| | | | | "Streep v. Trump" -- why it matters | | This time yesterday, I did not expect "Meryl Streep Calls To Protect Journalists" to be a headline from the Golden Globes coverage. But every day brings a new surprise as the new administration prepares to take over.
Twenty four hours later, is there anything left to say about Streep v. Donald Trump? Yes, just a few things... | | | Putting her money where her mouth is | | "We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage," Streep said. She urged support for the Committee to Protect Journalists and said "we're going to need them going forward."
CPJ executive director Joel Simon didn't know Streep was going to give the group a shout-out, but "we did get a very generous contribution from her family foundation just last week," he told Richard Quest on CNNI Monday afternoon. Here's the video...
Simon told Poynter's Ben Mullin that the group received about 500 donations on Sunday night/Monday morning... | | | "SNL," Hamilton, Streep... | | Sensing a pattern? We connected the dots between all of Trump's entertainment industry feuds on "Erin Burnett OutFront..." Here's the report, produced by CNNMoney's Laurie Frankel...
-- My two cents: Saying that Streep didn't change minds misses the point... Streep wasn't trying to persuade Trump voters, she was trying to motivate non-Trump voters... | | | Lowry says "expect more of this" | | "Celebrities in various fields -- movies, music, sports -- have a platform to speak out precisely because the media and public give it to them," Brian Lowry writes in this new CNNMoney column.
Lowry emails: So expect more of this during awards season: Celebrity makes speech and/or comments deriding the incoming Trump administration, and in an added wrinkle, the President might actually respond, as he did with Streep. Nor is it "false equivalency," in this context, to say that when it comes to celebrities and politics, both sides tend to engage in a bit of hypocrisy by dismissing those who disagree with them as dilettantes, and embracing the political wisdom of those who support them. Read more...
-- Jeffrey Lord on "OutFront," reacting to anti-Trump Hollywood celebs: "No one out here in the real world takes them seriously..." | | | Lisa France emails: Trump tweeting about Streep taught me two things today: Streep fans are as devoted as Beyonce's Beyhive and Trump supporters see zero irony in claiming that Streep's comments don't matter because she is a wealthy celebrity. Read Lisa's full story here... | | | @Sulliview tweets: "After today, I'm wondering if there's anything that everyone in America can agree on. Taking suggestions. The Wizard of Oz? Cheetos?" | | I have a feeling this Kellyanne Conway comment to Chris Cuomo is going to be remembered for a long time...
"You always want to go by what's come out of his mouth rather than look at what's in his heart." | | | Senior Adviser to the Father in Law | | | Dylan Byers emails: On Monday Trump appointed his son-in-law (and media whisperer) Jared Kushner to serve as his senior adviser, a move that will test decades-old nepotism laws... | | | So what becomes of the Observer? | | The salmon-pink paper Kushner bought in 2006 went out of print last November. Now its web site is just Observer.com -- no more "New York." The media company will not go far from Kushner's orbit even though he is moving to DC.
Dylan emails: Kushner's lawyers told me that the Observer, like most of his assets, will be sold to a family trust. (Others will be purchased by his brother Joshua.) By keeping the Observer and other business assets in the family, Kushner is taking a page from his father-in-law's playbook, though the lawyers said that Kushner, his wife Ivanka Trump and their children are not the beneficiaries of the family trust.
Meanwhile, Joseph Meyer, the chairman and CEO of The Observer, will take over as publisher: "Jared will no longer have an ownership stake in the Observer," Meyer wrote in a memo to staff. "He has resigned from our editorial board and will play no role in the publication's affairs going forward." Read Dylan's full story here...
-- ICYMI: NYMag has a big Kushner profile out just in time...
-- A highlight from the profile: Kushner "predicted the administration would take a 'rational' position on immigration and would join with Democrats to invest in infrastructure, which he said could mean not only roads and bridges but high-speed internet and driverless cars..." | | | Univision CEO meets with Trump | | Univision CEO Randy Falco and newsroom boss Isaac Lee traveled to Trump Tower for a Monday afternoon meeting with PEOTUS. Afterward, the network said the time was "productive" and "We look forward to working with Mr. Trump and his administration to make our vibrant country even better."
The newsroom's only goal is to "ensure our audience is well-informed," the statement added. "Our eyes, ears and minds are wide open..." | | | Press conference time: 11 a.m. Wednesday | | | Trump will meet the press at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday... At the same time several confirmation hearings are scheduled to take place... The NYT says this is going to "test the reflexes and editorial judgment of even the most experienced" C-SPAN crews... | | | Marissa Mayer to step down from Yahoo board if... | | "Marissa Mayer will step down from Yahoo's board of directors if its sale to Verizon goes through, according to a company filing on Monday," CNNMoney's Seth Fiegerman reports. "The Yahoo CEO's pending resignation from the board is part of a broader restructuring."
-- Get used to this: Post-sale, what remains of Yahoo will be renamed Altaba... | | -- "Christopher Byron, a prize-winning business journalist and NYT best-selling author, died Saturday night. He was 72." His career at Bloomberg, the NY Observer, NYMag and other outlets spanned 40+ years... (Talking Biz News)
-- "Critics at newspapers are dying off even faster than print journalism," longtime critic Jed Gottlieb writes... (CJR)
— Mashable's Andrew Freedman writes about "the emotional toll of covering climate change in the Trump era," elaborating on something Eric Holthaus shared over the weekend… (Mashable) | | | Still no statement from HarperCollins about plagiarism in Monica Crowley's book | | | Just checked with Andrew Kaczynski and editor Kyle Blaine... Still no statement from HarperCollins about the plagiarism in Monica Crowley's book revealed by the KFILE team... All the publisher is saying so far is "we are looking into the matter..." | | | Plagiarism is not partisan | | | What makes Crowley's case stand out is that it's so clear cut -- as demonstrated by KFILE here. On Monday liberal WashPost blogger Alyssa Rosenberg followed up on the Trump transition team's dismissive statement about the plagiarism -- "any attempt to discredit Monica is nothing more than a politically motivated attack..." -- and wrote that this is a "factual question, not a partisan one." Plagiarism is about faking achievement, and "accomplishments are tangible, measurable things." Read more... | | | Greta Van Susteren signed on at MSNBC on Monday night... Completing the cable news trifecta of CNN, Fox and MSNBC... | | | "CBS This Morning" turns five | | | When "CBS This Morning" launched, I was working on my book about the "Today" vs "GMA" battle, so I spent some time behind the scenes at CBS. I remember Chris Licht rallying his staff by talking about beating the "Today" show. I also remember being cynically dismissive about the prediction. Three years later, though, the show is closer than many people thought it ever would be, given CBS's stuck-in-third-place track record. This is the chart that Licht's successor, executive producer, Ryan Kadro, likes to show: | | On Monday "CBS This Morning" celebrated its five-year anniversary. As the chart shows, CBS remains in third place, but it is gaining viewers while "Today" and "GMA" are either shedding viewers or staying flat.
In an interview pegged to the anniversary, Kadro told TheWrap's Brian Flood that "we want to be out of third place because it sucks being in third place and we know how good our show is. Our growth is going to continue." His argument is that everyone already knows about NBC and ABC's "legacy" shows, while people are still "finding out" about the CBS morning show. Read more... | | | "Trumped" doc at Sundance and on Showtime | | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: Fresh out of TCA Winter '17 (yes, it's that time again): The team behind Showtime's political docuseries "The Circus" have a new documentary set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. "Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time" will consist of footage that was unused during the weekly show and "will follow the rise of Donald Trump, from the primaries through the debates, to the dramatic election night results." President David Nevins said "it's already one of the hottest tickets at Sundance." After its festival debut, the film will premiere on Showtime on February 3... | | | Trump says Murdoch is a "great guy" | | On the same morning that Trump blasted Meryl Streep, he singled out Rupert Murdoch for praise, tweeting that the media mogul "likes me." It is unclear what compelled Trump to tweet about Murdoch -- I tried to figure it out and I came up short.
>> "Rupert Murdoch is a great guy who likes me much better as a very successful candidate than he ever did as a very successful developer!" <<
A Murdoch spokeswoman had no comment. Gabriel Sherman reported last week that "Murdoch has been intent on forging a tight relationship with Trump since his victory" and cited a source who said the two men speak by phone "at least three times per week..." Here's my full story...
-- Peter Kafka tweets this analysis: "There was a theory that Murdoch/Fox had been outflanked, and would be on outside in Trump admin. Nope. Trump tight w/Donald, and Jared..." | | | Media names on Playbook's power list | | | Brendan Buck and his Paul Ryan colleagues at #1... Sean Spicer at #4... Maggie Haberman at #13... Breitbart at #25... David Brock at #26... and "Morning Joe" at #30... Here's the list... | | "Yeah, some foreigners and select members of the press were pushed around over the past year, but speaking as a member of the press I'm certain that we've given it as hard as we've gotten it from Trump and his most extreme followers."
--Jack Shafer in his latest column, titled "Hollywood's Victim Complex..." | | | Best front page of 2017 so far | | | Lisa Merklin, a designer at The Virginian-Pilot, came up with this laugh out loud front page: | | -- Showtime has ordered a fourth season of "The Affair!" (Vulture)
-- Lisa France emails: Jenna Bush Hager is really sorry she flubbed and asked Pharrell about his movie "Hidden Fences." But it seriously gave us some of the greatest memes ever...
-- More from Lisa: As far as I am concerned the world can never have two much Mandy Moore. Which is good, as there are two of them in Hollywood, and thanks to "This Is Us" and "La La Land" they are both having one hell of a year...
-- Sandra Gonzalez emails: Big news for "Twin Peaks" fans. The new series will premiere on Showtime on Sunday, May 21 with a two-hour premiere. The season will be a total of 18 hours and be "the pure heroin version of David Lynch," according to David Nevins... | | | Highlights from Sunday's show | | | | Watch/listen/read "Reliable Sources" | | | David Sanger talks about Trump's call for a leak probe | | On Sunday morning's "Reliable Sources," I asked NYT national security correspondent David Sanger about the implications of Trump's leak investigation threats. After the show, Donald Trump tweeted about it again: "Before I, or anyone, saw the classified and/or highly confidential hacking intelligence report, it was leaked out to @NBCNews. So serious!"
Sanger said the president-elect "is going to have to get used to" picking up the paper and reading about sensitive government info. It's "entirely normal," he said.
Sanger and I both noted President Obama's aggressive pursuit of leakers. "All we hope," he said, "is that the Trump administration continues what has been a Justice Department tradition -- for reasons of respecting the First Amendment -- that they go look around for sources and not go after the reporters... But we don't know how this is going to sort out in a Trump administration." Watch the segment here... | | I asked Sanger: "Are you noticing a chilling effect? Are sources less willing to cooperate or talk to you because of this?"
"Somewhat of the opposite," he said. "Since the president-elect began making statements that the intelligence community considered undercutting their credibility, I'd say we're hearing more from intelligence sources who are worried that the factbase of data they are collecting either isn't going to be respected or isn't going to get fully out there. So, my guess is that the reaction to public doubts about the quality of intelligence gathering is probably going to be more leaks, not fewer..." | | | Glenn Greenwald urges skepticism | | CNN's Alexandra King has this wrap-up of my interview with Glenn Greenwald: He says "recently released intelligence report on Russian hacking contained no 'convincing evidence,' and urged journalists to be skeptical of US intelligence claims."
People shouldn't "blindly and uncritically accept the claims of the intelligence community, especially provocative claims about a foreign adversary, without seeing convincing evidence presented by them that those claims are true," Greenwald said... | | | Media "totally unprepared?" | | Media veteran Merrill Brown, a former EIC of MSNBC.com who's now the director of Montclair State U's school of communications, on Sunday's show: "I'm concerned the media in general is totally unprepared for what's going to happen in two weeks." He elaborated:
-- "Regional newspapers are nearly dead. So the impact of policy decisions in Washington is going to be, almost by definition, under-covered out in America..."
-- "DC bureaus are not as strong as they once were... "
-- "The level of expertise in the media about difficult public policy issues... is not what it once was..." | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. See you tomorrow! | |  | | 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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