Mueller's done... But everyone else is just getting started
Here is the front page of Saturday's NYT: | |
Mueller time
Oliver Darcy emails: After a 674-day-long probe, we learned at 5 p.m. ET that Robert Mueller had filed his final report with Attorney General William Barr. Then we learned that Barr might be ready to brief members of Congress on Mueller's "principal conclusions" as soon as this weekend. And we learned, per a DOJ official, that no additional indictments are coming from the Mueller investigation.
The hand-off of the report "was so seamless and low-key that many of the reporters and television crews who had been staking out the department for days failed to notice the security officer had been there," the WSJ notes.
But there is a lot we don't know, and many questions remaining. Newsrooms have been bracing for this moment for quite some time now. This weekend will be dominated by coverage aimed at answering some of the burning questions...
The waiting game
A team of WaPo reporters captured what Friday's waiting game was like. I like the way they delineated between "the bubble" and "the real world." Key quote:
"The waiting is over. And now . . . we wait.
What did the president know, and when did he know it?
More importantly, when do we get to know it?"
"Let's wait and see..."
Fox's Tucker Carlson framed Friday evening's news this way: "After all of this, years of it, not a single American citizen has been charged with anything related to Russian collusion."
Over on CNN, Anderson Cooper said "this is a good night certainly for the president, for his family -- Don Jr. was in the meeting in Trump Tower, he's not going to be indicted -- Jared Kushner, questions about him, he's not going to be indicted." Yes, Jeffrey Toobin said, but he added a caveat: "What are the facts that Mueller found? If there is a narrative in there, let's wait and see what he found..."
At around the same time over on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, who paused her vacation due to the breaking news, told viewers that "we know only the smallest little bits" about what's in Mueller's report. "This is the start of something, apparently, not the end of something..."
Here are some of the unknowns
CNN's Marshall Cohen has a list of "11 looming questions now that Mueller's investigation is over." Among them: Was there a conspiracy to collude? Did Trump or anyone else obstruct justice? Were there even more contacts with Russians that we don't know about? Are there more big lies that will be exposed? And more...
"Will Mueller knock down left-wing conspiracies?"
That's another one of Cohen's questions. He writes, "A cottage industry of left-wing conspiracy theorists blossomed in the Mueller Era... Academics with little to no insight into the Mueller investigation have breathlessly posted Trump-Russia theories, creating viral Twitter threads that were barely tethered to reality." Here's the point: Mueller "doesn't need to delve into these dark corners of the Internet. But if he doesn't knock down any of these conspiracies, they'll continue bouncing around forever..."
Special reports across the board
NBC and ABC were live within minutes of the 5 p.m. announcement. CBS (deep in March Madness coverage) followed a short time later. Fox provided a special report to Fox broadcast stations as well. And these were not short cut-ins... On NBC, Lester Holt and co. kept going for more than half an hour... And on CNN and MSNBC, of course, the special coverage is still going right now...
>> At the NYT, Michael Barbaro and co. published a "special episode" of "The Daily" about 90 minutes after the DOJ confirmed receipt of the report. The pod is a 💯 day in the life of Michael Schmidt...
Weekend coverage plans
-- All of the cable newsers are adding special coverage... Stay tuned...
-- Jeanine Pirro's Saturday evening show, which had already been pre-empted, will he replaced by an hour-long Ed Henry special about Mueller...
-- "Pod Save America" co-host Jon Favreau tweeted: "I know a lot of you have been asking for an emergency pod about the Mueller Report but we're gonna try something crazy and wait until we know what's in the Mueller Report."
| | Top reactions
-- Here are columns by David Remnick, Benjamin Wittes, Elie Honig, Maureen Dowd...
-- The WSJ editorial board's position: "Release it all rather than let Congress leak in dribs and drabs."
-- Chris Wallace: "If the President is cleared: That's good news. We should hope that is the result of this."
-- Chris Cillizza: "We are likely to look back on Trump's presidency -- no matter what the report actually says -- as 'before Mueller report' and 'after the Mueller report.'"
-- Chuck Todd: "This was not a -- if this was a witch hunt, it's the most successful witch hunt in American history." NBC's Ken Dilanian, agreeing, said, "He caught a lot of witches."
-- Dave Weigel: "Hot take: The Mueller report is more problematic for Ds than Rs. We know what Rs will do unless the report is devastating: Defend the president. But Ds have been punting Qs about impeachment etc until the report was done."
-- Sam Vinograd: "As we wait to hear more about the contents of the Mueller report -- don't forget -- Russia is still trying to attack our democracy by interfering in our elections and weaponizing information."
For the history books
NYT's Peter Baker in Saturday's paper: "After nearly three years of investigation, after hundreds of interviews and thousands upon thousands of pages of documents, after scores of indictments and court hearings and guilty pleas, after endless hours of cable-television and dinner-table speculation, the moment of reckoning has arrived. It will be a reckoning for President Trump, to be sure, but also for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, for Congress, for Democrats, for Republicans, for the news media and, yes, for the system as a whole. The delivery of Mr. Mueller's report to the Justice Department on Friday marked a turning point that will shape the remainder of Mr. Trump's presidency and test the viability of American governance."
So here we go...
IN OTHER NEWS...
What a week!
While the national news media awaited Mueller updates, the media biz revolution continued apace... Disney swallowed up most of 21st Century Fox... Paul Ryan joined the Fox board... Disney began laying off execs... WarnerMedia parted ways with studio chief Kevin Tsujihara... Apple prepared for Monday's big streaming service event... Netflix execs told reporters that they're not fazed by the competition... Facebook defended its handling of the New Zealand terror video... And a password problem joined this list of Facebook's "bottomless pit of scandals."
Weekend reads
A few media-focused recommendations for you:
-- Aidan McLaughlin's deep dive for Mediaite: "Inside the ad boycotts and power transfers shaping the new Fox News..."
-- "Instagram Is the Internet's New Home for Hate" by The Atlantic's Taylor Lorenz
-- "Netflix Is Ramping Up Its Ads Business. But Not in the Way You Think" by Cheddar's Michelle Castillo
-- This is a great story about a 29-year-old in Canada who bought his hometown paper, the Watrous Manitou. "I never feel that it's my paper. It's the community's paper. I just feel like I have the responsibility to convey what the community is doing," he says...
-- Here's what happened when the NYT's Brian X. Chen deleted Facebook. "Strange things did occur, including Instagram thinking he was a woman..."
From CNN to the Federal Reserve
Here's the story by CNN's Donna Borak: "President Donald Trump said Friday he plans to nominate his former campaign adviser, Stephen Moore, to the Federal Reserve Board." Moore, a former member of the WSJ editorial board, joined CNN as a contributor in January 2017, which means Trump has seen him on TV many times. On Friday, after Bloomberg broke the news about the pending nomination, a CNN spokeswoman confirmed that Moore is no longer a contributor...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- This week we learned that Trump is "not a fan" of John McCain, but he is a fan of Kim Jong Un. Trump's tweet about withdrawing new sanctions on North Korea sparked a lot of confusion on Friday afternoon...
-- This was quite a moment on live TV: Shortly after Sarah Sanders told reporters that the ISIS caliphate in Syria had been 100% eliminated, CNN's Ben Wedeman reported from Eastern Syria, where he could see and hear heavy fire in the distance...
-- Task & Purpose's headline: "ISIS has not been defeated yet, despite what the White House says..."
Reports: Gayle King staying at CBS
Page Six's Sara Nathan wrote Thursday night: "Gayle King is poised to sign a new multimillion-dollar contract to stay at CBS News."
THR went a step further on Friday: King "has agreed to a contract extension to stay at CBS This Morning," Marisa Guthrie reported, citing multiple sources. She said "the deal is not yet consummated," but "the two sides apparently came to an agreement in principle this week." CBS is declining to comment...
>> This is a key early victory for new CBS News prez Susan Zirinsky...
>> Key detail: "Whatever raise King secures, if a deal is reached, will surely make her the highest-paid anchor at the news division," Guthrie wrote...
Now what?
"All negotiations over whether her co-host Norah O'Donnell will replace Jeff Glor on 'CBS Evening News' are on hold until King's deal is signed," Nathan wrote. This lines up with what I've reported in the past, as well.
Another question mark: Will John Dickerson remain on the morning show? "Some inside CBS News" think Dickerson is "miscast as a morning anchor," Guthrie wrote. She said "Dickerson is likely to exit 'CBS This Morning,' and will instead anchor political pieces for '60 Minutes.'" Who would take over for him? She mentioned Anthony Mason, David Begnaud and Tony Dokoupil...
One way Twitter's algorithm is amplifying extreme political rhetoric
| | Oliver Darcy emails: Have you noticed people who you don't follow appearing in your Twitter feed? Over the last several months, Twitter has been inserting tweets from popular accounts into the feeds of users who do not follow them. The idea is to surface relevant/popular content into your feed. And in some situations, it could be useful. For instance, if you're watching the Super Bowl, and don't follow Tom Brady, it might be useful to see his post-game tweet.
But there are some unintended consequences when allowing an algorithm to insert political content into users' feeds. Some of the amplified tweets have contained inflammatory political rhetoric, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and flat out lies. And they are often coming from less-than-reliable sources, like Diamond & Silk, Bill Mitchell, Charlie Kirk, James Woods, and Candace Owens. Here's my full story...
Twitter says it's working "to improve our efforts here"
Darcy continues: In a statement, Twitter said the company's "efforts should not amplify behavior that is meant to intimidate, harass, or threaten others." But the company appeared to acknowledge it has more work to do, telling me it will "continue to work to improve our efforts here." The spokesperson I talked to also stressed users can turn off Twitter's curation, though I still think it's strange to put the onus on users here. The onus is on Twitter not to spread misinformation...
The irony...
Darcy adds: Of course, there is some major irony to Twitter amplifying these right-wing voices. Trump and other prominent Republicans have long accused Twitter of "shadow banning" users with conservative viewpoints, an accusation Twitter has strongly denied. In reality, not only is Twitter not "shadow banning" these right-wing personalities for their political viewpoints, the platform's algorithm is actually amplifying some of their tweets to audiences who do not even follow their accounts.
How Fox has dealt with its fringier personalities
Darcy emails: Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin published an in-depth story looking at Fox News and how the recent ad boycotts have affected the network -- and there was some news about two Fox personalities buried in there. One tidbit I found interesting was that, according to McLaughlin, Gregg Jarrett, who was an anchor at Fox News for more than a decade, was stripped of his "anchor" title in 2017. A source told McLaughlin it was because Gregg "went off the deep end."
The other bit of news I found interesting was regarding Sara Carter, who Sean Hannity regularly features on his prime time program as an "investigative reporter." McLaughlin reported that Fox's leadership has told Hannity to stop billing Carter as an "investigative reporter," but he's only responds by repeatedly continuing to do so. According to McLaughlin, Hannity doesn't care much about what the current brass at Fox says.
On the subject of Fox...
Darcy emails: This might seem small, but I'd argue it's noteworthy. Early Friday morning, "Fox & Friends First" featured a tweet from a QAnon account. Fox didn't cite a tweet promoting the crazy conspiracy theory. But irresponsible actions like this are seen by believers of this theory as a wink and nod to them. And Fox shouldn't have let this get through. The account's handle was "@QAnon76." Not exactly hard to catch! | |
This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"
On Sunday's show I'll be joined by Norman Pearlstine, Sukey Lewis, Philip Bump, Oliver Darcy, Alexandra Rojas, Joe Hagan, Jess McIntosh, and maybe more... Plus, I'll have some highlights from my sit-down with Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara... Check out the full convo on this week's "Reliable" podcast.
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Pinterest has filed its paperwork to go public... (CNN)
-- Matthew Ingram describes the "cynicism about Facebook's good intentions" he felt from journalists at the Accelerate: Local Media summit this week. Critics say that "accepting help from the company is like the fly accepting an invitation from the spider..." (CJR)
-- GoFundMe has updated its terms of service to say that any campaign "raising money to promote misinformation about vaccines" will be "removed from the platform..." (Daily Beast)
-- Disney employees fearing layoffs: "People are panicking — and rightfully so — because nobody is telling them anything." While analysts expect between 4,000 and 10,000 cuts, "several employees say the number being floated among people in the know is closer to 3,000..." (THR)
-- Correction: In yesterday's newsletter I credited Steven Greenhouse's story to NiemanLab, but it was actually for Nieman Reports! D'oh. (Nieman Reports)
Counting down to Apple Day
-- See you Monday at 10 a.m. PT in Cupertino...
-- Brian Lowry's curtain-raiser: "Apple to join tech wave sweeping over Hollywood"
-- THR's Natalie Jarvey and Lesley Goldberg note that producers and agents are still "largely in the dark about just how the company will distribute and market its slate."
-- Great headline on Dylan Byers' piece: "Can Steven Spielberg help sell iPhones? Apple is betting on it."
-- Edmund Lee's weekend story: "Why Netflix Won't Be Part of Apple TV"
NYT CEO's warning
Katie Pellico emails: In an interview with Reuters, NYT CEO Mark Thompson warned other publishers about the dangers posed by Apple's TBA news subscription service, expected to be announced on Monday.
Thompson drew a comparison to Netflix's domination by way of third-party distribution, and Hollywood's subsequent demise: "If I was an American broadcast network, I would have thought twice about giving all of my library to Netflix... Even if Netflix offered you quite a lot of money... Does it really make sense to help Netflix build a gigantic base of subscribers to the point where they could actually spend $9 billion a year making their own content and will pay me less and less for my library?"
>> Thompson's sentiments more than confirm the up-until-now loose reporting that both the Times and WaPo have declined to partner with Apple. The WSJ and Vox have reportedly struck deals with Apple, with more to come...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Jeremy Barr has a new look at just how badly "Tucker Carlson Tonight" has been affected by a liberal ad boycott effort... (THR)
-- CNN's town halls with 2020 candidates have put the network at the "center of the Dem primary," Reid Wilson writes... (The Hill)
-- Meet Valentina Alazrak, a Mexican journalist who has been covering the Vatican through five popes. She made headlines last month when she spoke at the Vatican sex abuse summit... (NYT)
| | The Pulitzer forecast
VF's Joe Pompeo is out with a Pulitzers preview ahead of the April 15 announcement: "At this stage, it's difficult to determine what's true and what's table talk. But here are some potential contenders in a few of the major categories that people are whispering about: The Washington Post's Jamal Khashoggi coverage, possibly for public service, which is seen as the crown jewel of the Pulitzers; Rukmini Callimachi's ISIS coverage for The New York Times and the A.P.'s dispatches out of Yemen for the international-reporting category; The Wall Street Journal's series on 'Trump's Hush Money,' The New York Times's Facebook reporting, and ProPublica's immigration coverage for national reporting; The New York Times on Trump's taxes, the Tampa Bay Times on a fatally negligent children's hospital, and the Los Angeles Times on a University of Southern California #MeToo doctor in the investigative-reporting category; The Washington Post on school shootings, the Center for Investigative Reporting on redlining, and The Miami Herald on gold-smuggling for explanatory reporting; and Carlos Lozada, Manohla Dargis, and Jill Lepore in criticism. I also hear that John Carreyrou's best-selling Bad Blood, about the sham blood-testing company Theranos, is a strong candidate for nonfiction books..."
A tribute to Anthony Bourdain
 After Anthony Bourdain died last June, CNN created a book, "Anthony Bourdain Remembered," filled with tributes from his fans and photos of his journeys. It was originally intended as a "keepsake" for his family members and close colleagues.
His estate "later agreed to share the book publicly," People mag reports, and it will be available for purchase at the end of May.
Lowry reviews a trio of documentaries
Brian Lowry emails: The NCAA tournament and baseball's opening day are for many among the best few weeks in the sports calendar. But a trio of documentaries premiering in the next few weeks look at the darker side of sports, from a variety of angles: First up is "Action," a Showtime series that examines sports gambling, and the effects of a Supreme Court ruling legalizing it.
"Screwball" tackles the biggest performance-enhancing-drug scandal in baseball history; and "Roll Red Roll" explores "rape culture" through the prism of how a high-school football team was protected in Steubenville, Ohio...
| | "Us" weekend!
Frank Pallotta emails: Earlier in the week, the projections for Jordan Peele's "Us" were around $40 million for the weekend, but that number has grown. Early estimates now show that the horror film could have an opening around $64 million. It's still early, but that would be a huge opening for an original film and would be more than 3x its budget.
It's not a big surprise why "Us" could exceed expectations. Peele has become a brand name and horror movies get people away from Netflix and to the theater. "Sure, you can stay home and watch 'Us' when it comes out months from now, but you won't get the infectious feel of people screaming in the theater and yelling at the screen," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told me. "Horror is one of the last and best communal experiences audiences can have at the movies today..."
Jordan Peele and the art of being unapologetically black
Lisa Respers France emails: With "Us," Jordan Peele is the latest in Hollywood to practice the art of being unapologetically black. He's one of several black creatives in the industry producing entertainment that showcases the African-American experience as part of the American experience as a whole, while still celebrating the uniqueness of black culture. Collectively, they have produced content in which they don't feel the need to give context for mainstream America.
Read Lisa's full story here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Katie Pellico:
-- Hollywood's infamous "fixer" Anthony Pellicano will be free Saturday after 15 years behind bars. Ryan Parker wonders, "He has some serious dirt on some serious people. Will he finally cash in? Should be interesting..." (THR)
-- Netflix is pushing back against the lawsuit alleging "Bandersnatch" infringed on the "Choose Your Own Adventure" trademark. In a motion to dismiss issued Thursday, Netflix argued its use of the term refers to "the book's narrative device" which is a "common -- and accurate -- phrase..." (Deadline)
-- With "Captain Marvel" still in theaters, Netflix dropped the trailer for "Unicorn Store," Brie Larson's directorial debut, which promises to explore "the things that drive us and the creativity that adulthood often tries to extinguish..."
"Roseanne" who?
Brian Lowry emails: Remember all those people pledging that they would never watch "The Conners" after ABC fired Roseanne Barr? The fact the show has done well enough to merit a second season renewal might say something about network TV's diminished expectations, but it's also a useful reminder that the loudest voices on social media -- spouting fire and brimstone -- aren't always terribly representative of the viewing public at large...
-- Barr is blaming former co-star Sara Gilbert for the cancellation of "Roseanne"... (THR) | | | Thanks for reading! Email me feedback anytime. Hope you have a great weekend... see you Sunday... | | | |
