Exec summary: Scroll down for details about Disney's write-down on Vice, Fox's statement about "common ground," the Houston Chronicle's investigation of an ex-reporter... Plus, my new podcast with linguist George Lakoff...
News-free Friday? | | That's my humble proposal. It's really simple. A day without any big news. A day without a mass shooting or a plane crash. A day without a pipe bomb or a menacing protest. A day without a cabinet secretary forced to walk the plank or a Supreme Court justice forced to seek medical attention. Just one day! Is this too much to ask?
Yes, I think it is... Here are a few of the CNN headlines heading into Friday morning:
-- Kaitlan Collins and Betsy Klein: "There is a growing sense of concern inside the White House over the negative reaction to Matthew Whitaker being tapped as acting attorney general after Jeff Sessions' abrupt firing..."
-- Veronica Stracqualursi: "Kellyanne Conway's husband says Trump's appointment to replace Sessions is 'unconstitutional'"
-- Laura Jarrett, Pamela Brown and Evan Perez: "Whitaker recusal from Mueller probe unlikely, but Rosenstein still involved..."
-- Ryan Nobles and Dan Merica: "Two of the highest profile races in the country -- both in Florida -- are likely headed to a recount soon..."
D.C. police investigating vandalism at Tucker Carlson's home
The disturbance was even worse than we knew this time yesterday. Tucker Carlson's wife Susan was home alone when a group of about 20 Antifa activists showed up at the Carlson home in D.C. on Wednesday evening. Susan heard the protesters pounding on her front door and shouting threats, so she called 911. Police arrived on scene, seized some of the Antifa posters as evidence, and documented the incident as a "suspected hate crime."
On Thursday morning, Tucker Carlson told WaPo that "it wasn't a protest. It was a threat." He said "they were threatening me and my family and telling me to leave my own neighborhood in the city that I grew up in." Carlson told the Post that one of the individuals "actually cracked the front door."
Later in the day, the Metropolitan Police Department said it may charge the individuals involved. "We welcome those who come here to exercise their First Amendment rights in a safe and peaceful manner; however, we prohibit them from breaking the law," the police said in a statement. "Last night, a group of protestors broke the law by defacing private property at a Northwest, DC residence. MPD takes these violations seriously, and we will work to hold those accountable for their unlawful actions. There is currently an open criminal investigation regarding this matter."
I checked in again with the MPD just now -- a spokesman said the case remains under investigation -- no further info. Here's my full story...
Man arrested for threats against CNN
An man was arrested on Tuesday in Arkansas, "accused of making threatening telephone calls to CNN headquarters in Atlanta," the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported Thursday.
The man, Benjamin Craig Matthews, allegedly made "more than 40 threatening calls to CNN from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2." The authorities say that he also made calls to MSNBC and many prominent Democrats. THR has more here...
What these stories have in common
Reason mag connected these two cases in a post on Thursday. "Whether it's Tucker Carlson or Don Lemon, violent threats are the wrong way to go," Reason's Joe Setyon wrote... "It should go without saying that while protesting someone's views is perfectly acceptable, doxxing them and making violent threats is not. It should go without saying, but apparently it needs to be said."
Fox: We need to "find common ground"
Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace said in a joint statement on Thursday, "The incident that took place at Tucker's home last night was reprehensible. The violent threats and intimidation tactics toward him and his family are completely unacceptable. We as a nation have become far too intolerant of different points of view. Recent events across our country clearly highlight the need for a more civil, respectful, and inclusive national conversation. Those of us in the media and in politics bear a special obligation to all Americans, to find common ground."
Lowry's take
Brian Lowry emails: There's nothing complicated about the Tucker Carlson story, and it seems needless to say — without any "buts" or waffling — that it cuts both ways: You can vigorously disagree with the what he does on Fox News without harassing him and his family at their home, in the process handing his ideological allies evidence of how unreasonable the other side is...
On Thursday night's show...
| | Carlson was scheduled to be off on Thursday. But he called into his own show, with Brian Kilmeade hosting, to discuss the protest. "What's it like to find out that your wife is hiding in the pantry because people are threatening her? I mean, it's upsetting," he said, calling the incident "totalitarian in its intent...."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Two Committee to Protect Journalists staffers were released from detention in Tanzania and were able to leave the country on Thursday... (CNN)
-- British journalist Victor Mallet has been effectively blacklisted by Hong Kong... AFP calls it "an unprecedented challenge to freedom of the press in the city..." (AFP)
Acosta banned
More than 24 hours after the White House's retaliatory action, Jim Acosta is still banned from the White House grounds. Here's my latest story.
--> CNN is working behind the scenes on a resolution that would restore Acosta's pass. Meantime, he has continued to report... And now he is on the way to Paris to cover President Trump's trip to France...
--> On Thursday morning, Acosta tweeted, "Don't believe the lies coming from the WH. Believe in our freedoms. Thank you all for your support. We won't back down."
| | Why is the White House tweeting a misleading video from an InfoWars personality?
Let that question sink in. The White House and InfoWars finding common cause?
Sarah Sanders seized on a misleading video from InfoWars personality Paul Joseph Watson and used it as a basis for indefinitely suspending Acosta's press pass, as Oliver Darcy reports here.
There's a debate over whether the video was doctored, with some experts saying yes, it definitely was. Here are the AP and The New Yorker's stories about the allegations.
Watson strongly denied any deliberately deceptive editing. But either way, the video clip distorted what really happened at the press conference. And it appears that Sanders, via Twitter, picked up the video from Watson and shared it through her government megaphone. Read Darcy's full story here...
Sanders mum on where she got the video
Oliver Darcy emails: I asked Sanders how the video came to her attention and if she got the misleading video from Watson. I also asked her whether she vetted the video for herself before posting it. I did not get any answers. Instead, Sanders pointed me to a previous statement in which she said, "The question is did the reporter make contact or not? The video is clear, he did. We stand by our statement."
"It's deceptive, dangerous and unethical"
Whitney Shefte, president of the White House News Photographers Association, said in a statement that WHNPA was "appalled to learn that the White House spokesperson may have shared a manipulated video." Shefte added, "As visual journalists, we know that manipulating images is manipulating truth. It's deceptive, dangerous and unethical. Knowingly sharing manipulated images is equally problematic, particularly when the person sharing them is a representative of our country's highest office with vast influence over public opinion."
A preview of the looming information wars
One more from Darcy: Was this a preview of "deepfakes" to come? It's widely expected that internet trolls, partisans and perhaps even rogue states will ultimately seize on sophisticated video manipulation to advance their causes. But the fact that the spokesperson for POTUS tweeted a misleading video and then stood by it underscored the danger and wide-reaching impact of the possible information wars.
BuzzFeed's Charlie Warzel summed up those concerns, writing, "The entire ordeal is a near-perfect example of a scenario disinformation experts have predicted and warned of, where the very threat of video manipulation can lead to a blurring of reality."
Michelle Fields' unique POV
Megan Thomas emails: Michelle Fields, the journalist grabbed and bruised by then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, had a unique take on the W.H. response to Acosta. Fields wrote for The Atlantic: "At the time, I assumed that many Trump supporters didn't actually believe it; they just latched onto it because of partisan zealotry. But I'm starting to think that I was wrong. Perhaps they really did believe that I made up the story, because they themselves were capable of such a thing..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Spotted at the Capitol on Thursday: Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thomson heading in and out of Mitch McConnell's office. MSNBC's Chris Hayes tweeted in reaction: "Gotta get the team together to debrief after Tuesday night..."
-- Per CNN's Ted Barrett, "Murdoch wouldn't answer questions about why he was meeting with McConnell, what he thinks of Hannity appearing on stage with Trump, nor his views on Jim Acosta losing his White House press pass..."
A wake-up call | | That's what the attack in Thousand Oaks was, a wake-up call. (I use the word attack purposefully when I write about these mass shootings.) Most Americans heard about it when they woke up -- through a push alert on their phone or a breaking news bulletin on the morning news. Another 12 people killed, this time at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, CA. Authorities have not identified a motive yet. Here's CNN's latest...
The reporter reluctantly becomes the story
Until recently Adam Housley was a correspondent for Fox News. Based in L.A., he had to cover multiple mass shootings, including the massacres in San Bernardino, Sutherland Springs, and Las Vegas. Interviewing victims' loved ones was, sadly, second nature for him. On Thursday, he became the interviewee. His niece Alaina, a freshman at Pepperdine University, was killed at the bar.
Housley rushed to the nearby hospital at 3:30 a.m. after he found out that Alaina had been at Borderline with friends. "Her Apple Watch and iPhone still showed her location on the dance floor," the LAT reported. For several hours he waited to find out if his worst fears had come true. And they had. "Our hearts are broken," Housley and his wife Tamera Mowry-Housley, the co-host of "The Real," said in a statement.
Lisa Respers France has more here...
"Death has branded Thousand Oaks"
This attack hit close to home for many people in the entertainment industry. Scott Grogin, PR chief at CBS Television Distribution, who I have known for a decade, dating back to his time at Fox, posted something poignant on his personal Facebook page that I wanted to share. He gave me permission to publish it here.
"Death came home last night," Grogin wrote. "Not astride a pale horse, but behind the muzzle of a rapid fire handgun. Home….my town…Thousand Oaks…consistently labeled one of 'America's Safest Cities.' Last night, 12 of my neighbors were murdered by yet another bitter person with a gun. The location was a popular dance hall frequented by young people including my children and their friends. Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook, a festival in Las Vegas, Parkland, Squirrel Hill. All 'safe' communities with no previous histories of violence. And now, Thousand Oaks will be eternally colored with the same name – as the location of a mass killing."
Grogin said "my heart aches and my anger boils." He grew up in Texas with lots of responsible gun owners. "I support the spirit of the second amendment, but with the proviso that we have sensible gun regulation," he wrote. "Because tonight, when I go to sleep, my town is no longer safe. Death has branded Thousand Oaks."
IN OTHER NEWS...
Chronicle finds many holes in ex-reporter's stories
Mike Ward resigned from the Houston Chronicle in September amid questions about whether he made up sources for his stories. Ward denied these charges to the paper's editor Nancy Barnes. But when he left the paper, Barnes hired Pulitzer Prize winner David Wood to conduct an investigation.
Wood spent two months reviewing all 744 of Ward's stories at the Chronicle. The paper published the results on Thursday. Long story short, there are a lot of missing people. "A team of three pulled out the names of 275 individuals who were presented as ordinary Texans and made every effort to find them," Wood wrote. "Of the 275 people quoted, 122, or 44%, could not be found. Those 122 people appeared in 72 stories."
Sure, some of them may exist, but Wood's team dug deep and could not find them. His story said "Ward could not be reached to discuss the findings..."
Fallout from the investigation
-- Barnes issued an apology to readers and the community. "We will be correcting or retracting all of the affected stories," she said.
-- Eight stories are being fully retracted.
-- Ward worked at the Austin American-Statesman before joining the Chronicle. That paper is now embarking on a further investigation by "enlisting outside journalists."
-- The unknown: Are readers looking at this and saying "fake news?" Or are they saying "this good paper had a bad apple, and it's being fully transparent about what went wrong, and that makes me trust them more?" | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Sara Fischer reports: "More than 1 million people ditched their cable and satellite TV packages last quarter, the most ever in a quarterly earnings period, according to research firm MoffettNathanson..." (Axios)
-- HBO "has given a production commitment" to David Simon's adaptation of the Philip Roth book, "The Plot Against America," "which will be a six-part miniseries," The Wrap reports...
Putting the "Plus" in Disney
Forget about Disneyflix. "Disney's upcoming streaming service will be called Disney+, CEO Bob Iger announced on a call for investors Thursday," Jill Disis reports.
Normally this news would be up much higher in the newsletter, but, it's been one of those days.
"As with ESPN+, the launch of Disney+ will be just the starting point," Iger said. "We plan to continually elevate experience, enhance the value to consumers with a custom pipeline of exclusive new content as we move forward." Read on...
Hulu going global
On the aforementioned conference call, "Iger also hinted at plans for Hulu," Disis notes. "Iger said he sees an opportunity to put more money into programming there. He added that Hulu's audience skews younger, making it attractive to advertisers. That service will likely carry programs from 21st Century Fox once the deal closes. While Iger declined to say whether Hulu would be the exclusive home for shows produced by adult-oriented studios such as Fox Searchlight, he said Disney will be able to provide the service 'with a lot of high quality content and more than they currently have.' Iger added that the company expects to take Hulu into international markets..."
Disney takes $157 million write-down on Vice
This is a big deal. Disney has invested $400 million in Vice Media. But now the company "is taking a $157 million write-down on its investment," CNBC reported.
This has to be deeply disappointing for everyone involved. Still, Disney's quarterly results were so strong that it deflected attention from the haircut. The WSJ's headline: "Walt Disney Posts Record Annual Profit."
George Lakoff on this week's "Reliable" podcast
Renowned linguist George Lakoff has a lot to say about President Trump's use of speech to manipulate audiences. "The media is not doing its job," Lakoff argued on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast. He urged the press to not just repeat or negate what the president says about topics like the "caravan," but to come up with new framings that put facts first. Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or TuneIn...
Speaking of podcasts... | | | I moderated a panel titled "The Future of News is Audio" at the New School on Thursday night. The event was hosted by the Center for Communication. Panelists Mary Harris, Jim Schachter and Julia Furlan shared some excellent insight about podcasting... There are highlights on the #FutureOfNews hashtag... | | 'Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend,' so he's launching a podcast
Megan Thomas emails: The comedy podcast network Earwolf announced a new show from Team Coco that will launch later this month. "Over the years and despite thousands of interviews, Conan has never made a real and lasting friendship with any of his celebrity guests," a description of the podcast reads. "Deeper, unboundedly playful, and free from FCC regulations, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend is a weekly opportunity for Conan to hang out with the people he enjoys most and perhaps find some real friendship along the way." Great name for a show! Guests include Will Ferrell, Wanda Sykes and Kristen Bell...
Lowry reviews "The Girl in the Spider's Web"
Brian Lowry emails: Claire Foy drops the tiara for piercings and hacking in "The Girl in the Spider's Web," continuing Sony's "Dragon Tattoo" franchise. Casting-wise, Foy represents an upgrade, but the movie loses some of what made it distinctive with a more conventional thriller approach...
Emily Blunt on the cover of Vogue
Megan Thomas emails: It took a lot of searching to find some a bit of sugar for a kicker, but Emily Blunt is featured on the cover of the latest edition of Vogue -- as Mary Poppins – and the accompanying profile is delightful. Blunt spoke about taking on the iconic role in the upcoming "Mary Poppins Returns."
"She's a superhero," Blunt said about Poppins. "You could say she's some sort of angel. She recognizes what people need, and she gives it to them, yet they discover something about themselves in the process."
With a rather Mary Poppins–like firmness, Blunt concludes, "I don't think she concerns herself with what she is. There's nobody else like her—which she quite likes."
Bryan Cranston confirms 'Breaking Bad' movie happening
Lisa Respers France reports: Bryan Cranston has confirmed that a "Breaking Bad" movie is happening -- but he doesn't know if he is in it. Cranston said on "The Dan Patrick Show" that he hasn't even read the script yet... | | | |
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