Thank you!
What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for your readership and viewership... Your feedback makes this letter worth writing. And your questions and ideas inform the TV edition of "Reliable Sources" every week. I read every email and reply to as many as I can... and I'm deeply grateful to all of you!
I'm thankful to the CNN Business team that keeps this newsletter humming -- Jason Farkas and Rich Barbieri and Alex Koppelman and An Phung and Robert McLean -- and the contributions from our all-star crew: Oliver Darcy, Thomas Kludt, Megan Thomas, Frank Pallotta, Jill Disis, Chloe Melas, Lisa Respers France, Sandra Gonzalez, Brian Lowry, Donie O'Sullivan, Bill Carter!
I'm thankful for the "Reliable Sources" producers who make the show come alive every Sunday: Jonathan Auerbach, Shanta Covington, Daniella Emanuel, Julia Waldow, Justin Freiman, Troy Bentley, with assists from Emily Kuhn and Ella Richardson and many more.
Most of all, I'm thankful for Jamie and Sunny... They are my dream come true. Sunny turned 18 months old today. And this is her first Thanksgiving with my family in MD and VA. I'll try to teach her the word TURKEY 😃
What are you thankful for?
Thankful for a "vibrant press"
ln Thursday's Washington Post, the paper's publisher and CEO Fred Ryan has a powerful message about Saudi Arabia's murder of Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. If you "flash enough money in front of the president of the United States," Ryan says, "you can literally get away with murder."
In the piece, Ryan reiterates his call for Congress to take action. Here's the end:
"On Thanksgiving Day, Americans can be grateful that we live under a Constitution that ensures the rule of law rather than the rule of one capricious man, and that it enables one branch of government to correct the failure of another. We are eternally thankful for the brave men and women whose military service has long preserved those rights, and for the courage of first responders who are there to protect us when disasters strike at home. We can also be thankful that we have a vibrant press, protected by the First Amendment, that relentlessly seeks to hold the powerful to account. We can trust that they will fulfill this mission in the case of Jamal Khashoggi. This pursuit of truth and justice is what an innocent man, brutally slain, deserves — and what America's real values demand."
A hopeful message for this Thanksgiving
Hate-filled posts on social media and heated clashes on cable news contribute to a distorted perception of the world around us. The ugliness is real, but those divisions are "just not who we are," Dave Isay swears.
Isay is the founder of StoryCorps, one of my favorite nonprofits, a group that brings people together to record stories about their lives. StoryCorps calls itself "the largest collection of human voices ever gathered."
Most are conversations between family members. But the group is now doing something completely different, "putting people on opposite sides of the political divides together in a StoryCorps booth," Isay told me on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast. The project is called "One Small Step." | | "We call it 'One Small Step' because it's just one step away from the cliff," Isay said. "But we've got to take that step away from the cliff."
Listen via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or TuneIn...
Let's have a parade!
Sunny and I will be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade at 9 a.m. sharp... Flipping between NBC and CBS based on the commercial breaks... While I regale her with tales of the years I spent as a balloon handler in the parade. Really! I helped carry Snoopy and Mickey and a couple other balloons in the early 2000s. So I read every word of Brian Steinberg's parade coverage preview... On NBC, Al Roker will be on a motorcycle this year, and the Tom Turkey float has a new paint job... | |
Need recipes?
Jill Disis emails: Keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, I took a look at how NYT Cooking built up a subscription base that's now 120,000 strong -- in just about a year and a half. Plenty of turkey and pie pictures included! Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Thought-provoking: This Jay Pirini column is titled "The story of Thanksgiving is the story of a migrant caravan..." (CNN)
-- This Sunday on "CBS Sunday Morning:" A rare interview with Gary Hart ahead of the new movie "The Front Runner..." (CBS)
-- Hadas Gold flagged this: Facebook is fighting back against the Information Commissioner in the UK... (The Guardian)
Wednesday's news dumps...
Donie O'Sullivan emails: If you're a reporter covering Facebook, you really shouldn't make any social plans on the eve of a national holiday. The company often uses the holidays to dump news, and Wednesday was no different. Facebook's outgoing head of comms Elliot Schrage is taking the fall for the company's work with Definers. (He announced earlier this year he was leaving.) He came out with a Q&A on Wednesday afternoon.
WHAT IT MEANS: This could be interpreted as a way of saving Sheryl Sandberg as Q's continue to linger about how involved she was. In an internal memo to staff that was released publicly Wednesday evening, Sandberg said that Definers was mentioned in some emails she received...
The Soros issue
More from Donie: Facebook's message on Wednesday confirmed that the company asked Definers to "work on Soros" -- as in George Soros -- after the billionaire described FB as a "menace on society" at Davos last year.
Patrick Gaspard, head of the Soros-backed Open Society Foundations, tweeted in response: "So Facebook decides to drop a turkey on Thanksgiving eve, with admission that Definers was tasked by company leadership to target and smear George Soros because he publicly criticized their out of control business model. Sorry, but this needs independent, congressional oversight..."
--> Crooked Media has officially cut ties with Definers exec Tim Miller...
--> The NYT is out with a new story about Definers' "political trickery" and the company's other clients... | | Low morale, more leaks
Quoting from Donie and Elizabeth Landers' new story: "A Facebook employee who asked not to be named told CNN that morale in Facebook's Washington, DC office, and the company more widely, is low, and that leaks to the media from Facebook employees have become more frequent. 'Clearly employees are questioning the mission of the company,' this person told CNN..."
Some Wednesday night news from Disney...
MediaPost's Alex Weprin tweeted: "Disney's 10-K filing (filed the night before Thanksgiving!) always has some insight into state of cable TV. ESPN subscriptions down to 86M from 88M last year. Meanwhile Disney Channel subscriptions decline to to 89M from 92M last year..."
Weprin added: "An update to the 'Pink Slime' lawsuit. Disney was able to recoup $38M from the insurance company in relation to the infamous ABC News/'Pink Slime' lawsuit..."
Is this an attempt at a news dump, too?
NOAA announced on Wednesday that the second volume of the Fourth National Climate Assessment will be released Friday at 2 p.m. WaPo's Angela Fritz tweeted: "Is there any way it could be buried more? How about New Years Eve at 9pm, guys?"
As CNN's story notes, this report was "long scheduled for release in December," so the new timing is raising eyebrows.
Meanwhile, what's POTUS tweeting? Climate change denialism... | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Wednesday's biggest surprise: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' response to Trump's comment about an "Obama judge." This "was not the first time Roberts had been asked to comment" about Trump denigrating judges, "but it was the first time he decided to go public," Joan Biskupic writes... (CNN)
-- Roberts' statement was officially prompted by a query from the AP. That's "the most stunning thing," NBC's Alex Seitz-Wald tweeted. "He gave it to the AP, not during public remarks or in a law journal or any of the myriad ways he could have softened its edges. He wanted it out there and now, through the front door..." (Twitter)
-- Z. Byron Wolf's latest: "This is a stress test of the US government..." (CNN)
"Becoming" sold more than 1.4 million copies in its first week
Penguin Random House spent big on Barack and Michelle Obama's books. Here's why: Michelle's book "Becoming" sold more than 1.4 million copies in all formats in its first week on sale. After five printings of the hardcover edition, there will be 3 million copies in print in the US and Canada, the publisher said Wednesday...
-- Plus: "Becoming" is a bestseller in Europe and Scandinavia and the No. 1 adult nonfiction title in the U.K...
"Politics Isn't Pretty. But Politicians Are"
Brian Lowry emails: Frank Bruni offers an obvious but seldom-mentioned point about attractiveness — what TV would call being telegenic — and politics in his column "Politics Isn't Pretty. But Politicians Are..."
Second-guessing the WHCA
Brian Lowry emails: I've seen a lot of hot takes like this one in THR, suggesting the White House Correspondents Association should have "doubled down" on its entertainment booking after the brouhaha over last year's dinner. That essentially ignores the traditional purpose of the event, and how it got away — including all the celebrity guests — from what was supposed to be a fun evening, becoming a more confrontational one...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
By Daniella Emanuel:
-- The Baltimore Sun's editorial board wants to draw attention to the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which "would allow a limited exemption to anti-trust laws so that news publishers could collectively negotiate with Facebook, Google and other big digital content distributors... to come to a fair agreement on compensation and other issues." The News Media Alliance has been championing this bill... (The Baltimore Sun)
-- Maxwell Tani, Andrew Kirell, and Asawin Subsaeng report that Trump gave Roger Ailes some advice about launching Fox Business a decade ago. "According to one source, Trump advised Ailes to angle the network more toward news, entertainment, and politics instead of only business coverage..." (The Daily Beast)
-- Variety asked Alex Winter, the director of the new Epix documentary "The Panama Papers," about what inspired him to pursue the project. "This had an incredible human story of unprecedented coordination between journalists that had never happened to that degree before, where they were working with competing outlets around the world in secret together, sharing sources, sharing their information, not just siloed and working on one story, but in siloed units," he said... (Variety)
Are you ready for some Turkey Day football?
Frank Pallotta emails: Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means turkey and football, and the NFL has a good slate that should help further boost its surging ratings, which are up about 4% from last year.
There's the 7-3 Bears taking on the Lions for CBS' early game. Then old rivals, the Redskins and the Cowboys, own the afternoon for an important NFC East match-up on Fox. After you've gorged yourself on pie, NBC takes over the night game with the 9-1 Saints taking on the Falcons.
Enjoy the NFL cornucopia, folks!
Oliver's back!
Oliver Darcy emails: My European adventure has finally come to an end. Thank you to everyone who sent food and other recommendations! I arrived home last night from Zurich after 10 days of touring Switzerland, London, and Paris. And while the time away was nice, it feels good to be back — particularly before Thanksgiving! It's always great to get away, but I'm thankful for my life here in the US and excited to get back to work after the holiday weekend.
| | A box office feast
Frank Pallotta emails: This is the time of year when everyone comes together to talk about how thankful they are. Oh, and to go to the movies, which is something I'm thankful for, so that worked out.
There are big releases this weekend, including Disney's animated "Ralph Breaks The Internet," "Creed II" with Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone and "Green Book" starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. For the awards crowd, there is "The Favourite" and "Roma," which are hitting theaters in select cities.
So there are plenty of films at the cineplex this weekend that you can go and see with your family, or you can go alone to get away from them...
Lowry reviews "Creed II"
Brian Lowry emails: "Creed II" = the square root of "Rocky IV." And Dolph Lundgren, as a gnarled Ivan Drago, pretty much steals the show...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Here's what to binge over the Thanksgiving holiday (besides turkey)...
-- Sarah Michelle Gellar apologized for a Thanksgiving lingerie post...
-- Devin Lima of the pop group LFO has died, according to his mother. He was 41.
-- David Arquette defended wrestlers after he was hospitalized following a "death match..."
-- Kim Kardashian West says her husband Kanye West is bothered by the sexy pics she posts on social media... | |
Two ends of Netflix's movie strategy
Brian Lowry emails: Netflix's "Roma" is receiving a limited theatrical release beginning today, in advance of premiering on the service in mid-December. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, it's the streamer's strongest bid yet to have an impact on the Oscar race.
On the other end of Netflix's movie strategy there's "The Christmas Chronicles," a bigger-budget Hallmark-style holiday movie — starring Kurt Russell as Santa Claus — that nobody really asked for or needed. It lands Thanksgiving day...
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
Chloe Melas emails:
-- "The Conners" dropped some big family news on Tuesday night. A baby is on the way!
-- Robert De Niro and his wife Grace Hightower have reportedly split after 20 years of marriage...
-- Casey Kasem's kids are battling his second wife... It's the subject of a "48 Hours" episode this Saturday night... | |
Thanks for reading. Email me feedback anytime! See you tomorrow...
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