| | | | | Conway, Spicer, Miller, Hicks, Scavino | | Donald Trump did the logical thing on Thursday, appointing Sean Spicer as press secretary. Kellyanne Conway will be counselor to the president, Jason Miller will be communications director, Hope Hicks will be director of strategic communications and Dan Scavino will be director of social media.
So all the chatter about Laura Ingraham or Kimberly Guilfoyle manning the press briefing room? In the end, Trump went with DC veterans -- insiders who know the press corps very well. The NYT's Michael Shear and Maggie Haberman say Conway and Spicer will both be "responsible for a relationship with the press corps that has often turned antagonistic."
Dylan Byers emails: Spicer's appointment should be seen as relatively good news for the media. Yes, he can be combative. But he has built up relationships with political reporters over many years. He engages with the press. For journalists who fear erosions to access, Spicer represents an open line of communication into the Trump White House. Given the options, that is a good thing. Read Dylan's full story here... | | | "I believe that we'll have daily briefings" | | On Thursday night, Fox's Sandra Smith (in for Megyn Kelly) had the first post-announcement TV interview with Spicer. In light of Reince Priebus's references to rethinking things, including daily W.H. press briefings, this part was notable:
SPICER: ...It's not a question of getting rid of certain things. Maybe we add certain things. But I think that we want to be innovative, entrepreneurial, as we look at all of these positions in all of these government agencies--
SMITH: --So will there be daily press briefings?
SPICER: I believe that we'll have daily briefings, but maybe we add an element to them. Maybe not everything's on camera. Maybe we bring more people into the process. | | | What will Hope Hicks' role be? | | Hicks has been by Trump's side for about two years, arranging interviews and fielding reporter Q's. There's curiosity about how her "strategic communications" role and Miller's role will be split up. The answer -- according to what two transition sources told Dylan Byers -- is that Hicks is going to continue doing what she did on the campaign, handling media opportunities, as well as long lead stuff (like big profiles), whereas Miller will be dealing with grand strategy for getting out ideas, narratives, policies, etc...
-- Real talk: Trump will be his own best press secretary/comms director/counselor, right? | | | WHCA "cautiously optimistic" | | | I was on the PBS "NewsHour" Thursday night with W.H. Correspondents Association president Jeff Mason, who congratulated the press aides and said he's "cautiously optimistic..." Here's the segment... | | | Advice from the Obama press office | | Josh Earnest's advice for Spicer: "Make sure you know where the president's head's at, because your ability to faithfully represent his point of view is critically important."
I interviewed Earnest last week and asked what he would tell his successor. The other half of his answer was about the importance of honesty. Read all about it here... And watch the full interview on our Christmas Day edition of "Reliable Sources..."
-- More: Outgoing comms director Jen Psaki said "we have already prepared a binder to provide to the Trump team," full of logistical information, "everything from how to do a briefing to what to do when Marine One lands... | | | Obama slams Fox's "fictional character named Barack Obama" | | | Another topic that comes up on Sunday show: Obama and Fox News. As the years have gone on, Obama has gotten more and more blunt about how he feels Fox and the conservative media ecosystem distorted his presidency. His latest comments came in this interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates. Obama told him that many Trump voters "are responding to a fictional character named Barack Obama who they see on Fox News or who they hear about through Rush Limbaugh." Apparently Rush heard me talking about him on CNN on Thursday afternoon, because he reacted right away on the radio... | | "If you put the combination of Donald Trump and Twitter and nuclear weapons together -- that's a witches brew."
--David Gergen on Thursday's "Anderson Cooper 360," reacting to Trump's tweet threatening a nuclear arms race. CNNPolitics' Theodore Schleifer has an excellent article summing up "the last 24 hours of Trump" here... | | | Diane Rehm signs off on Friday | | Friday on "The Diane Rehm Show:" "Diane says goodbye after 37 years on the air. She takes your calls and questions, and reflects on her long career."
Yes, Friday is Rehm's last live broadcast. She announced her retirement plans earlier this year.
I couldn't make it to DC for Thursday's farewell party, so the NYT's Cecilia Kang helped out with these sightings: Jim Lehrer, Cokie Roberts, Amy Walter, E.J. Dionne, Susan Page, Eric Schmitt, Indira Lakshmanan, Frank Sesno, James and Deb Fallows... Rehm's producing team, including Sandra Baker, Denise Couture, Rebecca Kauffman, Alexandra Brody, and Lisa Dunn... and many more... | | | ADL: "It is important to stop the spread of misinformation" | | "Jewish family flees after Breitbart falsely claims it complained about Christmas play." There were a batch of faulty headlines like this one from Slate on Thursday, all picking up on reporting from a local paper in PA, the Lancaster Online.
By the end of the day, the ADL issued a statement saying "news reports alleging that a Jewish family has 'fled' Lancaster County are untrue and damaging. We spoke with the family, who explained that they went on a previously-planned vacation for the holidays. Stories like this can sow fear in the Jewish community and beyond, and it is important to stop the spread of misinformation."
BuzzFeed's Jon Passantino tweets: "the false story was breathlessly reported in left-wing media, which blamed conservatives for the family fleeing..." Jake Tapper: "It baffles me how anyone on the left combatting 'fake news' can turn a blind eye to the click baiting within its own ranks. HEAL THYSELF..." | | | Biggest media story of the year? | | | What do you think? What's the trend or the scandal or the hire or the launch or the closure or the controversy or the moment that we'll remember many years from now? What was the biggest media story of 2016? We'll compile your answers in Friday night's newsletter... before we sign off for the year... Email reliablesources@cnn.com by Friday at 5pm ET. | | -- John Herrman's latest must-read: "Facebook's Problem Isn't Fake News — It's the Rest of the Internet" (NYT)
-- Katie Couric is not the only former "Today" co-host returning to the show while Savannah Guthrie is on maternity leave: Meredith Vieira will be back the week of January 9... (Today.com)
-- Franca Sozzani, the editor in chief of Italian Vogue, has died. She was 66. Anna Wintour penned this remembrance... (Vogue) | | | "Bumpy start" for DirecTV Now | | | In this THR piece looking ahead to 2017, Natalie Jarvey describes "how the cellphone will replace the cable box." I think she's right, not literally, but figuratively. Wireless companies selling cable-like bundles will be a big story in the year ahead. But it's going to be challenging. As Thomas Gryta reports in the WSJ, AT&T's DirecTV Now streaming service is off to a "bumpy start," with customers "frustrated over technical issues." Here's his story... | | | "Best year ever" for cable newsers | | "Trump's dramatic candidacy catapulted the three cable news networks to their best year ever, with each outlet experiencing record-breaking numbers," BI's Oliver Darcy writes.
Here's his look at the Fox/CNN/MSNBC playing field: "Fox News fared the best in 2016, not only beating its rival cable news networks, but also finishing the year as the most-watched basic cable network — in both primetime and total day — for the first time in its 20-year history... CNN also saw a boon in ratings. 2016 proved to be the channel's most-watched year among total viewers... And while MSNBC finished behind both CNN and Fox, it experienced significant growth, outpacing its rival networks in total-day gains..." | | | "We are not putting on Woodstock" | | Trump's inauguration, now just one month away, has so far "failed to attract the kind of star power that came to President Barack Obama's inaugurations," CNN's Christina Manduley writes. "Some major acts, such as Elton John, have declined to perform at Trump's ceremony."
Trump must have spotted the news coverage about this, because on Thursday night, he tweeted, "The so-called 'A' list celebrities are all wanting tixs to the inauguration, but look what they did for Hillary, NOTHING. I want the PEOPLE!"
Earlier in the day, Brooke Baldwin asked inaugural committee spokesman Boris Epshteyn about talent, and Epshteyn came prepared -- he announced that the Radio City Rockettes will be at the inaugural. He also said: "We are not putting on Woodstock. We are not putting on Summer Jam. We are putting on an inauguration."
-- More: Chloe Melas emails: Bermuda, Bahama... I just spoke with a spokesperson for The Beach Boys, who said the group is in talks to perform at the inauguration. "No decision has been made at this point as to how or whether they will participate..." | | | How Sinclair "helped Trump's campaign" | | In the wake of last week's Politico story saying that Jared Kushner boasted about a deal between the Trump campaign and Sinclair, the WashPost's Paul Farhi has a must-read about how Sinclair, "the nation's largest owner of TV stations," "helped Donald Trump's campaign."
Farhi says "a review of Sinclair's reporting and internal documents shows a strong tilt toward Trump. Sinclair gave a disproportionate amount of neutral or favorable coverage to Trump during the campaign while often casting Clinton in an unfavorable light." Read the rest here... | | | Trump press conference watch: 148 days | | | His last press conference was on July 27, 148 days ago, right after the RNC convention. | | | The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf: "The Founders understood that the press is a vital check on the power of government. Shortsighted conservatives undermine it at their peril." Yes, and shortsighted progressives too... | | | Reviewing "Silence" and "A Monster Calls" | | | Brian Lowry emails two of his latest reviews: The weekend will include a deluge of movies, with some, like Martin Scorsese's "Silence," opening in limited runs strictly to qualify for award consideration. While Scorsese's third film dealing directly with religion — and the perils of colonialism — is provocative, it's overshadowed by "A Monster Calls," a movie I'd compare to "Pan's Labyrinth," which is high praise indeed... | | | Enough "best of" lists. Let's talk about the worst... | | More from Brian Lowry: The abundance of quality TV has led to overflowing "best of" lists from critics — bubbling to 20 or 30 entries — as 2016 winds down. But more options also means more lousiness — including the dizzying glut of JonBenet Ramsey specials, as well as other assorted lowlights.
Read Lowry's column here... | | | What Lowry is watching now | | "Homeland" season six! Showtime sent around review copies of the first two episodes on Thursday. He emails:
The plot was already known, but now the screeners have landed. As the show has often done in the past, it's a somewhat prescient example of art imitating life that should be a talker. Part of the premise: The CIA dealing with a new (and female) President-elect that the agency's leaders don't entirely trust, during the period between the election and inauguration. The season premieres on Jan. 15... | | -- Chloe Melas emails: The most shocking story of the year had to be the Brangelina split... And it's going to be a messy holiday season for the famous exes. Pitt filed more court docs to seal everything regarding their divorce to protect their six kids...
-- Lisa France emails: Denzel Washington worked for years to bring August Wilson's Pulitzer winning play to the big screen. Now, there's plenty of Oscar buzz surrounding both Washington and the film, and I talked to him about what he hopes audiences will take away from the project... | | | 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 for one last newsletter of 2016... | |  | | 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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