Exec summary: Scroll down for a preview of CBS' Super Bowl plans, a review of Trump's chat with Hannity, and my podcast with Hulu CEO Randy Freer...
Showing the shutdown
We're coming up on the three-mark of the partial government shutdown. And Friday is payday. Are news outlets doing enough to showcase the real-world effects? I asked several media critics and experts -- check out their answers below.
Anecdotally, I've seen a big increase in "impact" stories and segments this week. CNN's home page has a list of 70+ ways it is "affecting Americans nationwide," and there's a "how has the shutdown affected you?" feedback form to solicit more stories. The Washington Post has a detailed FAQ and a list of interruptions to government programs. NBC News has added a "shutdown" section link at the top of its website.
-- Breaking: "Due to TSA absences, Miami airport will temporarily close one terminal early for 3 days..."
-- FBI agents say "lack of funding is hurting the nation's premier law enforcement agency..."
-- At the White House, there are "empty desks and unpaid bills," NYT's Katie Rogers reports...
-- Plus: A WaPo visual story: "What does being on furlough look like?"
"Shine a light on the problem"
| | On Fox News Thursday night, Laura Ingraham claimed that "sob stories of government workers" are just "the media's latest tactic" to manipulate the public.
Ingraham plays a media critic on TV, but what do actual media critics think? Before I heard Ingraham's dismissive commentary, I asked Pulitzer Center exec editor Indira Lakshmanan. "With any crisis, it's the role of the press to shine a light on the problem, brings all the facts to bear, share untold stories of human consequences, and demand accountability," she told me. "I think most serious news outlets are doing that with their shutdown coverage. Fact-checking especially has been persistent and generally effective, even forcing the White House to drop a bald-faced falsehood about thousands of terrorists crossing the border, for example."
Should members of the media be shaming politicians into solving this mess? Lakshmanan said no: "It's generally not a news reporter's role to 'shame' politicians unless there's illegal activity, corruption or abuse involved. Expressing moral outrage is the privilege of opinion writers. But when a crisis inflicts widespread harm -- on the 800,000 federal workers going without pay and on the rest of the country deprived of important services -- it's the news media's job to keep pointing that out."
Political analyst Jeff Greenfield told me something similar. "It manifestly IS the press' job to chronicle the cost of the shutdown" and to "report bad faith efforts to define the shutdown by offering flatly false accounts of what is and is not happening at the border," he said. "If this kind of aggressive reporting pushes politicians to resolving the shutdown, great... but there's plenty of vital work that is traditionally journalistic to do here."
Fewer quotes from politicians, more quotes from families
Here's what The Atlantic's James Fallows wrote when I asked for his impressions: "I think the media have actually been moving into a better approach to this ... I was going to say 'this story,' but that almost trivializes it, since it's so much more than a normal 'story' in the realm of normal politics. Let's say, a better approach to this moment in public life. The natural instinct of the political press would be to cover this as primarily a political issue -- 'will the Democrats stand firm?' 'nervous Republicans look toward 2020 race' -- and to cover it mainly from DC. Quotes from Schumer and the elusive McConnell, not-for-attribution quotes about the mood inside the White House and what the next moves might be. And you did -- again naturally -- see a lot of that in the early days. But as time as gone on, I think there's been a lot more coverage of what the political-football term of a 'shutdown' actually means. What it means for families that (like most American families) depended on predictable cash flow to meet their routine expenses."
Fallows added: "I think the shutdown is wantonly damaging for the country as a whole. But overall I think the recent shift in press attention been a good thing, and worth noticing..."
What about the macro level?
Poynter senior VP Kelly McBride said journalists "are doing a better job covering the micro story than the macro story."
"I see a lot of blow-by-blow coverage of the talks and a lot of stories of disfunction and hardship. And of course there is plenty of coverage of President Trump's rhetoric. But with the exception of the financial press, I'm dissatisfied with the coverage of the larger impact of this shutdown," McBride told me. "This is a challenging story for most media outlets because the audience seems deeply fatigued. Every newsroom has a different promise to its audience. National outlets are covering the negotiations. Issue-based organizations are covering their sector, which is why you are seeing so much good coverage of the National Parks. (A lot of blogs cover national parks and those stories get picked up by other journalists looking for leads.) The local newsrooms I follow tend to hone in on struggling families, feel-good efforts to help them, and some local protest stories. But that's all on the micro level. The financial outlets are doing some of the best work describing the broader impact. The economy is taking a hit and we won't know the extent of that hit for several months. Marketplace and CNBC have had some great stories. I wish more newsrooms would follow their lead..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Big story from Evan Perez, Pamela Brown and Laura Jarrett: "As Robert Mueller writes his report, a potential battle brews over obstruction of justice..." (CNN)
-- Agenda, a news service owned by the FT, has deleted the quotes that it attributed to Les Moonves in a story last month. Moonves, through a spokesman, denies he was ever interviewed by Agenda... The site was apparently duped... (TheWrap)
-- Jeff Flake's next act? Jeremy Barr says Flake was spotted at CBS News HQ last Friday... (THR)
-- New NYT feature: "Journalists Azam Ahmed and Meridith Kohut are driving the approximately 1,900-mile border and sending occasional dispatches." This was day one... (NYT)
Hannity and Trump at the border
Sean Hannity was with President Trump on Thursday's visit to McAllen, Texas. According to the W.H. press pool reporter, Hannity had "special access" -- he was seen huddling with his former producer Bill Shine at one point -- and he was "standing with the staff and federal officials as opposed to the press corps." | | In a stand-up interview, Trump told Hannity that he could declare a "national emergency" to free up wall funding based on "what happens over the next few days." Watching the interview, I thought of this quote from the progressive group Media Matters: "The entire shutdown is just a show aimed at the Fox News audience."
-- More: Daniel Dale says Trump "lied his way" through the border tour...
The Hannity-Trump feedback loop
After arriving back at the W.H. Thursday night, Trump tweeted this: "We lose 300 Americans a week, 90% of which comes through the Southern Border. These numbers will be DRASTICALLY REDUCED if we have a Wall!"
The tweet is almost incomprehensible. 90% of the 300? What? But I knew exactly what he was talking about, because Hannity kept saying it over and over again on his show.
Hannity's assertion: There are about 300 deaths a week from heroin in the United States, and 90% of the heroin comes in from Mexico. So Trump's tweet was missing the word "heroin."
I know where I'll be on Feb. 7...
Everyone has questions for Michael Cohen. On Feb. 7, he will answer at least some of them, testifying before the House Oversight Committee. And the hype is already well underway. After the hearing was announced on Thursday, Lanny Davis told MSNBC's Ari Melber that the days of Cohen "lying for Trump are over."
Among other topics, we will be hearing about Cohen's role in collaborating with the National Enquirer, which leads me to this...
Why The Enquirer probed Bezos
Jeff Bezos controlled the news cycle about his divorce for just a few hours on Wednesday. The National Enquirer redirected the coverage as soon as it published its four-month-long investigation into Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. The tabloid said it had evidence of Bezos "whisking his mistress off to exotic destinations on his $65 million private jet." Reps for Bezos and Sanchez have not commented on the Enquirer's reporting. | | In a statement on Thursday, a spokesman for the mag said the evidence was "presented to Mr. Bezos' representatives for comment early this week." In other words, the mag is saying that Bezos was forced to go public with his divorce plans.
So why did the Enquirer decide to pursue Bezos in the first place? Media insiders immediately wondered about a Donald Trump connection, given Trump's cozy history with the Enquirer and his dislike of Bezos. But as Oliver Darcy and I wrote in this story, there's ample reason to be skeptical of that theory. The Enquirer very publicly flipped on Trump last spring...
Dylan Howard's "redemption?"
The story was pursued because Bezos is "the world's richest man and a newsworthy subject," one source said. Another said that Dylan Howard, AMI's chief content officer, is "looking to regain credibility." After the recent hush money scandal, the theory goes, what better way to gain "redemption" than to break a big story?
-- Lead story on CNN Business right now: "What Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos' divorce could mean for Amazon"
🔌: I'll be talking more about this on CNN's "New Day" in the 7 a.m. hour on Friday...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Joanne Lipman's latest: "Why did it take Susan Zirinsky 46 years to become president of CBS News?" BTW, Lipman will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." (USA Today)
-- ICYMI, read Jessica Bennett's piece too: "Nancy Pelosi, Glenn Close, Susan Zirinsky of CBS: The news has been filled with powerful women over 60..." (NYT)
-- New CNN reporting on a sickening story: "New evidence shows that three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic last year were victims of a well-planned ambush involving a senior police officer with shadowy Russian connections -- and they were tracked from the moment they arrived in the country," Tim Lister and Sebastian Shukla report... (CNN)
NAJA calls HuffPost story "irresponsible"
Katie Pellico emails: The Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) has asked HuffPost to apologize for its January 4 story, "Mainstream Media Is Blowing Its Coverage Of Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test." NAJA claims the story violates the SPJ Code of Ethics, having "oversimplified a complex topic."
"The idea that a handful of Indigenous people can speak for the majority is deeply rooted in hurtful stereotypes, colonial attitudes and ideas of racial superiority," the Wednesday release read.
HuffPost and reporter Jennifer Bendery have yet to respond, but NAJA wants Bendery and her colleagues to "reflect on this ethical negligence, apologize for their insensitive reporting, and employ substantive changes to improve their analysis of issues affecting Indigenous communities."
"2020: The overshare election"
CNN's Rebecca Buck coined the phrase on Thursday. I think we might be hearing it a lot... | | Katie Pellico emails: A near-horizontal Beto O'Rourke posted to his Instagram story during a dental cleaning Thursday, ostensibly in order to spotlight stories from the U.S.-Mexico border. While lawmakers have been using Instagram for years, the unconventional setting (much like Elizabeth Warren's live stream from her kitchen last week) seemed to invite scrutiny...
>> "This is the future of the 2020 presidential election," Daily Beast's Kelly Weill predicts. "In a world where everyone lives on their phones and no one logs off, expect more of the mundane from presidential hopefuls shot right into your eyeballs..."
>> "It seems no app is safe from pandering politicians," The Guardian's Julia Carrie Wong writes...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Kara Swisher's latest: "Trump vs. Ocasio-Cortez: Who Will Win the Internet?" (NYT)
-- Piano, which provides paywall tech to websites, just raised $22 million in venture funding... (Piano)
-- Congrats to Randy Archibold, "a 20-year veteran of The Times," the paper's new sports editor... (NYT)
-- A loss for BuzzFeed, a big gain for the NYT: Charlie Warzel will be an "Opinion writer at large," covering the "intersection of technology, media and politics" through a newsletter, analysis pieces and "bigger enterprise projects..." (NYT)
-- Speaking of Warzel, here's his latest column: "The Internet Is A Privacy Disaster. But We Still Don't Know How To Talk About It." (BuzzFeed)
🎧 Hulu CEO Randy Freer on this week's "Reliable" podcast 🎧
It's "great to be in space" like streaming TV where "you don't have to fight against the tide — you're rowing with the current," Hulu CEO Randy Freer told me in a podcast interview at CES this week.
Freer talked about Hulu's ownership structure, its investments in new shows, and the importance of the tech backend. He also said Hulu is eyeing some fresh bets on news and documentary content.
Daniella Emanuel and I recapped the interview in this story... And you can hear the whole thing through Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app...
Sneak peek at CBS' Super Bowl plans
Frank Pallotta emails: CBS kicked off its Super Bowl LIII media blitz (get it?) from its NYC broadcast studios on Thursday, with its broadcast team, execs like acting CEO Joe Ianniello, and a ton of super stats. | | This will be CBS' 20th time broadcasting the game, but it will be former quarterback Tony Romo's first time calling one. He'll be alongside Jim Nantz, who is calling his fifth big game. Nantz will be staying busy for the start of 2019; between now and May, he'll call the NFL playoffs, the Super Bowl, March Madness including the Final Four, the Masters and the PGA Championship...
Ad sales update
More from Frank: CBS ad sales chief Jo Ann Ross told reporters that over 90% of Super Bowl ad inventory has been sold with about three weeks to go. That includes a mix of new and evergreen advertisers, including Pepsi, Doritos and Avocados from Mexico...
Will Trump give a pre-game interview?
As you probably already know, Barack Obama turned this into a tradition of sorts. Trump kept it going in 2017, just a couple weeks into his presidency, when Fox aired the game and Bill O'Reilly did the interview. But Trump declined NBC's requests in 2018. CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said Thursday that CBS is "still in discussions" with the White House about a possible interview...
Lowry's take
Brian Lowry emails: Setting aside partisan concerns about who occupies the Oval Office, this is a "tradition" that should have been dispensed with some time ago. While the idea started as kind of a fun one -- getting the president to join in the hours of hype devoted to the big game -- it has awkwardly become a venue to discuss serious topics and try to make actual news, which feels out of sorts with the beer-ad-soaked environment in which it airs. That was as true when O'Reilly interviewed Obama as it would be if Jeff Glor or Norah O'Donnell spoke to Trump...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Vox on Fox: "Tucker Carlson has sparked the most interesting debate in conservative politics," Jane Coaston says... (Vox)
-- "On the Media" co-host Brooke Gladstone is on the next episode of WNYC's "10 Things That Scare Me." Number ten: "I fear that the democratic experiment may be coming to an unsuccessful conclusion." It'll be up on Friday... (WNYC)
-- I missed this Claire Atkinson report yesterday: "Viacom has held discussions with multiple parties about providing programming to the regional sports networks that are being sold by Disney and Fox, according to two sources familiar with conversations..." (NBC)
-- Via Katie Pellico: THR reports that the Academy is looking for "a star-studded Marvel superhero team-up to add luster to a show that airs on Disney's ABC network..." (THR)
| | | -- "Amazon is developing a service for streaming videogames over the internet, joining Microsoft, Google and other companies that are building similar offerings in what could be an important new battleground in online entertainment..." (The Information)
-- "Roughly 22 people have been affected by layoffs at the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, as well as its corporate owner Valence Media..." (Variety)
-- Former "Jackass" star Bam Margera has left rehab after just 10 days, Chloe Melas reports... (CNN)
-- Katie Pellico emails: The Cut dug up two 1998 articles that treated "Green Book" director Peter Farrelly's penchant for penis-flashing as a silly idiosyncrasy. Farrelly responded by saying in a statement that he is deeply sorry: "I was an idiot. I did this decades ago and I thought I was being funny and the truth is I'm embarrassed and it makes me cringe now. (The Cut, CNN)
Lowry reviews "The Upside"
Brian Lowry emails: Almost everything peripheral to "The Upside" is more interesting than the movie, a modest crowd-pleaser, starring Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston, remaking a 2011 French hit, "Les Intouchables."
Hart, of course, is coming off a hellish month of publicity after his scuttled stint as Oscar host, while the movie itself has sat on the shelf for months -- having actually premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival -- after having been forced to find a new distributor to replace the Weinstein Co. in the wake of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Read on...
"The Sopranos," twenty years on
"The Sopranos" debuted on January 10, 1999 and -- no overstatement here -- changed television forever. Lisa Respers France has this look at how cast members marked the anniversary...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Lady Gaga spoke out about R. Kelly and her previous collaboration in a statement on Wednesday night. She said she plans to have their duet pulled from streaming services...
-- And speaking of R. Kelly, the singer made a defiant public appearance at a Chicago nightclub...
-- Talk about conscious uncoupling. Gwyneth Paltrow's ex-husband came along on her honeymoon with her new husband...
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That's a wrap. Send me your feedback anytime! See you tomorrow...
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