| | | | | Exec summary: The top half of this edition is about DC. The bottom half is about the rest of the media world. Scroll down for Tronc turmoil, Grammys ratings, Tom Hanks' next role, and another News Feed adjustment... | | What do you suppose Robert Mueller is thinking right now?
Monday's big story was about FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe abruptly stepping down amid pressure from President Trump and FBI director Christopher Wray. There's talk of an IG report in the works. And there are lots of predictions that McCabe won't be the last to go. "Leading the Russia investigation could be hazardous to your career," Jake Tapper said Monday afternoon. That's the through-line here: Taking down the Russia probe...
The day's other big story: The Nunes memo. Right now the banner on CNN says "GOP VOTES TO RELEASE PARTISAN SECRET MEMO ALLEGING FBI MISCONDUCT." White House aides say they are reviewing the memo. Conservative media types are alleging there was an Obama-era plot against Trump that's worse than Watergate. "This is bigger than anything anybody can imagine," Sara Carter told Sean Hannity. He shot back: "This makes Watergate look like stealing a Snickers bar from a drug store!"
Meanwhile, Mueller's team is quietly continuing its work... | | | I know I am. On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I urged viewers to "REFUSE TO BE CONFUSED" by the Trump allies who are waging war against Mueller, but that's a lot easier said than done. Here are two helpful pieces: "How a classified four-page Russia memo triggered a political firestorm," by a team of WashPost reporters, and "Trump's war on Russia probe reaches new peak," by CNN's Stephen Collinson... | | This is what Fox viewers are hearing | | McCabe's departure and the expected release of the Nunes memo are being celebrated by pro-Trump TV hosts. Now they're promising more to come. Re: the FISA abuses alleged in the secret GOP memo, Tucker Carlson said at 8pm, "These are serious allegations. They are more troubling than the underlying crime in Watergate, that's for sure. You don't have to be a Trump voter to understand why the political use of intelligence and law enforcement agencies can destroy a country almost faster than anything else can. Yet Democrats don't care."
Actually, Democrats see law enforcement being politicized right now -- by Trump. Anyway, I think it's critical to understand what Fox is telling millions of viewers, including the president, at this tumultuous time. Michael Caputo to Tucker: "Barack Obama weaponized the DOJ." Jeanine Pirro to Hannity: McCabe "needs to be taken out in cuffs." Joe DiGenova to Laura Ingraham: "This is the worst period in the history of the bureau."
Seb Gorka took home the over-the-top prize. He invoked the abuses of power that provoked America's birth -- "It was about tea tax. It was about stationing troops on private property without permission" -- and said "this is 100 times bigger!" He went on: "This is our government spying on political adversaries. This is federal law enforcement officials obstructing justice..." | | | Chris Hayes said on Twitter that he is "increasingly sure we're not getting to other side of this without some kind of genuine constitutional crisis in where it's an open question which institutions hold.." | | | Here's how he began "CNN Tonight:" "What is Donald Trump trying to hide? Why doesn't he want the Mueller investigation to continue? Why did he decline to impose new sanctions on Russia today, as he had been ordered to do by Congress? What is going on here?" | | McCabe is not talking, but lots and lots of people are leaking. A couple of Monday's examples:
>> Bloomberg: "On Flight to Davos, Trump Erupted Over DOJ Role in Russia Probe."
>> NBC: "Trump's gripes against McCabe included wife's politics, Comey's ride home." | | -- The Daily Beast's headline: "House Republicans Declare War on FBI, Vote to Spill Its Secrets and Investigate It..."
-- Meanwhile, the Dems have a memo of their own. Erin Burnett tweeted: "Without the underlying intel, which both sides agree shouldn't be released, both memos are meaningless. Just pure political documents..."
-- AFP's Andrew Beatty tweeted this recap of Monday: "Trump slow walks sanctions on Russia. Congress is investigating the FBI. Deputy FBI director out after Trump attacks..."
-- Michael Hayden's warning on Lemon's show: "We are chiseling away at institutions we are going to need again..."
-- Tom Nichols tweeted: "This will end badly." | | "What is it with you and Putin?" | | | Jim VandeHei interviewed Richard Plepler, Maggie Haberman, Ben Smith and Andy Lack on stage at NYU on Monday night. The live stream is archived here... | | | VandeHei asked Lack: If you had Trump on truth serum, what would you ask? What would you try to figure out? The NBC News chairman's answer: "What is it with you and Putin, you know? What's going on between the two of you? If I could be a fly on the wall, I'd like to really know what they're saying about each other, separately. What is really going on in that relationship? What is it with Trump and Russia? And in theory, we're going to get our arms around that in the Mueller report..." | | Anchors heading to DC for SOTU | | | CNN and Fox's prime time shows all emanated from DC Monday night... And even more TV newsers will be there on Tuesday... TVNewser has a full list of the coverage plans... | | Jay Rosen tweeted Sunday night: "I hope you're ready for three days of 'presidential.' Because they're coming."
A "pivot." A "reset." A "presidential" speech. Will pundits resist the temptation to suggest President Trump is rebranding himself if he sticks to the TelePrompTer on Tuesday night? I will confess that I was a part of this problem last year. After Trump's first joint address to Congress, I was one of the voices on CNN sounding surprised. D'oh. It's a mistake to allow a couple hours of a rehearsed event -- optics -- to substitute for what we know from months of unrehearsed rants and tweetstorms from Trump... Plus the reams of reporting about him... | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Chris Christie is joining ABC News as a contributor, according to NJ.com's Matt Arco and Susan K. Livio, who cited sources familiar with the discussions. They say the official announcement will be made on "GMA" Tuesday morning, and then he'll be on ABC's SOTU coverage. The news isn't terribly surprising. Hadas Gold and I had reported in September that Christie was talking to networks about a possible contributor deal after his term ended... | | Andy Borowitz's SOTU preview | | Speaking of Fox's "Friends" | | | WashPost's Erik Wemple asked the NYT about the "Fox & Friends" conspiracy theory that "the media routinely times major stories to inflict maximum damage on the president." Most recent example? The NYT's scoop about Trump trying to fire Mueller. The Times responded: "We published the story as soon as our reporters were able to confirm the facts. 'Fox & Friends' should try it sometime." | | Facebook to promote more local news stories | | One month, three Facebook algorithm tweaks: First, more content from friends and less from publishers... Then a boost to "trustworthy" sources... And now a boost for LOCAL sources.
"Facebook announced Monday it is beginning to prioritize local news stories in News Feed," CNN Tech's Seth Fiegerman reports. "It's part of an ongoing campaign to prove the social network can have a positive impact on users and society. The change initially applies to U.S. users only, with plans for additional countries later in the year..." | | Newsweek chief content officer on leave | | Hadas Gold emails: Two weeks ago, the Manhattan D.A.'s office raided Newsweek's parent company to remove 18 computer servers. Uncomfortable news for the company keeps coming: Now its chief content officer, Dayan Candappa, has been placed on leave following a BuzzFeed investigation into the conduct that led to his departure from his previous role at Reuters.
BuzzFeed's story detailed Candappa's alleged inappropriate behavior with a reporter, including unwanted kissing, sexual advances and in some cases threats about her career. The woman alleged in complaints to Reuters HR that after she told Candappa to stop, her performance reviews went down. Now an outside firm will conduct an independent investigation. Candappa declined to comment to Newsweek, and did not respond to our request for comment... | | My scooplet from this morning: Legal analyst Lis Wiehl, who was in the news last year for striking a $32 million settlement deal with Bill O'Reilly, is getting back to reporting the news. Next week she'll start working as an anchor and analyst for Law & Crime, Dan Abrams' new live-streaming network.
-- FYI: Wiehl has not spoken publicly about the circumstances of the O'Reilly settlement, and she declined an interview request for my story...
-- Context: Law & Crime is a digital version of Court TV, providing live feeds and replays of trials in various jurisdictions. Abrams is working on distribution deals for the channel, a la Cheddar... | | | Seriously? The Chicago Sun-Times says it "will not publish columns or reviews authored by Richard Roeper as the newspaper investigates the legitimacy of Roeper's sizable Twitter following." Roeper was one of the personalities named in the NYT's "Follower Factory" story over the weekend... | | -- Very sorry to hear this: James Warren's morning media column for Poynter is coming to an end this Friday...
-- Michael Grynbaum interviewed Steve Bannon for this Tuesday NYT story about the state of political reporting one year into Trump... (NYT)
-- Michael Calderone tweeted: "Glenn Thrush returns [Tuesday] to NYT's DC bureau, where his new beat will be 'the social safety net in the age of Trump, particularly HUD and HHS...'"
-- Ben Collins' latest scoop: "Julian Assange privately told Sean Hannity's secret Twitter account to use "other channels" so he could tell him "news about (Mark) Warner," the Dem leading the Senate's Russia investigation. It wasn't Sean Hannity. It was a woman in Texas..." (The Daily Beast) | | New LA Times editor is... the old editor | | | Tom Kludt emails: In just a few short months as EIC of the LAT, Lewis D'Vorkin managed to alienate much of the newsroom and become the subject of several unflattering stories. Last week provided the latest, via CJR, which dubbed him "LA journalism's 'Prince of Darkness.'" So for increasingly frustrated Times staffers, there was a bit of addition by subtraction with Sunday night's news that D'Vorkin will be replaced at the paper by Jim Kirk, who served as interim exec editor from August until November... | | Staffers declare "tenuous victory" | | Tom Kludt adds: One reporter and member of the union organizing committee told me that, "from a personality perspective," Kirk is an upgrade. He is also seen as more hospitable to journalism. "He's a news guy," another reporter/organizing committee member told me. "He cares about news." That's in contrast with D'Vorkin, who oversaw Forbes' unpaid network of contributors -- and who, Times staffers feared, was aiming to implement the same model at the newspaper. But if the last several months have taught us anything, it's that this soap opera probably isn't ending. It's been one round of tumult after another for the LAT, and the staff's anxiety regarding Tronc hasn't exactly been lifted by this latest shakeup. One reporter said that, if nothing changes, Kirk will be nothing more than a Band-Aid: At minimum, it prevents a riot. But it's no guarantee that anything is fixed..."
--> Here's Ken Doctor's latest... | | More from Tom Kludt: Central to the staff's concerns has been the lack of transparency from Tronc brass. It continued on Sunday, when LAT employees learned of the shakeup through Sydney Ember's story in the NYT. At midday Monday, they had still received no formal internal announcement about Kirk replacing D'Vorkin. Finally, just before 4pm PT, Justin Dearborn emailed staffers and said Kirk was in charge...
--> David Folkenflik reports that Kirk set a "good tone" when he held a Monday afternoon meeting with staffers... "Asked by LAT columnist whether he had ever been named as defendant in sexual harassment case, Kirk answers no -- to resounding applause..." | | NY Daily News EIC Arthur Browne retired at the end of December, so Kirk had been filling in there. But now that Kirk is back in L.A., former NYDN editor Jim Rich is back in charge in NY.
Rich left the tabloid in October 2016... And just last month he told me "it's not clear what Tronc's strategy is for the Daily News..." Hopefully he can help the company figure out the strategy! | | And what about Levinsohn? | | | There's been no change in LA Times CEO Ross Levinsohn's status, according to a Tronc spokeswoman. He remains on leave and under investigation... | | -- A WashPost fact-check: "Polls show 'no one' cares about the Russia investigation, White House press secretary said. That's not true..." (WashPost)
-- Sunday's Axios scoop spurred immediate reactions: "FCC chief opposes Trump administration 5G network plan..." (CNN)
-- Analyst Michael Nathanson: "The NFL is experiencing a structural decline in viewership, and it is going to be an issue!" (Recode)
-- Their platform, their rules: "Amazon Says No to Ads on Alexa," frustrating Sony, maker of the "Jeopardy" game... (The Information) | | | Hadas Gold emails: WSJ editor Gerry Baker was one of the few big names spotted at the lavish Davos party thrown by Oleg Deripaska on Friday, per Tara Palmeri of ABC. Deripaska is a Russian oligarch considered to be part of Putin's inner circle and whose relationship with Paul Manafort has become a point of interest in the special counsel probe into Donad Trump's campaign. "I was worried about being spotted here," Baker told Palmeri. "Russia is so taboo." | | Lowry reviews "Our Cartoon President" | | | Brian Lowry emails: "Our Cartoon President" -- the Showtime animated series spun out of Stephen Colbert's Trump spoof, which is getting an early online preview -- runs into a not-unexpected problem: How does another weekly series bring anything fresh to satirizing the most-lampooned figure on the planet? Read Lowry's full review here... And/or check out the first episode on Sho.com... | | Subjects of conversation on the day after the Grammys: Bruno Mars beating Kendrick Lamar. Kesha's performance. Hillary Clinton's cameo. And this:
"There was a glaring lack of female representation in the winners' list. And some fans are not happy about it," Lisa Respers France writes. "Of the major awards televised, Alessia Cara was the only woman to win solo for best new artist." Read the rest here... | | | Sting, Tony Bennett, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cindy Lauper, Kelly Clarkson, Lana Del Rey, Ice-T and Camila Cabello spoke with CNN's Chloe Melas at the Grammys about what the #MeToo movement means to them. Watch/read here... | | Grammys ratings: Out of tune | | | Frank Pallotta emails: The Grammys brought in 19.8 million viewers on Sunday night -- down 24% from last year. Hey, it sure didn't help that the ceremony turned one of the most talented female singers in the world (and nominee!) into a glorified seat-filler... And that the show went on for a bloated 3.5 hours... | | Brian Lowry emails: Nikki Haley's tweet complaining about politics ruining the Grammys might be a smart exercise in managing up, but it doesn't reflect much about award show history, which featured politics long before Michael Moore got booed for saying "Shame on you" to President Bush in 2003.
This year's Grammys also have a few complicating asterisks baked into the ratings decline, including an earlier airdate (pushed from mid-February) because of the Winter Olympics and an earlier start time (7:30pm ET) to avoid running past midnight. While it's hard to measure whether that really contributed to the falloff, as a west coaster who felt weird tuning in at 4:30, CBS might want to reconsider the latter.
>> Lowry adds: It's also worth noting that CBS's ample promotion within the show -- one of the benefits of such events -- will likely yield somewhat diminished returns this year, thanks to NBC lighting up the Olympic torch starting Feb. 9... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Megan Thomas:
-- Strong take on the Grammys from Spencer Kornhaber for The Atlantic: "The Grammys paid lip service to the Now..." | | | -- Quincy Jones tells a story about the time Prince paid Michael Jackson a visit and a whole lot more in this full-of-unbelievable-quotes story by Chris Heath for GQ... | | Tom Hanks set to star as Mister Rogers | | I saved the best story of the day for last!
Rob McLean writes: Tom Hanks has a question for moviegoers: "Won't you be my neighbor?" TriStar Pictures announced Monday that the actor will play Fred Rogers in "You Are My Friend." It's a film based on the friendship between the iconic children's TV host and a journalist assigned to write about him. Read more... | | Here's how to catch up on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I love the feedback, corrections, suggestions, and tips. Thank you... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
