| | | | | Good evening from 35,000 feet again... flying home from Miami... the real action was in DC today... but first, something we almost never see... | | Variety brings the three nightly newsmen together | | Variety convinced Lester Holt, Scott Pelley and David Muir to be photographed together for this week's cover. Reporter Brian Steinberg had a rare group interview with the trio, and photographer Dylan Coulter held the photo session. "SURVIVAL OF THE RIVALS" is the cover line.
Steinberg's feature will come out on Tuesday morning... Look for it on Variety.com after 6 a.m. ET. He asked Pelley about last week's "CBS Evening News" assessment that several of President Trump's statements were "divorced from reality."
"No, I don't think we were being too hard at all, it was just empirically true," Pelley said. "The President had said a number of things that day that were false. I think it's incumbent upon us, all of us, we all believe this to help our audience sort out fact from fiction. We haven't had a White House or a President like this before and we're all still trying to figure out how to cover it every day..." | | How the White House is stacking the deck | | | I talked last month about the Trump administration potentially "stacking the deck" with friendly questioners at White House briefings and press conferences. Lots of other folks anticipated it too. Now, we're seeing what "stacking the deck" looks like... | | | Dylan Byers writes: At Monday's joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump took just two questions from U.S. reporters -- one from the conservative Daily Caller web site and the other from a D.C. TV station owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, both of which are widely viewed as favorable to Trump. Neither of the questions pertained to National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, whose job security is a top story... | | | ABC's Jon Karl said he shouted a question about Flynn but was ignored ... Fox's Jennifer Griffin: "No questions about Flynn's status even though it is leading every newscast?? Are these planted questions on the Washington side?" ... WashPost's Glenn Kessler: "Reporters covering the White House who fail to ask the president about the most pressing news of the day should be ashamed of themselves." Read Dylan's full story here... | | If you're keeping track... | | At these pressers, presidents typically take their cues from White House aides who recommend questioners. At last week's presser, both of the U.S. journalists Trump called on were from Rupert Murdoch-owned outlets, the NYPost and Fox Business. A similar strategy has been seen at Sean Spicer's briefings. While Spicer has been credited with working his way around the room and taking Q's from a variety of outlets, he frequently starts by calling on a conservative outlet; he has "Skype seats" for local reporters; and he has go-to journalists like Newsmax's John Gizzi... the NYT illustrated this really well a couple days ago...
-- The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove asks: "Will President Trump Ever Take Tough Questions From the Press?" | | Gateway Pundit has credentials now | | The fervently pro-Trump blog Gateway Pundit now has W.H. press credentials. DC correspondent Lucian B. Wintrich and the blog's owner Jim Hoft were both at the W.H. on Monday. Wintrich told the NYT's Michael Grynbaum that he would be "be reporting far more fairly than a lot of the very left-wing outlets that are currently occupying the briefing room," and, "We will be doing a little trolling of the media in general... We have some pretty solid stuff planned."
Trolling?
-- Grynbaum notes that during the election, the blog had a "penchant for promoting false rumors about voter fraud and Hillary Clinton's health that rocketed around the right-wing internet..." | | He said/she said at the White House | | | Hat tip to CNN's Jim Acosta for that headline. Barely an hour after Kellyanne Conway said Flynn has the president's "full confidence," Spicer came out and said something much less confident, that POTUS is "evaluating" Flynn. At this point, I can't keep up with all the Flynn developments. Here's the latest from CNNPolitics... | | April Ryan says Omarosa "physically intimidated" her | | WashPost's Paul Farhi with the scoop: Omarosa Manigault "got into a heated argument" with veteran W.H. correspondent April Ryan "just steps from the Oval Office last week, according to witnesses," including WashPost's Abby Phillip.
The two women used to be friends. But Ryan "said Manigault 'physically intimidated' her in a manner that could have warranted intervention by the Secret Service. Ryan also said Manigault made verbal threats, including the assertion that Ryan was among several journalists on whom Trump officials had collected 'dossiers' of negative information."
Manigault emailed Farhi a four-word statement: "My comment: Fake news!" | | | Keep scrolling for more Trump + the media news... | | Josh Elliott and CBS News part ways in bizarre fashion | | Strangest tale of the day: CBS anchorman Josh Elliott has been benched by the network, effective immediately, and no one quite knows why. What has leaked out so far... emphasis on "so far..." suggests a "breakdown in communications" and behind-the-scenes drama.
Here's what I know via three well informed sources: Elliott had been anchoring on the streaming service CBSN for almost a year. He was ready -- more than ready -- for a return to daily broadcast TV. On Friday he told viewers that it was his last day in the CBSN anchor chair "in any regular capacity." The on-camera announcement took CBS News prez David Rhodes and other execs by surprise. Should it have? That's in dispute. But it did.
In public, CBS News said the shift away from daily anchoring was meant to give Elliott more time for in-the-field reporting and "long form pieces." In private, however, the announcement was roiling the news division... | | As one of my sources said, "CBS is drama-averse." And this was dramatic. It seems that Rhodes determined that Elliott's grandiose announcement was destabilizing for the news division. (Remember, CBS has already been battling rumors that Scott Pelley might be replaced.) Another possible factor: Elliott's desire to fill in for Charlie Rose during Rose's recovery from heart surgery. Were there other factors? I think there must have been. I'm still seeking more info...
But this much is clear: Rather than allow uncertainty and rumors to fester, Rhodes decided to cut Elliott from the team. After the two men met on Monday morning, Elliott was escorted out of the building afterward by a H.R. rep. His CBS email account was immediately turned off. The current word is that CBS wants to "pay or play" him, which means the network will pay him until his contract runs out, keeping him off the air until next year. Elliott was silent on Twitter all day...
Here's my current story... with more to come... | | -- "Showtime's internet-only subscriber base has climbed to 1.5 million, while CBS All Access... is nearing the same number of subs, according to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves..." (Variety)
-- Jake Tapper has written his first novel -- a thriller titled "The Hellfire Club" -- and Little, Brown will publish it in the summer of 2018... (The AP)
-- "A naked man on drugs broke into NBC's DC bureau on Saturday night, forcing his way past security before being tackled by an employee..." (WashExaminer)
-- "Slate laid off about a half-dozen full-time staffers and contract writers," Michael Calderone reports... (HuffPost) | | Lots of topics came up at Gerry Baker' s town hall at WSJ HQ on Monday. But Baker addressed topic #1 right away: the paper's Trump coverage. "On that front, Baker's message was clear: like it or leave it," Tom Kludt reports.
According to a Journal reporter who shared info about the meeting, Baker said, "We're not going to be provoked into being a protagonist. There are other news organizations that will do that. If you feel more comfortable doing that…then maybe there is a better place for you to be." Read Tom's full recap here... | | "I don't really care what media reporters at other organizations think about our reporting. I care about whether readers trust our reporting and that our reporting is true."
--Gerry Baker at the aforementioned town hall, and let's be honest, he has a point. But the current spate of stories about the WSJ's Trump coverage are based on internal concerns from Baker's own employees... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The questions about Murdoch's relationship with Trump — raised by Monday's WSJ meeting and fleshed out in Jim Rutenberg's column — require one key bit of contextual history: When it comes to his business interests, Murdoch's politics have always been tinged with pragmatism. Murdoch has consistently leveraged his political connections to advance expansion plans, from the favorable rulings that helped him launch the Fox network in the '80s to his efforts on behalf of Star TV in Asia to the politicians who have signed deals with Fox News and his publishing imprints. Murdoch might not be completely aligned with Trump's brand of conservatism, but it's certainly not paranoid for the journalists he employs to be concerned — and vigilant — about their boss seeking to curry favor with the new administration... | | NYT says reporter made "completely inappropriate" comment about Melania Trump | | 1. Emily Ratajkowski tweeted Monday morning: "Sat next to a journalist from the NYT last night who told me" [something I'm not going to repeat here]
2. NYT responded Monday afternoon: "At a party last night, a Times reporter who does not cover Washington or politics, referred to an unfounded rumor regarding Melania Trump. The comment was not intended to be public, but it was nonetheless completely inappropriate and should not have occurred. Editors have talked to the reporter in question about the lapse." Name of the reporter? Unknown.
3. The First Lady tweeted Monday evening: "Applause to all women around the world who speak up, stand up and support other women! @emrata" | | John Oliver running ads on local cable in DC | | "John Oliver is trying to reach out to President Trump the only way he knows how: cable news," Frank Pallotta writes.
On the fourth season premiere of HBO's "Last Week Tonight" Sunday night, Oliver said his team produced ads specifically for POTUS. "We are prepared to educate Donald Trump one by one on topics we're pretty sure he doesn't know about," he said.
A show rep confirmed that the ads ran in DC Monday at 8:29 a.m. on MSNBC, 8:48 a.m. on Fox News, and 8:50 a.m. on CNN... Read more here... | | Highlights of the Knight Foundation's seminar | | Are you surprised by this Playboy announcement? | | I doubt you are. Frank Pallotta writes:
Time to dust off the old excuse of "I read it for the articles." Playboy is reversing its one-year-old stance and is including nude photos in its magazine once again... Cooper Hefner, the mag's chief creative officer, says: "I'll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake. Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn't a problem. Today we're taking back and reclaiming who we are." | | Adele and Beyonce, the day after | | Lisa France emails: Adele's Grammy comments, including about what "Lemonade" meant to her "black friends," moved Beyonce to tears. It also stirred debate on social media...
Even Adele thought Beyonce should have won the album of the year Grammy over her. But did Queen Bey lose out because of racism? The answer, like anything having to do with race, is complicated... Read Lisa's piece here... | | Grammys ratings and other items | | -- Sandra Gonzalez's take on Beyonce's mother of a performance...
-- Plus a write-up of the most political moment of the night, courtesy of A Tribe Called Quest...
-- Viewership "rose on Sunday night, with an average of about 26 million viewers, about a million more than last year's ceremony," per the NYT's John Koblin...
-- From Chloe Melas: Bey and Jay Z dropped their first new music since their 2013 hit "Drunk in Love," after the Grammys. Check it out here...
-- More from Sandra: Unrelated but perfect timing on Netflix's part: The company released a Beyonce-themed sneak peek of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" Season 3 on Monday morning. Apparently the new season features an episode in which Titus pays homage to Queen Bey and the first footage is amazing. New season drops Friday, May 19... | | -- More from Sandra: Nick Cannon is leaving "America's Got Talent." He's exiting his gig as host because of alleged threats of termination from NBC, stemming from jokes he made about the show and network on his Showtime comedy special. NBC hasn't returned requests for comment...
-- More from Lisa: Katherine Jackson's nephew Trent has responded to claims he has been abusing and controlling the Jackson family matriarch. Trent Lamar Jackson went on Nancy Grace's podcast and said it's not true...
-- More from Chloe: Willie Nelson is on the road again. The singer will be performing this Thursday after canceling several shows due to an undisclosed health issue, which CNN has learned was just a bad cold... | | | "Reliable Sources" highlights | | | Franken and Sullivan raise doubts about Trump's mental health | | | In an interview on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Andrew Sullivan said it's time for journalists to talk publicly about President Trump's "mental stability." His view is that the president is exhibiting "bonkers" behavior -- and that "denying that or tiptoeing around it or not saying it plainly is a failure of our duty as journalists" to "call it as we see it." | | | "Are you guys really connected to reality?" That was Newsmax CEO and Trump confidant Chris Ruddy's response to the Sullivan interview. Ruddy's comment to me about Trump: "If he's crazy, he's crazy like a fox..." | | Pfeiffer calls Spicer a "walking Internet meme" | | | Obama W.H. vet Dan Pfeiffer said "Washington can be a tough town, but I've never seen anyone treated by their colleagues the way Sean Spicer has been." Pfeiffer, obviously speaking from the other side of the aisle, said Spicer has "undermined himself, he's lost credibility, he sort of become a walking Internet meme. And that means he can't do his job in the way Trump needs him to do it." | | "Battles with the press" send a message | | | NYT editorial page editor James Bennet during the "A block" of Sunday's show: "One of the things that's surprising about this White House is they've shown so little interest in reaching beyond the base, really, the minority base of voters that elected Donald Trump, and I think they think these battles with the press work for them, you know? And all the noise they're producing, all the furor in the briefing room contributes to the image they want to present, which is that he's doing a lot of stuff, that he's upsetting the status quo." Hear more from Bennet and Sarah Westwood here... | | | 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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