EXEC SUMMARY: Hey there, this is Oliver Darcy in for Brian Stelter. Scroll down for the latest on "Anonymous," what both Chris Wallace and Jake Tapper agree on, ProPublica's story on John Solomon, and more. But first...
Point / counterpoint
Stelter and I disagree about what tonight's lede should be. We both think that Facebook's rollout of a News section is the biggest media story of the day -- but Stelter thinks we should focus on the payments FB is making to publishers. "This is a game-changer," he texted me. I want to focus on something else. And I'm at the helm, so here's my point... Scroll down for Stelter's counterpoint...
Facebook News launches with Breitbart as a source
When Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was developing a section for news, he said it would be devoted to curating "high quality" information from "trustworthy" sources. That was back in April.
On Friday, as Facebook began rolling out the product for testing to users in the United States, the company revealed a baffling decision: Among reputable partners like CNN, NYT, and WaPo, it had decided to include Breitbart in its list of sources for Facebook News. (A Facebook spokesperson said Breitbart will not be paid, and that it's the site's current content on the platform that made the outlet eligible.)
For those in need of a reminder, Breitbart is a far-right website with a history of publishing misleading stories about Democrats and critics of President Trump. The site also has close ties to the Trump administration, and many of its employees have gone on to work in the White House.
Former Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon once described the site as a "f***ing machine" that he could use to "crush the opposition." Bannon had previously called the website a "platform for the alt-right." That doesn't sound like a "trustworthy" source one would rely on for "high quality" news. But, according to Facebook, it is.
Experts assail: If Breitbart is "high quality" news, what's low?
I reached out to some experts in the journalism field to ask them what they thought of Facebook's decision. None were supportive. Columbia Journalism School Ph.D. chair Todd Gitlin, also a longtime progressive, asked, "If Breitbart.com, which under Steve Bannon's tutelage devoted itself to fraudulent inflammatory immigrant-hating claims, is 'high quality,' what's low? Including Breitbart on [Zuckerberg's] 'news tab' disgraces the name of news."
WaPo media critic Erik Wemple commented to me, "Breitbart, a 'trusted' news outlet? Trusted, indeed – to attack the female accusers of Breitbart buddy Roy Moore. That episode alone should be enough to actuate Facebook to reconsider this call." And conservative commentator and Bulwark Editor-In-Chief Charlie Sykes told me, "Facebook's choice is worse than embarrassing; it's inexplicable. Breitbart is a poster child for disinformation and hackery."
"One way to think about Facebook naming Breibart a 'trusted news source'"
You'll remember that back in 2017, BuzzFeed's Joe Bernstein published a blockbuster story. The story relied on a cache of documents he obtained and documented how Breitbart "smuggled white nationalism into the mainstream."
On Friday, Bernstein tweeted, "One way to think about Facebook naming Breitbart a 'trusted news source': my investigation two years ago contained revelations so damning Breitbart funder Robert Mercer stepped down as CEO of his hedge fund. But it's good enough for Zuck & co." Warzel's point
I thought NYT's Charlie Warzel made an excellent point. Warzel wrote in a tweet that Breitbart "being in Facebook's trusted partners is clarifying." Why? Well, he pointed out "it's the same principle as dinner" with people like Fox host Tucker Carlson. Which is to say, "FB's perspective seems to be that if you achieve a certain [amount] of scale and influence, the company will engage earnestly with you." Warzel said "it's an outdated idea of media power." Zuckerberg defends...
At Friday afternoon's Paley Center event (scroll down for details), NYT's Marc Tracy asked Zuckerberg about the decision to include Breitbart. Zuckerberg said he believes "you want to have content that represents different perspectives."
Zuckerberg noted that all of the outlets will have to comply with a common set of standards. He added that being eligible for the News tab's algorithmic selections is "different from what the curators and the journalists who are picking the top stories necessarily choose as the most relevant thing to surface." Who else is Facebook partnering with?
Other than Breitbart, it's not clear what other websites or organizations known for misinformation, if any, FB might be partnering with. I asked the company on Friday for a full list of outlets it's partnering with, and a spokesperson declined to provide one. "We are not sharing a full list of outlets," the spokesperson told me. The Q: If Facebook is confident in the partners it has chosen, why isn't it making the full list public?
OKAY, STELTER'S TURN...
"It's a good day for the internet"
Brian Stelter emails: Breitbart will be surfaced by the News algorithm just like lots of other media sources. I think the much bigger story on Friday is Facebook's newfound willingness to pay newsrooms merely for access to their stories. As BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said in an internal memo, "it's a good day for the internet."
"Today's news will help strengthen our business — but its implications stretch far beyond that," he wrote. "For the first time, we're seeing the platforms step up and take responsibility for their role in the news ecosystem."
To be clear, I count myself among the skeptics of this new News tab. But I think News Corp CEO Robert Thomson is right when he says that it "begins to change the terms of trade for quality journalism."
Friday's event at the Paley Center was the moment when Thomson put down his sword. He ribbed Zuckerberg, asking "what took you so long," but credited FB for delivering what News Corp and other news outlets have long wanted: Cash for their content. "For the first time," Zuckerberg said, "we're making long term financial commitments." He said he hopes FB can "advance a model that can be more broadly replicated," adding, "hopefully we'll be able to increase our investment over time and others will be able to follow the model that we've set up." Thomson, too, called it "an important step on the road." In other words, "Hey Google, your turn to pay!"
What Campbell Brown says
Stelter adds: Right now the News section is in a testing phase -- it won't become widely available to all Facebook users for a few more months. In a phoner, Campbell Brown, Facebook's head of news partnerships, said that "this is a huge moment for our relationship with the news industry."
"I know people have doubted us and our commitment to the news business," she said. "This should signal that we truly want to be a champion for great reporting."
But what about local news?
One more note from Stelter: Some local newsrooms, already struggling, are worried about being left behind. "It's great that Facebook is willing to pay the New York Times and Washington Post, among other national news organizations, but while the tech giant is doing that, newspapers in smaller markets across the country are closing up shop and every day more of America is becoming a news desert," Larry Gilbert, Jr., the audience engagement editor for the Sun Journal newspaper in Lewiston, Maine, told me.
Gilbert said Facebook has not contacted any of the sister papers, which represent most of Maine's big titles, about a $$$ deal. "What happens to rural states and small market cities when there's no one to cover them?" he asked. "Will there be none 10 or 15 years down the line because Facebook decided 'we're too small' for them?" Facebook has anticipated the concern... And says it intends to include a greater number of publishers in the future... But doesn't have a great answer to these questions...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Margaret Sullivan's newest column is about FB too. "As with all things Facebook does, this one ought to be viewed skeptically," she writes. "The company's record on policing blatant disinformation and hate speech, particularly during the 2016 election, is beyond dismal..." (WaPo)
-- In related news... "Facebook axed pro-vaccine ads, let anti-vaxxer conspiracies slip through..." (Daily Beast)
-- Quite the headline on CNN.com: "Judge says impeachment inquiry is legal and justifies disclosing grand jury material..." (CNN)
-- Meanwhile... Trump attacked the impeachment process as "crazy" and "unfair" in a Friday interview with Sinclair's Eric Bolling... (NBC Montana)
-- Friday night dump? The Defense Department has awarded Microsoft a $10 billion contract. NYT called it a "surprise," noting "Amazon had been considered a front-runner to win the contract..." (NYT)
-- Axios' Jonathan Swan chimes in... "As soon as Trump found out Bezos was in line for this payday, this seemed inevitable. Also - one of the most effective outside attack campaigns I've ever seen against Amazon...." (Twitter)
What "Anonymous" is promising
"A Warning," by the Trump official known as "Anonymous," jumped back to No. 1 on Amazon's best selling book list on Friday after the back cover text was revealed by Mike Allen. He also reported that the anonymous author is planning to grant an interview in tandem with the book's publication on November 19.
Here's the key text from the back cover, in the author's own words: "You will hear a great deal from Donald Trump directly, for there is no better witness to his character than his own words and no better evidence of the danger he poses than his own conduct." | |
Tapper and Wallace agree: Facts inconvenient for Republicans
It's something that Fox's Chris Wallace and CNN's Jake Tapper both agree on: Facts are not the friends of Republicans defending the Trump White House. Wallace pointed out on Friday that when "you are having trouble with the facts, you argue process." He added, "That's what Republicans are doing right now."
Tapper made a similar point on his show Friday. Tapper reported that White House sources are telling CNN that Trump has a communications problem. "But truly this isn't a communications problem," Tapper said, "it is a facts problem and the facts are bad for the president. So he seems to be trying to change them by lying..."
Ezra Klein on this week's "Reliable" podcast
Ezra Klein says people think about impeachment all wrong. It doesn't have to be a "traumatic" worst case scenario, he says: "We fire people for poor performance in most jobs. It seems that in the most important job in arguably the entire world, we should be able to do the same thing."
Klein, the editor-at-large of Vox Media, is this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast guest...
On this Sunday's show...
The "Reliable Sources" guest list includes Andrew Marantz, whose new book "Antisocial" was just named one of Publishers Weekly's best books of the year... Plus Sarah Ellison, Catherine Rampell, Bill Frischling, and "Primary Colors" author Joe Klein, who knows a thing or two about anonymously authored books... Plus, Stelter's on-stage interview with CNN boss Jeff Zucker. Tune into CNN Sunday at 11am ET...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- In leaked video, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is "genuinely struggling" with how to deal with internal debate on hot-button issues... (WaPo)
-- Kerry Flynn emails: The Players' Tribune, founded in 2014 by Derek Jeter for athletes' first-person stories, is exploring a sale... (Bloomberg)
-- Fox's chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge was awarded the Tex McCrary Award for Journalism by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society on Friday night...
ProPublica reveals John Solomon's relationship with Lev Parnas
Conservative columnist John Solomon worked closely with Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who was recently indicted while attempting to leave the country, on his Ukraine stories which have touched off the impeachment inquiry. According to a story published Friday by ProPublica, "Parnas worked closely with Solomon to facilitate his reporting, including helping with translation and interviews."
ProPublica reported that Solomon "also shared files he obtained related to the Biden allegations with Parnas." Defending his reporting, Solomon said, "No one knew there was anything wrong with Lev Parnas at the time." Parnas' lawyer declined to comment to ProPublica.
"If a media reporter gets ahold of this story, it could destroy us"
The ProPublica report also detailed how staffers at The Hill grew uncomfortable with Solomon, who recently left the publication. Despite the traditional firewall between business and editorial, the story noted that Solomon dabbled in both at The Hill.
That prompted former publisher Johanna Derlega to write to the company president, Richard Beckman, expressing concerns, ProPublica reported. "If a media reporter gets ahold of this story, it could destroy us," Derlega wrote. Solomon, however, insisted to ProPublica, "Nothing I did would have put The Hill's reputation at risk."
Giuliani butt dials reporter
"Late in the night Oct. 16, Rudy Giuliani made a phone call to this reporter," NBC's Rich Schapiro wrote at the top of his Friday story. Schapiro noted that "the fact that Giuliani was reaching out wasn't remarkable" because the two had communicated earlier about a story. "But this call, it would soon become clear, wasn't a typical case of a source following up with a reporter."
Schapiro explained that he was asleep when the late-night call was made, and that it went to voicemail. When Schapiro woke up, a three-minute long message was waiting for him. It was a recording of Giuliani speaking to someone else, trashing the Biden's and saying "the problem is" that "we need some money."
...and the Giuliani butt-dial stories roll in
>> David Martosko: "I once saw Rudy Giuliani in the Fox News green room in Washington. As I walked in, he and a young producer were leaving for a studio, and he was just finishing telling her a story. It ended with: 'And I butt-dialed him! Can you believe it?'"
>> Jonathan Swan: "While we're telling Rudy butt dial stories... he once texted me a voice memo recording of himself talking to a guy. I couldn't make any sense of it or figure out how he managed to text me a recording inadvertently."
>> Josh Dawsey: "Everyone has a good Rudy butt dial story. I've heard him on what sounded like a plane, at the airport, at what sounded like a bar. 'SIR, SIR! HELLO!' Alas."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Kellyanne Conway was asked about her phone call with Washington Examiner reporter Caitlin Yilek. Conway denied threatening Yilek, saying, "If I threaten somebody, you'll know it..." (Politico)
-- Poppy Harlow clashed with pro-Trump congressman Lance Gooden on Friday morning, and it's worth watching the segment. As Harlow brings up facts that poke holes in Gooden's argument, the congressman lashes out at the media. "Please don't insult the media on this network," Harlow said at the end of the segment... (CNN)
Obama and Clinton eulogize Cummings
Early Friday afternoon, all three cable news networks were airing Trump's chopper talk. Then, suddenly, the current President's rambling was interrupted and replaced with former President Bill Clinton's eloquent eulogy for Elijah Cummings. Viewers at home may have felt some whiplash going so abruptly from one to the other.
Former President Barack Obama followed Clinton, and not so subtly jabbed Trump while praising Cummings. Obama said, "Being a strong man includes being kind. There's nothing weak about kindness and compassion. There's nothing weak about looking out for others... You're not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect."
Trump receives print outs of positive tweets after rallies
Earlier this week, Fox's Tomi Lahren tweeted a photo revealing that Trump received a print out of Twitter reactions to his Texas rally. According to a Friday story from The Daily Beast's Asawin Suebsaeng, "The autographed piece of paper the Fox Nation host received is actually the result of a long-standing demand that Trump has made of his aides, one that started during the 2016 campaign and continued into his presidency."
Suebsaeng explained, "Following a MAGA rally, staff began compiling packets, which would sometimes stretch numerous pages, exclusively displaying tweets about the rally Trump had just headlined. His campaign team began providing these packets to the candidate to review after each event, so much so that he began expecting them after every rally."
Now, according to Suebsaeng, if Trump doesn't immediately receive them after a rally, he complains. "It remains to this day a source of joy for the president," one senior administration official said. "He will sometimes wave [the post-rally print-outs] around, talking about how much people love him and what a great job he did."
What Zuckerberg didn't say about Black Lives Matter
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Mark Zuckerberg invoked Black Lives Matter last week in a speech extolling the virtues of Facebook. But what he didn't mention was how Facebook stood idly by as THE biggest BLM pages on his platform were scams — run by Kremlin-linked trolls, and in one case by a white man in Australia who was using it to make money of his own. I dig into that here and look at the steps black activists are taking to protect themselves from disinformation in 2020.
| | Recommended reads for the weekend 👓
By Katie Pellico:
-- WaPo media reporter Paul Farhi illustrates how the "cumbersome South Lawn 'gaggles'" have become a "signature motif for Trump," and his "favorite venue for making news..."
-- "We live in an age of information disorder," writes First Draft's Claire Wardle. Read her "Essential Guide" on the topic, exploring how "falsehoods based on a kernel of truth are more likely to be believed and shared..."
-- "After the summer of Caroline Calloway's Instagram infamy and Jia Tolentino's huge book launch," Allegra Hobbs asks, "where is the line between author and lifestyle celebrity?"
-- Wyatt Mason for NYT: "How Mary-Kay Wilmers Became Britain's Most Influential Editor..."
-- Kate Storey went behind the scenes of the "Rise and Fall of Gawker 2.0..."
-- Dana Schwartz has this concise and comical catalog of "How To Choose a Writing Instrument and What It Says About You," from her forthcoming book...
-- Stateline's April Simpson highlights how rural America is hit hardest by local news shortages... Relatedly, Pew Research Center found that one in five newsroom employees lives in New York City, Los Angeles or D.C...
-- EJ Dickson did a deep dive on the TikTok girls behind a new "Darkly Funny" but "Empowering" trend...
| | "The Transformation of Condé Nast"
That's the title on Kyle Chayka's piece for The New Republic's November issue, reviewing Susan Ronald's book "Condé Nast: The Man and His Empire."
"Even as ad pages dwindle, print disappears, and social media absorbs more of our attention," Chayka writes, "the highest and most Condé-esque goal of glossy media is likely to survive: creating a club that you want to be part of." Read on...
Sizing up wildfire coverage
Brian Lowry emails: It's strange watching national TV coverage of the California wildfires, which can't fully capture the sprawling nature of the place, and how part of the state can be a smoke-covered hellscape 15 or 20 miles away from an area that's experiencing few ill effects. It also reminded me of a Poynter column last year by Rebecca Bodenheimer about the inadequacy of media coverage of the fires last November, and longstanding concerns about how New York-based news operations play West Coast stories in general. That challenge seems even more pronounced now given the crush of news out of Washington.
>> As a footnote, the Showtime series "The Affair" has either good or really bad timing, as part of this Sunday's episode -- which also continues an ongoing #MeToo storyline -- hinges on an outbreak of wildfires in L.A., leading to mandatory evacuations of the canyon home occupied by one of the central characters.
>> The CW network has given full-season orders to its two new dramas, "Batwoman" and "Nancy Drew." That follows CBS pickups for its entire crop of new shows.
| | "Joker" becomes highest-grossing R-rated film ever | | Frank Pallotta emails: "Joker" has become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. The gritty Warner Bros. comic book movie starring Joaquin Phoenix has made roughly $788 million at the worldwide box office, Warner Bros. confirmed on Friday. That is enough to eclipse the record set by "Deadpool."
Now we'll have to see if the film can keep up momentum as we head further into Oscar season. "It would be really surprising if the Academy ignores Phoenix's performance," Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com, told me. "Even though the film had a lot of divisive talk around it, one thing everyone seemingly agreed on was that Phoenix put in Oscar-caliber work."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Kanye West has dropped his "Jesus Is King" album...
-- On the topic of Kanye... The born-again Christian artist asked his collaborators not to have premarital sex...
-- The 2019 holiday movies are getting an early start...
-- Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon did a skit to "clear up who is who..."
"Mrs. Fletcher" is a rare coming-of-middle-age story
Brian Lowry emails: Tom Perrotta has adapted his book into the HBO limited series "Mrs. Fletcher," a coming-of-middle-age show about a single mother, played by Kathryn Hahn, who begins shaking up her life when her son moves off to college. Although a relatively slim concept, it's perhaps the most interesting of the pay channel's onslaught of new programs this fall...
| | | Thanks for reading! Send me an email with your feedback, and connect with me on Twitter. Stelter will be back on Sunday... | | | |
