Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Disney-Fox is about to take effect, The Hive's editor is stepping down, Vice is looking for more financing, Harvey Weinstein is hiring more lawyers, and here's all the latest...

Tired of waiting?

Washington is "jittery, full of rumor, like a becalmed ship in the dead air before a coming storm."

Oh yes, we're talking about Robert Mueller's allegedly imminent report.

This NYT story about DC holding its breath is on the front page of Wednesday's newspaper. Nicholas Fandos and Noah Weiland write: "It may or may not be the report of the century, it may or may not be ready soon, and it may be only a few pages long. But it is unquestionably one of the capital's most anticipated documents since the Starr Report."

So is this the week? I wish I knew. But The Times is right about the rumors and guessing games. And even if Mueller doesn't deliver anything, his probe is still making news on at least three fronts. There was a new update in the Michael Flynn case on Tuesday evening. Paul Manafort's final sentencing hearing is on Wednesday. And Roger Stone is back in court on Thursday.

The known unknowns

Chris Cuomo led Tuesday night's "Primetime" with these questions: "Is Mueller making his last stand tomorrow with Manafort, or are more indictments coming, or are we really now on report watch?" No matter what, "the president's backers are preparing for war," he said before bringing in Rep. Matt Gaetz.

When Gaetz spun a conspiratorial web about the Mueller team's donations to Democrats, Cuomo stopped him and said "Bob Mueller is more Republican than you've been on your best day." Watch...

Full of surprises?

Democrats have been fretting that Mueller's report might be "a dud," as Wednesday's NYT story noted.

But what if Mueller's findings are full of surprises? As the NYT's Peter Baker said on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon, Mueller has done "a remarkable job of holding his cards tight to the vest. His office does not leak, much to our frustration. We do not know things until he's ready for us to know them. It's very possible that when he finally shows those cards, he has a lot of things there that we don't know anything about."

Will transparency prevail?

On "AC360" Tuesday night, Carl Bernstein brought up the overarching principle that "the American people be fully informed about the most important aspects of this investigation."

He said "I can't imagine that the new Attorney General of the US, Mr. Barr, wants to end his public career by suppressing what the American people need to know..."

IN OTHER NEWS...

Alex Trebek is still at work 🙏

Alex Trebek was at work on Tuesday, just as he said he would be, nearly one week after sharing his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Tuesday was the first scheduled day of production at "Jeopardy!" since Trebek's announcement last Wednesday. "We are taping today, and Alex is here and behind his lectern as scheduled," a spokeswoman for the beloved quiz show told me. The show normally has two production days a week. Here's my full story...

CNN sued by Nicholas Sandmann

Last month Kentucky high school student Nicholas Sandmann and his lawyers sued the Washington Post for defamation. Now a second lawsuit has been filed, this time against CNN. The suit accuses CNN of "waging a 7-day media campaign of false, vicious attacks against Nicholas" and seeks $275 million in damages.

>> TheWrap's Jon Levine has details here...

>> A CNN spokeswoman declined to comment on the suit...

>> William A. Jacobson of Legal Insurrection, a conservative law blog, wrote Tuesday night: "I have the same questions about the legal sufficiency of the CNN case as the WaPo case." Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- News Corp's campaign against the power of Google and Facebook continues: Its Australia division "is calling for the breakup of Google" in a submission to regulators... Sherisse Pham has details here... (CNN)

-- Bloomberg reporter Gerry Smith's tweet about the News Corp stance: "It's not every day you see Rupert Murdoch and Elizabeth Warren on the same side of an issue..."

-- Speaking of Warren, Ted Cruz retweeted her and said he agrees that "Big Tech has way too much power to silence Free Speech..." (Mediaite)

-- Per CNN's Jean Casarez, "three new attorneys officially joined the Harvey Weinstein defense team Tuesday afternoon, including high profile New York criminal defense attorney Arthur L. Aidala." Fox viewers will recall that Aidala was a longtime Fox contributor...

Operation Varsity Blues

This college-admissions cheating scam is the ultimate "talker," to use a popular TV newsroom term. As Chloe Melas wrote here, the allegations read "like a Hollywood plot." And two famous TV moms, Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, are at the center of it all. Other well-known names are also among the "50 individuals facing federal charges." All the nightly newscasts led with the scandal. Most major news sites are leading with it right now too. Here's the latest reporting from CNN's team...

So many angles...

Brian Lowry emails: At the risk of stating the obvious, it's amazing how many separate beats this college-admission scandal story bridges: business, sports, entertainment, education and of course politics. It's the kind of thing that should keep this in the headlines for some time to come...

Imagining the movie already...

VF's Yohana Desta wonders: "Will their story inspire a Social Network-esque film? A Lifetime movie? A doc war, à la Fyre Fest?" I'll go with all of the above...

Howard Stern's book is #1 on Amazon

Never doubt the power of Howard Stern's microphone: He announced his new book, "Howard Stern Comes Again," on Tuesday morning, and the newly created Amazon page for the book skyrocketed to No. 1 on the site's best sellers list. Thanks to all the pre-orders, it is still No. 1 more than twelve hours later.

>> Stern's publisher, Simon & Schuster, notes that this is his "first book in more than twenty years..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Maxwell Tani tweeted: "Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer, has been on Fox News at least 27 times since the Miami Herald dropped a big story about the Epstein case last year. But we couldn't find a single instance where any Fox host asked him about Epstein." (The Daily Beast)

-- Kwadar Ray, a student journalist at Pace University, says the David J. Pecker Lecture Hall -- named for the AMI boss and Pace grad -- needs a new name. Pace "should cut all ties from Pecker and remove his name from all honors and buildings..." (Lohud)

First Amendment Awards in DC on Wednesday

ABC's Pierre Thomas will emcee RTDNF's 29th annual First Amendment Dinner in DC. The honorees are:

CNN (award accepted by Jeff Zucker; presented by Carl Bernstein)
James Goldston, president of ABC News
David Begnaud, CBS News correspondent
Shepard Smith, Fox News
NBC News 2018 election "Road Warriors"
Dale Hansen, WFAA-TV (Dallas) sports anchor and commentator
Sen. Amy Klobuchar
Jamal Khashoggi (accepted by Washing Post Global Opinions Editor Karen Attiah)
Journalists of the Capital Gazette (accepted by editor Rick Hutzell)

The ceremony will be live-streamed here...

Wednesday's ad sales event and protest at Fox News HQ

As I noted in yesterday's newsletter, the anti-Fox group Media Matters is holding a protest outside the Fox News studios on Wednesday morning, coinciding with a high-profile event for ad buyers inside the studios. Other groups, including CAIR, are also supporting the protest. Details here...

Carlson's latest rant

On "New Day," I said Tucker Carlson's show is an example of Fox's "resentment TV" strategy. I suggested that standards should be raised across the board. On Tuesday night he attacked me and some other CNNers, but mostly he went after Media Matters. He said the group would like to see Fox News "shut down tomorrow," and "the other channels agree with that." He questioned the group's tax-exempt status.

Meanwhile, websites continued to publish new clips from his old radio interviews.

--> Here's a video from NowThis: "Carlson's sexual comments about a Miss Teen USA pageant are some of the most shocking yet."

--> Here's a story by The Intercept quoting Carlson saying he is "100 percent" Rupert Murdoch's "bitch."

Advertisers are avoiding Tucker's show

With Carlson's history of offensive comments still very much in the news, advertisers are asking Fox to keep them away from his hour. "There were no national advertisers on Tucker's show tonight at all," progressive writer Judd Legum noted Tuesday night. He said all the ads were for "My Pillow, 'masculine' supplements, conservative political groups, etc." On Monday Legum called out Bayer for sponsoring Carlson's show... On Tuesday Bayer was absent...

Hannity misspoke

"Tucker was going to be off this week," Sean Hannity said during the handoff between their shows, but "he came into work to stand up to this." Hannity wished him a pleasant vacation, and some viewers thought that meant Carlson will be off later this week or next week, but no... A Fox spokeswoman says no vacation is planned... This is a sensitive subject, of course, because Bill O'Reilly went on vacation and never came back in 2017...

Fox staffer points out that Pirro still hasn't apologized

Via Twitter, Fox News producer Dan Gallo gave props to his colleague Hufsa Kamal, who called out Jeanine Pirro for spreading a "false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America" last weekend. Gallo tagged Pirro and pointed out that she "has yet to apologize for her offensive remarks about Muslims." He added: "Glad that Fox condemned these comments."

IN OTHER FOX NEWS-NEWS...

The Disney-Fox deal will close on March 20

The mouse is about to eat the fox. Disney's $71 billion deal to buy most of 21st Century Fox will take effect next Wednesday, March 20... Then the slimmed-down version of FOX, including Fox News, will be off on its own. Here's my full story...

(Remember when the White House said the deal would be good for workers?)

Staffers at the 20th Century Fox studio are bracing for layoffs and other big changes. Analysts expect that Disney will lay off at least 5,000 people — some on the Fox side, others on the Disney side — in a push to achieve at least $2 billion in "cost synergies." Everyone knew this was going to happen. Everyone, I suppose, except Sarah Sanders and her boss. On the day the deal was announced, she said "the President spoke to Rupert Murdoch earlier today and congratulated him on the deal and thinks — to use one of the President's favorite words — 'this could be a great thing for jobs' and [he] certainly looks forward to seeing a lot more of those created..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Hadas Gold flagged this: Salem Media's quarterly report confirms that the company is selling HumanEvents.com and acquiring PJMedia.com... (Yahoo)

-- Citizen, the real-time crime alerting app in NYC, SF and Baltimore, launched in L.A. on Tuesday... (CNN)

-- Here is Sara Fischer's recap of what media execs were talking about at SXSW... (Axios)

Can Vice become profitable by early 2020?

That's the goal, according to this new report by The Information's Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel: "Vice Media is looking to raise a new round of financing of up to $200 million, which the company hopes will give it enough cash to reach its goal of becoming profitable in the next 12 months, according to people familiar with the situation." The funding "could be through a mix of debt and equity..."

The Hive's editor is stepping down

Jon Kelly, the editor and co-founder of VF's The Hive, is stepping down, per his memo to staff on Tuesday. Kelly and his colleagues built a powerhouse home for scoops in the past three years, with writers like Gabriel Sherman, Emily Jane Fox, Joe Pompeo, Nick Bilton, and Tina Nguyen. Now "I'm ready for a new adventure," Kelly wrote. "And in order to explore new opportunities, it's time for me to move on." No word on who will replace him at VF...

Today in the Trump-Fox feedback loop

He heard climate change denialism on "Fox & Friends" and tweeted it out to the world. Jim Sciutto and I discussed it on CNN... Mediaite has a recap here...

Vicky Ward reacts to W.H. criticism

The NYT published the first excerpts from Vicky Ward's "Kushner, Inc." book on Monday night. On Tuesday afternoon came the angry response from Sarah Sanders: "It's sad, but not surprising, the media would spend time promoting a book based on shady anonymous sources and false information instead of all the incredible work Jared and Ivanka are doing for the country."

Ward responded, "I'm proud today to join the long list of journalists disparaged by the White House... Ms. Sanders has said worse about Bob Woodward and CNN. Their reputations survive. As will mine. Neither she nor the White House can tweet my book away." The book is out next Tuesday...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- CBS has acquired "the 50% stake in the cable network Pop held by Lions Gate Entertainment, giving it complete ownership of the channel..." (WSJ)

-- Jeff Zucker speaking at a March Madness press breakfast: "I actually think news and sports are very much the same. They're both about human beings and drama and stories..." (Deadline)

-- From "Ghostbusters" to "Captain Marvel," feuding over box office data "has turned into the latest proxy battle in our ongoing culture war." Read Sonny Bunch's full piece here... (WaPo)

Hulu's new promotion with Spotify

"Hulu wants to get more Spotify users hooked on its streaming TV package: All Spotify Premium users in the U.S. will get access to Hulu's streaming VOD plan with ads for no extra cost — if they take advantage of the promo in the next three months," Variety's Todd Spangler reported Tuesday. He noted that "Hulu has aggressively pushed such promotions and discount pricing as it continues to build up its base in the face of competition from Netflix and other streaming rivals..."

>> Verge editor Chris Welch tweeted: "This is a huge 'bring it on' to a potential Apple Music / Video combo subscription. Brilliant move."

"Does Netflix Have a Brand Problem?"

Clever illustration on this Variety piece by Andrew Wallenstein:

The column is a reaction to new WarnerMedia Entertainment chair Bob Greenblatt's recent remark that Netflix lacks a brand...

Writers Guild v. the agencies

This WaPo story explains the situation well. "With the media landscape shifting, Hollywood writers are feuding with an unlikely subject: Their own agents."

Brian Lowry emails with the latest: The Writers Guild released a report on Tuesday titled "No Conflict, No Interest," detailing what the guild says are abusive practices by the major talent agencies that violate their fiduciary obligation to writers as their clients. "Agencies have coopted our power for their own financial gain," writer and former WGA president Chris Keyser said on a conference call. "What we make has almost nothing to do with what they make. That can't continue." But the WGA was short on specifics during the call, including how aggressively it would pursue legal action, which would seem to be necessary if writers hope to fundamentally alter the agencies' longstanding business practices with regards to packaging, as well as their more recent move into content production...

>> Variety's Dave McNary has more details about the report, as well as the guild's rather frustrating lack of specifics in response to questions beyond its scripted statements about it...

No "Bachelor" spoilers

Tuesday night's finale ended "with a shocking twist," Chloe Melas wrote... If you want to know, click here...

Melas also has this spoiler-filled story about who the next Bachelorette will be...

Lowry reviews "Billions" and "The Good Fight"

Brian Lowry emails: Two premium series from CBS units return in the next few days, both dealing with power, privilege, politics and corruption, in a way that feels very much in tune with liberal Trump-era concerns. But watching the two almost feels like a compare-and-contrast exercise: "Billions," the Showtime drama, gets into those issues organically -- including a prescient fourth-season plot about dealing with blackmail -- while CBS All Access' "The Good Fight" overtly addresses the Trump administration to the point of distraction, bordering on self-indulgence...

Inside Comedy Central's growth strategy

"It is again time for Comedy Central to more aggressively court its 'growth audience' — anyone who is not a young, straight, white male — Kent Alterman, the network president, said during a recent interview" with the NYT's Trish Bendix. "Enter a new slate of shows, many of them created by emerging talent with a variety of points of view, that is part of a 'conscious attempt to reflect the world we live in,' Alterman said." Read all about it here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- So you want to be a pop star in China? Lucas Shaw shows how one singer "cracked the world's hottest music market..." (Bloomberg)

-- James Corden pulled the ultimate prank on David Beckham. Here's the story by Chloe Melas... (CNN)

-- One more from Chloe: Jennifer Lopez shared a behind-the-scenes look at her engagement to ARod... (CNN)

-- Check out the new trailer for "Aladdin..." (YouTube)

STRANGEST MEDIA STORY OF THE DAY...

"Brazilian TV Station Aired 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Dialogue That Supported President of Brazil"

"An episode of 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' that aired in Brazil included 'mistranslated' dialogue in which a character vocalized support for President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro," TheWrap's Jennifer Maas scooped on Tuesday.

It's unclear how this happened... But it was "brought to the attention of 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' showrunner Dan Goor on Twitter over the weekend," and now it's "being corrected and will be reflected in all future airings..."

Thanks for reading! Email me feedback anytime. See you tomorrow...