Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We shared a lovely Passover seder on Friday, dyed some Easter eggs on Saturday, and unpacked an Easter basket on Sunday! Now to the news...
THE MUELLER REPORT
The revelations from Robert Mueller's report are sinking in -- and American politics are sinking ever lower. On Sunday Rudy Giuliani told an incredulous Jake Tapper that "there's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians." When Tapper challenged him -- "I'm not talking about crime. I'm talking about ethics" -- Rudy asked, "We're going to get into morality?"
Yes, Tapper said. And we should! On "Reliable Sources," I argued that journalists should stand up for decency and morality, especially when the people in power don't. Here's the monologue...
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. And it's broken us in half... or maybe into thirds. Some Americans are sick of all the deceptions; others have become immune; and others have accepted it. That's one of the reasons why this report is so important. It is a detailed, dispassionate description of who, what, when, where, why and how. The lies are listed in clinical detail.
The L.A. Times led with this angle on Sunday -- the headline said "Mueller report exposes all the president's liars" -- here's the story by Chris Megerian...
Eight questions
-- When will we hear more from Mueller?
-- Will the redacted portions of his report come out?
-- Mueller referred 14 cases to other offices. 12 of those were totally redacted. What are they? When will we find out?
-- What will come of right-wing media's demands to "investigate the investigators?"
-- Will polls show that any minds were swayed by the report's revelations?
-- Will more Democrats move to start an impeachment process?
-- How much legal jeopardy do Trump, his company and his family members still face?
-- How aggressively is Russia still attempting to influence our elections?
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..."
Monday's most important phone call?
With reps grappling with impeachment Q's while "back home in their districts on a recess, House Democrats will convene on Monday on a caucus conference call in the hopes of getting on the same page," the NYT's Emily Cochrane and Catie Edmondson wrote.
On ABC's "This Week," Rep. Adam Schiff essentially summed up the entire debate: "What we are going to have to decide as a caucus is: What is the best thing for the country? Is the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office? Or is it in the best interest of the country not to take up an impeachment that we know will not be successful in the Senate?"
Hey, let's hear from GOP lawmakers...
I understand why there's a lot of interest in Democratic lawmaker reaction to the Mueller report, but I'd really like to hear more from Republicans. Mitt Romney is one of the few who's spoken up...
A redacted New Yorker cover
Here's the new cover of The New Yorker -- a Barry Blitt original: | | The mag's Twitter feed quipped, "This issue will be delivered by C.D."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Former acting solicitor general/current MSNBC analyst Neal Katyal tweeted: "Now that I've digested it, the single thing leaping out about Mueller Report is it is far more devastating to Trump than anything most anticipated..."
-- Former FBI agent/CNN analyst Asha Rangappa wrote: "Folks, the collusion is happening in plain sight, as we speak, in denying that the actions taken by the campaign were wrong, unethical, immoral, and un-American. Unless Trump acknowledges that Russia interfered in our election, he's giving the thumbs up for them to do it again..."
-- Dan Rather tweeted: "Remember when there was a passionate debate about whether the press should use the word 'lie' to describe the lies coming out of this administration? Seems so quaint and long ago..."
-- McKay Coppins said the report was just a "political Rorschach test, where participants glanced at the news and then screamed their conclusions..."
42 days without a briefing
Per CNN's Allie Malloy, the longest stretch of time without a formal White House press briefing is 42 days. Sunday marked 41 days... So the ignoble record will be tied on Monday and broken on Tuesday.
--> On "Reliable," I talked with April Ryan and Katie Rogers about what it means to have a W.H. press secretary with no credibility...
--> One of Sarah Sanders' predecessors, Joe Lockhart, told SE Cupp on Saturday that Sanders "should resign" because she's "frankly become a national embarrassment..."
Mueller to NBC: "No comment"
We haven't heard Robert Mueller's voice out loud in the two years that he's been probing Russia and the Trump campaign. But we did, ever briefly, on Sunday. NBC's Mike Viqueira approached Mueller as he left church on Sunday... | | Here are the four Q's he asked while Mueller said "no comment" and drove away:
-- "Will you testify before Congress, sir?"
-- "If he were anybody but the president, would Mr. Trump be indicted, sir?"
-- "Sir, why didn't you make a recommendation to Congress one way or the other" about obstruction?
-- "Did the attorney general accurately characterize your positions on conspiracy and obstruction, sir?"
All excellent questions, IMHO! Viqueira is coming under criticism for "ambushing" and "hounding" Mueller... But some journalists, like Michael Shure, have spoken up in his defense... Shure tweeted that Viqueria was "doing his job -- trying to get answers from a subject. He didn't walk into church. He asked great questions after church for which many Americans want answers. Mueller's silence is expected and respectable -- but Viqueira was being a reporter..."
"Mueller Report" is #1, #2, and #3 on Amazon
Three different versions of the report, in book form, have been at the top of Amazon's best seller chart all weekend. Right now the The Washington Post's version, from Scribner, is No. 1... Skyhorse Publishing's version, with an intro by Alan Dershowitz, is No. 2... and the Melville House version is No. 3. They are in the same order on the Barnes & Noble site too, though a self-improvement book is No. 1.
The story of the CNN stakeouts
NOW it can be told! Four of the CNN staffers who staked out Mueller's office for 18 months -- Sam Fossum, Em Steck, Liz Stark and Caroline Kelly -- have written about "the backstory of their assignment and how this investment of time yielded big journalistic returns." This is a really great read...
--> Related: CNN senior writer Katelyn Polantz, who worked with the stakeout team and followed up on their sightings, joined me on "Reliable" for her first live TV hit! She was a pro. Topics: Covering the Mueller probe, what everyone should learn from the report, and what comes next...
What about all of us?
This is a bookend to the place where I started, talking about morality and decency. Brian Lowry emails: One key constituency has perhaps been given too much of a pass for our toxic political/media climate, according to the LAT's Virginia Heffernan: the public at large. The readers and listeners who buy into, and react to, social media. "Readers no less than reporters were enthralled by the stolen materials and the fraternity-style panty raid on Clinton," Heffernan wrote. "Amy Chozick, who covered the Clinton campaign for the New York Times, later described herself as 'an unwitting agent of Russian intelligence.' We all were." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- On Sunday's show I observed that there was "stellar reporting every step of the way" during the Mueller probe, but there was also "way too much speculation and liberal wishful thinking..." (CNN)
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest: "Mueller's report proves why Trump loves Fox News — and why he needs it now more than ever..." (WaPo)
-- "The window Mueller has given us into the workings of this administration offer us one more reason to think that our government is not ready for a serious crisis, and that its upper reaches might crumple in an emergency," National Affairs editor Yuval Levin writes... (NRO)
-- "How WhatsApp, FaceTime and other encryption apps shaped the outcome of the Mueller report..." (WaPo)
Ezra Klein's two questions | | From Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast...
#1: "How do we think about reporting on the Trump admin going forward? The Mueller report is thick with examples of the Trump admin purposefully, repeatedly lying to reporters." So contacting the W.H. press office for comment "when you know they may straightforwardly be lying to you is tough, right? It's a challenge to our deepest protocols..."
#2: "We knew those e-mails were hacked" in 2016. "There was a crime committed to steal information from the DNC and launder it through the press. We cooperated with that, often knowing exactly what it was. It's hard -- because we often get information that we need to report from all kinds of people with self-interested motives -- but I don't think that the media is doing all that much self-reflection about the role that we played in making Russia's operation successful. We're looking outward quite a bit but not inward nearly enough." So how should newsrooms respond next time?
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...
What about Hannity?
According to Mueller's report, Fox's Sean Hannity knew about the existence of the infamous Trump Tower meeting more than a week before news of the meeting broke in the NYT in July 2017. So why didn't Hannity report what he had found out? He could've had a huge scoop! Just asking...
>> Catch up on Sunday's show via the podcast; the video clips on CNN.com; or via CNNgo or VOD... >>
200+ dead in Sri Lanka
Most of us woke up to this sickening news on Easter morning. Coordinated bombings at churches and hotels across Sri Lanka. Here is CNN's latest on-the-ground reporting...
Sri Lanka and the danger of Silicon Valley's incompetence
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Sri Lanka blocked most social media sites after Sunday's attacks, citing "false news reports."
"A few years ago we'd view the blocking of social media sites after an attack as outrageous censorship; now we think of it as essential duty of care, to protect ourselves from threat," Ivan Sigal tweeted. And Raju Narisetti wrote, "Imagine you are Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Facebook board, and your platforms, Facebook and WhatsApp, are immediately ordered shut after a national terror attack. Do they realize what they have designed and created and let loose, and can't manage or control anymore?"
They're right – in the aftermath of terror attacks and other tragedies, social media platforms can turn into a cesspool of disinformation and even serve as a vehicle to celebrate atrocities – the suspect in last month's New Zealand attack streamed live on Facebook.
But social media is also where people go after a tragedy to get help and make sure loved ones are okay. Has Silicon Valley's inability to deal with problems on their platforms, and the media's coverage (sometimes overblown) of those problems, made it easier for governments to shut down these services at will? What effects does this have on speech?
>> Donie adds: I'd love to hear what people think about this for a possible story... Email me...
Accuracy matters
The president sent his condolences to Sri Lanka on Sunday morning -- but made a couple of mistakes. He initially tweeted that "138 million people" had been killed, which was off by a factor of a million. The confirmed death toll at the time was 138. His errant tweet stayed up for 20 minutes before being deleted. Then he posted a corrected version. But both versions of his tweet said that 600 people had been "badly injured." No doubt the casualty count has been devastating. I haven't found a single reliable news source that has reported 600 injuries. Various sources reported 450 to 560 injured, and some outlets refrained from reporting a specific number at all. But where'd Trump get the number 600 from? What was his source?
Twitter typos and mistakes matter because -- as I argued here -- when someone can't get the little stuff right, it makes you worry about the big stuff...
The latest on Lyra McKee's death
I led Friday's newsletter with the killing of investigative journalist Lyra McKee. The tributes to McKee keep coming -- Mediagazer, where she worked for years, has many of them on the home page -- while the police investigation into her death keeps going. Here's the latest from CNN's team: Two teenagers were arrested in connection with the shooting, but were "released without charges on Sunday, police in Northern Ireland said." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- What's the reality of the "Magnolia effect?" What have Chip and Joanna Gaines and "Fixer Upper" done for Waco? Anne Helen Petersen went there to find out... (BuzzFeed News)
-- Elizabeth Warren bylined a review of the "Game of Thrones" season premiere for The Cut. The headline: "The World Needs Fewer Cersei Lannisters..." (The Cut)
-- 🌎 Monday is Earth Day: "CBS This Morning" is promoting a special programming event called "Earth Matters," with "original reporting from every continent on the planet," per new exec producer Diana Miller... (Twitter)
Keep an eye on this SCOTUS case
There's a "big upcoming Supreme Court case that could have major implications for investigative journalism," CPJ's Avi Asher-Schapiro writes. "The court could redefine what kinds of business records are subject to FOIA."
And the oral arguments will take place on Monday morning. The case is Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader... Get caught up here...
Monday: FIVE town halls on CNN
This is CNN's biggest 2020 town hall event yet: Five in a row, back to back, from Saint Anselm College. The focus is on issues of importance to young people... Coinciding "with the release of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School's new national poll of young voters," per CNN's story. Here's the schedule:
7pm: Amy Klobuchar, moderated by Chris Cuomo
8pm: Elizabeth Warren, moderated by Anderson Cooper
9pm: Bernie Sanders, by Cuomo
10pm: Kamala Harris, moderated by Don Lemon
11pm: Pete Buttigieg, by Cooper
Media week ahead calendar
This week: Joe Biden is expected to enter the 2020 race...
Tuesday: Twitter earnings before the bell and Snap earnings after...
Tuesday: The TIME 100 summit and gala in NYC...
Wednesday: AT&T earnings after the bell...
Thursday: I'll be speaking at this Missouri School of Journalism event in DC...
Thursday night: Vox Media celebrates its fifth anniversary in DC...
Saturday: The WHCA's annual dinner...
"Avengers" countdown
Brian Lowry emails: On Friday "Avengers: Endgame" begins its potential assault on the box-office record books, while "Captain Marvel," it's worth noting, edged past the $400 million domestic threshold on Sunday...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Reggie Ugwu interviewed nine Michael Jackson biographers for this story. The premise: The pedophile allegations in "Leaving Neverland" have authors "revising their books" and retracing their steps, some with pride, some with anguish, some hovering unsteadily in between..." (NYT)
-- As a weather geek, I loved this Alan Blinder story inside the Storm Prediction Center. Per Blinder, it was inspired by an editor who asked "how the forecast had been so accurate" after a well-predicted tornado outbreak in Alabama... (NYT)
-- Joe Flint and Ben Fritz's latest is about the struggles at Lions Gate: Management tension, mounting competition and more... (WSJ)
Netflix and... don't chill?
That's what Shalini Ramachandran's fun WSJ story is all about. "Is streaming video responsible for America's falling fertility rate?" The case can certainly be made... She wrote that "some young couples call it the new birth control..."
But Netflix came up with a clever counter for the story: "We take pride in being part of the cultural zeitgeist, but getting credit for a decadeslong decline in sex is beyond even our programming abilities..."
| | "Veep" parallels to real life
Brian Lowry emails: In a recent Vanity Fair interview "Veep" showrunner Dave Mandel referred to the political satire as a "Trump-free zone." But viewers are to be forgiven if they see parallels in Sunday night's episode, which includes a subplot that involves a political campaign being offered assistance from the Chinese government through a back channel... | |
At the box office...
"With 'Avengers: Endgame' positioned to wipe out any competitors come Friday, only a couple of studios dared to roll out new movies this weekend. It worked fairly well for both of them," the NYT's Gabe Cohn wrote.
"The Curse of La Llorona" from Warner Bros. "topped the domestic box office with $26.5 million in ticket sales. That's a solid start; the movie reportedly cost just $9 million to make." And Fox's new film "Breakthrough" landed "in third place with $11.1 million." In between? Warner's "Shazam!," now in its third weekend, was No. 2...
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
