| | | | These are President Obama's bluntest comments yet about the media's coverage of this topsy-turvy campaign year. Dylan Byers writes: Hillary Clinton was "treated unfairly," Obama said at a year-end press conference on Friday. "I think the coverage of her and the issues was troubling."
The indictment of the media's coverage came as Obama said that recent hacks intended to hobble Clinton's campaign came from the highest levels of Russian government. Obama: "I'm finding it curious that everybody is suddenly acting surprised that this looked like disadvantaging Hillary Clinton because you guys wrote about it everyday. This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage."
Obama also chided partisan media outlets for creating an environment in which fake news produced by foreign governments was able to thrive. "If fake news that's being released by some foreign government is almost identical to reports that are being released through partisan news venues, it's not surprising that that foreign propaganda will have a greater effect," POTUS said. Fake news "doesn't seem that far-fetched because it doesn't seem that different from what folks are hearing from domestic propagandists." Read more from Dylan here... | | | "I don't think the American public was well served..." | | Earlier this week, while interviewing outgoing WH press secretary Josh Earnest, I asked if he felt that journalists were "doing the bidding of Russia" by writing stories about the stolen WikiLeaks emails.
"I had profound concerns about the way in which this was being consumed by the public and the way it was being put out there for the public's consumption," he said... "I don't think the American public was well served by the way that this was handled." Obligatory tease: Hear more from Earnest on this Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | | Brian Lowry emails while watching Obama's presser: It's interesting -- and probably accurate -- to suggest that the effectiveness of the Russian hack has to do with the kind of propaganda people already consume from partisan media. But the president seems to have identified the problem without offering anything up that sounds like a solution, other than the hope that portions of the public will be less angry and/or gullible... | | | Sunday's "Reliable Sources" lineup | | | White House Correspondents Association president Jeff Mason will join me... Plus Richard Stengel, Jane Hall, Angie Drobnic Holan, Jeffrey Toobin, Chris Ruddy, Kim Ghattas, and Savik Shuster... Join us, Sunday, 11am ET, CNN! | | | Want to see Facebook's warning label in action? | | Frank Pallotta emails: On Thursday night, Disney's "Rogue" won. "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" brought in $29 million at the domestic box office for its preview showings... The total eclipsed the Thursday openings for other blockbusters this year like "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Captain America: Civil War" making it the biggest Thursday night opening of 2016.
But there's a lot of weekend to go. With cold weather, unfair "Force Awakens" comparisons, and the Dark Side against it, will the rebels of "Rogue One" defeat its Death-Star sized box office expectations? We shall see, but Disney is hoping that the Force will be with it. Here's the full story... | | | "Rogue One" isn't going to be "Force Awakens" and that's okay | | Important perspective from Frank: All week long people have been coming up to me asking me how "Rogue One" is. And I respond with "it's good," which leads to them replying "Just good? That's it?" Yes, that's it. It's a good movie! But the reason so many people are taken aback by my reaction is because "Rogue One" is following one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, last year's "The Force Awakens."
But Disney doesn't need "Rogue One" to make a record breaking $529 million worldwide this weekend. It just needs to show that a "Star Wars" movie can be successful without Luke, Leia or Han. I mean, it's projected for a solid $130 million to $140 million, and if it gets there Disney will be over Endor (aka a moon). Last year's "Force Awakens" went on to become the biggest blockbuster in U.S. history, but that film had more than 30 years of build-up behind it. "Rogue One" is a standalone movie with new characters, so comparing its box office totals or even the excitement around it to that of "Force Awakens" is like comparing apples to Death Stars. | | | Vanity Fair's best day ever* | | | *in terms of single-day subscription sales | | | In yesterday's newsletter I mentioned that Vanity Fair saw a surge in subscriptions after Trump tweeted his latest complaint about Graydon Carter. Just how much of a surge? Poynter's Ben Mullin convinced VF to share some #'s: "The Condé Nast magazine has seen its subscriptions rise 100 fold Thursday... Within 24 hours, Vanity Fair added 13,000 subscribers. This is the highest number of subscriptions sold in a single day ever at Condé Nast, according to a spokesperson..." | | | Trump's anti-media tweet of the day | | Quick fact-check of Trump's latest misleading tweet about the media:
On Friday morning, he asked/trolled, "Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?"
Illegally? No. Unethically? Yes. "There was nothing illegal at play, and Donna Brazile wasn't the head of the Democratic National Committee at the time that she leaked town hall questions to the Hillary Clinton campaign," the WashPost's Philip Bump explains. His colleague Dave Weigel has a more detailed explanation of how Trump "keeps misleading his voters on the Donna Brazile scandal." No doubt, what Brazile did was scandalous, but Trump's claims lack context and confuse the issue, as Weigel describes here... | | -- The NYT "will vacate at least eight floors in its midtown Manhattan HQ as part of an extensive redesign and consolidation of its newsroom and office space," Kelsey Sutton reports. Execs say the move "will save the company money, generate rental income and increase newsroom collaboration..." (Politico)
-- Miles Socha is the next editor in chief of WWD. "Socha is succeeding Edward Nardoza, who is retiring after 25 years as WWD's editor..." (FishbowlNY)
-- It turns out Vine is not totally shutting down. Instead Twitter is turning the video app into Vine Camera, which will let users take six-second videos. "The videos won't be shared to Vine's platform, which is still going away, but can be shared on Twitter or saved to your phone," Selena Larson reports... (CNNMoney) | | | POTUS pays tribute to Craig Sager | | Tom Kludt emails: The tributes continued to roll in for Craig Sager on Friday, with President Obama offering a toast on Twitter one day after Sager died at age 65. "The suits said it all – colorful, fun, a little outlandish. That's what sports should be."
Speaking of those suits, the Milwaukee Bucks honored Sager by wearing warm-up shirts that resembled Sager's signature attire. Players throughout the league used social media to offer personal memorials. Hard to think of a sports media personality more beloved among the athletes he covered... | | | Sumner stepping down from Viacom board | | | "Sumner Redstone, 93-year-old chairman emeritus of Viacom, is stepping down from the media giant's board," CNBC's Berkeley Lovelace Jr. reports. "Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS, will leave the board in February following the company's annual meeting, but he will continue to participate in meetings in a nonvoting role, according to a Viacom filing with the SEC..." | | | Kurt Eichenwald's "Twitter break" | | Tom Kludt emails: Kurt Eichenwald says his epilepsy made him a target for Twitter trolls, and it worked. Eichenwald is "taking a short Twitter break" after a user sent a flashing gif that he says caused him to have a seizure. He says he reported the user to police and he intends to file a lawsuit...
All of this comes one day after Eichenwald's televised face-off with Tucker Carlson. It was… something. | | | Trump press conference watch: 142 days | | | Trump's last press conference was on July 27, 142 days ago, near the beginning of his general election campaign. Trump had announced a press conference for Thursday in NYC, but his team abruptly canceled the event earlier this week... | | | Netflix's film about Obama's college life | | | Brian Lowry emails: There's already been evidence of early-onset nostalgia about President Obama, which now includes a pair of movies devoted to his early life. The first, "Southside With You" (which could easily have been titled "When Barack Met Michelle"), premiered in August, and Netflix has just added "Barry," which focuses on his time as a young student at Columbia. Like the earlier film, it's interesting, but not especially illuminating. Read more... | | | More from Brian Lowry: Speaking of Netflix, the streaming service employed an novel marketing approach with its latest drama, "The OA," essentially debuting the show with little advance information or fanfare. The result? A creepy series with a passing resemblance to "Stranger Things" that's binge-able enough but, having seen all eight episodes, doesn't quite measure up or know how to finish. Read Brian's review here... | | | Recommended reading/viewing | | | Megan Thomas emails: I would have loved to sit at this table… THR got Lin-Manuel Miranda, Donald Glover, Issa Rae and Damien Chazelle together for a conversation about creativity with Jon Favreau. You can watch the roundtable or read the highlights. It's fascinating to hear what these brilliant artists ask each other. "Four creative talents flouting the conventions of formula go back and forth with director Jon Favreau (a onetime wunderkind himself) on success, struggling and staying sane..." | | -- Lisa France emails: Denzel Washington talked about #OscarsSoWhite in a "60 Minutes" interview that will air on Sunday. He said actors of color have to "just do the best you can..."
-- Kim Kardashian West is easing back into the limelight months after pretty much going MIA...
-- "For actors, the road to success is filled as many potholes as there are stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Sometimes, they need a hand. That's where the SAG-AFTRA Foundation comes in." Check out Sandra Gonzalez's full story here...
-- Chloe Melas writes: Pharrell is the new creative director for American Express Platinum. An Amex SVP tells me that this is not an ambassadorship and that Pharrell will actually be making business decisions. Get the full scoop here...
-- More from Lisa: There's an ongoing issue involving people not paying close attention to the dates of celebrity obits, in essence causing stars to "die" over and over again online with the reposting of old obits. On Friday The AP corrected singer Laura Brannigan's obit because inaccurate information supplied to them resulted in the wrong age being reported for her. But the "Gloria" singer died in 2004. Here's the correction... | | | Hey, thanks for reading! What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We'll be back on Sunday... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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