Forward

Exec summary: Scroll down for Apple earnings takeaways, January cable news ratings, promotions at the WSJ and NBC, plus much more... Look out for Facebook earnings on Wednesday...

Another 'Trump bump'

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A book comes out that contains unflattering chapters about President Trump. Strategists say he should just ignore it. But he finds it irresistible. He slams the author -- and drives even more attention toward the book.

This time the beneficiary of Trump's Twitter feed is Cliff Sims, the author of "Team of Vipers," which came out Tuesday.

"Aides had tried for days to persuade Mr. Trump not to give more fuel to the fire by commenting on the book and elevating it," the NYT's Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman reported. But Trump did it anyway -- while Sims was live on CNN talking about the book. "New Day" anchor Alisyn Camerota read the tweet to Sims in real time. While Sims shrugged it off, his publisher cheered. "Team of Viper" went from #12 on Amazon's best selling books list to #5. Of course, some of that sales momentum came from Sims' appearances on "New Day" and "Morning Joe," but Trump's post triggered a brand new news cycle about Sims' depictions of a distracted president and a distrustful inner circle of aides...

>> Camerota ended the interview by saying "thank you, Mr. President, for watching our segment and our show today..."

Non-disclosure agreements?

Trump called Sims a "low level staffer that I hardly knew" and a "gofer." In fact, Sims was director of White House message strategy and a special assistant to the president.

He also tweeted that that Sims "signed a non-disclosure agreement." The mention stood out because it confirmed previous reports about Trump aides being subject to legal contracts that bar them from speaking ill about Trump. But there is considerable doubt about whether such contracts are enforceable in this circumstance. Lawyers are already lining up to defend Sims. But so far there has been no actual legal action -- just a hollow threat from a campaign official.

>> In an interview on "AC360" later in the day, Sims said he assumes that he signed "whatever Sean Spicer did," but he's not worried about being sued...

"The great paradox of the Trump presidency"

Anderson Cooper also asked Sims about Trump's deceptions.

"This is the great paradox of the Trump presidency," Sims answered, "that you've got a guy who's had more Washington Post Pinocchios than every president combined, and yet at the same time is perhaps the most authentic person to ever hold the office in a way." Authentic? "He basically looked at the American people and said, 'This is who I am. You know everything about me.' He's pretty much exactly the same behind the scenes that he is out in public. And I think that resonates with some people. So even the things you hear about him that are bad, it's not like anyone's surprised..."

How Tuesday's three book launches all fared

Sims is holding steady at #5 on Amazon... The only higher-ranked nonfiction book is Michelle Obama's "Becoming..." Chris Christie, who came out with "Let Me Finish" on Tuesday, is at #10... and Howard Schultz's "From the Ground Up" is at #24. Here's my full story...

Christie says "the president blew it"

A preview of Tuesday night's "Late Show:"

COLBERT: No State of the Union tonight. It got cancelled. Where do you think the wheels came off during the shutdown?

CHRISTIE: The president blew it.

COLBERT: When?

CHRISTIE: When he shut the government down with no plan on how to reopen it.

COLBERT: Entirely his fault, right?

CHRISTIE: Listen -- and I said this to him -- like, listen. 'If you're going to do this, you'd better have an exit plan.'

FIRST LOOK

CPJ's "anatomy of Trump's tweets"

The Committee to Protect Journalists decided to create a database of Trump's tweets about the media. The results will be released on Wednesday, but you can get a sneak peek here on CPJ.org.

Since the day he announced his candidacy, Trump "has sent 1,339 tweets about the media that were critical, insinuating, condemning, or threatening," CPJ's Stephanie Sugars wrote. Over time, "the focus of the tweets has shifted dramatically." Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Matt Lewis: "Trump billed himself as the greatest salesman in the world, yet he can't seem to sell the American public on anything..." (Beast)

-- Laying low? Betsy Klein noted that Tuesday was Trump's "fourth day in a row with no public events." He has nothing scheduled publicly on Wednesday either... (Twitter)

-- The FBI has ended its investigation into the Las Vegas massacre -- "with no motive found." BuzzFeed's Craig Silverman tweeted: "This is a blank canvas onto which all manner of conspiracies will be painted..." (CNN)

-- Tulsi Gabbard, who revealed her 2020 plans on "The Van Jones Show" earlier this month, evidently "blindsided" her staff and surprised Jones that day... Now the campaign is in "disarray," Politico reports... (Politico)

Kamala Harris is a ratings draw

I first noticed this while looking at weekend cable news #'s. CNN and MSNBC picked up audience when Kamala Harris officially entered the 2020 race with a Sunday afternoon speech in Oakland.

And her ratings power was more vividly on display on Monday night. CNN's town hall with Harris "drew nearly 2 million viewers — 75% above CNN's four-week average in the 10 o'clock hour," THR's Rick Porter wrote. "The news channel says the audience of 1.95 million was the largest for a single-candidate town hall in CNN history..."

"A LATTE OF PUSHBACK"

What's the best Starbucks-related pun you've seen in the skeptical coverage of Howard Schultz's 2020 flirtation? I liked "A LATTE OF PUSHBACK" on Ari Melber's MSNBC show Tuesday evening.

The criticism of Schultz continued on Tuesday, including when he was at the table on "The View."

Afterward, he taped an interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow, and it will be airing Wednesday morning on CNN... The full interview will also be up on Harlow's "Boss Files" podcast first thing Wednesday morning.

--> BTW: Some Fox hosts came to Schultz's defense on Tuesday... while they savaged Harris for her "Medicare-for-all" position... Here's the latest on the health care debate that came out of Monday's town hall...

The myth of centrism?

Quoting Waleed Shahid, the comms director for Justice Democrats, during a segment about Schultz on "All In with Chris Hayes:"

"Centrism typically refers to itself as the rational middle. Really it's a fringe movement trying to defend the economic preferences of the 1%. But right now what we're seeing is that these corporate-friendly centrist politicians are incredibly out-of-touch with the Democratic electorate and frankly with the Republican electorate... These ideas aren't popular in America right now."

Hannity interviewed Eric Trump, but...

Check this out. WaPo led its website with this scoop on Tuesday night: "President Trump's company plans to institute E-Verify, a federal program that allows employers to check whether new hires are legally eligible to work in the United States, in every one of its golf clubs, hotels and resorts, following a Washington Post report that its club in Westchester County, N.Y., employed undocumented immigrants for years."

The Post quoted a statement from Eric Trump. As luck would have it, Sean Hannity had Eric on set with him just 25 minutes after the story broke. So Hannity interrogated him about it, right? Wrong... It didn't come up at all...

Maybe Roger Stone will guest host next

On Friday night, Roger Stone was a guest on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" at 8 p.m. on Fox. Monday night, he was a guest on "Hannity" at 9 p.m. And Tuesday night, he was a guest on "The Ingraham Angle" at 10 p.m. See the pattern? I presume he'll be on "Fox News @ Night" at 11 p.m. on Wednesday...

--> Stone pleaded not guilty on Tuesday morning...

--> WaPo just came out with this very newsworthy sentence: "Asked Tuesday whether he would consider pardoning Stone, President Trump told The Washington Post, 'I have not given it any thought.'"

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- January's cable news ratings: Fox News marked 17 straight years at #1 among cable newsers... MSNBC touted Rachel Maddow's victory over Hannity... and CNN posted double-digit growth over the same month last year... (TVNewser)

-- "MSNBC's Chris Hayes will be getting out from behind the anchor desk and in front of an audience next month for a live taping of his 'Why Is This Happening?' podcast, and he's booked one of the Democratic Party's breakout stars as his guest: Stacey Abrams..." (Vulture)

-- Speaking of Stacey Abrams, she will be delivering the Democratic response to Trump's SOTU next Tuesday... (CNN)

Intel chiefs contradict POTUS

"U.S. INTELLIGENCE DISPUTES TRUMP ON GLOBAL PERIL" is the lead headline in Wednesday's NYT. The subhed: "NO REASONING FOR WALL."

This has been a top story all day long, and it's deeply unsettling. In public testimony on Tuesday, Trump's intel chiefs contradicted him while discussing ISIS, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. As CNN's Jim Sciutto said on "The Situation Room," "it's hard to imagine a bigger void between a sitting President and the U.S. intelligence community. Keep in mind, these are all Trump appointees..."

--> NBC's Ken Dilanian tweeted "one big picture takeaway from this intelligence hearing: There are huge new challenges to the U.S. The president isn't talking about any of them. He's focused on the southern border, which doesn't come up in the threats assessment as a significant security issue..."

New deputy EIC of the WSJ

Neal Lipschutz, a 37-year veteran of Dow Jones and a beloved figure in the newsroom, is becoming WSJ EIC Matt Murray's top deputy. "Neal will work closely with me and the entire senior team on the daily news report, and will oversee the newsroom in my absence," Murray wrote in an internal memo on Tuesday.

Lipschutz is currently the WSJ's head of Ethics and Standards... And the paper is now considering candidates to fill that spot...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- From Capitol Hill to CBS: Jeff Flake debuted as a contributor on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday. The network says "his first project, 'Common Ground,' will be a series of reports where people have found common ground to solve critical issues..." (CBS)

-- From Tallahassee to CNN: Andrew Gillum premiered as a political commentator on "Cuomo Prime Time" Tuesday evening... (Twitter)

-- Jenn Suozzo, who went from senior broadcast producer to exec producer of "NBC Nightly News" last fall, has filled her old position as the show's #2: Meghan Rafferty... (TVNewser)

-- Interesting piece about a Tea Party-aligned advocacy group with a reporting arm: "In the Texas House, they're seen as lobbyists. In the Senate, they sit at the press table..." (Texas Tribune)

-- "Why won't The New Yorker keep you logged in?" Laura Hazard Owen tried to solve the mystery... There are lessons here for other sites too... (NiemanLab)

Axios is this close to profitability

Axios will celebrate its second birthday on Thursday. While other digital media businesses flounder, Axios "seems to have set itself on a sustainable course through its newsletter-driven, heavily bullet-pointed 'smart brevity' formula," VF's Joe Pompeo wrote Tuesday.

Key graf: "In its second full year, the company pulled in revenue of roughly $25 million" (up from $12.5 million in year one) "from its influencer-targeted short-form native-advertising campaigns, largely in the corporate-responsibility realm. Axios missed breaking even by a mere $56,000 and has lots of cash left in the bank, with plans for a high-end subscription business in 2019."

-- Co-founder Roy Schwartz told Pompeo that there are no plans to raise more $$...

-- Co-founder Jim VandeHei said "in our second round, we raised just under $20 million, and we haven't touched that yet..."

-- When Pompeo said "I've read that advertisers pay $75,000 per week to sponsor Mike Allen's Axios A.M. newsletter," Schwartz said "it's double that..."

VandeHei: "I think people are consuming way too much political content"

This part of the Q&A stood out to me. When Pompeo asked about the fate of the news biz in a post-Trump-bump world, VandeHei said, "I don't think it affects us. Do I think there's a falloff? I hope there's a falloff. I think people are consuming way too much political content. It's like Doritos. If I eat Doritos every single day, I'm gonna be a fat, useless slob. People have made political coverage way too big a part of their consumption diet. We're trying to grab people by the collar every day and saying, this is what's happening with A.I., global warming, China, science. Artificial intelligence is gonna have a bigger determination of the future of America than our politics right now. What China's doing in terms of investing in every other nation? We need to get people paying attention to those topics."

Apple earnings headlines

Some of Apple's businesses are growing. But "the iPhone business is in decline -- and there appears to be no end in sight," as Seth Fiegerman's story explained here.

A bright spot for the company: "Services." Per David Goldman, "revenue from the app store, Apple Music, Apple Care and other subscriptions rose 19% to a record $10.9 billion. That's far less than the $52 billion Apple brought in from iPhone sales. But unlike the iPhone, it's growing -- strong."

-- A big picture takeaway via BI: "The company now has 1.4 billion total active users of its devices, up 100 million last year..."

-- Via Mashable's Karissa Bell, Apple also shared updated usage data for Apple News: The app now has 85 million monthly active users, "up from 70 million in 2016, the last time they shared data..."

-- Tim Cook alluded to the company's forthcoming TV shows and expected subscription service or services, but only said "we'll have something to say more on that later..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Brian Hiatt wrote this month's cover story for Rolling Stone: "The all-American nightmares of Jordan Peele..." (RS)

-- Drew FitzGerald's close look at DirecTV: "AT&T Wants to Be Big in Entertainment. First, It Has a $49 Billion Problem to Fix." (WSJ)

-- Frank Pallotta emails: The Super Bowl is one of Hollywood's favorite places to debut ads for upcoming features, but Pamela McClintock explains why we should expect fewer movie ads during this year's big game... (THR)

-- Darryn King looks at the success of the History channel's "Project Blue Book," a scripted series that draws on "actual declassified case files from the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigations in the 1950s and '60s..." (WSJ)

-- "Zack Snyder, who directed 2017's Justice League only to step away from movies to deal with a family tragedy, has signed on to helm Army of the Dead, a zombie horror thriller, for Netflix..." (THR)

Jussie Smollett recovering from vicious attack

"Empire" actor Jussie Smollett "was attacked in the early morning hours on Tuesday in what Chicago police are calling a possible hate crime," CNN's Sandra Gonzalez wrote.

Detectives are canvassing the area and seeking video of the incident: "A dozen police detectives, with the assistance of the FBI, are working the case, according to police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi." Smollett's friends, colleagues and fans are rallying around him... Here are some of the reactions and comments...

More momentum for the 4% challenge

"Universal Pictures has become the first Hollywood studio to accept the '4 percent challenge' issued by Time's Up and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, calling on industry leaders to commit to announcing one project with a female director in the next 18 months," THR's Gregg Kilday wrote.

The #4PercentChallenge was announced at Sundance last week. It "takes its name from a 2017 study conducted by the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism that found that only 4 percent of the directors of the decade's thousand highest-grossing films were women..."

CBS is spinning off "FBI"

Brian Lowry emails: The winter TV Critics Association tour is underway, but for the major networks -- which lead off the truncated event -- the vibe feels more obligatory than enthusiastic, including an absence of executive sessions at NBC (which presented on Tuesday, along with other NBCUniversal networks) and CBS, which is on the menu for Wednesday.

Some CBS announcements did slip out in advance of its session, including a renewal of the light drama "God Friended Me" and plans for a spinoff of "FBI," the latest franchise-able series from "Law & Order" producer Dick Wolf. The new show, "FBI: Most Wanted," is what's known as a "planted" spinoff, meaning the new characters will be introduced and tried out within the flagship show -- basically a way of doing a pilot on the cheap...

Changes to the Emmy rules...

Brian Lowry emails: The blurring of lines in TV comedy and drama is creating headaches for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which has introduced some revised Emmy guidelines, including one trying to prevent series from jumping back and forth between the two categories. Variety's Michael Schneider has the details on that, and other rule changes, here...

Netflix creeped out about Ted Bundy's 'alleged hotness'

Lisa Respers France emails with her latest: Netflix wants people to stop thirsting for Ted Bundy. The streaming giant is creeped out about Bundy's "alleged hotness" as some fans are sharing their attraction to the now dead serial killer in the wake of Netflix's docuseries about him. (There's also an unrelated Bundy film starring Zac Efron in the works.)

@Netflix tweeted on Monday: "I've seen a lot of talk about Ted Bundy's alleged hotness and would like to gently remind everyone that there are literally THOUSANDS of hot men on the service — almost all of whom are not convicted serial murderers."

"The Lonely, and Often Risky, Pursuit of R. Kelly"

The NYT's Ben Sisario has a must-read story about Jim DeRogatis and Dream Hampton, two of the members of the media "who have dug the deepest on R. Kelly..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Don't start congratulating Cardi B just yet. The Recording Academy says that leaked Grammy winners list is fake...

-- "The Bachelorette's" Rachel Lindsay has a wedding date and a dress...

-- Here's some of what's streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon in February...

That's a wrap. Send me your feedback anytime -- I'm always trying to make this newsletter more useful for all of you. See you tomorrow!