Exec summary: The "mob mentality" problem, a new excuse for the shutdown, "the president stands by his tweets," and much more... Scroll down to get caught up...
We're still grading on a curve
...That's what I was thinking as I read Glenn Kessler's latest Trump-check. The WaPo fact-checking team says President Trump "has made 8,158 false or misleading claims" in his first two years in office.
Trump became much, much more deceptive in 2018.
"The president averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in his first year in office. But he hit nearly 16.5 a day in his second year, almost triple the pace," Kessler wrote Monday. | | And this is a key point: "The biggest source of misleading claims is immigration, with a tally that has grown with the addition of 300 immigration claims in the past three weeks, for a total of 1,433."
It's hard not to read that and apply the "any other president" frame. How would any other president be covered if he spread so much misinformation?
When telling the truth sounds pejorative
Trump Tower Moscow -- and the broader issue of Trump's murky relationship with Russia -- remained in the news on Monday, as Rudy Giuliani tried to "clean up comments" he made the previous day.
But Rudy's word doesn't mean much anymore. As Carl Bernstein said on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," the president and the members of his inner circle "have lied at every turn in almost everything having to do with Russia."
Bernstein said he still feels himself "sort of jumping backwards when I say that out loud on TV. I'm not used to saying out loud that the President of the United States lies serially, over and over and over. It sounds so pejorative -- but yet it's truthful..."
Why the "small stuff" matters
Amid all the "big stuff" -- the scandals and smears and investigations -- what about the "small stuff?" Do Trump's misspellings and mistakes matter? I asked Jeffrey Goldberg on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," citing the "hamberders" typo, the Nashville/New Orleans mixup, and Trump's talk about a border wall in San Antonio. (A source later said Trump was talking about San Diego.)
Goldberg responded: "As an editor, I care about spelling." Ha, good answer! His more serious point: "They all add up." Each careless error "signifies something deeper about a commitment to truth, about a commitment to principles and norms that have governed the way presidents behave..."
On-the-record confirmations
Another on-the-record source is confirming what anonymous sources previously said about the Trump White House. This time it's Cliff Sims, Trump's former director of message strategy. "It's impossible to deny how absolutely out of control the White House staff — again, myself included — was at times," Sims writes in "Team of Rivals," which comes out next week. Portions of the book have been leaking out... The latest story comes from WaPo's Philip Rucker, who notes that "the book's scenes are consistent with news reporting at the time from inside the White House."
Chris Christie's book is another example of this... "Let Me Finish" also comes out next week... And the excerpts so far confirm what was reported two years ago about Trump's rocky transition... | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Isaac Chotiner is out with a brand new interview of Rudy Giuliani, and it's full of "what did he just say?" quotes... (New Yorker)
-- Smart piece by Erik Wemple: "If Trump's 'walls are closing in,' they're moving very slowly..." (WaPo)
-- "Big Brother" returned on Monday night, and Julie Chen Moonves, who used to say "Julie Chen" on the air until her husband was forced out of CBS, once again introduced herself by her full married name... (Daily Mail)
-- Happy publication day to Jason Rezaian, whose book "Prisoner" is out on Tuesday... He'll be on CNN's "New Day" in the 7 a.m. hour...
Shutdown, day 31
Blaming the media is a daily theme on Fox. But I haven't heard this take before: "You would have the government reopened right now if we had a fair media in this country," Jesse Watters said on "The Five" on Monday.
Earth to Watters World: Speaking just for myself as a member of the dreaded "media," if I could reopen the government right now I would...
"Viral" for all the worst reasons?
The story of a tribal elder and a high school junior: "The incident, and the finger-pointing that followed, seemed to capture the worst of America at a moment of extreme political polarization, as discourse once again gave way to division, and people drew conclusions on social media before all the facts were known," WaPo's Michael E. Miller wrote Monday.
Some journalists and celebs expressed regret for rushing to judgment. Others just deleted their tweets. Newsroom bosses pointed out that the story evolved over time, as more video angles and perspectives became available. Right-wing commentators defended the students and assailed "the media" writ large. Some on the left argued that the students aren't as innocent as they claim. And lots of people on both sides decried the "mob mentality" of social media. Charlie Warzel's take stood out to me: "The whole long weekend seems like more proof that -- just as humans -- we are probably not meant to be connected in this way, at this speed!"
CNN finds suspicious Twitter activity around the viral video
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Some of the accounts that played pivotal roles in making the Native American-MAGA teen video go viral this weekend look very suspect. In fact, one of the accounts that amassed thousands of retweets from a video posted on Saturday was suspended from Twitter on Monday after CNN began to investigate.
The account @2020fight looked like it belonged to a schoolteacher in California, but we found that the account's profile picture had been taken from a Brazilian blogger's account. @2020fight's tweet was one of the most viral over the weekend. Many news organizations, including some national outlets, reached out to the account to ask for details about the video or to use it with a credit to them. The account was retweeted by some very high-profile Twitter users.
That account helped frame the early narrative, but lacked the context we learned from additional videos that emerged later in the weekend.
Many high profile tweeters expressed regret for being too quick to latch on to the early narrative. Now, we are learning that that early narrative was amplified by some suspicious accounts. Be careful what you retweet...
A morning show announcement
Kamala Harris went on "GMA" to make her 2020 announcement on MLK Day... Robin Roberts, surely knowing why Harris was there, began the segment by asking, "Do you have an announcement you would like to make?"
CNN's Maeve Reston wrote: "Harris chose to announce on Monday to honor the legacies of two of her heroes. Forty-seven years ago this week, Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman ever to run for president, launched her campaign. And Martin Luther King Jr. has been a role model for Harris throughout her life..." | | Here's a partial list of Harris' rollout plan. Her book tour earlier this month was clearly a "soft launch." This schedule is designed to include a variety of appearances, formats, and venues:
-- Monday: Press conference in DC
-- Wednesday: "The Rachel Maddow Show"
-- Thursday: "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah"
-- Friday: First official campaign event in SC
-- Sunday: Rally in Oakland, CA
-- Monday: CNN town hall in Iowa
BTW, about the town hall...
This is the first 2020-related town hall any TV network is doing. So it's the start of the season, so to speak. Jake Tapper will be the moderator at Drake University.
CNN held town halls with Clinton, Sanders and O'Malley back in 2016...
| | Live coverage of Davos
Richard Quest, Julia Chatterley and a team of CNN journalists are in Davos for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, which officially starts Tuesday... Here's our live blog...
The morning shows on CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg will all be broadcasting live from the shindig... Bloomberg TV is also doing a "highlight hour" from Davos at 10 a.m. ET...
Media freedom panel on Tuesday
Reuters editor Stephen Adler will moderate a discussion about media freedom -- "the challenges and why it matters" -- joined by Marty Baron and Matthew Caruana Galizia, whose mother Daphne was murdered in a car bombing in Malta in 2017. She was an investigative journalist who was exposing corruption in the country. The panel will be live-streamed on Reuters.com...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Via An Phung: Photojournalist Mohamed Ben Khalifa was killed in Libya on Saturday while accompanying a militia on patrol in Tripoli. The AP published some of the Ben Khalifa's work, which captured warfare in Libya and the waves of refugees fleeing parts of Africa and the Middle East... (AP)
-- Joe Pompeo's latest: Maer Roshan "is taking over Los Angeles magazine, one of the remaining regional titles with any juice left..." (VF)
-- Gizmodo's Matt Novak found at least three different photos on Trump's social media pages in which the president's figure was altered to appear thinner... (Gizmodo)
BuzzFeed v. Mueller: Nothing new to report | | Another day came and went without any news outlet matching BuzzFeed's Trump-Cohen report from last week... Fox News talk shows continued to attack BuzzFeed over and over again... Donald Trump Jr., a guest on Laura Ingraham's show, even said "the media right now is really trying to subvert this democracy."
"The president stands by his tweets"
This is another WSJ scoop about Trump and Cohen that just boggles the mind: "Cohen Threatened CNBC That Trump Would Sue After 2014 Poll Disappointment."
Oh, what a headline. The story is even better. It's about a CNBC list of the 100 top "Leaders, Icons and Rebels."
Joe Palazzolo, Michael Siconolfi and Michael Rothfeld note that "CNBC didn't respond to the threat," and Trump didn't sue. They report that Trump "also called network executives to complain" about the fact that he failed to make the top 100. Trump also griped about it on Twitter. "The president stands by his tweets," Jay Sekulow told the WSJ...
Fox apologies for bogus RBG obit graphic
"'Fox & Friends' apologized on Monday after briefly airing a graphic suggesting that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead," Mediaite's Ken Meyer wrote. Fox said "this was a technical error that emanated from the graphics team..."
Lede of the day
This is how Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone piece about the "ongoing freakout over newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez" begins:
"One of the first things you learn covering American politicians is that they're not terribly bright. The notion that Hill denizens are brilliant 4-D chess players is pure myth, the product of too many press hagiographies of the Game Change variety and too many Hollywood fantasies like House of Cards and West Wing. The average American politician would lose at checkers to a zoo gorilla..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Chloe Melas writes: Jon Bon Jovi is offering free meals for federal workers during the government shutdown... (CNN)
-- Don't miss John Koblin's look at how Lifetime's "You" became a "hit" on Netflix... (NYT)
"Turn every page"
In a preview of his forthcoming book "Working," Robert Caro has shared some incredible insights about researching and reporting in this New Yorker article.
Read the whole thing, but here are three takeaways:
-- What Alan Hathway, then the managing editor of Newsday, told him in 1959: "Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddam page."
-- Lyndon Johnson's childhood friends in the Texas Hill Country disdained "portable journalists" who just came to town for a few days. Caro moved nearby, and "that changed everything. As soon as we moved there, as soon as the people of the Hill Country realized we were there to stay, their attitude toward us softened; they started to talk to me in a different way..."
-- "In interviews, silence is the weapon, silence and people's need to fill it — as long as the person isn't you, the interviewer." So to avoid speaking in those awkward moments, "I write 'SU' (for Shut Up!) in my notebook. If anyone were ever to look through my notebooks, he would find a lot of 'SU's..."
More massive NFL #'s
Sunday afternoon's Rams-Saints game averaged 44 million viewers on Fox... And the prime time Patriots-Chiefs game averaged 54 million viewers on CBS... Both games were up significantly from the comparable championship games last year, Deadline's Dominic Patten reported...
The enduring power of *local* TV
Brian Lowry emails: It's easy to forget the power that NFL franchises have in individual markets, and how valuable they are to the local stations of the network that carries them. But look no further than the massive numbers for the Patriots-Chiefs game in Kansas City (a 60.1 rating) and Boston (58.5).
Oscar nominations time!
Will Netflix earn its first best picture nomination with "Roma?"
The big reveal will be at 8:20 a.m. ET on Tuesday... I'll be covering the nominations on CNN's "New Day" and Chloe Melas will be on HLN's "Morning Express..."
Lowry's preview
Brian Lowry emails: Myriad factors influence Oscar ratings, but nominating more popular movies has historically been beneficial. So after making a mess of the run-up to the awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences could do itself a favor by nominating more than a few high-profile contenders, among them "Black Panther" and Lady Gaga. Read on...
Carter: The Oscars telecast really does need a host
"The title does imply a real function: to welcome the guests, put them at ease and take charge of the event," Bill Carter writes in his latest column for CNN Business. "That could mean stepping out front to cover for any untoward moments (there have been plenty of those at previous Oscars). And just being a warm and funny presence." Read on...
| | Three Sundance previews The film festival starts on Thursday... I wish I was going this year... Hey, hopefully next year! Some lookaheads: -- The AP's Lindsey Bahr: "The slate boasts a wide array of films about fallen titans, from Harvey Weinstein to Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes, music legends Miles Davis and David Crosby, two of Michael Jackson's sexual abuse accusers, the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal, Apollo 11, Mike Wallace, Toni Morrison and Dr. Ruth..." -- The Atlantic's David Sims: "Perhaps the splashiest upcoming movie is also one of Sundance's longest entries. 'Leaving Neverland,' a four-hour examination of two child-molestation accusations against the late Michael Jackson, is certain to revive the storm of controversy that first engulfed the now-dead singer in 1993..." -- Rotten Tomatoes' Jacqueline Coley: "14 films that could be the breakout hits of Sundance..."
Chloe's interview with Sarah Paulson Chloe Melas emails: I sat down with Sarah Paulson to talk about her new movie "Glass" and why so many of her projects fall into the thriller genre — Paulson says it's by accident...
Two new docu-series about "celebrity monsters" Brian Lowry emails: The true-crime glut in TV is such that notorious figures — what one criminologist called "celebrity monsters" — are being recycled as fodder for docu-series. Hence this week's premieres featuring Ted Bundy and Robert Durst on Netflix and Investigation Discovery...
| | Inside BuzzFeed's disputed story
This is just as true on Monday as it was on Sunday: BuzzFeed is exuding complete confidence about its Trump/Cohen story, even though Robert Mueller's office issued a rare public statement calling parts of the story inaccurate. Here's video of my complete 20-minute interview with Ben Smith and Anthony Cormier...
Catch up on the show here
Read the transcript here... Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or Spotify... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or watch the full episode via CNNgo or VOD...
| | That's a wrap. Send me your feedback anytime! It always makes the letter better. See you tomorrow...
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