| | | | #SOTU: Strong? Divided? Confused? | | | Remember the government shutdown? No? I wonder if we'll remember anything from the State of the Union. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical. But let's begin with the speech itself: Parts of President Trump's first SOTU were genuinely inspirational. Other parts were deeply polarizing. And some passages were filled with falsehoods. (Are the fact-checks getting enough airtime and homepage play?) | | It was long. Was it "unifying?" | | White House aides foreshadowed a unifying speech. Trump himself talked about this at the traditional pre-SOTU lunch with TV anchors.
But after the speech, NBC's Chuck Todd said he thought the theme was "oversold" -- "I expected a lot more actual outreach" to Dems. Chris Wallace said something similar on Fox News: "I'm surprised at the way the White House sold it, because we kept hearing all day it was going to be a bipartisan speech..." | | Who was the speech aimed at? | | Chris Matthews on MSNBC: "It wasn't aimed at the Fox audience crowd at all. Not at all. There was none of that sort of raging right-wing theme that he usually sells."
Huh? Other commentators disagreed with Matthews -- including MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace -- who said a few minutes later that Trump was trying to "shore up" and "win back" his base. And Van Jones said on CNN that the speech was "sweet-tasting candy with poison in it..." | | -- CNN's Jake Tapper: What we saw was Trump "with one hand reaching out his hand to Democrats, and with the other hand, holding up a fist. And this is almost the conundrum of Donald Trump..."
-- CBS's Norah O'Donnell: "I think this reality TV president was trying to create a new reality -- a new political reality for himself. And he was trying to sort of take a giant eraser to all those really divisive tweets to try and find a new way to communicate with the American people. But it doesn't erase what has been his record..."
-- Slate's Will Oremus on Twitter: "Trump Scores Perfect 30/30 on Teleprompter-Reading Exam"
-- Frank Luntz: "I have criticized the President's language a lot in recent months. But tonight is Donald Trump at his very best. He's personalized his language and policies better than I've ever seen..."
-- Re: the North Korea portion of the speech: Vox's Ezra Klein tweeted that Trump spoke "in the way presidents do when they are preparing the country for war. This is scary..."
-- Here are Chris Cillizza's six takeaways... | | The fibs and falsehoods... | | CNN's Reality Check team analyzed key statements from the speech. Some statements were rated true, others were rated false. Here's the report...
--> Per Donald Judd, PolitiFact's servers crashed "for six minutes during the president's speech." The site is back up now... | | Brian Lowry emails: I was struck by the sheer number of human-interest stories dropped into the first half of the speech. This has been a longtime staple of these speeches, obviously, but there were so many, so early on, that it felt skewed more to the life/style section than the front page. Later on, the grieving parents -- whose children were murdered -- were a prime example of that, while simultaneously registering a point about the immigration debate that made the moment feel very close to exploiting that tragedy..."
--> Afterward, Rachel Maddow suggested the delivery of the speech was "lumbering," but I think the pacing and duration had more to do with another factor she cited -- the heroic and sad stories of people who were brought to the speech for storytelling purposes... | | | "With 4.5M Tweets, tonight's speech was the most Tweeted #SOTU or #JointSession address ever, surpassing last year's record of 3 million Tweets," according to Twitter PR. The "top tweeted moment" was when POTUS said "we stand for the national anthem." #2? His discussion of immigration reform proposals. #3? His comments about MS-13... | | | The RNC's comms shop is hitting the Democrats for sitting: "Democrats are no longer just the party of resistance and obstruction, they are now also the party of sitting on their hands. No matter the issue, Democrats chose to sit on their hands tonight... Quite a visual for the American people…" | | Sunny is teething, so she was crying during the Dem response... Jamie woke up and walked by the TV... And she said, "Who the heck is that?" I bet many viewers asked the same Q.
My impression is that Rep. Joe Kennedy received a lot of praise for the usually thankless task of responding to the SOTU... On CNN, David Axelrod highlighted the "generational contrast" between Trump, 71, and Kennedy, 37... | | NBC's Andrea Mitchell tweeted: "Trump speech only had 2 sentences on Afghanistan where there were 4 terror attacks this week at least 1 claimed by ISIS. We have 14,000 troops there."
And CNN's Jeff Zeleny tweeted: "For all of the heroes on hand tonight, amid stories of American triumph and tragedy, it's telling the worst mass shooting in US history was given but a single line in Trump's speech. There's still no serious conversation in Congress or the WH about this very American epidemic..." | | Megyn Kelly on NBC afterward: "He did a fine job" with the speech, "but he's going to tweet something and we'll forget all about it." Kelly added: "These things just don't tend to be particularly memorable..."
Gloria Borger made the same point on CNN: "Who is Donald Trump going to be" tomorrow? And Robert Costa said this on the WashPost's live stream: "Tomorrow he could tweet something about Robert Mueller's probe, and the reviews of this speech will largely be forgotten..." | | TV anchors repeatedly made reference to the Russia "cloud" hovering over POTUS. There was speculation earlier in the day that he might mention the Russia probes in one way or another, but his aides said he would not. Jim Acosta noted on CNN that "he remains furious about the Russia probe, and he could still fire Mueller." And Savannah Guthrie said this on NBC just before Trump started speaking: "Let's not forget: This is a president who is under criminal investigation right now for obstruction of justice with regard to the Russia investigation..."
--> CNN's Manu Raju tweeted afterward: "Russia not on Trump's mind tonight: No mention of Russia election meddling or warning to stay out of US elections during SOTU. Made quick reference to Russia being a 'rival' like China.." | | "Trump's lawyers argue Mueller has not met threshold for presidential interview" | | | Pamela Brown and Gloria Borger's scoop: Trump's attorneys "are arguing that special counsel Robert Mueller's team has not met the high threshold they believe is needed to interview a president in person, according to sources familiar with the ongoing deliberations. Despite the fact that Trump himself has said he is 'looking forward' and would 'love to' meet with Mueller, he did say any interview would be 'subject to my lawyers,' who believe that Trump should not be required to do that. Sources said this is an ongoing negotiation and the position by the President's lawyers is not a final stance..." | | -- Happy anniversary! The Daily podcast turns one year old on Wednesday. Here's a behind the scenes look by the NYT... (NYT)
-- Via ABC: Scott Baio will be on Wednesday's "GMA" for "his first interview since accusations of sexual misconduct from his former co-star, which he denies..."
-- In a new legal filing, Andrea Tantaros alleges that "Fox News had a closed-circuit television network that allowed its former chief Roger Ailes to monitor offices, including ones where most Fox female talent disrobed daily..." (THR) | | "Fox Poised to Win Rights to 'Thursday Night Football'" | | | That's according to Variety's Brian Steinberg: "Executives at Fox Sports believe they are close to winning the rights" to "Thursday Night Football" for "at least the next season..." | | THE FINAL DAYS OF TIME INC. | | | "Executives count their payouts, staffers worry about layoffs, and 100 years of media history comes to an end with Meredith's takeover of Time." Joe Pompeo's latest story for VF is a must-read... | | Laura Ingraham's website has a new owner | | Hadas Gold emails her latest: The new owner of Laura Ingraham's LifeZette is the Canadian billionaire Daryl Katz. Hockey fans may recognize him as the owner of the Edmonton Oilers, but his company, The Katz Group, extends into everything from pharmacies, to show business and now, conservative websites. LifeZette staffers were told last fall that the site was facing financial difficulties and was facing a possible closure or sale. On top of that, the site's former CEO, Peter Anthony, had been accused of mismanagement and making derogatory comments to staff, The Daily Beast reported last summer. Data from Comscore shows that the site has been having a rough year and that its traffic has declined significantly over the past year. Now an interim CEO is in charge...
--> More: Ingraham still has a minority stake, and the interim CEO told me she's still involved though she stepped away from the day-to-day of the operation of the website when she joined Fox full time last fall... | | -- If you missed this on Tuesday's "Today" show, please check it out: "Richard Engel shares heartbreaking story of son's medical journey..." (NBC)
-- LAT reporter Meg James interviewed new LAT editor in chief Jim Kirk... (LAT)
-- "Trump Administration Admits It Cribbed From Forbes Magazine To Create 'Oligarch List'" (BuzzFeed)
-- "Greg Gianforte, politician who assaulted reporter, to lead communications workshop..." (The Guardian)
-- Kristen Hare reports: "Newsrooms welcome Facebook's new local news emphasis, but remain wary of its effect..." (Poynter) | | Vice's chief digital officer is out | | Tom Kludt emails his latest: We learned at the beginning of the month that Vice had placed a pair of top executives, president Andrew Creighton and chief digital officer Mike Germano, on leave after sexual misconduct allegations had surfaced against them in a bombshell New York Times story. On Tuesday, Vice said that Germano will not be returning to the company. Full story here...
--> Germano told Kludt he resigned: "With all the news, it just created a big distraction for my employees, clients, and Vice. It was not going to be positive for me or the company if I returned." | | | Tom Kludt adds: Creighton was involved in one of the four settlements at the center of the Times story. In 2016, an ex-employee was paid $135,000 after claiming that she was fired after rejecting a relationship with Creighton. Vice denied the allegations, saying she was sacked for poor performance. Broderick didn't address Creighton's status in her email to staffers on Tuesday. A spokesman told me that the investigation into Creighton is "still ongoing." | | Honoring Kantor and Twohey | | CNN's Kelly Wallace emails: NYT journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey were honored with one of the "Voices of the Year" awards at Tuesday's first-ever #BlogHer18 Health event presented by SheKnows Media. In a taped thank-you following the award, Gwyneth Paltrow, another "Voices of the Year" winner for her work with GOOP, saluted Kantor and Twohey, whom she said she worked with throughout the summer on the story related to sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. "Thanks to them, we have a real change happening in the culture this year," said Paltrow. To Kantor and Twohey, she said, "Thank you for what you have done for us and our daughters."
Speaking to the crowd assembled at Tribecca Rooftop in NYC, Kantor thanked everyone who helped on their reporting journey, praised the NYT for confronting a "bully," and praised all the women who came forward, asking for a round of applause for them. Twohey said 2017 marked the "first time women were able to step forward and come forward with their allegations." She said it is incumbent on all of us, now that "systematic failures" have been exposed that allowed the harassment to continue, to figure out what are the "systematic solutions..." | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Super Bowl Countdown: "Don't look for #MeToo — or women — in the Super Bowl ads," NBC's Claire Atkinson reports... (NBC)
-- Maya Kosoff and Tina Nguyen's scoop: "Gawker nemesis Peter Thiel isn't the only one eyeing the final remains" of Gawker. Mike Cernovich "is offering $500,000 in cash for Gawker's assets..." (VF)
-- Max Boot is joining the WashPost as a columnist for the opinions section... (WashPost)
-- Wanna bet this story will be part of Fox Biz's next interview pitch to POTUS? "Even With Trump Interview, CNBC's Squawk Box Still Couldn't Beat FBN's Bartiromo in Ratings..." (Mediaite)
-- Coming on Wednesday: Frank Pallotta's interview with MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The show that Tucker Carlson describes in a Variety interview -- where he claims to treat guests with opposing viewpoints respectfully, saying, "The point is to have a legitimate, adult conversation about what is at stake" -- isn't the one that he hosts. Simply put, Carlson brings on liberals as straw men to look at quizzically, before knocking them over. That obviously has its place as political theater, but to characterize it the way he does is intellectually dishonest... | | | "Amazon's Alexa can now send SMS text messages, but only if you have an Android Phone," CNN Tech's Heather Kelly writes. "It's the company's latest attempt to turn the voice-assistant devices from hubs for audible entertainment to full-fledged communication tools..." | | Olympics buff Leslie Jones returning to NBC's Winter Games coverage | | | Sandra Gonzalez's latest: "Leslie Jones is taking her love for the Olympics straight to South Korea. The 'SNL' cast member has been tapped by NBC to once again contribute to its Olympics coverage, the network said. Jones will be traveling to PyeongChang, South Korea, for its televised and online coverage of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games, reprising a role she first took on during 2016's Rio Olympic Games..." | | Lowry reviews "Citizen Rose" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Rose McGowan's docu-series "Citizen Rose" is a fierce articulation of the #MeToo movement, albeit one whose stylistic choices -- from arty camerawork to McGowan's voiceover -- risk getting in the way of the substance. Like "I Am Cait," it's also not a natural fit on its fluff-heavy network, E! Read more... | | | Lisa Respers France reports: People are really, really excited about the upcoming release of the Marvel movie "Black Panther..." | | | Chloe Melas emails: Netflix hosted a cocktail party Tuesday night at JW Marriott Essex House. It was a chance for reporters to meet talent from some of their shows. Among the celebs spotted -- Drew Barrymore, who stars in "Santa Clarita Diet," and "A Series of Unfortunate Events" star Neil Patrick Harris... | | Reboot fever designed to solve peak TV's marketing problem | | | Brian Lowry emails: There's been a lot of sniping about the perceived lack of creativity in the network reliance on reboots in development for next season, including titles like "Murphy Brown," "Magnum P.I." and "The Greatest American Hero." But the coverage those projects have engendered explains why programmers are drawn to them -- using media-friendly properties to knife through the marketing problem posed by the clutter of peak TV... | | | 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. | | | | | |
