| | | | | Exec summary: "Westworld" is back. No spoilers please! Scroll down for news about Tencent Music, Sean Hannity's "property empire," our week ahead calendar and much more... | | This is the photo of the weekend. Hmm, no, the photo of the year so far. It was taken by Paul Morse. What do you see? Some people, likely to be Trump detractors, see something they miss from the past. A sense of civility? Unity? Others, more likely to be Trump supporters, see what was wrong with the country. Leaders who failed them.
Me? I see a time when everything wasn't separated into pro-Trump and anti-Trump camps... | | | Jon Meacham at the funeral for Barbara Bush: "In hours of war and of peace, of tumult and of calm, the Bushes governed in a spirit of congeniality, of civility, and of grace... Barbara and George Bush put country above party, the common good above political gain, and service to others above the settling of scores." | | Putting the bully in bully pulpit | | Honestly, how can I NOT transition from that quote to Trump's Twitter behavior? He tweeted more than 20 times over the weekend, beginning with his Saturday morning lie about the NYT's Maggie Haberman.
As I said on "Reliable Sources," this attack stood out to me because it was so provably false... It was disrespectful, because believing his tweet meant disbelieving photographic proof of their reporter-source relationship... | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday: DOJ v. AT&T resumes in DC...
-- Tuesday evening: The TIME 100 gala in NYC...
-- Wednesday: Season two of "The Handmaid's Tale" starts streaming...
-- Wednesday after the bell: Facebook and AT&T earnings...
-- Wednesday evening: Press Forward and the Newseum Institute are holding an event in DC...
-- Thursday before the bell: Time Warner earnings...
-- Thursday evening: "Avengers: Infinity War" screenings begin...
-- Saturday: The White House Correspondents Association's annual dinner in DC + Trump's rival rally in Michigan... | | Three new books out on Tuesday | | Jake Tapper's novel "The Hellfire Club" comes out on Tuesday... So does Amy Chozick's "Chasing Hillary" and Ronan Farrow's "War on Peace..."
Farrow shared his findings with Fareed Zakaria on Sunday's "GPS." Here's the segment. "War on Peace" has already cracked the top ten on Amazon.
Speaking of Farrow... | | Recognizing the bravery of sources | | The New Yorker editor David Remnick said something important on "Reliable Sources" that I want to underscore. When I brought up Farrow and the NYT's shared Pulitzer Prize for reporting about sexual harassment, Remnick turned the conversation to the bravery of the sources. It was a critical point since the segment started with the James Comey memo showing Trump and Comey talking/laughing about jailing journalists to ferret out sources.
"I think Ronan and the reporters at The Times would join me in saying that award, above all, goes to the sources, the women who were so brave to come forward," Remnick said... | | Ex-Sinclair employee Suri Crowe decided to go on the record for this Steven Perlberg story about the company's definition of "balance."
The headline: When she tried to report on climate change, she was reprimanded for not giving "the side that questions the science behind such claims..." | | #1 via Fox News: "Hillary Clinton, not on ballot, is star of GOP midterm plan"
#2 via The Hill: "Clinton takes swipe at 'false equivalency' in media coverage of 2016 election" | | "The beginning of the end of freedom" | | | At a PEN America event on Sunday night, Clinton said Trump "seems to reject the role of a free press in our democracy." Thanks to Sopan Deb, who transcribed key portions of her speech, we know she called out Trump's recent attacks against Amazon, his attempts to defund PBS, and the recent Sinclair controversy. She also asserted that "he wants to block the sale of CNN to AT&T" due to complaints about coverage. | | | --> This part of Clinton's speech stood out to me: "When leaders deny things we can see with our own eyes, like the size of a crowd at inauguration, or when they refuse to accept settled science when it comes to urgent challenges like climate change, it's not just frustrating to those of us who try to live in a fact-based universe. It is the beginning of the end of freedom. That's not hyperbole. It's what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done. They attempt to control reality..." | | -- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column: "She created a document to warn women of sexual harassers. It's haunted her ever since." (WashPost)
-- ICYMI: Kellyanne Conway told Dana Bash that asking about her husband's anti-Trump tweets is a "double standard." Huh? (CNN)
-- John Dickerson is the author of The Atlantic's new cover story: "What if the problem isn't the president - it's the presidency?" (The Atlantic)
-- Quick 🔌: Hadas Gold and I will have the latest on the AT&T trial on CNN's "New Day" around 8:40am... | | What Sorrell's departure means | | Sir Martin Sorrell's "removal from his powerful perch has set off an intense debate about the future of the advertising business," Sapna Maheshwari writes in Monday's NYT.
Her lead quote: Simulmedia CEO Dave Morgan. "I don't know the facts behind the investigation. But I suspect that if WPP was on the verge of rekindled growth, Martin would have had the wind at his back and might have fought much harder to stay, and the board probably would have taken much more time to force his hand," Morgan says... | | Sean Hannity's "property empire" | | | Sean Hannity said most of his dealings with Michael Cohen were about real estate. Cue Jon Swaine's latest scoop for The Guardian: "Thousands of pages of public records" detail "a real estate portfolio of remarkable scale." The records link Hannity "to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90 million on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade..." | | | "RELIABLE SOURCES" HIGHLIGHTS: | | Avenatti's prediction about Hannity | | Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels, says the storm for Sean Hannity could intensify as more information from the Michael Cohen raid is released. "I think the relationship is going to be far more extensive than Mr. Hannity has led people to believe," Avenatti told me on "Reliable..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: Avenatti obviously isn't a disinterested party, but his credible assertion that Hannity has had more significant interactions with Cohen than he has thus far let on underscores the extent to which Fox News is playing Russian roulette by dismissing questions surrounding its star as nothing to see here, simply hoping that ignoring it will make it go away... | | | Check out this split screen: | | From Fox hosts' lips to the president's ears | | | "Reliable" producer Lee Alexander came up with this split-screen showing how POTUS and Fox News hosts echo each other... Watch/read more here... | | In the "A block" of Sunday's show, I brought up Trump's frequent typos and asked the panel: How much does White House sloppiness matter?
My POV: I know this is not the MOST important issue in the world, but it IS important. If you can't get the small stuff right, can you be trusted to get the big stuff right? Here's how the panel responded... | | Unlikely allies for the Denver Post | | CNNMoney's Jackie Wattles writes: "The Denver Post has been tough on Mayor Michael Hancock. The paper's editorial staff said he's guilty of an 'incredible breach of public trust' after he admitted to sending lewd text messages to a female police detective assigned to protect him. But now Hancock is arguing the Denver Post must be saved. He is decrying years of job cuts that have forced The Post to scale back news coverage. He's asking: 'What can we do, as a government, to save The Denver Post?'" Hancock is one of many local leaders who wants Alden Global Capital to sell the paper to a more "responsible" owner...
--> Key quote from Hancock's appearance with me: The newspaper "is a responsible, objective medium here in our city. We've got to believe that it's important for democracy, and for those of us who depend on getting good information in our city, that it survives. And I believe that to my core." Read/watch more here... | | How to catch up on the show | | | You can read the transcript, listen to the podcast, watch the video clips on CNN.com, or watch the full program via CNNgo or VOD... | | -- "Brett Norman, a Politico health care reporter, died Saturday. He was 43 and had pancreatic cancer." (Politico)
-- In Monday's WSJ: "Tencent Music, China's largest music-streaming company, is preparing what would be one of the largest tech IPOs ever..." (WSJ)
-- Correction: In Friday's newsletter I said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was booked on ABC's Sunday show... He was on CBS... My apologies. (CBS)
-- Another must-read about FB: "Where Countries Are Tinderboxes and Facebook Is a Match..." (NYT) | | Which news outlets will partner with Facebook for this? | | At the end of this Sunday NYT profile of Campbell Brown, Nellie Bowles drops this info:
"Brown's biggest project is developing a news apparatus within Facebook's premium video section, called Watch. She is negotiating with BuzzFeed, Vox, CNN, Fox News and others to partner on creating about a half-dozen Facebook-exclusive shows, which will launch in May and June."
--> Earlier in the story, Bowles says "Facebook has set aside a $90 million budget to have partners develop original news programming..." | | A "cohesive daily Facebook newscast?" | | Bowles adds: "Building off these shows, Ms. Brown is pushing to create a curated breaking news destination and envisions a cohesive daily Facebook newscast using partner content highlights -- paid for by Facebook, made by media partners, and edited by a growing editorial team, according to a person familiar with her thinking." Here's the full story...
--> My Q: Who would watch this newscast? Is there really an audience for it? | | "Never mind Fox. Trump's most reliable media mouthpiece is now Christian TV." | | | ...That's the subtitle on this Politico Magazine piece by Ruth Graham. She visited the Trinity Broadcasting Network and interviewed TBN host Mike Huckabee. Definitely check it out. Graham says that Christian broadcasting networks "continually polish Trump's reputation, and perhaps more importantly, he's talking to them... Trump has always had a particular genius for circumventing normal channels, and he seems to understand the power of Christian television as a medium for directly reaching an important and particularly loyal segment of his base..." | | I don't think it's my job "to persuade this one or that one. My job is to -- and my colleagues' job, and your job is to -- tell the truth as you know it, with depth and rigor in reporting and with integrity, no matter how it cuts..."
--David Remnick on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." You can watch the full segment here... | | Tariffs on newsprint from Canada, layoffs at a paper in Florida | | "America's newspapers were already struggling. Now they dread new tariffs on Canadian newsprint that they believe will make a strained situation even worse," CNNMoney's Jill Disis writes.
Check out her full story here... Plus our podcast with Paul Tash, the Tampa Bay Times CEO, who says he has to lay off 50 people as a result of the tariffs... You can listen via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or TuneIn... | | | Chloe Melas emails: Beyoncé hit the stage for a second weekend in a row at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Saturday. Queen Bey turned it once again into what fans are calling "Beychella..." Read more here... | | This weekend's box office victor | | | "STX Entertainment's 'I Feel Pretty,' Amy Schumer's latest comedic star turn, charmed enough moviegoers to collect an estimated $16.2 million from 3,440 locations at the North America box office over the weekend. But that wasn't enough to knock John Krasinski's horror movie 'A Quiet Place' out of the top spot, which the Paramount release reclaimed during its third weekend of release, taking in an additional $22 million to bring its domestic total to $132 million, or to bump Warner Bros.' Dwayne Johnson starrer 'Rampage' from the No. 2 slot," THR's Gregg Kilday reports... | | Five films have topped $100 million in domestic $$'s this year | | | ...And "Black Panther" is five times bigger than any of the other films. Ramin Setoodeh put it into perspective with this tweet on Sunday: | | "Avengers: Infinity War" reviews arrive on Tuesday | | | Brian Lowry emails: "Avengers: Infinity War" is going to be another big weekend for Disney, and given the pressure to feed perceived interest in the movie with hot takes and analysis, a less-than-stellar week for entertainment journalism. (The review embargo lifts Tuesday afternoon.) | | Wyatt Cenac's new HBO series | | Megan Thomas emails: "Daily Show" alum Wyatt Cenac is back with an admirable new HBO late-night series. "Problem Areas," which debuted last week, is a 10-episode, deep-dive into the polarizing topic of policing in America. In an interview with Vulture, Cenac said something that will likely resonant with many in the media.
"I felt like I'd spent five years railing against 24-hour news networks and Fox News and hypocritical politicians. It can become very exhausting, because a year in, two years in, three years in, you feel like you're yelling at the same people, and in many cases you are yelling at and about the same people. There's a certain level of hopelessness that you feel, so in approaching this show I thought, 'Is there something I would want to talk about topically, but from an approach that doesn't give me that same feeling of burnout and exhaustion and futility? What if you focus on actually trying to do shit? And what does that look like?'" | | | Email your feedback and thoughts to brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
