At midnight ET time ran out... The cable news countdown clocks went away... And the federal government shut down. Now it's time for count-up clocks that point out how long this stalemate has lasted.
Okay, fine, it's only 11 p.m. at the time I'm sending this newsletter out. The shutdown hasn't started yet. But the House and the Senate have adjourned until Saturday at noon, so it's happening. This is the THIRD government shutdown of the year. So I just went back to January and copy-and-pasted my newsletter intro from LAST time.
>> Recycling my two cents from January: "The U.S. is once again embarrassed in the eyes of the world. Americans are looking at each other asking, 'Can't we do any better than this?'"
The rest of this newsletter is 100% original 😉
This whole fight is untethered from the facts
-- Trump wants a "border wall." But I wish there was more of an acknowledgement that there already ARE a wide variety of fences and bollards and wall-like structures from CA to TX. Trump wants more. But let's start this debate by seeing what's already there! If you haven't taken WaPo's virtual tour of the entire border yet, check it out here...
-- Stephen Miller says "right now, as we speak, there is a surge of illegal immigration heading toward our country that presents a national crisis now." A crisis? The # of apprehensions is "nowhere close to setting a record," per government data... The #'s are far lower than in the early and mid-2000s...
-- Sarah Sanders says "all of America" wants a wall. But polling shows that most Americans do not. Maybe Sanders meant "most of the Republican party." But not even "all" of the GOP wants the wall! WaPo's Philip Bump wrote about Sanders' falsehood here...
The Limbaugh shutdown?
How much credit or blame do Trump's media boosters deserve for this shutdown? I'll be talking about that on "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon in the 11 p.m. hour...
>> Edmund Lee's piece for the NYT: "Trump's Allies in Conservative Media Put the President 'on the Griddle'"
>> Erik Wemple says "Fox & Friends" hosts are "no longer reliable Trump bootlickers..."
The selloff continues | | On most other days, THIS would be the lead: "A rough end to an awful week," the CNN Business home page says. "The Dow declined 414 points, or 1.8%, capping off its deepest weekly plunge since October 2008."
Tech stocks were a big contributor to the slump. On Friday alone, "Facebook slumped 6%, Apple declined 4%, Twitter lost 7% and Netflix fell 5%," David Goldman reports...
Trump's "worst week ever," for real this time
Nate Silver tweeted Friday: "There are many occasions when cable pundits say Trump's having his WORST WEEK EVER. A lot of times, that's hype. But I think there's some truth this time. He's fighting on multiple fronts that expose the big weaknesses in his approach to the presidency... In particular, his deteriorating relationships with McConnell and other members of the Congressional leadership is a major deal. The shutdown itself isn't a huge news event (IMO). But those relationships matter a lot, including on the big questions (impeachment, primary challenge)..."
Trump "hates the coverage"
Via CNN's Jim Acosta: "A source close to the White House said President Trump is angry about the resignation letter submitted by Defense Secretary James Mattis. The source said Trump 'hates the letter...' but 'hates the coverage more.' The thing that makes Trump angry is the conventional wisdom repeated in coverage of the Secretary's departure that Mattis was one of the 'adults in the room' in place to serve as a check on the president's impulses..."
A "dangerous" moment
It's not just progressives saying this is a "dangerous" moment in time, with Mattis leaving and scandals swirling. Conservative commentator Matt Lewis tweeted Friday that this is a "very dangerous phase" of the Trump presidency: "The problem with the entertainment wing of the GOP is not that they are politically conservative (that would generally be fine by me) but that they are irresponsible actors..."
No presser today. Didja notice?
Erin McPike tweeted: "Every Friday before Christmas for eight straight years," Barack Obama held his "epic year-end news conference. It was epic for its brilliance, its eloquence, and the kind of news he made." For the second year in a row, Trump did not hold a Friday before Christmas presser...
This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"
We have a full slate: Ben Smith, Karen Tumulty, Douglas Brinkley, Dara Lind, Carl Bernstein, Sarah Ellison, David Zurawik, Rebecca Keegan, and Brian Lowry will join me Sunday at 11 a.m. ET on CNN... See you then...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Another great get by CNN's Andrew Kaczynski: Mick Mulvaney said in a 2015 radio interview that Trump's views on a border wall were "simplistic," "absurd and almost childish..." (CNN)
-- Laura Jarrett and Pamela Brown's Friday night scoop: Trump has "vented" to acting A.G. Matt Whitaker "at least twice in the past few weeks" about the SDNY's prosecution of Michael Cohen." Jeffrey Toobin called it "completely inappropriate on "AC360." He said "this is precisely the thing that presidents should NOT be involved in..." (CNN)
-- Jonah Goldberg's latest: "The problem conservatism faces these days is that many of the loudest voices have decided to embrace the meanness while throwing away the facts..." (NRO)
-- A new count from Glenn Kessler and co.: "President Trump has made 7,546 false or misleading claims over 700 days..." (WaPo)
| | RBG's cancer scare
"Today's news that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering to remove two cancerous nodules in her left lung hit progressives hard," the filmmakers behind "RBG," Julie Cohen and Betsy West, wrote in a CNN.com op-ed on Friday. They wrote it to reassure readers that Ginsberg "is tough enough" to endure this latest health scare...
>> Brian Lowry emails: Her latest health concerns come just days before the Christmas opening of "On the Basis of Sex," a movie starring Felicity Jones that looks back on a key case during her early legal career...
>> Sonia Moghe notes that RBG attended a screening of the film just a few days ago in NYC. When asked during the Q&A about how long she'll serve on the Supreme Court, she said, "At my age, one can't predict. I said I will do this job as long as I can do it full steam."
REVIEWING 2018
An incomplete list of this year's media news
Not much happened this year, right? Just more of the same from 2017? Think again:
Bill Shine joined the White House. Hope Hicks joined Fox. Sarah Sanders basically ended the daily briefing. And we all learned the name Stormy Daniels.
Matt Murray was named editor of the WSJ. Nicole Carroll was named editor of USA Today. Jarl Mohn announced plans to leave NPR. Vince Sadusky replaced Randy Falco atop Univision. "American Idol" returned. Apple bought Texture. "Fortnite" and "Red Dead Redemption 2" consumed hours on end.
The streaming wars escalated. Ryan Murphy joined Netflix. Kenya Barris joined Netflix. Channing Dungey joined Neflix. Seriously, who didn't join Netflix? The Obamas even inked a deal to produce Netflix shows. Meanwhile, Amazon won its first Emmy for best comedy. Apple ordered lots of shows. Snap struggled to grow. Facebook struggled to explain itself. Twitter promised to make improvements. Google tried to avoid scrutiny.
AT&T acquired CNN and the rest of Time Warner, now named WarnerMedia. The DOJ appealed the decision. John Stankey became CEO of WarnerMedia.
Les Moonves went to war with Shari Redstone. And then decades worth of allegations against him were brought to light. CBS was upended. Moonves was forced out. Jeff Fager was fired. Elsewhere, the remains of Weinstein Co. were sold off.
Noah Shachtman succeeded John Avlon at The Daily Beast, with Avlon joining CNN full time. Chris Cuomo moved to prime time and John Berman joined "New Day." At CBS, John Dickerson moved to the mornings and Margaret Brennan succeeded him on "Face the Nation." Bianna Golodryga joined "CBS This Morning" too. Craig Melvin formally joined "Today." The EPs of both shows were replaced Christiane Amanpour officially replaced Charlie Rose on PBS. Brian Ross left ABC. Suzanne Scott was promoted to CEO of Fox News.
The Murdochs awaited approval of their deal with Disney. Charlie Collier jumped from AMC to Fox. The other exec changes at both Disney and Fox were too numerous to list here. James Murdoch struck out on his own. Comcast beat out Disney for Sky.
Jimmy Pitaro became president of ESPN. The noise around politics in sports subsided. NFL ratings went up this fall. Jemele Hill joined The Atlantic. So many people joined The Atlantic! The Athletic and the LA Times also went on hiring sprees.
Bob Greenblatt left NBC. Shane Smith stepped aside as Vice CEO, and Nancy Dubuc stepped in. Vice cut headcount while Disney wrote off some of its investment. Other digital media darlings prepared for tough times ahead. Paywalls popped up all over the place. Mic laid off its entire editorial staff. Verizon buried Oath. BuzzFeed buzzed about consolidation ideas. Bryan Goldberg bought Gawker. 538 became part of ABC News. Breitbart's relevance faded away.
Byron Allen bought The Weather Channel. Hearst took control of Rodale. Discovery took control of Scripps. Sinclair lost its bid to buy Tribune. Meredith closed on Time Inc. and started selling titles. Marc Benioff bought TIME. Patrick Soon-Shiong took over the LA Times. Tronc (now Tribune again) looked for a buyer, but not before slashing the NY Daily News staff in half.
Radhika Jones succeeded Graydon Carter at VF. Jim Nelson handed GQ off to Will Welch. Samantha Barry took the reins at Glamour. That magazine announced plans to stop its monthly print edition, and so did Cooking Light and Martha Stewart Weddings and Seventeen. In other mag news, Troy Young replaced David Carey as the president of Hearst Magazines. Bob Sauerberg announced plans to step down, and Condé Nast is looking for a new CEO. So is Gannett. And I'm sure there's a lot I am forgetting. Ch-ch-changes...
The biggest...
Best-selling book of the year: Michelle Obama's "Becoming." Close runner-ups: "Fire and Fury" and "Fear."
Biggest TV show of the year: ABC's "Roseanne" revival, until Roseanne Barr's racist tweets did her in.
Biggest movie of the year in the US: "Black Panther," followed closely by "Avengers: Infinity War."
Most downloaded podcast of the year according to Apple: NYT's "The Daily." Runners up: "The Joe Rogan Experience" and "Stuff You Should Know."
The most-searched news topics on Google: the World Cup, Hurricane Florence and Mega Millions.
Most-read article of the year on NYTimes.com: "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration."
The top advocacy hashtag used on Instagram: #MeToo.
The year's "most important social network" according to The Verge: Fortnite.
Words of the year, according to three different dictionaries: Toxic, misinformation, and justice.
The most-used Giphy sticker in Instagram Stories: ❤️
Reflections from our media reporters
So much happened this year, we broke our year-in-review podcast into two parts. And part one is online now! Hadas Gold, Oliver Darcy and Tom Kludt joined me with insights about 2018's biggest storylines in media and its intersections with politics, business and tech. They even shared some predictions about what might happen in 2019. Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your preferred app...
"18 lessons for the news biz from 2018"
That's the title of Ken Doctor's latest must-read. Among his points:
> "The reader revenue revolution is real."
> "Podcasting — and the newsy podcast — is now mainstream."
> "An uncountable number of highly motivated, talented journalists are ready to jump back into the fray — if only they can be paid."
> "The relatively few magazines that are finding a future are thought-provoking, reader-supported ones."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
By Daniella Emanuel:
-- Michael Kruse profiles Connie Schultz, a nationally syndicated liberal columnist who regularly attacks Trump, and prides herself on the idea that she is "the woman he hates." Schultz is married to Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown... (Politico)
-- Daniel Funke interviews Tessa Lyons, a product manager at Facebook who is in charge of the company's efforts to fight misinformation. There's been progress, she says, but "we obviously still have a lot to do..." (Poynter)
-- Cynthia Littleton profiles Perry Sook, CEO of Nexstar, the company that's "about to become the largest owner of TV stations in the country..." (Variety)
-- Tradition prevails in the ratings game: ABC's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was the number one show "among 18 to 49-year-olds" Thursday night... (Deadline) | |
Massachusetts mayor is labeling a real reporter as "fake"
Oliver Darcy emails: The mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts, has created a website to discredit a local reporter as "fake news," The Herald News reported Friday. Mayor Jasiel Correia II has twice in one month replied to Herald News reporter Jo Goode on Twitter with a URL that redirects people to a "You are fake news" Trump meme. In a comment to The Herald News, the mayor stood by his actions, saying, "It just is what it is. Jo reports fake news and I stand by it." Read the full story at the Herald News here…
>> In a statement, Lisa Strattan, general manager of The Herald News, said, "It's simply stunning to me that the mayor has chosen to align himself with President Trump's sophomoric assessment of legitimate news-gathering operations by creating a 'site' about one of our hard-working reporters..."
Don't call it "fake news," call it...
"Viral deception." That's the term recommended by Penn professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson. "We should consider fake news an oxymoron -- if something is fake, it's not news," she told me.
So made-up stories should be labeled "viral deception" -- or VD for short -- calling to mind "venereal diseases." Jamieson: "I want people to say 'Ooh, I don't want to catch it. I don't want to spread it if it comes anywhere near me. I want to quarantine it.'"
Jamieson will join me on our year-end episode of "Reliable Sources" -- Sunday the 30th...
Trump's year of "VD"
The president tweeted about "fake" news more than 210 times this year, and he was almost always referring to real and reliable news outlets, not made-up stories. That poison continues to seep into the bloodstream of his base... | |
Fortune officially has a new owner
Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon's purchase of Fortune magazine officially closed on Friday. "We will be investing in journalism and investing in technology," Fortune prez Alan Murray said.
Daniel Roberts tweeted: "Fortune and TIME have sold, Sports Illustrated sale is imminent. Where does that leave MONEY?" That's the fourth and final mag Meredith is selling...
The Advocate's new EIC
I missed this yesterday: "The Advocate, the nation's oldest gay magazine still in circulation, named Zach Stafford as its new editor-in-chief on Thursday. The award-winning journalist has an established track record of reporting on LGBTQ issues and will make history as the publication's first black editor-in-chief since its debut more than five decades ago..." (NBC)
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- April Glaser writes: "Search for 'abortion' on YouTube last week and the top results were a horrifying mix of gore and dangerous misinformation. YouTube changed the results after I asked..." (Slate)
-- Rich Greenfield's latest: "Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc are modern day cures for boredom that TV and, before that, radio used to serve. Fighting the consumer is always a losing battle..." (BTIG)
-- Why did Sacha Baron Cohen decide to go undercover again after so many years? He says Trump was the trigger... (Deadline)
The cultural moments that defined 2018
Megan Thomas emails: Our colleagues at Style did a really wonderful wrap up of the cultural moments that defined 2018, ranging from Beyonce's Coachella performance to Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer win. I recommend it...
| | Lowry reviews "Welcome to Marwen"
Brian Lowry emails: Based on a true story, "Welcome to Marwen" is a perplexing movie, starring Steve Carell as a man who works through a violent trauma he experienced by creating fictional World War II scenarios using puppets. Review here...
It will be joined next week by another movie in which Carell co-stars, again playing a real person, Donald Rumsfeld in "Vice." The film stars Christian Bale as Dick Cheney and has been extremely polarizing among critics, making some year-end best lists, while being derided by others for its smugness and pedantic tone -- excesses captured well by Christopher Orr's The Atlantic review.
While I admired the performances, I generally skew more toward the latter view, but will be interested to see how audiences respond to it...
Suge Knight and the "American Knightmare"
Brian Lowry emails: Director Antoine Fuqua conducted extensive interviews with rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight in 2011 and 2012 that provide the foundation for "American Dream/American Knightmare," an updated documentary on Knight -- who's currently serving a prison term -- and the birth of Death Row Records. The doc will make its debut on Showtime... | |
That's a wrap. Thanks for reading. Send me your feedback via email anytime! See you Sunday for our last media newsletter of the year... | | | |
