Forward

SPECIAL EDITION: Thursday was Mueller day. What will Friday be?

I teamed up with Oliver Darcy on this special edition... There's a lot of non-Mueller news, believe it or not, including AMI's deal to sell the National Enquirer, Facebook's newest news dump, Netflix's expansion in NYC, and a former Fox personality's candid assessment of the network. But you know where we're starting...

Mueller and the information wars

Darcy writes: You would have been foolish to think that the Mueller report would unify the country around a common set of facts. That's not how things work in 2019. As the information wars rage, reality is determined by what channel you watch, what websites you visit, what feeds you follow. Each news cycle moves Americans further and further apart. And Thursday was, really, no different.

Over in one world, established news organizations reported the news. 1) The Mueller report detailed the Russian contacts with the Trump campaign, but did not establish a criminal conspiracy, and 2.) That Trump repeatedly attempted to curtail the investigation. Journalists also pointed out that the Mueller report corroborated much of the reporting that's been done for the last two years.

But over in the other world, the one dominated by pro-Trump, right-wing media personalities, a completely different narrative unfolded. Commentators exclaimed "NO COLLUSION" while willfully drowning out the other findings of the report. The focus was on revenge. This universe also favored the demeaning of journalists, asserting the report had forever tarnished the reputation of the press. One of the chyrons on Laura Ingraham's show blared, "MUELLER REPORT EXPOSES LIBERAL MEDIA ALLIES." Another asked, "WHERE IS THE LEFT'S APOLOGY TO FOX NEWS?" Much of Fox's prime time coverage was about the media "melting down." This isn't true, but tens of millions of people believe it.

The point: Just one Mueller report was released on Thursday, but what it said really depended on which media ecosystem it was digested in. If you're only reading/watching one of the two worlds, you're blind to what's unfolding...

Thursday in ten quotes

Brian Williams: "First and foremost, we urge everyone to read the report."

David Muir: The report is "far more damning to the president than the Attorney General initially indicated."

Andrew Napolitano: "He's out of legal jeopardy, but he's certainly not out of political jeopardy..."

Kellyanne Conway: "The best day since he got elected."

George Conway: "Trump is a cancer on the presidency. Congress should remove him."

Rachel Maddow: Volume two of the report is a "road map for how to charge this president with multiple felony counts of obstruction of justice."

Yoni Appelbaum, who wrote The Atlantic's "IMPEACH" cover story earlier this year: "There is sufficient evidence that President Donald Trump obstructed justice to merit impeachment hearings."

Nicole Hemmer: "As a presidential scholar who works in the Nixon White House tapes: At this point, the only reason Trump isn't Nixon circa late-1973 is Congress and conservative media."

Ari Melber: "What are Americans supposed to take from this?"

Don Lemon: "Just read the report."

The bottom line

This Katelyn Polantz story was the lead on CNN.com overnight. She wrote: "If Robert Mueller wanted to charge President Donald Trump with obstruction, he found all he needed to do it. And he found it on multiple fronts. But he didn't make a decision on whether to bring the case." Read on...

Friday's front pages

Here's Page One of the NYT, WaPo, and the WSJ:

And here are the front pages of NYC's two tabloids: "TRUMP CLEAN" versus "LOW BARR."

Carter: "It's the biggest challenge our free media has ever faced"

I asked Bill Carter, who's been on the media beat for decades, for his impressions of Thursday's news and how newsrooms should handle the days to come. He wrote: "What's going to happen in the next days and weeks will go far past gaslighting and reach outright arson. The Administration is trying to rewrite history and burn down the rule of law, and the media -- the non-Trump media -- may be the only force to counter the ultimate fake news story: That somehow a report that details shockingly corrupt activity by a President sworn to defend our Constitution and uphold our laws is actually a statement of exoneration."

Carter continued: "The media has already been used and abused by an Attorney General determined to establish a false narrative... So it's essential that the media refuse to let go of the tail of the real narrative: the truth about what the Russians did, what the Trump campaign did to embrace what the Russians did, and what Trump did to try to cover all that up. That means not allowing the intimidation effort to come, nor the inevitable distractions of some new Trumpian outrages, nor the lure of conventional reporting about a new presidential campaign, to reduce the magnitude of this scandal. The drumbeat will come as 'old news; that's all settled; this is media sour grapes for getting it all wrong; it's presidential harassment!' It's not. It's the biggest challenge our free media has ever faced. Keep ringing the bell of truth or watch it get cracked, and maybe never repaired."

Questions for Friday and beyond

-- The president has no public events scheduled on Friday. Will we see him on camera?

-- When will we hear Robert Mueller's voice?

-- Trumpworld and Foxland are pushing the "investigate the investigators" line very hard. What will come of this?

Does Sarah Sanders have any credibility left?

Well, "not founded on anything" is the new "alternative facts." Mueller's report confirms that Sarah Sanders simply made it up when she said that "countless" FBI agents had told her that they were thankful Trump had fired James Comey.

Sanders made similar claims multiple times on two different days. It was "not founded on anything," per the report. Yet she says it was merely a "slip of the tongue." Now some prominent journalists are questioning whether she should remain in her job. April Ryan said on "Erin Burnett OutFront" that "she should be fired, end of story."

Would be nice to have a briefing right about now...

Back in May 2017, when Sanders made those false statements, briefings were still near-daily sessions. Now, briefings are almost non-existent. There have only been two briefings so far this year, and the last one took place 38 days ago. But "if she ever holds another briefing, she should be grilled on that," WaPo's Aaron Blake tweeted. Sanders declined to answer my Q's on Thursday night. Here's my full story...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Vox's Dara Lind: "7 times the Mueller report caught Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders lying to press..." (Vox)

-- CJR's Kyle Pope: Mueller could "finally be the turn that convinces a surprisingly credulous White House press corps—credulous in spite of everything we've seen—that Trump's words have lost their value, that his history, now enshrined in Mueller, of lying to and about the press to further his interests and save his presidency should now be reflected in everything we say about him..." (CJR)

-- NYT's Michael Grynbaum chronicled how TV journalists unpacked the Mueller report in real time... (NYT)

-- Politico's Andrew Restuccia noted that the Mueller report "shatters" repeated claims from Trump aides that there was not turmoil in the White House... (Politico)

-- Important not to overlook this: "Mueller discovered new ways Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election..." (CNN)

Two "Mueller Report" books are in the top 10

Right now the Skylark version of "The Mueller Report" is No. 3 on Amazon's best selling books chart, while the Washington Post's version is No. 8. Both are showing an April 30 publication date. There's a third version I didn't know about, from Melville House, that's No. 42 on Amazon...

CNN's all-nighter

CNN is staying live all night and into the morning. Poppy Harlow picked up after Don Lemon signed off at midnight ET... I'll be joining Harlow during the 1 a.m. hour... "Early Start" with Christine Romans and Dave Briggs will start extra-early... And so will "New Day," with Chris Cuomo joining Alisyn Camerota for old times' sake...

What Mueller did: He confirmed a whole lot of real reporting

We heard it time after time again when a news organization published an explosive report about the Russia probe: Trump, or one of his spokespeople, would declare it to be "fake news." But on Thursday, Mueller's report confirmed that many of the stories Trump attempted to discredit were actually spot on. As Tom Kludt wrote in his article, several bombshell reports were corroborated with the release of the partially redacted report. Read all about it here...

--> More: Paul Farhi wrote in WaPo, "The fake news seems to have flowed not from the media but from the other direction." Farhi noted that the Mueller report cited "multiple instances in which Trump and White House aides misled or lied to journalists or in public statements as the investigation was unfolding."

Did the press inadvertently help Trump?

Did the dogged reporting by the press over the last two years actually inadvertently help Trump? That's a question worth asking. As Maggie Haberman wrote in a tweet, "For all of the efforts by POTUS and some of his advisors/aides to undermine or discredit the real-time reporting from multiple outlets, the political reality is it helped take away a lot of the shock value for the public, which has heard much of what's in the report before."

Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman elaborated further in a story. They stated, "If the American public or members of Congress were learning these things for the first time, the political fallout would normally be devastating."

But the reality is, the public had already known much of the contents of the Mueller report because of relentless reporting from journalists at NYT, WaPo, CNN, AP, and other news organizations. As a result, when the Mueller report was released on Thursday, it's hard to imagine anyone was truly surprised. Sure, the report contained some new information. But the picture it painted of Trump had already been illustrated to the public by the news media, removing the shock value, and effectively helping Trump survive the storm.

But over on Fox...

Oliver Darcy writes: I've been tuned into Fox News much of the night, and the programming sounds no different than it did yesterday, last week, last month, or quite frankly, last year. Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham are doing what they always do: criticizing the Mueller probe, while launching broadsides on journalists.

If you listened to any one of these hosts, you would not know that the Mueller report validated many of the things reported about Trump and his White House over the past two years. Instead, you'd think major networks and newspapers deliberately misled the American public -- which, of course, did not occur...

One piece of hypocrisy...

More from Oliver: Immediately after Barr concluded his press conference, journalists and pundits on the various news networks noted that the attorney general appeared to be spinning things in favor of Trump. It was no different over at Fox News. Chris Wallace bluntly said, "The attorney general seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, or the counselor for the president, rather than the attorney general."

Wallace was right. What he said was not crazy. But all day I've watched as Fox News opinion personalities have used clips of journalists/pundits from the other networks saying effectively the same thing Wallace did to demonstrate supposed media malpractice. That trend continued, of course, into Fox News' prime time programming.

The Fox opinion personalities, however, predictably keep leaving out the fact that one of the main faces of their own network used the same effective rhetoric. It's not surprising. There is a precedent. (Recall, for instance, when Fox News personalities slammed journalists for supposed fawning over Kim Jong Un, when their own journalists had used much of the same rhetoric.) But it is revealing. The only thing stopping Fox News opinion personalities from calling the network's own journalists biased hacks is the fact that they share the same employer -- not the work they produce.

Guess which channel Trump wants you to watch...

The president started his Twitter day by urging his followers to watch Barr's presser on Fox News and OANN. As I wrote here, he wanted to steer people toward his pre-approved channels.

In the evening, Trump tweeted an even more explicit Fox promo: "It was a really great day for America! A special evening tonight on @TuckerCarlson, @seanhannity & @IngrahamAngle Will be very interesting!" For some reason, he deleted it a little while later. But he still live-tweeted some of Fox's shows...

BuzzFeed's follow up...

Mueller's report did not back up BuzzFeed's anonymously-sourced report about Trump directing Michael Cohen to lie. EIC Ben Smith wrote a note to readers with new info about the site's reporting on Thursday night. Smith: "The facts of Cohen's lies and his interactions with Trump are, largely, now settled. Our sources — federal law enforcement officials — interpreted the evidence Cohen presented as meaning that the president 'directed' Cohen to lie. We now know that Mueller did not." Smith stopped short of expressing any regret for the story...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Susan Glasser: "The Mueller Report Won't End Trump's Presidency, But It Sure Makes Him Look Bad..." (New Yorker)

-- Wired's Garrett Graff writes that the Mueller report was "much worse for Trump than Barr let on..." (Wired)

-- CNN's Katelyn Polantz explains, "If Robert Mueller wanted to charge President Donald Trump with obstruction, he found all he needed to do it..." (CNN)

-- The WSJ's editorial board is out with its take, titled, "Obstruction of Nothing." The editorial board writes that "Mueller vindicates Trump on collusion and plays Hamlet on obstruction..." (WSJ)

-- David French writes that the Mueller report "should shock our conscience." He said, "I must confess that even as a longtime, quite open critic of Donald Trump, even I was surprised at the sheer scope, scale, and brazenness of the lies, falsehoods, and misdirections..." (National Review)

HBO to Trump: Stop using our intellectual property "for political purposes"

Trump seems to like making "Game of Thrones" references. On Thursday, after Barr's press briefing, the president tweeted a graphic that used the HBO series' font and imagery to say "NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION" and "GAME OVER."

Soon after, HBO released a statement. "Though we can understand the enthusiasm for Game of Thrones now that the final season has arrived, we still prefer our intellectual property not be used for political purposes," the network said.

IN OTHER NEWS...

AMI sells National Enquirer for reported $100 million

The National Enquirer is no longer on the market! American Media Inc. said on Thursday that it had reached a deal to sell the supermarket tabloid. The National Enquirer will be sold to James Cohen, who comes from the family that started Hudson News, the company known for newsstands at airports across North America.

News of the sale was first reported by The Washington Post's Sarah Ellison, who said the publication had been sold for $100 million. AMI said that as part of the deal, two other titles, the Globe and National Examiner, will also be sold. In total, the sale of the properties will reduce the company's debt to $355 million, AMI said.

The sale, of course, comes as the publication is mired in various controversies. The National Enquirer first earned national headlines for its role in shielding Trump from embarrassing stories using the "catch and kill" tactic. More recently, it has been at war with Jeff Bezos who has accused the tabloid of trying to extort him.

Facebook perfects the art of the news dump

Heather Kelly emails: Facebook knows how to announce bad news. And it has had extra practice over the past year. On Thursday, the company took the classic tech "news dump" to new heights when it announced that "millions" of Instagram passwords had been improperly stored, not just tens of thousands as it previously said. To share this nugget of news, Facebook added an update to a month-old blog post the Thursday before a holiday weekend, right before the Mueller report was released to the public.

The company appears to have a particular fondness for announcing bad news right before a holiday, like it did with its Russian propaganda search tool and its report on the role it played in Myanmar. However, it is worth noting that it has had so many unflattering news announcements, that the majority did not happen before a holiday. There are only so many holidays.

Far-right UK figures and groups banned from platform

Facebook on Thursday also moved to ban "a number of far-right groups and their leaders in the United Kingdom after determining that they 'spread hate,'" Ivana Kottasová wrote for CNN Business. Those groups included the British National Party, Britain First, the English Defence League, Knights Templar International and the National Front. Former British National Party leader Nick Griffin was also banned. Facebook said they had been banned for violation of a policy that does not allow for "those who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- WaPo's Tony Romm reports that federal investigators probing Facebook "ave set their sights on the company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg..." (WaPo)

-- An Phung emails: Bustle's CEO Bryan Goldberg sat down with Ken Doctor for a Q&A. Goldberg wants to build Bustle into the "Meredith of the digital age..." (Nieman Lab)

-- A judge on Thursday dismissed Harvey Weinstein's former companies from a racketeering lawsuit filed by 10 women... (Bloomberg)

James Murdoch spox denies FT report

A spokesperson for James Murdoch on Thursday denied a Financial Times report that indicated the billionaire was planning on investing $1 billion in a "portfolio of media companies that could include a liberal-leaning news outlet." In a statement to The Wrap, Murdoch's spokesperson said Murdoch "is not currently looking at any investments in news properties" and added that the FT did not speak with "anyone with insights into Mr. Murdoch's current plans."

>> Per The Wrap, The FT did not respond to a request for comment...

Former Fox News host: Network was founded with aim of "demonizing the other"

Former Fox News host Eboni Williams appears to see her former employer in new light after leaving the network in 2017. Williams, who co-hosted "The Specialists" before its cancellation, said on Thursday that Fox News "has a reputation for being bigoted and racist all for very good reason."

Williams alleged that Fox News was formed "to speak to one thing and one thing only: the demonizing of the other." Williams said the reason she was on Fox News was "because I felt I was going to be a savior of sorts, and talk to people in the middle."

>> I reached out to a Fox News spokesperson to see if the network had any comment, but did not hear back...

"Malicious software attack" knocks Weather Channel off air

The Weather Channel said it was knocked off air on Thursday by a "malicious software attack on the network." As a result, the morning show "AMHQ" was unable to broadcast as scheduled at 6am ET, and taped programming aired in its place. In the latter half of the 7am hour, the show returned to the air.

In a statement, The Weather Channel said, "Federal law enforcement is actively investigating the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience to viewers as we work to resolve the mater."

U.S. slips in World Press Freedom Index

NPR's Sasha Ingber writes: "The United States has become a less safe place for journalists, and the threats they face are becoming the standard, according to a new report by an international press freedom organization. Reporters Without Borders "dropped the U.S. to No. 48 out of 180 on its annual World Press Freedom Index, three notches lower than its place last year. The move downgrades the country from a 'satisfactory' place to work freely to a 'problematic' one for journalists..."

Baron's past-tense message

At Thursday night's Overseas Press Club awards dinner in lower Manhattan, WaPo editor Marty Baron talked about America's promotion of press freedom -- pointedly in the past tense.

"For decades," he said, "the United States, through its government, proudly spoke up against repression" of reporters in other countries. The United States "did so, first, by showing respect for a constitutionally guaranteed free press in this country -- even when it was angry over what was written or broadcast. And it did so by embracing free speech and a free press worldwide, giving encouragement to citizens elsewhere who saw our First Amendment -- and America's democratic norms -- as a model... as a cause for hope... as reassurance that their aspirations would be heard. That they would be supported by the most powerful nation on earth. Supported by its people. And supported by our president."

Baron didn't mention Trump, nor did he need to. Baron's use of the past tense said everything. His speech turned optimistic when he spoke about this year's OPC award winners... Here is the full text. And, most importantly, congrats to all the winners... Here's the list!

ICYMI...

Nariman El-Mofty on this week's "Reliable" pod

AP photojournalist Nariman El-Mofty won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday and accepted an Overseas Press Club award on Thursday. Quite a week! El-Mofty is one of my guests on this week's podcast. I also spoke with Pulitzer Prize administrator Dana Canedy. Listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your app of choice...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Alamo Drafthouse announced it will offer free "Hunchback of Notre Dame" in various cities... (THR)

-- NY Yankees halted the use of Kate Smith's "God Bless America" over allegations of racism... (Deadline)

Netflix to open NYC production hub

Frank Pallotta emails: Netflix is opening a production hub in New York City that will bring "up to $100 million in investments to the city," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Thursday. The streaming video company's new Manhattan offices will take up approximately 100,000 square feet in New York's Flatiron District.

>> Cuomo's statement: "Netflix is innovative, creative and bold - just like New Yorkers - and the expansion of this cutting-edge company in New York once again demonstrates the Empire State is open for business."

MoviePass subscriber plunge?

MoviePass' subscriber base has plunged from 3 million to roughly 225,000, Business Insider reported on Thursday. The publication cited internal data it had obtained, and said that it was "the latest sign of the collapse of movie-ticket-subscription startup."

That said, a spokesperson for MoviePass pushed back on the BI report, telling me that the numbers included in it were "incorrect." But when I asked if the spokesperson could provide an accurate set of numbers, the spokesperson declined.

Chrissy Teigen goes nuclear on Laura Ingraham

Chrissy Teigen did not let Laura Ingraham's criticism of her inclusion on the Time 100 list go unanswered. After Ingraham suggested Tiegen was unworthy of a spot on the list, Teigen laced into her in a series of tweets.

In one tweet in particular, Teigen wrote, "When Time comes out with their 100 most influential white supremacists list, I promise I won't question your worthiness, @IngrahamAngle." A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to CNN's request for comment...

...Meanwhile, Bieber says Ingraham should be fired

Ingraham also took fire on Thursday from Justin Bieber who called on her to be fired for her controversial comments on rapper Nipsey Hussle following his death. "Absolutely disgusting what you did on national television," Bieber wrote in an Instagram post. "How dare you laugh in the face of a person who has passed on." Bieber added, "Did you not think about the family who just lost a love one and now have to see you mock him on national television It's absurd and you should be fired period." 😬

By Lisa Respers France:

-- "Game of Thrones" and "Aquaman" star Jason Momoa shaved his beard and the internet promptly had feelings about it...

-- "Jeopardy" contestant James Holzhauer is so on fire that he has broken his own record...

-- Shade or just bad planning? Kim Kardashian West announced a launch the same day as Taylor Swift's mysterious launch – but later canceled that...

-- Frank Pallotta emails: After years of waiting, reporting and speculation, here's the biggest thing that was released on Thursday... the new trailer for the "Fast & Furious" spinoff, "Hobbs & Shaw..."

-- Chloe Melas emails: Joe Giudice's deportation appeal was denied...

-- Another one from Melas: Wendy Williams' husband is out as executive producer of her daytime talk show...

"Ramy" puts fresh spin on Muslim experience

Brian Lowry emails: Hulu has another winner — a significant and timely one — in "Ramy," comic Ramy Youssef's series about his quest for identity as a young Muslim living in New Jersey. There are elements of "The Big Sick" and "Master of None" in the show, but it also feels wholly distinctive and deeply personal, especially in the way it fleshes out the supporting characters.

Read Lowry's full review here...

"Last Man Standing" renewed

Lowry sends another: Fox has renewed "Last Man Standing," the Tim Allen comedy that it picked up from ABC, for another season. Notably, the show no longer offers the same synergistic benefits to the network, inasmuch as it's produced by 20th Century Fox Television, which is now part of Disney.

Thank you for reading. Email me anytime! See you tomorrow...