| | | | "Second golden age for cable TV?" | | "The burden on cable TV is massive." That's what the WashPost's Chris Cillizza says, citing President Trump's avid cable news consumption. "People are flocking to cable to see what is influencing Trump. That's a lot of responsibility," Cillizza (who's also an MSNBC contributor) wrote in this Tuesday blog post. I agree wholeheartedly.
Cillizza's view: "This moment has the potential to be a second golden age for cable TV." Certainly the ratings for all the cablers are through the roof right now... | | Trump names "enemies," and some supporters take him literally | | A veteran ABC Newser emails: "Our 23-year-old desk assistants have been getting calls swearing at them for being the 'enemy of the people' since he tweeted Friday..." | | "He really believes all this?" | | That's what CNN's Erin Burnett asked after playing a montage of Trump clips calling real news "fake news." Trump's friend Tom Barrack, who dined with POTUS on Tuesday, said "yes, he does." Barrack said he doesn't agree, "and I tell him that..."
Burnett: "And when you say they're not going after you, does he listen or just sort of in-one-ear-out-the-other, he thinks what he thinks?"
"He absolutely listens. He listens to everything," Barrack said, but POTUS believes "he's not getting a fair shake..." | | -- Melania Trump "took out that 'whole once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' part of her libel lawsuit against The Daily Mail," Kara Smoke notes... (WWD)
-- Media Literacy 101: Margaret Sullivan offers "five ways President Trump can become media literate..." (WashPost)
-- Grappling with the problem of anonymous sources: Liz Spayd says stories need to offer more "help," explaining the anonymity, giving readers more info... (NYT)
-- "Trump, touring the National Museum of African American History and Culture, paused for an interview with MSNBC and NBC's Craig Melvin..." (TVNewser) | | Milo and Breitbart part ways | | Milo Yiannopoulos said Tuesday afternoon that he had decided to resign from Breitbart. A few minutes later, he held a press conference in NYC. Tom Kludt was there:
Milo shifted seamlessly from contrition to defiance to outright self-aggrandizement. For about a half-hour, he spoke and took questions from reporters ranging from NBC to the Gateway Pundit to, well, me. I asked if Alex Marlow, Breitbart's EIC, had asked for his resignation; he declined to answer, saying he preferred to keep those conversations private.
At times during the hastily organized presser, he seemed genuinely bothered that his remarks gave many the impression that he had endorsed pedophilia. But invariably, Milo remained Milo. "I don't think this has done any harm for my profile," he said of the controversy that cost him a prominent speaking engagement, a book and his job in the span of 24 hours. Read more from Tom here... | | Milo vows to start his own media company | | More from Tom: Milo said he intends to start his own media venture, but insisted it won't "go head-to-head with Breitbart." He also said his book has attracted interest from many other publishers, and that it will come out later this year as originally planned. There will likely be an extra chapter -- presumably to address this week's firestorm -- and he said that a portion of the proceeds will go to child abuse charities. | | I have the same question that Tom tweeted: "Milo has been banished from Twitter and a powerful news outlet. Is he as relevant a year from now?"
Related Q's: Is this a new chapter for Breitbart? And/or will others simply take his bomb-throwing place? John Vause and I talked about this on CNN International Tuesday night...
-- Recommended reading: Noah Rothman on "When Conservatism Ceased to Shock..."
-- BTW: Fortune's Mathew Ingram says the "advertiser boycott of Breitbart News appears to be growing..." | | Take a look and see why Tuesday's cover of the Bryan-College Station Eagle went viral: | | "TRUMP TABS MCMASTER TO REPLACE PENCE." Yes, the hed suggested that VP Mike Pence had been fired. Hats off to the mortified editor, Kelly Brown, for her detailed correction and apology message here. "The Eagle's mistake was not a deliberate untruth or an alternative truth," she wrote. "It was an error made on deadline without enough back-up to catch the oversight. That falls on me." Brown gave out her phone # for readers to call... | | I bet your newsroom can relate to this | | Brown also pointed out that this was "one of 25 headlines" a single copy editor wrote "during his shift." Normally another copy editor proofreads, but "we're currently shorthanded, which means fewer eyes making certain each sentence, every cutline and all headlines are accurate." She added: "We must do better. We will do better..." | | -- Joanna Stern is right about "the problem with all-female digital assistants..." (WSJ)
-- 👀 Activist hedge fund Starboard Value has acquired a 6.6% stake in Tribune Media... (Crain's Chicago Business)
-- In yesterday's newsletter I linked to Edward Price's WashPost op-ed about resigning from the CIA because of Trump. A followup: The Free Beacon points out that Price and the Post didn't disclose that he donated $5,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund... (Free Beacon)
-- Another followup: The new editor of Texas Monthly, Tim Taliaferro, has written a note to readers to clear up what he said to CJR about the mag's coverage of politics... (Texas Monthly)
-- On Tuesday Lester Holt met one of his super-fans, 7-year-old Jaden... (TVNewser) | | | Facebook wants to stream MLB games | | Facebook "is in talks with Major League Baseball to live stream one game per week during the upcoming season, which could be a key win as the social media platform works to offer more live sports," Reuters' Jessica Toonkel reports. One of her sources says the talks are "advanced..." | | | Vice wants to raise $$$ to make scripted shows and movies | | Vice "has hired Morgan Stanley and Raine Group to help raise money for a fund to develop and produce scripted programming for TV, mobile devices and movie theaters," Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw scoops, citing a source.
"The fundraising process is in the very early stages, said the person familiar with the matter... It's not immediately clear how much Vice would seek to raise..." | | | Kimmel wants "a little more free time" | | In an interview for this Variety cover story, Jimmy Kimmel talks about the possibility of retiring from late night TV when his contract comes up in 2019. "It's possible that will be it. My wife's pregnant. At a certain point, I'd like to have a little more free time..." He also said things like "I want to go out on my own terms" and "I'd like to write a book at some point..." | | | On the subject of filter bubbles: "It's super important. It's turned out to be more of a problem than I, or many others, would have expected..." | | Fox signs Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel | | Fox's newest contributor is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. The network announced the hire on Tuesday, and he's sure to appear on the air a lot, since he helped create the Affordable Care Act. "Emanuel is the second prominent Democrat to join Fox as a contributor this year," Politico's Peter Sterne notes. "Last month, the channel announced it had hired former State Department spokesperson Marie Harf as a contributor..." | | Fox orders celebrity series hosted by Harvey Levin | | Politico's Alex Weprin tweets: "Fox News has picked up 10 episodes of a new series called 'OBJECTified,' produced and hosted by TMZ's Harvey Levin. Airs Fall 2017." The series profiles celebs and the objects that mean the most to them. The "pilot," an episode with Trump, aired in November.
Weprin notes that "this pickup means that CNN's sister company, Warner Bros., will produce a TV show for Fox News..." | | | For the record, part three | | | -- The latest Monday Note: "How Facebook and Google could disrupt the subscription model for news"
-- Hulu has ordered "Castle Rock," a "psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse..." (THR)
-- NBC has renewed "Days of our Lives" for a 52nd season... (Variety)
-- Check out this wonderful Rebecca Keegan profile of UTA agents Ramses IsHak and Michael Sheresky, "the under-the-radar Hollywood duo who made 'Hidden Figures' possible..." (VF) | | Hoda Kotb adopts a baby girl | | What a morning on "Today:" Hoda Kotb called in to the show Tuesday "with news that she had adopted a baby girl," Chloe Melas reports.
Haley Joy is a "Valentine's baby," Kotb said. "She's a little nugget. She is the love of my life..." | | Wolff on Murdoch, Time Warner and Trump | | Rupert Murdoch "now regularly lobbies Trump against AT&T and Time Warner's tie-up, urging the president to move review of the deal from the Justice Department's antitrust division, with its high hurdles to blocking a deal, to the FCC, which needs only to find the deal not in the public interest in order to block it," Michael Wolff says in his latest THR column.
Wolff argues that the "anti-media president could well end up as the best thing that has happened to media companies in a long time..." Here's why... | | Lowry: Why the Oscars can afford to get political | | Brian Lowry writes: For years, conservatives have railed against Hollywood's liberal political leanings, gleefully citing declining award-show ratings as proof that people were turned off by civics lectures from privileged stars. Yet as the industry prepares for what could be one of the more political Oscar telecasts in memory, the danger to Oscar ratings posed by that dynamic appears minimal, if the trajectory of what's known as "awards season" thus far is any guide. Read Brian's full column here... | | Paramount's interim committee | | Variety's Brent Lang and Cynthia Littleton report: "Viacom has set an interim committee of internal executives — including film group chief Marc Evans and TV head Amy Powell — to run Paramount Pictures until a successor can be found for outgoing studio chief Brad Grey. Grey is finalizing his exit deal and an agreement could be reached as early as Tuesday..." | | Watch out for "This Is Us" spoilers... | | If, and only if, you watched Tuesday night's episode of "This Is Us," click here for Sandra Gonzalez's postmortem... (Jamie and I are waiting til Wednesday night to watch the episode... Part of our three-year wedding anniversary celebration...) | | Brian Lowry emails a spoiler-free take: It's fair to say that while the phrase "very special episode" is overused in TV parlance — especially in connection with this show — this really did feel like a special episode. And it comes after the NBC series garnered a Writers Guild award over the weekend, which could bode well for it being the next network drama that has a shot at competing for such attention, an increasingly rare commodity.
Speaking of the WGA Awards, the happiest network had to be FX, which picked up top honors for "Atlanta" (which doubled as best new series), "The People v. O.J. Simpson" and "The Americans," which begins its new season in March... | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: I had a great chat with Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel... We talked about nerves... And his approach to addressing politics on Sunday night. He also harped on faux-rival Matt Damon, saying he hopes Damon, a nominee, doesn't get "his grubby overly moisturized little hands on an Oscar on Sunday night." So fun...
-- More: A tidbit that I didn't put in the story: Jimmy started the interview by telling me that CNN.com is his homepage. The flattery was noted and appreciated! | | 2016 films saw record number of female leads | | Watch/listen to Sunday's show | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. 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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