Exec summary: Hello from Hollywood... Here's the latest...
The only story that matters?
The dire new report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says governments around the world must take "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society" to avoid disastrous levels of global warming.
To cover this emergency, "journalists and news organizations all over the world — but especially in America — need their own transformation," Margaret Sullivan writes in her newest WaPo media column.
Let me do something unusual and quote her at length: National news outlets gave the report "prominent attention" on Monday, she says, "but it will need sustained emphasis, by the media and the public, all over the world, if we stand a chance of maintaining a livable planet..."
"There is just so much happening at every moment, so many trees to distract from the burning forest behind them." But "this subject must be kept front and center, with the pressure on and the stakes made abundantly clear at every turn..."
Her bottom line: "We need to figure out how to make the main thing matter... Just as the smartest minds in earth science have issued their warning, the best minds in media should be giving sustained attention to how to tell this most important story in a way that will create change."
Here's the question
If you own or operate or work in a newsroom, do you feel like your news outlet devotes enough time and space to this subject? If not, why not?
And if you're a consumer of the news, which newsrooms do you see doing it right? Email me...
A timely report
The PBS "NewsHour" had a (nine minute long!) piece on Monday night that was perfectly timed to the new climate report. Correspondent John Yang visited Tangier Island, a Chesapeake Bay island "that is shrinking as the sea rises," with Earl Swift, author of a new book about the island, "Chesapeake Requiem." BTW, I read the book over the summer and highly recommend it...
Hurricane warnings | | Ahead of Hurricane Florence, there were many days of warnings -- and many days of live shots with correspondents glowing in the sun before the storm arrived. But Hurricane Michael is different. Many Americans just heard about this storm for the first time on Sunday. It only reached hurricane strength on Monday morning. And it's expected to make landfall as a "major" hurricane, i.e. category 3 or higher, on Wednesday. The NBC, ABC and CBS nightly newscasts all led with hurricane preps. CNN.com has a live blog with updates here...
"The free world deserves answers" about Khashoggi
Unfortunately there was not a lot of new information about missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Monday.
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, vehemently denied the claims that Khashoggi had been killed or detained in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. "There are many facts regarding his whereabouts that will hopefully be revealed through the ongoing investigation," he said.
On Monday evening, President Trump commented for the first time... He said he is "concerned" about the reports of Khashoggi's disappearance... "I don't like hearing about it and hopefully that will sort itself out..."
VP Mike Pence had a more presidential response, via Twitter: "Violence against journalists across the globe is a threat to freedom of the press & human rights. The free world deserves answers." Here's CNN's latest story about the case...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Correction: Last night I mistyped the name for CPJ. It's the Committee to Protect Journalists...
-- "Arnold Kopelson, the Oscar-winning producer of 'Platoon' and 'The Fugitive' and former longtime CBS board member, has died. He was 83." (LAT)
Hope Hicks to FOX!
What an intriguing surprise on Monday morning. Hope Hicks is trading the Trump White House for the FOX C-suite. She'll be the EVP and chief comms officer for the newly spun-off FOX once the Disney transaction wraps up in early 2019. She is moving to L.A. for the new job.
Monday's announcement inspired lots of quips about the revolving door between Trumpworld and the Murdoch media empire. One comment making the rounds in media circles: "They switched!" Meaning, Hicks is heading to FOX while Fox News co-president Bill Shine is now running comms for Trump.
Yes, but... This move is actually a big change for Hicks... Instead of advising and managing Trump, she will be running PR and other aspects of a TV company. Here's my full story...
Who's leaving Fox
The current chief comms officer at 21st Century Fox, Julie Henderson, is leaving the company when the Disney deal is done. She's not alone: Nathaniel Brown, Joe Marchese, Chip Smith, and Gerson A. Zweifach are among the other execs who are heading out. Lachlan Murdoch is building his own company, and the new FOX will be much smaller than 21CF, so it's not surprising that there's lots of change afoot...
Lowry's reaction
Brian Lowry emails: There's a long history of people making the jump from politics into high-ranking corporate PR jobs in the media business. Zenia Mucha at Disney and Dee Dee Myers at Warner Bros. are two current examples, but earlier ones include Judy Smith (who went on to provide the basis for "Scandal") at NBC and Anna Perez at CAA. Entertainment companies have always tapped into the political class. But the Hope Hicks hire is especially notable given the Shine move from Fox to the White House and the current relationship between Murdoch's properties and Trump, which is virtually symbiotic, having gone beyond even what Roger Ailes envisioned and forged with the GOP establishment...
Disney's new org chart
ICYMI, Disney "unveiled the first wave of its post-merger leadership structure" on Monday... Here are all the details via THR...
Brian Lowry emails: The promotion of Peter Rice and Dana Walden at Disney indicates that Bob Iger acquired more than just intellectual property in the Fox deal, but also some key executives to shore up the company's management ranks. And with no clear heir apparent to Iger — who has already postponed his retirement a few times — Rice, who has experience both in TV and movies, is someone to keep an eye on...
Spotted at VF's Summit kickoff
Spotted at the VF New Establishment Summit opening reception at Jason and Lauren Blum's home: Radhika Jones in conversation with A.G. Sulzberger, Sam Dolnick, and David Perpich; plus Bryan Lourd, Ted Sarandos, Krista Smith, Zenia Mucha, Teri Everett, Noah Oppenheim, Dara Khosrowshahi, Brent Weinstein, David Friend, Michael Kassan, Joe Pompeo, Emily Jane fox, Dylan Byers, B.J. Novak, Brooks Barnes, Julia Boorstin, Johanna Fuentes, Davidson Goldin, Alex Heath, Joe Flint, Lizzie Wolff, many more...
--> On stage at the summit on Tuesday: Sarandos, Lisa Nishimura, the aforementioned NYT execs, Hannah Gadsby, Monica Lewinsky, Audrey Gelman, and more... I'll be moderating a morning session about sports media with Chase Carey and George Pyne...
SNEAK PEEK USA Today finds a weak "Trump effect" on football ratings
Coming Tuesday in USA Today, an investigative piece about Trump and the NFL, analyzing whether his "attacks on protesting players really influenced NFL viewership in 37 cities across the USA." The data-driven research found "some evidence of a Trump effect. But it was, at best, weak," according to the paper. "What really stood out was that people stuck with football if there was a 'football reason' to watch. The data show that quality football and home team loyalty drove the TV audience far more than political tribalism." The story will be out on Tuesday morning...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Netflix "announced Monday that it is in the final stages of negotiations to buy ABQ Studios, a production studio in New Mexico's largest city. It will be Netflix's first purchase of a studio complex," Jill Disis reports... (CNN)
-- They share business models and corporate sponsors and an L.A. base, but that's about it. Dan Zak profiled "the bros of political podcasting," i.e. Ben Shapiro's budding media empire and the growing Crooked Media operation... (WaPo)
| | Meghan McCain, on Monday, her first day back at "The View" after the death of her father John McCain:
"I think there was a lot of talk about what died with him. And I am here to tell you: it didn't. It is alive, and I need us to remember that."
Read/watch more here...
| | White House stages Kavanaugh's second swearing-in
CNN.com's lead right now: "Trump apologizes to Kavanaugh." This was quite a ceremony...
"One of the most highly rated story lines in the history of the 'The Donald Trump Reality TV Series' ended on a high and nasty note tonight," the Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik wrote right afterward. The ceremonial swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh -- live all across TV -- was "a victory lap, a touchdown dance in the end zone, a Team Trump political rally and an in-your-face-suckers taunt from the man in the White House to all his critics," Zurawik said...
Trump "disgraceful" comment
Earlier in the day, when POTUS called the Kavanaugh accusations a "hoax set up by Democrats," and said it was "a disgraceful situation brought about by people that are evil," CNN's Brooke Baldwin had to speak up. She said it sounded like Trump was labeling Christine Blasey Ford's account a "hoax."
"To me that sounds like the president is saying, 'her story is fabricated.' We know civility is dead with this president, but this is disgraceful," Baldwin said...
Swift's statement
Lisa Respers France writes: Remember the simpler times, when being #TeamTay or #TeamYe was more about taste in music? Well, welcome to a politically divided America where anything can happen. Now some conservatives are hailing Kanye West and slamming Taylor Swift over their political views...
Politicon is coming...
The conference is two weeks away, and MSNBC is an official media partner... On Tuesday, the network will announce its talent lineup... Lawrence O'Donnell, Joy Reid, Ari Melber, Kasie Hunt, Jacob Soboroff, Gadi Schwartz, Morgan Radford, Richard Lui, and Ken Dilanian will all be there...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Walmart's Vudu streaming-video arm "has struck a partnership with MGM under which the studio will create original series based on franchises from its extensive film and TV catalog..." (Variety)
-- The announcement of Facebook's Portal -- a smart speaker with a screen and a camera -- was met by some very skeptical reactions on Monday... (CNN)
-- CNN is adding tech reporters in SF: MIT Technology Review senior editor Rachel Metz is joining CNN Business to cover AI, VR and AR...
Apple v. Bloomberg
CNN Business reporter Heather Kelly emails from SF: Did Chinese spies infiltrate Apple's servers with tiny microchips not much bigger than a grain of rice? Or are the claims, as Apple said in a strongly worded letter to Congress on Monday, "simply wrong?"
Last week, Bloomberg Businessweek published a lengthy and detailed cover story about an alleged hack carried out by Chinese operatives who snuck tiny microchips into Apple servers, and impacted up to 30 other companies including Amazon.
"Our internal investigations directly contradict every consequential assertion made in the article—some of which, we note, were based on a single anonymous source," Apple's VP of information security, George Stathakopoulos, said in the letter to lawmakers.
The Bloomberg report cited 17 anonymous sources, some inside intelligence agencies and the affected companies, and the journalists spent a year on it. Bloomberg has said it stands by the reporting...
| | Taking you to "The Circus"
Brian Lowry emails: PBS's "The Circus" is a fascinating look at 150 years of big-top history, but there's also a timely hook to it on the second night of this four-hour documentary — namely, how a well-established entertainment medium was undermined by new technology. Only in this case, it's the circus that fell victim to the straight-into-your-home convenience of TV...
A canine star is born
Sandra Gonzalez emails with her latest: Everyone can't stop talking about the dog in "A Star Is Born." (WARNING: MAJOR spoilers here...)
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Rose McGowan says she didn't slam #MeToo, but rather was criticizing Time's Up and Hollywood, with her recent remarks during an interview with the British Sunday Times Magazine... Here's what she said...
-- Lil Wayne's Atlanta concert ended in mayhem Sunday night, police said, after someone yelled that shots had been fired. At least a dozen people received minor injuries trying to flee...
| | Catch up on Sunday's show
Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Catch the full program via CNNgo or VOD... Or listen to the podcast through your favorite app...
What's next from the NYT's Trump tax team?
Susanne Craig, one of the NYT reporters who wrote the bombshell story about the Trump family's tax schemes, joined me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." Kaya Yurieff has all the highlights here. It sounds like Craig and her colleagues are far from finished: "We've got more leads and more string to pull. We're just going to keep going on it. There's a lot of information that we've been given." So: Part two coming soon?
Does Trump treat women reporters differently?
Toward the end of the show, Olivia Nuzzi, Brian Karem and April Ryan discussed whether POTUS treats women reporters differently than their male counterparts. Ryan said yes: She argued that Trump perceives women reporters as weak. Here's what she said.
Nuzzi, however, said this question misses the bigger point, "which is that this is an anti-press-freedom president." Watch the rest here...
Did reporters lower their standards?
On Sunday's show, I asked my panelists if the news media came out looking better or worse at the end of the confirmation battle? (Worse, right?) Watch Frank Sesno's media critique here... Plus Nuzzi's reaction...
Thanks for reading! We'll be back tomorrow. Email me with your feedback anytime...
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