EXEC SUMMARY: Scroll down for details about President Trump's next call with Sean Hannity, Taylor Swift's new video, WarnerMedia's talks with J.J. Abrams, Ross Levinsohn's next act, and a very brave photographer in Dallas...
"Why do some people avoid news?"
That's the question Joshua Benton asks and addresses in his latest must-read for NiemanLab. This piece should be a conversation-starter in newsrooms and C-suites, hopefully prompting some new ideas for news.
"By emphasizing the nihilistic fringe that comes at us on Twitter — the folks who say we're all liars and fabulists — I worry that we're missing the larger group that just doesn't like the meal we've been serving," Benton writes. He's talking about "the ones who find the news we produce disempowering, stress-inducing, and, frankly, not worth the time and effort. What's the news product that fixes that problem?"
Benton highlighted the Reuters Institute's recent finding that "more people say they actively avoid the news (32%) than when we last asked this question two years ago." 32%! "People say they avoid the news because it has a negative effect on their mood (58%) or because they feel powerless to change events." He also pulled out some of the standout comments from Isabelle Roughol's LinkedIn post about this.
"News consumption used to be about daily habits — reading the paper every morning, watching the 6 o'clock news every night. Now it seeps into our days as much or as little as we want it to," Benton wrote. "Civically useful journalism is competing with every other form of media, content, or diversion on your phone. In that context, many people decide, as rational economic actors, they're better off without us. How can we convince them otherwise?"
Stewart v. McConnell
Jon Stewart has been pressuring Mitch McConnell to fully fund the 9/11 first responders fund. McConnell responded on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning: "Many things in Congress happen at the last minute. We've never failed to address this issue and we will address it again. I don't know why he is all bent out of shape, but we will take care of the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund." | | Stewart hit back at McConnell on the "Late Show" on CBS. The segment is on YouTube. "Honestly, Mitch McConnell, you really want to go with the 'we'll get to it when we get to it' argument for the heroes of 9/11? Listen, Senator, I know that your species isn't known for moving quickly," he said. (Stephen Colbert noted the turtle reference.) "But damn, Senator, you're not good at this argument thing!"
Stewart's message to McConnell boiled down to this: Meet with the first responder advocates. "Tomorrow. As soon as possible. And don't make them beg for it. You could pass this thing as a standalone bill tomorrow."
He concluded: "If you're busy, I get it. Just understand, the next time we have war; or you're being robbed; or your house is on fire, and you make that desperate call for help, don't get bent out of shape if they show up at the last minute, with fewer people than you thought were going to pay attention, and don't actually put it out. Just sort of leave it there smoldering for another five years, cuz, that's how s--- gets done around here, mister. I'm sure they'll put it out for good when they feel like getting around to it. No offense."
THR: WarnerMedia prevails in bidding war for J.J. Abrams
"Following a months-long courting process that included multiple suitors, WarnerMedia is in final negotiations for a new partnership with Bad Robot," THR's Lesley Goldberg scooped on Monday. "It's unclear how many years the new agreement is for, as the deal that would keep Abrams with the company he has called home since 2006 has not yet been finalized. Still, sources have estimated that any new pact for Bad Robot could be valued in the $500 million vicinity when all is said and done." Several other outlets have matched the $500 million figure. That's a new high water mark for a producer deal...
--> Peter Kafka tweeted: "This is the kind of deal that AT&T was supposed to have a hard time getting because it didn't have the requisite charm and couth to please Hollywood's delicate flowers..."
Sprint and T-Mobile merger is about to clear its biggest hurdle
The DOJ is prepared to approve Sprint and T-Mobile's on-again-off-again $26 billion deal within days, CNN's Jessica Schneider reported Monday. Here's the full story by Schneider, Brian Fung and David Goldman. Negotiations are still ongoing, but as long as "all parties agree on concessions, the Justice Department will approve the deal by the end of this week or beginning of next week..."
>> Last month, FCC chairman Ajit Pai recommended that the FCC bless the deal...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- One of Monday's SCOTUS rulings: "Court holds that First Amendment does not apply to private operator of public-access channels..." (SCOTUSblog)
-- "The Justice Department has reached settlements with CBS, Cox, Scripps, Fox and Tegna in its ongoing investigation of the broadcast TV ad market and the exchange of competitively sensitive information..." (B&C)
-- Monday was Daniel Dale's first day at CNN... And Chris Cuomo put him to work right away! Here's the fact-checking segment... (Twitter)
-- "Veteran Dallas Morning News photojournalist Tom Fox said he thought he 'was gone' when he hid in an alcove from a heavily armed masked man at the downtown federal courts building Monday morning." Read about his experience and see his stunning photos here... (DMN)
Remembering Gloria Vanderbilt
Anderson Cooper somehow summoned the strength to produce an obituary for his mother Gloria Vanderbilt. When she died on Monday morning, surrounded by family, CNN aired his seven-minute tribute. If you haven't watched it yet, click here.
Love, he said, "is what she believed in more than anything." | | The obit revealed that Vanderbilt had "very advanced cancer in her stomach and that it had spread." She found out earlier this month. "The last few weeks, every time I kissed her goodbye I'd say, 'I love you, mom.' She would look at me and say, 'I love you too. You know that.' And she was right. I did know that," Cooper said. "I knew it from the moment I was born and I'll know it for the rest of my life. And in the end, what greater gift could a mother give to her son. Gloria Vanderbilt was 95 years old when she died. What an extraordinary life, what an extraordinary mom, and what an incredible woman."
Our deepest condolences to Cooper and his family. 🙏
TUESDAY PLANNER
-- Alexander Nazaryan's "The Best People: Trump's Cabinet and the Siege on Washington" hits bookshelves...
-- Global Fact 6, "the largest fact-checking event in history," gets underway in Cape Town...
-- Facebook will reportedly introduce details about its cryptocurrency plans...
-- POTUS holds his formal 2020 kickoff event in Orlando...
Alex Jones hearing set for Tuesday
Oliver Darcy emails: Attorneys representing the Sandy Hook families in their Connecticut lawsuit against Alex Jones filed a motion on Monday asking the judge to review footage of the InfoWars founder attacking one of its attorneys in a Friday segment. This is all a bit confusing, so let me do my best to break it down…
As part of the lawsuit, Jones had to turn over a cache of documents during the discovery process. Included in those documents were "numerous images of illegal child pornography," the plaintiffs said in the Monday court filing. The plaintiffs noted that the images "had apparently been sent to InfoWars email addresses." In other words, it seems someone sent child pornography to InfoWars email addresses, and then as part of the discovery process, those emails with the images were turned over to the Sandy Hook lawyers. It doesn't appear that Jones or anyone on his team solicited or even knew about those images -- actually, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys' complaints now is that Jones' attorneys didn't do "even minimal due diligence and ... [review] the materials before production." The plaintiffs said they obviously contacted the FBI when they came across the images.
On Friday's broadcast, Jones then suggested -- without offering evidence -- that the plaintiffs' attorneys had set him up. (They deny this.) "And then now magically they want metadata out of hundreds of thousands of emails they got, and they know just where to go," Jones said, according to the court filing. "What a nice group of Democrats. How surprising. What nice people." Jones then mentioned a specific attorney for the Sandy Hook families, and "pound[ed] on a picture of his face," the court filing said.
As a result, the lawyers for the Sandy Hook families have asked the judge to review the footage. They interpret what Jones said as "threats against counsel... made to a very large audience" and say, "The Court has an obligation to protect the attorneys, parties, and the judicial process." The hearing on the motion has been set for Tuesday at noon…
YouTube's kids problem
This new Bloomberg story about YouTube's "kids problem" speaks to me as the parent of a two year old. The blunt headline: "The Most Popular Kids' Video Site in the World Isn't for Kids."
Mark Bergen and Lucas Shaw go deep on the "safer version of YouTube," named YouTube Kids, and how the company "knows most children don't watch it." Even YT Kids baffles me. Why, when I type in "Elmo," is the algorithm so determined to show me amateur videos and unrelated content? Why don't users have more control over the recommendations they are force-fed?
But I digress. Here's one of the key grafs from the Bloomberg story: "Four people at Google privately admitted that they don't let their kids watch YouTube unsupervised and said the sentiment was widespread at the company. One of these people said frustration with YouTube has grown so much that some have suggested the division spin off altogether to preserve Google's brand." Read on...
| | Hannity and Trump back on the phone together...
Fox says Sean Hannity "will present an interview with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, June 19," one day after Trump's prime time campaign launch event in Orlando...
Modest interest in Trump's ABC interview
ABC's Trump special averaged 3.9 million viewers on Sunday night. Politico called it a "ratings bust" and noted the "sharp drop from Celebrity Family Feud, which premiered in the time slot last week, and pulled in 6.1 million viewers."
On Monday night Hannity called the #'s "humiliating" for George Stephanopoulos. But the #'s actually say more about Trump. This is a trend I've been noticing for a while: Interviews with the president don't "rate" like they used to. Sometimes Fox only sees a modest uptick when he's on. This makes sense, I think, two and a half years into Trump's term...
"Cascade of lies"
That's how Jake Tapper characterized the Trumpworld reactions to the internal polling showing Trump trailing Joe Biden. "The president's definition of 'fake polls' apparently means polls he does not like," Tapper said. Re: the firing of three pollsters, Tapper said, "This is a theme we've seen throughout the Trump presidency. Officials unsure of how to deal with a mercurial boss, untethered to facts." Mediaite has more here...
Trump complaining about Fox
"@FoxNews Polls are always bad for me," he tweeted Monday night. "They were against Crooked Hillary also. Something weird going on at Fox. Our polls show us leading in all 17 Swing States. For the record, I didn't spend 30 hours with @ABCNews, but rather a tiny fraction of that. More Fake News." He copied Bret Baier on the tweet.
--> BTW, he tagged the wrong ABC News. The Australian broadcaster has the @ABCNews handle on Twitter...
Save the Children's first mission inside the US
NBC says Cynthia McFadden had "exclusive access with Save the Children on its first humanitarian mission inside the United States." The group "went to Deming, New Mexico, a poor tiny border community that has been inundated with migrants seeking asylum," NBC News says. "This is the first time in Save the Children's 100-year history that they have needed to respond to a humanitarian crisis in the U.S and it's the first time news cameras have been allowed inside any migrant shelter of any kind." McFadden's piece will air on Tuesday's "Nightly News" and Wednesday's "Today" show...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- The term "Trump's Russia blindness" stood out to me in Chris Cillizza's latest... He says the president's Russia blind spot "is hamstringing his administration..." (CNN)
-- "Caroline Sunshine, the former Disney Channel star turned White House press assistant/wrangler, left the White House on Friday," Daniel Lippman reported. "She is moving back to California..." (Politico)
-- VP Mike Pence's comms director Jarrod Agen is leaving the administration... "Agen is expected to take a role at Lockheed Martin after he leaves the White House at the end of the month. Alyssa Farah, Pence's press secretary, is expected to assume Agen's responsibilities..." (CNN)
BuzzFeed News employees stage walkout
Oliver Darcy emails: BuzzFeed News employees staged a Monday afternoon walkout, in an attempt to pressure the company to recognize their union. The walkout took place across all of BuzzFeed News' US bureaus – NY, LA, DC, and SF – and employees in New York held a rally outside of BuzzFeed's headquarters. More than 100 employees had been expected to participate, a NewsGuild of New York spokesperson told me.
BuzzFeed founder/CEO Jonah Peretti sent a note to staff in which he said that the company "made an offer two weeks ago to voluntarily recognize" the union. He described it as "the product of more than three months of discussions and negotiations with the NewsGuild" and "both responsive to our employees' requests, and mindful of the way the company operates."
But the BuzzFeed News Union says that after the offer, BuzzFeed management stopped negotiating. They said in tweets BuzzFeed has "refused to work toward compromises on key issues" and "taken positions that would severely undercut our union's ability to protect workers." All the details are in my full story here…
Ross Levinsohn will run SI
Now it's up to Ross Levinsohn to "reinvigorate Sports Illustrated," the LAT's Meg James reports: Levinsohn was named chief executive of SI on Monday "as part of a licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group, which just three weeks ago acquired the 65-year-old magazine for about $110 million from Iowa publishing giant Meredith Corp."
Here's what happened: A "small Seattle-based digital publishing firm" called Maven "agreed to pay Authentic Brands annual royalties for use of the Sports Illustrated properties in seven countries — the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Maven paid Authentic Brands $45 million in advance royalties as part of the deal, which runs through 2029." Maven will operate the mag, and "also has rights to exploit the popular Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and launch channels, video sites and special issues tied to the well-known brand." Read on...
The NYPost's Keith J. Kelly has more of the backstory here...
Snap's ad strategy
Kaya Yurieff emails: I had an exclusive interview with Snap's Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman, just in time for the first day of the Cannes Lions festival. She's a former Amazon exec who is tasked with revamping the company's ad business. Gorman joined Snap in November, at a time when the company was struggling with a declining user base, the departure of several execs and the fallout from an unpopular redesign of the app. This year, the company (and its stock) are bouncing back, and the app is starting to add users again. Gorman told me she saw a huge opportunity at Snap for advertisers to reach Gen Z. "As I did more research and recognized that [Snapchat] is truly the default communication tool for teenagers, it was something that I thought, 'Well gosh, I really need to be a part of that,'" Gorman said. "This is the future. These are the people who will have all the spending power, and have all the influence." She's one of the most powerful women at Snap, and one of a handful that reports directly to CEO Evan Spiegel. More...
Lowry recommends "The Lavender Scare"
Brian Lowry emails: "The Lavender Scare," a documentary making its debut on PBS Tuesday, is about the 1950s era purge of homosexuals from the federal government as "security risks," a policy initiated during the Eisenhower administration that continued for four decades. As PBS notes, this is "the first documentary to tell the story of this little-known aspect of American history." It was produced and directed by "60 Minutes" veteran Josh Howard, who left the network in 2005 in the wake of the Bush National Guard story. Here's the landing page for the film...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- An invaluable member of CNN's legal team, Johnita Due, is WarnerMedia News and Sports' new SVP and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, reporting to Jeff Zucker... (CNN)
-- Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott is on Crain's list of 2019's most powerful women in New York... (Crain's)
-- "The Atlantic is launching a new skill for Amazon Echo and Google Home: A 'single, illuminating idea' every weekday..." (NiemanLab)
-- "This year's U.S. Open was the most watched since Fox started televising the event in 2015..." (AP)
-- We're doomed: "Virtual influencers" are on the rise... (NYT)
| | MTV Movie & TV Awards winners
"Netflix had 14 nominations for its TV shows and films, including 'Bird Box' and 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before,' both of which won awards -- Noah Centineo & Lana Condor for 'Best Kiss' and Sandra Bullock for 'Most Frightened Performance,'" Chloe Melas writes.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was awarded the Generation Award, and Jada Pinkett Smith was honored with the Trailblazer Award. Chloe has the complete winners list here...
What Taylor Swift's newest music video means | | The video for "You Need To Calm Down" may be T-Swift's most political move yet, Chloe Melas writes. It included a call to action, with a graphic reading, "Please sign my petition for Senate support of the Equality Act on Change.org." The Equality Act, if passed, would amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Three recommended reads
Megan Thomas emails with three excellent, entertaining and informative perspectives on Swift's newest song and video:
"Why so many of us believed that Taylor Swift was coming out"" -- by BuzzFeed's Shannon Keating
"No shade but there's a wrong way to make a gay anthem" - by Esquire's Dave Holmes
"Every Easter egg in Taylor Swift's 'You Need to Calm Down'" -- by Vulture's Jill Gutowitz
GIF-able "Lies"
Megan Thomas emails: Sandra Gonzalez has been covering "Big Little Lies" for us this season and her hilarious recaps are as snacky as the show. Sandra's latest: "Lies" might be giving us the most GIF-able TV season of all time... | |
What ABC is doing with "Grand Hotel"
Brian Lowry writes: Reality shows used to try to approximate the appeal of scripted dramas, albeit for considerably less money. "Grand Hotel," the ABC drama (adapted from a Spanish telenovela) that premiered Monday, basically flips that equation -- a drama that seeks to replicate the soapy qualities of "The Bachelor," designed to hang onto its lead-in from "The Bachelorette." Read on...
The sequel question...
Brian Lowry emails: "Men in Black: International" and "Shaft" -- coupled with the second-weekend nosedive by "Dark Phoenix" -- have fueled a new round of stories best summed by this Forbes headline, "Why Are So Many Sequels Bombing This Summer?" Franchise fatigue is one proposed explanation, but there are too many mixed signals as of now -- including Disney's recent successes -- to, at this point, do much more than guess...
THR's Borys Kit, meanwhile, has a good read on behind-the-scenes troubles that might help explain where "Men in Black" went wrong...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Shania Twain is headed back to Vegas, Chloe Melas reports... (CNN)
-- Wendy Lee tweeted her latest: "Amazon is signaling to producers that it is no longer pursuing the development of new original animated programs aimed exclusively at kids..." (LAT)
-- FX has renewed "Pose" for a third season... (Deadline)
ICYMI... Catch up on Sunday's show
You can read the transcript from Sunday's "Reliable Sources," watch the video clips on CNN.com, or listen to the podcast via Apple or your preferred app...
The polarization of trust
My opening monologue on Sunday: "If you don't have trust, you don't have anything." In the minds of some people, this applies to the Trump White House. Numerous polls have shown that most Americans do not trust the president. This reality affects every single conversation about American politics. It is the thing that turns the solid ground to swampy mud. And it really matters at moments like this, when there are heightened tensions between the United States and Iran. And yet... Trump's biggest fans don't think they can trust the journalists who are pointing this point. This is the polarization of trust in action...
"Is the press rooting for impeachment?"
That's the question I posed to panelists Samantha Vinograd, Max Boot, and Margaret Sullivan on Sunday -- recognizing that the press is not a monolith. They pushed back on the question and pointed out the difference between commentators and reporters. Here's the clip...
The next time...
How will newsrooms react the next time stolen documents show up on the digital doorstep? How SHOULD they react? On Sunday's show, Margaret Sullivan advised against publishing "weaponized gossip" and said journalists should "make it clear where anything is coming from." Watch...
My interview with Andrew Yang
Andrew Yang, who earned a spot on the June 27 debate stage, spoke with me on Sunday. Here's part one of the interview. In part two, we talked about his proposal for government-subsidized "American Journalism Fellows," as well as the criticism of the idea. "If you believe in a vibrant democracy -- or even a functional democracy -- then you have to believe in local journalism," he said...
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