| | | | | Exec summary: SO much news... And more to come on Thursday... There's a big WSJ story about Megyn Kelly's show, fresh reporting about CBS-Viacom, a funky Snapchat redesign, a fantastic new Alexa feature... Oh, and scroll to the end for Harrison Ford as a dog... | | In the annals of White House communications, there's nothing quite like... a phone call by an embattled president to the cable news morning show that he watches, DVRs and promotes.
First time for everything!
President Trump will be calling into "Fox & Friends" at 8am Thursday. I hope the hosts ask: "What's your reaction to Michael Cohen saying he will plead the fifth?" There's lots to ask about Ronny Jackson as well...
--> BTW: This is a new Fox News poll: "Mueller likely to find Trump offenses, Trump likely to fire him" | | | A birdie at MSNBC tells me that "Morning Joe" has Michael Avenatti booked at the same time as Trump on Fox... 8am ET... | | | Trump has severely limited his interview schedule in recent months. This is even true w/r/t Fox News. Trump hasn't appeared on camera for a Fox interview since last November. But he called into Judge Jeanine Pirro's show two months ago... The exact date was February 24... | | Trump raising $$$ off his WHCA dinner snub | | | Julia Waldow emails: ICYMI: Trump's re-election committee is using the president's decision not to attend the WHCA dinner as a fundraising opportunity. An email sent by the team quotes Trump as asking, "Why would I want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of fake news liberals who hate me?" And it offers supporters a chance to win two "VIP" tickets to the rally the president is holding in its place. The winner, who has to have made a donation to the campaign, can also snap a photo with the president "so you can always remember the night I chose YOU over the fake news..." | | | On "CNN Tonight," I said that the pairing of these two stories -- Trump phoning into "Fox & Friends" while snubbing the WHCA dinner -- show the president hunkered down, in a metaphorical bunker... | | Some of Thursday's other events | | -- Time Warner earnings will be out before the bell...
-- It's Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day at many workplaces... I'll be taking Sunny to NY1 for a cameo on Jamie's morning show...
-- Jake Tapper will be on "CBS This Morning" and "Fresh Air" promoting his new novel "The Hellfire Club..."
-- Must-see TV for Trump: EPA administrator Scott Pruitt will face very tough Q's from two House committees...
-- A plug for Social Media Week conference in NYC: I'll be interviewing NYT Company COO Meredith Kopit Levien on stage at 9:30am...
-- Lydia Polgreen will be interviewing Ronan Farrow at the BUILD Studio... Live-streamed here at 6:30pm...
-- WHCA dinner weekend events begin: There's a Playbook Power List party at WeWork, plus the Bytes and Bylines shindig and a party co-hosted by The Daily Caller... | | Comey on Trump: "I think he's just making stuff up" | | | James Comey's book has officially debuted at No. 1 on the NYT's list... He spent Wednesday evening with Anderson Cooper at a live CNN town hall... There are lots of highlights on CNN.com. "I think he's just making stuff up," Comey said at one point, dismissing Trump's claims that Comey broke the law... | | "What's funny about jailing journalists?" | | | That's what Cooper asked Comey, referencing Comey's own admission in one of his memos that he laughed when Trump broached the idea. "Nothing" is funny about it, Comey responded. "I laughed to make it clear that was a joke. It was my way of communicating, 'He must be kidding.'" | | Joy Reid says the FBI is investigating alleged hack | | Things are looking even worse for MSNBC's Joy Reid than they were this time yesterday. Tom Kludt will have an update on CNNMoney overnight.
NBC's own story about the controversy, by Claire Atkinson, noted that "MSNBC declined to comment on the situation," and "Reid did not respond to a request for comment." But on Wednesday evening MSNBC passed along a new statement from Reid's attorney John H. Reichman: "We have received confirmation the FBI has opened an investigation into potential criminal activities surrounding several online accounts, including personal email and blog accounts, belonging to Joy-Ann Reid..."
--> The Daily Beast exec editor Noah Shachtman says "we're going to hit pause on Reid's columns" while reporting on the allegations...
--> As Glenn Greenwald tweeted Wednesday night: "The issue isn't whether she wrote horrible things years ago (who hasn't?) but whether her 'I-was-hacked!' denials *now* are truthful..." | | This could be the next "Spotlight" | | Mike Fleming Jr and Anita Busch's scoop for Deadline: "Annapurna and Plan B have partnered to acquire the rights to give Spotlight-like treatment to the story of how NYT reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey worked with editor Rebecca Corbett to break" the Harvey Weinstein scandal...
"The thrust of the film isn't Weinstein or his scandal. This is about an all-women team of journalists who persevered through threats of litigation and intimidation, to break a game-changing story, told in a procedural manner like 'Spotlight' and 'All the President's Men.'" Anonymous Content "repped both the paper and the journalists." More... | | -- An e-commerce play: "Hearst Magazines is acquiring a minority stake in Gear Patrol..." (WSJ)
-- The effect of streaming: "Cable networks for children, in decline for years, are now in a free fall..." (Bloomberg)
-- Oh Snap: "Shares of the social media company plunged Wednesday after it changed its app again..." (CNN) | | Comcast is offering $31 billion for Sky, setting up a showdown with Fox... Speaking of Comcast, the company's earnings exceeded expectations... Viacom also beat estimates, thanks in part to positive news from Paramount...
Ad sales fueled another strong quarter for Facebook... Twitter had a second straight profitable Q... I was struck by this observation by Peter Kafka: "Twitter generated $2.4 billion in revenue last year. Facebook added an additional $3.9 billion in revenue last quarter..." | | Redstone v. Moonves: No end in sight | | The weeks-long standoff between CBS CEO Les Moonves and CBS vice chair Shari Redstone could end with a CBS-Viacom merger led by Moonves and his hand-picked team.
OR it could end with Moonves on the outs and Viacom CEO Bob Bakish in charge.
OR maybe it'll end with the two companies staying separate.
Right now there's no end in sight at all. So the news on Wednesday was that... there was no news. Viacom execs didn't say a word about the merger talks on the company's earnings call. The earnings WERE a statement -- Bakish says he's mounting a turnaround -- but there's lots of debate about that. As Jill Disis and I wrote here, this battle is ultimately about personalities, not economics. | | | ICYMI, the WSJ's latest story about this is a key read for merger junkies. So is William Cohan's brand new story for VF... He asks "Does the fate of a potential $14 billion Wall Street merger all come down to Shari Redstone's feud with her father?" and suggests the answer is yes... | | Do you believe this? A Moonves associate told me that he's "pretty zen" about the possibility of being forced out. This person described Moonves' thinking this way: "If this is my coda, I need to have control. I need to do it the right way, the way I think it should be done — otherwise, why do it?"
Meanwhile, the view over at Viacom is that Bakish has earned a spot somewhere in the management ranks of the combined company... | | CNNMoney's Jill Disis emails: I was on the AT&T earnings call Wednesday afternoon. No major trial updates -- CFO John Stephens says what we already know, that both sides are wrapping up their cases and are getting ready for closing arguments. AT&T is prepared to close. One interesting nugget from the financial report: AT&T spent $67 million last quarter on expenses related to "Time Warner and other merger costs."
--> Hadas Gold emails: Court proceedings resume Thursday afternoon, possibly with the redirect questioning of Professor Carl Shapiro, the DOJ's expert witness who has determined consumer prices would go up if the deal goes through. Then we expect to hear details about closing arguments, which are on track to take place Monday...
--> More: VF's Joe Pompeo has a brand new look at the trial... He says "sources inside both companies are feeling good, if still cautious..." | | | THE HEADLINE IN THURSDAY'S WSJ... | | "NBC's Failing Bet On Megyn Kelly" | | Joe Flint wrote Thursday's must-read. NBC's "three-year, $69 million bet" on Megyn Kelly is "backfiring," he says. The show simply isn't paying off in the ratings: "Her ratings declines and higher production costs have been a drag on a critical franchise for NBC."
Here's the thing: NBC says the show is profitable. But "people familiar with the 'Today' economics question how a show with new costs of more than $30 million a year can remain profitable," Flint writes... | | "It's going to take time" | | | Bottom line: The story really captures the tension surrounding Kelly's 9am show. NBC News chair Andy Lack backs her up in a statement: "Megyn has continued to prove that she's a tremendously skilled, hard-hitting journalist, who adds valuable insight and analysis to all she touches." And Kelly is quoted in the story saying "they know that I'm finding my footing and it's going to take time..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: Kelly's assertion to Flint that she needs to "introduce" herself to viewers overlooks a more obvious point -- that she's simply been miscast in the role that she and NBC agreed upon. This, by the way, was highly predictable, with many having questioned at the outset whether her Fox News profile would readily translate to a softer morning venue. It's fair to blame the network for putting her in a position that doesn't suit her, but to suggest as she does that she's been hamstrung by, among other things, the "caricature" of her presented on "The Daily Show" is a weak alibi for her ratings shortcomings... | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Peter Thiel "has agreed to end his pursuit of Gawker.com to avoid a potential lawsuit over his secretly funding litigation that drove the news and gossip blog's publisher out of business," Jonathan Randles reports... (WSJ)
-- Smart: Amazon's new Echo Dot Kids Edition plays music and answers questions while blocking inappropriate lyrics and disabling internet purchases, Kaya Yurieff reports... (CNNTech)
-- And: Alexa's new "politeness feature," called "Magic Word," will encourage kids to say "please" and "thank you..." (BBC)
-- Snapchat is upping its AR game -- literally -- with new lenses called "Snappables" that let users play games ranging from basketball to rock band... (WIRED) | | Fox twists Acosta's words about threats to journalists | | In this Variety mag interview, Jim Acosta referenced the "conservative meat grinder." This story is a perfect illustration of it.
Oliver Darcy emails: Fox News and a flurry of right-wing media organizations took some of Acosta's remarks out of context on Wednesday... to suggest that he was disparaging the intellectual prowess of Trump supporters. In the Variety interview, Acosta commented on the threats journalists covering the White House often face. He said that individuals who send such threats "don't have all their faculties in some cases, their elevator might not hit all floors." As Acosta tweeted, one "can plainly see" he was "not referring to Trump supporters," but about "people who threaten journalists." But that's not how his comments played on Fox. On "Fox & Friends" the chyron at the bottom of the screen said Acosta had questioned the mental faculties of Trump voters. When Fox News and Fox Business aired clips of Acosta's remarks, it conveniently stopped playing immediately before he directly spoke about the possibility of journalists getting hurt -- in other words, Fox stripped the context from the remarks. Sean Spicer even got in on the action, saying it was "really sad" for Acosta to "make fun and ridicule people around this country."
Read Darcy's full story here... | | This show is going nowhere... | | "Disgraced CBS anchor Charlie Rose is being slated to star in a show where he'll interview other high-profile men who have also been toppled by #MeToo scandals," Page Six's Ian Mohr reported Wednesday evening. The story elicited shock and disgust on social media. Tina Brown confirmed to Mohr that she was approached about producing the show, and passed.
Bottom line: I'm sure someone somewhere broached this idea -- Rose has dreamt about a comeback, Mohr has great sources, etc -- but I'm equally sure this "show" will never be seen... | | | Oliver Darcy emails: The Press Forward organization held a conversation on Wednesday night at the Newseum about ending sexual harassment in newsrooms. The event was moderated by NPR's Mary Louise Kelly and The Atlantic's Alison Stewart. Panelists included WSJ's Karen Pensiero, CNN's Andrew Morse, Axios' Alexi McCammond, McClatchy's Tim Grieve, Press Forward co-founders Carolyn McGourty and Eleanor McManus, and others. Organizers also revealed they had held meetings this week with the presidents of CNN, ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Via Daniella Emanuel: The NYT asked its readers which perspectives should be seen more in the national media, and which opinions should remain underrepresented. They received almost 1,000 responses...(NYT)
-- A helpful guide: "Who's who in local news: A guide to the biggest brains and bank accounts in the fight for local journalism" (NiemanLab)
-- Megan Thomas emails: This is such an excellent profile by Kim Masters of Disney's John Lasseter, perfectly summed up in this quote from a former colleague of the Pixar mogul who fashioned himself a modern-day Walt Disney: "The happy-ass guy in the Hawaiian shirt? That was a well-crafted persona..." (THR)
-- Video: CNN's Chloe Melas was on "The Wendy Williams Show" discussing the sex cult involving actress Allison Mack... | | BuzzFeed's show for Netflix | | Netflix is ordering a weekly series from BuzzFeed titled "Follow This..." It will premiere on July 9... The episodes will be about 15 minutes apiece, THR's Natalie Jarvey reports...
--> Buzzfeed News EIC Ben Smith tells me the series will feature the site's reporters on their reporting journeys along with the subjects of the reports.
--> CJR's Mathew Ingram asks: "Do people really want to watch a Netflix show about BuzzFeed journalism?" (CJR) | | The #SaveStudentNewsrooms campaign | | Daniella Emanuel emails: Wednesday's #SaveStudentNewsrooms campaign spread across Facebook and Twitter, with students and alums voicing how college papers have shaped them as journalists. @Suhaunah from UC Berkeley tweeted, "I literally would not be employable in journalism without Daily Cal -- and so it is painful to watch finances become more unstable each year, even as the quality of our coverage increases exponentially." @LShontz, a Penn State alum, tweeted "I owe my entire career -- and, really, many of the good things that have happened in my life -- to @DailyCollegian. And I'm not the only one."
--> Daniella adds: Student-run publications from all around the country have been posting editorials about why they're participating in the campaign... As a former student journalist myself (shoutout to The Daily Cardinal at The University of Wisconsin-Madison!), I'm pleased to see this movement taking off...
--> Brian adds: I'm on the board of my college paper, The Towerlight, and we're facing the same financial hardships as many other papers. There are associations that train and support student editors... But there's more support needed on the business side... | | Meghan Markle says goodbye to 'Suits' | | | "That's a wrap on Meghan Markle," Sandra Gonzalez writes. "In the season finale of USA Network's 'Suits,' the future bride of Prince Harry made her final appearance as attorney Rachel Crane in a send-off that doubled as a slither of a preview of her wedding to be..." | | Comey gave Colbert a big boost | | | Brian Lowry emails: CBS updated its big numbers for James Comey's interview on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," which drew 5.2 million viewers on a live-plus-three-day basis, adding more than 1 million viewers over its same-day tune-in. This was the biggest DVR lift the show has recorded since Anthony Scaramucci appeared last August... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Hank Azaria told Stephen Colbert he is willing to "step aside" from playing Apu on "The Simpsons." He also said he didn't agree with the show's response to the controversy and is calling for more diversity in their writers room...
-- Chris Evans has apologized for missing the "Avengers" premiere. He had a really good reason, you guys!
-- Some celebs are super happy about rapper Meek Mill's release... They celebrated all over social media... | | | Last but not least, Megan Thomas emails: This news via Deadline made me happy for whatever reason today: "Harrison Ford has been set to voice his first-ever role in a studio animated family film. Ford will lead the cast of 'The Secret Life Of Pets 2,' the sequel to the Illumination Entertainment/Universal 2016 summer hit that had the best opening weekend ever for an original film, and grossed $875 million worldwide." | | | Email your feedback and thoughts to brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
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