Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Stelter here, previewing Thursday's front pages and looking back at the past 24 hours of US-Iran crisis coverage. Plus: headlines about Megxit, innovations at CES, and announcements at TCA...

Building credibility

Credibility doesn't exist on a one-way street. For individuals and institutions who earn credibility, it is not an endlessly renewable resource. For those who lose credibility, it doesn't have to be gone for good.

I've been thinking about this in the context of the Trump admin's "trust us" attitude toward the Iran crisis. The admin absolutely lacks credibility, a point that's been made by Jake Tapper, Peter Nicholas, David Leonhardt and many others. But Trump and his aides could be taking concrete steps, every hour every day, to build credibility. There are ways to win it back -- one true statement at a time, one piece of evidence at a time. That's how journalists approach this challenge -- careful reporting and clear-cut corrections are ways to gain and regain the trust and confidence of the public.

So what is the Trump admin doing to restore credibility? Not much that I can see. The White House did not hold a press briefing on Wednesday, following Iran's strikes and Trump's televised statement. The Pentagon did not hold a televised briefing either. And the admin's classified briefing for senators was sharply criticized.

VP Mike Pence granted an interview to Norah O'Donnell on the "CBS Evening News," but other than that, the admin seemed to be in bunker mode, resistant to the type of scrutiny that typically makes government stronger and makes credibility a two-way street...

'Trump's long war on truth undermines his pitch for Americans' trust on Iran'

Daniel Dale's newest article for CNN.com really says it all. Trump "littered his Wednesday address to the nation with inaccuracies -- though he was mostly reading from a teleprompter," Dale writes in this analysis. He notes that "Trump enjoys the loyalty of millions of devotees who are willing to support his positions even when he reverses those positions from one day to the next, who are willing to take his word even though that word has proven serially unreliable." But with "the rest of the country, it's hard for him to have it both ways..."

Baron and Baquet

Flagging recent quotes from both men:

-- WaPo editor Marty Baron: "The highest responsibility of the press is to report thoroughly, vigorously and probingly when this country's leaders take actions that can put the lives of American troops and others at risk."

-- NYT editor Dean Baquet: The press is supposed to "ask hard questions when the government does its most serious business. And nothing is more serious than military intervention."

About the coverage...

-- Cable news viewership surged when word of the strikes came in on Tuesday evening. In the key 25-54 demo, CNN's audience tripled and Fox's audience doubled. Overall, Fox News was the No. 1 cable network for the day, with about 5.7 million viewers in the 8 and 9pm ET hours. CNN was the No. 2 cable network for the day... (Mediaite)

-- MSNBC is catching heat for Tuesday night's breaking news coverage: "As events were still unfolding, the network repeatedly aired propaganda from Iranian State TV, including reports of American fatalities, with only sparse caveats," Caleb Howe writes... (Mediaite)

-- Thank you, Twitter? "For all the sturm und drang about the toxic culture of Twitter, it seems possible that the leaders of both Iran and the US turned to the social media site Tuesday to help ensure that a tense night in the Middle East didn't escalate," Garrett Graff wrote... (WIRED)

-- Given Fox's incredible influence with POTUS, I tuned into Wednesday's "Fox & Friends" to see what the hosts and guests were saying... The show generally took a cautious stance, with lots of praise for Trump and criticism of Dems... (CNN Business)

-- "The war has been postponed" and "we are back from the brink," Tucker Carlson said approvingly on Wednesday night. But, he warned, "we're still close tonight..." (Mediaite)

-- "Trump told people that he had watched Carlson's show and it had affected his view on the Iran situation," Rosie Gray and Miriam Elder write... (BuzzFeed News)

What's been missing...

Is any extended effort at explaining and garnering support for the US mission. As the NYT's main Thursday morning story by Peter Baker notes, "Mr. Trump's 10-minute televised statement on Wednesday morning was his most extended effort to explain last week's drone strike on General Suleimani. Aside from a four-minute statement on Friday morning, he has stuck to Twitter blasts, comments to reporters and a call into Rush Limbaugh's radio show without making an official speech outlining his thinking."

Up next: Trump on Ingraham

Fox's Laura Ingraham has two big interviews in two days. On Thursday, "Ingraham will sit down with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo," the network said in a press release. Then on Friday "'The Ingraham Angle' will present an interview with President Donald Trump..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- WaPo's main headline in Thursday AM's print edition: "Trump opts not to escalate military action." NYT's lead headline: "U.S. and Iranians lower tensions, at least for now."

-- Chris Cuomo's three lessons we must learn to avoid another Iran conflict: "Declaring victory because no Americans died is not proof of strategy... Trump must own what he does... We have to trust our institutions..." (Twitter)

-- Channel 4 News international editor Lindsey Hilsum tweeted: "Feels like back to the future in Baghdad. Hearing things that go bang, sometimes thunder, sometimes rockets. Iraqis at the mercy of other people's proxy wars and their own politicians and armed groups. Just when they had started to rebuild..." (Twitter)

-- "Trump seems oblivious to how his words and actions forced Pentagon leaders to constantly scramble to explain away his comments," Bryan Bender and Jacqueline Feldscher write... (Politico)

-- Margaret Sullivan's newest column: "How much have journalists really learned over the past 17 years," since the invasion of Iraq? (WaPo)

THURSDAY PLANNER

NYT's "The Daily" releases the first in a two-part series, "The Case Against Harvey Weinstein," with Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor...

Jury selection continues in the Harvey Weinstein trial...

Nancy Pelosi holds her weekly presser at 10:45am...

Trump holds a 7pm rally in Toledo, Ohio...

MacCallum re-ups with Fox

Martha MacCallum is sticking with Fox… She 'has signed a new multi-year deal," the network announced Wednesday, to continue anchoring her 7 p.m. hour and co-anchoring all election and special event political coverage with Bret Baier. Like Baier, MacCallum now has the title of "executive editor" for her program, which alludes to a greater level of editorial control…

Bret Baier accuses Trump Iran critics of "Trump derangement syndrome"

Oliver Darcy emails: Who needs a White House press secretary when Fox's anchors say things like this? After Trump's statement, in which it appeared tensions between the US and Iran were simmering down, Bret Baier appeared on Fox and said, "Originally, as this all was happening, it was going to be World War III. He started World War III and there's no strategy here. Now, we saw what Iran did in response. We see what the U.S. is saying in response to that. And you wonder whether Trump Derangement Syndrome factors into some of the responses you hear publicly in Washington."

Not only is it astounding to hear Baier, arguably the face of Fox's "straight news" division, denigrate critics by suggesting they are behaving irrationally because of hatred for Trump, but it ignores part of the reality. That reality is that there were Trump supporters too who were critical of the President's actions. In fact, two of the most vocal people against military action were Tucker Carlson and Rand Paul. I'd hardly say they have "Trump Derangement Syndrome."

Lara Logan's hypocrisy

Oliver Darcy emails: Lara Logan says she does not want to be a partisan cable news talking head. "I'm not trying to be an opinion person," Logan insisted to the LA Times this week. And yet, in her new capacity as a Fox Nation docu-series host, Logan has repeatedly appeared on Fox's hyper-partisan opinion shows offering pro-Trump commentary.

In the last week, she's appeared on "Fox & Friends," "The Ingraham Angle," and "Outnumbered." On Tuesday night, Logan even appeared for a segment on Ingraham's show in which the chyron read, "MEDIA ACTING LIKE IRAN'S PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM." Call me crazy, but if you're "not trying to be an opinion person," maybe don't appear on right-wing programs with commentary for such absurd segments!

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

By Oliver Darcy:

-- Mark Levin didn't seem too happy on Wednesday with his Fox News colleagues. He tweeted that people on the network were taking his ideas "without attribution" and passing it along as theirs... (Twitter)

-- A New York Post reporter was impersonated on Twitter by an account that disseminated pro-Iranian propaganda. The account was later deleted... (Daily Beast)

-- BuzzFeed's Jane Lytvynenko and Jeremy Singer-Vine reported that after Soleimani's funeral, pro-Iran Instagram accounts tagged members of the Trump family in tens of thousands of posts... (BuzzFeed)

Megxit

Harry and Meghan's plan to "step back" from their Royal Family roles is naturally on the Thursday front pages of most UK papers:

Sky has a recap of the front pages here. As for what happened and why, CNN's Max Foster and Bryony Jones have a full story, noting that "the Duke and Duchess have long had a fraught relationship with sections of the British media." So the couple went direct to the public on Wednesday, releasing a lengthy Q&A on a brand new website...

>> As my friend and royal style chronicler and Elizabeth Holmes tweeted: "I'm out of WOWs." (Happy birthday, EH!)

>> "Does the change mean Meghan will play herself in The Crown?" CNN's Max Foster says no...

>> The Ringer's Alyssa Bereznak has "37 pressing questions..."

>> CNN's Stephen Collinson: "It's actually a good sign that a royal caper is eclipsing the US-Iran showdown..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Oliver Darcy:

-- Ashley Gold reports: "Facebook should have acted more quickly to address a manipulated video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that was slowed down to make her appear drunk, head of global policy Monika Bickert told a House committee Wednesday..." (The Information)

-- Rupert Murdoch's newspaper The Australian is under increased scrutiny in Australia. Damien Cave reports that critics are "connecting News Corp to the spread of misinfo and the govt's lackluster response to the fires..." (NYT)

-- NBC News W.H. correspondent Kristen Welker is joining "Weekend Today" as a co-anchor, replacing Sheinelle Jones... (Today)

The buzz at CES...

Per Kaya Yurieff and Samantha Kelly in Las Vegas, here are the most talked-about products at CES this week...

-- Helpful household robots
-- Robokitties
-- A new "species" of virtual assistants
-- The vertical TV no one asked for
-- Flying taxis (and bikes) that may or may not ever get off the ground
-- The Segway S-Pod

Lots of privacy talk

Yurieff and Kelly also note: "While not a physical product, privacy was top of mind at CES this year, with several of the biggest tech companies releasing privacy-focused news this week. Google added two new voice commands for people to better control their privacy when using its voice assistant." And Facebook "announced a new version of its 'Privacy Checkup' tool it hopes will help guide users through important privacy settings..."

IAC sheds CollegeHumor

Kerry Flynn emails: IAC sold CH Media to the brand's chief creative officer Sam Reich, resulting in more than 100 employees losing their jobs. Bloomberg, which first reported this news, had reported in October that IAC was shopping around CH Media

>> Reich tweeted, "IAC, our parent company, has made the difficult decision to no longer finance us. Today, 100+ brilliant people lost their jobs, some of whom are my dear, dear friends. Hire them."

>> IAC tells me: "Sam was the best choice to acquire CH Media and define its next chapter. The decision places CH Media with an owner who is beloved by fans, passionate about the business and sees a future we believe in."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Via Michelle Legro: GEN exec editor Garance Franke-Ruta "was working with Elizabeth Wurtzel when she passed away this week." Now GEN has published Wurtzel's final piece, "I Believe In Love." You should read it... (GEN)

-- Another HBO tome in the works: "Viking Books has acquired 'It's Not TV,' to be written by Bloomberg News features writer and editor Felix Gillette, and NYT TV writer John Koblin..." (THR)

-- "Free commuter newspaper Metro Boston shuts down after 19 years..." (Boston Business Journal)

-- BI's Lucia Moses spoke with recently appointed TIME prez Keith Grossman and CEO and EIC Edward Felsenthal about their plans to "restore the neglected title and make it a billion-dollar business," which include new Time verticals "where it has authority, like health, business, and education," and a traveling history exhibit... (BI)

-- "Spotify is going to start using its copious amounts of user data to run targeted ads inside its exclusive podcasts," Ashley Carman reports... (The Verge)

Teen Vogue x Facebook

Kerry Flynn emails: I — and many others on Twitter — spent way too much time today mesmerized by a controversy involving Teen Vogue and Facebook. TLDR: Facebook placed a puff piece on its election integrity efforts, which it thought was editorially driven, but Conde's team labeled it "sponsored" due to a paid partnership they had for a November event.

"We made a series of errors labeling this piece," a Conde spokesperson eventually said, "and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We don't take our audience's trust for granted, and ultimately decided that the piece should be taken down entirely to avoid further confusion." WaPo has a full story about the dust-up here...

'Radical shift' for AT&T's Audience Network

"Audience Network, the AT&T-backed channel available to DirecTV subscribers, is being transformed into a marketing channel designed to promote corporate sibling HBO Max." The "radical shift," THR's Lesley Goldberg says, "leaves four scripted originals — David E. Kelley's Mr. Mercedes, fellow drama Condor and comedies Loudermilk and You Me Her — in limbo. Sources stress some of those shows could likely make the move to HBO Max, though a formal decision has not yet been made..."

'Party of Five' brings an urgent immigration-related hook to Freeform reboot

Brian Lowry emails: The concept is more impressive than the execution in Freeform's "Party of Five" reboot, but the premise -- having the kids in the show forced to fend for themselves because their immigrant parents are deported -- counts for quite a lot, bringing a sense of urgency and relevance to this new take on the 1990s series. In that sense, the show leans directly into current events in a way relatively few programs do. Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Quibi made lots of news at CES on Wednesday... Including "the app's signature technology, Turnstyle," which "lets users switch between portrait and landscape video instantly when they rotate their phones..." (The Verge)

-- "Warner Bros. has become the latest studio to publicly embrace artificial intelligence. The movie division, headed up by chairman Toby Emmerich, has signed a deal with Cinelytic to use the latter's AI-driven project management system..." (THR)

-- Amazon's Twitch "is falling short in a number of ways," Priya Anand writes. "It hasn't yet become the advertising powerhouse that Amazon envisions it as..." (The Information)

-- Justin Bieber's YouTube docu-series, premiering January 27, will detail his battle with Lyme disease, TMZ reports... (TMZ)

ABC NEWS + ABC ENTERTAINMENT:

Live episode of 'The Conners' will incorporate NH primary coverage

Coming next month: "An unusual collaboration between ABC's entertainment and news divisions." As the NH primary unfolds on February 11, "The Conners" "will be performed live for the East and West Coasts and integrate the network's coverage" of the primary into the plot, WSJ's Joe Flint reports. There will be two versions of the episode, "one for the Eastern time zone and a later one for the West Coast that will be updated with results."

"The episode suggests how far the broadcast networks will go to experiment these days and attempt to draw interest in the 2020 election," Flint wrote. The live episode was promoted by ABC at the TCA Press Tour on Wednesday.

>> Here's how it will work: "The episode's plot will have one of the show's characters watching the primary results as part of a school assignment, which will lead to a discussion about the role of money in elections and a debate about whether voting matters..."

Another Oscars year without a host

Sandra Gonzalez writes: "The Oscars will once again go forward without a host. ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke made the announcement" at TCA. "Burke said the decision to repeat 'what worked for us last year' was made in concert with the Academy..."

Brian Lowry opines: ABC's no-host Oscars approach worked well enough last year, but that was helped in part by curiosity regarding what the experiment would look like. The questions now are whether the show will get that kind of bump again, and perhaps more significantly, whether the lineup of nominees will be appealing enough to lure viewers in -- a greater challenge if most of the best-picture contenders are indies and from Netflix...

More news from ABC's day at TCA

-- ABC and the Television Academy have set the date for the 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards: Sunday, September 20... (Variety)

-- "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" is coming back to prime time, for the first time since 2009, with new host Jimmy Kimmel. "The series will debut Wednesday, April 8. This special run will see celebrity contestants playing for charity..." (BuzzerBlog)

-- ABC has ordered a pilot for a "thirtysomething" sequel... (Deadline)

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Nicki Minaj's Madame Tussauds wax figure is not a hit at all...

-- Lizzo volunteered at an Australian food bank to help those affected by the wildfires there...

-- Joaquin Phoenix plans to wear the same tux to every event this awards season to cut down on waste...

-- Superstar country group Rascal Flatts has announced their farewell tour...

-- "Ugly Betty" creator Silvio Horta has died at 45. Horta died by suicide, according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner.

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