Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Scroll down for a preview of Wednesday's biggest stories, plus Nancy Pelosi's THR interview, "The Irishman" stats, Afghanistan Papers web traffic, and some wonderful wedding news...

250+ journalists in jail

On Wednesday morning the Committee to Protect Journalists released its annual census of journalists behind bars. The data is a disturbing reminder that "anti-state" charges and "false news" claims are being used to curtail reporters all around the world.

CPJ editorial director Elana Beiser's summary: "The number of journalists imprisoned globally for their work in 2019 remained near record highs, as China tightened its iron grip on the press and Turkey, having stamped out virtually all independent reporting, released journalists awaiting trial or appeal. Authoritarianism, instability, and protests in the Middle East led to a rise in the number of journalists locked up in the region -- particularly in Saudi Arabia, which is now on par with Egypt as the third worst jailer worldwide."

You can read the full report here, or CNN's recap by Amy Woodyatt...

China is the leading jailer of journalists

CPJ found "that the number of journalists charged with 'false news' rose this year, with 30 in jail in 2019, compared with 28 last year and just one in 2012," Woodyatt wrote. "Earlier this year, Russia and Singapore both introduced controversial anti-fake news laws."

"This year, what stands out is that China has edged out Turkey as the leading jailer of journalists for the first time since 2015," the group's advocacy director, Courtney Radsch, said. In China, Xi Jinping continues to "consolidate political control and institute tighter controls on the media." Read on...

As imperfect as America's free press is, CPJ's reports always make me incredibly thankful for the freedoms we have here...

Wednesday's banner headline

The NYT's all-caps lead says "IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES SAY TRUMP ABUSED POWER, DAMAGING NATION."

That's one way Tuesday will be remembered. Dan Balz and Philip Rucker's WaPo story is another way. They write: "A day of history accentuates America's divide and the distortions of truth in the Trump era." They quote former GOP senator Judd Gregg, who said, "This impeachment process is just significantly increasing the antagonism on both sides, and I don't see it going anywhere. It's not settling the matter out. It's doing the opposite. It's driving larger and more divisive wedges into the process."

...So where are the nightly newscasts?

ABC, NBC and CBS have been carrying many of the impeachment hearings live, but their nightly newscasts have been making some head-scratching choices. On Wednesday, as articles of impeachment against a sitting president were presented for only the fourth time in history, all three networks led with the Jersey City shootout before covering impeachment. I'm paying close attention to the Jersey City story, like millions of others, but it's hard to justify leading a national newscast with anything but the articles of impeachment...

WaPo's editorial

"The case for impeachment" fills the editorial page in Wednesday's WaPo.

"We believe Mr. Trump should receive a full trial in the Senate," the editorial board says, "and it is our hope that more senior officials will decide or be required to testify during that proceeding, so that senators, and the country, can make a fair and considered judgment about whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office. We have reserved judgment on that question. What is important, for now, is that the House determine whether Mr. Trump's actions constituted an abuse of power meriting his impeachment and trial." And the editors (separate from the newsroom) say the answer is yes...

Truth decay

My contribution to Tuesday's "AC360:" No, we're not in a "post-truth world," but we're suffering from "truth decay," in part due to the pro-Trump echo chamber that is barely tethered to reality right now. "Truth decay" was popularized by this RAND report in 2018. We're well past cavities at this point, we're at the root canal stage of decay...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- "CNN anchor Jake Tapper called out the coterie of loyalists who surround Trump and consistently echo his conspiracy theories and lies as a major contributor to the president's impending impeachment..." (Mediaite)

-- Want to hear what happened at Trump's Hershey, PA, rally? Aaron Rupar of Vox has one hell of a thread here... (Twitter)

-- Ashley Parker noted that Trump's rally was the first "since his campaign banned Bloomberg reporters from attending. But — for now — the policy seems loosely enforced. The Bloomberg reporter in the WHCA pool arrived on Air Force One, and is currently sitting with the rest of the press pool..." (Twitter)

Schumer calls out Trump and "known liars on Fox News"

Chuck Schumer criticized Fox News by name on the Senate floor on Tuesday... Here are four of the standout quotes...

-- "The president conjures fictions, buys into baseless conspiracy theories told by known liars on Fox News or somewhere else, and then anyone who contradicts him earns his scorn..."

-- "Here in the Senate, certain members of the grand old party are forming their own conspiracy caucus." He again invoked Fox, saying some of the theories are spread there, and then picked up by senators...

-- Re: Trumpworld's defense of his conduct vis a vis Ukraine: "They try to create a shiny object, a diversion, and, unfortunately, too many of the news media -- on the right -- will spend time on that diversion and repeat Trump's claim that the actual facts are false. This is the beginning of the end of a democracy. When we can't have truth..."

-- Re: Trump's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: "What new conspiracies are they cooking up with Lavrov today? I worry..."

Barr's shocking interview with NBC's Pete Williams

One of the things that was so shocking: A.G. Bill Barr "essentially dismissed the findings of the Justice Department's inspector general that there was no evidence of political bias in the launching of the Russia probe, saying that his hand-picked prosecutor, John Durham, will have the last word on the matter," NBC's Ken Dilanian wrote.

>> Jeffrey Toobin's reaction to the interview on CNN: "The attorney general of the United States is a Fox News bot. And it's an outrage." He said Barr "keeps demanding investigation after investigation until he gets the results that he wants? That's something that happens in the Soviet Union, not in the United States..."

>> Laura Ingraham's reaction to the interview on Fox: "Donald Trump is really fortunate to have that man as Attorney General..."

Lowry's take

Brian Lowry emails: I suspect that Pete Williams would have received more criticism from the MSNBC analyst ranks for failing to aggressively challenge William Barr's false statements if he hadn't conducted the interview for that network. Instead, most appeared to confine their fire to Barr himself.

Those outside NBC News were less charitable, with Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko tweeting that Williams "wasn't going to say or ask anything that might hurt his precious access..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Chris Hayes reacted to the Barr interview this way: "Honestly you might as well make Sean Hannity Attorney General at this point."

-- And Karen Tumulty had this thought bubble after Trump took a shot at Christopher Wray: "Just remember you heard it here first: FBI Director Jeanine Pirro."

-- Daniel Lippman and Tina Nguyen are out with a must-read about "the mystery of Rudy Giuliani's spokeswoman," a 20-year-old college student who "accompanies him wherever he goes..." (Politico)

-- Betsy Swan and Asawin Suebsaeng's latest: OANN "tried to bring a peddler of Biden dirt to America. The Ukrainian went to jail instead..." (Beast)

WEDNESDAY PLANNER

The Screen Actors Guild Awards noms will be announced at 10am...

DOJ IG Michael Horowitz will testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee starting at 10am...

House Judiciary members will give opening statements about the articles of impeachment starting at 7pm...

Person of the Year time

TIME EIC Edward Felsenthal will be on the "Today" show to unveil the Person of the Year around 7:40am on Wednesday. The five possibilities: Trump, Pelosi, the whistleblower, the Hong Kong protester, or Greta Thunberg. My money is on Pelosi or Thunberg...

Afghanistan Papers are WaPo's most-read

Craig Whitlock's main story about the papers, titled "At War With the Truth," is still the No. 1 most-read thing on the Washington Post website, more than 36 hours after the story was published

The Post did something really smart on Tuesday evening: It sent out an email blast to subscribers with the subject line, "Your subscription enabled this exclusive three-year investigation." The note, signed by Marty Baron, said "support from subscribers like you enable us to do our work — thank you."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- On Tuesday night Megan Rapinoe "slammed Sports Illustrated for its poor track record with women athletes at a ceremony honoring her as its Sportsperson of the Year," Keith Kelly reports. Rapinoe asked: "Am I only the fourth woman worthy of this honor in 60 years? I don't think so..." (NYPost)

-- The American Journalism Project, the "co-brainchild" of Elizabeth Green and John Thornton, is awarding its first 11 grants to "civically motivated local news outlets." The recipients include Puerto Rico's CPI, City Bureau, The Connecticut Mirror, Mississippi Today, and VTDigger... (NiemanLab)

-- Google's next local news investment is in Oakland, Sara Fischer reports: Google is matching the American Journalism Project's $1.56 million in funding to expand Berkeleyside, "a local news outlet in Oakland's neighbor town," and launch a new site for Oakland... (Axios)

Verizon Media layoffs

Kerry Flynn writes: It's been a rough year at Verizon Media. The company is laying off 150 staffers in its media division this week.

You may recall that Verizon Media started the year by laying off 800 employees, or 7% of its workforce. This week's layoffs amount to 1.4% of its current staff. It's unclear which brands will be most affected, but some of those already laid off include HuffPost employees...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Kerry Flynn:

-- Sara Jerde reports Bloomberg Media is buying CityLab from The Atlantic and plans to operate it as a standalone site and brand... (Adweek)

-- Christine Schmidt explores how Vox's Recode is covering AI, algorithms, personal data and privacy through a new project called Open Sourced... (NiemanLab)

-- Twitter's marketing team released its #BestofTweets 2019 list, celebrating brands' creative campaigns. Shoutout to my favorite brand Dunkin' Donuts for winning best short form video... (Twitter)

-- Laura Wagner, formerly of Deadspin, is joining Vice as a senior staff writer on the features desk...

Fox Nation host Britt McHenry files suit against Fox

Oliver Darcy emails: Fox Nation host Britt McHenry filed a sexual harassment lawsuit on Tuesday against Fox News and on-air personality George "Tyrus" Murdoch. The lawsuit, which Diana Falzone first broke news of in Vanity Fair, argued that Fox News retaliated against McHenry after she accused Murdoch, her former Fox Nation co-host and a network contributor, of sexual harassment.

The lawsuit included several of the sexually suggestive text messages Murdoch allegedly sent her and contended that the probes conducted by outside law firms on behalf of the network were "sham investigations." McHenry said in a statement, "The last thing I wanted to do was file this lawsuit. But I had to stand up for what's right for myself and for women." Details in my story here...

...Fox and Tryus respond

Darcy adds: In separate statements, Fox News defended its actions and Murdoch denied the allegations. A Fox News spokesperson said McHenry's lawsuit "recycles the same allegations" she has made in the past. "As we have previously stated, Ms. McHenry's allegations have been fully investigated and we are confident our actions will be deemed entirely appropriate in litigation," the spokesperson said. "We expect all of her claims to be dismissed."

Murdoch's lawyer, Tom Clare, said in a statement that his client "denies the allegations in the lawsuit and will be defending it vigorously." Clare added, "He looks forward to having a public forum in the court system to clear his name from the smear campaign that had been waged against him in the media. Tyrus will be pursuing defamation counterclaims."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Gretchen Carlson and Julie Roginsky "are creating an organization, Lift Our Voices, devoted to stopping companies from using NDAs to cover up incidents of workplace harassment and discrimination." Falzone will serve on the board... (THR)

-- Roginsky is the lead of Rebecca Keegan's in-depth story on "Fox News whistleblowers." Keegan writes that "many women who brought harassment suits against the network say they've been branded as toxic in TV news and wear a scarlet letter..." (THR)

-- Tucker Carlson hosted a congressional candidate with white nationalist ties on his program last Friday... (Media Matters)

-- And Michelle Malkin appeared on a white nationalist YouTube show on Tuesday... (Right-Wing Watch)

Now running biz/tech/media coverage for NBC...

Quoting from Janelle Rodriguez's memo: "Please join me in welcoming Sally Shin who joins NBC News as Executive Editor of our Business, Tech, Media unit. Sally has been CNBC's San Francisco Bureau Chief since 2017 overseeing business and technology news..."

FIRST LOOK

Pelosi in the pages of THR

This will be out on Wednesday: Nancy Pelosi interviewed by actress/THR guest editor Olivia Wilde for the publication's annual Women in Entertainment issue. Here's a sneak peek...

One of Wilde's Q's was about storytelling vis a vis impeachment: "Has anyone from the entertainment industry offered to help shape the messaging on the impeachment inquiry?"

While Pelosi didn't name any names, she said, "In communications capitals, whether New York and my city of San Francisco, the candor [and] critiques of what we are doing or suggestions of how it might be better are plentiful... Yeah, we have some friendships that share their candor and their guidance..."

Hulu lands "Hillary"

Via Rolling Stone's Claire Shaffer: "Hulu has released the teaser trailer for Hillary, an original four-part docuseries exploring the life of former Secretary of State, former First Lady and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The series will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this January and will be released on Hulu on March 6." Director Nanette Burstein says Clinton "gave me extraordinary access to her life story, which is utterly compelling." Here's the teaser trailer...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- Pop-Up Magazine announced the line-up for its new winter issue. It features Jordan Klepper, Catherine Cohen, and others... (The Wrap)

-- Recommended: GEN's new package The Whiplash Decade is full of smart essays, including "The Decade the Internet Lost Its Joy" by Clio Chang, "The Decade Conspiracy Theories Went Mainstream" by Michelle Legro and "The Decade Political Comedy Stopped Being Funny" by Eve Peyser... (GEN)

-- "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay's twenty-year journey to the screen may finally be coming to an end. A limited series adaptation of Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has been set up at Showtime through CBS Television Studios with a big production commitment. It will be written and executive produced by Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, who have signed a multi-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios..." (Deadline)

-- Megan Thomas emails: Julia Louis-Dreyfus opened up to Stephen Colbert about the "very sexist" environment at "SNL" in her time on the show in the 80s... (USA Today)

"An unquestioning puff piece..."

Brian Lowry emails: Bill Belichick and Nick Saban are two of the most successful coaches in football history, so the opportunity to listen in on their conversations was enticing. But "Belichick & Saban: The Art of Coaching" -- an HBO Sports documentary with NFL Films -- traded editorial discretion for that access, delivering what amounted to an unquestioning puff piece that steered clear of even broaching the subject of the controversies that have surrounded them...

Lowry reviews the next "Jumanji"

He says "Jumanji: The Next Level" is hardly a next-level sequel, "but it does a reasonably good job of replicating what worked about the original, obviously minus the sense of discovery that came with it." Read on...

The "Richard Jewell" controversy

Brian Lowry emails: "Richard Jewell" is reigniting a recurring debate about fact-based movies, which often contain a disclaimer saying that they have altered some situations or created composite characters in the service of the story. While that's accepted practice, it shouldn't be license to mislead or misrepresent, which is what Clint Eastwood and writer Billy Ray are accused of doing in this instance.

Here is Marianne Garvey's full story about the controversy...

Vanna White took a spin at hosting...

Remember when it was announced in November that Vanna White would take over for "Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak after he underwent emergency surgery? That first show aired Monday night, Lisa Respers France reports.

Per the NYT, White was "in charge of the wheel" for three weeks worth of episodes. "For the first two weeks, Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters will take White's spot at the board (the show was filming its Disney Week episodes), and the stand-in with the letters for her third week will be a surprise revealed the night the person first appears, White said..."

Here's how many watched "The Irishman"

Frank Pallotta writes: Martin Scorsese's gangster epic was watched by more than 26 million accounts globally within its first seven days on Netflix, according to the company. If my math is right that means roughly 17% of Netflix's 158 million subscribers watched the film in its first week.

That's about half of what "Bird Box" brought in its first week, but "The Irishman" is three and a half hours long. "Bird Box" is a little more than two hours...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Lizzo twerked in a thong at a Lakers game and it was a moment. The singer is refusing to let people shame her...

-- Eminem and Nick Cannon are feuding again after Cannon dropped a diss track...

SAVING THE BEST NEWS FOR LAST

Congratulations, Sandra and Michael

CNN entertainment reporter Sandra Gonzalez married Michael Martinez over the weekend. The personalized vows from these two writers, Sandra's in particular, left the guests in tears. Congratulations to the happy couple! I hope you're not reading this while off on your honeymoon. 😉

Thank you for reading! Email me here. I'll be back tomorrow...