| | | | | Exec summary: Eight different stories could be the lead. And that's not counting James O'Keefe. Scroll down to get caught up... | | Trump is still a birther, the NYT reports | | | Politico's Matthew Nussbaum took the words out of my mouth: "This story is frightening." He was linking to this Page One NYT story by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin. It builds on the NYT's recent revelation that Trump has privately expressed doubt about the veracity of the "Access" tape, and then adds tons of new info... | | | The story cites Trump "advisers" here: "In recent months, they say, Mr. Trump has used closed-door conversations to question the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate. He has also repeatedly claimed that he lost the popular vote last year because of widespread voter fraud, according to advisers and lawmakers..." | | | Paragraph 7: The story cites advisers who say the president "continues to privately harbor a handful of conspiracy theories that have no grounding in fact." Paragraph 10: "Mr. Trump's journeys into the realm of manufactured facts have been frequent enough that his own staff has sought to nudge friendly lawmakers to ask questions of Mr. Trump in meetings that will steer him toward safer terrain." Paragraph 14: An anonymous U.S. senator says the president dives down "rabbit holes." Paragraph 22: "Mr. Trump's friends did not bother denying that the president was creating an alternative version of events." | | The WashPost has even more... | | | Josh Dawsey's first byline for the Post! Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker teamed up for this story about how Trump tries to "paint the rosiest possible picture of his presidency." The lead: "Trump has expressed certainty that the special-counsel probe into his campaign's possible collusion with Russia will be finished by the end of the year, complete with an exoneration from Robert S. Mueller III, according to several friends who have spoken with him in recent days." (NARRATOR VOICE: No, it will not be finished by the end of the year...) | | "Disassociated from reality" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Just another day in Trump punditry. John Heilemann on MSNBC said that despite the president seeming "disassociated from reality... so far, there has not been a disaster." Citing the prospect of a government shutdown and rising tensions with North Korea, he continued, "It feels like things are kind of right now about to kind of, maybe, unravel, on maybe more than one front at once." | | So, about that annual White House Christmas party... | | It's holiday party season... So I've been wondering... What will the White House do? The Obama W.H. typically held two evening parties for members of the press corps, I'm told... One primarily for the TV news media, the other for print/digital/etc. But the Trump W.H. is doing things differently. There's a party this Friday at 2pm... And it's causing some awkward conversations in newsrooms. Given the Trump administration's anti-media venom, is it best to RSVP yes or no?
We're going to hear more about this later in the week... But the issue bubbled to the surface on Tuesday when Politico's Jason Schwartz published a story saying that CNN would "boycott" the party. "CNN will not be attending this year's White House Christmas party," a spokeswoman said. "In light of the President's continued attacks on freedom of the press and CNN, we do not feel it is appropriate to celebrate with him as his invited guests. We will send a White House reporting team to the event and report on it if news warrants."
The story left me wondering: Is Politico "boycotting" too? A spokesman said "Several reporters were invited and will choose to attend based on their schedules and availability, as is the case every year." My reply: This year is like every other year, right? 😉 | | Reactions to CNN's decision | | -- Sarah Sanders retweeted the Politico headline and wrote: "Christmas comes early! Finally, good news from @CNN."
-- WashPost's Catherine Rampell replied to Sanders with a simple question: "Why did you invite them then?"
-- Chef José Andrés tweeted at CNN: "You are all welcome to celebrate the Christmas party with us! Tell me when and I will tell you where..." | | -- Facebook's newest test: It "will now let some publishers add a 'breaking' tag to news stories... Publishers can use the tag once in a 24-hour period..." (Recode)
-- NBCU sales chief Linda Yaccarino at her Tuesday gathering of media bigwigs: "We might even reduce commercial time across the board..." (BI)
-- The WSJ's Alexandra Bruell has another view of Yaccarino's event... (WSJ)
-- Re: This season's ESPN layoffs: Richard Deitsch is "hearing the job losses for this round will be concentrated on behind-the-scenes people/positions in multiple depts. Not many front-facing (on-air) names expected, if any..." (Twitter) | | When will the DOJ v. AT&T trial begin? | | Julia Horowitz and Laura Jarrett write: "The DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against AT&T and Time Warner is just over a week old and the two sides already can't agree on a key issue: when to start the trial. On Tuesday, AT&T and Time Warner (the owner of CNN) filed court documents asking Judge Richard Leon to set a February 20 trial date." The DOJ wants a May 7 start date. "Importantly, the merger agreement between the two companies expires on April 22." Read more...
-- Lawyers for AT&T and TWX say the government has had "ample time already to investigate its case." (This proposed deal was announced 13 months ago.)
-- More: The companies estimate that the trial will take 10 days... A Justice spokesperson declined to comment... | | AT&T's lawyers also filed a formal response to the suit on Tuesday. The lawyers called the case an "abrupt departure from precedent" and said AT&T had offered behavior remedies similar to what the DOJ accepted when Comcast acquired NBCU...
-- New from Bloomberg: AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson "flew to D.C. to make a last ditch proposal" to the DOJ. "It failed," and the government filed suit the next day...
-- Speaking of Stephenson: He'll be speaking at the Economic Club of NY on Wednesday... The event will be live-streamed here... | | NFL ratings -- a turkey for Thanksgiving | | | The NFL's three national games on Thanskgiving were down by a combined average of 19% year-over-year. The key question: Why? Frank Pallotta's story has several answers: The games weren't good... And CBS blacked out its game for Dish subscribers amid a fee fight... And there's obviously the Trump factor... | | This is what "Fox & Friends" told POTUS. Is it true? | | Trump was back at it on Tuesday, dinging the NFL once again via a statement on Twitter. He continues to exaggerate the NFL's declines. He says things like the league is "hemorrhaging" and "killing" itself. Let's tackle Tuesday's specific claim: "At least 24 players kneeling this weekend at NFL stadiums that are now having a very hard time filling up," Trump tweeted. Where'd he get that from? Looks like "Fox & Friends." About 25 minutes before the tweet, Steve Doocy said on Fox, "Fans are leaving the stadiums as players keep protesting the national anthem. Two dozen this past week. Will the NFL finally get the message before it's too late?"
"Lots and lots of Americans are boycotting the NFL" is a popular storyline on Fox. One of Tuesday's banners said "KNEELING BACKLASH EMPTIES STADIUMS." But the league says that is simply untrue. "Overall, ticket sales excluding the Los Angeles market are down a little over 1%. If you include LA, they're down about 2%," NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said when I inquired. "Capacity at stadiums is nearly 98%... that's in the normal band, some years we get to 99%, although not that often. Ticket revenue is up slightly."
-- Related: NBC's Jane C. Timm just wrote a fact-check about this... | | -- Here's Joe Pompeo's latest on the complicated feelings inside Time Inc. about Meredith's Koch-backed takeover... (VF)
-- Another must-read about Time and the Kochs: Jane Mayer's brand new piece... (The New Yorker)
-- Via Megan Thomas: "The premium is on massiveness. The size is the strategy." This is an interesting read from Michael Wolff on the strategy of scale in today's media world of mega-mergers... (THR)
-- Instagram is "secretly" testing a regram button, "a feature many users have been waiting for..." (The Next Web)
-- An in-depth look at OWN: "Oprah Re-Invented TV Once. Can She Do It Again with a Revamped OWN?" (VF) | | | NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik tweeted: "NPR has named Edith Chapin to run network's news gathering under Chris Turpin. She replaces David Sweeney, who had been accused by younger colleagues of sexual harassment in several episodes dating back 15 years. He is no longer with the network..." | | | Business Insider's annual conference gets underway in NYC Wednesday morning... Here's the agenda... | | "The Inside Scoop on How to Succeed at TV News" | | | Are you in the TV news biz and thinking about your career? Then check out this free event I'm moderating in NYC on Wednesday night. I'll be interviewing Richard Leibner and Carole Cooper, two legendary television agents by day, husband and wife by night. (Full disclosure: Leibner is my agent.) The event is hosted by the Center for Communication, a nonprofit that seeks to help students in the media industry. Details here... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Kelly McBride breaks down what was wrong with the NYT's profile of a Nazi sympathizer in Ohio... and offers recommendations on how to write about white supremacists... (Poynter)
-- In Canada, Facebook is teaming up with Ryerson School of Journalism to launch an incubator for media startups... (CBC)
-- Recommended: Ricardo Bilton interviews "How To Think" author Alan Jacobs. They talk about how the incredible speed of Twitter makes it harder for us all to process information... (NiemanLab) | | James O'Keefe on the defensive | | "We have undercover people inside the Washington Post," James O'Keefe claimed on Tuesday. He told a small gathering of fans on Periscope that "the mainstream media is trying to destroy us," but "we will never stop."
We'll see about that. O'Keefe's embarrassment was a national news story on Tuesday -- he was stung by his own sting -- and the Post's expose is still the site's most-read story right now, 30 hours after it originally came out. Here's my story about O'Keefe on the defensive...
-- More: The AP's David Bauder interviewed a media ethics professor, Jane Kirtley, who threw out her lesson plan to discuss O'Keefe's botched sting. "This is how good journalists do their jobs and how they don't get taken in by hoaxes," Kirtley said. "It's such an important lesson..." | | -- Margaret Sullivan's new column: "Reality scores a win over the perverse drive to discredit honest reporting..."
-- Noah Rothman says the O'Keefe's debacle "exposes a discomfiting truth. Conservative alternative media was established to combat useful ignorance. Now it exploits it..."
-- Rosie Gray and McKay Coppins' latest: "How James O'Keefe made himself irrelevant..."
-- Michael Calderone tweeted: "O'Keefe's botched WaPo sting hasn't affected book deal. St. Martin's Press still plans to publish his book on the 'fight for truth' in January..." | | Fox photogs "manhandled" by Roy Moore campaign staffers | | | Two Roy Moore campaign staffers "manhandled" two photojournalists from Fox News in Alabama on Monday night, the network said. Videos of the altercation backed up the network's account of what happened. Here's my full story. As Jake Tapper said on Twitter, this kind of press treatment is "totally unacceptable..." | | | CNN's Rebecca Berg just broke the news that Steve Bannon will appear with Moore on the campaign trail next week. This was foreshadowed by The Atlantic... And now it's been confirmed by Bannon... I think it highlights the fact that Moore has been avoiding the campaign trail... | | Sean Hannity profiled by the NYT... | | Matthew Shaer's profile will appear in this Sunday's NYT Mag. Shocker, Sean Hannity found something to complain about -- he says the cover photo is unflattering -- On Tuesday night's "Hannity," he said, "They took hundreds and hundreds of pictures. And THAT'S the one they chose of me! You think it might have -- alright, stop laughing -- you think it might have something to do with liberal bias? Wow."
--> Carve out some time to read the full piece. I was struck by the fact that Hannity, who regularly says "I'm not a journalist," now says "I'm an advocacy journalist, or an opinion journalist..." | | "When Women Stand Up Against Harassers in the Newsroom" | | "We don't need more training -- we know what to do," Ann Marie Lipinski writes in this new piece for Nieman Reports...
-- Related? Alicia Shepard's latest for USA Today: "Charlie Rose, sexual harassment and the female newsroom managers who looked away..." | | | For the record, part four | | | -- Featured and photographed for VF's Hall of Fame: The NYT's Jodi Kantor, Michael Schmidt, Emily Steel, and Megan Twohey... (VF)
-- FCC chairman Ajit Pai is accusing Twitter of silencing conservatives... (CNN Tech)
-- Donie O'Sullivan emails: Twitter and Facebook say they will have answers for a UK parliamentary committee and Britain's electoral commission on Brexit and Russia in the coming weeks... (Twitter)
-- Digiday's Ross Benes makes the case that "YouTube's latest ad scandal is unlikely to hurt its bottom line..." (Digiday) | | Twitter can't seem to shake this Kremlin-linked troll... | | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: Twitter handed over 2,700 accounts it identified as being run by a Russian troll farm to Congress earlier this month. Since then, one of the suspended accounts has twice set up new accounts and on both occasions the accounts remained live for days, seemingly going undetected by Twitter until CNN asked the social network about them... | | I feel like we don't talk about this enough. I'm glad Craig Silverman is. His latest piece for BuzzFeed wrestles with the consequences of "flattening." On Twitter, on Facebook, on other social platforms, all content looks equal -- a Washington Post investigation looks the same as a Project Veritas prank. A CNN special report looks the same as an anti-CNN meme. Each takes up the same amount of space and can accrue the same amount of social lift.
"By ostensibly putting everyone on the same level, you empower those who become experts at gaming the system," Silverman writes. "By democratizing media on platforms that reward pure attention capture, you enable manipulation on a profound scale." Read the whole thing here... | | | Lisa Respers France emails: The 60th annual Grammy nominations were announced on Tuesday... Women and artists of colors did really well... In other words, there will not be a Beyonce vs. Adele situation this year... | | Fall finale of "This Is Us" | | | Megan Thomas emails: The fall finale of "This Is Us" aired Tuesday night. Speaking with EW, E.P. Isaac Aptaker summed up the episode this way: "Randall and Beth's world is rocked by a shocking and unexpected turn of events." No spoilers please... | | Lowry reviews "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" | | Brian Lowry emails: Amazon rewarded "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" -- a 1950s dramedy from "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino -- a two-season order before its debut. But that was before an announced change in programming strategy and sexual-harassment scandals triggered a management change and clouded the future of its flagship show "Transparent," seemingly raising the stakes for the show to deliver.
So does it? Read Lowry's full review here... | | Big win for "Call Me By Your Name" | | Megan Thomas emails: The coming-of-age drama "Call Me By Your Name" was named best feature of the year at The Gotham Independent Film Awards on Monday. Jordan Peele's horror/social commentary hit "Get Out" also had a big night – winning three categories, including breakthrough director, best screenplay and the audience award. Three previous "Gotham" best feature winners ("Spotlight," "Birdman" and "Moonlight") have gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture in recent years.
Meantime, the National Board of Review (NBR) announced its 2017 film award selections on Tuesday, and Steven Spielberg's "The Post" scored top honors. In addition to film of the year, Meryl Streep (who plays the late Post publisher Katherine Graham) was named best actress. Her co-star Tom Hanks (who plays Ben Bradlee) was named best actor. In a category all too frequently lacking female representation, Greta Gerwig was selected as best director for her mother-daughter drama "Lady Bird..." | | Spontaneous applause for "The Post" | | | Brian Lowry emails: At a screening of "The Post" on Monday night, it was notable how many moments in which characters discussed the paper's journalistic mandate triggered spontaneous applause from the audience, which likely bodes well for its broader awards profile. During a post-screening panel, Spielberg was direct about the present-day peripherals, saying he felt a sense of urgency to make the movie because what transpired in 1971 is "terrifyingly similar" to 2017... | | | For the record, part five | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Sure, social media has been super excited that #blackgirlmagic is coming to the royal family in the form of Meghan Markle. But the biracial American actress is actually pretty magical in other ways, too...
-- MTV is bringing back one of its most popular reality shows, but this time there's a family feel. That's right, get ready for "Jersey Shore Family Vacation" in 2018... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
