EXEC SUMMARY: Welcome to April! Here's a preview of the week ahead... Plus a new volley between Jeff Bezos and David Pecker... And a look at the post-Mueller media landscape...
The divide
Once in a while "SNL" perfectly crystallizes our political moment. This is one of those times. | | Saturday's cold open showed how the end of Robert Mueller's investigation is being interpreted, twisted and exploited:
Robert De Niro as Mueller: "On the charge of obstruction of justice, we have not drawn a definitive conclusion."
Aidy Bryant as Bill Barr: "But I have! And my conclusion is, Trump's clean as a whistle."
Alec Baldwin as President Trump: "Free at last, free at last."
The public will see Mueller's report sometime in April -- but Trump and his media allies have already hardened the right's perceptions of what the report says. The no-collusion cake has been baked. "SNL" nailed this:
De Niro: "I've included hundreds of pages of evidence."
Bryant: "Most of it provided on live television by the president himself."
Baldwin: "Russia, if you're watching, go to bed. Daddy won."
The rhetorical power of Trump's repetitiveness is on display right now. His message is simple, while Mueller's report (judging by the sheer length) is more complicated.
De Niro: "In conclusion, it is my hope that this report will be made public, with a few redactions."
Bryant: "Hella redactions."
Baldwin: "We're going to black out everything except the words 'no' and 'collusion.'"
"SNL" illustrated the extreme divisions in the media and political environment. Trump's backers are celebrating the Barr letter and claiming the media "lied" about a "hoax." Some of Trump's opponents are accusing the press of taking Barr's word for it. And lots of folks just want to wait and see what the report says. As for "SNL," the entire sketch is up on YouTube...
"That's just not true"
Chris Wallace's question to Kellyanne Conway: "The special counsel cleared the president on collusion, absolutely no question about it. But he expressly did not clear him on the question of obstruction. So why is the president telling Americans something that is not true?" When she dodged, he reiterated that Trump's claim is "just not true."
Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made a similar claim on CNN's "SOTU," saying "it completely exonerates the president." Jake Tapper interjected: "Have you read the Mueller report?" No, Mulvaney hasn't, and neither has anyone else who's talking about it. Tapper repeatedly tried to ask about ethics and morality, rather than law, and Mulvaney said voters decide about ethics...
Pirro wants some of Trump's opponents in prison
One of the president's favorite shows, "Justice with Judge Jeanine," returned on Saturday night. In her opening monologue, Jeanine Pirro alleged an "attempted coup" and said the plotters would try again "unless we stop them." She called for "behind-the-bars justice" -- meaning, "lock them up." Just another normal Saturday night on Fox...
--> The NYT's Michael Grynbaum noted that Pirro "did not address – nor has she apologized for – the comments that got her suspended by Fox News for two weeks..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- BREAKING: Nipsey Hussle, a Grammy-nominated rapper, has died "after a shooting near a clothing store he was associated with in Los Angeles..." (CNN)
-- ComScore has "abruptly" lost two of its top executives: CEO Bryan Wiener and President Sarah Hofstetter... (AdAge)
-- Sunday night's finale of HBO's "The Case Against Adnan Syed" revealed "new DNA test results..." Details here... (NYT)
| | Media week ahead calendar
-- Monday: Be careful out there, it is April Fool's Day...
-- Monday: David Haskell starts work as the new editor of NYMag...
-- Monday: "The Twilight Zone" debuts on CBS All Access...
-- Wednesday: The final season of "Game of Thrones" has its grand premiere at Radio City Music Hall...
-- Thursday: WaPo hosts a Protecting Local News symposium... It will be live-streamed here...
-- Friday: David Attenborough's "Our Planet" starts streaming on Netflix...
-- Saturday: The NCAA men's Final Four! For the record, my bracket has Virginia winning it all...
-- Sunday: "Killing Eve" returns to BBC America (and gets a simulcast on AMC)...
Three books you'll be hearing about...
The press tours are already underway for this trio, all out on Tuesday: "Ladies Who Punch," Ramin Setoodeh's scoop-filled book about "The View..." Rick Reilly's "Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump," which says the president cheats "at the highest level..." And "The Matriarch," Susan Page's book about Barbara Bush, which has already generated dozens of headlines...
Two more exclusives for Gayle King
CBS News says Gayle King has taped "exclusive interviews" with "the two women who allege Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax sexually assaulted them." King's sit-down with Dr. Vanessa Tyson will air on Monday's "CBS This Morning," and the interview with Meredith Watson will air Tuesday...
Al Roker in the Arctic
 This is definitely one way to cut through the noise and get sustained TV coverage about climate change! Al Roker will be live from Utqiagvik, Alaska, on Monday and Tuesday's editions of the "Today" show.
Utqiagvik, previously known as Barrow, is the northernmost city in Alaska. "We're going there because Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of the continental United States," Roker said before flying north. "It literally is ground zero for where climate change is happening..."
Today on 'Fox & Friends:' Geography 101 | | Typos are a fact of television news life. But they rarely get more egregious than this. "TRUMP CUTS AID TO 3 MEXICAN COUNTRIES" read the banner on "Fox & Friends Weekend" right after the show started at 6 a.m. on Sunday. Whoever wrote the graphic obviously meant "three Central American countries..."
Several hours later, after the error went viral on social media, Ed Henry addressed it and said "we apologize for the error -- it never should've happened." Some of Fox's detractors said the error was emblematic of ignorance, or worse, on the network's right-wing talk shows. An example: Adam Serwer tweeted that "this is less an error than an expression of Fox News' underlying sentiment towards most Latinos." The more sympathetic view? A sleep-deprived producer slipped up. Here's my full story...
Bezos, AMI and the Saudi angle
The Daily Beast, not Medium or the Jeff Bezos-owned WaPo, was the platform for this remarkable op-ed by Bezos security adviser Gavin De Becker. Through the op-ed, Team Bezos doubled down on the "Saudi angle" that Bezos cited when he accused the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him. The key graf from De Becker: "Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information. As of today, it is unclear to what degree, if any, AMI was aware of the details." (In case you're rusty about the details, AMI is short for American Media, the Enquirer's owner.) Read Danielle Wiener-Bronner's recap for CNN Business here...
Bezos' camp still hasn't provided any evidence...
Oliver Darcy emails: It's noteworthy that de Becker has not presented any concrete evidence to support his explosive assertion that the Saudi kingdom gained access to private information on Bezos' phone. We asked de Becker for such info back in February, after Bezos implied the Saudis were involved in his Medium post. De Becker did not provide it to us then, and he hasn't provided it to us now. He said in his Daily Beast op-ed that he has filled in federal officials, but it's unclear who those officials are...
Pecker's response
In a Saturday afternoon statement, David Pecker's AMI issued a statement about de Becker's "false and unsubstantiated" claims. Despite the Enquirer's reliance on anonymous sources, it decided to out its source for the Bezos-Lauren Sanchez relationship story: The brother. "The fact of the matter is, it was Michael Sanchez who tipped the National Enquirer off to the affair on Sept. 10, 2018, and over the course of four months provided all of the materials for our investigation," AMI said. "His continued efforts to discuss and falsely represent our reporting, and his role in it, has waived any source confidentiality. There was no involvement by any other third party whatsoever." Keep in mind, De Becker suggested that AMI may have been in the dark about any "third party" (Saudi) hacking...
Sanchez slams "smoke-and-mirrors distraction"
Oliver Darcy emails: I spoke with Michael Sanchez earlier today. He characterized de Becker's Daily Beast op-ed as a "smoke-and-mirrors distraction," and also noted that de Becker provided "zero evidence" to back up his claims about the Saudis. Sanchez, however, did acknowledge to me a "deal with the devil." As he first said to the NYPost, Sanchez told me he agreed to help the Enquirer secure a "kiss photo" of Bezos and his sister "because they desperately needed it to make the story they already had locked and loaded lawsuit-proof."
This next bit is key: Sanchez said when the Enquirer first contacted him, they were already pursuing a story on Bezos' affair. That contradicts what AMI says, and it lines up with the theory that someone had access to Bezos's phone. But: Sanchez told The Post he'd "never sell out" his sister, and he added to me that he actually did everything in his power "to make sure [The National Enquirer] never got" the photo...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Amy Chozick nailed this story about the "Kardashian ecosystem," from the gossip websites to the E! show to "an ever-increasing number of sponsorships and branded products." There's a lot of news in her story... (NYT)
-- Why is "Florida man" a thing? Well, Gil Smart of Treasure Coast Newspapers says, "there's just as much weirdness in every other state, but Florida has more people — and most important, wide-open public records laws..." (TC)
-- Denise McAllister, a blogger for The Federalist, "tweeted her way out of a job Saturday when a Twitter feud quickly escalated into a homophobic screed..." (Mediaite)
-- Joe Biden will be waking up to this headline on Monday morning: "Biden Scrambles to Stem Crisis After Lucy Flores's Allegation" (NYT)
Phone a friend? For Avenatti, it's 'phone a reporter'
The NYT and WSJ are both out with big new stories about Michael Avenatti and his legal troubles. The Times story -- on Monday's front page -- has a lot to say about his media strategy.
A+ lead: "Just after making bail last Monday, the celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti did what he had always done in the swirl of a hot story. He called a reporter." Specifically, he "walked into a cellphone store last Monday night and used the landline" to call the NYT's Rebecca Ruiz. She posted a Twitter thread about it here...
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...
Vice's newest correspondent
Elizabeth Landers, who's been with CNN for the last five years as an embed and producer, is jumping to "VICE News Tonight" on HBO, where she'll be a political correspondent, reporting to VICE News DC bureau chief Shawna Thomas. Vice says Landers will be "covering President Trump, the 2020 election and Capitol Hill..."
| | -- Matt Gertz of Media Matters writes: "We shouldn't become desensitized to Trump's extreme anti-press incitement..." (MMFA)
-- Don't miss Josh Dawsey and Seung Min Kim's look at how GOP lawmakers have "adapted" to Trump's TV obsession... (WaPo)
-- Countless weeks since January 2017 have been dubbed Trump's "worst week ever" by journalists. This time: Trump's "best week ever." I discussed it with Susan Glasser on Sunday's show... (CNN)
-- And yet... Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak's story for CNN.com points out how Trump's "victory lap" was "clouded by chaos..." (CNN)
The post-Mueller media landscape | | Elaina Plott, Jane Coaston, Farhad Manjoo, and Alice Stewart all joined me on Sunday's show. Plott said "a tonal shift is in order" now that the special counsel has completed his work... Manjoo explained his belief that "collusion" was a "seductive delusion..." Watch parts one, two and three of the segment here...
--> "Serious newsrooms and journalists did the job they are supposed to do," The New Yorker's Steve Coll writes...
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
In a tweet on Sunday afternoon, Cook Political Report national editor Amy Walter summed up recent polling: "The story on polling post-Mueller report isn't that Trump job approval has moved up or down, it's that it hasn't really moved at all."
My interview with Lis Smith
Lis Smith has been advising Mayor Pete Buttigieg for more than two years. Now, as he explores a run for president, she is his top comms adviser. On Sunday's show, I asked Smith about Buttigieg's media strategy, since something is clearly working -- he's been rising in the polls and getting tons of attention.
Smith said "it's important for us to be open, accessible and transparent with the media and to get him everywhere" -- from Stephen Colbert to "Fox News Sunday" to "The Breakfast Club" to Preet Bharara's podcast. Watch...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Charlie Warzel's latest must-read: "Why Courtrooms Are Kryptonite for Alex Jones" (NYT)
-- Via CNN's team, here's more on the revealing videotaped deposition of Jones... (CNN)
-- A marijuana mag deep dive by Britta Lokting: "For decades, High Times was the flagship of cannabis culture. Now it's struggling to keep up..." (OneZero)
-- Variety has hired Lesley McKenzie as managing editor... (Variety)
Getting the word out about local news woes
"Local journalism is very much at risk, and the public just doesn't seem to realize it," News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern told Margaret Sullivan for WaPo's Monday media column.
Chavern's view: "The industry needs a better economic deal from the platforms," meaning Google and Facebook, "but it will also need more local readers to subscribe..."
👍 The Inquirer's special section
Sunday's Philly Inquirer came with a four-page special section ABOUT the newspaper -- specifically about the paper's investments, its expansion efforts and its work in the community. I thought it was a cool effort at explaining "why we do what we do," something journalists need to do more often.
Jim Friedlich, the CEO of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which owns the paper in a unique "public benefit corporation" arrangement, tweeted that the special section is "part of a broader dialogue between readers and journalists." The web version of the feature also has a six-minute video...
Knight's next investment
The Knight Foundation, which recently announced a $300 million, five-year commitment to the news biz, with a focus on local, is getting more detailed about how it is allocating the money. On Sunday, when the foundation's CEO Alberto Ibargüen joined me on "Reliable Sources," Knight announced grants for three groups: $1 million to the Local Independent Online News Publishers, $1.5 million to the News Revenue Hub, and $3.5 million to the Institute for Nonprofit News.
On air, Ibargüen said the $300 million investment has two aims: To "reimagine local news in a way that is sustainable" and ultimately to "regain trust." I also asked him about the role of Big Tech in this equation... Here's the segment...
Facebook's challenge to lawmakers
Donie O'Sullivan emails: The WaPo and three European newspapers carried an op-ed from Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday. The FB CEO had a simple message to lawmakers: regulate me. Lawmakers and columnists spend a lot of time criticizing FB's policies and shortcomings – now the company is telling lawmakers to give it a shot themselves. The broad set of regulations Facebook is calling for may be resisted by smaller companies. The cost of compliance could be high, and some smaller platforms may find themselves struggling to keep up. Fine, they might say, for Facebook now to call for expensive regulation it can afford after building an empire on an Internet with light-touch moderation. It's a savvy move from Zuckerberg, but there is also a sense that Facebook's call for regulation is somewhat based on inevitability. Facebook is facing numerous investigations.
Donie will have more about this on CNN.com on Monday...
The "rabbit hole" problem
As March turns into April, Facebook is vowing to ban white nationalism and crack down on vaccine misinformation. The Atlantic's Taylor Lorenz joined me to talk about this on Sunday's show... She said there's still a big problem with the algorithmic heart of big tech, the recommendation engines that send users down radical "rabbit holes." Watch the segment here...
Meanwhile, in India...
The WSJ's Newley Purnell, reporting from New Delhi, says "viral fake news is lighting up Facebook's WhatsApp messaging app as the world's biggest democracy prepares for national elections in the coming weeks. Efforts by WhatsApp and the government to stop the spread of misinformation are having little effect, according to fact-checking groups and analysts." More...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Jussie Smollett "was a no show" at the NAACP Image Awards on Saturday. In the Best Supporting Actor in a drama series, he lost to "Grey's Anatomy" star Jesse Williams...
-- Chris Rock "ripped into" Smollett during the awards show, saying, "What a waste of light skin, you know?" (CNN)
-- Smollett "did have some support," however. "When 'Black-ish' won Outstanding Comedy Series, Yara Shahidi told the crowd, 'I stand with Jussie...'" (TMZ)
-- Beyoncé was named Entertainer of the Year... Here is the full list of winners... (E!)
| | Writers and talent agents are "on the brink of all-out war"
That's how David Robb describes it in his newest story for Deadline. "Now that the WGA's membership has overwhelmingly approved a new Agency Code of Conduct, the guild and the Association of Talent Agents are expected to return to the bargaining table this week for one last try to work out a new franchise agreement before the April 6 deadline," he wrote Sunday. "After that, guild leaders could order their members to fire their agents en masse if they refuse to sign the Code..."
About the vote...
The WGA announced the results on Sunday afternoon. "The vote was 7,882 in favor of creating a new 'Code of Conduct' for agents representing WGA with 392 voting against — that's more than 95% supporting," Variety's Dave McNary wrote. "The new rules require elimination of agencies receiving packaging fees and having ownership interest in affiliate production companies — demands that the agencies have said are not feasible." Read on...
| | "Dumbo" has a $45 million opening
Frank Pallotta writes: "Dumbo" didn't fly quite as high as expected this weekend. Disney's live-action remake of its 1941 animated classic brought in an estimated $45 million in its North America box office debut. Disney execs and box office experts both expected "Dumbo" would make $50 million in its opening weekend. Still, $45 million was enough for No. 1 domestically... And the movie has made $116 million worldwide so far...
>> "Us" was No. 2 for the weekend, earning an estimated $33.6 million in its second weekend of release...
"Unplanned" beats box office expectations
"Graced with a coveted A+ CinemaScore, the controversial anti-abortion drama 'Unplanned' opened to a strong $6.1 million from 1,059 theaters at the U.S. box office despite a relatively modest footprint," THR's Pamela McClintock wrote Sunday. Notably, industry tracking had suggested just "a $3 million debut" for the movie, so it doubled expectations. "The R-rated film — landing in fifth place — scored the second-biggest start ever for faith-based distributor Pure Flix."
The distributor said most TV networks declined its ads for the movie. But the ads have been in heavy rotation on Fox News. And the movie received a boost over the weekend when Twitter inexplicably briefly suspended the @UnplannedMovie account. The resulting anti-Twitter outcry helped spread the word about the movie, and landed the directors on Sunday's "Fox & Friends" to talk about it...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- John Herrman's newest column about the TikTok app: It's "a good way to waste some time at work..." (NYT)
-- Spoiler alert for Sunday's season finale of "The Walking Dead:" Here's the review by Brian Lowry... (CNN)
-- And here's an interview with "Dead" showrunner Angela Kang... (THR)
-- And last but not least, I loved this Arts & Leisure profile of Billie Eilish, "a teenager with more than a billion plays already." She's going to be a huge star... (NYT)
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me feedback anytime! See you tomorrow.... | | | |
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