EXEC SUMMARY: Welcome to an abbreviated edition of the newsletter! Media world is starting to shut down for the holidays, I can feel it... But I still have lots of links to offer...
👇👇👇👇👇
Every Friday, Bloomberg's Sahil Kapur tweets out a list of the week's news events and narratives, taking advantage of all 280 characters. This week's list is a real doozy:
"THIS WEEK
—Trump impeached❗
—Trial standoff
—ACA ruling 👀
—185 judges
—Christianity Today
—McConnell 'not impartial'
—Letter to Pelosi
—Dem debate
—#winecave
—SHS
—MI rally
—Dingell
—Van Drew->GOP
—Bevin pardons
—Rudy Ukraine
—$1.4T
—USMCA
—NDAA
—Economy⬆️
—Fiorina
—Wakanda 😂"
Shoutout to all the editors and reporters and producers and photogs and production assistants and other staffers who kept newsrooms humming during a genuinely (I know this word is overused but it is accurate this time) historic week.
Impeachment "time bomb?"
"There are Republicans who have a feeling that this impeachment process thus far... represents a time bomb, that this is not over," Carl Bernstein said on CNN's "New Day" the other day. "None of us knows where this is going. The impact of this continues into the election, into the campaign, and there is a tremendous amount of information out there that journalists are working on, that we do not know about yet. The Ukraine allegations and the clues provided by what occurred are a road map for all kinds of investigators in the coming months. And I believe -- and I've talked to some people -- that there are people in the Senate who understand that this might be a time bomb. That there is time remaining until the election. Obviously, to the trial, too. I'm not saying that necessarily it is going to be a time bomb that explodes, but I think there's a real possibility of it..."
"The abyss of unreality and untruth"
Former GOP senator Jeff Flake, now a CBS analyst, has a new op-ed for WaPo that is directed at his former colleagues. "If there ever was a time to put country over party, it is now," he wrote to them. "And by putting country over party, you might just save the Grand Old Party before it's too late."
Key graf: "Personally, I have never met anyone whose behavior can be described as perfect, but so often has the president repeated this obvious untruth that it has become a form of dogma in our party. And sure enough, as dogma demands, there are members of our party denying objective reality by repeating the line that 'the president did nothing wrong.' My colleagues, the danger of an untruthful president is compounded when the coequal branch follows that president off the cliff, into the abyss of unreality and untruth..."
Trump's deceptive Twitter behavior
Oliver Darcy emails: Trump regularly lashes out at the media for "fake news." But as NYT's Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman reported Friday, he "has a habit of quoting his allies on Twitter saying things they never said." In come cases, Karni and Haberman wrote, "he simply omits a part of the quote he doesn't like." In other cases, he injects his own words into their comments.
"More often than not, the allies who Mr. Trump misquotes do little to publicly contradict him," Karni and Haberman reported. "They rarely call out Mr. Trump for spreading falsehoods or altering the meaning of their words."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Santa, I want Ashley Parker's writing prowess for Christmas. Parker's latest: "Over the past dozen days or so, the president has spewed forth an advent calendar's worth of cruelty — new barbs popping out almost daily, like so many tiny bitter chocolates — underscoring the instinctual nastiness that is central to his brand and casting doubt on claims from his aides that Trump is merely a counterpuncher..." (WaPo)
-- Oliver Darcy notes: Stephanie Grisham finally emerged from her pro-Trump media bubble this week. Media Matters noted, "It took Trump's impeachment for his White House press secretary to break out of her right-wing media cocoon..." (Media Matters)
-- CNBC's Bill Griffeth is stepping away from day-to-day anchoring after 28 years in the chair. "He will become an anchor-at-large for the network..." (CNBC)
-- William D. Cohan's new must-read: "As Endeavor tries to right itself, Ari Emanuel's rivals close in..." (VF)
Media in 2019: Our end-of-the-year podcast
What the heck happened this year? And what should you expect on the media beat in 2020? We have answers on this special podcast episode. I sat down with Oliver Darcy, Chloe Melas, Kerry Flynn, and Frank Pallotta to reflect on this year's biggest stories in media, culture and entertainment... I bet you don't even remember some of the stories that broke earlier in the year... Tune in to the conversation via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or whatever podcasting app you use... | |
WEEKEND PLANNER
Eddie Murphy returns to 'SNL'
This is an episode 35 years in the making. "Eddie Murphy is making a dramatic return to 'Saturday Night Live' this weekend," Chloe Melas writes. It is the actor's first time hosting the show since leaving the cast in 1984. "And although he's excited to be back, he is feeling the pressure."
>> Murphy has been rehearsing a new "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" sketch...
Sunday on "Reliable"
I'll be joined by two of the country's top editors, Marty Baron and David Remnick, plus Catherine Rampell, Garry Kasparov, "Bombshell" director Jay Roach, and more... See you Sunday at 11am ET on CNN...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- David Gura reminds us: "In years past, presidents would hold formal news conferences before they left Washington for the winter holidays..." (Twitter)
-- MSNBC continues to shuffle its weekend schedule: Ali Velshi is replacing the aforementioned David Gura on "Up," Gura is moving to Saturday afternoons, and Alicia Menendez is getting the 4pm hour on Saturdays and 6pm hour on Sundays... (Variety)
-- Jeremy Barr's new feature about MSNBC and 2020: "MSNBC's Biggest Election Year Fight May Be With the Left" (THR)
-- Dave Briggs signed off CNN's "Early Start" on Friday... (Video via Twitter)
Hannity jabs at some of his colleagues?
Sean Hannity spoke at Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit in FL on Friday. Per CNN's Noah Gray, who was in the room, Hannity told the audience, "Thank god for FOX. Thank god for SOME of us at Fox..."
Hannity added, "I'm gonna get killed for that." Perhaps he was just kidding. He proudly invoked Fox's "fair and balanced" tagline, saying "we have a lot of balance there..."
Facebook removes accounts that used fake faces
Oliver Darcy emails: Some Facebook accounts are using images generated by artificial intelligence to front fake Facebook accounts, CNN Business' Donie O'Sullivan reported Friday. Facebook announced the news in a press release, saying that it had taken down accounts which used the tactic. The accounts were part of a network that posted in favor of Trump and against the Chinese government.
"Many of the accounts promoted links to a Facebook page and website called 'The BL,'" O'Sullivan reported. "Facebook said the accounts were tied to the US-based Epoch Media Group, which owns The Epoch Times newspaper, a paper tied to the Falun Gong movement that is similarly pro-Trump."
>> Meanwhile, Twitter announced the removal of thousands of accounts linked to Saudi Arabia for "platform manipulation..."
How The Hill's social strategy amplifies Trump's misinformation
Oliver Darcy emails: Those who follow news and politics know that The Hill employs a social media strategy designed to churn out content quickly for maximum engagement. And like the website, the outlet's social media accounts often relay things from politicians in their raw form.
But as the progressive watchdog Media Matters noted in a story Friday, such a strategy has resulted in the publication promoting Trump's spin and lies: "As has been the case throughout his presidency, The Hill tends to take everything Trump and his allies say at face value, sharing their statements repeatedly without indicating whether they're actually true."
Trump v. Christianity Today...
Is not a headline I ever thought I would write. Enough said. | |
#DemDebate averaged 6.2 million on TV
As expected, #DemDebate ratings are continuing to trend downward, but there is still a big audience for these face-offs. Thursday's debate on PBS, simulcast on CNN, averaged 6.17 million viewers across the two channels. "According to Nielsen, the debate posted 2.062 million viewers on PBS and was seen on CNN by 4.088 million," Deadline's Ted Johnson wrote. That was enough to lift CNN to No. 1 on cable news for the evening. Usual disclaimer: The Nielsen ratings don't account for any live streaming...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Mike Bloomberg just joined Snapchat... (Twitter)
-- Tiffany Hsu reports on the evolution of product placement. Marketing execs say streaming services are discussing product appearing onscreen could depend on who is watching... (NYT)
-- BuzzFeed News' most viewed story of 2019 was "How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation..." (BuzzFeed)
-- I missed this the other day: Talking Biz News is now owned by two PR firms. Andy Serwer says the site is "a party to gathering data on reporters and monetizing it. And it's not making that clear..." (Yahoo)
ViacomCBS buys 49% of Miramax
"The newly recombined ViacomCBS is poised to own nearly half of the studio behind some of the biggest indie film hits of the '90s and 2000s," the LAT's Ryan Faughnder reports. "The New York media firm Friday said it would pay $375 million for a 49% stake in Los Angeles-based Miramax, which is responsible for critically acclaimed films including 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Shakespeare in Love.'"
>> Coming soon: ViacomCBDS "said it would delve into Miramax's 700-film library to generate new film and TV projects at a time when exploiting well-established intellectual property is the name of the entertainment industry game..."
| | "Skywalker" audience score breaks from critics' reviews
Brian Lowry emails: As anticipated, "The Rise of Skywalker" has reversed the fan-critic polarity from "The Last Jedi," at least based on the Rotten Tomatoes averages. To those who have criticized the movie for being "fan service" and insufficiently risky, my main response would be that whatever one thinks of that approach, that was obviously the plan.
Box office predictions
Frank Pallotta emails: "The Rise of Skywalker" opened to $40 million for Disney on Thursday night. That's the fifth largest Thursday night opening ever, but less than the first night openings of "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi."
So how much is the conclusion of the Skywalker story going to make this weekend in North America? Most experts say north of $175 million with some forecasting $200 million or more. Disney is being more conservative, saying $160 million, but bad reviews are skewing everyone's predictions.
My guess? $205 million, or just enough to give "Rise of Skywalker" the second highest-grossing opening of the year behind "Avengers: Endgame."
Why Abrams should have recast Princess Leia
Brian Lowry adds: J.J. Abrams describes what to do in response to Carrie Fisher's death as "the impossible question," and one has to sympathize with the dilemma the "Star Wars" sequel faced. There was no perfect answer, but the one chosen — cobbling together her plot line out of existing unused footage — was in hindsight not the best option...
"The Witcher" swings into action as a weak 'Game of Thrones' wannabe
Lowry sends one more: "The Witcher" dropped on Netflix, clearly hoping to scratch the "Game of Thrones" itch. But this fantasy series based on books and games feels utterly generic, demonstrating how difficult that brand of magic is to conjure — and that services/networks are going to spend a lot of money trying...
LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST...
Greenblatt speaks
What's the growth strategy for HBO Max? Robert Greenblatt, chairman of WarnerMedia entertainment and direct-to-consumer, sat down with THR's Lacey Rose to talk about that and more. (Occasional reminder that CNN is owned by WarnerMedia.)
Rose asked him: "HBO and HBO Max: How do you distinguish the two?" Greenblatt said "they're separate, but that's the old way of thinking about it. They're ultimately going to live together, bundled next to each another in the same app. So, yes, they're separate departments but they'll coalesce into one unified experience."
Talking about present-day HBO, Greenblatt said "nothing is more important than keeping it intact." But it has an adult audience, "and we know what kinds of programming they do." So "Max is the rest of it," he said. "Kids all the way up to the young adults. And different genres, like YA or unscripted, which HBO largely doesn't do. We're trying really hard to assign the same quality level and curated feeling that HBO has..."
>> A revealing comment: "Look, the dirty little secret is that HBO has hit a ceiling," Greenblatt said. "It can't grow. In a world where there's Netflix and Amazon, the only way to grow, I guarantee you, is to bundle it with something else that's going to lift it. And if that something else didn't exist in Max, HBO would be in a very precarious place."
🥇 The "Streaming Olympics" are here 🥇
Rose said that Greenblatt's only request for the interview was that "there be no mention of the often-used phrase 'streaming wars.'"
That's a pretty smart rule! I agree with it. I much prefer the term Frank Pallotta coined last month: "Streaming Olympics." We talked about it on the end-of-the-year media podcast I plugged up top.
Why "Streaming Olympics?" Because in a war, one side wins and one side loses. In an Olympic match, there are multiple winners. As Pallotta said on the podcast: "If, say, Disney 'wins' 2020, Netflix is not going to cease to exist." So let's make this "Streaming Olympics" idea catch on. Go for gold, everybody...
| | | Thank you for reading! Send me your feedback anytime – the good, the bad, the ugly, I like it all. We'll be back Sunday... | | | |
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