PROGRAMMING NOTE: This is a pre-debate edition of the newsletter. If you're opening this email after 11pm ET, scroll past this first section! Plus: Christianity Today's editorial, Ed Henry's promotion, Eddy Cue's talks, my interview with Marty Baron, and much more...
Seven candidates, one debate
While the House of Representatives was preparing to impeach President Trump on Wednesday, veteran Washington journalist Judy Woodruff was flying away from the story – but for good reason. She landed in L.A. on Wednesday afternoon to prepare for the final #DemDebate of 2019. Woodruff will co-moderate Thursday night's PBS "NewsHour" and Politico debate, and the event will be simulcast by CNN, where she anchored for 14 years before rejoining PBS.
If you're reading this before 11pm ET, then turn on your TV or stream the debate at PBS.org, Politico.com or CNN.com. "Only" seven candidates will be on stage: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang. | | Four moderators
This is Woodruff's first time moderating a debate since her longtime television partner Gwen Ifill died in 2016. Her co-moderators will be "NewsHour" senior national correspondent Amna Nawaz, W.H. correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, and Politico's chief political correspondent Tim Alberta.
Yes, that's four moderators for seven candidates... And more diversity among the questioners than the answerers. There's been a lot of press about the fact that the December debate field "lacks black or Latino candidates." Yang will be the only person of color.
>> At the start of debate season, the DNC said all 12 debates "will feature a diverse group of moderators and panelists including women and people of color..."
>> Stephen Battaglio asked Woodruff about moderator diversity, and she said, "It started to improve years ago, but I think we're now at the point where when you don't have a diverse group of moderators, it looks out-of-place. Because journalists have become more conscious of how important it is to look like the country. We may be late in journalism, but we've finally come around..."
PBS is ad-free, but there will be breaks
"There will be three breaks totaling 11 minutes during the broadcast," PBS says. Since PBS is noncommercial, Lisa Desjardins will anchor coverage during the breaks. She will be joined by Stephanie Sy, Amy Walter, Ryan Lizza, and Laura Barrón-López. On the CNN simulcast, ads will run during the breaks...
>> From CNN's Dan Merica and Eric Bradner: "6 things to look for" during the debate...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Credentialed members of the media at the debate received a "2020 media survival kit" -- a box containing a notebook, coffee, candy, etc...
-- An attendee tells me there's a seat in the Loyola Marymount U debate hall reserved for Steven Spielberg... will he make it? Alyssa Milano and Debra Messing have seats in the same row...
-- The debate is being VERY widely distributed... Details on CNN.com...
-- Great read from John F. Harris and company: "Here's what Politico's campaign team has learned about the field from dissecting the previous debates..."
'Skywalker' weekend is here
Frank Pallotta writes: After 42 years, multiple films and billions of dollars, we have reached the end of the Skywalker saga. "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," the final chapter of the Skywalker story, opens in theaters Thursday night. The film is heading towards an opening weekend of around $175 million to $200 million for Disney. That's pretty good, albeit lower than the debuts of "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi."
>> If "Rise of Skywalker" breaks the $200 million barrier, it'll become the second biggest opening of the year, behind "Avengers: Endgame..."
>> The film is on track to be Disney's seventh of 2019 to make more than $1 billion...
>> The film has a 58% review score on Rotten Tomatoes, but Star Wars fans have never really cared about critics...
Star Wars at a crossroads
Frank Pallotta adds: The story of the Skywalker family may be coming to an end, but Star Wars certainly isn't. There will still be merchandising, theme park attractions, spinoff films on the big screen and, of course, Baby Yoda. But with the next Star Wars film still three years away and no announcement about who will helm it, it's not clear how the next chapter of the movie franchise will play out. In the meantime, Disney is filling the gap with "The Mandalorian" on Disney+, which may be the future of the galactic brand.
"It helped define the blockbuster era, which really changed cinema," VF pop culture writer Joanna Robinson told me. "Maybe it'll help define the era of streaming too..."
FRIDAY PLANNER
"Cats" opens in theaters...
And "Bombshell" expands to theaters nationwide...
Trump is expected to sign this deal to fund the government through fiscal year 2020...
The day after
Thursday evening's headlines sum it up >>> NYT: "Pelosi may delay impeachment trial, seeking leverage in Senate..." CNN: "McConnell says Senate trial talks at 'impasse...'" NBC: "Impeachment standoff as House, Senate battle over next step..."
BREAKING
Christianity Today says Trump should be removed
Christianity Today is the flagship magazine for American evangelicals. On Thursday afternoon it turned heads with an editorial titled "Trump Should Be Removed from Office." EIC Mark Galli wrote that the magazine needed to be consistent with what it wrote about Bill Clinton nearly twenty years ago.
"Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment," Galli wrote. "That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments."The magazine's web servers were strained by all the web traffic when the editorial came out...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Ben Jacobs almost took the words out of my mouth about the vote: "The middle aisle in the House of Representative separates two political parties, but on Wednesday it seemed to separate two parallel universes."
-- I watched all 3 hours of "Fox & Friends" this morning to see what kind of positive affirmation the president would hear. I noticed one consistent theme: Hosts and guests said impeachment will actually help him win re-election. Check out my recap here...
-- Breaking from WaPo: "Ex-White House officials say they feared Putin influenced Trump's views on Ukraine and 2016..."
'Ill-considered' tweet leads Trumpworld to blast Post
Bad-faith attacks against the media have been a steady feature of the Trump era. This newest example wasn't about anything the Washington Post reported -- just about a tweet and photo by Rachael Bade. The reporter and CNN political analyst tweeted "Merry Impeachmas from the WaPo team!" and showed several of her colleagues smiling and having drinks, chips and guacamole after a marathon day of impeachment coverage.
Stephanie Grisham jumped on it. And Donald Trump Jr. claimed the photo showed she was "celebrating yesterday's farce."
In an interview that I had scheduled long before this controversy popped up on social media, WaPo editor Marty Baron said Bade's tweet was "ill-considered" but Trump's claim was bogus. The reporters were "celebrating being able to go off the clock after a long day of covering impeachment. And that's what that's what she intended to convey," Baron said. "It's unfortunate that this has been distorted into celebrating impeachment." Here's my full story...
Hear more from Baron...
We've posted the full interview on the "Reliable Sources" podcast. Check it out via Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast app. And we'll have the highlights on TV this Sunday. A pull quote from Baron: "People find it convenient to attack us because they want people to just believe them and not believe any independent arbiter of facts..." | |
Trump campaign and right-wing media distort Clyburn comments
Oliver Darcy emails: The Trump campaign distorted comments Democratic Majority Whip James Clyburn made on CNN Thursday. Clyburn said on "New Day" that he didn't think Mitch McConnell would run a fair trial in the Senate because of the previous comments he's made. Clyburn compared it to someone saying ahead of a trial, "Let's give him a fair trial and hang him." He said it's like "the reverse of that."
The Trump campaign took those comments and tweeted, "The number 3 House Democrat, James Clyburn, just said this about President Trump: 'Hang him!' This hatred and anger is out of control!" That absurd and inaccurate interpretation of Clyburn's comments was amplified by right-wing media. Diamond & Silk tweeted that he should be "ashamed of himself." Brent Bozell, ironically of the Media Research Center, an organization that purports to be an honest conservative media watchdog, claimed Clyburn was "calling for President Trump to be lynched." The Federalist tweeted, "'Let's give him a fair trial, and hang him,' Clyburn said." And so on.
>> FWIW, I checked in with Clyburn's office, and a spokesperson said fact checks had "clarified" the congressman's remarks "accurately." The spokesperson declined to comment further...
Hannity is writing a book for Simon & Schuster
Oliver Darcy emails: Sean Hannity is working on a book slated for release in 2020, people familiar with the matter told me. The book will be published by Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, the people said. While the advance Hannity will be paid for the book is not known, the people I spoke to said they estimate the figure falls somewhere between $5 million and $10 million. More in my story here...
...but he is playing coy
Darcy adds: I actually asked Hannity about the book at Mediaite's "most influential in news media" party earlier this week. Hannity, who also briefly pretended not to know me, played coy. He said the notion he was writing a book was "news" to him and pushed back against the assertion.
A Fox News spokesperson told me Thursday, "For years, there has been widespread publisher interest in Sean Hannity writing another book, but only he knows what his plans are at this time. Hannity has NOT inked any book deal. While he has written three number one best-selling books, his last work was written in 2010." When pressed further about whether Hannity had a tentative deal, but had just not signed a final contract, the spokesperson would not comment beyond the original statement.
Ed Henry's promotion
Fox's post-Shep shuffle continues: Ed Henry has been named co-anchor of "America's Newsroom" alongside Sandra Smith, taking over for Bill Hemmer, who is moving to Shep's old 3pm time slot. The changes take effect on January 20.
Henry epitomizes the Trump-era Fox News -- as Jeremy Barr wrote for THR, Henry has "straddled the line between news and opinion at Fox News perhaps more than anyone else at the network" as chief national correspondent and "Fox & Friends" fill-in host...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Missed this yesterday: Jay Sures has signed Bret Baier to UTA... (THR)
-- WaPo continuing to follow up on its Afghanistan Papers scoop: "For many who served in the Afghanistan war, The Afghanistan Papers were both revelation and confirmation. The documents revealed years of deception by senior U.S. officials, who assured the public that progress was being made — when it wasn't..." (WaPo)
-- Margaret Sullivan's newest column is about the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Pittsburgh's storied newspaper has become a chaotic circus — or worse..." (WaPo)
"One Nation, Tracked"
That's the title of this impressive new project from NYT Opinion, based on the leak of a data set containing "more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans..." | | "The greatest trick technology companies ever played was persuading society to surveil itself." Check it out...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Kerry Flynn:
-- Katherine Bell is Quartz's new EIC. She was most recently EIC of Barron's magazine and prior to that digital editor at Harvard Business Review... (Quartz)
-- The Atlantic hires Nick Baumann, formerly senior enterprise editor at HuffPost, as politics editor and Whitney Dangerfield, formerly digital editor at This American Life, as senior editor for Ideas... (The Atlantic)
-- Josh Tucker argues there are "no ethical media jobs under capitalism," chronicling big changes in 2019 like the fall of Deadspin, Maven's takeover of Sports Illustrated and stumbles at Bustle Digital Group... (Medium)
-- Speaking of Deadspin, Drew Magary's annual Hater's Guide to the Wiliams-Sonoma Catalog is back... (Vice)
Publishers prepare for California's AB 5
Kerry Flynn emails: California's AB 5 was signed into law in September, but publishers are still grappling with how to address it come Jan. 1. Under the law, freelance journalists are limited to 35 submissions per year. Earlier this week, Vox Media announced it will part ways with 200 freelancers instead of abiding by those restrictions. But that's not the case for all publishers...
>> Alisha Grauso, co-leader of California Freelance Writers United, tells me, "The problem for this bill is it's one size fits all for an industry that is all sized. The intentions were good, and there are some people who might have jobs, but more likely we'll see freelancers capped, scrambling to find other clients..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Kerry Flynn:
-- Incisive Media shuts down The Inquirer, a nearly 20-year-old, tech-focused British tabloid site... (The Inquirer)
-- Fact-checking site Snopes plans to launch a membership program in 2020, starting at $30 per year for a community board, ad-free browsing and a biweekly newsletter... (Digiday)
-- Nat Ives reports Facebook will advertise in the Super Bowl for the first time, buying a 60-second ad featuring Chris Rock and Sylvester Stallone to promote FB Groups... (WSJ)
-- Wirecutter suspends its recommendation for Amazon's Ring devices in light of BuzzFeed's story on a data leak affecting more than 3,000 users... (Twitter)
Jim Jordan reportedly uses anti-Muslim activist's email list to fundraise
Oliver Darcy emails: Jim Jordan used the email list of notorious conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer to fundraise for his 2020 congressional campaign, Right Wing Watch's Jared Holt reported Thursday. "[Adam] Schiff and [Nancy] Pelosi are furious that I continue to expose their un-American impeachment circus as a hoax," read the email Jordan's campaign sent out, which was obtained by Holt.
The email also claimed that "a gang of foaming-at-the-mouth left-wing journalists" went after him "with an onslaught of hateful smears and false attacks." Loomer, who is running for Congress in Florida, has been banned from major social media services and even ride share apps for violating platform rules. Holt has more here...
Chuck Todd to host special "MTP" on disinfo
Oliver Darcy emails: Chuck Todd will host a special edition of "Meet the Press" on political disinformation at the end of the year, AP's David Bauder reported Thursday. Guests on the December 29 episode will include Marty Baron and Dean Baquet. Todd told Bauder he won't "pretend to have the answers." But, he added, "This is a spotlight. I hope my guests have good ideas. This to me is about sounding the alarm."
| | Who Eddy Cue has been talking to...
Tripp Mickle's latest Apple scoop for the WSJ: Apple exec Eddy Cue "met with Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott about the conference's effort to sell an equity stake in its media rights package, valued at up to $5 billion, that includes the Pac-12 Networks and all marquee football, basketball and live sports programming that is fully available in 2024." The talks were "preliminary," but intriguing because "a deal with the Pac-12 would be Apple's first foray into live sports."
Another possibility: James Bond franchise-owner MGM Holdings Inc. Mickle reports that Cue has discussed "a deal for MGM with Apple advisers." He says the talks show "Apple's openness to striking a multibillion-dollar content agreement in support of its TV service— even as it forges ahead with a preferred strategy of developing its own shows." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- The first trailer for Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" just dropped. "Though little is known about Nolan's suspense drama, 'Tenet' appears to bend time..." (Variety)
-- "Lego is in talks with Universal Pictures to form a new partnership to develop films based on the beloved building block toys..." (TheWrap)
Academy Awards producers debating whether or not to have a host
Via Megan Thomas: "Producers for the Feb. 9 telecast are said to be searching for the middle ground between having a single A-lister handling hosting duties and opting for no emcee at all," Variety's Matt Donnelly and Brent Lang reported Wednesday night. "That could manifest as a crop of big-name talent sharing duties instead of having one star forced to shoulder the pressure of cracking jokes and welcoming a global television audience over a more than three-hour program."
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
A tale (or tail) of two movies
Brian Lowry emails with that delightful headline, plus this: Disney+ continues to trot out family-friendly movies. The latest, "Togo," builds on its long tradition of dog yarns, this one offering the untold true story of the mutt really responsible for the famed Alaska serum run of 1925.
Elsewhere, the BBC's dark, grim miniseries version of "A Christmas Carol" landed on FX Thursday, providing what nobody really asked for -- an extended version of Charles Dickens' story seemingly designed to depress as much as uplift...
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