Exec summary: Scroll down for Sean Hannity's "Worth" ranking, YouTube's problems, sightings at the Bloomberg 50 dinner, a sneak peek at Variety's Bob Bakish cover, and a true innovation in Trump-age fact-checking...
Google CEO's time to testify
Google's power is mind boggling. Yet it doesn't cross peoples' minds as often as, let's say, Facebook's power does. Google has been relatively unscathed by the Big Tech scandals of 2018. But that could change at any time. And it might on Tuesday. | | Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to testify on Capitol Hill for the very first time. He has briefed lawmakers before, but he's never testified publicly. He's sitting down with the House Judiciary Committee for several hours of hearings that will begin at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Pichai is, as WaPo's Tony Romm writes, a soft-spoken "political neophyte" who's been avoiding the spotlight for the past year. So Tuesday "is shaping up to be a major test of Pichai's skills in managing the company's reputation at a time when several of Silicon Valley's biggest names are in crisis — and when many of Google's employees are in revolt." Read Romm's preview...
The YouTube problem
On the eve of the hearing, the WaPo also dropped a big story about Google's YouTube unit and its problems with hateful, conspiracy-laden videos. YouTube is polluted by this poison. Key graf: "The platform routinely serves videos espousing neo-Nazi propaganda, phony reports portraying dark-skinned people as violent savages and conspiracy theories claiming that large numbers of leading politicians and celebrities molested children. Critics say that even though YouTube removes millions of videos on average each month, it is slow to identify troubling content and, when it does, is too permissive in what it allows to remain."
--> Ouch: "Even on the House of Representatives YouTube channel that is due to broadcast the hearing, viewers on Monday could see several videos peddling conspiracy theories recommended by the site's algorithm," the Post notes...
--> Sen. Richard Blumenthal is quoted: "YouTube is repeatedly used by malign actors, and individuals or groups, promoting very dangerous, disruptive narratives..."
--> Flashback to CNN's reporting earlier this year: "YouTube ran ads from hundreds of brands on extremist channels..."
Possibly on the House agenda...
-- Google's controversial plans for a censored search engine in China. Recode's Shirin Ghaffary has an explainer here...
-- Monday's admission that a Google+ bug "revealed millions of customers' private information to software developers" last month. CNN's Kaya Yurieff has all the details here...
-- A variety of other questions about data privacy...
-- Allegations, mostly from the right, that Google's actions and algorithms carry political bias...
What Darcy is expecting
Oliver Darcy will be in the hearing room for us... Here's what he's anticipating... "Frankly, I don't expect this hearing to be much different than the other hearings this committee has held with other tech CEOs. I expect the Republican members will continue to cite fringe right-wing outlets to claim bias against conservatives, and I'm not sure there is anything Google's CEO can do to change their mind."
What I'm expecting
Lemme just add one bit to what Darcy said: I'm expecting some painfully tech-illiterate lawmakers. Hopefully they'll surprise us all with sharp questions and followups!
It's TIME POY time
Ed Felsenthal will announce TIME's Person of the Year pick on the "Today" show Tuesday morning. I'm guessing that President Trump will be on the cover... but I'm also assuming that I'm wrong! Hundreds of you replied to last night's newsletter with your own predictions... The top three were Robert Mueller, the March for our Lives activists, and Jamal Khashoggi... and all three are on TIME's shortlist of ten. So we'll see...
🔌: I'll be on "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon at 11:45 p.m. ET with a preview...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Heads up: CNN is releasing a new political poll Tuesday at 6 a.m. ET...
-- This is one of the best lists of the year! Bloomberg's Jealousy List is out... Full of stories the editors and reporters wish THEY'D thought to write... (Bloomberg)
-- Speaking of jealousy, the NYT dropped a huge new story about how apps scrape up precise location data from our phones, mostly in secret... (NYT)
-- Katie Pellico flagged this: A helpful partner to the story: How to stop apps from tracking your location... (NYT)
-- Here's The Atlantic cover story about "the real roots of American rage" that I teased last night... (The Atlantic) | |
New comms chief for Snapchat
What's a greater challenge: Representing the Murdochs or Evan Spiegel? Well, Julie Henderson, the chief comms officer at 21st Century Fox for the past seven years, is heading to Snap, where she'll have the same role and report to Spiegel.
Henderson was already planning to depart Fox once the Disney-Fox deal closes. Her successor Hope Hicks is now on the job there...
Fox's "invasion" torrent
This story will give you flashbacks to the midterm season. (Sorry!) HuffPost's Cristina Lopez G. crunched the #'s and found that Fox's prime time shows "used the words 'invasion' or 'invaders' to describe migrants and asylum-seekers more times in the 30 days leading up to the Nov. 6 election than they did during all of 2015, 2016 and 2017 combined."
She says "right-wing media and Trump have benefited immensely from incendiary rhetoric. They just don't want to own the consequences."
Speaking of Fox's influence...
Hannity's 'Worth'
Worth magazine's annual "Power 100" list is full of bank CEOs and government officials. But one cable news host made the top 20: Sean Hannity. The reason: "As the nation's most potent Trump whisperer, Hannity maintains a remarkable level of influence over the president's decisions on everything from trade to immigration."
Seriously -- Hannity ranked higher than Trump aides like Mick Mulvaney and Stephen Miller, not to mention the presidents of Mexico and Canada and Japan...
Trump needs a new chief of staff...
Many of Monday's Trump-related headlines were about Trump's trouble finding a chief of staff to replace John Kelly. The prez is "super pissed" about the fact that Nick Ayers turned the job down, Jim Acosta reported.
It's hard to keep track of who's apparently in the mix for the job... The names seem to change every hour... But the latest reports have been including David Bossie, who, you may recall, is a Fox News contributor. Bossie was suspended for two weeks earlier this year after making a racist remark on a Fox show.
>> Nate Silver tweeted Monday night: "Why not Sean Hannity for chief of staff?"
"Trump concerned about impeachment"
That's the top headline on CNN.com right now, linking to Acosta's newest reporting. From his story: "Trump has expressed concern that he could be impeached when Democrats take over the House, a source close to the President told CNN Monday. The source said Trump sees impeachment as a 'real possibility.' But Trump isn't certain it will happen, the source added..."
A fact-checking innovation...
| | | ICYMI, WaPo fact-checker Glenn Kessler has introduced a new rubric, the "Bottomless Pinocchio," to deal with false claims that are repeated over and over again. Trump necessitated the creation of this dis-honor. Kessler says "14 statements made by the president immediately qualify" for the new list...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Greg Sargent's latest: "Trump's lies and disinformation require a new kind of media response..." (WaPo)
-- NRA TV host and Fox News regular is Dan Bongino is out at the NRA, Lachlan Markay scooped Monday. "The gun rights group is downsizing its media operation and his show appears to be a casualty of those plans..." Bongino claims he decided not to renew... (Daily Beast)
-- Paul R. La Monica's latest: How QVC and HSN are preparing for a future beyond TV... (CNN)
-- 70 of NYMag's "favorite New Yorkers," including my wife Jamie, shared "their favorite places across the five boroughs" for this week's cover story. Jamie's pick: the Columbus Circle subway station. CNN's Christiane Amanpour also picked Columbus Circle, for a very different reason... (NYMag)
Court TV 2.0
The WSJ's Ben Mullin broke the news on Monday morning: Court TV is coming back. "The legal network is being relaunched by E.W. Scripps after more than a decade off the air," he wrote.
Scripps bought the name and logo and library from CNN owner Turner for an unknown amount of $$. Court TV's second life will begin in May 2019. I'm skeptical, as I tend to be skeptical about any cable channel launching in this environment... But Court TV is a well-known name and Scripps already has some distribution... And others also see a lot of opportunity in this space: "Earlier this year, journalist Dan Abrams launched a court-focused digital network called Law & Crime," Jordan Valinsky notes in this CNN Business story. And "crime-centric networks A&E and Investigation Discovery are also highly-rated..."
Toasting the Bloomberg 50
Michael Bloomberg was not in the room for Monday night's Bloomberg 50 dinner, but his name and his presidential aspirations were on the lips of many attendees.
Aasif Mandvi hosted the evening's festivities... He said his jokes "were written this morning -- or, as we now measure time, 23 tweets ago."
Noting that Scott Pruitt was on the Bloomberg 50 list last year, Mandvi cracked, "I can't wait to see" which of this year's honorees becomes "an unemployed disgrace to the nation."
One of this year's honorees, Byron Allen, was recognized for his recent takeover of The Weather Channel, "or as Trump calls it, the Syfy channel." Mandvi said Allen didn't buy Weather for $300 million, he acquired it. "You buy a cup of coffee. You buy a sweater. You ACQUIRE the Weather Channel. Just like Michael Bloomberg is about to acquire Iowa..."
Spotted: Megan Hilty, Tory Burch, Padma Lakshmi, Josh Sapan, Tina Tchen, Fatima Goss Graves, Eric Ripert, Jenny Saville, Daniel Boulud, Lesley Stahl, Daymond John, Lori Greiner, Stephanie Ruhle, Richard Haass, Justin Smith, Joel Weber, Reto Gregori and many more...
SI's collaboration with Apple News
Sports Illustrated released its 2018 Sportsperson of the Year cover story exclusively on Apple News Monday morning. It'll be exclusive to Apple for 48 hours... The iOS-optimized feature is all about the Golden State Warriors...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "Wildfires in the West have become more deadly and destructive over the past decade, and covering them has grown more demanding, more dangerous, and more expensive." This is an excellent CJR story about how newsrooms are adapting... (CJR)
-- Speaking of the fires, CNN's Bill Weir was in Paradise, CA, helping ensure that "America's deadliest wildfire in 100 years" remains in the news... (CNN)
-- Andrew Kirell questions why Erick Erickson is "respected by the mainstream press," given his record of "hateful, trollish rhetoric..." (Daily Beast)
Coming attractions, according to Maddow
| | | On Monday night, Rachel Maddow teed up some of this week's Trump-Russia news... Including a Tuesday afternoon hearing in the Paul Manafort case, Michael Cohen's sentencing on Wednesday morning, and alleged Russian spy Maria Butina's plea hearing on Wednesday afternoon...
A critical take on Trump-Russia "retweet warriors"
Yesterday I linked to Virginia Heffernan's column, "Early on, Trump-Russia obsessives were marginalized; they're prophets now."
Heffernan took a mostly positive view of the #resistance social media sleuths that have tried to piece together the Russia plot. "Trump-Russia is a blind-men-and-the-elephant story," she wrote. "We need people at the trunk, the tail and everywhere in between telling us what they perceive so we can get the full picture."
Here's a counterpoint, from BuzzFeed's Charlie Warzel, who linked to her article: "My big hope is that history looks fondly on the people who did/do diligent *reporting* on the Trump-Russia stuff...and not the retweet warriors who muddied the conversation trying to connect threads with little more than speculation."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Tribune exec and former FCCer Eddie Lazarus is joining Sonos as chief legal officer... (Biz Wire)
-- Via Andrew Rosen's PARQOR newsletter, I discovered this Nicole LaPorte story about Frolic, "a cross between BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, and the romance novel site Romancelandia..." The startup wants to "create an online hub for an underserved audience — fans of romance — and then use that hub to build out a bigger business that includes live events and e-commerce..." (Fast Company)
-- Don't miss Ariel Levy's profile of Julia Louis-Dreyfus: "On challenging comedy's sexism, fighting cancer, and becoming the star of her own show..." (The New Yorker)
FIRST LOOK Bob Bakish on the cover of Variety | | Viacom CEO Bob Bakish is on the cover of Variety this week... Cynthia Littleton had a rare interview with Bakish... And it'll be online on Tuesday morning.
The cover says Bakish "has stanched the bleeding with his turnaround plan for the once-mighty media giant," but notes that Viacom is still "embattled..."
DACA recipients earn three Grammy noms
Chloe Melas emails: I sat down with 3 DACA recipients who are featured on the Grammy-nominated "American Dreamers" album, produced by Clive Davis' son Doug. The young men and women told me what it's been like to live undocumented in the US; the feeling of always having an expiration date over their head; and their hope that music can help bridge the divide over immigration. You can watch the interview here...
On the set of Showtime's Roger Ailes miniseries
Hadas Gold emails: My friend Steve Rounds sent along this photo of the set in L.A. for the Roger Ailes miniseries that's in the works starring Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron. It looks just like the outside of the Fox News studios in NYC... A wall full of windows filled in by posters of Fox stars... If you zoom into the shot, you can see big posters for Gretchen Carlson (player by Kidman) and Megyn Kelly (played by Theron) and Sean Hannity...
| | Disney passes $7 billion
Frank Pallotta emails: Disney on Monday announced that its global box office has surpassed $7 billion for the calendar year on Monday. This is only the second time in history any studio has hit the benchmark (the other time was also Disney, which set the record in 2016 with a $7.6 billion year).
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Disney makes a lot of money at the box office. What's so special about that? Well, dear reader, Disney passed $7 billion and "Mary Poppins Returns" hasn't opened in theaters yet. It opens on the 19th in the US...
Batwoman leaps into the crowded world of Dark Knight TV offshoots
Brian Lowry emails: The Batman movies remain at a crossroads, but offshoots of the Dark Knight are sprouting up all over TV, as Warner Bros. and DC have eased concerns about diluting the franchise. The latest example: Batwoman, who swings into the CW's three-night crossover event, in advance of a possible stand-alone series. Read on...
The reality about Netflix's need for licensed shows
Brian Lowry emails: Netflix tends to dispute or dismiss outside efforts to penetrate its algorithms, but the broad strokes of a study reported on by Variety's Todd Spangler seem generally accurate – namely, that despite all the attention showered on its originals, it still relies heavily on acquired product, the kind that the studios control and can hang onto as they funnel more resources into their own streaming services...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Catherine Zeta-Jones honored her father-in-law Kirk Douglas on his 102nd birthday...
-- The "Stranger Things" season 3 teaser is here...
-- Cardi B says her breakup with husband Offset was not for publicity...
-- "Dancing with the Stars: Juniors" has crowned its first champions...
A plea to Hollywood execs: Bring back the intermission!
Frank Pallotta emails: Okay, this isn't exactly news, but I know a lot of Hollywood execs read this newsletter so here's an idea: bring back the intermission.
I saw "Aquaman" on Monday night and its running time was 2 hours and 23 minutes. Reports say that "Avengers: End Game" could be three hours or more. That's a lot for my short attention span that's been destroyed by the Internet.
Intermission makes going to the movies even more of an event and allows for antsy teens (and Twitter-obsessed reporters in their early 30s) a chance to check their phones. That's good for theaters and audiences! I'm all for the return of the three-hour epic at the cineplex, but bring back intermission...
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ICYMI... How to catch up on Sunday's "Reliable Sources"
Read the transcript here... listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts or your preferred app... watch the video clips on CNN.com... or watch the entire episode via CNNgo or VOD...
Bernstein: Trump led a 'criminal conspiracy'
Carl Bernstein has described the Nixon years as a "criminal presidency." So on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I asked him if the same term applies to President Trump. "I don't think we know completely yet," Bernstein said. But "I think it's very obvious that there has been a criminal conspiracy led by the president of the United States to obstruct justice. It's hard to see otherwise in the filings that have been made public thus far." Watch the rest here...
Glasser: "Stick to the facts"
On Sunday's show, we also talked about the challenges of covering these complex investigations. Susan Glasser advised journalists to be humble and "stick to the facts." What we already know is shocking enough -- no need to speculate. David Zurawik agreed: "Now more than ever, we have to really NOT get out in front of our skis."
The Correspondent's deadline is Friday
Have you heard about The Correspondent yet? It's been a success in the Netherlands, and now it's trying to expand to the United States and publish in the English language all around the world. But first it wants to raise $2.5 million from members. It is like a Kickstarter for a brand new newsroom. On the show, I interviewed one of the startup's founders, Rob Wijnberg. He said news coverage makes people "cynical, divided, and less informed," so he wants to "un-break the news." And he wants to create a sense of "membership." Watch the segment here...
Thanks for reading! Send me your feedback anytime. See you tomorrow...
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