Exec summary: NPR needs a new CEO, The Weekly Standard may need a buyer, and The Academy no longer needs to find a host for the Oscars. Scroll down for all the details...
It was even worse than we knew
For the second time in a week, the NYT has published a sickening and well-sourced story about ousted CBS CEO Les Moonves.
Headline: The two law firms that were hired by the CBS board of directors to investigate alleged misconduct apparently found a ton of it.
Reporters Rachel Abrams and Edmund Lee say they reviewed a 59-page draft report with the lawyers' findings about Moonves. The report provides multiple reasons for the CBS board to terminate Moonves for cause, thereby denying him $120 million in severance that's currently sitting in a trust.
Moonves was required under the terms of his employment contract to cooperate fully with the probe by the law firms, but, the Times story says, he "destroyed evidence and misled investigators in an attempt to preserve his reputation and save a lucrative severance deal, according to a draft of a report."
CNN has not reviewed the report. But the depictions in the Times of both sexual misconduct and corporate misconduct are damning. Here's my recap... But more importantly, read the main Times story here... And/or the paper's list of "takeaways..."
What will happen next
CBS is scheduled to hold its annual meeting next Tuesday, December 11, and the NYT says the law firms will officially present their findings to the board sometime before then. A decision about the $120 million is due by the end of January...
What Moonves is saying
A lawyer for Moonves, Andy Levander, told the NYT that Moonves "cooperated extensively and fully with investigators." But the law firms found evidence to the contrary. For example, Moonves "handed over his son's iPad instead of his own," in an apparent bid to conceal damaging text messages, The Times reported.
Moonves' lawyer also said his client "denies having any nonconsensual sexual relation," while acknowledging some incidents that he says were consensual. But the report by the law firms, as quoted by NYT, said Moonves "engaged in multiple acts of serious nonconsensual sexual misconduct in and outside of the workplace" both before and after he joined CBS in 1995...
"No findings have been reported to the board" yet
When I reached out to the CBS board, a spokesman provided this statement, attributed to the investigators: "No findings have been reported to the Board. The Board has reached no conclusions on this matter. The investigators and the Board are committed to a thorough and fair process. No draft of the investigators' ongoing work product has been shared with the Board or the Company. Our work is still in progress and there are bound to be many facts and assessments that evolve and change as the work is completed. Anyone who may have disclosed draft information to the New York Times did so without authority and in violation of their obligations."
The big picture
THR's Kim Masters tweeted Tuesday night: "I cannot think of a more appalling story about a big media company in the time I've been covering Hollywood."
As she said, this is about the company, not just the former CEO. So many wonderful people work at CBS, and they deserved better than this.
NYT's James B. Stewart has a column alongside the new reporting that gets into this, and contains even more new info, including: Longtime CBS PR chief Gil Schwartz "drafted a letter of resignation for Mr. Moonves after becoming privy to one of the most serious allegations against him... Yet the letter was never sent, and Mr. Schwartz said nothing about it to board members."
>> Stewart's headline: The law firms' report shows an "epic failure of corporate governance..."
>> ICYMI, I taped a podcast all about the fall of Moonves with Stewart, Abrams and Ellen Gabler last week...
Flynn day
Reporters waited all day for Robert Mueller's court filing ahead of Michael Flynn's sentencing. It finally dropped at 8:30... but reporters were left wanting more. The presumably most newsworthy parts were redacted... In a strangely beautiful way that's familiar to any FOIA pro...
>> Josh Campbell quipped: "Mueller's filing tonight is the equivalent of losing a cell phone call in the tunnel just when it started to get interesting..." | | What we don't know
What's in the redactions or when the info will become public!
But "anybody who sees those redactions and thinks they might be in it... is going to be wigged out," Michael Isikoff told Chris Cuomo on CNN...
What we do know
The filing revealed that Flynn has sat for 19 interviews with the special counsel and the DOJ. Flynn was so helpful that the special counsel doesn't think he deserves jail time. The filing "appears to list at least three ongoing investigations being pursued by the Justice Department." Here's CNN's full story...
How it was covered
"8:32. Thanks, news gods. Thanks a lot," Rachel Maddow tweeted when the filing hit.
On CNN, Shimon Prokupecz and Sara Murray read through the court docs while sitting on set with Anderson Cooper. MSNBC went into special coverage mode as well. On Fox, Tucker Carlson made time for a four-minute news report by Jennifer Griffin, then grumbled about the probe. "There had better be a huge crime underlying all of this," Carlson said. "We're really going through a lot." Can Griffin or someone else at Fox please brief Carlson on all the crimes that have been uncovered, so that he doesn't embarrass himself again?
Anyway, Carlson then got back to his shtick. "Vegans aren't just coming after your hamburger, though they are. They want to change the way you speak," he said, teasing an interview with a PETA rep...
Back in the real world, Jeffrey Toobin said he'd be nervous if he were Trump. And former acting US solicitor general Neal Katyal said -- between the Michael Cohen plea deal and the new Flynn info -- "this is a double whammy that, I think, is very, very scary for the president..."
Top tweets
-- Jonathan Chait tweeted: "Mueller pokes his head up, says 6 more weeks of winter, goes back down hole."
-- Natasha Bertrand: "Trump has been urging his associates to have 'guts' and not cooperate in the Russia probe. But Mueller sent a clear message tonight to current/future witnesses: testify honestly and completely, and you could be spared prison time..."
-- Ari Melber: "Bottom line: Mueller is telling convicts they will be be spared prison time for testifying honestly, while Trump is telling witnesses not to testify at all..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The talk of TV newsrooms on Tuesday: This Julianna Goldman piece about the industry's anti-mom bias. She says "TV news organizations would be well served to look inward and reevaluate the culture they've established for moms." Read it... (The Atlantic)
-- The continued impact of the Panama Papers: Four men "have been indicted for their roles in allegedly defrauding the US government through international money laundering and wire fraud..." (CNN)
-- Amid all the coverage of alleged election fraud in North Carolina, lemme second what Harry Enten tweeted: "The NC-9 story is one of many that sheds the light on the importance of local journalism..." (Twitter)
-- Hammering home that point, Chris Cillizza did a Q&A with Joe Bruno of WSOC Channel 9 in Charlotte on Tuesday... (CNN)
-- A must-read (if you have a VF subscription) by Joe Pompeo: "A generation of digital-media darlings prepares for a frigid winter." He says Vox might be in a buying mood next year... (VF)
REMEMBERING 41 Wednesday's memorial
The memorial service for President George H.W. Bush will be live everywhere on Wednesday morning. The cable newsers will begin special coverage at 9 a.m. On broadcast, NBC will also begin at 9; CBS at 9:45; and ABC and PBS at 10. The motorcade will travel from the Capitol to the National Cathedral in the 10 a.m. hour, and the service will begin at 11. Expect several hours of uninterrupted coverage. TVNewser has details here...
Meacham will deliver one of the four eulogies
Biographer Jon Meacham had an "unusually close relationship" with his subject H.W. Bush, the NYT's Michael Tackett writes... "Another measure of that deeply personal connection — unusual for most historians and their subjects — will be on display Wednesday" when Meacham speaks at the memorial service.
There has been a spike in sales of Meacham's 2015 book, "Destiny and Power," in the days since Bush died...
Jenna and Barbara on "Today"
Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush's first interview since their grandfather's death was with NBC's Savannah Guthrie... Hager, of course, is a correspondent on the "Today" show... The interview will air on Wednesday's "Today..."
>> Jenna on her father's eulogy: "How can you tell a man as giant as our grandpa was, how much you love him? It's a tall order."
Remembering Bush through his thank you notes
C-SPAN's Howard Mortman made a great point in this Facebook post: "OLD MEDIA HELPS NEW: So interesting to see so many personal Bush pictures and notes being shared on social media. Who knew all those analog Bush 'touches' for decades would get a second life on new, digital platforms? Shows value of both THEN & NOW ways: direct contact with humans AND social sharing."
The Weekly Standard may be in trouble
Getting scooped always stings. It happened to me on Tuesday. But it happened in the best possible way. My colleague Oliver Darcy beat me! I was chasing a tip about the possible closure of The Weekly Standard… and I was about to tell Darcy… when his story came out. Unfortunately the story is grim: The fate of the treasured conservative magazine is hanging in the balance.
Here's Darcy's report: "EIC Steve Hayes delivered news that the magazine's future was uncertain to staffers in a series of phone calls on Tuesday, sources told me. The precarious position of the conservative magazine, which has staked out a position as a publication on the right still critical of Trump, comes after leadership spent months searching for a new buyer." | | Staffers are bracing for the worst...
More from Darcy: "The Weekly Standard's leadership has butted heads with its publisher, MediaDC, and the two parties agreed months ago to let Hayes search for a new owner. But recently, I'm told, MediaDC informed the mag's leadership it was no longer interested in a sale. Instead, the chairman of MediaDC, Ryan McKibben, has asked to meet with Hayes in a meeting tentatively scheduled for late next week. McKibben has also requested the entire staff of The Weekly Standard be made available following the meeting..."
>> Ben Smith tweeted: "They apparently plan to replace it with a … MAGAzine."
The Examiner factor
The POV of one of my sources is that MediaDC's other publication, The Washington Examiner, is expanding at the expense of The Weekly Standard. "They're expanding the pro-Trump magazine that does what the owners want, while threatening closing of an independent magazine that has its own history and identity," this source said. Now, that's obviously a pro-Weekly Standard POV. Others say it's not fair to bill the Examiner as "pro-Trump." The Examiner just hired Seth Mandel away from the NY Post to grow the magazine...
"Exploring a number of possibilities"
After Darcy's story came out, MediaDC's parent Clarity Media Group released a statement Tuesday afternoon that said it "has been exploring a number of possibilities regarding the future of The Weekly Standard," but "does not have any news to share" at this time...
Reactions from across the spectrum
Darcy emails: "On Tuesday some journalists knocked the magazine for its coverage during the Bush years, while pro-Trumpers hit the publication for its coverage of Trump. But I overwhelmingly saw people express worry for the publication."
>> The Atlantic's Adam Serwer: "I'm obviously not the target audience for the Weekly Standard but its output in the Trump era has mostly avoided the bizarre tone of Trumpist sycophancy dominating much of conservative media and losing it would be bad."
>> Alyssa Farah, press secretary for VP Mike Pence: "There's tremendous talent at @weeklystandard, and although I often vehemently disagree with some of its commentary, it's [sic] demise would be a significant loss for the conservative movement & conservative political thought."
>> Radio host Hugh Hewitt: "Hopefully a Jeff Bezos is out there to buy it."
>> Vox's Ezra Klein: "Trumpism is conservatism now. Perhaps the lesson of this is that it always was."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Julie K. Brown's latest, nearly one week after her Jeffrey Epstein blockbuster: A trial was set to begin Wednesday... And several Epstein victims were going to testify... But now there's been a settlement... (Miami Herald)
-- Paul Farhi's latest: "The Guardian offered a bombshell story about Paul Manafort. It still hasn't detonated..." (WaPo)
-- Smart piece by Sara Fischer from her consistently great newsletter: "The media haves and have nots..." (Axios)
-- Michael Avenatti has taken himself out of the running for 2020... (CNN)
NPR CEO stepping down
"NPR's chief executive, Jarl Mohn, announced Tuesday that he would step aside next June at the end of his five-year term to focus on a newly created position to lead the public radio network's fundraising drive ahead of its 50th anniversary in 2020," NPR's David Folkenflik writes. "Mohn announced that he and his wife, Pamela, would also contribute $10 million toward the effort." Folkenflik's story included all the good (overall listening is up!) and the ugly of the Mohn years, including the Michael Oreskes scandal... Read it here...
Want to run NPR?
The organization says its board of directors "will conduct a national search for NPR's next president and CEO. Mohn will remain in his current role through the end of his term and beyond as necessary to ensure a smooth transition..."
Thomson Reuters cutting 3,200 jobs
Thomson Reuters won't say which divisions are being cut. But the company is "eliminating 12% of its global workforce" between now and 2020, "cutting 3,200 jobs and closing 55 offices," Jordan Valinsky reports...
The dismantling of "Megyn Kelly Today" continues...
Joe Flint tweeted: "NBC is moving the 9 AM hour of 'Today' out of the new pricey studio that could house live audience that it built for Megyn Kelly's show back to Studio 1A with the mothership."
>> Don Day replied and quipped: "NBC made an announcement on the future of Megyn Kelly's studio more quickly than it made an announcement on the future of Megyn Kelly." Indeed, there's still no announced deal to pay out her contract...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Lester Holt has an exclusive sit-down with Steven Spielberg on Wednesday's "Nightly." The occasion: The 25th anniversary re-release of "Schindler's List." Preview... (NBC)
-- "Frontline" has published what it calls the "interactive version" of its "Facebook Dilemma" documentary – "allowing users to experience the film in a new way, and to explore extended, in-depth, on-the-record interviews with nearly 30 sources..." (PBS)
-- Happy fifth birthday to Jessica Lessin and The Information...
-- "Apple has ordered the planned drama series based on the early life of basketball star Kevin Durant to series..." (Variety)
Stephenson on "Friends"
Jill Disis emails: Netflix quashed the freakout over whether "Friends" would stay on their service next year pretty quickly (it will). But the story isn't that simple. On Tuesday morning, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed what had been circling around since Monday night: That Netflix's deal for "Friends" will not be exclusive, meaning the show can go on WarnerMedia's forthcoming streaming service in the future.
The debate over whether legacy media companies should license content or keep it for themselves is heating up... It was a big topic of conversation during the final day of the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, where Stephenson was speaking.
He touted WarnerMedia's library of content, but said the goal is "not to become another Netflix," which he described as a "warehouse of content." And AT&T will still license content to others when it makes sense. As Stephenson put it, distributors have "different needs and different demands..."
This is an incredible price tag
Netflix "will pay around $100 million" to continue licensing "Friends" from Warner, the NYT's Edmund Lee reported. "That's a significant jump from the $30 million a year that Netflix had paid previously to stream the show. But the new amount reflects the thirst for content in the streaming age..."
Someone tried to shut down this screening of "Surviving R. Kelly"
CNN's Emanuella Grinberg reports: "A New York screening of the Lifetime documentary 'Surviving R. Kelly' was evacuated after 'several anonymous threats were called in,' the network said." It happened on Tuesday night at NeueHouse Madison Square. "The film's director and others in attendance called the threat an attempt to intimidate and silence Kelly's accusers."
Director Dream Hampton said: "Calling in a noncredible threat to the NYPD to interrupt our screening IS an act of desperation from people who don't want these truths shared with the world." Read more...
| | Your Oscars host: Kevin Hart
"For years I have been asked if I would ever host the Oscars and my answer was always the same...I said that it would be the opportunity of a lifetime for me as a comedian and that it will happen when it's suppose to," he wrote on Instagram on Tuesday night. "I am so happy to say that the day has finally come for me to host the Oscars. I am blown away simply because this has been a goal on my list for a long time."
Read Sandra Gonzalez's full story here...
| | Chopra and Jonas wedding pix!
People mag had exclusive photo and video access to Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra's weddings. They are, of course, on the cover of this week's mag. Here are some of the photos... Along with some of the couple's Instagrams... via Lisa Respers France's CNN.com story...
Landmark's new owner
Jill Disis emails: An indie film distributor called Cohen Media Group just bought Landmark Theaters, the private cinema chain controlled by billionaire investors Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner. (To be honest, this story was a lot more interesting when Amazon was rumored to be in the running. Cohen Media Group seems like more of a natural fit, but Amazon was a buzzy possibility for a while...)
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Kit Harington is so done with "Game of Thrones."
-- Kanye West was called out for some bad behavior at the Broadway opening of "The Cher Show."
-- Adam Lambert is to front the legendary band Queen again on tour.
-- Eddie Murphy has become a father for the 10th time.
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That's a wrap on today's letter. Thank you for reading. Send me your feedback anytime. See you tomorrow!
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