| | | | | Exec summary: News about Facebook, the National Enquirer, Snap, the AP, Digital First Media, Hulu, AT&T, TMZ, Netflix, and more... | | "Under oath or not, Trump owes the country answers." | | That's what the editorial board of the Washington Post says in Wednesday's paper.
The NYT's scoop about Robert Mueller's Q's for President Trump is still dominating the headlines 24 hours later. The Post's editorial says "the latest leak underscores that Mr. Mueller's probe is examining issues of deep public significance on which there is too little public information... If Mr. Trump wants to speed its conclusion, he should step forward and answer Mr. Mueller's questions." | | | It was also in the Post: "Mueller raised possibility of presidential subpoena in meeting with Trump's legal team." CNN and other outlets subsequently confirmed the info... | | "Preparing for a legal showdown" | | Evan Perez, Gloria Borger and Pamela Brown's latest for CNN.com: Trump's lawyers "are preparing for a legal showdown" with Mueller... "Trump's legal team is bracing for the dramatic possibility that Mueller would subpoena the President, setting up a collision that could force a lengthy court fight and test the legal limits of the President's power all the way up to the Supreme Court..."
--> Charlie Savage in Wednesday's NYT: "Why Talking to Mueller Could Be a Minefield for Trump"
--> Fox's Jesse Watters on "The Five:" "I'm terrified of these questions" from Mueller. He added: "I don't think Mueller HAS a case against the president, but it's clear he is building a very very deadly serious case..." | | The Information's Jessica Lessin, BuzzFeed's Ben Smith and Quartz's Kevin Delaney have been gathering digital media leaders for small off the record gatherings called "Off the Record." This week was the second such gathering... and it's noteworthy that two of the biggest names in media and tech were there: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke.
Both men fielded Q's from the group on Tuesday... Zuckerberg spoke ON the record, much to the delight of the journalists in the room... So here's what happened: | | CNN's S. Mitra Kalita emails from Palo Alto: After his keynote at F8, Zuckerberg stopped by and met with us for an hour. He largely stuck to talking points from the last few weeks. The platform is committed to journalism and fact-checking and is taking a "broader view of our responsibility" to content, he said. AI tools will be developed to weed out doctored images and fake posts, a process that could take five to 10 years and will require "tens of thousands of staffers" and an investment of "billions."
Ads for the midterm elections face special scrutiny: "We're essentially going to be losing money on running political ads because we're hiring so many people to be able to make sure that we're not taking bad money," he said. "Look, we think this is an important part of democracy and an important way that insurgent candidates and other folks can actually break through..." | | Is "common ground" possible? Zuck hopes so | | | Kalita adds: Other things that struck me: Zuckerberg walked in and shook all of our hands and looked at our placards to address some by name during the Q&A. The exchanges bordered on tense at times... And capped off a day of hand-wringing over revenue models, how much we're kowtowing to platforms without getting much in return, and the lack of trust in media right now. Zuckerberg used the phrase "common ground" over and over as what he hopes Facebook users will find with each other... | | -- Here's Smith's recap of the session, co-written with Mat Honan, focusing on Facebook ranking media by trust...
-- Here's Peter Kafka, who asked a question on whether Zuckerberg would replicate the cable-fee model...
-- Adrienne LaFrance says Zuckerberg "doesn't understand journalism..."
-- And Kim Hart of Axios' take on why Zuckerberg's reckoning matters... | | -- One of the big Q's from the Facebook Developers Conference: "Can a $200 headset make virtual reality mainstream?" (CNNMoney)
-- Ken Doctor's latest must-read is about Digital First Media, the newspaper co. owned by Alden Global Capital, which has "ridden its deep cuts to nearly $160 million in profits and the highest margins in the business..." (NiemanLab)
-- April 2018 cable news ratings are in... All the cablers are doing well... TVNewser has the headlines for each channel here...
-- Hey "Reliable Sources" viewers, you're in good company: The program topped Fox News and MSNBC again in April among 25- to 54-year-old viewers. This is our second monthly "demo" win in a row. Thank you! 📺 | | Snap is going to "redesign parts of the app's redesign." Oof.
While releasing Q1 earnings on Tuesday, execs admitted that the overhaul of Snapchat "had dragged down its business," the NYT's Nellie Bowles writes. Revenues were up 54% year over year, "which was below analyst expectations." And user growth also underperformed...
--> "Snap stock fell more than 15% in after hours trading," CNNMoney notes... | | Hulu will make its annual pitch to advertisers at the NewFronts on Wednesday morning... I'm sure we'll hear about a renewal of "The Handmaid's Tale," among other news... But I'm watching to see if the streaming service shares a new subscriber #.
The most recent data, from January, had Hulu at 17 million paid subs in the US. Netflix is at 55 million... | | -- Mark Gurman's take on Apple's Q1 earnings: The results "confirmed that, while the days of double-digit smartphone industry growth are over," Tim Cook "has a plan to withstand the slowdown..." (Bloomberg)
-- Recommended: May Jeong reflects on the death of Shah Marai, AFP's chief photographer in Kabul, one of 10 journalists killed in Afghanistan on Monday... (The New Yorker)
-- Smart take on what The Intercept is doing: It is exposing a Democratic family feud "as midterm elections approach..." (WashPost)
-- The British tabloids are getting the "royal cold shoulder," Ellen Barry reports: "The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may be the event of the year for the popular press, but only one reporter will be present for the ceremony..." (NYT) | | WashPost's Jason Rezaian joins CNN | | Jason Rezaian, the WashPost correspondent who was detained in Iran for 18 months, has a lot of insight to share about Iran and about press freedom around the world. Since his release in January 2016, he's been reconnecting with family and working on a book... He spent a year as a Nieman Fellow... Now he's back at the Post as a global opinions writer, and as of Tuesday he's also a global affairs analyst for CNN.
He tweeted, "The opportunity to weigh in on important news and issues for both the Washington Post and CNN during these times is one that I could have hardly imagined not too long ago..." | | | This is one of the most important stories of the week... By Politico's Jason Schwartz... He sees "a growing trend of opaque, locally focused, ideological outlets, dressed up as traditional newspapers." The examples include the Tennessee Star, the Arizona Monitor and the Maine Examiner. He says the names and layouts "echo those of nonpartisan publications" but they're "aimed at influencing local politics..." | | What's next? Post-trial briefs | | | Judge Richard Leon's ruling is not expected until June 12 -- but as Hadas Gold and Jessica Schneider's story noted on Monday, "Leon has asked both sides to include five pages of remedies in their post-trial briefs, due later this week." Thursday is the due date... | | WSJ editorial board says AT&T prevailed | | This is a strong editorial in Wednesday's WSJ. The editorial board declares that AT&T won and the DOJ lost in court.
"The feds didn't come close to making" the necessary case against the AT&T-Time Warner deal, the editorial says. It closes with this: "Justice is trying to pick winners and losers in a market that has plenty of choice and competition. A government victory would mean full employment for the antitrust bar, but it would do nothing for consumers. Judge Leon should send the Trump trust-busters back to their law books for remedial study."
--> Meanwhile... The heads of Sprint and T-Mobile "began a charm offensive in Washington on Tuesday" to win approval for their merger bid, the NYT reports... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- AP staffers were told on Tuesday that Jim Asher, the editor heading up Russia probe coverage, was no longer with the news organization... Those staffers suddenly now report to deputy bureau chief Elizabeth Kennedy... So what happened? The AP says "we refrain from commenting on personnel matters..."
-- How about some transparency? "The facts of what Joy Reid has or has not done remain murky, not clear," Brian Steinberg writes... (Variety)
-- Fascinating WSJ story: "Google vs. Google: How Nonstop Political Arguments Rule Its Workplace" (WSJ)
-- "Should the Cosby jurors' names stay secret?" A group of media outlets are in court trying to obtain the info... (NYT)
-- I missed this yesterday: "'Ink,' a new British play about the rise of Rupert Murdoch, will have its American premiere on Broadway next spring..." (NYT) | | | "Mean Girls" led the way with 12 nods! Chloe Melas and Lisa Respers France have the full list of Tony Award nominations here... | | This year's Livingston Award finalists | | | Congrats to this year's Livingston Award finalists, announced Tuesday... Honoring some of the top journalists under the age of 35... The list includes Amy Brittain, Irin Carmon, Alana Casanova-Burgess, Ronan Farrow, Rachel Glickhouse, Emily Steel, Michael S. Schmidt, John Woodrow Cox, Micah Loewinger... There are many more, so check out all the finalists here... | | Entering the B&C Hall of Fame this year | | | This list is a who's who of television. Broadcasting & Cable's 2018 Hall of Fame honorees are "20/20," Christiane Amanpour, Ira Bernstein and Mort Marcus, Charlie Collier, Cesar Conde, Carole Cooper and Richard Leibner, Brian Deevy, Gayle King, Greg Meidel, Courteney Monroe, Jordan Wertlieb, and Linda Yaccarino. Details here... | | Spotted at Amy Chozick's book party | | | "Chasing Hillary" came out one week ago... At Park Avenue Spring on Tuesday night, Chozick signed books and thanked well-wishers... Spotted: Carolyn Ryan, Rachel Adler, Bill Brink, Athena Jones, Michael Barbaro, Kate Bolduan, Louise Story, Rachel Sklar, Conor Dougherty, Kevin Goldman, Gary Ginsberg, Jim Kennedy, Ilana Ozernoy, Stu Loeser, Brian Steinberg, Michael Calderone, and many more... | | About news outlets standing up for facts:
"We can't do this on our own. There is a responsibility on every single one of us to treat the facts with respect… to not accept that we are in a post-truth world."
--ABC News prez James Goldston speaking at the Collision conference on Tuesday... | | The Hill wants "major reforms" | | News outlets continue to raise concerns about the future of the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner. There's a lot of concern about the "optics" of the event.
Oliver Darcy emails: The Hill announced on Tuesday that, short of "major reforms," it will no longer buy tables at the dinner. "In short, there is simply no reason for us to participate in something that casts our profession in a poor light," James Finkelstein, chairman of The Hill, wrote in a letter to the association. Finkelstein said he hoped the dinner could "get back to talking about the importance of the Fourth Estate without the kind of ugly sideshow that completely overshadowed the event this year..."
--> Some context: Finkelstein has been quoted as a personal friend of Donald Trump. In 2011, he told the Observer, "I've known him forever..." | | On Saturday night, Michelle Wolf had about 120,000 Twitter followers. Now? She's about to top 500,000... She has quadrupled her following...
Per C-SPAN's Howard Mortman, Wolf's controversial Saturday night stand-up act "now has the most views of any WHCD performer in a C-SPAN YouTube... in less than 3 days topping Seth Meyers 2011, 4.4 million views to 4.3 mil views." BTW: The least-watched act is Jay Leno from 2010... 280,000 views... | | Scrutinizing the Enquirer | | The National Enquirer is under scrutiny for its longstanding Trump ties... especially now that the tabloid's cover is trashing Michael Cohen...
So on Tuesday the Enquirer's parent company American Media Inc. formally denied that Trump is involved in its editorial decisions. The statement: "Donald Trump has never been consulted on editorial decisions; has never requested that a story be written on a given subject, or angled in a certain way; and never requested a story be killed. Period."
Here's my full story about the issue... | | Trump's health is back in the news... | | ...Thanks to this Tuesday afternoon NBC News scoop: "Trump doctor Harold Bornstein says bodyguard, lawyer 'raided' his office, took medical files."
CNN caught up with Dr. Bornstein later in the day. He's not holding back. He says Trump dictated his own glowing health letter during the campaign.
--> Maggie Haberman commented: "It is the least surprising aspect that Trump dictated it." What's surprising is that "the doctor is now admitting it..."
--> Why this matters: The health of the candidates was a hot topic in the 2016 election. The public typically has access to medical information about the party nominees. Now Trump's longtime doctor is saying the public was deprived of that info... Meanwhile, Trump's W.H. doctor is embroiled in controversy... | | Kanye West's P.R. tour continues... | | Kanye spoke out in two big interviews on Tuesday... One was with Charlamagne... The other was with TMZ. "I just love Trump," he told Harvey Levin.
The top takeaway from the TMZ chat? West saying "when you hear about slavery for 400 years ... For 400 years? That sounds like a choice."
TMZer Van Lathan took him to task. West is now trying to walk it back via Twitter. Don Lemon ripped into West's comment on "CNN Tonight." Some of his panelists said West's behavior is dangerous... | | Producer accuses Harvey Weinstein of multiple sexual assaults | | Chloe Melas emails: Alexandra Canosa, an associate producer on the Netflix series "Marco Polo," has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging Harvey Weinstein raped, physically assaulted and verbally abused her over the course of five years. Weinstein denies the allegations... and sent CNN three statements in a period of one hour.
Here's the full story by Melas and Elizabeth Joseph... | | What a great show title: "Busy Tonight" | | Megan Thomas emails: "Dawson's Creek" and "Freaks and Geeks" alum Busy Phillips is launching a late-night talk show with E! later this summer. According to the network, "Busy Tonight" will feature "comedic commentary, interviews, and segments that go behind her most popular Instagram stories." Her Instagram posts are hilarious and highly relatable, so it will be interesting to see what she does with a show...
Speaking of E!... | | "E! True Hollywood Story" is coming back | | | The network says the series will have "a greater focus on giving a voice to the major moments that are reshaping pop culture and changing the world..." | | The perfect spy movie for this moment | | Megan Thomas emails: Jessica Chastain will be at Cannes later this month to pitch her film "355," an espionage thriller in the spirit of the "Bourne" franchise with a female led cast to feature Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing and Lupita Nyong'o, along with Chastain. (Photo via THR)
"The action genre has long been dominated by male heroes, and it's so exciting to be part of a film that will allow for not just one female action hero but a whole ensemble of very capable, fierce female characters that reject tired stereotypes," Chastain told Deadline about the project. "Characters that liberate from the confines of stereotypical traits. That is something that excited me about this, the opportunity to create different types of female heroes." | | "Westworld" is returning (of course!) | | | HBO said Tuesday that it has renewed the series for a third season... I'm two episodes behind, and I'm going to catch up as soon as this newsletter is sent out! | | Brian Lowry emails: Netflix continues to bend and break rules in terms of how it premieres shows, following its lemonade-out-of-lemons stunt with the stealth drop of "The Cloverfield Paradox" after the Super Bowl. Now it's last-minute notice about new seasons of the teen drama "13 Reasons Why" and the comedy "Arrested Development," with relatively little time between the announcement and release date.
This is, perhaps, a way of engaging fans, but it's a pretty significant drain on the resources of those who write about the company. And the service -- which can be fairly arrogant in its dealings with press -- seems at least mindful of that problem, having recently sent out a message noting that it would be making "an effort to streamline our screener process" in a way that would "(hopefully) make your jobs easier."
--> Details: "13" will come out on May 18... | | Brian Lowry emails: Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan articulated a view that clearly has its share of support within the critical establishment, lamenting that the success of "Avengers: Infinity War" "puts another nail in the coffin of a more diverse Hollywood landscape."
While more character-driven fare has found outlets elsewhere -- most notably in premium TV and indie film -- Turan makes a legitimate point. But in terms of blockbuster mania overtaking the major studios at the expense of mid-sized movies, that ship has long since sailed... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- If you've ever dreamed of writing a "Simpsons" episode, now may be your chance. Adi Shankar, the executive producer and showrunner for Netflix's "Castlevania," has announced the "Apu Screenwriting Contest: Crowdsourcing the Cure for The Simpsons." He's inviting people to write an episode that will offer a solution to criticism that "The Simpsons" Apu character is a stereotype...
-- Lucasfilm prez Kathleen Kennedy found a classy way to congratulate Marvel on "Avengers: Infinity War" surpassing "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" as the film with the biggest opening weekend at the U.S. box office... | | | Email your feedback and thoughts to brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
