Forward

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: McClatchy is promoting a new VP of news, "PBS NewsHour" is expanding its arts coverage, "Aladdin" is arriving in theaters... Plus, here's what I told graduating students at my alma mater today...

Exposing Alex Jones

There are big, shocking stories to be told about media manipulation in this day and age. NYT feature writer Elizabeth Williamson is telling one of them.

On Thursday Dutton will announce the acquisition of Williamson's "definitive new book" about "the Sandy Hook families' fight for online truth against conspiracy theorists led by Alex Jones."

Williamson has been reporting on this subject for many months... Some of the Sandy Hook parents have been pursuing Jones in court... And Dutton says Williamson's book will shed "significant light on how Infowars and others profited from spreading falsehoods about the shooting."

Dutton's John Parsley bought the book in a pre-empt deal from agent Gail Ross. There's no title or target release date yet. But I would preorder a copy right now if I could...

Keep reading...

Joe Pompeo, quoting a source, says The New York Times has become "a book-deal factory." Williamson's book deal further proves the point of his story. NYT reporters "are landing lucrative publishing contracts left and right these days," Pompeo writes. "One of the latest deals, I've learned, is Rachel Abrams and James B. Stewart on CBS and Les Moonves, which sold to power editor Ann Godoff at Penguin. Stewart is also about to turn in his other book, Deep State, about Donald Trump and the F.B.I. Then you've got Mike Schmidt on Russiagate, Jeremy Peters on the G.O.P., Peter Baker on James Baker, Julie Davis and Michael Shear on Trump and immigration, Carl Hulse on the Supreme Court, Kate Kelly and Robin Pogrebin on Brett Kavanaugh, Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang on Facebook, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey on #MeToo, Jim Rutenberg on truth and the media, Adam Nagourney on The New York Times, David Enrich on Trump and Deutsche Bank, Mike Isaac on Uber, Vanessa Friedman on Kate Spade, Alexandra Jacobs on Elaine Stritch, Alan Feuer on El Chapo, Jonathan Mahler on 1980s New York, Ron Lieber on the cost of college, Nikole Hannah-Jones on school segregation, Kevin Sack on race and faith, and Ben Hubbard on Mohammed bin Salman, to name a few."

Pompeo describes how the paper's management is handling this overflow of books...

Speaking of books...

"Donald Trump Jr. has signed a book deal with Center Street Books, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group, for a book 'that will focus on politics, current events and the future of the MAGA movement,'" the Playbook crew reported Wednesday morning...

THURSDAY PLANNER

-- Tom Hanks is co-hosting a special hour of "Today" with Savannah Guthrie... People mag has a preview here...

-- It's Fleet Week in NYC, so "Fox & Friends" will be live from the deck of the USS New York in the morning... Guests include Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump Jr...

-- "Aladdin" screenings start in the evening...

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...

McClatchy's new VP of news

McClatchy is appointing Kristin Roberts, currently its executive editor for politics and regional editor for its eight East Coast newsrooms, as the VP of news, with oversight for the company's 30 newsrooms across 14 states. "She is the first woman to lead News in the 162-year history of the company," McClatchy notes. She will report to CEO Craig Forman, starting next week...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- The "Colbert primary" continues: Kamala Harris is on "The Late Show" Wednesday night... (Twitter)

-- EU elections kick off on Thursday, and Facebook has already had to address 77 pages and 230 accounts peddling "bogus" info. Note that these "bogus mainly far-right disinformation networks were not identified by Facebook — but had been reported to it by campaign group Avaaz — which says the fake pages had more Facebook followers and interactions than all the main EU far right and anti-EU parties combined..." (TechCrunch)

-- Examining Radio and Television Martí: "A U.S. agency that is supposed to broadcast objective Spanish-language news programs into Cuba fails to meet basic standards of journalistic fairness and last month let an anchor describe Trump administration officials as the 'dream team' for Cuba policy, according to an independent review..." (WaPo)

Fox News more destructive than Twitter, Twitter co-founder says

Donie O'Sullivan writes: I spoke with Ev Williams, co-founder of Twitter, who now runs Medium, here at the Collision tech conference in Toronto. He says that he believes that the potential negative effects of the president's tweets on the country's political discourse are "trivial compared to the effect of the broader media." He particularly pointed at Fox News. (Fox didn't respond to our request for comment.)

Williams is not alone. His views are shared by others in Silicon Valley I have spoken to: they believe traditional media outlets have devoted extensive coverage to the destructive effects of big tech companies while not examining their own role in creating a more polarized society.

--> PLUS: Williams talked about the false allegations made against Pete Buttegieg that were first published on Medium. Read and watch 📺 here...

Williams calls Trump the 'master of the platform'

More from Donie's story: "What Trump has done with Twitter is pretty genius, frankly," Williams said in the interview on Wednesday. "He's a master of the platform like few others." Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Sarah Sanders last held a W.H. press briefing on March 11. She "has appeared at least 12 times on various Fox News programs" since then, Erik Wemple calculated... (WaPo)

-- Eliza Collins is jumping from USA Today to the WSJ, where she'll be covering 2020... (Twitter)

-- The "PBS NewsHour" is expanding its on air and online arts reporting with the help of a "$1.7 million gift from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation..." (ArtNews)

"Cover-up"

I thought this would be the quote of the day: "We believe that the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up," Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday morning.

But it turns out that THIS Pelosi line, shortly after Trump's furious Rose Garden speech, was the quote of the day: "I pray for the president of the United States, and I pray for the United States of America."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- One of the day's most important developments: "A second federal judge has now rebuffed Trump's sweeping attempt to block House lawmakers from accessing his financial records, handing him another defeat..." (CNN)

-- Jake Tapper's comment about the false statistics that were printed on Trump's Rose Garden podium: "You are paying for those lies, in more ways than just making a sign..." (Mediaite)

-- Marshall Cohen has more fact-checking here: Trump "spread at least four false claims Wednesday about the conclusions and costs of the Russia investigation..." (CNN)

-- Chuck Todd's Q on "MTP Daily:" "Republicans, at some point, do they want to sit there and have their only accomplishment be protecting Trump?" (Mediaite)

-- The NYT's Katie Rogers wrote about "how 'Infrastructure Week' became a long-running joke..." (NYT)

-- Gloria Borger says "the Democrats are having a Hamlet moment: To impeach, or not to impeach. That is the question. And here's the answer: Don't do it. Not now, and maybe never." Here's why... (CNN)

Under the skin...

Anderson Cooper's lead on Wednesday night: "Once again the world is learning just how easy it is to get under the skin of the most powerful man on earth. Today, after storming out of a meeting on infrastructure... President Trump stepped outside and unloaded on live television. And nope, that's not really normal. Not even by the dim lights of these not-normal times."

Reminder: This is what Trump is hearing...

Mediaite's Josh Feldman writes: "Fox Business' Lou Dobbs raged against Democrats tonight as he defended President Trump blowing up their infrastructure meeting and said the 'Dimms' are 'no longer borderline evil, they've crossed that line.'"

Dobbs talking about Pelosi et al: "The hell with them! Why do business with them at all? I think he did exactly the right thing."

And here's a view from the left...

Thursday's cover of the NY Daily News:

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Katie Pellico:

-- Joshua Benton marks another "milestone passed for newspapers: The Boston Globe is the first local newspaper to have more digital subscribers than print..." (NiemanLab)

-- The Guardian is hoping to "boost reader donations" in the United States to fund a new investigative series, "Toxic America," that would "explore the public health implications of all the chemicals that have crept into American food, air and water..." (Digiday)

-- "Why local foundations are putting their money behind a rural journalism collaborative..." (NiemanLab)

-- Todd Gitlin's proposal: "We need news to use about climate. Give us a daily carbon dioxide count with the weather..." (USA Today)

Is this upfront season unusually "adversarial" ?

Katie Pellico writes: Variety's Brian Steinberg summed up the annual TV upfronts season as "more contentious than in the recent past," quoting media buyers and execs who are still in the middle of an unusually tense "haggle" over ad rates. As TV networks angle for more ad dollars, Steinberg points out some possible "complications." Keep reading...

Tamron Hall on the cover of People

"Two and a half years ago when I walked out of that NBC building, I was in a fog, not knowing that so many of us lose things we think are important, and we have no idea that something better is right there," Tamron Hall told People mag in this cover story about her new baby and her forthcoming daytime talk show.

Great quote: "I'm from the South, and there's a saying: 'It's not a setback; it's a setup for something else.' That loss set me up for, yes, a dream job but also my baby, my husband, my family. I just couldn't see it coming..."

>> Hall will be on "GMA" on Thursday morning...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Priyanka Mantha has joined Group Nine as the company's first comms director for NowThis... (Playbook)

-- Roku unveiled a measurement tool that they hope will demonstrate the primacy of streaming -- or 'over-the-top' TV -- to advertisers... (Ad Age)

-- Sarah Perez for TechCrunch: "Facebook's former teen-in-residence Michael Sayman, now at Google, is back today with the launch of a new game: Emojishot, an emoji-based guessing game for iOS..." (TechCrunch)

-- I missed this the other day: Coca-Cola is bringing back New Coke "in a partnership with Netflix's sci-fi thriller 'Stranger Things,'" AdAge's Jeanine Poggi reports... Danielle Wiener-Bronner has more here... (CNN)

None of us know!

I had the opportunity to speak at my alma mater, Towson University, at the commencement ceremony for the College of Fine Arts & Communication on Wednesday. This won't surprise my producers: I immediately went off-script. I said I had noticed a graduate in the audience with a message written on her cap: "I still don't know what I'm doing." So I told her and the rest of the crowd: "I don't know what I'm doing either. None of us really do. We're all just faking it til we make it. And you will make it too."

Since we're deep into commencement season, if you notice a particularly impressive speech by a member of the media, lemme know... We will do a roundup...

Lowry was charmed by "Aladdin"

Brian Lowry emails: After much derision when the first trailer was released, "Aladdin" might have been the beneficiary of low expectations, but I found the movie pretty charming, with strong performances by the two leads and Will Smith proving perfectly fine as the Genie. That said, a lot of early reviews have been tepid, with some complaining about whether this latest animation-to-live-action adaptation was needed. That's a legitimate point, but frankly, given the studios' priorities in exploiting their existing intellectual property, such gripes tend to sound a little too much like "Old man yells at cloud," making a case for analyzing such projects in the context of how well they accomplish what they set out to do...

Sing along!

Lowry adds: LAT critic Justin Chang's set-to-the-music tweet summing up his review was particularly inspired:

🎵Prince Ali, full of CG
Not an improvement
Still I'm glad It's not as bad
As it could be
Will Smith looks odd when he's blue
For more just read this review
That posted hours ago on LAT 🎶

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Kristen Wiig's new comedy has pulled out of filming in Georgia as part of a growing Hollywood protest against an anti-abortion bill signing...

-- Even Aaron Rodgers didn't like the "Game of Thrones" finale -- and he was an extra this season!

-- The winner of Season 16 of "The Voice" was announced Tuesday, and it was a big night for a new kid on the block...

-- Baby, baby! A Brooklyn street will be renamed for the Notorious B.I.G. So if you don't know, now you know...

ITV details "duty of care" procedures for "Love Island" contestants amid Parliamentary inquiry

Katie Pellico writes: British broadcaster ITV outlined "duty of care" procedures for contestants on its hit reality show, "Love Island," in a release Wednesday. A Parliamentary inquiry was opened last week in the wake of deaths of former participants on ITV's "Love Island" as well as "The Jeremy Kyle Show," which has since been canceled. The fifth season of "Love Island" premieres June 3.

In addition to intensive medical and mental health assessments for all prospective "Islanders," a "minimum of eight therapy sessions will be provided to each Islander when they return home." Former contestants will also be offered "bespoke training on dealing with social media and advice on finance."

>> Not just a UK phenomenon... Here is Cosmo's "Everything You Need to Know" about the upcoming American iteration of the show. CBS will begin airing hour-long episodes every weeknight starting July 9...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

-- How was Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel's live "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons" redux? Sandra Gonzalez will have a full recap overnight... (CNN)

-- Steven Zeitchik recapping his newest story, pegged to Quentin Tarantino's Cannes premiere: "Is Big Hollywood's anti-spoiler movement a reasonable bid to preserve the fan experience? Or the beginning of a dangerous suppression?" (WaPo)

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

Convince me celebrity holograms aren't the worst idea

Lisa Respers France writes: Count me among those who have no desire to see Whitney Houston resurrected on stage -- or Amy Winehouse, Roy Orbison or any of the other dead celebrities modern technology now enables the world to enjoy well after they have left us. Then I talked to Base Hologram chairman and CEO Brian Becker, who is hoping people will keep an open mind about the concept. Read on...

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