| | | | | Exec summary: Trump's nondisclosure agreement, Facebook's scandal, James Comey's best seller, the "Black Panther" winning streak, and our media week ahead calendar... | | | Reporters have been calling this "the antitrust trial of the decade." The Justice Department, AT&T and Time Warner (CNN's parent company) have been preparing for this moment for months. Did you think they would reach a settlement? Nope -- the trial begins in DC this week. It's expected to take six to eight weeks. Judge Richard Leon's ruling could have long-lasting consequences for the media biz... | | Here's what will happen on Monday | | | Evidentiary arguments. Monday AND Tuesday. Hadas Gold explains: The two sides will argue over what will be presented as evidence during the trial. It could give us insight into what hard facts each side will use to argue their case. And if the judge orders that some evidence can't be submitted or used the way either side wants, it can deal a blow to their case. The real action starts Wednesday with opening statements... | | Even though Wednesday will feel like the kickoff, Monday is technically the start of the trial. Here's a look at the curtain-raiser pieces:
-- The headline in Monday's USA Today: "AT&T's fight to buy CNN, HBO could decide how you stream TV and movies..."
-- CNNMoney's David Goldman: "Why Corporate America" is watching this case so closely...
-- Rana Foroohar writing for the FT: "While the Justice Department is right to focus on corporate power, the Trump administration is picking the wrong target. Mergers between old media giants are beside the point in a digital world..."
-- WSJ's Andy Kessler: "What may have started as a Trumpian jab at #FakeNewsCNN has tragically turned into a serious antitrust action..."
-- NYT's John Koblin in Monday's paper: "The talk in media circles revolves around what will happen if the acquisition is stopped" and Time Warner "is made an orphan..." | | | Discovery CEO David Zaslav quoted in Koblin's story: "I think it's important for the ecosystem, the media ecosystem, that this deal goes through. For the first time in the history of this business you have these massive global companies -- Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Google -- of a scale we've never seen. They're like massive transformers. They're transforming this entire industry, and they've decided they love content, and they're sucking it up and disrupting the current ecosystem. In order to have to real stability, the great cable companies, mobile and satellite companies need to be able to compete with these global-scale companies." | | | Trifecta: Jessica Schneider, Hadas Gold and I will be previewing the case on CNN's "New Day" in the 7am hour... | | TRUMP GETS TESTY AS MUELLER CLOSES IN | | Until Saturday, President Trump had never actually written a tweet with Robert Mueller's name. He'd complained about the investigation, for sure, but his lawyers and reps had pledged cooperation and suggested that Trump has nothing to hide. Over the weekend, suddenly, something changed.
Former FBI deputy director Andy McCabe's firing was announced on Friday night. McCabe asserted that the decision was politically motivated, saying, "they are trying to create this counter-narrative that I am not someone who can be believed or trusted."
Then on Saturday morning, one of Trump's lawyers, John Dowd, fired off a statement to The Daily Beast hoping -- praying -- for an end to the investigation. Trump followed up by tweeting that "the Mueller probe should never have been started." It feels, to me, like we're inching closer to the edge of a cliff. But don't just take it from me -- the WashPost said Trump "escalated his assault on federal law enforcement agencies..." | | According to Betsy Woodruff, Dowd initially said he was speaking on the president's behalf "as his counsel." But in a matter of minutes, Dowd walked that back and said he was speaking for himself. (Uhhh, does the president need a new lawyer?!)
On Sunday night, another member of Trump's legal team, Ty Cobb, blasted a statement to reporters that said "the President is not considering or discussing the firing of the Special Counsel." CNN's Gloria Borger tweeted: So that settles it 😊" | | | FLASHBACK: On Thursday, the NYT reported that Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization. On Saturday, after Dowd and Trump weighed in, the NYT said that Trump was "said to be angered" over the Thursday report "that records from the Trump Organization were subpoenaed..." | | Carl Bernstein says more indictments are "over the horizon" | | "Lawyers involved in this" believe that "a set of indictments is just over the horizon," Carl Bernstein told me on "Reliable Sources."
When I interjected, he elaborated: "Other lawyers involved in this believe that a new set of indictments is, if not imminent, very close. But we don't know for sure that that's going to happen..." | | Q for Monday's A.M. shows | | | CNN's Chris Cuomo tweeted: Can Trump "really believe that if he were to force a firing of Mueller that the questions go away? He should want the probe most of all because if the special counsel clears him then -- and perhaps only then -- will there be no more question of his involvement in Russian meddling..." | | -- A scoop that is sure to make waves on Monday: "Trump made federal employees sign nondisclosure agreements. They're supposed to last beyond his presidency," WashPost columnist Ruth Marcus reveals... (Post)
-- A Q from Sunday's show: Is Stormy Daniels beating Trump at his own game? Is she even media-savvier than POTUS? (CNN) | | Comey's book is #1 on Amazon right now | | With some help from POTUS, James Comey's book skyrocketed to No. 1 on Amazon's best selling books list.on Sunday... Even though the book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership," won't be released until April 17. The book jumped from No 15 (already remarkable performance for preorders) to No. 1 after Trump jabbed Comey on Saturday, and Comey responded by saying "Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon." Here's my full story...
THIS REMINDS ME OF: Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury." Trump's objections to the book helped it hit No. 1... | | Must read profile of Hope Hicks | | | Based on what I know, I can confidently say: This Olivia Nuzzi profile of Hope Hicks is a MUST read. There's a lot of news in here about Hicks, her relationship with Trump, her reasons for leaving, the Rob Porter scandal, her note-taking, her near-photographic memory, her future, etc. It's the cover of this week's NYMag: | | | Nuzzi tweeted: "I spent some time with Hope Hicks during the last several weeks. She declined to speak on the record. This is the result of interviews" with more than 30 people... | | Layoffs at Meredith/Time Inc. expected soon | | No comment from Meredith on Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg's latest scoop: Meredith "is expected to lay off 200 to 300 staffers as soon as this week after recently completing the acquisition of Time Inc., according to people familiar with the situation."
STAFFERS HAVE BEEN EXPECTING THIS: "The job cuts, designed to reduce duplicative corporate staffing, are expected to primarily impact Time Inc.'s corporate employees in New York..."
MEREDITH PROMISED: To wring $400-500 million in cost savings from the combined company... Read more... | | Media week ahead calendar | | Wednesday: Opening statements in DOJ vs. AT&T...
Friday: "Pacific Rim: Uprising" arrives in theaters...
Saturday: "March For Our Lives" in DC and across the country...
Saturday night: "Hope & Fury: MLK, The Movement and The Media" airs on NBC...
Sunday: Anderson Cooper's interview with Stormy Daniels is set to air on "60 Minutes..."
Sunday: "Trust" premieres on FX... | | -- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column: "More Middle East civilian deaths have soared under Trump. And the media mostly shrug..." (Post)
-- Newsweek's latest reporting on its parent: "Authorities have executed a search warrant on Olivet University, the evangelical Christian university linked to Newsweek's owners, as part of long-running fraud investigation into Newsweek Media Group..." (Newsweek) | | | Sunday's NYT headline: "How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions." The Guardian's Monday headline: "Pressure grows on Facebook..." | | | The two outlets worked together on a blockbuster investigation into Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. The NYT had been talking to FB for more than a week about the impending story. At first FB downplayed it... But then, in an apparent attempt the damning stories, the company went public on Friday night and banned Cambridge Analytica from its platform... | | Facebook's first black eye was from "fake news." Then it was Russian propaganda. Now it's this data scandal. Every time, the company vows to make changes and be better. But every story reiterates just how much happens in Facebook's dark corners...
THE BOTTOM LINE: It's 2018, and we're still talking about how the sprawling social network was used and abused during the 2016 election. Here's my analysis... | | Facebook's Sunday statement | | | Get caught up on the data harvesting scandal here via Jackie Wattles' story. Facebook issued a new statement on Sunday that said, "We are conducting a comprehensive internal and external review and are working to determine the accuracy of the claims that the Facebook data in question still exists. That is where our focus lies as we remain committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people's information." | | 😕 Will lawmakers launch investigations? | | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: Facebook says it's conducting a review and it's investigating how a current Facebook employee may have helped Cambridge Analytica gather data. Lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic are calling for renewed investigations into Facebook and Cambridge Analytica -- they've already opened an investigation in Massachusetts. For Cambridge Analytica's part, they said they deleted the data when Facebook asked, and that they didn't know that the guy who had collected the data initially had misrepresented himself to FB... | | Via Jackie's story: "Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter Saturday that 'Zuckerberg needs to testify before Senate Judiciary.'"
Key Klobuchar quote: "It's clear these platforms can't police themselves. They say 'trust us.'" | | So... Can I find out what Cambridge Analytica knows about me?! | | | Donie O'Sullivan answers: Er, not really. You'd have a better chance if you were in Europe where there are stronger privacy laws. One New York professor is suing the company to find out what they know about him... Details here... | | | Dylan Byers will have the latest on this in Monday morning's PACIFIC newsletter... If you're not on the list, subscribe here... | | | "Reliable Sources" highlights | | | | Carl Bernstein on "Reliable" --> "The reportorial fact is this president lies. Why do we have any reason to believe that he is not lying about the Russia investigation and what's underneath it?" | | I got ahold of the RNC's talking points... | | Political parties send out talking points all the time... In hopes that surrogates will repeat the points during TV hits... But this line from the RNC's weekend email stuck out to me:
"Despite the media's fixation with White House palace intrigue, there is no chaos in the Trump Administration."
No chaos?! If you want the gory details, just read Maggie Haberman's W.H. Memo in Monday's NYT... | | The TV-to-White-House pipeline | | John Bolton as national security advisor? Pete Hegseth as VA secretary?
On "Reliable," Jeff Greenfield joked that he's in line to be the director of NASA... And Alicia Menendez made this point: By hiring from Fox, "it creates this positive feedback loop. If you love the president, if you love Fox News, then his hiring from Fox News validates Fox's credibility and it also validates the president's great taste, right? It works both ways." Watch the rest of the segment here... | | | Fox-host-turned-State-Dept-spox Heather Nauert "almost quit several times" in the past year because she was "frustrated at being sidelined," The AP reported Sunday. But Rex Tillerson's firing opened up an opportunity for her. When the W.H. fired the undersecretary of state "who publicly defended Tillerson," Trump "named Nauert to that suddenly vacant position, near the top of the hierarchy of American diplomacy." Read more of the backstory here... | | Ben Shapiro on "Reliable Sources" | | | TheBlaze's recap of our Sunday segment: "Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and CNN host Brian Stelter had a very candid conversation Sunday that was widely praised on social media. During the seven-minute interview, Shapiro exposed the mainstream media and explained why they are disconnected from mainstream America." Here's the video on CNN.com... | | "Looking for opportunities to grow..." | | | There was a report last month that Shapiro's site The Daily Wire was looking to buy Glenn Beck's TheBlaze. True? I asked Shapiro, and he said, "All I can say about that is that we're always looking for opportunities to grow, and we are very much fans of what Glenn does. Any opportunity we have to work with Glenn, like a lot of other folks, we're happy to take..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: In his "Reliable" segment, Ben Shapiro was right that the conservative lament about the media has persisted for decades. But his basic assertion that we just want you to do better conveniently ignores that seeking to discredit mainstream news outlets has also been an effective marketing rationale with a lot of self-interest baked into it -- namely, because you can't trust the New York Times or major networks, listen to (perhaps foremost), watch or read us instead. | | Catch up on Sunday's show | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Vox's David Roberts opines: "The real problem with the New York Times op-ed page: it's not honest about US conservatism" (Vox)
-- Le sigh: James Cook finds that "the YouTube Kids app has been suggesting a load of conspiracy videos to children..." (BI)
-- "Former Cheddar anchor Kori Hale has co-founded a new business media company... CultureBanx is a central repository of business and financial news for black professionals..." (Talking Biz News) | | Her interview with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman aired on Sunday's "60 Minutes." Check out the full piece on CBSNews.com...
--> CBS notes that the story's original producer, Harry A. Radliffe II, died before the interview took place. "Jeff Fager, Radliffe's close friend and the executive producer of 60 Minutes, had final say over the story and personally assured two Saudi princes that we would be fair and accurate and allow the crown prince to tell his story if he let us. We are glad he did..." | | "Black Panther" #1 for fifth straight weekend | | "The return of a blockbuster action franchise couldn't bump 'Black Panther' from the top of the box office this week," the NYT's Andrew R. Chow writes. "The Marvel movie earned another $27 million for its fifth straight week at No. 1, leaving 'Tomb Raider' to settle for second place. 'Black Panther' has now made $605 million domestically, making it the second-fastest movie to reach $600 million behind 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens.' Globally, it has made $1.2 billion and sits in 14th place all time..."
Meanwhile, "Tomb Raider" made $23.5 million in its first weekend... | | Alex Moffat playing Anderson Cooper | | | John Goodman surprised "SNL" viewers by playing Rex Tillerson in the "SNL" cold open... It was an "AC360" spoof... Here's the video on YouTube... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
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