| | | | | Exec summary: James Murdoch won't be joining Disney... Michael Avenatti will be back on TV soon... Fox News is moving to dismiss the Seth Rich family's lawsuit... When will NBC's report be released? | | Love him or hate him, Michael Avenatti is a master of the media.
On Tuesday, the biggest story of the day was President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal -- until Avenatti tweeted about his latest findings in the Michael Cohen investigation.
Just after 5pm, Avenatti revealed via Twitter that Cohen received approximately $500,000 after the election from a company linked to a Russian oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin. Avenatti presented a document full of details about payments to Cohen.
He's "attempting to connect the dots between the Russia probe and the Michael Cohen investigation," The Atlantic's Natasha Bertrand wrote.
The Iran fallout may matter a lot more in ten years. But the Cohen bombshells are sharing space with Iran atop news home pages right now because they have the stench of the "swamp" Trump always rails against... And for other reasons... | | | CNN's Tuesday evening scoop: "Robert Mueller's investigators have questioned" the aforementioned Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, "about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments his company's US affiliate made" to Cohen... | | AT&T says it paid Cohen's company for "insights" | | The payments to Cohen were technically made to Essential Consultants, a shell company set up by Cohen before the election to pay Stormy Daniels. Avenatti revealed that Essential was paid by several corporations, including AT&T, the wireless provider that is trying to buy CNN's parent company, Time Warner.
Avenatti's document stated that "Essential received $200,000 in four separate payments of $50,000 in late 2017 and early 2018 from AT&T." But AT&T disputed this timeline. "Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration," AT&T said Tuesday evening. "They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017."
AT&T's assertion, in essence, is that Cohen provided information about what made Trump tick. Avenatti's reaction on "AC360:" "You shouldn't have to pay $200,000 to get 'insights' into the administration. We all know what that really means."
At the time of the contract, AT&T had lots of business before the government -- the Time Warner deal, valuable government contracts, "net neutrality," etc. Here's what Hadas Gold and I wrote for CNNMoney... | | It was more than $200,000 | | AT&T declined to comment on the total amount of the payments. But let's be clear: It was more than $200,000. A source confirmed this to me... without sharing the exact total... But you do the math: If Cohen was being paid $50,000 a month, per Avenatti, and the contract started in early 2017 and went through the end of the year... 🤔
--> My point on "Erin Burnett OutFront:" Buying/selling access to a president is not illegal... but it doesn't look good. It looks like influence peddling and buying... | | -- Adam Davidson: "If Cohen was offering help with the merger, then AT&T paid very little. $200K to push a multi-billion dollar merger is nothing..."
-- Sam Stein: "Will ANY congressional committee look into the possibility that a totally obscure LLC that no one knows about was used to buy favor with the president? Seems like an issue..."
-- Ben Shapiro: "We're hearing that AT&T and a Russian oligarch paid Cohen. Seems like a rather large leap from that to 'these people paid Cohen to bribe Trump' sans further evidence..." | | Avenatti defends his PR strategy | | | Avenatti, to Anderson Cooper, responding to the critics of his always-on-TV strategy: "Here's the bottom line, Anderson: It's working. It's working in spades... Because we're so out front on this, people send us information, people want to help our cause..." | | Election night in America! | | | The presidential election was 18 months ago tonight... What better way to celebrate than with some primary elections? | | -- WV: "Republicans just dodged a bullet In West Virginia's Senate primary" is BuzzFeed's headline about the results. Patrick Morrisey won, "sparing national Republicans from Don Blankenship." It'll be Morrisey v. Joe Manchin in the fall...
-- OH: Remember when former Fox News contributor Dennis Kucinich launched his campaign for Ohio governor with an appearance on "Fox & Friends?" Maybe that wasn't the best strategy in a Democratic primary. Kucinich lost -- badly -- to Richard Cordray...
-- Read more about the night's results on CNN.com... | | When will NBC's report be released? | | VF's Joe Pompeo says 30 Rock staffers are eagerly awaiting "the results of a corporate inquest" into Matt Lauer and the culture of NBC News. The network calls it a "review..." And says it will be out soon...
"There's no question there will be a fair amount riding on this," Andrew Heyward told Pompeo. "What's at stake is, one, the external reputation of a news organization; two, the internal reputation of that news organization, being able to say to your employees, 'We meant what we said, that we take this seriously, and we'll hold people accountable as appropriate;' and three, changing the culture going forward." | | -- "Univision has been deeply mismanaged." That's according to a team of journalists from Gizmodo Media Group, which is owned by Univision. This is a must-read... (Splinter)
-- "MSNBC is being forced to answer questions" about the role that weekend host Hugh Hewitt "played in brokering a meeting between embattled EPA head Scott Pruitt and lawyers representing a California Superfund site," Jeremy Barr reports... (THR)
-- Hewitt is a contributor to the WashPost's opinion pages. He has written about Pruitt in the past. So in response to this controversy, editorial page editor Fred Hiatt "told Media Matters that Hewitt would no longer write about Pruitt..." (Media Matters) | | While Comcast is thinking about swooping in with an all-cash bid for 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, Disney CEO Bob Iger says he's "confident" about the deal that's already on the table. "We made a good deal, actually a deal that shareholders reacted quite favorably to and we're going to remain confident in our ability to close," Iger told CNBC's Julia Boorstin...
>> Meanwhile: Disney's quarterly earnings "topped Wall Street forecasts" as "higher returns from its theme parks and film studio offset ongoing pressure on the TV business..." | | Lowry: Rupert is the belle of the media ball | | Brian Lowry emails: Dylan Byers has zeroed in on the personal relationships in the Disney-Comcast bidding war over Fox, which has suddenly made Rupert Murdoch -- at 87 -- the belle of the media ball. And beyond the Brian Roberts-Bob Iger face-off, it's worth noting that Comcast senior VP/NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke has a shared history with Iger, having spent a dozen years coming through the ranks at ABC/Disney before joining Comcast, which, with its investment in Universal's theme parks and bulked-up content, has adopted much of the same playbook that Iger has used in building Disney's empire.
What seems clear is whoever emerges with the prize will only put further distance between itself and other studios in terms of scope and most significantly, leverage... | | James Murdoch won't be joining Disney | | Keach Hagey and Joe Flint beat me to this story: James Murdoch "is planning to strike out on his own if his company's pending deal with Disney closes, most likely by starting a venture-capital fund to invest in digital and international media businesses," they reported on Tuesday.
James isn't commenting. The story is attributed to "people familiar with the matter." I'd been hearing the same rumblings because James has been telling people that a Disney job is not in the cards for him. (Bob Iger left the door open when the deal was announced last December.) | | When you're the CEO of 21st Century Fox, what do you do next? Via Hagey and Flint's story: "A venture fund is one of several new opportunities Mr. Murdoch has been considering... 'He views himself as an operator,' said one friend of Mr. Murdoch. 'Picking businesses, mentoring business, and running businesses is what he does.'"
--> 21CF will report earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday... | | Protests against Alden in NYC and Denver | | "INVEST OR SELL NOW!" "STOP BLEEDING OUR NEWSROOMS DRY!" (Photo via Denverite)
Employees of Digital First Media, the newspaper owner controlled by Alden Global Capital, joined supporters at anti-Alden protests in New York and Denver on Tuesday. It was quite a sight. The staff rebellion at The Denver Post is clearly not confined to Denver... journalists from other cities are also speaking out against Alden's cut-and-profit tactics...
--> Bloomberg's Gerry Smith calls it a "growing backlash against Alden," and he notes that the hedge fund did not respond to a request for comment...
--> In Denver, there were dozens of protesters... current Post newsroom staff, "some of those laid off, plus some community supporters," per a tipster... | | -- Remember the Joy Reid "hack" claims? And the assertion that the FBI was investigating? BuzzFeed says her cybersecurity Expert has a curious history with the FBI... (BuzzFeed)
-- Things that make you say "whoa" in the Trump era: "Qatar eyes stake in Newsmax..." (Politico)
-- Variety is out with a fresh look at media CEO salaries... (Variety) | | HBO's McCain film will debut on Memorial Day | | Now we know the name and the airdate for HBO's anticipated documentary about John McCain.
Brian Lowry emails: "John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls," a feature-length HBO documentary with which the senator cooperated, will air on Memorial Day. Peter Kunhardt is the director... | | "Amanpour & Company" is officially replacing "Charlie Rose" | | When Charlie Rose was booted by PBS last November, Christiane Amanpour's CNN International show was offered to PBS stations as an interim replacement. Now it's becoming permanent. The move was announced at public broadcaster's annual meeting on Tuesday... Here are the details from my story:
-- Amanpour is expanding to an hour, like Rose's show used to be. New name: "Amanpour & Company." It'll begin in July...
-- CNNI will continue to air the program. It's a "collaboration" between CNN and WNET. The financial terms were not disclosed...
-- Amanpour will continue to host mainly from CNN in London while four new contributors will join from a WNET studio in New York. The contributors are Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan... | | "A female filling this role at this time!" | | | Let's not ignore the subtext: This is another case of a woman taking over after a man was accused of sexual misconduct. Amanpour's statement alluded to Rose's exit and the reason for it: "I am also thrilled to be a female filling this role at this time!" | | | For the record, part three | | | -- O'Really? According to Page Six, Bill OReilly told a bunch of Fox hosts and Trump officials that "I would love just to get my big hands around Jim Acosta's neck..." (Page Six)
-- "Fox News plays kingmaker in Florida governor's race..." (Politico)
-- An "embarrassment of riches:" Despite a frothy market for TV series, "we have more extraordinary writers, producers and directors that want to work for HBO than ever before," Richard Plepler says... (Variety) | | "Contacts to investigate" | | | Hadas Gold emails: The private intel firm Black Cube sought to investigate a group of journalists who were part of the "echo chamber" former Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes had boasted about creating. In a detailed report on Rhodes for an unknown client, Black Cube sought to investigate several DC journalists who had had "extensive contact" with Rhodes, the NYT reports: "Among those listed under the heading 'contacts to investigate' are Jeffrey Goldberg, now the editor of The Atlantic; Mark Landler, a White House correspondent for The Times who often writes about foreign policy; Andrea Mitchell, now NBC News's chief foreign affairs correspondent; and Glenn Thrush, a Times reporter who covered the Obama White House for Politico." | | Darcy's update on the Seth Rich suit | | Oliver Darcy emails: In a motion filed Monday asking a court for the dismissal of the lawsuit filed by the parents of Seth Rich, Fox News made quite a stunning claim. The network said that while the parents might assert the now-retracted story caused them pain, "other readers might well consider their son to be a hero" because its story portrayed him as a patriotic "whistleblower" fighting supposed corruption at the DNC.
That claim was made to argue that the parents of Seth Rich could not satisfy the "outrageousness" element needed to file a case for intentional infliction of emotional distress in New York. "That readers could take markedly different views of Rich's alleged leak underscores that Plaintiffs cannot satisfy the outrageousness element as a matter of law," the motion said.
--> Save the date: Judge George B. Daniels has set a June 20 hearing for oral arguments on Fox's motion to dismiss the lawsuit... | | "What we are seeing in politics is very analogous to how sports media has been for decades -- very contentious, very partisan, very angry. We are a nation that likes to take sides and get very vocal when we agree or disagree when our team wins or loses."
--Mark Cuban quoted in Salena Zito and Brad Todd's brand new book "The Great Revolt..." | | Lowry's advice for the broadcasters | | Brian Lowry emails: Usually, the biggest hit from the current season informs choices as the major networks head into the week of their upfront presentations. But programmers should tread cautiously before trying to mine the "'Roseanne' effect," given the disparate factors that have likely played a part, to varying degrees, in its success...
Read Lowry's full column here >>> | | Check out "Red Table Talk" | | | Megan Thomas emails: Jada Pinkett Smith's new Facebook Watch series -- Red Table Talk -- is worth checking out. In the first episode, which has already been viewed more than 8 million times, Jada is joined by Will Smith's ex-wife, Sheree Fletcher, for some very real talk about blended families. (I shed a few tears watching and based on social chatter, I'm confident I'm not the only one...) | | More to read about "This is America" | | | Donald Glover/Childish Gambino's "This is America" has surpassed 40 million views on YouTube. The NYT has eight recommended reads about the meaning of the video... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Met Gala the day after: Blake Lively's gown was so massive that she needed party bus transportation to the event...
-- BTW, here's why Beyonce and Kanye West skipped the gala...
-- Last but not least: Here's a sneak peek at season 5 of "Arrested Development..." | | | Email your feedback and thoughts to brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
