| | | | | Roger Ailes' lawyer says "he'll be back" | | Were it not for the election, Roger Ailes' resignation from Fox News would qualify as the biggest media story of the year. Ailes has barely said a word in public since the day he resigned, but on Monday he picked up the phone and called Don Kaplan at the NY Daily News... to ask for an apology. Ailes objected to a headline -- "GROPEY OLD MEN" -- that referred to the allegations against him and, separately, Sumner Redstone.
Kaplan says he didn't believe it was really Ailes until Ailes' lawyer Mark Mukasey told him: "Roger Ailes called the paper because he wanted to make clear that he vehemently denies the ludicrous allegations that were lodged against him by Ms. Curanaj." (Last week Lidia Curanaj sued Fox, claiming harassment by Ailes.)
"Her complaint is a laughable stunt," Mukasey added. "And Roger should not be compared to anybody else. He's an icon, a legend, a visionary — and he'll be back."
"He'll be back." | | | "Roger has lots of options" | | There's buzz that Ailes may be about to give his first interview since the scandal erupted. I asked Mukasey about that on Tuesday evening, and he didn't answer directly. But he did elaborate when I asked about what "he'll be back" means:
"Roger has lots of options that he's weighing and he's speaking with people in finance and politics, among other things. He still has boundless energy, fire in his belly and the sharpest mind out there. Remember -- setbacks pave the way for comebacks."
-- ICYMI last week: Shep Smith told Stephen Colbert that post-Ailes Fox News, with Rupert Murdoch at the helm, is "fantastic..." | | | Don Kaplan wrote in his column: "So far, three women have sued Ailes — but around two dozen other women have made similar accusations. I try to be a gentleman, but, sorry, I simply cannot apologize." | | | Another movie about Ailes | | We already knew about the miniseries in development (based on Gabriel Sherman's reporting) and the movie in development. It turns out there's a second movie about Ailes -- albeit a much smaller-scale production -- also on the way.
"Justice For All, starring multiple Academy Award and Emmy winners and nominees, has just completed its principal photography, according to Kenneth Del Vecchio, the movie's writer/producer," an obscure site called "Empire State News" recently reported.
It's worth reading the story, if only to marvel at how strange it is, with repeated pro-Ailes and pro-Del Vecchio remarks. The filmmaker won't ID any the cast members or say much about the film, but it's clear that his "fictional courtroom battle" is meant to deliver "justice" for Ailes. Del Vecchio, a failed House candidate who calls himself "the first Congress candidate in the country to endorse Donald Trump," says he'll premiere his movie at his own film festival in May.
-- Ask yourself: Isn't this reminiscent of Zev Chafets releasing a friendly Ailes biography to get ahead of Sherman's more thoroughly reported book? | | | Real ads, fake people, stealing millions of $$$s a day | | "Russian cybercriminals have built a new high-tech fraud enterprise: Showing real ads to fake people," CNN's Jose Pagliery writes. "The fraud has siphoned more than $180 million from the online ad industry, according to researchers."
The cybersec firm White Ops calls this "Methbot." Pagliery explains: "Companies would pay millions to run expensive video ads. Then they would deliver those ads to what appeared to be major websites. In reality, criminals had created more than 250,000 counterfeit web pages no real person was visiting." | | | A wake up call for advertisers | | Tuesday's message from news and entertainment publishers: If you deal directly with us, buying ads where you know they'll be seen, you won't waste millions of $$$.
I asked Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a trade group for the Voxs and WashPosts and NYTs and Hearsts and AOLs of the world, to weigh in: "The reported amount of daily advertiser dollars was on par with the collective ad revenue of U.S. premium publishers. As advertisers have leaned into blind automation from high-flying Silicon Alley ad tech companies, they've lost track of where their ads and money are going." | | | Guilfoyle co-hosting "The Five" while pushing for Trump admin position? | | "Fox News executives have permitted Kimberly Guilfoyle to continue hosting 'The Five' and offering political analysis on the network despite reports indicating she is making a push to be press secretary" in Trump's administration, BI's Oliver Darcy points out. He says Fox declined to comment on Tuesday...
-- FYI: Guilfoyle is also co-hosting Fox's "All American New Year From Times Square" show on 12/31, per TVNewser... | | | Alec Baldwin talks about playing Trump -- and for how long he'll keep playing | | A coup for the NYT's Sarah Maslin Nir: She spent last Saturday on the set of "SNL" with Alec Baldwin -- or as Frank Pallotta likes to call him, "the second most famous Donald Trump in the world."
Baldwin revealed how much he gets paid each time he plays Trump ($1,400) and said that "now that he is the president, we have an obligation — as we would if it was him or her — to dial it up as much as we can."
Nir writes: "Baldwin said that he planned to continue playing Mr. Trump on 'SNL' and perhaps elsewhere, but that his work schedule — he is about to film two movies — would mean his performances would be intermittent. Besides, he said, it might start to get old for audiences..."
("Perhaps elsewhere?")
-- More: THR's Matthew Belloni reacts to the $1,400 per episode: "Alec Baldwin is SUPER underpaid for playing Trump on SNL. Sad!" (Twitter) | | -- Nielsen is buying Gracenote from Tribune Media for $560 million, "highlighting the value of data..." (NYT)
-- Year-end cable news ratings are starting to roll in. CNN's Tuesday afternoon press release: "2016 IS CNN'S MOST-WATCHED YEAR EVER." #1 year in the channel's history in terms of total viewers, #2 year in the 25-54 demo, thanks to the election. (CNN PR)
-- Special correspondent/podcast aficionado Jamie Stelter emails: Lauren Duca, who wrote this viral Teen Vogue story about Trump, talks with Richard Deitsch about women's media, Dan Rather, and Twitter as a career tool... (SI Media Podcast)
-- "Politico has named Blake Hounshell editor in chief of Politico Magazine..." (FishbowlNY)
-- Starz has cancelled Patrick Stewart's show set in the world of cable news, "Blunt Talk," after two seasons... (Variety) | | | "God forbid I should hustle and leave my desk" | | | "I feel like I'm being criticized for doing good journalism. God forbid I should hustle and leave my desk." That's what the NYT's Adam Goldman told the WashPost's Erik Wemple on Tuesday. Goldman, you probably recall, scored a jailhouse interview with the "Pizzagate" believer who allegedly showed up and fired off shots at Comet Ping Pong earlier this month. The D.C. Department of Corrections says Goldman "did not follow agency policy" governing inmate interviews. The NYT disputes that. Read all about it here... | | | Another defection from Twitter | | | Twitter CTO Adam Messinger said Tuesday that he is leaving the company and taking "some time off." and CNNMoney's Seth Fiegerman put it into the proper perspective with this chart... | | | Trump press conference watch: 146 days | | | His last press conference was on July 27, 146 days ago, when his general election campaign was just beginning. | | Tom Rosenstiel has consumed six weeks' worth of media/election post-mortems, and now he is contributing his own, over on the Brookings web site.
His conclusion: "The challenges before reportorial journalism today—fake news, misinformation, confirmation bias, manipulative political leaders—are not problems you fix and then forget like a leaky pipe. They are conditions with which you contend perpetually, like crime. And such conditions require constant change and evolution. In other words, this is not the time for journalists to lose their nerve or lose faith in their professional principles. But neither should they confuse those principles with old and outworn practices." Here's the column... | | | Sunlight as the best disinfectant... | | | The AP's Julie Bykowicz tweets her latest story: "Coffee with Ivanka? Hunting with Eric and Don Jr.? After publicity about charity events, the family pulls back." Journalism in action? | | | Scouring the media for a reason to be angry? | | In the latest issue of VF: "While volunteering at his daughter's new high school, Michael Lewis watched kids of all races and backgrounds react to Trump's election with a peaceful demonstration of their grief and fear. Manning the school phones the next day, he heard the response of Trump supporters to those students: a blast of outrage and fury..."
I wanted to share this small part of his piece, because it stood out to me. This is about the people who called the school the next day:
"They had won. Their man was headed to the White House! And yet here they were, glued to cable news, looking for reasons to get themselves outraged and red-faced about the un-greatness of America all over again. Even in victory they were angry. They had what amounted to a need for that particular emotion, and it seemed to lead them to scour the media for whatever might trigger it..."
-- Related? Radio Ink reports that Rush Limbaugh's ratings were up this year... | | -- CJR's David Uberti writes: "American media didn't take Trump seriously enough. Will German media learn from our mistakes?" (CJR)
-- Leah Finnegan says "the worst things that happened in the media this year" are... (The Outline)
-- AdAge's picks are in: The New Yorker is the Magazine of the Year, and David Remnick is the Editor of the Year… (AdAge)
-- "The top exec at Maker Studios is stepping down to take on a new role at the company as Disney shifts the property to a different area within its consumer products and interactive media division..." (Variety)
— Robin Gradison, a two-decade veteran of ABC News, is joining NBC News as deputy DC bureau chief…
-- Politico's Hadas Gold spotted this job listing... Indicating that MSNBC is hiring for its new 6pm show, replacing "With All Due Respect..." She hears that it is "expected to be based in DC..." | | | Frank Pallotta's 4 box office lessons Hollywood can learn from 2016 | | Hollywood's 2016 had some rocky moments, and some unexpected bombs, but box office totals for the year kept pace with the record-breaking 2015. As another year in film comes to a close, what can Hollywood learn from the 2016 box office? Frank Pallotta lists four major lessons:
1. Audiences will see sequels and prequels... if they're good
2. Family films can carry the industry if they have to
3. New, yet familiar, is better than nostalgia for nostalgia's sake
4. The magic of the movies matters right now
Read all of Frank's takeaways here... | | | "Patriots Day" out on Wednesday | | | Brian Lowry emails: The deluge of Christmas movies -- several opening in limited release strictly to qualify for awards consideration -- kicks off a bit early with the Wednesday opening of "Patriots Day," a reunion of director Peter Berg and star-producer Mark Wahlberg, devoted to the Boston Marathon bombing. Wahlberg, a Boston native, has been especially invested in the project — he showed up to introduce a screening I attended with fewer than 20 people, and appeared on Jake Tapper's show on Tuesday. The movie's earnest to a fault, and with its patriotic themes, could do some decent non-"Rogue One" business. Read Lowry's full review... And watch Tapper's interview here... | | -- Related: Wahlberg tells Chloe Melas that he was reluctant to take on the part, but felt a responsibility to his hometown of Boston...
-- The movie's limited release will be in NYC, L.A. and Boston... Opening wide on January 13... | | | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2017 | | Lisa France emails: A folk singer, a rapper and a group of guys who "Don't Stop Believin'." The new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees were announced on Tuesday morning... Joan Baez, Tupac Shakur, Journey, ELO, Pearl Jam, and Yes are the members of the Class of 2017...
-- For your calendar via RollingStone.com: "The induction ceremony will be held at Brooklyn's Barclays Center on April 7th, 2017. An edited version will later air on HBO and there will be a radio broadcast on SiriusXM. Ticket details will be announced in January..." | | | 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 tomorrow night... | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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