| | | | | Exec summary: Hope you had a great weekend! BIG week ahead... Scroll down for a complete preview, plus Laura Ingraham's return, Jimmy Kimmel's apology, box office #'s, and more... | | President Trump's attacks against newsrooms like the NYT are "out of control," NYT exec editor Dean Baquet told me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." His remarks came a few hours after the president likened the WashPost to a "poorly written novel" in a tweet that he had to delete and repost because of a mistake.
"It's out of control and his advisors should tell him to stop, because it's actually affecting the civic life and debate of the country," Baquet said.
The NYT boss hadn't been on "Reliable Sources" for a year, so I asked him about the cumulative effect of the constant "fake news" / "made-up sources" / "sick people" attacks. Sometimes we get numb to this stuff -- we just accept it as part of the background noise -- but Baquet hasn't.
"I think the president missed the part of high school civics where the First Amendment was explained, and where the role of free and independent press was explained," Baquet said... | | Trump was on Twitter praising Jesse Watters and trashing the Post before condemning the latest chemical attack in Syria on Sunday morning.
Cue Baquet: "If he creates a culture where 'Fox and Friends' and Jesse Watters are regarded as serious journalism, and The New York Times and The Washington Post are not," he will have a "longstanding, harmful effect on the country."
(Hmmm. Hasn't the president already done that, among his fan base?) | | "How Trump thrives in 'news deserts'" | | This is a genuine must-read by Politico's Shawn Musgrave and Matthew Nussbaum. I wish I had thought to do this:
"An extensive review of subscription data and election results shows that Trump outperformed the previous Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in counties with the lowest numbers of news subscribers, but didn't do nearly as well in areas with heavier circulation." The reporters used Alliance for Audited Media data. "The results show a clear correlation between low subscription rates and Trump's success in the 2016 election." This is complicated... and there are lots of caveats... but check it out here...
--> Nate Silver's take: "I'm sure there's a correlation between news deserts and Trump success, but it takes a lot of work to show *causality* -- and they aren't really showing their work..." | | Silence from the Denver Post's owner | | The Denver Post made an extraordinary plea for its future in Sunday's paper. An editorial and several pages of columns called attention to owner Alden Global Capital's "vulture capitalist" practices. "If Alden isn't willing to do good journalism here, it should sell The Post to owners who will," the paper's editorial board said.
I've been emailing Alden reps for comment... But so far I have not heard back... Meantime, the editorial remains the most popular item on the Post's website... | | Back to Dean Baquet for a moment. During our aforementioned interview, he said "the biggest crisis in journalism is not Donald Trump's attacks on The Washington Post and The New York Times," it's "the decline of local newspapers."
-- He added: "This is a major city, Denver. This is a newsroom that now is on the verge of having fewer than 100 journalists. That is unbelievable. That means things won't be covered, school boards aren't being covered. This is a crisis in American journalism..." | | "Syria response looms over Trump adviser's first day" | | That's the headline on CNN.com right now, about both the chemical attack in Syria and John Bolton's official start as national security adviser.
Newsrooms scrambled on Sunday nights when tweets from Lebanon and Syria indicated that a U.S. missile strike on Syria might be underway. But the Pentagon denied that a U.S. strike had taken place, prompting this AP alert: "BREAKING: US officials: US not carrying out reported airstrikes in Syria." It's still unclear what, if anything, happened, with some speculating about Israeli action in Syria... I'm sure we'll know more come daybreak... | | -- Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja "was one of nine people fatally shot on Friday after Israeli troops used live ammunition as tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered to protest at the heavily guarded boundary with Israel." He was wearing a "PRESS" vest when he was shot, per the WashPost...
-- BuzzFeed's Ben Smith tweeted: "Years ago, a US diplomat told me I'd gotten a source arrested and beaten. I finally went back to the story." Smith is under-selling the story! Check it out here...
-- In this CNN.com op-ed, Kurt Bardella expresses support for the Journalist Protection Act... | | Laura Ingraham IS returning to Fox News on Monday night -- but some of her advertisers are not. While the exact impact is not known, a Fox source confirmed to me that some of the network's regular advertisers are continuing to avoid "The Ingraham Angle." The result will be lighter ad loads during her hour on Monday... And probably for the foreseeable future. Here's my full story...
-- Unknown: Will Ingraham address the matter when she returns to work? | | | "Despite what many outsiders view as a monolith of Trumpism, inside the Fox News newsroom there is tension over the network's future," she writes in Monday's WashPost... | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday: DOJ v. AT&T resumes in DC...
-- Monday: Bill Cosby's retrial gets underway in PA...
-- Tuesday afternoon: The first of two days of Mark Zuckerberg testimony...
-- Wednesday: It's National Bookmobile Day!
-- Thursday evening: THR's annual The 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media party...
-- Thursday evening: Tina Brown's Women in the World Summit begins...
-- Friday: Just a heads up, it's Friday the 13th...
-- Sunday: James Comey's book tour officially begins with a prime time special on ABC... | | Comey's book tour is right around the corner | | | This time next week, we'll probably all be talking about early leaks from the Comey book and his disclosures to George Stephanopoulos. Will POTUS issue some pre-buttals? Some distractions or surprises? We'll see... | | CNBC's reporting just caused Facebook to suspend another data firm | | | A Sunday scoop from CNBC's Michelle Castillo: "Facebook is suspending a data analytics firm called CubeYou from the platform after CNBC notified the company that CubeYou was collecting information about users through quizzes." Castillo says the practice is "eerily similar to how Cambridge Analytica received unauthorized access to data..." It "suggests that collecting data from quizzes and using it for marketing purposes was far from an isolated incident..." | | | Check your news feed: "Facebook on Monday will begin alerting the 87 million users whose data may have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica," Jackie Wattles reports... | | | Zuckerberg is prepping for this week's hearings with the help of "a team from the law firm WilmerHale as well as outside consultants..." They are coaching him on Q's lawmakers may ask, "and on how to pace his answers and react if interrupted," the NYT reports... "Facebook has also set up mock hearings involving its communications team and outside advisers who role-play members of Congress..." | | -- This just in: A new trailer for "Solo: A Star Wars Story..."
-- The Kevin Williamson debate continued over the weekend. The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf published this "dissent" to his employer's decision on Sunday...
-- And I spoke with Erick Erickson about it on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." Here's the video... | | Hannity and Kimmel's tit for tat | | | Ugh. This whole story makes me long for the days of Johnny Carson and Walter Cronkite. And I wasn't even around back then! Here's the latest... | | "I will give my words more thought" | | Yep, this MUST be Jimmy Kimmel's comment, because, seriously, can you imagine Sean Hannity saying "I will give my words more thought?"
Kimmel tweeted a statement on Sunday afternoon that sought the high road and effectively ended the war of words... and apologized to anyone he offended... while still calling out Hannity's "deference to the president." Hannity, true to form, tweeted that he would save his response for his Monday night show. Jackie Wattles has the latest updates here... | | | Brian Lowry emails: What Kimmel just did, much like his foray into the healthcare debate, was extremely astute, PR-wise: pull out of what was becoming a pointless, nasty tit for tat, thus claiming the high ground; then capping his statement with a parting shot that called attention, again, to his references to Hannity's hypocrisy... | | Anti-Sinclair ads are airing on Sinclair's stations, BUT... | | Last week I reported that the liberal consumer watchdog group Allied Progress was trying to buy ad time on four Sinclair stations for an anti-Sinclair ad. Now an update: Sinclair DID agree to air the ads, but there's a catch.
The company is running its own message right before and afterward. So viewers are seeing a 15-second defense of Sinclair, then 30 seconds of criticism, then another 15-second defense. Sinclair gets the last word, saying, "The ad was purchased by a group known for its liberal bias, and we hope you won't buy into the hysteria and hype." Here's my full story... | | Today's other Sinclair updates | | -- Former Sinclair anchor Adam Bagni penned a column for the Providence Journal saying "something nefarious is afoot..." And arguing for state laws "barring non-compete clauses for broadcast journalists..."
-- Former Sinclair reporter Jonathan Beaton joined me on "Reliable Sources" to discuss the pending lawsuit about his contract... He also asserted that Sinclair's conservative bias is insidious..." Here's video of the segment...
-- Re: Beaton's claims about Sinclair forcing people to pay penalties for quitting, the company says "this type of contractual language is standard in our industry..." Others disagree...
-- I'll have a new story about Sinclair on CNNMoney on Monday... | | Trump's top source of intel: Fox News? | | On Sunday's "Reliable," I argued that the "caravan" story is a symbol of everything that's wrong with the Trump era. Think about it: Fox addiction, faulty info, fear-mongering, impulsive actions...
My overarching point: The line where Fox News ends and where Trump begins is getting blurrier by the day. See if you agree/disagree... Here's my essay plus the discussion with Olivia Nuzzi and Jeff Greenfield...
--> Related: Charles Blow's column in Monday's NYT is titled "Horror of Being Governed by 'Fox & Friends'" | | "Donald Trump has this belief that he if thinks something is true, it IS true," Greenfield said during our "A block" conversation.
When I interjected -- "doesn't that let him off the hook?" -- he said "you would think that the political process would have a rather harsh judgment about this kind of presidential thinking," but "the Republican base loves this guy..." | | Here's how to catch up on "Reliable Sources" | | "The president surprises his own staff most of the time with these presidential decrees by tweet. You'll be in the West Wing and a tweet will pop up or will come up on cable news, and they express total shock like all of us do..."
--NYMag Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi on "Reliable..." | | Will Trump v. Amazon continue this week? | | When POTUS tweeted that the WashPost is "far more fiction than fact" (untrue) on Sunday morning, we reached out to senior editor Marc Fisher, who recently wrote a detailed story about Trump railing against The Post, Amazon and Jeff Bezos.
Fisher pointed out that the Post has published "a lot of critical reporting about Amazon." He cited Trump's "jealousy" of Bezos -- on the Forbes list of wealthiest billionaires, Bezos is No. 1 and Trump is No. 776 -- and a "cultural" disconnect.
Trump "doesn't use a computer, has never sent an e-mail, and so the whole idea of e-commerce is something that he just doesn't quite get. He's a bricks and mortar kind of guy," Fisher said. "And he sees, legitimately -- this is a position a lot of people have taken for many years -- that Amazon has a deleterious effect on retail, local retail, localism, community around the country. And he's bothered by that. It's a legitimate position that gets lost in the bluster of Donald Trump." Here's the segment... | | "'A Quiet Place' Roars in Opening Weekend" | | That's the WSJ's headline...
Brian Lowry emails: Horror enjoyed a banner year at the box office in 2017, and just enjoyed another better-than-expected hit with actor-director John Krasinski's "A Quiet Place." While pundits grasp for explanations, they shouldn't sell short the obvious: better movies (a la "Get Out") and savvy marketing... | | Paramount is thankful for this success story | | This was a needed win for Paramount... Deadline says "you have to go back to 2016 in regards to the last time when Paramount opened a film this high over three-days..."
--> Anthony D'Alessandro also notes that this movie "blasts John Krasinski's directing career off..." | | The weekend's other winner | | "Ready Player One," in its second week, was No. 2, adding about $25 million to its total.
--> THR's Matthew Belloni tweeted the difference between the two films: "A Quiet Place" and "Ready Player One" both "opened to about $50M. One cost $17M to make, the other cost $175M-plus..." | | "This weekend saw 'Black Panther' sail past 'Titanic' to become the third biggest film of all time in the U.S.," Frank Pallotta reports.
"Black Panther" has now made $665.4 million domestically... So it's "the third-highest grossing film in North American history..." Of course, that's not accounting for inflation. So "when accounting for inflation, the superhero film clocks in at No. 34 on the all-time domestic list, according to industry data site Box Office Mojo..." | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
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