Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Happy Thanksgiving Eve... Here's a look ahead at Wednesday's top media world stories...

"If you can't believe the president, who can you believe?"

Most days, I surf around looking for a non-Trump lead story for this newsletter. But then, on a day like this, his fibs and fabrications are simply too extreme to be ignored.

Some of Trump's falsehoods were uttered on Bill O'Reilly's radio show. Others were spouted on Twitter. And others were spread at a Tuesday night rally.

Lately I have been reading about the impeachments of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. And this made-for-TV moment by Henry Hyde during the Clinton impeachment stood out. Hyde said he received a letter from a third grader who had to write a letter as a punishment for lying. The student mused that Clinton should have to write a letter, too.

Hyde, a Republican lawmaker who died in 2007, read the letter aloud during the Senate impeachment trial in 1999. "It is important to believe the president because he is a important person," the student wrote. "If you cannot believe the president, who can you believe?"

Great question...

"Heart attack" falsehoods

Per CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Noah Gray: Trump went on a nearly 10-minute rant at Tuesday's rally, "falsely accusing the media of reporting that he had a 'massive heart attack' and that he stayed overnight at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center -- neither of which were reported by any credible, mainstream news outlets. Trump specifically targeted CNN over the coverage of his visit..."

>> And the lies kept coming and coming. Trump also said the media reported -- key word, reported -- that he suffered from "chest pains." That's not true either...

>> CNN's live blog has other examples of false/misleading statements from the rally...

How pro-Trump media backscratching works

So Trump gave a phone interview to Bill O'Reilly. Then O'Reilly promoted it for a day and said his site's "premium members" would get "first access." So it was a win-win: Trump gained a platform while O'Reilly gained relevance and a unique way to promote his subscription service...

Hannity's idea for O'Reilly

"Current top-rated primetime Fox News host Sean Hannity interviewed the former top-rated primetime Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on his radio show and urged the latter return to his home network, more than two-and-a-half years after O'Reilly was forced out due to an accumulation of massive payouts to settle sexual harassment lawsuits," Mediaite's Reed Richardson wrote Tuesday night.

Hannity said: "I keep offering you, go back on Fox, and…" and O'Reilly interrupted, saying, "Why do I want to do that? So I can have security guards go with me everywhere, like I used to?"

"No," Hannity said, "so that you take the number one slot. I can tell you it's easier being number two..."

>> Numerous women have accused O'Reilly of wrongdoing. How do they feel when they hear Hannity basically offering O'Reilly his job back? And what does Fox's 8pm host Tucker Carlson think of this?

"Why in hell does Tucker Carlson still have a job here?"

Michael Blake, a vice chair of the DNC, was on Fox News Tuesday morning... And when asked about Tucker Carlson's prediction that Michelle Obama might end up as the Democratic party's 2020 nominee, Blake said, "Well, she's not running. But the core question is why in hell does Tucker Carlson still have a job here in the first place? The reality is, this is someone who said white supremacy is a hoax, and why does Fox allow him to still be here in the first place?" Hemmer did not like that one bit...

But WaPo's Erik Wemple wrote that Blake nailed it. "Fox News is such a powerful component of contemporary politics that any straightforward analysis of the presidential contest must include mention of the network," Wemple wrote. "That Blake did it with such detachment and matter-of-fact delivery slammed the point home..."

>> THR's Jeremy Barr followed up with Blake, who said "we can't be silent about this stuff anymore..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Fox's Judge Jeanine Pirro was spotted at the White House for the second day in a row... (Twitter)

-- The anonymous author of "A Warning" says "I will not keep my identity shrouded in secrecy forever... Donald Trump has not heard the last of me..." (CBS)

-- "Crime in Progress" came out on Tuesday. The new book by Fusion GPS co-founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch is No. 1 on Amazon's best sellers page right now... (Amazon)

-- John Bolton keeps tweeting... But just tweeting. If Bolton "wants to do the right thing and protect American national security instead of getting on a Twitter high horse, he should testify," Erin Burnett said... (Twitter)

"Trump knew"

Headline on the NYT's Tuesday evening scoop: "Trump Knew of Whistle-Blower Complaint When He Released Aid to Ukraine."

Michael S. Schmidt, Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman, citing sources, said "Trump had already been briefed on a whistle-blower's complaint about his dealings with Ukraine when he unfroze military aid for the country in September... Lawyers from the White House counsel's office told Mr. Trump in late August about the complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether they were legally required to give it to Congress..."

>> CNN's Paul LeBlanc wrote: "News of Trump's knowledge of the complaint before his decision to release the security assistance underscores a key question at the heart of the impeachment inquiry" -- about whether the aid was tied to Trump's wish for Ukraine to investigate Biden...

At least 70 million Americans saw some of the impeachment hearings

Nielsen data shows that "more than 70 million viewers watched some portion" of the impeachment hearings, per the LAT's Steve Battaglio. That's the cumulative # – measuring anyone who watched at least six minutes of TV coverage by the major networks over five days – and it's not counting live streams or other tune-in options...

But: "Very few minds have been changed"

"Views of impeachment weren't really affected by the impeachment inquiry's public hearings," WaPo's Philip Bump says. "We got another reminder of that Tuesday, with the release of a poll from CNN and polling partner SSRS looking at views of impeachment. Half of respondents said they support impeaching Trump and removing him from office -- exactly the same percentage that said that in CNN's late October poll."

Other polls indicate the same thing -- that Trump is lying when he says support for impeachment is suddenly falling, but it's not markedly increasing either...

IN OTHER NEWS...

How much attention will this get?

The NYT's Somini Sengupta writes: "With world leaders gathering in Madrid next week for their annual bargaining session over how to avert a climate catastrophe, the latest assessment issued by the United Nations said Tuesday that greenhouse gas emissions are still rising dangerously..."

Twitter is ready to free up some inactive accounts

"Twitter is sending out emails to owners of inactive accounts with a warning: sign in by December 11th, or your account will be history and its username will be up for grabs again. Any account that hasn't signed in for more than six months will receive the email alert," The Verge's Chris Welch reports.

"Twitter hasn't yet said exactly when recouped usernames will be made available to existing users. The account removal process 'will happen over many months — not just on a single day,' according to the spokesperson. So don't expect some massive username rush to happen on December 12th. It might be awhile..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- You heard it here first: Patrick Bulger, who's been Conde Nast Entertainment's executive director of creative programming, planning, and project management for the past year, is joining Insider Inc. as head of development, overseeing existing and new show development...

-- "Jill Filipovic, the author, journalist and attorney, has a deal with the Simon & Schuster imprint One Signal Books for 'OK Boomer: Let's Talk: Dispatches from a Generational Divide.'" The book is due out in late 2020. (Full disclosure: I'm writing a book for the same imprint.) (AP)

-- ICYMI: Isaac Chotiner pressed MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance about his penchant for conspiracies... (New Yorker)

-- Becket Adams' opinion piece about the interview: "MSNBC conspiracy theorist decries right-wing conspiracy theories" (Examiner)

-- Yesterday I intended to link to Daniel Holloway's feature story about NBC's "Sunday Night Football," but the link was busted. My better half Jamie told me about the bad link. D'oh! Here's the story... (Variety)

TheSkimm looking for an investor or buyer?

"The buzzy media darling TheSkimm has been looking for an investor or buyer to accelerate its growth," BI's Lucia Moses reports, citing sources. "TheSkimm has raised $28.4 million and is on track to generate $30 million in revenue this year, profitably, but its user growth has slowed." One of the sources told Moses that the company has met with the investment bank LionTree...

-- Moses adds: "A company spokesperson denied TheSkimm was 'looking for a buyer' but wouldn't elaborate..."

'Part of being the media is screwing up'

Kerry Flynn writes: Max Read interviewed BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti for NYMag's series on "Who were the 2010s?" It's worth a full read, but three parts that struck me were his comments on Bloomberg's campaign, Facebook dealing with viral content and venture capital in media.

>> On Bloomberg: "It's harder if you're a boring centrist who doesn't have a strong, passionate community obsessed with you and a message that gets torqued by algorithms because it is exciting or crazy or interesting or extreme or novel..."

>> On Facebook: "I think [the dress] scared Facebook a little bit, that there could be a publisher that promotes a piece of content that then their algorithm feels like it needs to show to everyone in the world … Ironically, that has led to much more microtargeting," instead of "having one thing that everyone in the world sees..."

>> On VCs: "I think that VC is not a reliable funder of media. They dip in and out of it, and they're not really investing that much right now...They have helped BuzzFeed and Vox and a few other companies seize a moment, but I don't know that VCs are going to be the long-term partners for media..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Kerry Flynn:

-- Lisa Tozzi, former global news director at BuzzFeed, is joining The Markup as managing editor for news and operations... (Twitter)

-- Patrick George is stepping down as EIC of Jalopnik "for a new opportunity..." (Twitter)

-- Jack Shafer argues subscribers of newspapers under the ownership of Alden Global Capital should cancel their subscriptions if they want to see change (Politico)

What some sunlight can do

The LAT's Emily Baumgaertner tweeted: "Following our LA Times investigation, the DHS watchdog reversed its decision and launched an inquiry regarding the whistleblower who found critical lapses in a U.S. anti-terror program." The whistleblower, Harry Jackson, told Baumgaertner that "he believes the inspector general decided to look into his claims only after The Times published details about his complaint in August..."

Buttigieg and The Root

CNN's S. Mitra Kalita writes: A whole genre of campaign coverage now seems devoted to Pete Buttigieg and black voters -- as in, "why don't they like him?" Tuesday morning I woke up to the words "Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF" trending on Twitter, based on this story by The Root's Michael Harriot. His essay takes issue with Buttigieg's past comments about black students struggling because they do not have role models.

Later in the day, Buttigieg actually called Harriot to discuss the matter, resulting in this follow-up. In it, I think Harriot gets closer to addressing why Buttigieg's meteoric rise is greeted warily by some, as a sign of privilege that would never be afforded to these voters he needs to win. Harriot writes: "Black America wants their party to emerge victorious, but not if we have to offer our votes as a living sacrifice for the sake of 'party unity.' What good is a white savior if he doesn't save us?"

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Erin Griffith explains the new buzzword "narrative violation:" It's a way "to express an idea that goes against conventional wisdom..." (NYT)

-- The Department of Justice has "leaped into the labor octagon antitrust battle between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood's three biggest agencies, and now the guild's West Coast boss David A. Goodman has taken a swing of his own in response..." (Deadline)

-- Robert Redford's new op-ed: "We're up against a crisis I never thought I'd see in my lifetime: a dictator-like attack by President Donald Trump on everything this country stands for..." (NBC)

Nancy Grace + Fox

"Nancy Grace is signing up for a crime show on Fox Nation," the Fox News streaming service, the AP's David Bauder says. "Cameras will show her delivering her podcast and SiriusXM radio show, 'Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,' five days a week. The program is modeled after her popular television series that ran on the HLN network for many years."

>> Fox hasn't shared subscriber #'s for some Fox Nation is doing, but "the market research firm Parks Associates estimates that it has between 200,000 and 300,000 subscribers," Bauder says...

Why "The Simpsons" matters to Disney+

Frank Pallotta emails: "The Simpsons" and its irreverent humor aren't an obvious fit for Disney, but the animated sitcom, which is a big part of Disney+, may be just as important to the new service as Buzz Lightyear or Queen Elsa. Here's why.

"Let's say you're a 25-year-old with no kids and you're not into comic books. Disney+ might not be something for you," TV and pop culture scholar Bob Thompson, (one of my former professors at Syracuse U!) told me. "But 'The Simpsons' is something different. It's not really Disney, and that could be the thing that might push you over the edge to subscribe."

And here's what Al Jean, the show's exec producer and one of its original writers, told me: "There is an entire Simpsons universe that they can dive into as deeply as they want, whenever they want, for as long as they want. It's a fountain that never stops."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Here's why Kim Kardashian West is dressing less sexy...

-- The Pussycat Dolls are reuniting for "X Factor Celebrity" this weekend...

-- Here's some of what's streaming in December...

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