Instead of leading with the biggest story of the moment, let me recommend three of the best things I've read in the past week.
Why time feels like it has melted away
"The 2010s Broke Our Sense Of Time," by BuzzFeed News reporter Katherine Miller, is spot-on.
"This long and wearying decade is coming to a close, though, even if there's no sense of an ending," she writes. "People are always saying stuff like: Time has melted; my brain has melted; Donald Trump has melted my brain; I can't remember if that was two weeks ago or two months ago or two years ago; what a year this week has been. Donald Trump tells the story of 2016 again. Your Facebook feed won't stop showing you a post from four days ago, about someone you haven't seen in three years. The Office, six years after it ended, might be the most popular show in the United States. Donald Trump tells the story of 2016 again."
That's just the beginning. Miller perfectly describes what phone-addicted life is like. Read on...
"It's worse than lies"
The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky is out with a scorcher of a column (for subscribers only). He says Trump and co. are "no longer merely lying."
"Lying is covering up the truth," he writes. But "what these people are doing goes way beyond that. It's a direct nuclear assault on the truth. It's not: I didn't break the figurine. Instead, it's "Mom, not only did I not break it, but Susie broke it, and I painstakingly glued it back together after she did so, and the facts that a) Susie has been away at camp all this time and b) you're looking at it there on the dining room table in 37 pieces are tricks, delusions -- manifestations of a vast, fake-news conspiracy against me orchestrated by Susie and Aunt Donna. They've met together recently on more than one occasion, after all, and people are saying that Aunt Donna bought two boxes of Samoas and one box of Tagalongs from Susie; and that, dear mother, is proof of the cabal!'"
"For this," Tomasky says, "we do not have a word. In the entire English language. Chew on that for a minute."
What has happened to The Discourse
"Moments Without Truth," by Nathaniel Friedman, for The New Republic, is about "how The Discourse had evolved." The Discourse, he says, is "the loose set of reflexes and affronts that function as the invisible lingua franca of the social-media world." It's the "muck we swim in," the Twitter Moments of the day, daily shocks and outrages and reactions and counter-reactions.
Friedman says "The Discourse has cannibalized itself..." Here's his argument...
What's the best thing about media/tech/culture you've read lately? Send a link, I'll share some of the submissions tomorrow...
FRIDAY PLANNER
A funeral will be held for Elijah Cummings at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore. Barack Obama as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton are expected to speak at the service...
Mark Zuckerberg will be speaking at the Paley Center in NYC...
Game 3 in the MLB World Series starts at 8:07pm ET...
Enough about the "messaging..."
Lindsey Graham said Thursday that "the White House is working on messaging" about impeachment. Per Reuters, Graham said he talked to Mick Mulvaney, and "I think they're working on getting a messaging team together."
But the W.H. already has an incredibly effective messaging arm at Fox News. And Maggie Haberman hit the nail on the head Thursday night: "For all the talk by Graham and others about messaging, the White House problem is mostly that some of this is an objectively problematic fact set that witnesses have described, not the messaging. Potus has long conflated legal problems with PR problems; this is similar."
WH extends plan to cancel NYT, WaPo subscriptions "across all federal agencies" | | Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs tweeted out this image Thursday morning, confirming that the plan to cancel the White House's NYT and WaPo subscriptions -- floated by the president during an interview with Sean Hannity that aired Monday -- was no empty threat. Jacobs notes that the WH still has an "*online* subscription" to WaPo.
Stephanie Grisham explained in a statement to the WSJ that the cancellations would take place "across all federal agencies," and be "a significant cost saving" of "hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars." CNN's team has details here. So: The exec branch is purposefully siloing itself off from some of the most valuable news sources in the country, or so the White House claims. Let's see how extensively this really gets implemented...
But his emails...
"The National Archives and Records Administration has launched an investigation into Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' use of private email for official business, according to a letter made public this week," Politico's Josh Gerstein scooped. "The inquiry was triggered by an unflattering profile of Ross last month in The Washington Post..."
Kudos to these Pompeo interviewers
From an emailer: "Every time Mike Pompeo does a local interview, the reporters are doing a remarkable job. Same thing happened in Nashville over the Kurds." Here's the latest example.
Why it matters: "So often, politicians think they can get around national media and do 'softball' interviews with local outlets. These local reporters have been doing great, hard-hitting work."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The NYT's Thursday night scoop: "Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry Into Its Own Russia Investigation" (NYT)
Jeff Zucker speaks
I interviewed CNN's boss on stage at the CITIZEN conference on Thursday... THR and The Daily Beast have recaps... | | Here are six of the takeaways:
-- Shep Smith is "a great journalist." Zucker said "I would be very open to talking to him" about joining CNN once he's available.
-- Fox News is "conspiracy TV." Zucker said "I don't think it's a journalistic organization." I pushed back, and you can read about our disagreement here.
-- "We're not looking for an antagonistic relationship" with the Trump W.H. "at all," he said. "We don't set out to be pro-Trump. We don't set out to be anti-Trump. We set out to be pro-truth. Now, I understand in this day and age why being pro-truth can be construed as anti-Trump, but that's not our problem. That's not our fault."
-- Re: CNN's parent company AT&T: "They've been as good a corporate parent as I've had, and I've seen and they've been unbelievably supportive of what we do, and a real champion of the First Amendment."
-- "It's really important, I think, to the world that CNN be strong. And that's what I'm really proud of."
-- Re: possibly running for office someday, Zucker said New York City mayor is a "good job."
The full interview is up on YouTube...
Kellyanne Conway berates Washington Examiner reporter
Oliver Darcy emails: Kellyanne Conway berated a Washington Examiner reporter and suggested she might investigate the reporter's personal life in audio of the conversation published Thursday. The dispute with reporter Caitlin Yilek centered on a line Yilek had written in a Tuesday story about Conway being considered for chief of staff. The line said Conway had "been in the middle of Trump's barbs with her husband, George, a conservative lawyer who frequently makes headlines for his criticism of the president."
The mention of George apparently set Conway off. Her assistant, Tom Joannou, phoned Yilek and the two agreed to an off-the-record conversation, according to the account published by WaEx. "But moments later," according to Yilek, "Conway took over the call, initiating a new conversation without any agreement that it was off the record."
"So I just am wondering why in God's earth you would need to mention anything about George Conway's tweets in an article that talks about me as possibly being chief of staff," Conway, who referred to herself as a "powerful woman," told the reporter. Toward the end of the call, Conway said, "Listen, if you're going to cover my personal life, then we're welcome to do the same around here." Conway releases lengthy statement doubling down
Darcy continues: Conway stood by her criticisms of the reporter and attacked WaEx in a long -- and somewhat bizarre -- statement posted to Twitter. She said "it seems irrelevant if not sexist to mention" her husband, attacked Yilek as a journalist, and said she is regularly "subjected to personal questions which seem gossipy, inappropriate and irrelevant." Conway said her relationship with her husband does not affect her in the White House, adding that it is "exactly none" of anyone's business.
>> George Conway's conspicuous tweet: "I've learned a lot about narcissism over the past couple of years that I didn't know previously. In fact, I didn't know it had a label, although I had seen it without knowing it..."
WaEx editor defends publishing remarks
Darcy continues: WaEx Editor-In-Chief Hugo Gurdon defended publishing the remarks. In a statement, Gurdon said, "Off the record conversations are agreed in good faith and in advance between people known to be participating. They are not, and never have been, blanket coverage to shield people who pull a bait and switch, peremptorily enter the conversation, and then spend ten minutes abusing, bullying and threatening a reporter..."
>> Stelter's bottom line: The Conway relationship is absolutely newsworthy and deserves all the attention it gets...
Guess who John Solomon's lawyers happen to be...
Oliver Darcy emails: Right-wing columnist and Fox regular John Solomon is represented by lawyers Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, Politico's Natasha Bertrand and Darren Samuelsohn reported Thursday. "He's a journalist and he has legal needs, like many journalists," diGenova told the publication in a brief statement. Solomon told Politico he used the lawyers' services "for libel review, to help review book and movie offers, and to do personnel contracts."
>> Given diGenova and Toensing's involvement in the Ukraine story, I asked Solomon in an email Tuesday why he hadn't prominently disclosed the relationship in his stories and TV appearances. He didn't get back to me... | |
Attorneys for Rep. Katie Hill send cease and desist letter to DailyMail.com
CNN's Kyung Lah reports: "Attorneys representing California Congresswoman Katie Hill have sent a cease and desist letter to the editor of DailyMail.com demanding the tabloid site remove 'nude photos purported to be of her' posted on their website." DailyMail.com did not have an immediate response...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Last week The Guardian launched a new app, Guardian Daily, offering "a single, contained, finishable collection of stories per day." It's for paying subscribers only. Dare to call it a newspaper? (NiemanLab)
-- Another sign of fading interest in cable-like streaming services: "Sony Corp. is exploring the sale of its Playstation Vue service..." (The Information)
-- "Comcast on Thursday reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded expectations, as did closely watched data on new high-speed internet customers." But: "The stock closed the day down 1.9%..." (CNBC)
-- And here's Clare Duffy with Amazon earnings: "Amazon is spending heavily to keep growing — and that appears to be making investors nervous..." (CNN Business)
Twitter stock closed down 20.8%...
It was a brutal day for the company, erasing "roughly half of the stock's gains this year," after third quarter earnings came in "well below investors' expectations," Jordan Valinsky wrote. "Twitter blamed several bugs in its advertising products and slower-than-expected demand for advertising in the summer months."
The discouraging reason for Twitter's ad revenue woes
Overall, Bloomberg's Shira Ovide wrote, "Twitter's recovery is mostly real." But the ad biz "bugs" are discouraging: "Essentially, Twitter said it took a financial hit because it stopped abusing people's personal privacy choices. The company disclosed in August that it had been mistakenly ignoring people who said they didn't want some information about them shared with Twitter's advertisers or other partners." So it fixed that "bug," and ad revenue suffered as a result.
Ovide: "What does it say about the quality of Twitter's advertising — and the internet surveillance economy in general — that ending privacy-violating settings dented Twitter's ad sales?"
Big Tech's big message this week: "We care about journalism"
Twitter just held a Twitter News Summit. Facebook is about to introduce its new News section. And I hear that Google is about to make another newsy announcement. Let's start with Instagram...
Instagram's news day
Kerry Flynn writes: Instagram invited hundreds of social media producers and other creators to its NYC office for an all-day event on Thursday. The mantra was "this isn't your boss's media conference..." though the first presentation was a chat between student journalist Malick Mercier and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. The highlight for me was when Mosseri referred to TikTok's rise as "some serious sh*t," as in impressive. Mosseri also said Instagram doesn't shadow-ban, despite accusations to that effect, and that he thinks Facebook and Instagram being under one company is a good thing.
Instagram's director of fashion Eva Chen also had this quick advice for news orgs using Instagram: "The grid does not matter. You have to optimize for the feed. 99% of impressions generally come from feed view, not grid view. It will not optimize for engagement or follows." More recap in my Twitter thread...
Twitter's news day
Kerry Flynn writes: On Thursday afternoon, Twitter hosted four conversations about the news industry at its NYC office. In our convo about the business of news, Axios' Sara Fischer asked NYT COO Meredith Levien about Trump telling federal agencies to cancel those NYT and WaPo subscriptions. Levien said, "Maybe it means we can't host our next corporate retreat at Trump hotel... What's the saying? Do as I do not as I say. He might be our most loyal reader, and I think people follow suit."
BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith interviewed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. A highlight was Dorsey's "Hell no" reply on whether Twitter would ever join Facebook's Libra. Also his view on Zuckerberg's speech at Georgetown last week: "I think he had points that I agree with. I think the more important conversation is what was left out. We talk a lot about speech and expression and we don't talk about reach and amplification.. We also don't talk enough about paid versus earned reach."
CBS News president Susan Zirinsky, when asked by HuffPost EIC Lydia Polgreen about the org's sexual harassment scandals, said, "If there's a bad actor, no matter how good they are at their job, we have to act. Because otherwise people won't take what we do seriously. We will be better journalists if we are culturally inclusive." Here's my Twitter thread about the event...
Zuckerberg and Thomson on Friday
The WaPo and others have reported that Facebook will raise the curtain on its new News section on Friday.
Mark Zuckerberg will be talking about it with News Corp CEO Robert Thomson at a lunchtime event in NYC. "Thomson and his boss, News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch, have been insisting that Facebook and other tech platforms should pay them for access to their work. Now Zuckerberg is giving them what they want," Peter Kafka wrote in this preview piece for Recode.
Kafka's kicker: "Facebook is expected to generate $19 billion in profits this year. Call me biased, but spending a small fraction of that to please publishers seems like a decent investment."
Former HBO president takes lead at Luminary
Katie Pellico writes: Simon Sutton, former president and chief revenue officer at HBO, will head up Luminary, Variety's Brent Lang reports. Co-founder Matt Sacks will transition from CEO to executive chairman. A letter from Sacks to Luminary staff also announced an additional $30 million in Series C funding, to be used for "content, content, content." Luminary launched in April, backed by $100 million in venture capital.
>> Hot Pod's Nick Quah said Peter Kafka had the "better framing" for the staffing shift, tweeting that Sutton was "one of many HBO execs to leave that company in recent months," and is heading to "the subscription podcast service that seems to have minimal traction."
>> The Verge's Ashley Carman revealed earlier this month that Luminary co-founder Joe Purzycki had left the company, despite staying "close" with Sacks... | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Hulu "has ordered 10 episodes of Vice Investigates, which will feature stories about issues defining today's culture..." (THR)
-- Apple TV+ is available on Amazon Fire devices ahead of the November 1 launch... (CNBC)
-- NPR has plans to combine its two apps... (Current)
-- Journalism nonprofit First Draft announced a yearlong program aimed at aiding newsrooms in "the verification and reporting of online information relating to the 2020 US presidential election..." (First Draft)
Call it like you see it!
Hadas Gold emails: The British media regulator OfCom is urging the BBC to call it like they see it. In a lengthy review of the state-funded broadcaster, the regulator called on the BBC to not be so focused on being neutral, especially if one group is peddling information not backed up by the facts. This is notable because OfCom is the regulator in charge of making sure UK broadcasters follow UK media rules -- which include a commitment to "due impartiality."
"BBC journalists should feel able to challenge controversial viewpoints that have little support or are not backed up by facts, making this clear to viewers, listeners and readers," the regulator wrote. "Our research shows that audiences have respect for the calibre of the BBC's journalism and expect its reporters to investigate, analyse and explain events. This should give the BBC confidence to be bolder in its approach."
The Guardian's Media editor Jim Waterson has a great thread on the whole review here. Or read the full report for yourself...
| | QUOTE OF THE DAY
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, speaking while accepting the Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress from the Radio and Television Correspondents Association on Thursday night:
"The news business is at its heart a business of questions. Most questions we ask of others, the newsmakers we cover, but some are questions best directed at ourselves. Will I be worthy of what is required today? Knowing it could be a seemingly ordinary day, or one where another piece of history is carved. Will I be fair? Will I be thorough? Will I keep my opinions out of my work? Will I keep a sense of humor and a sense of humanity? Will I remember in the more exhausting moments how lucky I am to do this work?"
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Via Hadas Gold: CNN's David Culver reports that China is blacking out coverage of the discovery of 39 bodies, found in the back of a truck in England, who police say were Chinese nationals...
| | Secret Service interviewed Eminem over Trump lyrics
Katie Pellico writes: BuzzFeed's Jason Leopold confirmed through a FOIA request that, as Eminem had recounted in a track last year, the rapper was interviewed by the Secret Service over "threatening lyrics" about Donald and Ivanka Trump. The documents cite "a concerned citizen" who reported "inappropriate" and "threatening" comments off the track "Framed."
>> The "concerned citizen" is a TMZ employee according to the documents, but Leopold says it "appears the TMZ employee was seeking comment from the Secret Service." Read on...
Weinstein turns up at Actor's Hour, and...
This BuzzFeed News story by Amber Jamieson has a lot of people talking. "A woman comedian was booed and two attendees kicked out after they protested the appearance of disgraced former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein at an event for young performers in lower Manhattan on Wednesday night," Jamieson reports.
Weinstein showed up at Actor's Hour on the LES. Kelly Bachman called him out and said "I didn't know we had to bring our own Mace and rape whistles to Actor's Hour." Full story here, including Weinstein's comment...
About Rose McGowan's lawsuit...
Lisa Respers France emails: Rose McGowan has sued Harvey Weinstein for an alleged campaign against her. The suit accuses Weinstein, his former attorneys Lisa Bloom and David Boies and their firms, as well as Black Cube Strategies, of attempting to discredit her rape claim. Details here...
>> Weinstein's civil attorney, Phyllis Kupferstein, disputed her claim and said "we will demonstrate that this case has no legal merit..."
| | Lowry's take on "The Current War"
Frank Pallotta emails: The backstory is more interesting than the movie with "The Current War," a film that has sat on the shelf for two years as a casualty of the Weinstein scandal. Despite a great historical story (the battle to launch electricity) and cast (Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, Michael Shannon as Westinghouse), what's being billed as the "Director's Cut" of the film doesn't shed much heat or light...
Iger to Diller: "C'mon, Barry"
Via WSJ reporter Ben Mullin's Twitter feed:
At the NY Economic Club on Thursday, moderator Diane Sawyer asked Bob Iger "about Barry Diller's claim that competing with Netflix is foolhardy. Iger's response? 'C'mon, Barry.' Says that there's room enough for both."
More from Iger: "Disney's collection of brands are the 'anchor tenants' of Disney+ and calls them navigational tools. Contrasts with Netflix. 'Our play is not really a volume play. It's a branded play.'"
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez donated a year's worth of food to a Tennessee elementary school pantry after being moved by a teacher's viral story about having to buy groceries for a student in need...
-- Just in time for Halloween there is news that a new "Hocus Pocus" movie is coming from Disney+...
-- If you see T-Pain maybe buy him a drank? The rapper/producer who won last season on "The Masked Singer" got real about having to cancel his tour because of low ticket sales and people are showing him love for it...
Seth Meyers explains how Trump changed 'Late Night'
Frank Pallotta writes: Even Seth Meyers needed some extra help to keep up with the Trump news cycle.
The "Late Night" host told Jake Tapper at CNN's CITIZEN event that he had to hire researchers for the show aka "people who sort of pull video clips from networks like -- sorry they make me do this -- CNN" because that was "a job we didn't have."
Meyers also told Tapper that when he took over the NBC late show in 2014, his biggest fear was that there wouldn't be enough news to fill the show's hour long run time. "That's not a fear anymore," Meyers said. "I'm never like, 'oh my gosh, I hope something happens today.'" Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is heading back to theaters with 10 additional minutes, Marianne Garvey reports... (CNN)
-- "A set of stairs in the Bronx is climbing its way to fame," thanks to this scene in "Joker..." (NY1)
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
"The Irishman" L.A. premiere
"Netflix is going big for its first premiere at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre, transforming Hollywood Blvd for 'The Irishman,'" THR's Kristen Chuba tweeted. Here's one of her photos: | | | Thanks for reading! We love your feedback... Click here to send an email... | | | |
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