EXEC SUMMARY: The media news is overflowing right now. Let's start with news about NBC, ABC and CBS... Plus, the latest with Rudy Giuliani, Chris Matthews, Megyn Kelly, Jay Wallace, Will Welch, Zoe Kravitz, Bryan Goldberg, Sarah Silverman, and many others...
| | Farrow's book is finally here
Ronan Farrow will be on CNN's "New Day" Tuesday morning, the day "Catch and Kill" hits bookstores. I know some people are staying up late right now waiting for his book to arrive on their e-book readers. So here are the latest "Catch" developments:
Farrow says the Enquirer shredded Trump-related docs
In chapter three of "Catch and Kill," Farrow reports that National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard directed staffers to shred documents when the Wall Street Journal called for comment before publishing the first story about the Enquirer's "catch and kill" relationship with Donald Trump. Farrow says Howard "appeared to be in a panic."
Something inside American Media's infamous safe was destroyed after the WSJ called that day, according to Farrow: Without explaining exactly how he knows, he writes that "a Trump-related document from the safe, along with others in the Enquirer's possession, had been shredded..."
>> Farrow tweeted that this is "the first time a reporter has gained access to AMI's list of the contents of its vault of Trump secrets — and the first disclosure of claims that AMI destroyed material about Trump before the election..."
The Enquirer's denial
AMI said that Farrow's reporting is "completely" untrue: His narrative "is driven by unsubstantiated allegations from questionable sources and while these stories may be dramatic, they are completely untrue," the company said. As for Howard, he has retained a lawyer, Paul Tweed, who said "we have advised Mr. Howard to make no further comment at this stage, while all legal options and jurisdictions are being considered."
NBC says the book is a "smear"
In a Monday A.M. memo seemingly timed to Farrow's hit on "CBS This Morning," NBC News president Noah Oppenheim said Farrow "is clearly motivated not by a pursuit of truth, but an axe to grind." Oppenheim said the book is "built on a series of distortions, confused timelines, and outright inaccuracies." He focused on the claims about secret settlements with Matt Lauer accusers.
I wrote about the back-and-forth in detail here... So read on...
MSNBC's Chris Hayes commends Farrow
He talked about the "insidious destructive force of the path of least resistance" on Monday night, linking the NBA's China controversies to the "very public controversy" over NBC's conduct vis a vis Weinstein. Via Mediaite, here's what Hayes said:
Farrow's Weinstein report is "the kind of journalism that you want to do as a journalist, that everyone who works in this business should want to facilitate. Of course, there's a reason it took so long for the true story about Weinstein to be told, for the many allegations of him to stay locked in a vault. And that's because time and again the path of least resistance for those in power was not to cross Weinstein or his army of friends and lawyers. Same goes for the many, many, many other powerful predators that we've come to know about. The path of least resistance is always there. Beckoning seductively, with an entirely plausible cover story, you've got bigger fish to fry, this isn't the hill to die on, the story isn't ready. But, of course, it's the very ease of that path that makes it the enemy to the kind of work we, as journalists, are supposed to do."
Where to hear Farrow
Along with "New Day," he'll be on NPR's "Fresh Air" and BuzzFeed's "AM to DM" on Tuesday... More to come later in the week...
Chris Matthews recovering from prostate cancer surgery
Steve Kornacki shared the news with "Hardball" viewers on Monday night. "Chris hasn't been here for the last few nights and we wanted to let you know why," he said. "Chris is recovering from prostate cancer surgery last week. The procedure went well but he's taking a few days to get back into fighting shape. He's looking forward to getting back very soon." Best wishes to Matthews...
TUESDAY PLANNER
As mentioned, "Catch and Kill" hits bookshelves... So does Elton John's autobiography...
7am ET: ABC airs the first clips from Amy Robach's interview with Hunter Biden...
10am ET: Google's big hardware event...
8pm ET: CNN and the NYT hold the fourth #DemDebate of the season...
This is a big black eye for ABC News
"ABC aired supposedly shocking footage Monday and Sunday purporting to be from the frontline battle between the Syrian Kurds and the invading Turks. The only problem is, the footage appears to come from a nighttime machine gun demonstration at the Knob Creek Gun Range in West Point, Kentucky," the Washington Examiner's T. Becket Adams wrote Monday.
Adams was one of the first reporters to look into this -- he was tipped off by a Twitter user. ABC issued a correction on Twitter and said the news division "regrets the error." That's an understatement...
How could this happen?!
This is a stunning, embarrassing error for one of the nation's biggest news outlets. The video aired on Sunday's "World News Tonight" AND Monday's "GMA." I'm told that ABC is investigating what went wrong... But so far, as the NYT noted, the network is declining to comment "on how the mix-up had happened."
At least ABC fessed up to the mistake
The NYT's Mike McIntire made an important point on Twitter about "the difference between journalistic mistakes and fake news." Here's what he wrote, in italics: - It actually IS a mistake and not willful propaganda
- It's acknowledged and corrected
- Partisan opportunists seize on it anyway to claim bias
13,435 false or misleading claims
Per the latest data from Glenn Kessler and the WaPo fact-checking team, Trump is averaging 13.5 false claims a day...
FIRST LOOK
Zirinsky and O'Donnell on the cover of Variety
While NBC and ABC are embroiled in controversies, CBS News is celebrating its recent lineup changes -- new "Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell is on the cover of this week's Variety alongside Susan Zirinsky -- here's a sneak peek of the cover: | | Brian Steinberg's cover story will be up on Variety.com on Tuesday morning... Here are a couple of notable pull quotes:
O'Donnell: "I am not naive to the challenges" of the 6:30 time slot. "An audience has to find you over a period of time. My friends who have done well with the morning or the evening [news] did so after many years of getting people to find them."
Zirinsky: "In this evolution of linear television and digital, the historic placeholders still matter. The evening news remains a legacy broadcast. It has within its soul the very tenets that give this entire organization its mantra. It's really about straightforward journalism. It's about investigations. It's about breaking stories. But that does not mean we are living in a tower holding on to memories of the past. It means we want to take this iconic broadcast and make it a broadcast for the future."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo are sharing this year's Booker prize... (Guardian)
-- "Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, the co-founders of Fusion GPS, are publishing a book in December." The title: "Crime in Progress: The Secret History of the Trump-Russia Investigation..." (Daily Caller)
-- Lizzie Widdicombe with a unique angle on the news: "How to beat Trump, according to experts on middle-school bullies..." (The New Yorker)
"We will not be intimidated"
Several newsrooms took steps to reassure their staffers after the digital video of a superimposed Trump murdering journalists and lawmakers caught fire on Monday. The NYT's report about the "meme" being shown at a pro-Trump conference at Doral caused national news coverage. Outlets like CNN did not show the video, but web surfers knew where to find it.
The logos of many news outlets appeared in the video, including HuffPost's logo, so EIC Lydia Polgreen emailed staffers to remind them about available resources and say that "we have alerted security to the possibility of new threats." As journalists, she wrote, "we play an indispensable role in our democracy... We will not be intimidated and we will do our constitutionally protected work."
"Violent Video Leaves a Trail to Trump Allies"
The NYT's follow-up story is on Tuesday's front page. The lead says "the creator" of the vile video is part of "a loose network of right-wing provocateurs with a direct line to the White House."
Why it matters: "The connections underscore how the president's escalating war on what he calls the 'fake news' media has elevated people from the far-right fringe into presidential allies who defend him with extreme language and images." Read on...
The "meme" conundrum
In this new column, the NYT's Charlie Warzel perfectly captures the problem with covering hateful "memes" like the violent Trump video. Allow me to quote him at length:
"Taking the meme video seriously does the unfortunate work of amplifying the clip, increasing view counts and potentially ad revenue from it. Responding to the trollish world of MAGA memes is a lot like arguing with a child. To engage at all is, in some way, to lose; no matter how righteous and warranted your outrage is, you're pulled down to their level. So much of Sunday's meme controversy is breathtakingly dumb: It's a childish video based on a second-tier action movie that played on a loop in a Miami conference room as part of a 'hall of memes' exhibition."
BUT, Warzel writes, "the grim reality" is that "the conspiratorial hate we see online is increasingly leaking out into the physical world." So these crude videos DO matter...
YouTube says the video is 'purely fictional;' some journalists disagree
Donie O'Sullivan emails: The Trump-murders-critics fantasy video has been up on YouTube for more than a year. A YouTube rep told me on Monday that the video didn't break its rules against incitement to violence because it's "purely fictional." YouTube might think so, but for some journalists and newsrooms it depicts something very real, and capable of provoking violence. Read on...
Will Trump say anything?
W.H. press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Monday morning that Trump, without actually seeing the meme, "strongly condemns this video."
Trump tweeted about lots and lots of other topics on Monday, but not this. Brooke Baldwin used her platform on CNN to address him directly. "Mr. President, why is it taking you so long to condemn this video?" she asked. "You tweet all the time. I don't want to hear from your press secretary, who says you strongly condemn the video, I want to hear from YOU."
"Put an end to rhetoric..."
Lemme highlight one more reaction. Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement that "the president must not only denounce this horrifying video, but also put an end to rhetoric that's contributed to an environment here in the United States where journalists are threatened, harassed, and physically attacked."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Want to go "inside the pro-Trump conference where a violent meme made national news?" C.J. Ciaramella was there, and he filed this must-read... (Reason)
-- Drew Harwell and Tony Romm: "A perpetual cycle of shock guarantees wider distribution for pro-Trump images..." (WaPo)
-- Margaret Sullivan writes: "The president of the United States didn't create this problem, any more than he created the video. But, in many, many ways, he has unleashed a vile hatred of journalists that is playing out before our eyes. And it couldn't be more dangerous." (WaPo)
-- An intriguing tweet from Maggie Haberman: "Amid the questions about who is on TV for the White House, there have been efforts to put administration officials on TV but some have been rejected by some of the networks, per ppl involved..." (Twitter)
"THE PRESIDENT'S LAWYER NOW UNDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION"
Rudy Giuliani's legal problems have been piling up by the day, as that banner from "Cuomo Prime Time" showcased. The WSJ has the latest story: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are examining Rudy Giuliani's business dealings in Ukraine, including his finances, meetings and work for a city mayor there..."
--> John Bolton with the quote of the day, as relayed by Fiona Hill during her day-long testimony on Monday, and reported by the NYT: "Giuliani's a hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up..."
--> Bill Carter tweeted: "Really funny watching CNN using shorthand for Rudy's businesses associates, just calling them 'Lev and Igor.' Sounds like characters from 'The Addams Family.'"
Impeachment probe update on Tuesday
A Democratic source tells CNN's Manu Raju that there will be a brief Dem caucus meeting on the impeachment inquiry Tuesday evening to discuss the latest in the investigation. It's expected at 6pm...
Fox News prez speaks
Fox News president Jay Wallace, who runs the company's news operation, is trying to assuage news staffers who think Shep Smith's exit is a bad omen. The 3pm hour "is going to remain a solid news hour, with our best news stars... Journalism is a huge part of the mandate here," Wallace told the aforementioned Brian Steinberg in an interview.
Trace Gallagher anchored the time slot on Monday. The plan calls for "Fox News Reporting" to air with rotating anchors -- including Bret Baier, Chris Wallace, Brit Hume, Shannon Bream, Martha MacCallum, Bill Hemmer and John Roberts -- until sometime next year, when a new anchor will be named.
The obvious tension: Fox News viewers want opinion or, more to the point, shows like Sean Hannity's that seem like news but are actually pro-Trump opinion organs. But Wallace says 3pm will be a "solid news hour..."
"Fighting on air is an absolute no-go for us"
This quote from Wallace is also notable, given that the on-air tensions between Smith and Tucker Carlson were apparently a final straw for Smith: "Fighting on air is an absolute no-go for us... Our guidance has always been to deal with this – if you have a problem with someone, pick up the phone. These are sharp people. Why do you want to parade this in front of everyone? Our audience doesn't want to see it."
Megyn Kelly returning to Fox...
For one night only, the network says. She is booked on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Wednesday for her first TV appearance since being pushed out of NBC a year ago.
"The announcement is certain to spark a flurry of questions as to whether Fox News is considering bringing Kelly" back, Steinberg wrote. So "when asked if executives at the Fox Corporation-owned network expected Kelly to make other appearances on its air, the network said in a statement: "Megyn Kelly's forthcoming guest appearance on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' was coordinated weeks ago and is a one-time occurrence. Any future programming changes we are considering do not involve her."
SPEAKING OF KELLY...
"Bombshell" begins to hit
"'Bombshell' lives up to its title, and then some, and the explosive story of the scandal in which a group of women brought down Fox News founder and ruler Roger Ailes entered the Oscar race in a big way Sunday," Deadline's Pete Hammond writes. At L.A. screenings on Sunday, "reaction was strong for a movie that is funny, fierce, furious, powerful, timely and moving — qualities that ought to secure it a place in the Oscar conversation as the season ramps up," he says.
>> Charlize Theron on her portrayal of Megyn Kelly: "Whether she's a hero or not — that's not really a question I ever asked myself... I don't think I've ever chased playing heroes. There's an earnestness about it that instantly turns me off. I'm interested in people who are complicated and flawed and make mistakes, because I relate a lot."
>> There's a big NYC screening coming up this weekend...
GQ on 'new masculinity' | | Kerry Flynn shares her newest scoop: The cover story of GQ's November issue is out now. It features an interview with Pharrell Williams, in which GQ EIC Will Welch and the Grammy-winning artist talk about masculinity. Conversations like that are part of a new era of GQ under Welch's leadership.
I met with Welch at his office downtown earlier this month to get a preview of the story and learn more about his vision for the men's magazine. More in my story...
Layoffs at Bustle
Kerry Flynn writes: Bustle Digital Group has quietly laid off at least 17 people and staffers say diversity is declining internally. BDG CEO Bryan Goldberg accused the reporter of "spreading inaccurate rumors about layoffs and causing distress" in a statement in the piece...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "Harold Bloom, the prodigious literary critic who championed and defended the Western canon in an outpouring of influential books that appeared not only on college syllabuses but also — unusual for an academic — on best-seller lists, died on Monday at a hospital in New Haven. He was 89." (NYT)
-- Read Axios cofounder and CEO Jim VandeHei on the publisher's video strategy focused on TV rather than video for Facebook and YouTube... (Digiday)
-- Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippman's latest: "Inside Mark Zuckerberg's private meetings with conservative pundits..." (Politico)
Atlas Obscura CEO steps down
Kerry Flynn writes: David Plotz resigned in a note to readers. It comes shortly after Airbnb invested in the company and now they're asking readers for help on its CEO search. "We hope that there will be someone in our community, someone who already understands us, who knows us, who will put themselves forward, or maybe they know somebody who seems like they have the perfect sensibility," Plotz told Maxwell Tani...
Congrats to this year's Murrow winners | | I had the honor of presenting some of the Murrow Awards on stage at Gotham Hall on Monday night. Check out the full list of winners here. Bill Bradley accepted an award on behalf of SiriusXM and told the audience he had one thing he wanted to say: "Stay strong. The country needs you."
Celebrating "She Said"
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey thanked their editors, fact-checkers, friends, and most of all their sources at a Monday night book party in NYC. "Sources mean everything in this work," Twohey said. One of the "She Said" sources in attendance was former Weinstein Co. exec Irwin Reiter, who Kantor previously described as "kind of the 'Deep Throat' of the Harvey Weinstein investigation."
At the conclusion of the toasts, Kantor called up her teenage daughter. "You and your peers are the reason we did this work," she said... "May your generation only know safety and dignity and more protection."
In attendance: Ron Lieber, Ann Godoff, A.G. Sulzberger, Mark Thompson, Dean Baquet, Rebecca Corbett, Dean Murphy, Gayle King, Mosheh Oinounou, Nicholas Confessore, Rachel Sklar, Peter Lattman, Matt Purdy, Jessica Bennett, Lacey Schwartz-Delgado, Radhika Jones, Joanna Coles, Glynnis MacNicol, Cindi Leive, Elyse Cheney, Marisa Tomei, Laura Brown, Alana Newhouse, Bruce Feiler, Monica Lewinsky, Rebecca Soffer, Gayle King, Ari Melber, Kate Shaw, Lydia Polgreen, Emily Steel, Susan Dominus, Susanne Craig, Wesley Morris, Rebecca Ruiz, Jacob Weisberg, many more...
| | "Bourne" again
Brian Lowry writes: USA network is capitalizing on its parent company's intellectual property with "Treadstone," a crisply done action series spun out of the Jason Bourne franchise. The show will make its debut paired with another movie spinoff, the second-season premiere of "The Purge." More...
Sarah Silverman's HBO deal
"Sarah Silverman is getting back into business with HBO," THR's Rick Porter writes. "The comedian has signed a deal with the premium cable outlet to star in a stand-up special and a pilot for a late-night series..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- "Netflix's aura of invincibility is on the line this week," Lucas Shaw writes, previewing Wednesday's earnings report... (Medium)
-- "Zoe Kravitz has been tapped to play Catwoman, the antiheroine and sometime-love-interest of the Caped Crusader, in Matt Reeves' upcoming 'The Batman...'" (Variety)
-- "Not even an animated movie about a cuddly yeti could avoid becoming a flashpoint in an international dispute involving China," Ryan Faughnder writes. "Vietnam has reportedly pulled the DreamWorks Animation cartoon 'Abominable' from theaters because of the movie's depiction of a map of China that includes the nation's 'nine-dash line,' which unilaterally lays claim to a vast expanse of the South China Sea..." (LAT)
-- Via Megan Thomas: This is an interesting story about Hollywood talent heading to YouTube for a side hustle by Natalie Jarvey... (THR)
Disney+ flexes its content muscle
Frank Pallotta writes: My Twitter feed was overrun with Disney-owned content on Monday morning as Disney+'s official account tweeted out pretty much everything the new service will have to offer.
Everything from "Star Wars" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to (and these are real) "The Shaggy D.A." and "Gus," a 1976 film about a football-playing donkey.
The marketing strategy seemingly worked as Twitter users commented about the widespread content proving that, yes, Disney+ will be the home to some of Hollywood's most popular brands, but also some of its weirdest programming...
Series-high ratings for "Succession"
Brian Lowry writes: The "Succession" season two finale drew a series-high 1.2 million viewers on Sunday night — a number that will obviously grow with delayed viewing. It's not a huge audience, certainly by "Game of Thrones" standards, but clearly in terms of the growing media infatuation with the show, it's the right audience...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- With her Grammys and having topped more than the Cristian music chart, Lauren Daigle's the crossover artist leading the 50th Gospel Music Association Dove Awards...
-- Elton John has defended Ellen DeGeneres' friendship with George W. Bush...
-- "Hamilton" star Miguel Cervantes and his wife are mourning the death of their 3-year-old daughter after her battle with a severe form of childhood epilepsy...
-- Trace Adkins married his longtime girlfriend, actress Victoria Pratt, with an assist from fellow country star Blake Shelton...
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Sean Spicer lives to dance another week | | Sean Spicer as Woody from "Toy Story" was not eliminated from "Dancing With the Stars" on Monday night... Because, well, no one was eliminated... But he did end the night with the lowest score of the evening, per ET...
ICYMI...
How to catch up on Sunday's "Reliable Sources"
Read the transcript... Listen to the podcast through your preferred app... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or catch the entire episode via CNNgo or VOD...
| | | Thanks for reading! Send me your feedback via email or connect with me on Twitter. See you tomorrow... | | | |
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