| | | | Matt Drudge is asking: "Who is leaking transcripts of Trump's private phone calls with world leaders?!" I'm asking a related question: Why are these people leaking?
On Wednesday evening, the WashPost published a jaw-dropping story about the president's contentious phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and the AP moved a story saying that "Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop 'bad hombres down there' unless the Mexican military does more to control them." | | CNN reporting contradicts The A.P. | | The AP attributed the report to "an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation." But CNN's Jake Tapper obtained an excerpt of the transcript that tells a different story.
Quoting this CNNPolitics story by Tapper, Eli Watkins and Jim Acosta: "According to an excerpt of the transcript of the call with Peña Nieto provided to CNN, Trump said, 'You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with. We are willing to help with that big-league, but they have be knocked out and you have not done a good job knocking them out.' Trump made an offer to help Peña Nieto with the drug cartels... Sources described the AP's reporting as being based upon a readout -- written by aides -- not a transcript."
As for the Australian call, "things got heated" and "Trump abruptly ended the call because he was unhappy..." | | The Atlantic's James Fallows says these "purposeful high-level leaks" carry a message: "Send help!" The WashPost's Glenn Kessler adds: "Why all of the leaks out of Trumpland? People leak when the process is messed up, their input is not valued and/or the boss lacks respect." And the boss will respond to all this leaking... how?
-- Speaking of leaks: Reuters has "U.S. military officials" talking about the raid in Yemen... | | | Since Jan. 1, there have been so many "Trump and the media" panel discussions, I've lost count. I love 'em, but I've lost count. This -- from National Journal's Josh Kraushaar -- has been a through line in all of them. Kraushaar expressed it so well on Twitter on Wednesday night: "The extent to which many otherwise smart Trump defenders won't believe ANYTHING from mainstream press is remarkable. Poisonous to democracy." | | Trump slams the media during Black History Month meeting | | | CNN's Elizabeth Landers reports from the White House: After a smooth rollout of his SCOTUS nominee on Tuesday night, Trump went off-message Wednesday morning, bashing the media during a W.H. meeting to to kick off Black History Month... | | Trump claims he doesn't watch CNN | | "A lot of the media is actually the opposition party. They're so biased. It's a disgrace," Trump said during the meeting. He singled out CNN and cited the network's contributor Paris Dennard, who was in the room. "Paris has done an amazing job in a very hostile CNN community. He's all by himself," Trump said. "But I don't watch CNN, so I don't get to see you as much. I don't like watching fake news."
"I don't watch CNN" was an eyebrow-raiser. The Toronto Star's Daniel Dale said it best: "'I don't watch CNN' is maybe Trump's funniest repeated lie. It's like someone saying 'I don't eat cake' with icing all over their cheeks..."
-- Related: Trump also thanked Fox News, saying, "Fox has treated me very nice, wherever Fox is, thank you..."
-- Also: Politico's Hadas Gold reports: "White House sends adviser Sebastian Gorka onto CNN, signaling possible thaw in relations..." | | Travel ban: CNN producer detained over the weekend | | A CNN producer was one of the hundreds of travelers hindered by Trump's travel ban over the weekend. Now the producer, Mohammed Tawfeeq, is one of the individuals suing the government.
CNN is not directly involved in the lawsuit, but the network said Wednesday that it is supporting him. "This is a basic request to clarify and assert his rights under the law. We support him in this effort and hope it's resolved quickly," a CNN spokeswoman said. Details via the AJC here... | | Comcast employees planning walk-out | | | "Comcast employees in at least four cities are planning to walk off the job Thursday and hold rallies in protest" of Trump's exec order, Billy Penn's Anna Orso reports. "Comcast employees have self-organized the rally through an internal Slack channel that a high-level source at Comcast tells us grew from about 100 people to 1,200 people this week." There will be a one-hour rally outside the Comcast Center in Philly at 2 p.m... | | | The "Megyn Kelly makeover claims its first casualty," The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove says. Tamron Hall is leaving NBC after days of contentious contract negotiations. Hall had been the co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of "Today" and a daytime anchor on MSNBC. But last week, execs cancelled the 9 a.m. hour to make room for Kelly's forthcoming show. They'd been hopeful that Hall would stay... and offered her a $$$$ new contract... but she felt disrespected and decided to leave. It's unclear if she has a new TV news job lined up. Here's my full story... | | | Hall won't have a chance to say goodbye on the air. "Yesterday was her last day as an anchor on both networks," NBC said, adding, "We are disappointed that she has chosen to leave, but we wish her all the best..." | | Hall's 9 a.m. co-host Al Roker will remain in the time slot until the fall. In a statement on Wednesday evening, the National Association of Black Journalists likened the changes to a "whitewashing." "While NABJ wishes Hall well on her next move, NABJ requests a meeting with NBC leadership on the top-rated show's dismantling," the group said...
| | Lisa France emails: There you were, arguing on social media about the Trump presidency when all of a sudden Beyonce announced that she is not only pregnant, but having twins! According to Twitter, there were more than a half a million tweets about it within an hour of her baby bump on Instagram. The superstar singer won the day...
Here's Thursday's NYPost cover: | | | Frank Pallotta emails: As goes Beyonce, so goes Twitter. Weird tweets and all. Look at these terrible brand tie-ins: "Wow, bey has TWO buns in the oven! that's just an expression by the way. please don't eat those buns. they are babies," Denny's tweeted. More from Frank here... | | -- Margaret Sullivan's column about former "Marketplace" reporter Lewis Wallace: "How one reporter's rejection of objectivity got him fired..." (WashPost)
-- I should have included this in Tuesday's newsletter: Layoffs at the WSJ... (Politico)
-- Via Robert Feder: "Tronc shows its true colors in a tweet..." (Feder)
-- Important piece by Tim Peterson: "Facebook starts opening its black box to keep advertisers from avoiding Audience Network..." (MarketingLand)
-- "Sarah Koenig, who hosted Serial, is re-teaming with E.P. Julie Snyder, editorial advisor Ira Glass, and the team from This American Life for S-Town, one of three new podcast stories in development..." (EW) | | Hillary Clinton's book of essays | | Nikki Finke about to re-emerge? | | Emily Smith's latest: Nikki Finke "was about to start as a columnist with Mediaite, but her former boss Jay Penske — who was suing her over her new role — 'swooped in and made her a massive offer,' a source told Page Six. Finke changed her Twitter bio Wednesday night to include 'Penske Business Media: Sr. Editorial Contributor, Entertainment/Media' and well as, 'Deadline.com Founder/Editor Emeritus...'" | | Stephen Colbert's Trump ratings bump | | Frank Pallotta reports: Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" topped late night ratings for the second time this week. These numbers are intriguing because Jimmy Fallon has, for the most part, been the ratings king of late night since Colbert came on the scene in September 2015. Fallon has kept his schtick of goofing on the commander-in-chief by doing an impression of Trump. Colbert, however, has brought some new edge to his opening monologues that has seemingly given him some momentum. He has won six of the last seven nights that weren't reruns.
We'll keep an eye on this... Read Frank's full story here... | | | Scroll down for details about this Jon Stewart cameo... | | | Brian Lowry emails: One thought on Frank's Colbert ratings piece: There was a time when networks were gun-shy about their late night hosts wading into the political fray. Johnny Carson and Jay Leno were notoriously even handed in doling out shots at politicians. But with the marketplace more crowded and fragmented, Colbert is leaning into a tougher posture toward Trump. While that will surely alienate some viewers, it appears to be working, commercially as well as creatively... | | | Seconding what Peter Baker said Wednesday: "Agree with him or not," Roger Simon "has been a powerful journalistic voice for decades and will be sorely missed." If you haven't read Simon's farewell column yet, click here... He'll join me on this Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | Here are the ratings for Tuesday's Supreme Court reveal | | It was Tuesday's highest-rated TV show: the president's announcement reached about 33 million viewers across 8 channels.
-- Details: CBS had the biggest single TV audience for speech coverage, with 7.97 million viewers at 8 p.m. On cable, Fox News was dominant, averaging 7.56 million viewers during the announcement...
-- POTUS may not like this: Trump's address didn't measure up to President Obama's first prime time event. Almost 49.4 million tuned in when Obama held a press conference the night of February 4, 2009. Here's my full story... | | | Sean Spicer invited four people to ask questions at Wednesday's briefing via Skype -- the debut of the "Skype seats" he announced last week. Two were TV reporters, one was a local newspaper publisher, and one was a conservative talk radio host... WashPost's Callum Borchers has a full recap here... | | Support for news outlets in the Trump era is coalescing around a catchy hashtag: #PressOn. Reporters, activists and Hollywood stars like Mariska Hargitay and Ben Stiller started to promote #PressOn Wednesday morning. The goal: encouraging subscriptions to news sites and donations to nonprofits. Here's my full story...
-- On Tuesday evening I met Boston Globe managing editor for digital Katie Kingsbury... She spent Wednesday evening personally thanking new subscribers via Twitter...
-- Steve Krakauer tweets his skepticism: "It's hard to think of anything more out of touch with the majority of America than a celebrity hashtag campaign aimed at honoring the media..." | | | We all know that the NYT and a number of other national news outlets have seen an uptick in subscriptions. But what about the rest? Up at Harvard on Tuesday night -- speaking with Nicco Mele, Ann Marie Lipinski, and others -- I heard concerns that the subscription boon isn't trickling down to regional and local papers and web sites... | | Matt Taibbi on the Livecast | | | Matt Taibbi has a new book out called "Insane Clown President." Thursday at 12 p.m. ET, I'll interview him on our new "Reliable Sources Livecast," right on the CNN.com home page... Join us! | | | Countdown to the Super Bowl | | | | "The Super Bowl, scheduled for Sunday night in Houston, is infused with national politics like never before," the NYT's Ken Belson writes... He says it's "uncomfortable" for the league... | | O'Reilly prepping for his POTUS interview | | | "I would say it's the most important interview of my life," Bill O'Reilly told Variety's Brian Steinberg. "There is so much happening and so much controversy and so many things in play. I need to get to the heart of the matter, and I will." The interview will be taped earlier in the day on Sunday, and will air during the afternoon's pre-game show... Lots of details here... | | Mary Tyler Moore's widow: "Mary was my life, my light, my love" | | Via Chloe Melas: Mary Tyler Moore's husband of 33 years, Dr. Robert Levine, has described the "emptiness" he feels after her death.
His comments to People magazine are heartbreaking. "I can't believe she is gone," Levine said. "Mary was my life, my light, my love. The emptiness I feel without her with me is without bottom. She was a force of nature who fiercely defended her autonomy even as her health was failing." Read more... | | First look at season three of "American Crime" | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: On Wednesday, we had an exclusive look at a new promo for season three of ABC's "American Crime." The new season of the Emmy-nominated anthology takes on labor issues, immigration and so much more. I've seen the first two in advance and the season is off to a very solid start. Season 3 premieres March 12...
-- Stelter adds: !!!!!! (It's one of my favorite shows) | | Brian Lowry emails: "24" has always been tethered to real-world events and politics. The show was delayed in 2001 because of the Sept. 11 attacks, then used as an example — even by lawmakers — of the need for torture in "ticking-bomb" scenarios. Still, Fox's revival "24: Legacy," which premieres after the Super Bowl, seems awkwardly timed in the current political climate, from Trump's endorsement of torture to the travel ban. And on top of that, it's just plain badly written. Read more...
-- More from Brian: Speaking of "not very good," three new shows premiere on CBS and NBC Thursday —which happens to kick off the February rating sweeps that local stations use to set ad rates. None are worth setting the DVR to see. (Brian's review explains why... Reading it is probably more fun than watching the shows...) | | Jon Stewart returns to 'Late Show' with a warning... and hope | | Frank Pallotta emails:
Jon Stewart appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Tuesday night, wearing an incredibly long red tie and a fake animal on his head to warn the country (and give some hope) about President Trump.
"We have never faced this before. Purposeful, vindictive chaos. But perhaps therein lies the saving grace of my, Donald J. Trump's, presidency," Stewart said reading Trump's "future" executive orders. "If we do not allow Donald Trump to exhaust our fight and somehow come through this presidency calamity-less and constitutionally partially intact, then I, Donald J. Trump, will have demonstrated the greatness of America. Just not the way I thought I was going to." Read/watch more here... | | | 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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