EXEC SUMMARY: Does Justin Amash have lots of secret GOP allies? Does Netflix have a plan to pull out of Georgia? Was "Booksmart" badly timed? Plus: Norah O'Donnell's exclusive, Al Franken's podcast, the "ten-minute rule," and much more...
Amash, all alone?
Ever since Rep. Justin Amash posted his tweetstorm about the Mueller report on May 18, he has been described as the only Republican lawmaker to accuse President Trump of impeachable conduct. And that's because he IS the only one in his party. He's all alone on this. That's why Tuesday's scene at Grand Rapids Christian High School was nationally newsworthy.
Amash is not alone | | Tuesday's town hall showed that Amash has support. The visuals -- of a standing ovation for Amash, of loud applause for his "boldness" -- may advance the impeachment conversation another inch. Here's the headline on Haley Byrd's recap for CNN: "Amash greeted with a standing ovation at Michigan town hall." Some attendees said many of the constituents in the crowd were Democrats. But Amash also engaged with people who were wearing MAGA apparel. These moments made the homepages of national news sites on Tuesday night.
--> The context: Conservative critics claim Amash is just trying to get attention by opposing Trump, but Amash has turned down every single interview request he has received. Tuesday's town hall meeting "was Amash's first major public appearance since May 18," WaPo noted.
--> Rolling Stone's Jamil Smith tweeted: "A GOP Congressman got cheers from voters for standing up against the president and calling out his impeachable offenses with uncompromising language while Democratic leadership prayed for him, calling for centrism and caution. Amash is no hero, but this has to wake some folks up."
--> CNN analyst Carrie Cordero: "The positive reaction to Amash's truth telling about the Mueller Report underscores a view I've held since [the] 2016 campaign: outside observers and commentators can call out Trump's rhetoric and actions, but an elected official with a constituency can have a far more powerful impact."
This might be the most important thing Amash said
It came at the very end of Tuesday's town hall. It was flagged by CNN's Daniel Lewis. "My colleagues tell me all the time -- in fact, you wouldn't believe how many phone conversations I've had, or conversations in person with colleagues... A lot of them think I'm right about the Mueller report. And they just won't say it. A lot of Republicans. What they'll say to me is, Justin, you know, going out publicly with that, you know the Democrats will never support you. You know that they're hypocrites on this stuff. And I say, you know, some of them are and some of them aren't. It doesn't matter to me. Because you have to look at what you're doing first. You have to care about what you're doing. If you have a society where all we care about is that the other side is bad, and therefore we don't have to do the right thing, that society will break down, and you will have no liberty." Amash concluded: "I refuse to be a part of that."
--> Amash "seems to be making a case for impeachment stronger than many of your Democratic colleagues," Don Lemon said to Eric Swalwell on "CNN Tonight..."
Comey's newest op-ed is No. 1
This James Comey op-ed is No. 1 on WaPo's most-read list right now. He argues that "we shouldn't" ignore Trump's rants because "millions of good people believe what a president of the United States says."
Comey's focus is on what he calls Trump's "lies that the FBI was corrupt and committed treason, that we spied on the Trump campaign and tried to defeat Donald Trump." He's addressing the "Fox & Friends" and "Hannity" narrative head-on. "There is a reason the non-fringe media doesn't spend much time on this 'treason' and 'corruption' business. The conspiracy theory makes no sense," Comey writes... But "go ahead, investigate the investigators, if you must. When those investigations are over, you will find the work was done appropriately and focused only on discerning the truth of very serious allegations. There was no corruption. There was no treason. There was no attempted coup. Those are lies, and dumb lies at that. There were just good people trying to figure out what was true, under unprecedented circumstances."
Speaking of figuring out what is true...
Fake letters to the editor?!
CNN's Kevin Collier reports: "A pro-Iranian influence campaign created fake Facebook and Twitter accounts to push Tehran's viewpoint in the US and succeeded in having a number of American newspapers publish their letters, according to new research published Tuesday."
The research came from FireEye, a threat intelligence company, which asserted that manufactured identities/accounts "succeeded in having letters to the editor published in American newspapers at least 13 times in the past year." The study's author, Lee Foster, "was careful to stress that his research only showed that the campaign was coordinated to support Iran's goals, and stopped short of tying it to the Iranian government."
--> In response to FireEye's research, Facebook said "we can prove" that the operation was conducted inside Iran. FB announced that it has removed "51 accounts, 36 pages, and seven groups, as well as three Instagram accounts that it believed were part of the same campaign..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Kamala Harris declined a Fox town hall invite "and instead did MSNBC" on Tuesday night, "allowing her to make essentially every point she might want to — largely uninterrupted," Christopher Cadelago noted... (Twitter)
-- A great read from Aaron Mak: Trump's Wikipedia entry "is a war zone" where editors fight "a brutal, petty battle over every word..." (Slate)
-- The Trump Make America Great Again Committee "sponsored Tuesday's episode of The Laura Ingraham Podcast," Jeremy Barr wrote. Fox's response: "Laura Ingraham's podcast is run independently of Fox News and we have nothing to do with its sponsorships..." (THR)
Remembering Tony Horwitz
"Tony Horwitz, whose vivid stories about working-class Americans won him a Pulitzer Prize at The Wall Street Journal before he became a best-selling history author, died at age 60 while on a tour for his latest book," the WSJ's William Power wrote Tuesday. "A Northerner with a deep fascination for the South, Mr. Horwitz is remembered as one of the most talented Journal writers of the past 35 years. In addition to covering wars as a foreign correspondent, he won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1995 for articles about working conditions in low-wage America."
After his years at the WSJ, Horwitz joined The New Yorker. His former colleague Jill Lepore wrote on Tuesday about his "singular voice, full of compassion and delight and wry observations and self-deprecating humor—layers that covered but never obscured his deep and abiding moral seriousness about the task of the historian as the conscience of a nation."
Horwitz was in Washington to promote his newest book, "Spying on the South," when he "collapsed while walking near his brother's home," per the Post. Deepest condolences to his many loved ones, friends and admirers.
This year's Pulitzer luncheon | | The 2019 winners assembled for an awards luncheon at Columbia University on Tuesday... Jennifer Hudson surprised the crowd with a performance honoring Aretha Franklin...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
By An Phung:
-- "To the shrinking community of critical journalists in Iran, the message is clear: Those in power will do whatever it takes to silence them," Jason Rezaian wrote in his latest column highlighting Iran's increasing control of the press... (WaPo)
-- Glenn Greenwald weighs in on the charges against Julian Assange: "The Trump administration has undoubtedly calculated that Assange's uniquely unpopular status across the political spectrum makes him the ideal test case for creating a precedent that criminalizes the defining attributes of investigative journalism. Now every journalist and every citizen must decide whether their personal animus toward Assange is more important than preserving press freedom in the United States." (WaPo)
-- Erik Wemple's latest: The "Assange indictment casts pall over journalists 'encouraging' sources..." (WaPo)
The latest from SF
Evan Sernoffsky's newest scoop about the Bryan Carmody case: "San Francisco police executed seven search warrants as they tried to find out who leaked a police report to a freelance journalist, including searches of officers and one of the journalist's phone records, police officials and an attorney in the case said." More...
--> Related: Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, compiled a list of lingering questions about the police raid of Carmody's home in SF. (Freedom of the Press Foundation)
| | "Siege" stories are here
The Guardian published the first leaks from Michael Wolff's "Siege" on Tuesday... and the NYT dropped its review of the book later in the day. "Siege" has already generated a flat denial from Robert Mueller's office. But Wolff responded, in an interview with the NYT, "my source is impeccable, and I have no doubt about the authenticity and the significance of the documents." On Tuesday night he referred my request for comment to his publishing house, which declined.
"There are salacious details in this book — many of which Trump's critics will want to eat up — though with so many unnamed sources, Trump's compulsion for hyperbole and Wolff's own journalistic record, it's hard to know which tidbits to trust," Jennifer Szalai wrote for the NYT. She said it "makes more sense to read 'Siege' less as a news report and more as a rhetorical gambit — a twisted bid to" burnish Steve Bannon's anti-establishment legacy. Yes, Bannon talked to Wolff again, despite the furor over "Fire and Fury" last year...
Mattis is writing a book, but not a Trump tell-all
James Mattis signed a book deal with Random House before he became Secretary of Defense in early 2017. Now he has had some time to finish it. The book, "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead," will come out on July 16.
--> Mattis is managing expectations: "I don't write about sitting presidents, so those looking for a tell-all will be disappointed," he said in Tuesday's announcement...
BookExpo begins Wednesday
This is the publishing industry's annual convention in NYC... I stopped by one of the pre-parties on Tuesday... The show officially begins Wednesday. The AP's Hillel Italie has a preview here. "Guest speakers, all with upcoming releases to promote, include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Rachel Maddow, Lupita Nyong'o and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Among others attending are Jason Reynolds, Lyz Lenz, R.J. Palacio, Jennifer Weiner and Laurie Halse Anderson..."
Independent booksellers are growing
An announcement timed to BookExpo: The American Booksellers Association "again gained membership" in 2018, "rising from 1,835 individual companies (all but a handful independently owned stores) a year ago to 1,887, an increase of more than 20 percent since 2009," per Italie's story...
Norah O'Donnell's exclusive
Norah O'Donnell signed off "CBS This Morning" earlier this month, and she isn't taking over the "CBS Evening News" until sometime this summer, but she isn't going dark in the meantime: She's been assembling a staff, working on taped pieces, and on Wednesday she has an exclusive sit-down with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg. CBS says it will be "Muilenburg's first major interview since 346 people died in two crashes involving the company's 737 MAX jet." O'Donnell will be on the "Evening News" with the takeaways from the interview...
Three takeaways from the LA Times' story about CNN
Stephen Battaglio interviewed CNN boss Jeff Zucker for this new story:
-- "Zucker told The Times... that AT&T has respected CNN's journalistic independence." Case in point: The lawsuit to get Jim Acosta's White House pass restored. "I think that was an enormous test of how AT&T felt about the division," Zucker said. "And I can tell you unequivocally from the start they were very supportive. It is not an easy thing to sue the president of the United States."
-- "Zucker believes ratings will rebound as the 2020 race for the White House heats up, although not the level they reached in 2017, when Trump turned cable networks into must-see TV."
-- "Zucker cites consumer research that CNN regularly commissions. In April, when respondents were asked to name a news organization they trust most for national and international coverage, 23% named CNN, putting it ahead of Fox News, which had 21%. Those numbers have been fairly consistent in recent years, even with Trump bashing the channel, he said."
CNN International moving some production from London to Atlanta
"CNN is moving some of the production jobs in its London offices to Atlanta, the latest in what appears to be a recent series of moves aimed at tweaking the news outlet's operations in the wake of the purchase of its parent company, WarnerMedia, by AT&T," Variety's Brian Steinberg reported Tuesday.
CNN's statement: "In the coming months CNN International will be consolidating key parts of its production model centrally in Atlanta, in much the same way as we currently do with large parts of our programming for CNN US. This means that some jobs will shift to Atlanta, but overall headcount will be unchanged."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "2019 is on pace to have the highest percentage of Time covers featuring only women in the magazine's nearly 100-year history..." (Axios)
-- "TruTV has laid off most of its programming and marketing staffers as oversight of the WarnerMedia cabler is consolidated into the broader Turner entertainment group." Here is Kevin Reilly's memo about the change... (Variety)
Al Franken is talking
Do you know about Al Franken's new podcast, dubbed the "Al Franken Podcast?" It launched earlier this month. Notably absent "from the first batch of recordings has been any discussion of what happened; of why Franken spends his Fridays in a tucked-away recording studio instead of debating legislation on the Senate floor," WaPo's Ben Terris wrote on Tuesday.
Terris tried to speak with Franken outside the studio, but Franken said "I'm not talking." The point Terris makes: The former Senator "is talking, but only on his terms: into a microphone, in the studio, where he gets to set the agenda during the interviews and exercise editorial discretion afterward." Read the full story about Franken's maneuverings to get "back into the fray..."
"The Pelley 10-Minute Rule"
Buffalo News TV critic Alan Pergament followed up on this comment made by Scott Pelley on Sunday's "Reliable Sources:"
"If you see something you wonder about, or outrages you... spend 10 minutes to find out if that story is true," Pelley said. "Our viewers have never had to do that in history. And today it is going to be mandatory."
Pergament seconded the "10-minute rule" and showed how to apply it to Buffalo's media scene...
Netflix's stand against Georgia abortion ban
The headline on Sonia Rao's WaPo story: "Netflix becomes the first major Hollywood studio to speak out against Georgia's abortion law."
Celebrities and some production companies have vowed to boycott Georgia, but Netflix's deep pockets give the company a much louder voice. "We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law," Ted Sarandos said in a statement to Variety on Tuesday. "It's why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court. Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we'll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to." But -- here's the but -- "should it ever come into effect, we'd rethink our entire investment in Georgia." Read Lisa Respers France's full story here...
| | Lowry reviews the latest "Monsterverse" movie
Brian Lowry emails: Nothing better exemplifies the studio preoccupation with franchises than Warner Bros.' efforts to create a "Monsterverse," with the weak "Kong: Skull Island" now followed by the only slightly better "Godzilla: King of the Monsters." With "Godzilla vs. Kong" due next year, the latest movie basically feels like an extended, expensive coming attraction for the main event to come...
>> Read the rest here...
Variety: "Broadway Box Office Hits Record $1.83 Billion in 2018-19 Season"
Brian Lowry emails: Some good news for Broadway in advance of the Tonys, with a record year of theatrical box office, per Variety, driven by hit plays (see "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Network") as well as musicals. Details here...
Bad timing for "Booksmart?"
Did the backers of "Booksmart" make a mistake by embarking on a "wide release on a busy holiday weekend, rather than try to build word-of-mouth through a limited initial unveiling during a less competitive time of year?" Ryan Faughnder explores that question in this new LAT story. Critics and moviegoers LOVE this movie. Jamie and I are still talking about it, three days after seeing it. But it only drew a "modest audience" in its opening weekend.
The distribution chief at United Artists Releasing, Erik Lomis, told Faughnder to think long term: "We have always believed, and actually proven, that we have a movie that audiences love, and we are expecting the film to play well into the summer. We are not quitting on this great film. We're confident that it's going to leg out."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Praise be! Season 3 of "The Handmaid's Tale" starts next month on Hulu. See some of what else is streaming in June.
-- Iggy Azalea has left social media after topless pics of her from a GQ Australia photo shoot leaked over the weekend.
-- Ariana Grande joined in the chorus of those with something to say about her wax figure.
Headlines from Letterman's next season
Chloe Melas emails: Season two of David Letterman's Netflix talk show, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction" is already making a slew of headlines ahead of its Friday release. Two examples:
-- Kanye West discusses being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
-- Ellen DeGeneres gets candid about allegedly being molested by her stepfather.
"This isn't a democracy"
Brian Lowry emails: This posted last week, but caught up with it over the weekend, and I think it articulates pretty well where most producers are on social media response to their shows: An interview with Ronald D. Moore, producer of "Battlestar Galactica" and "Outlander," about how to respond to fan backlash, in the context of "Game of Thrones'" final season.
A couple of Moore's key observations: "I said many times, 'This isn't a democracy.' We're not taking a vote on what fans want or think or care about." And, "An episode will air, you read the initial responses on Twitter, and it can be a decent barometer of whether people generally thought it was good or bad. But that's about as far it goes in terms of its value, to me. I just feel like it's a little more damaging than it is helpful."
| | | Thank you for reading! Send me your feedback anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
