| | | | | Greetings from the city by the bay... I'm here to interview Jack Dorsey. I just arrived from L.A., where I checked out the new LA Times HQ... Scroll down for details... | | And just like THAT, Omarosa was back in the news.
One day after the White House yanked attention away from "Unhinged" by revoking John Brennan's security clearance, Omarosa regained control of the news cycle by coming out with another tape, revealing part of her conversation with Lara Trump about a job on Trump's re-election campaign. At one point on the tape, Trump commented to O that it seemed "there are some things you've got in the back pocket to pull out." She was right. The recording device was one of those things. Drip, drip, drip...
--> NBC/MSNBC remains Omarosa's network of choice. Presumably this is related to her package deal of interviews earlier this week. She played the newest tape on MSNBC at 1pm...
--> Stephen Colbert's Q on the "Late Show:" "Why is Lara Trump in charge of this?"
| | Is that even possible? The NYT says yes: The tapes "have rattled the White House in a way that few things other than the special counsel investigation into possible campaign collusion with Russia have," Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel report. "Mr. Trump's aides have been concerned that they will make appearances on other tapes, of which Ms. Manigault Newman is believed to have as many as 200.."
--> Big caveat: "Conventional wisdom would be that Omarosa leaked the best audio she had in the first few days" to boost book sales, Chris Cillizza notes...
| | The book is still #2 on Amazon | | "Unhinged" has been holding steady at #2 for the past two days... Most authors would love to be there, but I'm still a little surprised that O hasn't taken the #1 spot from the motivational book "Girl, Wash Your Face" by Rachel Hollis...
| | Publisher defends "Unhinged" | | This back and forth is reminiscent of Macmillan's defense of "Fire and Fury" last January: O's publishing house, Simon & Schuster, apparently received a letter from legal pit bull Charles Harder, litigation counsel for the Trump campaign. The publisher's outside counsel Elizabeth McNamara replied on Thursday, and CNN's Kaitlan Collins obtained the response first.
According to McNamara, Harder threatened that S&S would be subject to "substantial monetary damages and punitive damages" for claims arising from the book. "My clients will not be intimidated by hollow legal threats and have proceeded with publication of the Book as schedule," McNamara wrote. "Should you pursue litigation against S&S, we are confident that documents related to the contents of the Book in the possession of President Trump, his family members, his businesses, the Trump Campaign, and his administration will prove particularly relevant to our defense."
| | "An obvious attempt to silence legitimate criticism" | | | Key graf from McNamara's response to Harder: "Your letter is nothing more than an obvious attempt to silence legitimate criticism of the president. Put simply, the book's purpose is to inform the public. Private contracts like the NDA may not be used to censor former or current government officials from speaking about non-classified information learned during the course of their public employment." | | Back to the Brennan fallout... | | -- WaPo's latest: "Trump has told advisers that he is eager to strip more security clearances..."
-- Rachel Maddow's take on Thursday night: "Trump isn't going after his critics, he's going after the witnesses..."
-- "Revoke my security clearance, too, Mr. President." That op-ed by Retired Navy Admiral William H. McRaven is the most-read story on the WaPo website right now, six hours after it came out... (WaPo)
-- News for Friday's morning shows: A dozen former senior intel officials issued a joint statement on Thursday night. They said "we have never before seen the approval or removal of security clearances used as a political tool, as was done in this case." They called it "inappropriate and deeply regrettable..." | | | WaPo's Greg Miller tweeted: "President's campaign chairman is waiting to find out if he's going to prison. Architect of bin Laden raid is daring president to take his clearances. Reality show contestant/WH employee has tape of $180K offer she got to stay quiet. Years of chaos in one day." | | -- Thursday's free press editorials came and the editorials went. Lots of people have opinions about the impact. I recapped the effort here, and Tom Kludt highlighted 16 of the best ones... (CNN)
-- The WSJ, LA Times and WaPo declined to participate in the effort... Michael Grynbaum's story explained why... (NYT)
-- On Thursday the U.S. Senate passed a resolution affirming that "the press is not the enemy of the people" and condemning attacks against the fourth estate... (Boston Globe)
-- "The response to Trump by the American press is still too tepid," James Risen argues here. He wants a "crusading press" to "fight back..." And he says "American journalists should come together for a Trump Project... (The Intercept) | | ARETHA FRANKLIN, 1942-2018 | | "This country has lost one of our greatest treasures, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul."
Take a few minutes and watch Don Lemon's powerful tribute to his friend. Here's the "CNN Tonight" video via Twitter. Lemon said she had "a heart as big as her voice, and a soul that helped power the March for Freedom for people of color, when she insisted -- as she always did -- on RESPECT."
"More than once I've met a hero of mine, but nothing compared to getting to know Aretha Franklin," Lemon said. "In a lot of ways her music, her voice has been the soundtrack of my life..."
| | She helped define the American experience | | Lisa Respers France emails: Tears and tributes flowed freely after news of her death broke. Former President Barack Obama summed it up best. "Aretha helped define the American experience," he said in a statement. "In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade -- our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace."
| | A "masterful storyteller" | | Megan Thomas emails: This comment stuck with me -- via an NPR broadcast -- from Yale University Professor of African-American Studies Daphane Brooks:
"Aretha was this masterful storyteller. She was a storyteller who gave us a way of understanding what it meant to be human. At the height of the nation coming apart at its seams, she pulled us together to be able to listen closely to the eminence of black folks' humanity, black women's humanity and to reckon with one's own humanity in that moment. There's no one -- there's no one like her."
| | Some of the best tributes | | By Megan Thomas:
-- Matt Thompson writing for The Atlantic: "To be a popular artist is, generally, to bend yourself into whatever form the public demands of you." And those contortions "are more elaborate for people of color, practically byzantine for women, and downright murderous for black women." But "Aretha Franklin was unrivaled in her ability to bend that reality rather than bend to it."
-- The New Yorker's David Remnick: "Prayer, love, desire, joy, despair, rapture, feminism, Black Power—it is hard to think of a performer who provided a deeper, more profound reflection of her times. What's more, her gift was incomparable..."
-- Best of all: Aretha, in her own words to Rolling Stone, highlighting songs she loved...
| | Next week's New Yorker cover | | | A few hours after Franklin died on Thursday, "the artist Kadir Nelson sent a sketch to The New Yorker. "I wanted to draw her in a choir," Nelson said, per the mag. "She was a preacher's daughter, and so much of what she gave us came from the church, even after she moved beyond gospel." Here's the cover... | | Tributes in the coming weeks & months | | | Chloe Melas emails: Clive Davis has been in the midst of planning a tribute concert, "A Tribute to Aretha Franklin," that is slated for November 14 at Madison Square Garden. One can only imagine the amazing tributes. I'm also hearing there will be a tribute to Franklin at Monday's MTV VMAs... | | -- Important story by Jason Schwartz: "Pentagon punishes reporters over tough coverage..." (Politico)
-- A great read by Adam Harris: Trump's attacks on the press "seem to be fueling young people's interest in the profession—a phenomenon also seen at other turbulent times in U.S history," i.e. Watergate... (The Atlantic)
-- This will be Steve Bannon's first appearance on MSNBC: Ari Melber interviews him in an "MSNBC special" Friday at 10pm... | | Have Q's for the CEO of Twitter? | | | I'll be sitting down with Dorsey on Friday. We'll be showing the highlights on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." I have lots to ask him... But I'd like to hear your questions too... Email me if you have any Q's... | | | David Klein flagged this: CJR's Mathew Ingram thinks we should take Dorsey's words with a grain of salt. "Only now, more than a decade after Twitter was founded, is Dorsey finally willing to take a hard look at some of the potential negative effects of the technology he and his company created, years after those problems were first brought to their attention. What took so long?" Here's Ingram's piece for CJR... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Amazon is "in the running to acquire Landmark Theaters, a move that would vault the e-commerce giant into the brick-and-mortar cinema industry..." (Bloomberg)
-- Kim Masters' latest: "When is time really up? Which kinds of past sexual misconduct can eventually be forgiven — and who gets to decide?" (THR) | | | Politico's Kyle Cheney shared this shot of "the wall of media facing the front door of the courthouse at 5:30pm anticipating a potential Manafort verdict." What do you think, a verdict before the weekend or no? | | | What does this signal about FoxNews.com? Former "Hannity" and "The Five" exec producer Porter Berry, "was named vice president and editor in chief of Fox News' digital-content platforms" on Thursday, succeeding Noah Kotch... Variety has the details here... | | I learned a lot from Dylan Byers over the years... CNN's readers and viewers did too... and now NBC's audience will.
Byers announced some news on Thursday: "I'm joining NBC News & MSNBC as Senior Media Reporter, covering the future of media and technology and its broad influence on business, politics and culture. I'm grateful to Jeff Zucker, Andrew Morse & CNN for the last three years." And he added: "There will be a newsletter." | | The new view from the LA Times | | | While in L.A., I caught up with new LA Times EIC Norm Pearlstine at the paper's new building along the 105... The place still has that new-newsroom smell... And it's clearly in rebuilding mode. He ticked off a few of the new hires... in areas like sports and politics... and said the editors are eyeing improvements to entertainment coverage. Coincidentally, a bunch of new job postings went up this week... including a business of Hollywood reporter posting... | | Daniella Emanuel emails: Some good news on the local newspaper front: The Seattle Times has attracted 36,000 digital subscribers since launching a metered paywall five years ago, Digiday reports.
Yes, but... "It is a sign of how rough the digital subscription business is for non-national newspapers that reaching 36,000 digital subs *after 5 years* in a rich, digitally savvy market like Seattle is viewed as 'gaining traction,'" NiemanLab's Joshua Benton tweeted. | | | For the record, part four | | | By Daniella Emanuel:
-- David Bauder's latest: The internet's emergence has made the media far more democratic - for good and ill. There are many more voices to hear. But the loudest ones frequently get the most attention..." (ABC News)
-- The # of U.S. Wi-Fi households that use streaming TV services has grown 58% since last year...(TechCrunch)
-- A recent six second ad "for horror movie 'The Nun' was rightfully pulled from YouTube for being too shocking. But at the same time, as ad trickery goes, it's pretty brilliant..." (Adweek) | | Brian Klaas on this week's "Reliable" podcast | | | ICYMI: I spoke with political scientist Dr. Brian Klaas for this week's "Reliable" pod. He asserted that the effects of dehumanizing language and anti-media attacks will linger long after Trump leaves office. He defended his self-professed "alarmism" and said this moment in time calls for "bluntness." Listen via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or TuneIn... | | Brian Lowry emails: On Thursday Netflix finally confirmed its long-rumored deal with "Blackish" creator Kenya Barris, another huge investment in creative talent, following its poaching of Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy. For Barris, who reportedly clashed at times with ABC over creative matters, the move — for the reasons cited above — is clearly appealing. As for the dollars involved (as high as $100 million, depending on which trade you prefer), the old joke in Hollywood is that the way Netflix is spending money, it's going to give drunken sailors a bad name – unless, of course, these pacts yield major returns on investment, which are going to be extremely difficult (based on its tight-fisted analytics) to measure...
Speaking of Netflix: | | Lowry reviews "Disenchantment" | | | Brian Lowry emails: One of the advantages that Netflix can offer big-name talent is the opportunity to pursue passion projects, without content restrictions or the usual ratings pressures. Based on that latitude, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening's "Disenchantment" doesn't cast much of a spell, in much the same way that Chuck Lorre's maiden show for the streaming service, "Disjointed," felt pretty uninspired. Read on... | | Will "Crazy Rich Asians" usher in a new era of rom-coms? | | Frank Pallotta emails: Rom-coms have not received a lot of love at the box office lately, but that could change with "Crazy Rich Asians." The Warner Bros. film opened at $5 million on Wednesday and is expected to bring in $25 million domestically over its five-day opening.
"Hollywood is always influenced by the money, so the minute they see something work everyone rushes to make ten copycats," Kevin Kwan, author of "Crazy Rich Asians," told me. "I feel like if this movie does well opening weekend, the following week all the studios will green light three, four, five different projects in the romantic comedy genre, and maybe even involving Asians." More here... | | Brian Lowry emails: Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg team up for the fourth time on "Mile 22," a brutal, thinly plotted action vehicle that, on the cinematic highway, lands between "Mission: Impossible" and the late-night exploitation flicks that turn up on Cinemax. It figures to be the weekend's No. 2 draw among new offerings, behind "Crazy Rich Asians."
Here's Lowry's full review... | | | For the record, part five | | | -- MoviePass keeps getting worse and worse. On Thursday it told customers that "it will limit the films and showtimes that are available each day," Jill Disis reports... (CNNMoney)
-- Frank Pallotta emails: As MoviePass changes its deal AGAIN, AMC said Thursday that it now has more than 260,000 members for its subscription service (Stubs A-List) after just seven weeks... (THR)
-- ICYMI like I did: Check out Dave Itzkoff's profile of Kenan Thompson, the "reluctant star" of "SNL..." (NYT) | | |
Thanks for reading! Email me your feedback... See you tomorrow...
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