EXEC SUMMARY: Looking ahead to Google's gaming event, President Trump's joint presser, Preet Bharara's book launch and much more... Here's the latest...
Inside Netflix
Frank Pallotta emails: Greetings from Sunny Hollywood! I'm at Netflix Labs -- the company's annual open house for reporters. There are about 70 of us here, mostly from international outlets. Reed Hastings took Q's on Monday afternoon:
-- "When we make our members happy, we grow." | | -- He said he wants to make personalization stronger and work on making episodes start playing faster, among other things...
-- Room to grow: Hastings commented that Netflix accounts for "only" 10 percent of US "screen time," and less than that on mobile...
-- Re: "amazingly well-funded" rivals like Apple, AT&T, Disney, etc: "You do your best job when you have great competitors. We will make this a better industry if we have great competitors..."
-- Netflix is not striking a deal to be integrated into whatever Apple announces next week: Apple is a "great company" but "we want people to watch our content on our service."
-- Still no plans for live sports or live news programming...
-- He doesn't see an opening in China anytime soon: He expects the service will be blocked there "for a long time..."
-- Right now he said he's watching Ricky Gervais' new show "After Life..."
-- "All we have to do," he said, is continue to make great content...
-- Reminder: The company STILL has two million DVD subscribers...
Takeaways from other Netflix execs
-- Greg Peters, chief product officer, said he gets asked all the time if Netflix is "a content company or a tech company." Neither, he said, it's an "entertainment company," adding that entertainment has always used tech to tell stories in the most compelling way...
-- Peters said that in the last month Netflix users have used 600 million unique devices to stream shows globally.
-- Todd Yelling, Netflix's VP of product, said that interactive storytelling is "not just for the 'Black Mirror' universe." Why not for a romantic title? he asked. "We are going to try now a bunch of interactive titles." Bear Grylls is on board to do one...
-- How about that new logo? Steve Johnson, VP of studio design, said that the old white logo was a bit old and a bit jarring for viewers. "We didn't want to make their house bright for a few moments..."
Full story here...
Kevin Tsujihara out
THR's Tatiana Siegel and Kim Masters published this story -- "Texts Reveal Warner Bros. CEO Promoted Actress Amid Apparent Sexual Relationship" -- twelve days ago. Now studio head Kevin Tsujihara is out. He told staffers that he and WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey jointly "decided that it is in Warner Bros.' best interest that I step down as chairman and C.E.O."
Monday's announcement surprised some staffers and seemed inevitable to others. (The NYT's story noted that "whispers" about Tsujihara's "alleged conduct" have been circulating "for more than a year.") Variety's Matt Donnelly and Brent Lang said "an eerie silence" blanketed the Burbank, Calif. studio lot, with some execs "anxious about what a new leader will mean for their futures."
Who will take over?
Stankey told staffers at the studio that he'll share "an interim leadership structure with all of you tomorrow," i.e. Tuesday.
Per Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro, "the speculation is that team will include Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Group Chairman Toby Emmerich, Warner Bros. Television Group President and CCO Peter Roth, and another executive, most likely female. Many of these execs haven't even been informed by Stankey yet, so this line-up could change by tomorrow..."
The investigation continues
The internal investigation prompted by THR's story -- about allegations about an improper relationship with actress Charlotte Kirk -- is still going on. Warner "continues to work with a third-party law firm to complete its investigation with Mr. Tsujihara's cooperation," per Monday's press release.
Tsujihara previously apologized for "mistakes in my personal life," though his lawyer said he had "no direct role in the hiring of this actress."
On Monday Stankey thanked Tsujihara for so many years of hard work at the studio, but also said "Kevin acknowledges that his mistakes are inconsistent with the Company's leadership expectations and could impact the Company's ability to execute going forward." Tsujihara put it this way in his own memo: "It has become clear that my continued leadership could be a distraction and an obstacle to the company's continued success." Here's my full story...
More to come?
-- One of Siegel and Masters' followup stories noted that the scandal "intersects with many powerful men and high-profile projects, including Millennium chief Avi Lerner and the upcoming 'Hellboy' remake..."
-- NBC's Claire Atkinson tweeted: "I wonder how many others in Hollywood will be asking themselves if they have legal exposure too, because until Harvey Weinstein happened, bosses having affairs with actresses and trying to get them roles was pretty much common practice..."
-- WSJ's Joe Flint: Tsujihara joins "a growing list of Hollywood executives whose sexual conduct has forced them from high-profile positions. The Warner CEO stands out from other cases, however, because his relationship was consensual and there have been no public allegations of harassment or assault against him..."
-- Reminder: CNN is also part of WarnerMedia.
Thinking back to 2013...
Brian Lowry emails: It's worth remembering that Tsujihara won the top Warner Bros. job after a very public and protracted "bake-off" involving two other senior executives, Bruce Rosenblum and Jeff Robinov. I wasn't a fan of the bake-off concept at the time, which as constructed seemingly gave Rosenblum and Robinov little choice but to leave the company, as both did within six months of the formal announcement in 2013...
The last day of 21st Century Fox
Warner Bros. isn't the only studio experiencing turbulence this week. Disney's deal to acquire most of Fox will take effect on Wednesday... Well, Tuesday night, depending on where you are... The deal will officially close at 12:02 a.m. ET on Wednesday. | |
TUESDAY PLANNER
-- Trump's joint presser with the Brazilian president is slated for 1:45 p.m. ET...
-- A few newsy books come out on Tuesday: Preet Bharara's "Doing Justice," Vicky Ward's "Kushner Inc.," and Ben Shapiro's "The Right Side of History..."
-- Via CNN's Elizabeth Hartfield: "Documents pertaining to the Michael Cohen raid will be made available Tuesday..."
Google's gaming plans
Google is about to "reveal its newest plans for entering the video game world," per Kotaku's Jason Schreier.
The company is holding a Tuesday morning press event at the 2019 Game Developer Conference in SF. For a backgrounder, here's CNET's Lori Grunin with "the state of streaming game services..."
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Alex Sherman's Monday scoop: "HBO's president of global distribution, Bernadette Aulestia, has announced her resignation" in the wake of Richard Plepler's exit... (CNBC)
-- Edmund Lee tweeted: "Endeavor's UFC cuts deal w/Disney's ESPN+, which will now be exclusive re-seller of UFC bouts (pay-per-view) In the coming fight for streaming rights, this could end up being a significant deal..." (Twitter)
-- The NYT "has recently cut the number of stories it's giving to Apple's news app..." (Bloomberg)
-- 2020 battle: MSNBC had a town hall with Kirsten Gillibrand at 8 p.m. Monday... CNN had a town hall with Elizabeth Warren at 9 p.m...
What $200,000 can buy...
"Jeff Bezos and his allies have publicly speculated about how the National Enquirer acquired racy texts he sent his girlfriend, including at one point hinting Saudi Arabia or the White House may have been involved. The reality is simpler: Michael Sanchez, the brother of Mr. Bezos' lover, sold the billionaire's secrets for $200,000 to the Enquirer's publisher," the WSJ's Michael Rothfeld, Joe Palazzolo and Alexandra Berzon reported Monday night, citing "people familiar with the matter."
In response to the story, Sanchez sent out a screed that did not include a denial of the payment assertion at all.
The Enquirer has a long history of paying for tips... But the WSJ reports that this amount was more "than the company typically pays sources..."
What David Pecker was worried about
The WSJ story also says that the Sanchez contract -- stipulating that he be paid upfront -- "caused arguments at American Media." David Pecker was trying to refinance the company while considering whether to publish the Bezos story. A blow-up between Pecker and the company's general counsel for media prompted the lawyer to quit.
And as for the Bezos "blackmail" accusation, the WSJ reminds us that "American Media's internal investigation, by an outside law firm, is continuing." Here's the full story...
Fox hires Donna Brazile
Former DNC chair Donna Brazile is Fox's newest contributor, joining a relatively small list of liberal commentators. Brazile said in a statement, "There's an audience on Fox News that doesn't hear enough from Democrats." | | You might remember that Brazile was a CNN contributor back in 2016. "Her conduct at CNN was revealed as part of emails exposed by Wikileaks," the AP's David Bauder wrote Monday. "She had contacted the Clinton campaign about topics that would be covered in a March 2016 town hall when the competition was Bernie Sanders. Brazile initially denied the accusation, but admitted to it after the election."
You know, Sean Hannity loves to accuse CNN of sharing debate Q's with Clinton. CNN didn't -- Brazile did -- so the network severed ties with her. But now Hannity and Brazile are colleagues! What a world...
Fox says it won't happen again...
More from Bauder's story: "At Fox, Brazile will not have anything to do with campaign debates or town halls, said a Fox employee with knowledge of the arrangement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about contract details. That may be a moot point, anyway: the DNC recently said it would not allow Fox News to host any of its upcoming primary debates..."
Yet more pressure on Fox's advertisers
Media Matters' pressure campaign aimed at Fox's advertisers has had a noticeable effect, as I pointed out on CNN on Monday. Tucker Carlson's 8 p.m. show has been running fewer ad breaks than most other cable news shows.
But it's not just Media Matters applying the pressure, and it's not just Carlson feeling the pain. On Monday the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it wants "all advertisers to withdraw their ads from Fox News" due to the Jeanine Pirro controversy...
Trump is making the Pirro decision even tougher
Brian Lowry emails: THR's Jeremy Barr nailed the uncomfortable damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't position that the president has put Fox News in by so publicly lobbying for the return of Jeanine Pirro. If the network is trying to look like it isn't in the bag for Trump, the obvious move would be to let Pirro go, although one suspects that wouldn't have been the outcome of this under-the-radar suspension...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Another strong start for a CNN Original Series: Sunday's premiere of "Tricky Dick" was the evening's No. 1 program on cable news, topping Fox and MSNBC... (CNN PR)
-- Belinda Luscombe's headline for TIME: "Yes, Gayle King Is Very Impressive. No, That's Not New." (TIME)
-- Monday was Facebook stock's "worst day of 2019." Needham analysts downgraded the stock over "executive exodus" fears... (CNBC)
Facebook sees "news deserts"
"Facebook has been looking to boost its local-news offerings," but "it has run into a problem: there simply isn't enough local news in vast swaths of the country," the WSJ's Keach Hagey wrote Monday. According to data released by FB, 1 in 3 Americans "live in a place where Facebook can't find enough local news being shared on its service to justify building a localized aggregator for that area." In other words: News deserts.
Of course, local news ad revenue has collapsed as Facebook and Google "have taken market share," Hagey noted.
But FB is positioning itself as a friend to the ailing industry. It is agreeing to share data with academics who are studying the "news desert" problem. Poynter's Kristen Hare has more here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Trump's "overall approval rating has ticked up to 42%" in CNN's newest poll conducted by SSRS. Check out the gender split: 51% of men approve of the president, while only 33% of women approve... (CNN)
-- The NYT's followup about Trump's "flurry of activity" over the weekend says "advisers have shared with him data showing that even his supporters do not like the tweet storms, and have advised him to act more 'presidential' as his re-election campaign draws nearer..." (NYT)
-- A brewing political battle? W.H. lawyers "expect to have an opportunity to review whatever version of Robert Mueller's report A.G. Bill Barr submits to Congress before it reaches lawmakers and the public..." (CNN)
| | Has anything really changed?
Trump's weekend tweetstorm and George Conway's increasingly urgent warnings about Trump's mental health have sparked new stories about his mental state. Here's how CNBC's John Harwood framed it: In a DC spectacle "unseen since the wife of Richard Nixon's attorney general sounded alarms about Watergate, the spouse of a top presidential advisor is issuing urgent public warnings about Trump's mental health."
Kellyanne Conway was asked about her husband's tweets on Monday morning, and she said, "No, I don't share those concerns." But the concerns persist. Peter Wehner wrote this for The Atlantic on Monday: "His condition is getting worse, not better."
All of this led Isaac Chotiner to tweet out: "I really want to understand, psychologically speaking, the need for Trump critics to believe that he is getting worse. Is it that people want to believe that at some point he will just crack and resign? We've been hearing this for four years, and he's exactly the same."
Matthew Yglesias responded: "I think it's a general desire to give the story more narrative momentum than it really has, similar to the people constantly arguing that Democrats are blowing it..."
Pompeo shuts out the press corps
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a media call on Monday evening ahead of his Middle East trip -- but the State Dept. press corps was not allowed to join. Instead, the call was with "faith-based outlets" like EWTN.
Pompeo taking questions on a subject like international religious freedom is "rare," per CNN's Michelle Kosinski, so this restrictive press strategy irked beat reporters. And for good reason! Kosinki even tweeted that "one reporter from a regular ol' outlet was accidentally invited... then DISinvited."
And: "Despite repeated inquires and complaints from members of the press corps who are based at the department, the State Department on Monday night said they would not be providing a transcript of the call, a list of faith-based media outlets who were allowed to participate or the criteria to be invited," Kosinski and Jennifer Hansler wrote.
This is a strange situation... Read all about it here...
Schiff's tweet
One of the top Dems in the House, Adam Schiff, tweeted this on Sunday, and it sums up a certain critical POV of Trump's treatment of the media:
"Trump calls press an enemy of the people like a third world despot
Wants FCC to take action against SNL
Allegedly sought to raise postal rates on Amazon to punish Washington Post
May have tried to kill a merger affecting CNN —
He's a clear and present danger to press freedom."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- "Despite ongoing peace talks," Netflix won't screen any movies at Cannes 2019... (Variety)
-- Myspace "has apologized for apparently losing 12 years' worth of music uploaded to its site, following a server migration error -- a loss potentially amounting to 50 million songs..." (CNN)
-- Amanda Collins is the new head of comms at Sony Music Entertainment...
Remember when 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' made us listen to each other?
Megan Thomas emails: Oprah Winfrey's recent "After Neverland" special reminded many of us what we've missed since her talk show ended in 2011. Loved this piece from Sandra Gonzalez today:
"As viewers have found corners of the content landscape to feel seen and heard," she wrote, "what's arguably still missing is what 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' was for 25 seasons: a place where we feel challenged to see and hear others." Read on...
| | Don't miss "The Inventor"
Brian Lowry emails: Alex Gibney does for Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes what he did for Enron and Scientology in "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley," an HBO documentary that pretty much eviscerates the tech startup, while saying a lot about those who were reeled in by Holmes' spiel.
The doc premiered on HBO on Monday night... And it'll be available on VOD on Tuesday... Heads up to my wife, who really wants to watch it!
Lowry reviews two new network dramas
Brian Lowry emails: Two new network dramas premiere this week: "The Fix," which gives O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark what amounts to a fictionalized do-over on ABC; and "The Village," a gooey ensemble drama that NBC will launch behind "This is Us," which feels like a reminder of why when it comes to developing TV shows, input from a whole village trying to replicate an existing hit is usually a bad idea...
Lewinsky and Oliver | | Megan Thomas emails: If you missed Sunday's "Last Week Tonight," John Oliver's conversation with Monica Lewinsky about public shaming is worth watching. Vulture has a good recap...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- William H. Macy and Lori Loughlin's comments about their daughters have resurfaced and taken on new meaning in the wake of the college admissions cheating scandal...
-- JK Rowling is facing a backlash over her recent Dumbledore/Grindelwald gay relationship revelations...
-- Paris Hilton partied for her birthday with her former assistant, Kim Kardashian West...
RELIABLE SOURCES HIGHLIGHTS
How to catch up on Sunday's show
Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts or your preferred app... Or watch the entire episode via CNNgo or VOD...
My interview with Andy Parker
The Christchurch attack is the latest instance of a gunman posting his own gruesome video to social media. The first time I remember it happening was in 2015, when the murder of two WDBJ journalists was filmed and streamed by the perpetrator. On Sunday's show, I spoke with slain journalist Alison Parker's father Andy Parker, who has been publicly challenging Google and other tech platforms. He said Big Tech firms "have a responsibility to have some human decency." Watch the segment here or read Nathaniel Meyersohn's recap...
Standing up for tech literacy
Political leaders need to be tech savvy, I said in this essay on Sunday's show, but POTUS keeps showing his lack of tech knowledge -- whether it's about airplanes or Apple or 5G or climate-change science.
The NYT's Katie Rogers, though, said Trump's old-fashioned approach is an advantage for him: He can "go up in front of his supporters and say, 'come with me to the past when things were better...'"
Notable quotes
-- Nayyera Haq, a former Obama W.H. aide, said Trump's comments about white nationalism are an example of "willful ignorance that plays into his own political agenda..."
-- Dan Rather said Trump "knows what the effect" of his language is, and it's "very dangerous to have a president talking in these terms..."
-- On a happier note, David Zurawik said "I worship at the altar of C-SPAN." Same here! The network turns 40 years old on Tuesday... 🎂
| | | Thanks for reading! Email me feedback anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
