| | | | | Exec summary: New revelations about Trump and the National Enquirer... new problems for MoviePass... plus ABC's plans for "The Conners..." and Comcast's silence about Fox... but first... | | Charles Krauthammer, 1950-2018 | | "Longevity for a columnist is a simple proposition: Once you start, you don't stop. You do it until you die or can no longer put a sentence together. It has always been my intention to die at my desk, although my most cherished ambition is to outlive the estate tax."
| | That's an excerpt from one of Charles Krauthammer's columns -- one of 1,600 he penned in his 34 years with the Washington Post. What a life. What a loss. Krauthammer died on Thursday at age 68. Per the Post, "The cause was cancer of the small intestine."
Krauthammer was called the "dean of conservative commentators" for good reason: His columns shaped American politics for generations. The news of his death came during the 6 p.m. hour, the time he used to be on Fox's "Special Report" almost every evening. Panelist Charles Lane alluded to Krauthammer's June 8 farewell message, which said he only had a few weeks to live. "We've known this was coming, and it doesn't really make it any easier that it's not a surprise," Lane said... | | Brilliant, gracious, generous... | | In this story, I tried to capture some of the mournful reactions. Mitch McConnell: "Charles served our society as a public intellectual in the truest sense." Bret Baier: "He could get to the point better than anyone. He could cut through the noise." Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott: "We were incredibly fortunate to showcase his extraordinary talent on our programs." Stephen Hayes: "Brilliant, thoughtful, gracious, generous and hilarious." Ross Douthat: "No greater master of the form." Jonah Goldberg: "A glorious mensch."
-- This John Podhoretz tribute is beautiful. "Krauthammer made people understand their own thoughts..."
-- And I loved these words from Chris Wallace: "Most of us are lucky if we think in phrases. A few of us are good enough to think in sentences. Charles thought in paragraphs or even in pages..." | | Impossible to replace him | | | Oliver Darcy emails: There are certain people whose death leaves behind voids that are impossible to fill. Charles Krauthammer is one of those people. An independent thinker, giant in intellectual conservatism, and a man who provoked reasoned debate, Krauthammer was truly one of the greats. His commentary was rooted in principle and he remained a class act until the end. May he rest in peace. | | Tributes in print and on TV | | | The WashPost is publishing a full page dedicated to Krauthammer in Friday's paper, featuring some of his work over the decades and a column by George F. Will. Noting how Krauthammer was "paralyzed from the neck down" in a college accident, Will said he "drew on reserves of energy and willpower to overcome a multitude of daily challenges, any one of which would cause most people to curl up in a fetal position..." | | | Fox News is airing an hour-long tribute Friday at 9pm ET, replaying Saturday at 1am... | | "The guardrails hold" was the title of Krauthammer's final column before he had to take a medical leave of absence last August. He criticized President Trump's "careening recklessness" but expressed relief that "the institutions of both political and civil society are holding up well."
He concluded the column this way: "Trump is a systemic stress test. The results are good, thus far." | | "It was a wonderful life" | | When Krauthammer returned to the pages of the Post on June 8, to say goodbye, he wrote:
"I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life -- full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended." | | -- Biggest scoop of the day: Sarah Ellison reports that the pro-Trump National Enquirer tabloid "sent stories about Trump to his attorney Michael Cohen before publication, people familiar with the practice say..." (WashPost)
-- What's going on between the WashPost newsroom and the paper's owner Jeff Bezos? Joe Pompeo digs into the union's campaign for benefits here... (VF)
-- Charlie Warzel, Caroline O'Donovan and Ryan Mac detail how "Elon Musk has always been at war with the media..." (BuzzFeed) | | The border battle: What really matters | | Where is the 9-month-old migrant child who was transported to New York, according to the mayor? Where are his/her parents? What about the other babies and toddlers in detention? What about the other children who were separated from parents? What's the reunification plan?
Many questions remain unanswered, even as the immigration debate rages. So the press is continuing to press for answers. I appreciated this banner on Chris Cuomo's CNN show: "WHY CAN'T WE SEE THE KIDS?" Lack of access to the detention centers is a big problem. And Cuomo argued that this overall situation is "a recipe for disaster..." | | Reframing the immigration debate | | "A record-high 75% of Americans, including majorities of all party groups, think immigration is a good thing for the U.S. -- up slightly from 71% last year," according to a brand new Gallup poll.
It's easy to think that "build the wall" is the consensus view. But it's not. As MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin tweeted, "This is not a uniquely anti-immigrant time in terms of public opinion at all. Trump's win came in context of a narrow GOP primary electorate and his own voters were split on this then."
Paul Krugman is making a similar point in his newest NYT column. "There is no immigration crisis; there is no crisis of immigrant crime." No, he says, "the real crisis is an upsurge in hatred..." | | As Anderson Cooper said on "AC360" just now: Melania Trump embarks on "a trip designed to show compassion and caring, and she's wearing a giant sign that says 'I Really Don't Care. Do U?'"
It's baffling and distracting. It's a shame that the first lady's trip to Texas was undermined by her own fashion choice. But let's be crystal clear: Any first lady would be subjected to the same scrutiny.
Of course, it's hard to imagine something like this happening in any other White House.
The Daily Mail was the first to spot the jacket on Thursday. It went viral within minutes. At first the East Wing said "there was no hidden message." But after FLOTUS landed back in DC, and walked straight to the West Wing, POTUS tweeted that there WAS a hidden message. He said the jacket was a way to whack the "fake" media: "Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!"
Let's go back to Cooper, who said exactly what I wanted to say: "REALLY? That was the message?" Uh, "was this really the best trip to unveil that message? I mean, who exactly came up with THAT idea?"
Cooper concluded: "I was going to say you can't make this stuff up, but you know what? Everyday, it seems like the White House sure does try..." | | | Here's a key bit of reporting from CNN's Jeff Zeleny: "A Republican close to the White House sent along a note to say that this explanation of the coat is 'revisionist history.' This Republican, who is supportive of Trump, but skeptical of some of what they consider to be the administration's ham-handedness, says there was an urgent meeting among communications staff about how to fix this after it was becoming a story. It's unclear who, exactly, first had the idea to say her coat's message was directed at the media. But it quickly won approval in the West Wing and by the President. This Republican is citing conversations with people in West Wing who 'were proud of themselves' for coming up with the explanation. It is true that they knew the media would overplay it, so that's why they devised it..." | | TIME's "Welcome to America" cover strikes a nerve | | NYT TV critic/former TIME columnist James Poniewozik said it best: "Having that red-border cover grants you one solid swing a week, and Time is swinging like hell right now."
Here's Chris Cillizza on why this week's Time mag cover is so powerful...
--> John Moore, the photographer whose picture of a crying girl is on the cover along with a picture of POTUS, will join me on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast... Out on Friday... | | | --> And speaking of covers, Barry Blitt's "Yearning to Breathe Free" adorns next week's New Yorker. The mag shared the cover on Thursday: | | | -- Pete Vernon says this week is "proof that the administration, even when backed by a concerted campaign from its media allies, can be forced to action by outside pressure..." (CJR) | | -- Dylan Byers' scoop: Leading Authorities, Inc., one of DC's top speakers bureaus, has dropped Corey Lewandowski in the wake of "womp womp..." (CNNMoney)
-- Graydon Carter "is close to launching his own media company," Alexandra Steigrad reports. "Carter's new company — rumored to be a multi-platform venture centering, at least at first, on wealthy and famous European families, including Britain's royal family — could take flight before the end of the year..." (NYPost) | | | Jill Disis emails: This is Disney's battle to lose. For a second straight day, Comcast has said nothing publicly on Disney's $71 billion bid for the Fox assets. Comcast might come back with another counter, but many on Wall Street believe that Disney has a stronger hand to play, as we illustrated in our story on Wednesday. They are 1) also willing to put down cash, like Comcast, but 2) have a healthier stock, so adding that to the mix alleviates any concerns that the Murdochs have about the tax implications from an all-cash bid, and 3) have a massive head start with DOJ... | | | -- Plus: MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett has an interesting new blog post about why it might not be so easy to marry Comcast and Fox... | | | Want to know what's really going on between Rupert, Bob and Brian? Read Shalini Ramachandran and Keach Hagey's new WSJ story. They quote a Murdochworld source who says Rupert Murdoch "loves Bob Iger, though their politics are completely different. He doesn't want Brian Roberts." | | "Roseanne" without Roseanne | | We started talking about this the day after "Roseanne" was cancelled. A re-reboot without Roseanne Barr! Maybe "The Conners?" Yes, it's happening -- the deals are done -- and ABC made it official on Thursday night. "The Conners" is the working title. The entire cast is on board, minus Barr, who has agreed to give up financial and creative involvement.
In a new statement, Barr said she regrets "the circumstances that have caused me to be removed" from her show. "I agreed to the settlement in order that 200 jobs of beloved cast and crew could be saved, and I wish the best for everyone involved..." | | -- The show will air Tuesdays at 8, just like "Roseanne" would have. No firm premiere date yet, just "fall."
-- The cast members issued a statement... Here's my full story...
-- BF's Kate Aurthur tweeted: "Let's say it now: Roseanne is most certainly going to die. In the season finale, she was getting long-awaited knee surgery — tragedy seems likely to strike..." | | Brian Lowry emails: ABC rolled the dice on a new version of "Roseanne" with Roseanne Barr, and thanks to the star's uncontrollable nature, wound up getting burned. After taking what appeared to be the principled step of canceling the show because of Barr's racist tweets, the network has seemingly indicated its real priority is cutting its losses.
Practically speaking, keeping some semblance of the series alive solves a big scheduling problem for ABC, which was left with a gaping hole in its Tuesday-night lineup. But at 10 episodes, matching the original order for the "Roseanne" revival, "The Conners" has the feel of a short-term solution that's fraught with unintended consequences. Will it rile up Barr (despite her stated blessing) and her biggest fans? This could be a PR headache of a different sort... | | -- David Klein emails: This is an interesting piece about how a right wing anti-minimum wage group successfully gained a foothold in the media... (CJR)
-- Michelle Alexander is joining the NYT opinion pages... (NYT)
-- MTV is bringing back "Daria" in the form of a new series, Sandra Gonzalez reports... (CNN)
-- The final episode of Rukmini Callimachi's "Caliphate" podcast is now out... (Apple) | | American media outlets keep falling for Russian troll accounts | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: We reported today that a Russian troll posing as an American student was active on Twitter as recently as March. Perhaps what's more concerning is that major American media companies featured the account's tweets in their stories.
Maybe it's time to have a conversation about editorial standards when it comes to grabbing random tweets to illustrate the "public's reaction" to a news story... | | Warnings from two lawmakers | | Donie's story came on the heels of a WSJ report about widespread Russian troll activity. I was struck by the bipartisan nature of the reactions. James Lankford, Republican senator from OK, tweeted out: "Trolls and bots are still active on Twitter trying to deceive us. They're even using the current family separation & immigration debate to sow discord among Americans. It is important for social media companies to expose it so everyone knows what is fake."
Mark Warner, Democratic senator from VA, shared Lankford's message and added, "More people should be paying attention to this..." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Federal scientists with the USGS are now required to get approval from the Department of the Interior before agreeing to most interview requests from journalists, Rong-Gong Lin II reports. Sources said the policy represents a "dramatic change" and would impact what information is getting through to the public... (L.A. Times)
-- Facebook's rolling out new machine learning technology to identify and reduce the reach of pages spreading fake news overseas... The company is also expanding its fact-checking program... (BuzzFeed News)
-- Thanks to AI, Facebook Messenger can now translate messages from Spanish into English and vice-versa... (Engadget) | | MoviePass is burning through so much cash | | Julia Waldow emails: MoviePass's problems are piling up. Monthly losses for the movie-theater subscription service totaled $40 million in May... And the company's estimating a $45 million cash deficit in June... In fact, as Business Insider explains, the parent company "said that it will 'require a significant amount of additional capital for MoviePass' that could potentially exceed $1.2 billion."
So what's the next step for the service? Come July, MoviePass will add a "high demand" charge starting at $2 for popular movies, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe revealed to BI. Later in the summer, the company's planning to introduce a "bring-a-friend" option and extra-priced tickets for IMAX or Real 3D films... | | Lowry reviews "Jurassic World" | | | Brian Lowry emails: "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" tries to do something a little bit different. And while the dinosaurs are fine – and the movie's expected to make an equally sizable amount of loot its opening weekend, having already done well in overseas territories — the plot and the human characters are pretty terrible... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Marvel's "Luke Cage" experiences the equivalent of a sophomore slump, with a second season that takes the bulletproof hero and, by focusing on the villains, makes the series much more slow-going, almost to the point of flabby. That's disappointing, since the first season was one of the best among the Marvel-Netflix dramas. Read more... | | | Megan Thomas emails: Rebecca Keegan's interview with Judd Apatow is insightful. He talks about his late friend Gary Shandling... preaching to the converted on Twitter... and what he thinks is going on with Roseanne Barr, who he used to write for and knows well... | | A strain of "Star Wars" petulance | | | Brian Lowry emails: Everyone is having a good laugh at the "Star Wars" fans who have mounted a Twitter campaign pushing to remake "The Last Jedi" and fix what they saw as being wrong with the movie, including its director, Rian Johnson. But the delusional quality of the request is emblematic of a strain of petulance that has crept into fan communities — in some ways mirroring politics — which has produced distasteful storylines, including the social-media hounding that drove "Last Jedi" co-star Kelly Marie Tran to delete her accounts... | | "Inside the trials of Johnny Depp" | | Megan Thomas emails: There's lots of chatter about Rolling Stone's Johnny Depp profile – and with a subhead like this, I'm not surprised:
"Multimillion-dollar lawsuits, a haze of booze and hash, a marriage gone very wrong and a lifestyle he can't afford – inside the trials of Johnny Depp" | | Feedback welcome...
Email your likes, dislikes, thoughts to brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thank you. | | | | | | |
