Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Welcome to the weekend. Scroll down for Michael Bloomberg's huge ad buy, Facebook's response to Sacha Baron Cohen, Disney's forecast for "Frozen 2," and much more...

Worn out?

Are you tired?

I'm really, really tired.

It feels good to admit it once in a while.

President Trump and his allied media outlets are waging a disinformation war on the public. His supporters, his detractors and mere observers are all affected. The lies and deceptions are eating away at the foundation of the house we all share. It's the biggest story in American politics and media.

But it is tiring. I hear this all the time from both producers and consumers of news -- they feel worn down by the misinformation. Numb to the nonsense. Consumers can feel tempted to tune out, something the NYT addressed in a story about "news avoidance." And journalists can feel overwhelmed and overworked. Sometimes it's hard to feel inspired, hard to come up with another way to say the same thing in a new way.

So let me give credit to some people who inspired me today:

>> WaPo's Toluse Olorunnipa summing up Trump's phone call to "Fox & Friends" Friday morning: "He continued to make lofty promises of soon-to-come bombshells, peddle falsehoods, spread long-debunked conspiracy theories, attack his perceived enemies and dabble in misogynistic tropes — all while playing the role of persecuted victim."

>> CNN's Daniel Dale correcting the falsehoods from the interview: "No, Yovanovitch didn't refuse to put up Trump's photo. No, European countries haven't refused to give aid to Ukraine. No, we haven't stopped hearing about vets being mistreated. No, the whistleblower didn't make it up."

>> The New Yorker's Susan Glasser saying that Trump's "facts be damned" approach is working: "The G.O.P. defense, in essence, is that facts are irrelevant, no matter how damning or inconvenient, and that Trump has the power to do whatever he wants, even if it seems inappropriate, improper, or simply wrong."

>> CNN's Julian Zelizer describing this week's hearings: "Rather than having a debate about whether the President's actions were impeachable, Republicans instead treated the nation to a week of wild-eyed accusations that simply pushed aside the alarming reality that credible witnesses — public servants all — laid before them."

"The truth is..."

So, given all of this, what do we need journalists to do? What Jake Tapper did on "The Lead" Friday afternoon:

"The truth is, the president of the United States, by his own admission, asked a foreign power to launch a major investigation into his political rival Joe Biden and his son, and into a debunked conspiracy theory" about Ukraine messing with the 2016 election. "These are investigations that would help President Trump politically. And, according to the president's own aides, the president used a White House meeting and $400 million taxpayer dollars to get Ukraine to do it. Now, you can debate whether or not it's criminal. You can debate whether or not it's impeachable. But you cannot debate whether or not those are the facts."

About that debunked theory...

During his Fox call, Trump once again claimed that Dems "gave a computer server that was hacked in 2016 to 'a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian,'" Daniel Dale and Tara Subramaniam explained here. This blame-Ukraine-not-Russia theory is bunk, as Fiona Hill testified on Thursday. And it advances a Russian disinformation agenda. When you hear about CrowdStrike in this context, you're hearing a lie.

>> NYT's Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg: "Charges of Ukrainian meddling? A Russian operation, U.S. intelligence says..."

>> And yet: "House GOP disregards expert warnings that debunked Ukraine theory helps Russia," CNN's Manu Raju, Jeremy Herb and Zachary Cohen report...

>> And yet, yet: This craziness, promoted by the president and supported by his GOP allies, wasn't even mentioned by the big network nightly newscasts on Friday night...

53 minutes

Yes, there were moments when Brian Kilmeade and the other "Fox & Friends" hosts asked tough questions of Trump on Friday morning. When Trump brought up CrowdStrike and the DNC server, Steve Doocy asked, "Are you sure they did that? Are you sure they gave it to Ukraine?" But WaPo's Erik Wemple watched all 53 minutes and reached this conclusion: "Even when they're inclined to press the president on this or that, the 'Fox & Friends' crew cannot possibly keep pace with his lies and distortions. Meaning, the main casualties are the truth and a few Fox News commercial breaks."

"All The President's Lies"

Well, this Sunday night special on CNN is very well-timed:

"CNN's Jake Tapper thinks fact-checking Donald Trump is no longer enough — and he's created an hourlong special exploring the effects on foreign policy, business and the national culture of the president's compulsive lying," Politico's Michael Calderone reports... "Tapper thinks the media is well past the point of giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. His special, therefore, represents a new benchmark in the mainstream media's adjustment to Trump's norm-shattering presidency."

Noonan: "How will they hold a lengthy trial with a case this clear?"

WSJ's Peggy Noonan writes: "As to impeachment itself, the case has been so clearly made you wonder what exactly the Senate will be left doing. How will they hold a lengthy trial with a case this clear? Who exactly will be the president's witnesses, those who'd testify he didn't do what he appears to have done, and would never do it?" She predicts that GOP senators "will call to let the people decide" and says "in a divided country this is the right call. But they should take seriously the idea of censuring him for abuse of power..."

Shot and chaser

SHOT: Trump on the phone with Fox, predicting that John Durham's re-examination of the Russia probe will be explosive: "What you're going to see, I predict, will be perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country. Political scandal."

CHASER: The NYT's Friday afternoon story: Durham's report is "expected to sharply criticize lower-level F.B.I. officials as well as bureau leaders," but to "absolve the top ranks of abusing their powers out of bias." Most importantly, "the report debunks a series of conspiracy theories and insinuations about the F.B.I. that Mr. Trump and his allies have put forward over the past two years..."

--> CNN.com's headline: "DOJ watchdog report expected to say FBI's Russia probe launched properly but lower-level employees made mistakes..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Adam Schiff will be on CNN's "SOTU" and NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning...

-- Vicky Ward's Friday night scoop: "A lawyer for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani tells CNN that his client is willing to tell Congress about meetings the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee had in Vienna last year with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden..." (CNN)

-- Tobin Smith, a former Fox News contributor, writes in an op-ed for the NYT: "Why Fox News Slimed a Purple Heart Recipient" (NYT)

-- Fox's Judge Andrew Napolitano told Reason's Nick Gillespie that there is "overwhelming" evidence of impeachable behavior by Trump. "The Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have unearthed enough evidence, in my opinion, to justify about three or four articles of impeachment against the president," he said... (Mediaite)

Spending on ads focused on impeachment soars

Fredreka Schouten and David Wright report: "Spending on television ads that focus on impeachment has nearly tripled in the last two months, a sign of how much the fast-moving impeachment inquiry on Capitol Hill is seeping into the political debate ahead of the 2020 elections. With the biggest spenders on opposing sides, the numbers are an early indication of how the battle over impeachment could resonate beyond Washington." Read the full report...

"Roughly 20% of all the money spent on political advertising in federal races since Sept. 19 makes reference to the impeachment inquiry, according to a CNN tally of advertising tracked by Kantar's Campaign Media Analysis Group. That's up from roughly 6% of advertising that aired between January 1 and September 18, when news first emerged of a whistleblower complaint alleging President Donald Trump sought to extract a promise from a foreign leader."

>> "Facebook advertising on the topic also has soared, with more than $5.6 million spent on impeachment-related ads between mid-September through the end of last week, according to a CNN tally of Facebook data compiled by Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic firm."

On this week's podcast: "The Cult of Trump"

Two weeks ago on "Reliable Sources," Anthony Scaramucci likened Trump supporters to a cult. A week ago, Dan Rather said Trump's support seems increasingly cultish. So I decided to speak with Steven Hassan, a leading cult expert with firsthand experience escaping the Unification Church. He's out with a new book titled "The Cult of Trump." As you'll hear on this week's "Reliable" podcast, I expressed doubts about some of his claims. But I think it's worth listening to his case. Hassan talked about the power of lying... how social media has accelerated the spread of influential ideologies and "destructive cults..." and more. Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app...

This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"

I'll be joined by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Margaret Sullivan, Juliet Huddy, Oliver Darcy, Joel Simon, Kathleen Carroll, and the aforementioned Jake Tapper. See you Sunday at 11am ET on CNN...

The RNC spent nearly $100,000 on Don Jr.'s book, but that's not why it's a best-seller

Oliver Darcy emails: When Donald Trump Jr.'s book "Triggered" debuted at the top of NYT's best-seller list, a conspicuous dagger appeared alongside it. The symbol meant editors who work on The Times' best-seller list had determined some of the sales had been made in bulk. Immediately, critics seized on the inclusion of the dagger to accuse Trump Jr. of having purchased his way onto the coveted list. Such speculation only increased when it was revealed that the RNC spent nearly $100,000 on orders for the book. But the RNC buy is NOT why Don Jr.'s book debuted at No. 1.

Whether you agree with the content of the book or not, "Triggered" was a bestseller in its own right. According to NPD Bookscan, the book sold 70,730 hardcover copies in its first week. The second book on The Times' list that week, "Finding Chika," sold 30,678 copies. "People are making way too much of something that has no basis in fact," a book publishing expert told me. "The math is obvious." Another person who works in book publishing agreed, adding, "It would have been impossible for them to not give it number one -- even excluding the bulk copies." Read my full story here...

Bloomberg's holiday gift for local TV stations

Michael Bloomberg's massive ad buy, at least $29 million worth of TV ads beginning next week, "is more than the entire Democratic field has spent on TV advertising in the race so far, excluding businessman Tom Steyer, who himself will have aired nearly $63 million of TV ads by the end of Bloomberg's initial bookings," CNN's David Wright and Cristina Alesci reported Friday.

"As a result of these bookings," they added, "next week will see the most spending on political advertising of any week so far in 2019..."

>> The Atlantic's Edward-Isaac Dovere tweeted: "If nothing else, one clear result of the Bloomberg 2020 moves is that a lot of local TV stations are going to be able to afford an open bar at their holiday parties..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- "A federal judge on Friday ordered the Iranian government to pay WaPo journalist Jason Rezaian and his family $180 million in damages for his 18-month detention..." (WaPo)

-- "Iran did not respond to the lawsuit in court," so the judge "therefore issued a default judgment in Rezaian's favor..." (CNN)

-- "The three major Democratic committees blasted Google on Friday for an ad policy that will allow politicians to run false ads across its platforms, including YouTube, in the run-up to the 2020 election," Donie O'Sullivan reports. "The Democrats also took aim at Twitter, without actually naming it, for banning all ads from politicians..." (CNN)

Facebook responds to Sacha Baron Cohen

If you haven't read Sacha Baron Cohen's keynote address at the ADL's summit, click here. He's been winning praise for the way he called out Facebook and other tech giants. "In every other industry, a company can be held liable when their product is defective," he said. "When engines explode or seatbelts malfunction, car companies recall tens of thousands of vehicles, at a cost of billions of dollars. It only seems fair to say to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter: your product is defective, you are obliged to fix it, no matter how much it costs and no matter how many moderators you need to employ."

--> Donie O'Sullivan emails: Mark Zuckerberg was called out by name twelve times in the speech. On Friday evening, FB responded: "Sacha Baron Cohen misrepresented Facebook's policies. Hate speech is actually banned on our platform. We ban people who advocate for violence and we remove anyone who praises or supports it. Nobody – including politicians – can advocate or advertise hate, violence or mass murder on Facebook."

Planned Parenthood walks back NDA

Kerry Flynn writes: Should media happy hours have NDAs? Vice's Carter Sherman says no -- and details how Planned Parenthood is backtracking on journalists having to sign one for a recent happy hour.

This story reminded me of this same problem I and other reporters have experienced with Facebook's events and visiting their offices. As Edmund Lee tweeted in May, "Facebook has been wanting to work with and partner with newsrooms for at least a decade, but the company still fails to recognize basic editorial practices. Office sign in still forces visitors to sign an NDA. Never gonna happen. So I sit here in the lobby." Though, to Facebook's credit, I was able to bypass the NDA while at the same office the month prior and have avoided it since...

Dispatch from Newsgeist

S. Mitra Kalita reports from the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, FL: I've spent the last few days at Newsgeist, a Google-sponsored gathering on the future of news. Known as an unconference, Newsgeist is valuable for forcing us to discuss the ideas propelling journalism (say, getting past false equivalency) to the nitty gritty (traffic sources beyond SEO and social). It's held under Chatham House rules so I can tell you what we discussed but not who said what. Some key themes: fixing ownership of local news, creating products and services of value that users want to pay for, offering more context on breaking news and stories about race, sharing org charts and ideas on how news/product/revenue can better integrate, and debunking the idea that nonprofit newsrooms are a silver bullet or a revenue model.

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Margaret Sullivan's recap of the week of news about Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune: "The death knell for local newspapers? It's perilously close..." (WaPo)

-- Joshua Benton's look at a new research paper about newspapers and local elections: "How the gutting of local newsrooms has led to a less-informed public..." (NiemanLab)

-- Kerry Flynn writes: Dylan Byers reports that The Athletic offered $50M for the licensing rights to Sports Illustrated following Maven's takeover but was too late... (NBC News)

-- Jon Passantino is joining CNN as director of coverage in Los Angeles. Passantino has spent the last six years at BuzzFeed News, working most recently as the outlet's LA bureau chief... (Twitter)

"Netflix Internal Data Signals Users Aren't Fleeing to Disney"

"Netflix's internal data suggests the streaming giant hasn't been hurt yet by the launch of rival services from Walt Disney Co. and Apple, according to a person briefed on its subscriber information," Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reported Friday afternoon. "The number of customers canceling Netflix hasn't accelerated around the debut of those services, said the person..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- The DOJ has formally filed a motion in federal court "to terminate what's commonly known as the Paramount consent decrees, the rulings that ended the studio system of Old Hollywood in 1948..." (TheWrap)

-- Eriq Gardner's latest: "Roku, Amazon Fire, Google Chromecast and other digital TV devices are becoming the new middlemen between apps and consumers — what happens when there is conflict?" (THR)

Apple delaying "The Banker"

Variety's Dave McNary and Matt Donnelly report: "Apple is delaying the theatrical release of 'The Banker,' originally set for Dec. 6 with assistance from Bleecker Street, insiders familiar with the company said. It's being delayed as the filmmakers review accusations of historical inaccuracy and sexual abuse at the hands of co-producer Bernard Garrett Jr. The film was also set to premiere on Apple TV Plus in January, which is also being postponed due to the theatrical release's delay..."

"Frozen 2" is about to break more records for Disney

Frank Pallotta emails: Hey, stop me if you've heard this one before, but a Disney movie is about to make a lot of money at the box office...

"Frozen 2" opens this weekend, six years after the original, and Princess Anna and Queen Elsa are back to put more catchy songs in your head and put more money in Disney's coffers.

Disney is projecting that the film will bring in $120 million this weekend. That'd be the most ever for Walt Disney Animation -- a studio that's been making movies since 1937. The film got off to a good start on Thursday night, making $8.5 million domestically.

Lowry's look ahead

Brian Lowry writes: Although we usually focus on opening-weekend box office, the nature of "Frozen 2" and "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" makes the first 10 days of release -- through the Thanksgiving holiday, when the studios behind both are hoping to lure families to the theater -- the real numbers to watch. As for their relative merits, the animated sequel pretty well threaded the needle in replicating the charms of its predecessor, without the freshness; while the Mister Rogers-themed movie feels plenty magical whenever Tom Hanks is on the screen, and more mundane when it focuses on the journalist (Matthew Rhys) whose eyes are opened, essentially, by his exposure to Rogers...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Kate Lieberman:

-- After the HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland" shocked the public with allegations about Michael Jackson, Deadline's Mike Fleming reports a biopic is in the works from GK Films, the production company of "Bohemian Rhapsody" producer Graham King. Fleming says the film "isn't intended to be a sanitized rendering of Jackson's life..." (Deadline)

-- Lilly Singh is taking aim at Disney+ after its debut. The "A Little Late with Lilly Singh" host called out Disney for its "outdated cultural depictions" disclaimer before giving her own warnings for popular Disney films... (YouTube)

Scooter Braun makes public plea to Taylor Swift

Chloe Melas reports: "Music manager Scooter Braun has posted a public plea to Taylor Swift to end their nearly six-month dispute over her music catalog. In a lengthy Instagram post early Friday, Braun tagged Swift and stated that he's been receiving anonymous threats." Read his statement and the full report...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

By Lisa Respers France:

-- According to Henry Cavill, he auditioned to play James Bond but was told he was a "little chubby..."

-- U2 has debuted a new song titled "Ahimsa..."

-- Kathie Lee Gifford was "dying of loneliness," so she moved to Nashville....

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

Gervais: "I know what I can get away with"

Megan Thomas emails: Expect vintage Ricky Gervais when he returns to host the Golden Globe Awards in January. In an interview with Graham Norton, Gervais, who hosted the Globes 2010-2012 and again in 2016 with searing (some called it mean-spirited) humor, said that while he doesn't rehearse the show, he is required to run jokes by a lawyer just before going on. Gervais said he knows not to libel anyone and has never had anything cut for legal reasons. "I know the law. I know what I can get away with," the comedian told Norton. "I know what I can say."

"People say, 'Why do you go through so much trouble to offend people?'" Gervais quipped. "And I say, 'It's no trouble...'"

Thank you for reading! We'll be back on Sunday...