EXEC SUMMARY: Scroll down for the bipartisan letter calling for the restoration of regular DC press briefings, and the White House's insulting response... Plus, OANN and Barstool Sports on the block... And this weekend's box office battle...
Inside The AP
Sally Buzbee has been the exec editor of The Associated Press for three years. There's a reason why "AP standards" and the "AP stylebook" are taught in journalism school: The AP's stories and videos are a foundation for thousands of news outlets around the world. So Buzbee has one of the biggest jobs in journalism. Here are the highlights from our sit-down, which you can hear in full on this week's "Reliable" podcast...
Coverage priorities: Among the AP's clients there is "global interest" in the environment -- for daily and political, not just "project work," Buzbee said. She wants "every day" environmental coverage "strong and accountable" and aggressive. Other priorities include US politics, income inequality, worldwide protests, race and gender inequality, and technology.
Bread and butter: The AP's "bread and butter" is big, spot breaking news, "but we also need to give our customers things that they can't get anywhere else."
The US-Iran crisis: Both sides "have pulled back from the brink on both sides," but Trump remains a "very impulsive" leader and "Iran's long term goals here have not changed."
Reporting from Iran: "Right now, the Iranians have not allowed us to credential any outsiders full time in Iran. So our staff is our permanent staff there, made up of journalists who are from Iran." Although largely free to report in and around Tehran, there are some restrictions on travel "to certain other parts of the country."
What's getting worse: "There is no question that attacks on media and restrictions on media are getting worse internationally." | | How The AP covers Trump
The Trump factor: "There is still intense global interest" from news outlets in all things Trump, Buzbee said. While there was some "fatigue" last year, the campaign is "reenergizing" interest. So "we are still quite heavily focused on him" but "we do try to make sure that it doesn't eat up all of our journalism resources."
How Trump is changing global perceptions of the US: America's "reputation internationally really is changing in some ways. And I do think there has been, perhaps, not enough coverage of that."
Calling out Trump's lies: "There have been one or two very specific instances when we have said that he 'lied.'" Buzbee said "it's hard to get inside anybody's head." But "the president obviously has a different attitude toward how he uses stories and how he uses facts."
On Trump and tone: "We have to be very cautious in making sure that we are holding him accountable when he is saying things that are not factually true, but also not turning off audiences by being too snarky toward him... It's a delicate balance."
Racist rhetoric: Decisions about language are collaborative. "One of the most difficult decisions that we have ever had" was when Trump "was telling lawmakers who are not white to go back to their home countries." The AP decided to say the rhetoric was racist.
Busy months ahead: "I was really glad that our Washington staff got about a week and a half of rest over the holidays."
Big focus in 2020: "The rise of misinformation" is pushing journalists to figure out "who's behind this info." Can newsrooms keep up with all the hoaxes and smears? "We're gonna see..."
Check out our full conversation via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your podcast player of choice...
"Why America needs to hear from its government"
In this open letter, published on CNN.com on Friday, 13 former White House press secretaries, foreign service and military officials called for the return of regular W.H. and other press briefings. Bush 43 press secretary Scott McClellan and Rumsfeld-era Pentagon press secretary Victoria Clarke are among the signees. Former Bush-era State spox Richard Boucher and Nicholas Burns also signed on.
Of note, however, Bush 43-era spokespeople Ari Fleischer and Dana Perino didn't sign. My impression is that both of them were invited to participate. Much less surprisingly, Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders' names are also missing...
White House's insulting response
According to the NYT's Michael M. Grynbaum and Katie Rogers, W.H. spokesman Hogan Gidley dismissed the letter writers as "D.C. establishment swamp creatures."
Grynbaum and Rogers are out with a new story about Stephanie Grisham and her low profile. It's not just a lack of briefings: "Outside of appearances on Fox News, the One America News Network and the Sinclair Broadcast Group, she rarely goes on TV. Throughout her time in the job, Mr. Trump has wondered why she does not appear on television more often, according to two people familiar with his thinking..."
Trump admin's shifting stories about Soleimani strike
A must-read by CNN's Nicole Gaouette, Jennifer Hansler and Jamie Crawford: The Trump admin "continues to present conflicting justifications for the deadly Reaper drone strike and clashing narratives about what has followed." Again and again, Trump's national security officials "have contradicted each other about how imminent a threat Qasem Soleimani posed, whether they had specific intelligence on the threat and even what that threat was, with Trump saying one thing then another, while officials offered varying explanations. Administration officials even appear to disagree on the roles that Trump's principal advisers played..."
Trump cannot be believed
From Laura Ingraham's Friday sit-down with POTUS:
INGRAHAM: Did he (Soleimani) have large scale attacks planned for other embassies? And if those were planned, why can't we reveal that to the American people? Wouldn't that help your case?
TRUMP: I can reveal that I believe it probably would've been four embassies.
When Fox released this sound bite on Friday afternoon, news outlets ran with it -- some irresponsibly, just assuming Trump was telling the truth, and others much more cautiously, pointing out that this new claim was coming out of nowhere, and lawmakers knew nothing about it.
"Over two days," CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale noted, "Trump has gone from 1) not mentioning embassies to 2) saying it was the embassy in Baghdad to 3) saying it was embassies plural to 4) saying it was four embassies."
Trump's use of the words "I believe" stood out to me. I've noticed that he sometimes couches his unbelievable claims with "I believe." Does he do this to dodge fact-checkers? After all, no one can technically prove whether he "believes" that Soleimani wanted to bomb four embassies. But the bottom line is that Trump's public statements cannot be believed, cannot be taken at face value...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- WaPo's Greg Miller tweeted: "If Quds force was truly planning attacks on 4 US embassies, Iran was essentially preparing for war with the United States. If not, Trump is fabricating peril to US diplomats in effort to prop up rationale for Soleimani strike..." (Twitter)
-- "This is Trump's ultimate victory," David Brooks writes: "Every argument on every topic is now all about him. Hating Trump together has become the ultimate bonding, attention-grabbing and profit-maximization mechanism for those of us in anti-Trump world..." (NYT)
-- Nancy Pelosi is "preparing to send the impeachment articles to the Senate next week." Looks like the House could vote on the naming of impeachment managers on Wednesday, though the timing can certainly change... (CNN)
OANN for sale?
WSJ with the scoop: "Allies of President Trump are pursuing an effort to acquire right-leaning news channel One America News Network, according to people familiar with the matter."
OANN is way more than "right-leaning," but I digress...
Juliet Chung, Corrie Driebusch and Rebecca Ballhaus report that "the investment firm Hicks Equity Partners is looking to acquire the channel and is pitching other wealthy GOP donors to arrange a bid of roughly $250 million for the channel's parent company, the people said. The firm is owned by the family of Thomas Hicks Jr., co-chairman of the Republican National Committee and a close friend of Donald Trump Jr.," but Hicks Jr. apparently isn't involved.
>> OANN president Charles Herring says "expressed interest" in the channel is on the rise, but "our family didn't build our operations to sell it." Translation: He wants $300 million?
>> OANN has presidential promotion, but weak distribution and a very small audience. Could new owners really change that?
Barstool Sports for sale?
Recode's Peter Kafka with the scoop: "Sources say The Chernin Group, which currently owns Barstool, is in advanced talks to sell a majority stake in the company to Penn National Gaming, a publicly traded, regional gambling company that operates 41 properties in 19 states. Barstool was last valued at more than $100 million, but a potential purchase price could be much higher, and might create the biggest media-gambling tie-up in the US since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018." Read on...
WEEKEND PLANNER
Defense Secretary Mark Esper will be on CNN's "SOTU" and CBS's "Face the Nation..."
The Critics Choice Awards will start Sunday at 7pm ET...
Oscar nominations will be announced at 8:18am ET Monday...
This Sunday on "Reliable"
I'll be joined by Hadas Gold, James Fallows, John Kirby, Bill Weld, and the aforementioned Sally Buzbee... Plus, I'll have the first TV interview with Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn about their new book "Tightrope: Americans Reaching For Hope," which comes out on Tuesday. See you Sunday at 11am ET on CNN...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- David A. Graham writes: "For a candidate who never made it out of the low single digits, Marianne Williamson's campaign still managed to go through all the cycles afforded to a major candidate: Media fascination, backlash, backlash to the backlash, backlash to the backlash to the backlash, and finally exit, on Friday." (The Atlantic)
-- Here's the new CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll we previewed last night: "Iowa poll shows a tight four-way race in final weeks before the Democratic caucuses..."
-- NBC News is shutting down its "in-house unscripted production unit" Peacock Productions... (Variety)
"A Royal Crisis"
That's the banner atop a photo of Harry and Meghan in Saturday's edition of The Daily Telegraph. In The Daily Mirror, it's "Royals in Crisis" with a photo of the Queen. The Sun may have the best front page of all: "The Frown." Here's the roundup via Sky... | | >> Related: Hadas Gold's story: "Britain's top tabloids were already going after Meghan. Now they're twisting the knife..."
"Coming or going, Meghan gets the blame -- and it's because of her race"
Lisa Respers France emails: Coming or going, Meghan Markle still gets the blame -- and it's because of her race. From the moment her relationship with Prince Harry went public in 2016 the message many Britons sent to her was clear: You aren't one of us, and you aren't welcome here. Now that the couple are planning to take a step back from their duties as senior royals, the message has gone from "Why are you here?" to "Where do you think you are going?" and she is being accused of causing a schism in the family. As a black woman it's been infuriating to watch and yet completely expected.
Read Lisa's full piece here...
"Oprah Winfrey Steps Away From Russell Simmons Accuser Doc, Pulls From Apple+"
Breaking on Friday evening: "Oprah Winfrey is stepping away from a documentary that centered on a former music executive who has accused Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct," THR's Lacey Rose reports.
The untitled film by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering is set to premiere at Sundance later this month. Winfrey will no longer be an exec producer of the film, and "it will not air on Apple TV+," she said in a statement to THR. Winfrey said the film needs "more work" to "illuminate the full scope of what the victims endured, and it has become clear that the filmmakers and I are not aligned in that creative vision..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "Samira Ahmed has won her equal pay claim against the BBC in a landmark case that lawyers say could leave the broadcaster facing a bill running into the millions for similar claims by other female staff..." (The Guardian)
-- G/O Media intends to relaunch Deadspin "under The Onion's corporate structure in Chicago..." (The Big Lead)
-- On Friday The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced this year's award recipients: Ted Boutrous, Julie K. Brown, Amal Clooney, Jane Mayer, and Laura Moscoso will be honored on May 5 in NYC...
"CNN to Pay $76 Million to Settle Decade-Old Labor Case"
On Friday the National Labor Relations Board approved a roughly $76 million dollar settlement involving CNN and camera operators "who accused the news organization of canceling their contract because they were unionized," Bloomberg Law's Hassan A. Kanu reports. This will "finally resolve the 16-year-old labor dispute involving more than 200 camera operators in New York and Washington. The settlement figure is the 'largest monetary remedy' in the board's 85-year history, according to the NLRB." Details here...
>> "After more than a decade of litigation, negotiation and appeals we are pleased to have resolved a longstanding legal matter," a CNN spokesperson told me...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- "Seth MacFarlane is leaving his longtime studio home at 20th Century Fox Television after more than two decades for a giant nine-figure television deal at NBCUniversal Content Studios." It's reportedly a $200 million deal... (Deadline)
-- Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb are on InStyle's list of 50 Badass Women. They spoke about their experience as the first female co-anchor team in the 67-year history of "Today..." (InStyle)
Recommended reads for your weekend 👓
By Katie Pellico:
-- NiemanLab's Laura Hazard Owen checks up on the Florida Climate Reporting Network six months after its launch...
-- Sarah Manavis unpacks the "strange case of Paul Zimmer," a disgraced TikTok star who may have "made a comeback with a whole new identity..."
-- NYT's Katie Hafner remembers Peter Kirstein, the "Father of the European Internet" who set up Queen Elizabeth with one of the first email addresses to be given to a head of state...
-- In the wake of her untimely passing, read about "Elizabeth Wurtzel's Final Year, In Her Own Words." Garance Franke-Ruta, Wurtzel's former editor at The Atlantic and a "long-distance friend" shares this long piece that the "Prozac Nation" author said "was from something longer she was working on..."
-- BuzzFeed News senior reporter Ryan Broderick breaks down why the "'Star Wars' Misinformation Hell Is The New Future Of Everything." (Caution: "Rise of Skywalker" spoilers lie ahead...)
-- A final New Year round-up: Journalist's Resource managing editor Denise-Marie Ordway "sums up some of the most compelling papers on fake news and fact-checking published in 2019..."
| | "Jeopardy!" ratings keep rising
"ABC's special Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time tournament is more than living up to its name, at least as far as the Nielsen ratings are concerned," Vulture's Joe Adalian reports. "Thursday night's third installment of the event drew a massive same-day audience of 15.4 million viewers, more eyeballs than watched the first five games of last year's NBA Finals or World Series, and a bigger number than any regularly scheduled series broadcast so far during the 2019–20 television season. What's more, the Sony Pictures TV–produced GOAT has seen its audience grow every night it has aired this week." The tournament will resume on Tuesday night...
"1917" looks to win the box office battle this weekend | | Frank Pallotta writes: "1917," Universal's harrowing World War I drama, opens nationwide this weekend. It's expected to have a $20 million weekend, according to Universal, and while that number won't break any records, it could help the studio rebound from its last release, the box office flop known as "Cats."
"I think it has a real shot at being No. 1 this weekend," Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com told me. "We're coming out of the post-holiday hangover and people, especially adults, are looking for a serious movie. They've gotten their fill of family-friendly content over the holidays and may now be looking for something more substantial."
The film made $3.2 million on Thursday night and has made nearly $6 million since it opened in limited theaters on Christmas. The film has an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes and, more importantly, it took home awards for best picture, drama and best director for Sam Mendes at last weekend's Golden Globes.
>> The film could also gain traction with audiences who are intrigued by its technical aspects. CNN's Thomas Page spoke with cinematographer Roger Deakins and editor Lee Smith about their work on the project, billed as a "one-shot" film...
>> Brian Lowry said "'1917' brings a masterful new dimension to the war epic..."
Lowry: After controversy, Oscar nominations could give "Joker" the last laugh
Brian Lowry emails: The Oscar nominations come out Monday, and while there's a lot of suspense beyond the top three or four movies, one of the more interesting is "Joker." Having premiered amid security concerns and questions about its violence, the Warner Bros. film went on to become a huge hit, and has enjoyed enough success in the run-up to the nominations that it won¹t be a surprise if it scores bids in a number of key categories. If so the film and its director Todd Phillips, who dismissed criticism by saying "Art isn't safe," will have had the last laugh.
>> Between now and then, we'll have the Critics' Choice Awards, an event that might warrant a little closer scrutiny than usual, given the WaPo story last month about Netflix courting some members with pricey trips and hotel stays...
Lowry reviews "The Outsider," "Sanditon"
Brian Lowry emails: Two topnotch limited series premiere Sunday, another reflection of this age of TV abundance. "The Outsider" brings a Stephen King novel to the screen with "The Night Of" writer Richard Price in the creative driver's seat and gets off to a promising start, while "Sanditon" turns an unfinished Jane Austen novel into a sumptuous "Masterpiece" production. (Andrew Davies, responsible for several earlier Austen adaptations, handled those chores, and introduces, or emphasizes, some modern elements.)
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Amy Schumer has opened up about her IVF struggle and is seeking advice from her followers...
-- Drake and Future have debuted their music video for "Life is Good..."
BBC America prioritizes Australia episode of "Seven Worlds, One Planet" ahead of premiere
Brian Lowry emails: BBC America announced that it has shuffled the episode order to lead off its new nature series "Seven Worlds, One Planet" with Australia, seeking to highlight the devastating fires there and "inform viewers of how they can support relief efforts." The program premieres on Jan. 18.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Widower saves California's oldest weekly newspaper
SFGate's headline for the story is even better: "Retired widower cancels around-the-world trip to save California's oldest weekly newspaper."
Yes indeed: "Carl Butz, 71, said he canceled plans for a multi-month trek across Europe and Asia to step into the role of editor-publisher" for the Downieville-based Mountain Messenger.
"What am I going to do?" Butz said. "Go on another trip around the world? Instead, I'm doing something good for the community, and I feel good about it." Read the full story here...
| | | Thank you for reading! Send me your feedback via email... See you Sunday... | | | |
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