Forward

Exec summary: Scroll down for the latest CBS news, President Trump's next interview, Mika Brzezinski's tweeted apology, Marc Benioff's party, "Mary Poppins Returns" reviews, SAG nominees, and much more...

The Journal was right

President Trump is reportedly "seething." His lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison for committing serious campaign finance violations. And Trump has been implicated in two felonies.

As CNN's Jake Tapper said on Wednesday: "The president's attorney is going to jail -- jail -- for crimes that the prosecutors say, two of them at least, the president told him to do. I know that we have all kind of gotten numb to all of the daily chaos of this administration. But this is huge."

Yes. So try to think back to the beginnings of this scandal. When did you first heard about it? I first read about it in the Wall Street Journal. The paper exposed this scandal. The WSJ first published a story about the $150,000 payoff to Karen McDougal four days before -- before! -- the 2016 election.

"The Wall Street Journal broke the original stories of payments made by Michael Cohen and has owned every step of this story, from the role of the National Enquirer to the tactics of the investigators," EIC Matt Murray told me Wednesday night. "Importantly, no one, ever, has substantively challenged the facts we have reported—and in fact subsequent events have time and again confirmed them."

So let's go back in time and revisit that very first story. The headline: "National Enquirer Shielded Donald Trump From Playboy Model's Affair Allegation." IMHO, it's a headline for the history books, now that it's been determined to be a campaign finance violation.

Way back then, Hope Hicks was quoted saying, of the deal with McDougal, "We have no knowledge of any of this." And American Media was quoted saying, "AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump." On Wednesday, the company admitted otherwise...

AMI confesses to "catch and kill"

After Cohen was sentenced, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York revealed that they have a non-prosecution agreement with American Media Inc., "effectively ruling out charges for the tabloid publisher," Tom Kludt reported. AMI finally confessed to using "catch and kill" tactics to help Trump and hurt his opponents.

Tom Kludt emails: "Perhaps it's helpful to spell it out in plain terms: A supermarket tabloid worked in concert with the eventual president's 2016 campaign. Even in 2018, that remains extraordinary. AMI managed to avoid charges, but it came at a cost. AMI boss David Pecker was a longtime friend and confidant of Trump's. The Enquirer's coverage of Trump verged on hero worship. But that's over now..."

The Enquirer has stopped supporting Trump

On Wednesday I went back and reviewed every Enquirer cover this year. The tabloid was one of Trump's biggest boosters, right up until April, when the feds showed up at Cohen's door.

At that point the pro-Trump covers stopped.

In May there was one anti-Cohen cover. And that was it: Trump hasn't been mentioned once on the cover of the Enquirer since May. The mag hasn't attacked any of his enemies on the cover, either. So it has stopped being a part of Trump's promotional media machine. Here's my full story...

--> Related: Tom explored the Enquirer's Trump worship in this video in March...

Reactions from the WSJ

Michael Rothfeld and Joe Palazzolo led the way on the WSJ's reporting. On Wednesday night, they told me, "Even though we were certain of our reporting about Michael Cohen and American Media paying women on behalf of Donald Trump to keep silent during the presidential campaign, despite their strong denials, it is gratifying to see both of them admit what they had done."

So many investigative journalists can relate to that feeling...

Murray credited Rothfeld and Palazzolo for their "groundbreaking work," first and foremost, and pointed out that a big team was involved in the coverage: Reporters Rebecca Davis O'Brien, Nicole Hong, Rebecca Ballhaus, Mark Maremont, Rob Barry, Lukas Alpert and Ali Berzon... And editors Mike Siconolfi, Jennifer Forsyth and Ashby Jones "have shepherded the entire effort with grace and rigor," he said...

"The walls are closing in..."

The NYT has also been doing great work on this story... Here's Thursday morning's print headline: "Tabloid Publisher's Deal In Hush-Money Inquiry Adds to Trump's Danger."

Don Lemon framed it this way on his Wednesday night show: "If this President feels as if the walls are closing in tonight, he's right, because they are."

And former National Enquirer L.A. bureau chief Jerry George said this on "Erin Burnett OutFront:" "I don't think that the President is going to be able to wiggle out of it this time. I think this could very well be the beginning of the end…"

Was it worth it for Trump?

Tom Kludt adds: Was any of this worth it? Obviously, from a legal perspective, the answer is no. But just looking at in strictly political terms – which is how Trump and company viewed it when they struck the deal with Pecker before election day – would this have damaged Trump's candidacy at all? His philandering and treatment of women was well-documented by that point, and the "Access Hollywood" tape did nothing to derail his campaign a month before the election. Something tells me that he would have survived this, too...

Trump's 40th interview with Fox...

It will take place on Thursday on Harris Faulkner's 1 p.m. show, "Outnumbered Overtime." Fox notes that this is Faulkner's first interview with Trump. She will tape the interview at the W.H. on Thursday morning, then anchor her show from the North Lawn. It will bring the total number of Fox News/Fox Biz/Fox Radio interviews with POTUS to 40...

A couple suggested Q's

Trump only appeared in front of cameras once on Wednesday, for an event about "Opportunity Zones." As he left the room, the press pool tried to ask questions -- CNN's Kaitlan Collins invoked Cohen's comments in court and said, "Mr. President, did Michael Cohen cover up your 'dirty deeds?'" He didn't respond. She also tried it this way: "What 'dirty deeds' is he talking about, Mr. President?" There you go, two options for the Fox interview...

"The president lies as a reflex..."

Chris Cuomo's advice to Trump on Wednesday night: "Lying to insulate yourself can be a trap. That's what this president faces now. And he is particularly vulnerable to this because of a habit he developed over many, many years. The president lies as a reflex. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. He does a dance of hyperbole for his rallies that is intoxicating to them, he does it with the media in a way that they chase and are effective about it, but at the end of the day, in this context, it spells nothing but trouble..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Melania Trump gave an interview to Sean Hannity on Wednesday night... She said the hardest part about being FLOTUS is "the opportunists who are using my name or my family name to advance themselves, from comedians to journalists to performers, book writers..." (CNN)

-- A troubling story about the U.S. Agency for Global Media: The "U.S. taxpayer-funded news agency reported not one but two anti-Semitic stories about George Soros in the last year -- and it published an anti-Muslim screed, warning of an 'Islamization' of Europe, destroying its Christian culture," Aaron C. Davis reports... (WaPo)

-- Coming Thursday on The Ringer: "An oral history of the most important deal in sports TV history, when Rupert Murdoch and Fox stole the NFL and John Madden out from under the Big Three networks..." I can't wait to read it...

BREAKING

Kadro on the way out at CBS

Ryan Kadro, the executive producer of "CBS This Morning" since April 2016, is on the way out, a source with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed Wednesday night.

Irin Carmon broke the news for Vulture earlier in the evening. Carmon and Amy Brittain wrote the first WaPo story about Charlie Rose, prompting CBS to fire Rose in November 2017. In a followup story, they reported that a CBS employee, Chelsea Wei, said she warned Kadro about Rose's behavior toward a colleague, Brooks Harris. Kadro acknowledged that he talked with Wei about Rose, but said, "Wei did not tell me about inappropriate behavior by Charlie Rose towards Ms. Harris at any time."

Wei, Harris, and a third woman sued Rose and CBS News in May. CBS recently settled the suit. But I'm not aware of any direct link between the Rose scandal and Kadro's impending departure. The indirect link might be the fact that the morning show's ratings have slumped ever since Rose was fired. Per my source, Kadro has been in talks to step down for several months. CBS News confirmed the talks — but not his exit — saying "these conversations are unrelated to the settlement."

--> Inside the morning show: Kadro has a lot of fans. The question now: Who will succeed him?

Is Mika's apology enough?

"MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski apologized Wednesday for a remark she made on air that drew criticism for its homophobic implications," Tom Kludt reports.

She tweeted and said "so sorry!" after the show... But I presume and hope she will repeat the apology on Thursday morning... Details here...

New revelations about former Tronc boss Michael Ferro

Tom Kludt emails: NPR media correspondent and Tronc/Tribune chronicler David Folkenflik served up another bombshell Wednesday, reporting that former Tronc chairman Michael Ferro made an anti-Semitic remark about SoCal billionaire Eli Broad. It happened at a swanky dinner in 2016 attended by about 20 people, Folkenflik reported. Ferro allegedly said that Broad was part of a "Jewish cabal" that runs Los Angeles.

Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for Ferro, was emphatic in his denial when I spoke to him on the phone. "If there are such recordings, I've never heard them. Mr. Ferro's never heard them," Culloton told me, adding that Ferro and Broad are "personal friends."

Here's why he mentioned "recordings." According to Wednesday's report, the remarks were memorialized by Davan Maharaj, former publisher and EIC of the LA Times. The two men clashed, and Maharaj was eventually fired, so he "hired a prominent Beverly Hills attorney to pursue a wrongful termination suit. Maharaj had ammunition, having recorded Ferro in unguarded conversation with associates." The result of all this: Tronc "agreed to secretly pay Maharaj more than $2.5 million."

--> On Wednesday night, Maharaj said through an attorney, "We reject any assertion that Davan received any payments to keep information secret..."

LA Times staffers are appalled

Tom Kludt adds: You can about guess the reaction from staffers at the LA Times. The paper isn't owned by Tronc anymore, but the Ferro-era wounds are still raw. That Maharaj seemingly sat on such explosive info, and walked away with millions himself at a time when the paper was struggling, has rankled those still at the Times. "You're the editor of the LA Times," tweeted Times investigative reporter Harriet Ryan. "You find out the CEO is an anti-Semite. Do you: a) confront him? B) assign an investigative reporter to expose him? Or c) use the information to get a $2.5 million personal payout at a time the company is laying off journalists and closing bureaus?"

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Gerry Smith's latest: Apple's "Netflix for magazines" approach, with an app called Texture, is "getting a chilly reception..." (Bloomberg)

-- NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger has updated the paper's mission and values statements. The mission: "We seek the truth and help people understand the world." Here are the docs... (Twitter)

Benioff's first TIME party

Marc and Lynne Benioff, the new owners of Time mag, celebrated the deal and this week's Person of the Year issue in fine style at Capitale in NYC on Wednesday night.

Spotted: Ed Felsenthal, Tina Brown, Jim Cramer, Gretchen Carlson, Robin Roberts, David Blaine, Nancy Gibbs, Kristin Matzen, Rachel Sklar, Jessica Bennett, Laura Brounstein, Cindi Leive, Charlotte Alter, Emma Gray, Belinda Luscombe, Sam Feist, Poppy Harlow, Caleb Silver, Chris Licht, Laurie Segall, Joanne Lipman, Lori Fradkin, Lori Leibovich, Susannah Schrobsdorf, Callie Schweitzer, Julia Zorthian, Mahita Gajanan, Abigail Abrams, Samantha Cooney, and many more...

BTW: Time EIC Ed Felsenthal will join me on "Reliable Sources" this Sunday...

Another profitable year for WaPo

Per WaPo publisher Fred Ryan's end of year memo: "Once again, we conclude the year as a profitable and growing company—confirming our belief that there is a viable business model for quality journalism." The Post has been profitable for several years now...

Time for another FCC review of media ownership rules...

Brian Lowry emails: The FCC's next review of media-ownership rules (mandated by Congress every four years) takes on a different hue given the spate of possible mergers and acquisitions that could be in play, given the creation of "new Fox" and the management change at CBS. Although plenty of deep-pocketed tech players have been discussed as possible buyers, relaxing the federal guidelines would open the door to deals involving more traditional media players...

A different POV on Nauert

Heather Nauert is qualified for lots of jobs -- but not US ambassador to the UN. That's what I said when she was nominated last week, and I was far from the only one. John Avlon put it this way on "New Day:" Nauert "would be a great choice to be, for example, the next White House press secretary. Choosing her as U.N. ambassador makes no sense."

But here's a competing view, put forth by Dovid Efune, EIC of the New York-based Jewish newspaper Algemeiner. Writing in the WSJ, he says Nauert gives hope to journalists! "If," he says, "one small side effect of a positive Senate vote is that it expands the career horizons of journalists by demonstrating that their skills are both valuable and transferable—well, that will only be an added benefit to democracy..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Still no word on who, if anyone, will host the Oscars in February...

-- Chloe Melas emails: Seth MacFarlane says he understands why finding a host for the Oscars isn't easy...

-- John Herrman's new column: "What Happens When Facebook Goes the Way of Myspace?"

PR firm representing Women's March executes "botched PR move"

Oliver Darcy emails: A public relations firm representing the Women's March was criticized on Wednesday for an email a representative of the company sent to reporters. The email disputed the accuracy of a Tablet Magazine story headlined, "Is the Women's March Melting Down?" It promised to share with reporters who tweeted the story "fact-checks" about the article in an off-the-record capacity. The email also appeared to pressure the reporters to delete their tweets.

Reporters reacted by tweeting out that they had been contacted by the firm. Yashar Ali, who shared a screen grab of the email on his Twitter account, called it a "ridiculous, unprofessional email." Liam Stack of the NYT characterized it as a "botched PR move" that "does not do much to discredit the argument that the Women's March is being mismanaged." I reached out to the PR representative who sent the email to reporters to see if she had any comment, but did not hear back...

Lowry's "Mary Poppins Returns" review

Brian Lowry emails: "Mary Poppins Returns" represents Disney's efforts to spin gold out of its vaults -- in this case, producing a 54-years-later sequel to a beloved family classic. But the movie itself only occasionally conjures magic, in a way that seems perfectly passable but falls short of practically perfect. (Frank Pallotta, notably, vehemently disagrees with the negative aspects of this appraisal!)

Over to you, Frank...

"Poppins," a Best Picture nominee?

Frank Pallotta emails: I saw Disney's "Mary Poppins Returns" Tuesday night, and two things have been rattling around in my brain since. First, the film's infectious earworm "Can You Imagine That?" Second, an idea: Is "Poppins" a Best Picture contender?

The film's reviews embargo lifted on Wednesday... And so far the film has a 75% review score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is good but not great. Yet, Vulture's Oscar Futures and awards site Gold Derby have all had Mary in the running. In my opinion, the film is a definition of a Best Picture nominee. It's pure movie magic with a practically perfect performance from Emily Blunt. That said, I go to Disney World every year, so take my opinion with a grain of salt... or better yet, a spoonful of sugar.

This year's SAG nominees

Click here for Lisa Respers France's full story about the noms...

Brian Lowry emails: The Screen Actors Guild again produced some head-scratchers among its annual nominations, but its biggest prize -- for ensemble cast -- notably included a quartet of box-office hits: "Black Panther," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Crazy Rich Asians," and "A Star is Born." That invites the question, again, of whether the ensemble category might be a logical addition for both the Oscars (already contemplating changes to boost tune-in) and Emmys, both of which are coming off telecasts that drew record-low ratings.

Read the rest of Lowry's analysis here...

Disney+'s "Star Wars" series has a cast

Frank Pallotta emails: Disney and Lucasfilm announced the cast of its "Star Wars" live-action series, "The Mandalorian," and the cast is quite... something. You have "Game of Thrones" alums (Pedro Pascal) "Breaking Bad" alums (Giancarlo Esposito) and, even more intriguing, out-of-nowhere additions including Nick Nolte, Carl Weathers and my personal favorite, Werner Herzog.

Yes, that's right, Herzog, the gritty director, is now a part of the "Star Wars" canon...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Lisa Respers France:

-- "Brokeback Mountain," "Jurassic Park" and "My Fair Lady" were three of the movies added to the National Film Registry.

-- Almost a decade later, Jon Gosselin says he and Kate are still fighting over custody of their eight children.

-- Oprah Winfrey has spoken about the emotional final days with her mother who died at the age of 83 on Thanksgiving.

-- Kenya Moore has shared the first photo of her newborn daughter.

AP's "Breakthrough Entertainers of 2018"

Via the AP: "Awkwafina, Elsie Fisher, Kane Brown and Hannah Gadsby are among the eight performers whose distinguished work earned them a spot on The Associated Press' annual Breakthrough Entertainers list. Other honorees for 2018 are Henry Golding, Ella Mai, Natasha Rothwell and John David Washington." Full feature here...

That's a wrap on this edition of the newsletter... Thanks for reading and sharing... Send me your feedback anytime, it helps make the newsletter better!