EXEC SUMMARY: In non-Trump news, we have a sneak peek at NYT Mag's next cover story, a recap of Code Media day one, and a first look at this year's American Ingenuity Awards Honorees...
Three days, nine witnesses
This is it. Four witnesses on Tuesday, three on Wednesday and two on Thursday. Available live everywhere. Hard to ignore, though some people will try. Tuesday's two-part hearing will last well into the evening...
>> CNN's Marshall Cohen has a list of "five things to watch for..."
>> The WaPo's team notes that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, "one of the Democrats' star witnesses," is expected to speak about "his alarm at President Trump's request that Ukraine investigate his political opponents..."
>> "There could be fireworks when Vindman testifies," Manu Raju notes. "A shouting match erupted in the deposition when Schiff objected to a line of questioning he believed could out whistleblower. Rs denied that was their plan. But lawmakers are bracing for it to play out again..."
The Hill and the Ukraine scandal | | James "Jimmy" Finkelstein, the owner of The Hill, is not a widely known media exec, but he is one of the era's most consequential. Oliver Darcy and I explained why in this new story for CNN Business.
In a nutshell: Finkelstein resides at the nexus of President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and John Solomon. Finkelstein hired Solomon. He is tight with Giuliani. And he "boasts that he's a close friend" of the president, per a former employee.
This matters because Finkelstein was Solomon's direct supervisor at The Hill and created the conditions which permitted Solomon to publish his conspiratorial stories about the Bidens and Ukraine. And he has kept a watchful eye on the newspaper's coverage to ensure it is not too critical of Trump.
We interviewed more than a dozen current and former staffers at The Hill and people familiar with other relevant pieces of info. The sources described a staff still in "revolt" over Solomon's columns and the way they were handled, even though he left the paper a couple of months ago. He's now a paid contributor to Fox News, and he stands by his disputed Ukraine stories...
The Hill is "reviewing" Solomon's work
The Hill EIC Bob Cusack announced in a Monday morning email to staffers that Solomon's work was under review. (Notably, this was after Darcy started to poke around.) Cusack said "we are reviewing, updating, annotating with any denials of witnesses, and when appropriate, correcting any opinion pieces referenced during the ongoing congressional inquiry."
But multiple employees told Darcy that the "review" email had done little to quell internal outrage, and felt like too little too late. The employees said that they are pondering their next moves...
Trump's puzzling hospital visit
"Sadly, the fact remains that even after three years of lies, distractions, and chaos, political reporters are still trying to make Trump news fit into the traditional model for White House coverage," Dan Froomkin wrote Monday. "That means stenographically reporting what Trump and his aides say, and maybe injecting a partisan rebuttal several paragraphs into the story or in a fact-check down the line." His reason for bringing this up: The mysterious nature of Trump's "puzzling" trip to Walter Reed military hospital on Saturday. Froomkin said that "CNN, almost alone, seized on the story on Monday, repeatedly declaring that the visit 'raises questions' about Trump's health."
Late in the day, Stephanie Grisham shared a memo from Trump's physician Sean Conley that said, "Despite some of the speculation, the President has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues. Specifically, he did not undergo any specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations." The memo didn't do much to quell the concerns...
Hannity still denies talking to Pompeo about Ukraine
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale's deposition -- released on Monday night -- corroborated the earlier claims about a phone call to Sean Hannity regarding Hannity's promotion of "the narrative" about US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. "It did come up at some point with the secretary," meaning Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Hale said. "I understood that he did call Sean Hannity."
But Hannity repeated his denial on Monday night. "How many times do I have to say? We barely mentioned this woman," he said on the air, referring to Yovanovitch. "No," he said, "I never got a call from Secretary Pompeo or anything else. Why would they lie about this?" Good question...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Laura Ingraham's advice: "If I were Trump, I wouldn't even talk about impeachment. I wouldn't tweet about it, I wouldn't dignify it..." (Mediaite)
-- David Remnick: "Impeachment is a grave business, and the risks are manifest. But no democracy can overlook evidence of abuse of power, bribery, and obstruction in the hope that an election will set things right..." (The New Yorker)
-- Catherine Rampell: "Just as O.J. Simpson pledged to search for the real killer, Trump and his fellow Republicans are on the hunt for the Real Crimes..." (WaPo)
-- Ezra Klein tweeted: "The question at the heart of the impeachment process isn't 'Did Trump do it?' We know he did it. It's not in dispute. The question at the heart of the impeachment process is 'What has gone wrong in the Republican Party that it will defend what Trump did?'" (Twitter)
-- Drudge's Monday evening headline almost reads like a dare: "PRESSURE BUILDS ON TRUMP TO TESTIFY..."
"A Warning" is on sale
Hachette has printed 500,000 copies of "A Warning," which goes on sale Tuesday morning. Hachette's Twelve imprint is anticipating intense demand. The book has been near the top of Amazon's best seller list for several weeks at this point. Reviewers have been critical -- both of the author's decision to stay anonymous and of the content of the book. But I suspect the book's target audience is still intrigued.
>> For more, check out WaPo reviewer Carlos Lozada's Twitter thread on "what the book seems to reveal about the possible identity of the author......"
TUESDAY PLANNER
Code Media continues in L.A...
Michelle Obama is out with a "guided journal" companion to "Becoming..."
Google is launching Stadia...
"How the Gannett/GateHouse merger could deepen America's local news crisis"
That's the headline on Clara Hendrickson's piece for Brookings, which notes that the deal is expected to close on Tuesday "and has left many already concerned about America's local journalism crisis afraid of what lies ahead."
>> What's next: Ken Doctor recently reported that the company will announce its new leadership team on Wednesday...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- House general counsel Douglas Letter wants to know: "Did the President lie? Was the President not truthful in his responses to the Mueller investigation?" (CNN)
-- As I've said before, the TV ratings are a woefully incomplete picture of impeachment hearing viewership... But here's the latest... Wednesday's hearing averaged 13.8 million TV viewers and Friday's followup averaged 12.7 million, per Nielsen... (Deadline)
-- Jonathan Chait makes the case that "Trump's reprisals against Amazon" are a "flagrant abuse of power," hiding in plain sight -- an example of using "government power to punish and intimidate independent media..." (NYMag)
State Department staffer resigns after NBC expose
"Mina Chang, a high-ranking State Department staffer who vaulted into the public spotlight after NBC reported she had inflated her resume, has resigned from her position," Daniel Lippman scooped on Monday.
Later in the afternoon, NBC's Dan De Luce, Laura Strickler and Ari Sen published a story that indicated why the resignation came now: Chang stepped down "two and a half hours after NBC News went to her spokesperson to ask about newly discovered false claims she had made about her charity work..."
Trump 2020 buying a Super Bowl ad?
"It appears likely that President Trump's re-election campaign will buy an ad during February's Super Bowl telecast, marking what would be the first time in recent memory that a national election ad will be part of the big game's telecast," SBJ's John Ourand reports in his subscribers-only newsletter. "Multiple sources say the president's team has agreed on the broad terms for buying an ad, which Fox is selling for as much as a record $5.6 million per 30-second spot." No contract is signed yet... Ourand notes that the Iowa caucuses are the day after the game...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Does this feel true to you? "Many people are numb and disoriented, struggling to discern what is real in a sea of slant, fake and fact..." (NYT)
-- Journalists "are not entitled to praise you but we are obligated to question you, and to be fair to you. Even if it risks inviting your wrath," Neil Cavuto told Trump on Monday... (Mediaite)
-- "A precious-metals scheme" targeted Fox News fans on Facebook and used fear to "trick older conservatives out of their savings..." (Quartz)
NYT Mag's next cover story
Susan Dominus spent the past year following two new congresswomen -- Ayanna Pressley and Abigail Spanberger -- and the result is next Sunday's cover story, now up on the web: | | Photographs by Paola Kudacki for the NYT...
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST:
Smithsonian mag's honorees
Smithsonian magazine is about to announce the recipients of the eighth annual American Ingenuity Awards... The honorees are Lil Nas X; painter Amy Sherald; restaurateur José Andrés; inventor Alex Kipman; a team of doctors at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; a team of researchers who created the first-ever image of a black hole; and "What the Constitution Means to Me" writer and star Heidi Schreck. Details here...
Code Media, day one
I can't possibly sum up all of Monday's news from Peter Kafka's Code Media conference... Your best bet is to read the recaps over at Recode... But here are a couple tips:
-- Kafka's full session with John Stankey is up on YouTube...
-- Shane Smith "doesn't get as much credit as he deserves," Nancy Dubuc said... She said Smith has given her "full control" to run Vice...
-- The headline after Carolyn Everson's session: "Facebook still isn't clear about why it won't take down false political ads..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
--Trump 2020 "ran more than 6,000 Facebook ads mentioning impeachment during the first week of public hearings," Donie O'Sullivan reports... (CNN)
-- "Snapchat fact-checks political ads, unlike Facebook, says CEO Evan Spiegel..." (CNBC)
-- A lawmaker is denying that he farted during an MSNBC interview. And if you want to know more, here you go... (BuzzFeed News)
-- The NYT dismissed the FedEx CEO's complaints, and his offer to debate A.G. Sulzberger, by saying this: "FedEx's invitation is clearly a stunt and an effort to distract from the findings of our story..." (CNN)
-- "Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner issued an on-air correction after mistakenly reporting that Senator Cory Booker had dropped out of the 2020 race..." (Mediaite)
SmartNews's big raise
Kerry Flynn writes: SmartNews, a news discovery app, announced today it raised $92 million in its Series E funding round, closing in December, and is now valued at $1.2 billion. The app has 20 million monthly active users in Japan and plans to use the new cash to grow more in that market and the United States.
Fabien-Pierre Nicolas, VP of US marketing, tells me, "Building a great partnership with publishers takes time, right, to build this trust. We don't want to be like some of those platforms who go to market, get out, go to another market, get out. We really want to commit. So that's why we're really focusing for 2020 on just two markets."
>> Nicolas adds, "We're really trying to develop the number of local news partners we have and really cover not just the top 50 cities, which we've had already use the product for the last six to nine months. We're trying now to expand to over 3,000 cities in the US."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Kerry Flynn:
-- WaPo is launching Climate Solutions, a new section of climate change coverage with dedicated editorial and video staff. The team is led by WaPo climate and environment editor Trish Wilson... (WaPo)
-- NYT's US subscribers can now watch episodes of "The Weekly" on NYTimes.com... (NYT)
-- Condé Nast is launching at least five new series on IGTV as it looks to sell ad campaigns across Instagram's product offerings... (Digiday)
-- Chalkbeat is the latest publisher to come aboard Vox's Chorus publishing platform... (Vox Media)
-- New Statesman's digital editor Jasper Jackson chronicles how publisher strategize mobile push notifications. Matt Wells, director of programming and alerts for CNNI, says, "Generally I think the best criteria is 'should we tap our readers on the metaphorical shoulder and tell them about this story?'" (New Statesman)
Lara Logan hosting a series for Fox Nation
"Fox News has signed former CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan to host a documentary series for its streaming service," the LAT's Stephen Battaglio reports. The series "will consist of 16 episodes" dealing with topics like "media bias, immigration, veterans and socialism." It's a no brainer move -- Logan is a popular figure among the conservatives that Fox Nation is programmed for. But it's also a measure of how far Logan has fallen. She was on "60 Minutes," the most-watched news program in America. Now she'll be on a streaming service that has a loyal but small subscriber base...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- "Sheila Nevins, the newly installed head of MTV's Documentary Films division, has added Alexandra Pelosi's 'America on Selfies,' a doc about the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election by the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to her film slate," Etan Vlessing reports. Nevins "has also commissioned work by Alexandra Shiva, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato to tackle youth issues..." (THR)
-- Hadas Gold emails: The BBC's "Saturday Newsnight" interview with Prince Andrew had overnight viewing figures of 1.7 million and, to date, the interview has generated over half a million requests on iPlayer... (Variety)
-- Slate's books team is out with a list: "The 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years..." (Slate)
-- And Adweek is out with its 2019 Young Influentials list... (Adweek)
'Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time' premiering in January
This will be awesome. "The three top winners in 'Jeopardy!' history are set to compete against each other during a prime time event on ABC in January," Lisa Respers France reports.
Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer "will compete in a series of matches," and "the first competitor to win three matches will receive $1 million and the title of 'Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time.' The two other contestants will each receive $250,000."
Clarkson gets an early renewal
Frank Pallotta writes: Kelly Clarkson will be singing her "Kellyokes" next year. The pop star's new daytime talk show has been renewed through the 2020-21 season, NBCUniversal announced on Monday. The renewal was expected since the show has brought in strong ratings since debuting in September. It is averaging 1.9 million viewers per episode. The network noted that "the show is in fourth place among syndicated daytime talk shows that have been on the air for decades..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN
-- "Netflix has closed deals with Robert Towne and David Fincher to work up a pilot script for a prequel to the 1974 classic film Chinatown," Mike Fleming Jr scoops... (Deadline)
-- Stephen Colbert's New Zealand week begins Monday night on CBS... (Deadline)
| | First take on "Bombshell"
Brian Lowry writes: I saw "Bombshell" today. Review to come... the movie doesn't open until December 13 in N.Y. and L.A... but it's hard to do justice to the uncanny way Charlize Theron captured the tone of Megyn Kelly's voice, to the point where I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at Kelly again without thinking of it.
What I remain uncertain about is whether the movie-star component will be enough to attract audiences -- or if this is another one of those projects that will generate disproportionate media interest because of the subject matter, but get lost amid the "Star Wars" hoopla, which happens to open the same weekend when the movie goes into wide release...
'The Crown' embodies why Lisa loves British culture
Lisa Respers France writes: Even before Meghan Markle married Prince Harry, I was an Anglophile obsessed with all things British. "The Crown," the hugely popular Netflix series which dramatizes the reign of the current Queen Elizabeth, is delicious viewing for Anglophiles like myself. Here's why the hit Netflix series embodies everything I love about British culture...
FOR THE RECORD, PART EIGHT
-- Marianne Garvey spoke with People mag editor Dan Wakeford about the making of the "Sexiest Man Alive" issue...
-- Via Lisa Respers France: Her kids grew up fast! Kathie Lee Gifford's daughter Cassidy is engaged...
-- One more from Lisa: The winners list for the 2019 BET Soul Train Awards...
| | | |
