| | | | | Exec summary: Hello from the TIME 100 gala in NYC... Scroll down for all my sightings from the room... Meantime, Oliver Darcy is at James Comey's book party in DC... And Brian Lowry is fresh from an "Avengers: Infinity War" screening in L.A... | | Wednesday is shaping up to be an epic day of media news. Comcast and Viacom earnings will come out before the bell... What will Viacom say about the CBS-Viacom merger talks?
AT&T earnings will also come out after the bell... Will there be any new comment about the pending Time Warner deal?
Twitter will report earnings before the bell, Facebook after the bell... What will FB say about privacy concerns and "delete Facebook" chatter?
In DC, Reporters Without Borders will present The World Press Freedom Index 2018... There will be a 9am launch event at the WashPost, live streamed here...
In PA, the jury in the retrial of Bill Cosby will begin deliberations...
In VA, Anderson Cooper will moderate a live town hall with Comey at his alma mater, the College of William & Mary, at 8pm ET on CNN... | | Four months ago MSNBC host Joy Reid apologized for homophobic blog posts she published about a decade ago, well before she joined the network. Now this issue is back in the news in a big way. The same Twitter user who found those posts "unearthed far more toxic, bigoted, and vicious anti-gay articles that appeared to be from Reid's old blog," as Glenn Greenwald explained here.
Mediaite broke this story on Monday. Reid responded by saying the Wayback Machine archive of her blog was hacked -- and that the planted posts were "part of an effort to taint my character." Some folks are... let's just say... very skeptical about that explanation, especially after the Wayback Machine said it had found no evidence to support it. Thus the NYT's headline: "Joy Reid Blames Hackers for Anti-Gay Blog Posts, but Questions Mount."
Tom Kludt has a story in the works... Look for it on CNNMoney on Wednesday... | | Murdoch and Cook at the state dinner | | Rupert Murdoch and his wife Jerry Hall were at the White House on Tuesday evening for the Trump administration's first state dinner. (Photo via Jennifer Jacobs.)
As CNN's Betsy Klein noted here, Apple CEO Tim Cook also attended... "with Apple Vice President Lisa Jackson, who served the Obama administration as Environmental Protection Agency chief." | | The Time 100 gala is always terrific because worlds collide. Some of my sightings: Emma Gonzalez talking with John Krasinski and Emily Blunt... Rand Paul spokesman Sergio Gor taking a picture with Kesha... Ronan Farrow, who'd just taped an interview with Stephen Colbert, talking with Colbert's EP Chris Licht... Jeff Zucker catching up with Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie... Former and current Time editors Nancy Gibbs and Ed Felsenthal schmoozing...
--> There were crowds around: Leslie Jones, the Parkland student activists, Nicole Kidman/Keith Urban...
--> Most interesting person I met: Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie. He is meeting with MANY lawmakers and law enforcement officials in multiple countries...
--> From Felsenthal's welcome speech: "This has been a year of ferocious attacks on the press, and yet it has also been a year of phenomenal reporting..."
--> On the list but NOT in attendance: President Trump, Robert Mueller, Jeff Sessions, Sean Hannity, Elon Musk... | | | Shawn Mendes and Jennifer Lopez performed... Also spotted: Maxine Waters, Sterling K. Brown, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Trevor Noah, Norah O'Donnell, Martha Stewart, Phil Griffin, David Muir, David Rhodes, Megyn Kelly, Gayle King, John Dickerson, Greta Gerwig, RuPaul, Brian Grazer, Lena Waithe, Padma Lakshmi, Samantha Bee, Aly Raisman, Tina Brown, Harold Evans, Christian Siriano, Adam Rippon, Lindsey Vonn, Jose Andres, Willie Geist, Laura Brown, Ryan Kadro, Al Roker, Lester Holt, Noah Oppenheim, Millie Bobby Brown, Jon Werther, Dan Macsai, Alan Murray... | | The backdrop to the party: Meredith took control of Time Inc. almost three months ago, and now Meredith is trying to sell Time, SI, Fortune, and Money. At Tuesday evening's reception, Meredith CEO Tom Harty told me and VF's Joe Pompeo that there are lots and lots of interested buyers... He's expecting to wrap up the sales process in June...
--> More: David Freedlander, writing for NYMag, has insight into what staffers are saying about the sales process... | | -- Re: the Ronny Jackson story, NBC's Mark Murray has the same question I have: "If Cabinet secretary picks aren't being vetted by the White House, what else isn't getting vetted?" (Twitter)
-- Thanks to Ashley Parker, this is the only story you need to read about the "touchy-feely relationship between Trump and Macron..." (WashPost)
-- Remember Michael Avenatti's comment on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" about going on Fox? He told me "I'm not avoiding Fox, but they don't seem to want me to be on their shows much." Now there's a dispute because he cancelled a hit on Martha MacCallum's show... Jeremy Barr has the details here... (THR)
-- The Sacramento Bee "imposed its latest round of layoffs and company buyouts on Tuesday, targeting 15 newsroom staffers and eight working on the production and copy desk..." (Comstock's) | | Comey's book is a runaway bestseller | | James Comey's book tour has stirred an enormous amount of backlash -- with critics on both the left and the right criticizing him for his answers and for even writing the book in the first place. "Comey book tour backfires" has been a popular talking point. But Comey must feel some vindication from the best seller lists. After just one week in print, "A Higher Loyalty" is one of the biggest books of the year. Macmillan, the book's publisher, said Tuesday that 600,000 copies were sold in all formats in its first week on sale.
The print order has now been increased to 1 million copies, a spokeswoman confirmed to me... Full story here...
--> The book will also debut at No. 1 when the NYT list is released on Wednesday... | | Spotted at Comey's book party | | Oliver Darcy emails: Javelin hosted a book party for Comey at the Newseum on Tuesday evening... Comey said he wrote his book to "make good out of having to leave the FBI..." He drank wine from a paper cup, in a nod to one of the scenes from his book...
--> Spotted: James Clapper, Donna Brazile, Matt Latimer and Anna Sproul-Latimer, Keith Urbahn, Maureen Dowd, Mark Leibovich, Matt Rosenberg, Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza, Robert Costa, Josh Dawsey, Jonathan Swan and Betsy Woodruff, Daniel Lippman, Asawin Suebsaeng, Lachlan Markay, Steven Perlberg, Hadas Gold, Kaitlan Collins, Tammy Haddad, Ben Terris, Phil Rucker, Ashley Rucker, Josh Rogin, and more...
--> Elaina Plott tweeted this from the party: "Comey told me this evening that his favorite television show is Homeland. 'I care about Carrie,' he said. 'I miss Pete.'" | | No comment re: jailing journalists | | | Darcy adds: Before Comey's remarks at the book party, I asked him about the memo he wrote in which he said he laughed after Trump floated the idea of jailing journalists. Comey thanked me for the question, but declined to answer... | | Bloomberg.com is planning a paywall... | | | Bloomberg is "finalizing plans to roll out a paid subscription offering for its Bloomberg.com property," BI's Mike Shields reported Tuesday, citing "people familiar with the matter." Shields said "the paywall is set to roll out in May," coinciding "with a relaunch of the Bloomberg.com website," although the date could change... | | Vanity Fair's paywall is up | | | Radhika Jones announced the metered paywall on Tuesday morning. "After people read their fourth article in a month, they'll be required to subscribe for $19.99 a year for either digital-only or print plus digital," Digiday's Lucia Moses wrote. Video and slideshows are exempt. "To sweeten the offer, Vanity Fair also is rolling out a searchable archive of its articles, a subscriber-only newsletter and even considering giving subscribers access to its writers and editors..." | | AT&T antitrust trial nears its end with clashes over data points | | | Hadas Gold's latest: "An otherwise staid antitrust trial reached a dramatic crescendo Tuesday... On the stand as a rebuttal witness was the government's expert economist, Professor Carl Shapiro... The crux of the DOJ's arguments against the merger has rested on Shapiro's analysis that the merger would cause a price increase of around 45 cents per month per cable subscriber across the country. But AT&T and Time Warner lead attorney Dan Petrocelli accused Shapiro of purposely using old data and higher inputs for his model, resulting in his finding of a price increase." More... | | No court proceedings on Wednesday... | | | ...But on Thursday, Shapiro may be back on the witness stand "for further questioning," Gold reports. "Once Shapiro's testimony wraps, the trial will enter closing arguments." Then Judge Richard Leon "will take several weeks to issue his opinion on the case..." | | -- Philly rapper Meek Mill was released from prison on Tuesday... (CNN)
-- Keach Hagey and Joe Flint's latest about CBS-Viacom: "What About Bob?" (WSJ)
-- There were "a quartet of political books" released on Tuesday -- Jake Tapper's "The Hellfire Club," Amy Chozick's "Chasing Hillary," Ronan Farrow's "War on Peace," and Jonah Goldberg's "Suicide of the West..." (CJR)
-- Ahead of his Sunday night special on CNN, "Weed 4," Dr. Sanjay Gupta has penned a remarkable open letter to A.G. Jeff Sessions. "I changed my mind" about medical marijuana, "and I am certain you can, as well..." (CNN) | | The Peabody Award winners are... | | The winners in the news, radio/podcast and public service categories were revealed on Tuesday. "60 Minutes" was honored "with the Institutional Award for its 50 years of news coverage," the NYT notes. Other winners:
"Vice News Tonight:" Charlottesville: Race & Terror
CNN: Fall of ISIS in Iraq and Syria
PBS "NewsHour:" Inside Putin's Russia
BBC News: Plight of Rohingya Refugees
"60 Minutes" and WashPost: The Whistleblower | | Congrats to this year's Mirror Award finalists! | | | The Mirrors are for media industry reporting... The winners will be named at a June 14 ceremony... The finalists were announced on Tuesday, and you can check out the list here. Among the reporters: Jim Rutenberg, Felix Gillette, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Lois Parshley, Joe Pompeo, Leslie Savan, Jack Shafer, Zach Schonfeld, Rebecca Traister, Irin Carmon, Amy Brittain, Emily Steel, Luke O'Brien, Ronan Farrow, Craig Silverman... | | Glamour's new editor and new look | | | Megan Thomas emails: I'm so excited for -- and impressed by -- our former CNN colleague, now EIC of Glamour, Samantha Barry. Her first issue, featuring Melissa McCarthy on the cover and a beautiful new design, is truly admirable. I can't wait to see what more she has in store. Check out Sam's first letter here... | | "Part of the way I built the team is looking for people who were hungry, but who also had a presence on air and a strong social media following. That's what I jokingly refer to as our advertising budget."
--The Daily Beast EIC John Avlon in this perceptive profile by Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin... | | Daniella Emanuel emails: I wrote a story for CNNMoney about how over 100 student-run publications are banding together for a campaign to #SaveStudentNewsrooms. On Wednesday, the papers plan to flood social media with editorials emphasizing the importance of student media, as well as calls for alumni donations.
This campaign is in response to student papers around the country that are losing funding, ad revenue and other sources of support. Some have had to re-affiliate with their universities, which puts editorial independence at risk. I interviewed two EICs of student publications who are participating in the event. "I'm extremely proud of our staff and I think when it comes to the independence factor and being students, everyone likes to say, 'Oh you're the student newspaper,' or, 'Oh you're a student journalist,' but I mean student journalism doesn't really exist, it's just journalism," said Alexa DÃaz, the EIC of The Daily Orange... Read the full story here... | | The reason for Spotify's revamp | | | On Tuesday, Spotify revealed a redesign of its mobile app for non-paying users, CNNMoney's Kaya Yurieff reports. "It now features new tools previously only available to premium subscribers, such as new music discovery, personalization and low data mode. The move is part of an effort to attract more paying subscribers. Spotify said 60% of premium users began on the free service." More... | | I bet this made Bezos laugh | | | Megan Thomas emails: Andy Borowitz is always funny, but I actually thought this was a real story for a second before I saw the byline -- and I bet I wasn't the only person. "Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced on Tuesday that when the purported 'pee tape' becomes available it will be offered free to all Amazon Prime members..." | | Lowry says "Infinity War" deserves all the hype | | Brian Lowry emails with his review of "Avengers: Infinity War:" The movie really marks the culmination of a decade-long effort by Marvel Studios since the release of "Iron Man." And this third film genuinely pays off as a massive spectacle, assembling the super-team and other assorted members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe against the genocidal threat posed by Thanos. In crass commercial terms, with Disney still counting "Black Panther" receipts and the "Star Wars" stand-alone "Solo" due next month, the studio's theatrical arm appears to be running rings around the rest of the industry...
>>> Read Lowry's full review here... | | -- Frank Pallotta tweeted: "I've left every Marvel movie with a sense of where the franchise was going. The strong 'Avengers: Infinity War' is the first time where I'm utterly perplexed about what's next. There were audible gasps at the NYC screening..."
-- Fandango's Erik Davis: "#InfinityWar left me damn near speechless. It's a tremendous superhero spectacle that somehow delivers an ass-whooping of action and even greater character moments. What a rush -- laughed, cried, winced, went through all the emotions on this one, kids!"
-- The headline on A.O. Scott's review: "'Avengers: Infinity War': It's Marvel's Universe. We Just Live in It." | | MTV's "Jersey" expansion plan | | | Megan Thomas emails: The "Jersey Shore" is still working for MTV. On Tuesday, the network announced the launch of four new series on Thursday nights to build on the success of "Jersey Shore Family Vacation." The show titles are still a work in progress, according to the network, but they're kind of perfect: "Made in Kentucky," "Staten Island 10310," "Too Stupid to Die" and "Just Tattoo of Us." | | | Email your feedback and thoughts to brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
