Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: New statements about impeachment, strategies for stopping the "misinformation virus," frank talk about infertility, and much more...

"Podcast Wars"

Right now the podcast business is almost all about the ads. Are we on the cusp of a big change? Are subscription models going to change podcasting as we know it today?

Tuesday is the start of a big test. It's the launch of Luminary, a podcasting startup that wants people to pay $7.99 a month for exclusive shows. In three words, it's "Netflix for podcasts." Bold-faced names like Trevor Noah, Lena Dunham, Leon Neyfakh, and Hannibal Buress are on board. So are lots of financiers. Luminary "has raised $100 million in venture capital over two rounds since the spring of 2018," Digiday's Max Willens wrote.

On Tuesday the company "will join Stitcher Premium as the only two large subscription services featuring podcasts, and it hopes to be a friend to everybody in the ecosystem." For instance, both the free and paid versions of the app promise access to "hundreds of thousands of shows you already listen to and love." The paid version adds access to "40+ Luminary Originals coming this year." But there's a problem...

Here's the hard part

Today's "Podcast Wars" headline was inspired by The Verge's Ashley Carman. On Monday she reported that "the industry hasn't accepted Luminary or its impending launch. When it rolls out to the public on iOS, Android, and the web, Luminary's podcast app will be missing some of the industry's biggest shows, including The New York Times' The Daily and Gimlet Media shows like Reply All and Homecoming." Spotify recently acquired Gimlet Media.

"By withholding their shows, the Times and Spotify are setting Luminary up to fail — or at least struggle to get off on the right foot with users," Carman wrote. "It certainly seems like the first shot fired in the inevitable premium podcast war and could destabilize one of the first buzzy, well-funded entrants before it can make a dent in the industry. The decisions that happen now will reshape the way podcasts are distributed in the future." Read on...

>> Consultant Bill Rosenblatt: "Unlike music, people have never expected to pay for podcasts..."

>> Probably not a coincidence: SiriusXM came out with a streaming-only plan on Monday...

Sri Lanka's ban

Donie O'Sullivan emails: Sri Lanka's social media ban -- prompted by Sunday morning's terrorist bombings -- is heading into its third day, and the lack of outcry from internet freedom and free speech activists is telling. I reached out to Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders to ask them if they had anything to say about it --- they didn't. Have we really reached a moment where a government being able to shut down the world's most important social media platforms is better than having the platforms up and running after a terrorist attack, misinformation and all?

The platforms themselves haven't had much to say either. Facebook put out a tame statement saying people rely on their services during emergencies. YouTube and Snap have had nothing to say. But on Monday evening the Internet Association, a trade group that represents all the major players, said in a statement, "Our hearts go out to the victims of this terrible tragedy. Online platforms can be a critical resource for victims to reach out for help or let friends and family know they're safe after a disaster. They can also play a crucial role in coordinating response and relief efforts. Government mandated blocking of online platforms is not the right solution and could do more harm than good."

Stopping the misinformation virus

"Don't Be a Carrier" is the headline on Alan C. Miller's new op-ed. Miller, the head of the News Literacy Project, says "we must understand — and take responsibility for — our roles in the 21st-century information ecosystem. Misinformation can't spread virally unless we infect others with it."

Miller touts his group's Checkology program, which helps students become "more discerning and engaged consumers of credible news." He says "we need to transform this mentality into a movement. We've seen a sea change in public attitudes around such behaviors as drunken driving, smoking and littering. It's high time we make consuming and sharing misinformation a socially unacceptable behavior." Provocative framing...

TUESDAY PLANNER

Twitter earnings come out before the bell... Snap earnings after the bell...

TIME is holding its first-ever TIME 100 summit in NYC ahead of its annual gala in the evening... Nancy Pelosi is speaking at the summit...

The president will appear at a photo-op with White House News Photographers Association photo contest winners...

THE MUELLER REPORT

Today's headlines

-- CNN's epic night of town halls is underway... Kamala Harris is speaking as I hit send on this... She made news by saying "I believe Congress should take the steps towards impeachment..."

-- The headline in Chris Cillizza's newsletter: "Nancy Pelosi pleads for patience..."

-- One of Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb's multiple stories on Monday: "House panel issues subpoena to former White House counsel Don McGahn."

-- And here's another Raju/Herb headline: "Senate GOP says it's time to move from Mueller."

-- Lindsey Graham told CNN's Liz Turrell, "The Mueller report is over for me. Done."

-- In two cases -- Mueller's obstruction probe and the hush money scandal -- "it now seems likely that Trump would have faced personal criminal indictment but for the fact that he is the president of the United States," Mueller biographer Garrett Graff writes...

-- John Oliver: "The news that the President ordered subordinates to do things that might constitute obstruction and then they just ignored him is both reassuring and also terrifying..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- The Washington Post's version of the Mueller report, from Scribner, is still No. 1 on Amazon... Skyhorse Publishing's version is No. 3... (Amazon)

-- Another battle is brewing: "White House tells official not to comply with Democratic subpoena over security clearances..." (CNN)

-- The CNNers who staked out Mueller's office for 18 months sat down with Dana Bash for an interview on Monday... (CNN)

Kaitlan Collins' question prompted the quote of the day

This was just a straight-up lie by the president on Monday. When CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked -- at a press avail during the annual Easter egg roll -- whether he was worried some of his staff were shrugging off his demands, Trump said "nobody disobeys my orders."

Of course, Collins asked the Q because the Mueller report "contained anecdote after anecdote of aides refusing to carry out some of Trump's demands to short-circuit the special counsel's investigation. The trend was so marked the report's authors made note of it in their assessment..."

"Game of Thrones" comes to mind...

CNN analyst Sam Vinograd emails: "What the President said is untrue according to the Mueller report, Bob Woodward's book, AND reporting that DHS officials were told by their superiors not to implement his orders. His statement sounds a lot like something the Mad King or Queen Cersei would say on 'Game of Thrones,' not what we would expect a democratic President to say."

DNC's new letter to the RNC

Donie O'Sullivan writes: DNC chair Tom Perez wrote an open letter to RNC chair Ronna McDaniel on Monday night. Perez asked Republicans to condemn the "weaponization of stolen private data in our electoral process." He called Rudy Giuliani's Sunday comment that there's "nothing wrong" with taking info from Russians an "affront" to democracy.

He also said, "Under my leadership, the Democratic National Committee will not encourage the theft of private data, nor will we seek out or weaponize stolen private data for political gain." Full story here...

What else does Hannity know?

Oliver Darcy emails: Ever since the Mueller report revealed that Sean Hannity knew about the Trump Tower meeting before it was made public via the NYT, I've been thinking: What other newsworthy pieces of information does Hannity know that he is sitting on? The Trump Tower meeting was arguably one of the most explosive and meaningful Russia-related scoops -- and Hannity apparently had knowledge of it well before the public. In fact, according to the Mueller report, he even had knowledge of it before Reince Priebus, then the White House chief of staff. So just take a moment to think: what else is Hannity withholding from his audience, in service to the president? I'm betting, quite a lot...

>> WaPo's Erik Wemple says Hannity has earned "his designation as the White House's shadow chief of staff..."

Here's the thing about Trump and Fox...

His occasional sniping at the news division is outweighed by his support for (and support from) the opinion side. He's been promoting the network's talk shows even more than usual since the Mueller report came out — taking solace in the spin.

Oliver Darcy emails with more: Trump tweeted Fox clip, after Fox clip, after Fox clip, after Fox clip, after Fox clip on Monday -- and then he promoted Lou Dobbs' show by saying they had just chatted by phone. In other words, it was just another day in the Trump White House...

Let's hear more from Mueller

The criticism of MSNBC's Mike Viqueira continued on Monday... With detractors saying that he shouldn't have approached Robert Mueller and asked questions when Mueller was leaving church on Easter Sunday... But in a conversation with Poynter's Al Tompkins. "Whether it is Easter Sunday or Wednesday outside an office building, if a newsmaker is in our sight, we ask them questions," Viqueira said.

Still, Tompkins' take is that "MSNBC did not have a justifiable reason to stake out and confront Mueller as he left church." Here's his column...

A disappointing "record"

"As of Tuesday, the Trump White House will set a record for the longest stretch without a briefing, 43 days. This breaks the previous record set in March (42 days), which broke the record set in January (41 days)," WaPo's Paul Farhi reports in Tuesday's paper...

>> Farhi's story about Sarah Sanders also includes this classic pairing of paragraphs: "She has also become well known among reporters for not responding to emails or calls to her office seeking comment. Sanders did not reply to a request for comment for this story."

--> This is quite a headline: "Sarah Sanders lies about reporter who called for her to be fired for lying"

--> On Sunday's "Reliable," I talked with April Ryan and Katie Rogers about what it means to have a W.H. press secretary with no credibility...

"Veep" imitates life with campaign collusion plot

Brian Lowry emails: I mentioned "Veep's" fortuitous timing last night. Here's a recap of the episode -- in which a presidential campaign is aided through election manipulation by a foreign power -- and showrunner David Mandel's postmortem with THR, in which even he marveled at the timing. Mandel joked, "I asked them to release the Mueller report three weeks ago so we would get a little space. Attorney General William Barr felt that it would make Veep more relevant if it came out this week and I couldn't argue with him. He's a huge fan of the show. He's always been very helpful to us, so we want to thank him."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- After Mitt Romney said he's "sickened" and "appalled" by what the Mueller report revealed about Trump, WaPo's Philip Rucker said on MSNBC that "Romney is saying exactly what his Republican colleagues in the Senate believe but are afraid to say..." (Mediaite)

-- Sam Stein interviewed the OTHER Bob Mueller, a newscaster at WKRN in Nashville, Tennessee, who's had a strange couple of years... (Beast)

-- Former Fox contributor Herman Cain's name has been withdrawn from consideration for a seat on the Fed's powerful board of governors... (CNN)

-- Dave Weigel tweeted: "For any other president, pulling a Fed nominee after weeks of embarrassing coverage would be seen as a sign of weakness, but I bet it's forgotten by the end of this twe... wait, what was I talking about?" Weigel has a point... The ABC and CBS nightly newscasts didn't even mention Cain on Monday... (Twitter)

FIRST LOOK:

This year's winners of the Hillman Prizes

The Sidney Hillman Foundation's prizes "for journalism in service of the common good" will be announced on Tuesday and awarded on May 7... You're seeing the list first:

⚬ Newspaper – The Miami Herald's Julie K. Brown and Emily Michot for "Perversion of Justice"

⚬ Magazine – ProPublica's Hannah Dreier -- in collaboration with four (!) partners -- New York mag, Newsday, "This American Life," and the New York Times Magazine -- for "Trapped in Gangland"

⚬ Web – Reuters staffers Joshua Schneyer, Michael Pell, Andrea Januta, and Deborah Nelson for "Ambushed at Home"

⚬ Broadcast – NBC/MSNBC's Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley for "Torn Apart: Crisis at the Border"

⚬ Opinion & Analysis – The Atlantic's Adam Serwer

⚬ Book – Anna Clark's "The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy"

The judges were Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jelani Cobb, Alix Freedman, Hendrik Hertzberg, Harold Meyerson and Katrina vanden Heuvel. "In a time when this country's highest powers have taken it as their business to demean the work of journalists, it is particularly significant to have an evening when we honor those who have taken up the tools of journalism to challenge corrupt power wherever it may reside," Coates said...

Frank talk about infertility

Monday kicked off National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW). My wife Jamie has been open about the miscarriages and IVF cycles we've been through in the last few years -- both before and after having our daughter, Sunny. (Sunny will be a big sister soon!)

Other TV hosts have also been opening up about the baby-making roller coaster -- using their platforms to hopefully help others. So I asked her to write up some of the examples:

Jamie writes: "Earlier this month Hilaria Baldwin instagrammed about her miscarriage as it was happening. She later went on the "Today" show to talk about her decision in more detail. After reporting on Baldwin's loss, NBC's Kate Snow opened up about her own miscarriages in her hope to have a third child. And Savannah Guthrie recently spoke with Health magazine about her IVF journey. Then, on Monday morning on "Today," Dylan Dreyer talked about being excited to start the IVF process in hopes of giving her 2-year-old son a sibling. She recently had a miscarriage and said she was tired of 'smiling on TV when I want to burst out in tears' so she decided it was time to put it all out there. I feel this so deeply. That's part of the reason I shared my whole story on Progyny's 'This Is Infertility' podcast. The faster more women (and men!) talk about infertility, the faster we can work toward less stigma and more change. Listen to the podcast and let me know what you think. Tweet me when you see other #NIAW stories, because I'd like to read them all. And you can read more about me and Brian's story in Glamour -- they're publishing an essay I wrote later this week."

Jenna Bush Hager's joyful news

On the same edition of "Today" that had Dreyer talking about miscarriage, Jenna Bush Hager shared the news that she is expecting a third child, a baby boy. Hager posted about Dreyer on Instagram on Monday night -- saying "she spoke out about her struggles with secondary infertility and also gave me permission to be joyful" -- and that's true, there has to be room for both, the highs and the lows...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Yesterday I mentioned the oral arguments in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader, a FOIA case that could have implications for many beat reporters. Here's what happened in court on Monday... (New Food Economy)

-- Nancy Pelosi was cheered when she was spotted at Aaron Sorkin's Broadway adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird" on Sunday... (WaPo)

-- Esquire senior staff writer Kate Storey's latest: "The inside story of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s George magazine..." (Esquire)

Netflix's trailer for "Knock Down The House"

At Sundance in January, Netflix reportedly paid $10 million for the worldwide rights to "Knock Down the House," the film about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three other women who ran for office on progressive platforms last fall. "By my count, that makes Knock Down the House the biggest documentary sale ever brokered at a film festival, Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. wrote at the time.

On Monday Netflix "released the official trailer" for the documentary, ComingSoon.net notes... The film starts streaming on May 1...

"The Selected Work of David Carr"

The AP broke this news on Monday: "Writings by the late David Carr, the revered author and journalist, are coming out in book form next year. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a friend whom Carr once mentored, is providing the introduction. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced Monday that 'Final Draft: The Selected Work of David Carr' was scheduled for the spring of 2020 and will be edited by his widow, Jill Rooney Carr..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- A big story about the NFL and TV rights by Brian Steinberg: "Disney Makes Big Play to Stay in NFL's TV-Football Game..." (Variety)

-- An Phung emails: Here's what a group of high school journalists did when they were turned away from covering a roundtable discussion on education with Betsy DeVos... (CNN)

-- Nicholas Johnston writes: "Because it's never been harder for companies to reach distracted consumers, more and more firms are hiring editors and content creators..." (Axios)

"The View" laughs off "SNL" parody

Megan Thomas emails: The panelists on "The View," back on Monday after a week-long break, reacted to the recent "SNL" parody of their chats. And I thought they were refreshingly unfazed. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar said it was nice to be portrayed by female cast members for a change. Read/watch here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of company co-founder Roy Disney, continues to make news in her interviews and tweets. On Sunday, she said Bob Iger's paycheck is "insane..." Here's how the company responded... (CNN)

-- You'll enjoy this John Herrman column about how stars -- as in, a five star rating for your Uber driver -- have been mutated and empowered... (NYT)

-- One of this year's Pulitzer winners, author Eliza Griswold, is married to Pulitzer board member Steve Coll. The organization is denying any connection, and says Coll was not involved with the nonfiction book category... (Wash Times)

-- The Intercept's Rubina Madan Fillion is joining the NYT to run the opinion section's "distribution and engagement efforts..." (NYT)

-- Samsung has delayed its launch of the Galaxy Fold after some early models broke. Lemme second what Kenneth Li tweeted: "I think Samsung owes the reviewers a huge debt. Imagine this playing out in the market, like last time?" (CNN)

Four weeks til "Catch-22" on Hulu...

...And the rollout is underway. Director George Clooney and star Christopher Abbott are on the cover of this week's Variety... Here's a first look at the cover... The feature will be online on Tuesday:

'Avengers' and 'Thrones' highlight peak-geek culture

Brian Lowry emails: The juxtaposition of two huge battles to save their respective universes, in "Avengers: Endgame" and "Game of Thrones," is a coincidental but timely demonstration of what might be called peak-geek culture, both in terms of the "show" and "business" halves of the entertainment industry. While there's no way to tell the level of crossover between the two franchises, one also suspects more than a few fans will front-load their weekends, seeing "Avengers" on Friday or Saturday before being in position to watch "Thrones" live on Sunday...

"Around the clock" showings

More from Lowry: Speaking of "Endgame," AMC will be playing the movie "around the clock" from Thursday night through Sunday at multiple locations, en route to what should be domestic and international box-office records. THR has details here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Luke Perry's final "Riverdale" scenes air this week...

-- Maisie Williams initially thought her big "Game of Thrones" sex scene was a prank. It didn't go over well with some viewers...

-- Ariana Grande closed out Coachella with a surprise Justin Bieber duet...

-- Jussie Smollett's older brother has defended him in a new essay...

What's a "hit" on Netflix?

Brian Lowry emails: This is a pet peeve -- as well as a source of irritation to competitors -- but it happens often enough to be worth noting: A L.A. Times feature on "Shtisel," a show about Orthodox Jews, calls the Israeli series "a hit on Netflix" in the headline. But is it? Read further, and the piece concedes, "Netflix does not release viewership numbers. But fascination with 'Shtisel' has spurred conversations on Facebook and Twitter." In other words, only Netflix knows if it's a hit, and they're not saying...

If you missed Sunday's "Reliable Sources" on TV...

Catch up on Sunday's show via the transcript, the podcast, the video clips on CNN.com, or via CNNgo or VOD! Here are a few of the takeaways...

White House of lies

The Mueller report revealed a house of lies — a White House of lies — reaffirming the sad reality that deceit is THE story of the Trump age.

Past administrations have bent the truth, of course, but Trump's White House breaks the truth in half -- and then lies about breaking it. On the show, I argued that journalists should stand up for decency and morality, especially when the people in power don't. Here's the monologue...

A "broken system of accountability?"

Ezra Klein, who wrote "The problem with impeachment" for Vox, joined me on Sunday's show. An impeachment inquiry is "very likely merited," he said, but the process "needs a lot of bipartisan support," and that support doesn't exist. This is emblematic of America's "broken system of accountability," he said.

In a working system, Trump's "clear pattern of obstruction of justice would merit and should merit an impeachment inquiry," but the system is "broken..."

Jay Rosen warns about 'authoritarian news system'

On Sunday's show, NYU professor Jay Rosen spoke with me about the consequences of Trump's "hate movement" against the media. He said the White House and its allies have established an "authoritarian news system that is up and running in the country that is known for having the freest press in the world." One of hs points: "We don't always have the language we need to talk about it."

Rosen said Trump's base has been "isolated in an information system of its own," partly due to Fox News. In the same segment, "Messengers of the Right" author Nicole Hemmer said Watergate probably would have had a "very different outcome" if Fox had existed back then. Here's the video...

Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you tomorrow...