| | | | "You could not imagine a more dramatic way to end a week," Anderson Cooper said at the start of "AC360." The banner on the bottom of the screen was "FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY HALTS TRAVEL BAN NATIONWIDE." Friday evening's ruling in Washington state caused the cablers to rip up their prime time rundowns... And it ensures that President Trump's immigration restrictions will dominate the news cycle for a second weekend. "This is a historic moment in our country," the state's governor Jay Inslee just told Don Lemon...
-- The "AC360" coverage was compelling partly because Cooper opened up his interview with Bob Ferguson, the Washington state attorney general, to a panel of other lawyers. Paul Callan, Danny Cevallos, and Alan Dershowitz all asked questions. So did senior political analyst David Gergen... | | Russian tech exec sues BuzzFeed | | | Via CNNMoney's Jose Pagliery: A Russian technology exec, Aleksej Gubarev, says he is suing BuzzFeed for publishing the unverified Trump dossier. Gubarev was mentioned in the dossier. He says his "personal and professional reputation" is "in tatters" and his companies are suffering. He is suing BuzzFeed and EIC Ben Smith for defamation in a Florida court... | | BuzzFeed issues an apology; what now? | | | On Friday night BuzzFeed responded by saying this: "We have redacted Mr. Gubarev's name from the published dossier, and apologize for including it..." | | | "ESPN has decided to settle" Giants player Jason Pierre-Paul's privacy claims against the network "instead of further fighting a lawsuit that had the potential of impacting press freedoms," THR's Eriq Gardner reports. JPP, who sought millions, is accepting "some undisclosed consideration." Details... | | | Kellyanne Conway's "Bowling Green massacre" error has been picked apart and mocked for the past 24 hours. It has become a symbol of the so-called "alternative fact" era. Here are five takeaways... | | #1 She was sowing fear of refugees and resentment of the media | | | That's what she was doing... Here's the CNN fact-check... | | #2 Chris Matthews missed it | | | MSNBC's Chris Matthews taped the interview with Conway. He moved on when she brought up Bowling Green -- a missed opportunity to be sure. Matthews did not correct the record later on in the program... | | #3 Her corrections are confusing | | | On Friday morning, Conway tweeted that "I meant to say 'Bowling Green terrorists,'" citing a story from ABC News that used the same phrase. She later deleted that tweet. On Friday night, Matthews said "she told me that she meant to say, on the program, 'PLOT to massacre.'" But the alleged "plot" was to send weapons to Iraq, not to hurt anyone in Bowling Green... | | #4 Should networks think twice before booking her? | | Critics like Jay Rosen have been urging TV networks to stop booking Conway -- and some other Trump aides -- arguing that the pattern of misstatements makes for bad journalism. What do you think? We'll discuss this on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" -- send us feedback at reliablesources@cnn.com.
-- Related: HuffPost's Michael Calderone scoops: VP Mike Pence will be on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox's Sunday shows this weekend, but not CNN's. "The White House offered" Conway but "the network declined that offer." A CNN spokeswoman confirms this... | | #5 A reminder about "honest mistakes" | | When Time's Zeke Miller made a mistake on Trump's first day in office, he apologized within half an hour. The Trump team hammered him for it. Trump brought it up again on Wednesday -- twelve days after the fact -- calling it "fake news" and saying it was "a disgrace, but that's the way the press is."
Conway, on the other hand, semi-corrected the record 13 hours later via Twitter. She did not apologize. The next time a reporter makes a simple error like Miller's, perhaps Conway and the rest of the Trump team might remember her own words: "honest mistakes abound..." | | NYT, WashPost, Politico reporters met with Priebus and Bannon | | | Dylan Byers emails his latest scoop: Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus met privately with reporters from the NYT, WashPost and Politico on Friday. The purpose of the meeting, as several sources interpreted it, was to push back on recent reports suggesting that Trump's administration was suffering from chaos and confusion amid internal conflicts, especially between Bannon and Priebus, as well as opposition from officials in other parts of the government. One source who attended described it as a "Kumbaya meeting." | | "We have to use his own tricks against him." That's what The Awl's Heather Havrilesky says. The "resistance" to Trump must communicate his way, "with simple, repetitive talking points," what she calls "Trumpspeak." She's writing advice for liberal activists and Democratic politicians, but I could see TV commentators and left-leaning writers picking up on this too...
-- Related: The Nation's Leslie Savan presents "Words in the Age of Trump" | | | Evan McMullin, Carolyn Ryan, Tara Dowdell, Michael Wolff, Errol Louis, and Roger Simon will join me live on CNN... Sunday, 11am ET, join us... | | | Countdown to the Super Bowl | | | | Super Bowl ad previews lose some kick | | Brian Lowry emails: Leaving nothing to chance in hoping to magnify the return on their investment in Super Bowl ads, more advertisers are making their spots available in advance. And by moving up the goalposts, it feels as if they're weakening their in-game kick. Read more...
-- The opposite strategy: Snickers will air a live ad during the game... | | Context for "$5 million ads" figure | | | The Super Bowl ad sales market has been "sluggish," Variety's Daniel Holloway writes. Well, "sluggish" by Super Bowl standards. Fox "charged between $5 million and $5.5 million for each 30-second spot," but it took an unusually long amount of time to sell 90% of the spots... | | | Why football announcers don't rely on data more often | | | 4th and wrong? Frank Pallotta has a fascinating look at "why announcers' Super Bowl calls will still be about gut, not data..." | | | Der Spiegel's shocking cover | | | Stunning. Edel Rodriguez created this cover for Germany's Der Spiegel newsmag. "It's a beheading of democracy, a beheading of a sacred symbol," he told the WashPost's Callum Borchers. "And clearly, lately, what's associated with beheadings is ISIS, so there's a comparison" between the Islamic State and Trump. "Both sides are extremists, so I'm just making a comparison between them." | | Le Pen throws a journalist out of a presser | | | "Reliable" producer Lee Alexander emails: Campaign déjà vu! It looks like far-right politicians emboldened by Trump's win might be trying to borrow a page from his winning playbook when it comes to their treatment of journalists. The Guardian posted video of French journalist Paul Larrouturou being thrown out of a press conference with Front National prez candidate Marine Le Pen. Anyone else having flashbacks of Jorge Ramos and Michelle Fields? | | -- On Friday morning "Carol Costello said goodbye to CNN after 15 years – in two cities – as anchor. Costello is leaving for sister network HLN, where she will anchor a new program from Los Angeles." Watch her farewell here... (TVNewser)
-- An important story by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic: "The Rise of Progressive 'Fake News.'" (The Atlantic)
-- Podcast: I talked with Recode's Kara Swisher and Lauren Goode about "fake news" and what tech and media companies can do... (Recode)
-- Headline in the Boston Globe: "After divorce, NBC Boston and WHDH both stumble in January." WSJ's Joe Flint tweeted this summary: "Affiliates and networks still important to each other..." (Globe) | | The Onion headline of the week | | Milo's book hits #1 on Amazon | | On Friday, the forthcoming book by Milo Yiannopoulos, "Dangerous," shot to the top of the Amazon best selling books list. "1984" remains #2... George Orwell's novel had been at the top of the list for well over a week...
-- Related: Via the NYDN's Chris Sommerfeldt: Milo "claimed he would attend a White House press briefing on Friday," aaaand then announced shortly before the briefing that he was not attending, after all. Something about having to travel to NYC for a TV appearance...
-- ICYMI: CNN's newest digital correspondent, Dan Lieberman, recently interviewed Milo for this profile on CNN.com... | | Correspondents' dinner dilemma | | Dylan Byers emails: Imagine Graydon Carter, Ben Smith and Michael Bloomberg are sitting at a bar. The conversation: To hold a White House Correspondents' Dinner party, or not to hold a party? For Carter, the EIC of Vanity Fair, which co-hosts the most exclusive WHCD after party, the answer is easy. As a staunch Trump critic and guardian of liberalism, there's no reason to celebrate the new incumbent. (Ditto for The New Yorker, which usually throws a party on Friday night. Neither will host a party this year, sources at the magazines confirmed Friday.)
For Smith, the EIC of BuzzFeed, the answer is also easy. For the past few years, BuzzFeed has thrown an off-site party for people who aren't invited to the dinner. In the Obama years it functioned as an overflow room. This year, Smith says, it's about showing solidarity with the press corps. The party will be at The Brixton, and Smith will welcome "the big shots who seem to be deciding to pass on the dinner."
For Bloomberg, the CEO of Bloomberg L.P., the answer is much more difficult. It is equally difficult for the leadership at media companies like MSNBC and Time Inc., which have also thrown big WHCD parties in recent years. If they host parties, they'll catch fire from the left. If they cancel, they'll catch fire from the right. As such, representatives from all three declined to comment or said no final decision had been made. But decisions will have to be made in the days ahead. Watch for that next week... | | Trump and Schwarzenegger still going back and forth | | | The president woke up on Friday morning and tweeted, "Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice...but at least he tried hard!" Schwarzenegger responded in the afternoon by tweeting a link with no commentary at all. The link went to a 2006 story titled "Arnold releases tax returns." | | Howard Stern's appraisal of his longtime friend | | | +1 to this from Brian Lowry: Getting to it a little late, but not sure anyone has more cogently addressed Trump's relationship with celebrity -- and the toll being president might exact on Trump -- than this Howard Stern appraisal, courtesy of the KFile. Read/listen here... | | NYT's new donations program | | | NYT's Sam Dolnick tweets: "So many people have been reaching out to donate $ to the NYT that we created a new program." The idea is that donations will fund digital subscriptions for public schools. Details here... | | Lowry recommends new documentary about James Baldwin | | Brian Lowry emails: James Baldwin died in 1987. But director Raoul Peck has taken 30 pages of an unpublished manuscript by the author and social commentary and turned it into "I Am Not Your Negro," a bracing, relevant and Oscar-nominated documentary that deals with the intersection of race and culture.
The film opened in select theaters on Friday... Read more from Lowry here... | | | Entertainment editor Megan Thomas emails: The DGA Awards are Saturday night... Momentum seems to be with Damien Chazelle for "La La Land," but Barry Jenkins could pull off a win, too. Chloe Melas has a preview here... | | Via Lisa France:
-- Faith Evans has announced a duets album with her late husband Notorious B.I.G., 20 years after his unsolved murder. Guest artists will include Busta Rhymes, Jadakiss, Lil' Cease, Lil' Kim, Sheek Louch, Styles P, and Snoop Dogg...
-- Justin Bieber's "oddly delightful" Super Bowl ad has won praise and has brought him back to Instagram five months after he left... | | | 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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