | | "We invite you to collude with us on social media" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Give FX's PR department credit for having some fun with "The Americans," the Russians-among-us period drama that returns for its final season on March 28. The network press release unveiling the latest trailer noted, "We invite you to collude with us on social media." | | Chloe's interview with Miss America | | | Chloe Melas emails: The current Miss America, Cara Mund, sat down with me and for the very first time discussed the email scandal involving their former CEO who resigned in December. She also addressed what the organization now looks like with Gretchen Carlson at the helm. She also said she wants to run for office... Watch/read here... | | Michelle Wolf show coming to Netflix | | | I meant to include this last night: "Michelle Wolf has landed a show of her own. After nearly half a decade working on Late Night With Seth Meyers and The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, Wolf is set to host her own weekly show on Netflix..." It'll launch later this year... | | | For the record, part four | | | -- Lisa Respers France emails: "The Bachelor's" Bekah Martinez has explained why she was reported "missing" while appearing on the reality show...
-- Megan Thomas emails: Jerry Seinfeld appeared on "Ellen" Tuesday and told her a "Seinfeld" reboot is "possible..."
-- One more from Megan: I enjoyed this read from Vulture's Jen Chaney, who says David Letterman's Netflix show reminds us of the value of the talk-show interview... | | | 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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