| | | | | Exec summary: Scroll down for the media week ahead calendar, Trump's legal team upheaval, Facebook's full-page ads, my interview with Eric Bolling, and more... | | By now I'm sure you've seen The Stormy Daniels Interview. (If not, get caught up via CNN or CBS.) Now here's some of the backstory... And what might happen next...
"For us, it wasn't so much 'there was an affair.' That's not as much the headline. For us, it's everything that has happened since and how we've gotten to this point," Anderson Cooper said in an interview for CBSNews.com about his exclusive sit-down with Daniels.
Sunday's "60 Minutes" broadcast marked the first time that Daniels described an alleged threat made in 2011, a few weeks after she agreed to tell a tabloid magazine about her alleged 2006 affair with Donald Trump.
Cooper: "I think there's more to come on this story. I'm not saying necessarily on Stormy Daniels' aspect of the story, but on the methods that were used to keep her silent. If Stormy Daniels' story is true that a thug came up to her in a parking lot in Las Vegas in 2011 -- this is long before Donald Trump was a presidential candidate -- I mean, if somebody is using intimidation tactics, physical intimidation tactics, it's probably not the first time they've done it. So that's a potential story I would imagine people would look at: Has this kind of thing happened before? And I don't know the answer to that."
🔌: Cooper will be on CNN's "New Day" Monday morning... | | On Sunday night I saw lots of people cursing CBS on social media because "60" was delayed by the Duke-Kansas game, which went into overtime. (But it was a great game!) Once the broadcast began, I saw shock, revulsion, sex jokes, and snark. There's definitely a segment of people saying "there was no news" in the interview. But the interview itself is news -- Daniels' first time speaking on camera about the alleged affair, the hush money, etc. And there were new details about the alleged threat, her motivations for breaking her silence, and more. Email me with your impressions...
--> Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted: "Any claim that 'There was nothing new other than the details of the threat' is not only false but is also similar to asking 'Other than the short interruption Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?'" | | Avenatti wants to keep this story alive | | | Avenatti's approach to this story: Drip, drip, drip. Daniels said he advised her not to share any texts/photos/other evidence of the affair for now. It "would be foolish" to share the evidence now, he tweeted. He added: "Tonight is not the end – it's the beginning..." | | "Financial and emotional intimidation" | | The double-length "60" story focused on the alleged cover-up of the affair and the possible campaign finance law violations. Avenatti said to Cooper, point blank, "This is about the cover-up." And Margaret Sullivan nailed it in her column for Monday's Post: "The Stormy Daniels story is certainly about sex but it's also -- and more importantly -- about financial and emotional intimidation..."
--> Michael Calderone's take: "The ultimate verdict" on Cooper's interview "will be whether viewers accept his claim that this is serious news..." | | How high-rated will this interview be? | | | What's your prediction? Last week's "60" averaged 10 million viewers. This week's edition was boosted by the overtime NCAA game lead-in... | | Speaking on CNN afterward, I told anchor Ana Cabrera this was the easiest prediction I've ever made on TV: Yes. Yes, the president watched. Does anyone really think he skipped this?
The harder thing to predict: Will he publicly react? Will he tweet something? He didn't surprise us with a "distraction" on Sunday night... He stayed quiet on Twitter...
--> Maggie Haberman tweeted: "Standout part of this interview is Stormy Daniels saying she wasn't attracted to Trump. He was incredibly proud of the 'Best Sex I Ever Had' NY Post front page. That won't sit well..."
--> Manu Raju tweeted: "Will be interesting to see what Trump tweets tomorrow AM to try to shift the conversation away from Stormy - or whom he decides to fire (Shulkin, etc)..." | | Trump is "keeping close tabs" on the story... | | | Fresh reporting from CNN's Kaitlan Collins: "Trump has been irked by the blanket of Stormy Daniels coverage that has dominated cable news in recent days. In the last few days Trump has complained to those around him about what he perceives as wall-to-wall coverage of Daniels, according to a source familiar with his reaction, an indication that he is keeping close tabs on how her affair allegation is playing out in the press..." | | How did Cooper land the interview? | | | CBSNews.com has a behind the scenes feature about how the interview came about. It points out that Cooper and "60" producer Andy Court had covered two of Avenatti's past cases. "Avenatti had seen the careful work 60 Minutes had done, so when Daniels became his client, he sought a news organization where she could tell her story. He called Court..." | | The Stormy interview will re-air on Monday | | | CNN's "AC360" will rebroadcast the "60" story on Monday night. This is a result of the unusual relationship Cooper has, anchoring for CNN and contributing to the CBS newsmag... | | | IMHO, the Daniels interview was especially powerful because it aired just a few days after Karen McDougal, another woman who says she had an affair with Trump around the same time. Cooper's interviews with McDougal and Daniels revealed numerous similarities in their stories... | | -- Check this out: "Steven Spielberg doesn't think Netflix movies deserve Oscars" (Variety)
-- "HQ Trivia has bagged its first sponsor in Warner Bros., which will lead to the biggest prize pool players have seen..." (AdAge) | | I remember saying it with so much skepticism in my voice. A few days after the Parkland attack: "Is this time different?" Emphasis on "THIS." The default position was skepticism. But the crowds on Saturday proved that this time IS different. Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad, but this is definitely different.
The March For Our Lives showed up from Toledo to Tucson, Springfield to Spokane, Wilmington to Walla Walla, along with the expected large marches in DC, NYC and L.A. Until Saturday, the Million Mom March in 2000 was the "largest national protest of gun violence in U.S. history." But the Brady Campaign issued a statement celebrating the fact that this new march was larger. "We passed that title to the youth of America," the gun control group said. We welcome a new generation to the fight..." | | She stunned America with her silence | | Parkland student activist Emma González forced viewers to see her tears and feel her pain by going silent at Saturday's march in DC.
"González's silence was an act that felt, in its way, radical. It was as if she dropped the mic -- yet a mic was still in front of her. The silence went on for about five minutes, and, as cable news cameras swept the crowd, you could tell some people did not know quite what to do with themselves," WashPost critic Peter Marks wrote... "We were left with the image of a young, grieving woman, drawing our attention not to herself but to something more abstract: to time -- the amount it took for a killer to mow down her classmates and teachers." | | Narrowing the "intensity gap" | | Decades of research has shown a so-called "intensity gap" on the issue of guns. It meant that the NRA and gun rights proponents had so much more "intensity" than gun control activists. Saturday's crowds suggested that something has changed. Two things, actually, according to Guardian US senior reporter Lois Beckett: "One was the intensity gap, the willingness of people to vote on this issue, and the second was the empathy gap," meaning "white and suburban advocates" empathizing and showing up to support "black and brown children who die every day."
Beckett: "The Parkland students made a real effort to say we are here for ALL kinds of gun violence. We are lifting up all these voices. This is not just a suburban or urban movement. We all have to fight together. That's incredibly powerful and that's very new." On CNN.com you can watch the rest of her comments from Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday: Spotify publishes financial forecast ahead of its IPO...
-- Tuesday: Apple holds an education event in Chicago...
-- Tuesday evening: Columbia U. holds a celebration of the Pulitzers in NYC...
-- Friday evening: Passover begins...
-- Sunday: Easter 🐰 | | DOJ vs. AT&T resumes on Monday | | Court will be back in session Monday morning... Hadas Gold and I will preview the proceedings on CNN's "New Day" around 8:30am...
--> "For AT&T and CNN parent company Time Warner, joining forces is all about survival," CNNMoney's Jill Disis writes... | | Trump's legal team in turmoil | | Joe diGenova was announced as a new member of the president's legal team last Monday. His wife Victoria Toensing was also mentioned as a possible participant. But on Sunday morning, the plans were put in reverse.
As Olivia Nuzzi said on "Reliable Sources," it "seems like a pretty debasing experience to be one of President Trump's lawyers right now. It's not as though things are going well, or it looks like they're going to START going well anytime soon..."
--> Bottom line via Josh Dawsey: "Trump's legal team remains in disarray as new lawyer will no longer represent him in Russia probe, leaving him without a traditional criminal defense attorney..." | | | POTUS and his reps follow a pattern: They deny, deny, deny until they have to accept that something is true. Recent examples include his legal team shakeup and H.R. McMaster's exit. My Q's on Sunday's "Reliable Sources:" How much harm does this cause? How does it make covering the White House more difficult? Here's my 3-minute-long essay... | | Exclusive interview with Eric Bolling | | | In his first time on CNN, former Fox News host Eric Bolling discussed the TV to Trump pipeline and his own interest in a White House position. When I brought it up, he also disputed the recent descriptions of Fox as a "propaganda machine." Watch the video here or read Jackie Wattles' recap... | | -- Who could be in line to succeed Univision CEO Randy Falco? Alexandra Steigrad has a look here... (NYPost)
-- In case you're wondering: The "Last Week Tonight" parody book about the Pence family's bunny is STILL No. 1 on Amazon, one full week after it was announced. The actual Pence family book is No. 9... | | Remembering Heather Vincent | | Heather Vincent, one of the original staffers on ABC's "Nightline," died suddenly on Thursday. Many TV newsers are heartbroken over the loss. "She was one of the most life-affirming, joyous colleagues any of us ever worked with," Jeff Greenfield told me.
"It is with a heavy heart that I write that Heather Vincent Holley passed away unexpectedly on Thursday," ABC News president James Goldston told staffers... "Her inventiveness and pluck as a TV booker were legendary..." | | Full-page ads in Sunday's papers | | One week after the Cambridge Analytica data debacle became a global story, Facebook took out full-page ads in the NYT, WSJ, WashPost, and 6 UK papers on Sunday. The headline: "We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it."
There was lots of snark about why FB was buying print ads rather than plastering the apology atop everyone's news feeds. Axios reporter David McCabe tweeted a smart answer: "Based on the publications they're running these in, the audience is effectively people who saw the original reporting on Cambridge and some of the investigative follow ups. That's different from trying to reach the broader user base." | | On the front page of Sunday's NYT: "How Calls for Privacy May Upend Business for Facebook and Google."
This graf toward the end stood out to me. Why does Silicon Valley tend to be "reluctant to share information about what it is doing?" Partly because "it believes so deeply in itself that it does not even think there is a need for discussion. The technology world's remedy for any problem is always more technology..." | | FB is not the only company under newfound scrutiny | | | Here's the headline in Monday's WSJ: "Facebook and Google Face Emboldened Antagonists: Big Advertisers." Read the full story by Suzanne Vranica... | | People are sharing a fake picture of the aforementioned Emma González tearing up the Constitution. In the real photo, she's "ripping up a shooting target poster," BuzzFeed reports...
-- NYT's Michael Barbaro tweeted: "Intriguing ethical question: what if any obligation does Twitter et al have to keep doctored images like this off its platform?" | | Trump is "perplexed by all these reports that there's chaos at the White House or mass staff changes... He told me he thinks the White House is operating like a smooth machine -- his words..."
--Trump confidant/Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy on ABC's "This Week" | | In Monday's NYT, John Koblin has a close look at Apple's original programming initiative. He says "Apple has made deals for 12 projects, nine of them 'straight-to-series' orders... When Apple began courting producers last year, it said it had a budget of about $1 billion to work with. Now it is becoming clear that the company will blow well past that figure..."
--> Key graf: "Apple has not shared specifics with its new business partners on how it will distribute the shows, but they may be housed in its TV app, which allows access to video services like HBO Now and Hulu. Nor has the company announced whether its projects will be behind a pay wall, but the company will most likely require viewers to have subscriptions to access its shows at some point..."
--> Disclosure/reminder: I am a paid consultant on one of the shows Apple has ordered... | | "Pacific Rim Uprising" No. 1 for the weekend, but... | | | "Legendary and Universal's Pacific Rim Uprising was the film to finally dethrone Black Panther at the domestic box office upon opening to a tepid $28 million from 2,850 theaters over the weekend," THR's Pamela McClintock reports. "While coming in ahead of tracking, that's still a troublesome start for a movie that cost $155 million to produce before marketing." Read the rest here... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
