| | | | | Exec summary: Scroll down for details about the Trump-Fox "feedback loop..." harassment allegations at ESPN... "Last Jedi" weekend... the FCC possibly fining Sinclair... Oh, and have you heard George Clooney is working on a Watergate series for Netflix? | | Let's begin with Wolf Blitzer's question to Congressman Jim Himes on "The Situation Room" Friday evening: "Do you think these attacks on the FBI, on Robert Mueller, on the Justice Department, are coordinated between the White House and, let's say, some on Fox News and others in the right wing media?"
"Look, no question" there's coordination, Himes said. "Whether there is a hotline between the Oval Office and Fox News -- I doubt that's true. But when the president is talking about the investigation and makes it very clear he wants them over and uses the words 'do something,' you know, people who will sell their souls, who will trade their integrity... will do precisely that," said Himes, a Democrat from CT. He called out Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and "some of my colleagues," i.e. GOP lawmakers who are calling for Mueller's ouster... | | "A lot of angry people," indeed... | | The right's anti-Mueller, anti-FBI fervor intensified this week, partly due to the release of text messages that showed a former member of Mueller's team was harshly critical of President Trump. I know the president denies watching 4+ hours of TV a day, but get real. When I heard him say this on Friday morning, I immediately thought he was reflecting what he's been hearing from Fox News nonstop:
"It's a shame what happened with the FBI... It is very sad when you look at those documents... You have a lot of angry people that are seeing it. It's a very sad thing to watch."
Jeffrey Toobin reacted this way on CNN: "You know who 'a lot of people' are? 'A lot of people' are the people who watch Fox News. Other than that, a lot of people are actually not upset about this investigation. That's shown over and over again in the polls."
--> Earlier in the day, Jake Tapper played clips of "incredibly extremist rhetoric" from Fox... | | The president is soaking up the "Mueller is out to get you" message from Fox and maybe other conservative outlets. At this point, I wonder: If Trump filled in for Sean Hannity at 9pm, would you notice much difference?
I asked Nicole Hemmer, author of a book about conservative media, "Messengers of the Right," for her analysis. "The anti-Mueller rhetoric in conservative media right now is part of a feedback loop," she said. "Conservative media personalities know Trump hates the investigation and wants it shut down. They bash the investigation and Mueller, and when Trump sees that happening (say, on "Fox & Friends") it reinforces his belief that the investigation is illegitimate and that he should do something to end it. The likely consequence is that this increases the odds of Trump attempting to fire Mueller."
Hemmer added: "We'll have to wait and see whether internal restraints within the White House — lawyers and advisers —are enough to stop him from doing that..." | | | TGIF! "From the moment he stepped onto the frozen White House South Lawn with a frown just after 9 a.m., Trump maintained a steady flow of indignation" on Friday, CNN's Kevin Liptak writes... | | Trump lawyers set for key meeting with special counsel next week | | | A Friday evening scoop from CNN's Pamela Brown, Evan Perez, Gloria Borger and Kara Scannell: "Trump's private lawyers are slated to meet" with Mueller "and members of his team as soon as next week for what the President's team considers an opportunity to gain a clearer understanding of the next steps in Mueller's probe, according to sources familiar with the matter..." | | "Nonsense?" There's anger inside Fox News about Murdoch's dismissive comments | | If you haven't read Yashar Ali's story yet, click here... It's worth reading the whole thing... He spoke with "10 current and former female Fox News staffers, all of whom are or were on-air talent," all of whom say "they are stunned, disgusted and 'hungry for justice'" after hearing Rupert Murdoch's dismissive comments about the sexual harassment scandals that have roiled Fox News.
When asked on Thursday about the scandals and how they may have affected Fox's bottom line, Murdoch said "it's all nonsense" and said the issue was "largely political because we're conservative." One of the former staffers told Ali: "Rupert's dismissal is a crude insult to women. He should know better." Read the full story here... | | | Ali's story reminded me of what former Fox Newser Alisyn Camerota said on CNN's "New Day" this morning: Fox "truly was rotten to the core, as we now know, for all the people that had been paying settlements, and all of the women who had been sexually harassed there..." | | Mike Francesa signs off WFAN | | | "The New York sports radio king bid farewell" on Friday. Via the NYPost: Mike Francesa's "20-minute sendoff, which followed five hours of answering callers, was full of thank you's and reflections." He said "I will wait for another day to talk about what I have planned for the future... I'll be looking forward to reconnecting with the audience..." | | This Sunday on "Reliable Sources" | | | We'll be talking about Murdoch-Trump, Disney-Fox, and much more... With BTIG Research's Rich Greenfield, Hadas Gold, Amy Chozick, David Folkenfik, Margaret Talev, Brian Karem, and Kurt Bardella... Plus, a special report on jailed journalists... Join us Sunday at 11am ET on CNN... | | -- Important story by NPR's Aarti Shahani: Facebook's partnership with third-party fact-checkers is "off to a rocky start..." (NPR)
-- AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson "stepped down from the boards of Boeing and Emerson Electric to shield both companies from any fallout as he battles the U.S. government to win approval for the takeover of Time Warner," Gerry Smith and Scott Moritz report... (Bloomberg)
-- Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman's latest: Omarosa Manigault is "urging viewers to stay tuned to find out why she really left" the White House... (NYT) | | | I'll give you one guess who's under this mask... | | | Yes, of course it's Frank Pallotta! He was on CNNI with Richard Quest breaking down the opening night #'s for "The Last Jedi" -- here are his updates... | | Box office war: "Jedi" vs. "The Force" | | Frank Pallotta emails: "The Last Jedi" had the second biggest Thursday night opening ever behind (you guessed it) "The Force Awakens," which is really the only competition for "Jedi" this weekend. Nothing else will come close to it, but will it come close to the $248 million domestic opening of "Force Awakens?" I don't think so, but not for a lack of trying. "Force" was a once in a lifetime event, and "Jedi" is big, but not *that* big. I'd bet the film lands somewhere in between $210 million to $215 million in North America, a solid second place... Read more here...
-- Frank adds: I will be covering the incoming box office numbers for CNNMoney all weekend. I'm seeing "Last Jedi" again on Saturday, so I'll likely have to step out of the theater to check for new numbers! | | "Star Wars" as an explanation of the Disney-Fox deal | | | More from Frank Pallotta: I stood outside in 20 degree weather to do live shots all morning. Why? Because "Star Wars." It isn't a franchise, it's an experience that makes people feel like they need to be a part of it. The Friday 8am showing at AMC Lincoln Square was sold out. It's a work day! This is one of the many reasons why Disney wanted Fox's assets... | | DISNEY-FOX DEAL, THE DAY AFTER | | Thursday's P.R. blitz by Bob Iger and Rupert Murdoch, promoting the virtues of the Disney-Fox deal, left little doubt that the deal is all about battling Netflix, Google, Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants. I revisited Murdoch's comments for this Friday piece.
"I think Facebook coming in, and Apple, and Netflix are all going to be big players," Murdoch said on Fox Business. He pointed out that Facebook tried to bid for the streaming rights to cricket matches earlier this year. His Star media group won out. "That was a warning shot," he said of Facebook. "They've announced now they're going to spend billions on sports rights. So we don't know which country they'll go after or what they'll do."
Murdoch's most interesting comment was about Netflix. "When Disney pull all their -- and Fox -- pull their programs back, or stop selling anything to Netflix, it will be interesting how that affects them," he said. Of course, Netflix has been preparing for this eventuality for a while... Here's my story... | | Michael Wolff's latest THR column is insightful: While the rest of us are talking about streaming and "scale," he's talking about the Murdoch family tree. He says this corporate break-up is "quite an efficient plan for managing the family dynamic." In effect, Rupert "is selling the James-focused assets," creating a new path for James Murdoch, while preserving the news/sports assets as a "New Fox" for Lachlan Murdoch to lead. Notable graf from Wolff: "Fox News has been a particularly contentious family issue, with James hotly opposing the heavy-handed Trump tilt advocated by his father and Lachlan willing to go along with his dad."
More: "The Disney deal also lets Murdoch unlock cash that, in the remaining years of his life, will allow him to efficiently divide his estate." Read the rest here... | | | Check this out. On Dec. 14, 2007, Murdoch's News Corp. completed its takeover of Dow Jones, including the WSJ. A triumphant day for the media mogul. Fast forward ten years: On Dec. 14, 2017, Murdoch announced the Fox sale to Disney... | | | Mickey Mouse swallowing a Fox... | | | "Nothing will change immediately at Hulu," Variety's Todd Spangler writes. Once Disney takes majority control of the joint venture, "under Disney's current thinking, Hulu will serve as a complement to the Disney-branded SVOD service set for 2019." A hub for more "adult-oriented product" from FX, Fox, etc... | | -- Steven Zeitchik tweeted: "Good news for film fans: Hearing Iger called Fox Searchlight executives yesterday to talk positively about the future. 'I come in peace,' he said..."
-- On the other hand: TheWrap says "fear and uncertainty are sinking in on the 20th Century Fox lot..."
-- According to Bloomberg, "Iger's big payout is guaranteed, even if Disney's Fox deal isn't..."
-- Will this pique the interest of the DOJ? Quartz charted how the deal "eats up market share..." | | Clooney, Netflix, Watergate ✓ | | CNNMoney's Julia Horowitz writes: "George Clooney is taking on Watergate. The actor is developing an eight-part Netflix series on the scandal that took down President Richard Nixon, his representative confirmed Friday. The news was reported earlier by Variety and Deadline. Clooney and his production company, Smokehouse Pictures, are working with "Bridge of Spies" writer Matt Charman on the project..."
-- BTW: Have you been listening to Slate's "Slow Burn" podcast about the "forgotten stories of Watergate?" On the newest episode, Leon Neyfakh examines news coverage of the scandal... | | -- As takeover talk resurfaces, "Twitter shares have surged more than 6% this week and are up nearly 40% this year," Paul R. La Monica notes... (CNNMoney)
-- Ad campaigns by the NYT and CNN made Variety's list of the best ads of 2017... (Variety)
-- NYC's famed Lincoln Plaza Cinemas is "scheduled to close in January..." This would be a big loss for the city's film scene... (Deadline) | | Harassment allegations swirl around ESPN | | | CNNMoney's Ahiza Garcia writes: ESPN is denying allegations of sexual harassment against one of its anchors, John Buccigross. Former on-air personality Adrienne Lawrence lodged a complaint against Buccigross... And now both sides are sharing text messages to support their POV... Here's Garcia's full story... | | Friday's other developments | | -- "Kathleen Kennedy's proposed industry commission to combat gender inequality is coming to fruition," THR reports. The Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace will be chaired by Anita Hill...
-- "Stephen Henderson, managing director of opinion and commentary, was terminated" from the Detroit Free Press on Friday after an investigation into sexual harassment allegations. No comment from Henderson so far...
-- Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson is under investigation for unspecified "workplace misconduct..."
-- Get caught up on the allegations against Dustin Hoffman through Lisa Respers France's story here... | | -- In Alabama, Roy Moore still isn't conceding. And people are still pretty much just shrugging at his stubbornness...
-- Speaking of the Alabama race: "This past Tuesday night, about a dozen staff members worked to keep the needle running" at the NYT...
-- NYT Opinion's latest analysis of the president's dishonesty: "Trump's Lies vs. Obama's" (NYT)
-- Varad Mehta writing for National Review: "After Trump won, journalists promised the country they would get back to work. We're still waiting..." (NRO) | | FCC, normally generous to Sinclair, is fining the company $13 million... | | | Julia Waldow emails: Reuters reports that the FCC plans to fine Sinclair $13.3 million for not disclosing that 1,700 spots of paid programming were sponsored by a cancer institute based in Utah. The big picture? It "could bolster critics of Sinclair's proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune..." | | Will Sommer on the "Reliable" pod | | Will Sommer studies conservative media's stars in the Trump age. On this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast, I asked him about the conservative media ecosystem... the power of sites like Breitbart... and the influence of Infowars. Listen to the podcast via Apple, Stitcher, or TuneIn... And check out Julia Waldow's recap here...
-- Pull quote from Sommer: "I think if Breitbart had not come out and so stridently in favor of Roy Moore, and obviously Steve Bannon was also associated with that, I'd suspect Roy Moore might have had to drop out before the election..." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- More than 13,000 people have signed the National Press Club's petition on Change.org to grant asylum to journalist Emilio Gutierrez, of Mexico... We'll be talking about this case on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." (National Press Club)
-- Facebook is rolling out its "Snooze" option, which lets users temporarily stop following a person, page, or group for a period of 30 days... (Facebook)
-- The CEO of Vevo, Erik Huggers, is stepping down after two and a half years... (TechCrunch)
-- Long live "Love:" Judd Apatow's Netflix comedy is wrapping after three seasons, with the final saga set to air in March... (THR) | | | Father and son Sulzberger on the front page of their newspaper today: | | | AOL Instant Messenger was discontinued on Friday. So CNN Tech asked some of us to reminisce about our embarrassing screen names. I talked about my old screen name, "TheBump," which was all about my love of "Goosebumps" books... Laurie Segall, Erica Hill, Frank Pallotta, Vanessa Yurkevich, and Chris Moody also shared their memories in this video... | | Post-Oscars premiere for "Roseanne" | | | Brian Lowry emails: ABC's "Roseanne" revival has an airdate, and not surprisingly, it's in late March, to capitalize on the promotional platform that the network gets from the Oscars. The show premieres March 27 with a one-hour episode... | | Brian Lowry emails: Not a big surprise, but Nielsen's latest stab at quantifying Netflix usage shows that "The Crown" skews toward an older, heavily female audience, based on a breakdown of estimates for the first three days of viewing. Indiewire has more here...
*reminder that Netflix disputes these #'s... | | | Lisa Respers France writes: "The Simpsons" remain our national psychics with their eerie habit of predicting what's going to happen. The latest example: the Disney-Fox deal! Here are a few other examples of the show's accurate squints into the future... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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