| | | | Michael Wolff had the interview everyone wanted -- the interview with Trump campaign CEO turned Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon -- and the result is a must read. Dylan Byers flagged this part: Bannon says "the media bubble is the ultimate symbol of what's wrong with this country... It's just a circle of people talking to themselves who have no f—ing idea what's going on. If The New York Times didn't exist, CNN and MSNBC would be a test pattern. The Huffington Post and everything else is predicated on The New York Times. It's a closed circle of information from which Hillary Clinton got all her information — and her confidence. That was our opening..."
I was also struck by Bannon's comment that "darkness is good." He says "Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power. It only helps us when they [liberals] get it wrong. When they're blind to who we are and what we're doing." Among other things, this may explain why Bannon stayed behind the scenes during the campaign and didn't grant interviews. He believes "darkness" gives him "power." Here's the full profile... | | | Murdoch's visit to Trump Tower | | Rupert Murdoch paid a visit to Trump Tower on Friday afternoon, around the same time Bannon was quoted in THR saying this about Fox News: "They got it more wrong than anybody." And about Murdoch specifically: "Rupert is a globalist and never understood Trump. To him, Trump is a radical. Now they'll go centrist and build the network around Megyn Kelly."
Bannon was writing and saying similar things on Breitbart.com many months ago. But now this Fox critic will be in the White House... Serving a president who seems pretty pro-Fox... Meanwhile, Fox aired a Harvey Levin-with-Trump special on Friday night that looked like a reprise of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous..." | | | Wolff defends his approach | | | Within minutes, Wolff was criticized for letting Bannon off the hook about Breitbart-related controversies and other matters. TPM's Josh Marshall: "The fawning is so thick in this article you can cut it with a knife. Maybe need something stronger than a knife." Wolff responded: "This is called listening and letting someone talk -- even if you don't agree with him. You disapprove?" | | | Ailes accusers speak on 20/20 | | In one week, three of Roger Ailes' accusers have come forward in television interviews to describe his alleged pattern of sexual harassment and intimidation. Megyn Kelly spoke about Ailes in interviews earlier this week... And on Friday night's "20/20," Gretchen Carlson spoke on-camera for the first time since her lawsuit and settlement. Carlson's interview was about sexual harassment throughout her life; what she can say about Ailes is limited by the terms of her settlement. But ABC also interviewed Laurie Luhn, whose shocking account of Ailes harassing her for two decades was published by Gabriel Sherman last July. Friday's "20/20" was also Luhn's first TV interview, and she spoke more freely about Ailes. "I went through such hell for so many years. I finally felt safe when… I saw that other women were speaking up," Luhn said.
-- More: "I didn't realize the extent to which Roger really was a predator," Luhn said. Ailes responded: "The stories she is telling now are fabrications built on half-truths and outright lies, and I can only assume are opportunistically intended to thrust her back into the limelight at my expense..." | | John Herrman on "fake news" blowback | | Amid a much-needed media industry conversation about the scourge of "fake news," there's already ample blowback from people who say "The Daily Show" and the NYT and CNN are all forms of "fake news" too. Some people are raising good points; much-documented failures -- the Rolling Stone article about UVa, for instance -- have eroded trust in "real news." But some of the backlash is being done in bad faith, by people who just want to dismiss the problem and pile on well-meaning journalists.
To be clear, "fake news" as it is being narrowly discussed now means "made-up stories that seek to trick people." But there are many other forms of online deceit and misdirection that are doing damage, like hyperpartisan Facebook pages. In Saturday's NYT, John Herrman predicts that "newslike media, amateur and professional, for which truth is defined first in personal and political terms, and which must only meet the bar of not being obviously, inarguably, demonstrably false" will "continue growing apace, gaining authority by sheer force." Better algorithms to weed out hoaxes won't stop that. Read Herrman's full column here... | | Sunday on "Reliable Sources" | | | On Sunday's show I'll be talking more about fake news... Hopefully in a constructive manner... Plus I'll be joined by Frank Sesno, Salena Zito, Ben Shapiro, Sarah Ellison, Marisa Guthrie, Ann Compton, and New York Observer editor Ken Kurson... Join us Sunday, 11am ET, CNN... | | | Baldwin back on "SNL" this weekend | | On Friday night Alec Baldwin posted this picture on Instagram, captioned "Now, that was a fun ride..."
But sources say he'll be back, at least for one more episode. Per Frank Pallotta, "the actor will return to play President-elect Trump on 'SNL' this weekend for the first time since the election..." | | | Skirmishes for press access continue | | Dylan Byers emails: Major U.S. news outlets, CNN included, did not publish video or images of Trump's meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday night because they were denied access to the meeting and refused to use a video provided by the Japanese government.
"A handout photo amounts to a visual press release and is not a substitute for independent coverage of the president-elect," Jeff Mason, White House Correspondents Association president, said. "We will continue to push for full coverage of the president-elect to ensure the public has access to information about his meetings and whereabouts." Read more... | | | How the Redskins name debate is like Trump | | Does this sound familiar? WashPost's Dan Steinberg writes about the "years of arguments I've had with Redskins defenders," people who have resisted calls to change the team's name:
"They saw a concerted and outrageous media effort to tip the scales. They insisted that my friends — who just about uniformly believe the team's name should change — are out of touch... They told me that media Twitter wasn't the real world, that it created a phony idea of consensus for a stance that wasn't actually ascendant. And they argued that a politically correct onslaught from big-city elites would only strengthen their convictions."
Yes, Steinberg's column is about both the Redskins and Trump coverage... | | | "Anger and action, not analysis" | | | THR's Tim Goodman says one of the cablers should go "full anti-Trump" in 2017: "From this point forward, people still watching the 'news' will want anger and action, not analysis... This new news channel -- or new iteration of an old news channel -- will absolutely feast for the next four years. Not only does it make sense in our clearly fractured, polarized, partisan country, it makes business sense." You could argue that MSNBC already is this, in prime time, but the channel is different things at different times of the day... | | | "Just the facts," or interpretation too? | | Here's something to chew on this weekend: Pew Research Center released some data on Friday showing that "a majority of U.S. adults (59%) reject the idea of adding interpretation, saying that the news media should present the facts alone." Trump supporters were significantly more likely than Clinton supporters to say "just the facts."
This is also interesting: Per Pew, "the vast majority of registered voters say that fact-checking is a responsibility of the news media. And even those who oppose interpretation of facts generally favor the fact-checking role of the news media..." | | | Re-upping Remnick's piece | | Megan Thomas emails: I finally got a chance to read David Remnick's piece about President Obama in its entirety. For columnists and pundits who have said Obama is in denial about Trump's win, this is a must read that puts the President's publicly neutral/or positive comments in great context.
Megan highlighted this graf about what Obama said to his daughters about the election results: "What I say to them is that people are complicated. Societies and cultures are really complicated... This is not mathematics; this is biology and chemistry. These are living organisms, and it's messy. And your job as a citizen and as a decent human being is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding. And you should anticipate that at any given moment there's going to be flare-ups of bigotry that you may have to confront, or may be inside you and you have to vanquish. And it doesn't stop... You don't get into a fetal position about it. You don't start worrying about apocalypse. You say, O.K., where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward." | | | Mea culpas: welcome, but too late? | | | Brian Lowry emais his column about "mea culpas" by media A-listers like Bill Maher and Glenn Beck, and he adds: "I think the soul-searching about overheated rhetoric before 2016 is welcome, but sadly too late. With a Trump presidency, the opportunity to moderate political discourse is, for the foreseeable future, behind us..." | | | The Great Fox News Book Race | | | Checking the Amazon Best Sellers page... Megyn Kelly's memoir (which came out on Tuesday) is #3, just behind Bill O'Reilly's new childrens book (which comes out next week)... Both books are behind Fox colleague Ainsley Earhardt, whose childrens book "Take Heart, My Child" is #1... | | | At least three big releases this weekend: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them..." "The Edge of Seventeen..." And "Manchester by the Sea." Click on the titles to read Brian Lowry's reviews of each... | | | "Fantastic Beasts" hopes to find "Harry Potter" fans at the box office | | | Frank Pallotta emails: It's easy to sell audiences on Harry Potter, but selling them on Newt Scamander may be another story. That's the challenge for Warner Bros. this weekend as it introduces "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," the studio's first Harry Potter spinoff. The film is projected for an opening of $70 million to $80 million – a good haul for a film without The Boy Who Lived. Read more... | | -- Chloe Melas emails: I had a chance to speak with former "SNL" alum Jay Pharoah about co-hosting the American Music Awards with Gigi Hadid this weekend. He says no artist is off-limits...
-- Lisa France emails: Kanye West didn't just rile folks up when he said would have voted for Trump. He didn't win any fans either when he said black people should stop focusing on racism...
-- More from Lisa: Speaking of Yeezy, he's one of a few celebs being talked about as possible presidential candidates in 2020...
And on THAT note... have a great weekend! | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email... And we'll be back tomorrow... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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