| | | | Trump's obsession with leaks | | On Thursday the DOJ provided Congress with copies of James Comey's memos about President Trump... and the memos leaked within an hour. Keep that in mind when you hear politicians raging against leaks to the media.
Trump's own concern about leaks comes up repeatedly in the 15-page document. On page 11, Comey says "I said something about the value of putting a head on a pike as a message." Trump "replied by saying it may involve putting reporters in jail." Comey quotes Trump saying "They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, and they are ready to talk." Comey says he laughed at the remark... | | The memos support Comey's story | | | Chuck Todd tweeted: "What exactly were House Republicans hoping to accomplish by demanding the full release of these memos? Nothing I've read seems to change Comey's story and if anything, these memos give more, not less, credence to the dossier..." | | Thursday's Comey interviews... | | The BBC, TheSkimm, NYT's The Daily, "The Lead with Jake Tapper," The New Yorker Radio Hour, and "The Rachel Maddow Show."
For the highlights of the Tapper interview, check CNN.com... There were huge crowds at Town Hall for The New Yorker's live podcast taping later in the day... David Remnick, who interviewed Comey on stage, will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | What we've learned from Comey's tour | | The book excerpts came out this time last week. It was a hugely significant political moment – a former FBI director excoriating a sitting president. Comey called Trump unethical and described the presidency as a "forest fire." So what are the takeaways one week later? I asked a few people...
-- Jeff Greenfield, who's working on a piece about this for Politico: "The only conclusion I've reached so far is that I doubt that a single mind was changed by the book, or by Comey's grand tour."
-- Chris Cillizza in his latest newsletter: "Comey is very, very concerned with ensuring that he is not perceived as a political guy."
-- Fareed Zakaria's new column: "Comey's memoir reveals that America does indeed have a deep state. It is one of law and lawyers. And we should be deeply grateful for it."
-- Carlos Lozada, who reviewed the book for the WashPost: "I'm Comeyed out." | | NEXT week's big book launch... | | Amy Chozick's memoir about covering Hillary Clinton's campaigns, "Chasing Hillary," comes out next Tuesday.
I asked Chozick what SHE learned from Comey's interviews... She said, "I've learned that erroneous data projections that gave Hillary an insurmountable lead may have swayed the election more than anything else. Comey released his letter to Congress because he, like most of the country and the media, believed she would win..." | | | The series finale of "Scandal" just aired on the East Coast... Brian Lowry will have a review on CNN.com overnight... | | "Tonight feels celebratory and epic but it's also so sad" | | Small world: My wife Jamie grew up with "Scandal" star Katie Lowes' husband Adam Shapiro. So I asked her what this night feels like... Lowes replied:
"'Scandal' has been so much more than a TV show. To us. To a lot of fans/gladiators. Tonight feels celebratory and epic but it's also so sad. We're all so sad to not just say goodbye to these characters but even more, to this platform. It's been the privilege of a lifetime." | | BIG turnout at the courthouse on Thursday. Tom Kludt and Hadas Gold's latest: "After weeks of testimony from economists, survey experts and rival executives who oppose the merger, the defense on Thursday called its final witness in the trial that will determine the fate of AT&T's proposed acquisition of Time Warner: AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson."
On the stand, Stephenson often spoke directly to Judge Richard Leon. He "defended the $85 billion bid for Time Warner as a necessary means for AT&T to keep pace with tech powerhouses like Google and Facebook." He called Time Warner's content "the best library in the world." | | Try to answer this question... | | Via CNN's story: Leon asked Stephenson: "Where do you think this ecosystem will be seven years from now?"
Stephenson remarked that if Leon had asked the question seven years ago, he would've been off in his prediction. Amen to that. (Would any of us have predicted Netflix's rise seven years ago?)
But Stephenson answered by saying that content creators "will have direct and immediate access to consumers -- we've seen an explosion of that..." | | Here's a different way to announce a new product — during your testimony in a federal court case. That's how Stephenson did it on Thursday! He shared details about a new streaming service called AT&T Watch. Story here...
-- It's a skinny bundle that'll be cheaper than DirecTV Now because it won't include any sports channels...
-- It will launch in the "next several weeks," a spokesman said...
-- It will be available to anyone for $15 a month, and will be free to AT&T unlimited customers... Read more... | | Stephenson was AT&T's final witness. The companies rested their defense at the end of the day on Thursday. "The government then began calling up rebuttal witnesses..."
🔌: Hadas Gold and I will have a trial update on Friday's "New Day" @ 7:45am... | | -- "Everyone is a spidergram now." Don't miss the new Bloomberg Businessweek cover about Palantir, the company that "knows everything about you..." (Bloomberg)
-- David Klein flagged this CityLab story about why newspaper websites "suck so damn much..." (CityLab)
-- Via Julia Waldow: Netflix is rolling out 30-second "mobile previews" of new content on the platform... (Netflix)
-- Also via Waldow: Google's AMP story development isn't exactly taking off at lightning speed, some publishers say... (Digiday)
-- What?! "Leaked video shows Theranos employees playing the video game they created where you shoot at the reporter who exposed the startup's problems..." (BI) | | Holding big tech to account | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: "It's been a big week for a new era of investigative journalism holding big tech to account. Four big stories in the past week that highlight how the tech giants are failing to police their own platforms." He tweeted out these examples:
CNN: "The biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook is fake"
HuffPost: "Facebook didn't seem to care I was being sexually harassed until I decided to write about it"
NBC: "Russian propaganda evades YouTube's flagging system with BuzzFeed-style knockoffs"
And here's the fourth example 👇 | | CNN: "YouTube ran ads from hundreds of brands on extremist channels" | | This CNN exclusive was published just a few hours ago. "Ads from over 300 companies and organizations -- including tech giants, major retailers, newspapers and government agencies -- ran on YouTube channels promoting white nationalists, Nazis, pedophilia, conspiracy theories and North Korean propaganda," CNN's Paul P. Murphy, Kaya Yurieff and Gianluca Mezzofiore reported... | | Its recommendation engine continues to come under scrutiny. NBC News calls it "a supercomputer playing chess against your mind to get you to keep watching." Jo Ling Kent had a story about it on Thursday's "NBC Nightly News," and Ben Popken elaborated in this story.
"On the site, the ease with which a person on can be transported from any innocuous search to the lunatic fringe of YouTube is startling," Popken says... | | CBS and Viacom are "slowly" trying "to move towards a deal," David Faber reported on CNBC Thursday morning. "CBS has come back with another offer at a higher exchange ratio. I'm not aware of what that # is. And has received a response" from Viacom. "Is it progress? Yes, it's being characterized by people close to the situation as slight progress, though no one is saying they're anywhere near announcing a deal." No new update on the thorny leadership issues... i.e. Bob Bakish's role in a combined company led by Les Moonves...
--> Peter Bart's new column: "Scaling Up Through Mergers No Fun Anymore For Moguls" | | Which theater chain will Netflix buy? | | I missed this scoop by the LAT's Ryan Faughnder on Wednesday. He reported that Netflix has "explored the idea of buying movie theaters" in L.A. and NYC "that would enable it to screen a growing pipeline of feature films and documentaries."
Netflix looked at Landmark... But "recently backed off the idea..." So if not Landmark, then which company? Faughnder says Netflix is likely to "pursue a deal with a smaller player that would give it a foothold in key industry markets..." | | -- Fox News has announced two midterm debates: A WV GOP Senate primary debate on May 1 and a FL GOP governor primary debate on June 28... -- John Avlon's next book was announced on Thursday: "Lincoln's Farewell" will be published by Simon & Schuster... ( Twitter) -- David and Lauren Hogg are writing "#NEVERAGAIN: A New Generation Draws the Line" for Random House... It'll come out on June 5... ( Publishers Weekly) -- An odd story via Erik Wemple: "An employee at a digital marketing firm in Pennsylvania managed to sneak her pseudonym into the New York Times and US News & World Report. The latter is obliterating her from its archives; the former says it's okay..." ( WashPost) | | National Enquirer's parent "faces mounting debt, shrinking sales" | | | Shoutout to the WSJ's Lukas Alpert -- he found a way to review "nonpublic" financial reports for American Media Inc., the parent company of The National Enquirer. Despite the tabloid's pro-Trump bent, which was said to be "good for business," AMI is "weighed down by ballooning debt, falling revenue and shrinking newsstand sales," Alpert reports. Check out his full story here... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Variety's Cynthia Littleton waded through a 455-page filing about the Disney-Fox deal so you don't have to, including details about Comcast and Verizon's roles as suitors. Favorite nuggets from her story: The government's "unanticipated opposition" to the AT&T-Time Warner merger "hung heavily" over the talks; and Rupert, James and Lachlan Murdoch will receive "golden parachutes" totaling more than $200 million when the deal closes.. | | Check out the gallery here... The mag's annual gala is next Tuesday...
--> Time EIC Edward Felsenthal will join me on this Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | Just your average Thursday | | | CNN's Liz Stark tweeted a recap of Thursday's news cycle: "Cohen dropped libel lawsuits over dossier; Mueller team defended Manafort investigation in court; IG submitted criminal referral for McCabe; Rosenstein told Trump he's not target in Cohen probe; Giuliani added to Trump legal team; DOJ sent Comey memos to Congress." | | This news broke in the 5pm hour on Thursday: Rudy Giuliani joining Trump's legal team to "negotiate an end" to the Mueller probe "for the good of the country."
NYT's Michael Grynbaum tweeted: "Rudy joining Trump's legal team is the Maggie-iest storyline of all time." Here's Maggie Haberman's full story... | | This week's Economist cover | | | The Economist's item about Sean Hannity this week says Hannity's future "looks rosy." Trump's "nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is struggling to get confirmed by the Senate; maybe Mr. Hannity could replace him? Don't laugh. Really." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Daniella Emanuel:
-- Check out Lloyd Grove's latest on Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund responsible for "the deaths of well over 3,000 newspaper jobs," including those at The Denver Post. Alden president Heath Freeman is "the kind of person who makes a demand, listens to the counterpoint, and then reasserts his demand," according to reporter Julie Reynolds, who has spent two years looking into him... (The Daily Beast)
-- The Weinstein Company's TV and film assets have attracted "some 60 potential buyers," an attorney who represents the studio "told the U.S. bankruptcy court judge..." (Deadline)
-- Guillermo Del Toro has signed a "multi-year exclusive deal" to make movies for DreamWorks Animation... (Variety)
-- Former Time Inc. COO Jen Wong is the new COO of Reddit... (WSJ) | | "GMA" launching a morning newsletter | | | It's part of a new "Good Morning America" web site that ABC announced on Thursday. Senior E.P. Michael Corn emails: "Very excited about GMA's new website and newsletter with tons of original content to offer our growing audience. It's an extension of the GMA broadcast so we can connect with our viewers all day." | | | This sounds like a great idea for a podcast series. Via TheWrap's Tim Molloy: "Film reporter Matt Donnelly and I have started a new podcast, 'Shoot This Now,' where we talk about little-known stories we think should be made into movies. Last week we focused on the time Sean Hannity was fired as a college DJ for homophobic remarks in 1989, and went to the ACLU (!) for help." Here's the pod via Apple Podcasts... | | The return of "Westworld" | | | Brian Lowry emails: It's been a long wait for the second season of "Westworld," which returns again brimming with ambition and provocative ideas, but which also proves easier to admire than to like... Read the rest here... | | So much buzz around "Westworld" | | | +1 to this observation Lowry tweeted: "Sense that 'Westworld' is a 'hot' show reinforced by the number of unsolicited pitches coming in for 'experts' to address some aspect of it. (Spoiler alert: Answer's 'no.')" | | One more season of "Homeland" | | | Lisa Respers France reports: Claire Danes confirms that "Homeland" will be ending with Season 8... And showrunner Alex Gansa says big changes are coming.... | | | For the record, part four | | | -- By Lisa Respers France:
-- Kanye West is life coaching on Twitter, where he's dropping all types of knowledge...
-- Fingers crossed we get a Sarah Palin/Donald Trump skit when Tina Fey hosts "SNL" on May 19... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
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