| | | | On late night TV, Sean Spicer is a punchline. On cable news, he's a punching bag. But in the briefing room, he's punching back. The great question is what his boss, the ultimate counter-puncher, President Trump, is thinking while watching Spicer's briefings.
Thursday may have been the rockiest briefing yet, as I wrote in this story. Spicer repeatedly dismissed questioners and shut down one line of inquiry by saying "this is the silliest thing I've ever heard." WashPost's Chris Cillizza said Spicer "went full Melissa McCarthy" -- referencing McCarthy's scathing impersonation from last weekend's "SNL." Lots of tweeters were sharing this GIF... | | | "SNL" fans have been wondering if McCarthy will be back on this weekend's episode. But even if she does not make a return appearance, it's hard to imagine a worse week for a W.H. press secretary. Tina Nguyen of Vanity Fair, admittedly no friend of the Trump administration, put it this way on Thursday: "He has, in some ways, become Trump's very own Baghdad Bob." Of course, Spicer has been placed in nearly impossible positions by his boss... | | View from a briefing room seat | | A W.H. correspondent who's been at practically every Spicer briefing emails:
"Spicer is in a pretty unenviable position. He's the public face of an administration that a pretty big segment of the country is horrified by. He also has to have extended daily interactions with the press while he and his team are constantly attacking the media. He's clearly a lightning rod and, in that respect, I understand the attention he's getting. On the other hand, what do people really think he could have done better?"
An important point: "For all of the amped up rhetoric and wild headlines, the day to day business of the White House press corps is continuing... Do I think this administration has used rhetoric about the press that is ultimately damaging to the society? Sure. But I'm not going to let people calling us names stop me from doing my job. My main concern is that they don't try to prevent us from doing our work or having opportunities to question them." And on that count, "Spicer is taking questions every day — including from people who ask tough ones..." | | | In the wake of Jim Acosta's Tuesday report that POTUS has been "disappointed" by Spicer's performance, Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway expressed support for him on Thursday morning, saying on Fox News that "the truth is, Sean Spicer is our press secretary and will continue to be. He has the president's ear and his full confidence." But... | | | Was that "Fox & Friends" or a QVC commercial? | | | As a result of Conway's segment on "Fox & Friends," tongues started wagging about whether SHE has the president's full confidence. Conway urged Fox viewers to "go buy Ivanka's stuff." She admitted she was giving Ivanka Trump's products a "free commercial" -- while standing in the press briefing room for her live shot. Objections and rebukes were swift in coming... | | Not surprisingly, the "Fox & Friends" hosts offered no objection or push-back to Conway's endorsement of a Trump family business. This really underscores the tale of two Foxes. One side of the house consists of conservative talk shows, where "go buy Ivanka's stuff" is charming and amusing, not controversial or even worth a follow up question. The other side of the house consists of newscasts, even if they're, shall we say, conservative-friendly newscasts. They're real journalists who recognize real conflicts. John Roberts asked Spicer about Conway at the briefing, and Martha MacCallum scored the follow-up interview with her at 7 p.m.
Conway declined to comment on the matter, except to say that POTUS "supports me 100%," but the point is that MacCallum asked the Q several times... | | Breaking news from the ninth circuit | | The broadcast networks broke into regular programming when the ninth circuit's ruling came in around 6:10 p.m. The cablers went wall to wall. Later in the hour, when the nightly newsers were on, POTUS chimed in with his "SEE YOU IN COURT" tweet.
CNNMoney's Erin McClam tweets: "Can't say I've seen this before: Scott Pelley reading from his phone on 'CBS Evening News' to report a breaking Trump tweet. That kind of day." | | -- "When Trump lashes out," it's time "for the PR professionals to earn their keep," CJR's David Uberti says. He highlights; CNN PR's assertive responses to the president as a template for other news outlets... (CJR)
-- Did you hear about the NYPost sports writer who was fired "after comparing Trump's inauguration to 9/11," who's now suing the paper? Details about Bart Hubbuch's case here... (WashPost)
-- Anna Wintour says Melania Trump will likely grace the cover of Vogue: "We have a tradition of always covering whoever is the first lady at Vogue and I can't imagine that this time would be any different..." (WSJ)
-- Ben Smith moonlighting as a media writer again... He profiled R. Emmett Tyrrell, "the first conservative editor to embrace the Donald..." (BuzzFeed) | | Costas is passing the Olympic torch | | Frank Pallotta reports:
Bob Costas, the voice of NBC's primetime Olympics coverage since 1992, is "passing the torch" to Mike Tirico starting at next year's Winter Games. Costas made the announcement on the "Today" show.
Later in the day I spoke with Tirico and Costas at an NBC press event. Costas' advice for Tirico? Be yourself. "I don't want to try to copy it because if I try to copy it, it's a recipe for lack of success," Tirico said of Costas' run as host. As for Costas, he says he's signing off from the coveted role because he "wanted to step aside while I was still able to do it."
Now he can watch the Olympics just like everyone else and may still be a host -- but of his own viewing party rather than of NBC's coverage. "That's probably in order for one night," Costas said. "Eighteen nights might be a little exhausting." | | Time to bring "American Idol" back? | | I thought this wouldn't happen until next year! But there's already talk about reviving "American Idol," just nine months after Fox retired the show.
"According to sources with knowledge of the discussions, NBC has been pitched a revival of the long-running singing competition by producer Fremantle and is now mulling options for how to integrate the show into its programming slate," Variety's Daniel Holloway scooped on Thursday... Read more... | | It's easy to be dismissive of this idea. But Vulture's Joe Adalian mulled it over, and here are the three reasons why he says it might be a good idea:
1. It would be a way to rest "The Voice."
2. It makes it tougher for other networks to launch their own music competitions.
3. It would likely still do relatively well in the ratings. | | Viacom CEO Bob Bakish laid out his turnaround plan on Thursday morning, telling Wall Street about a focus on "the flagship six" cable channels and a deeper collaboration" between the channels and Paramount Pictures. The six brands are Nick, Nick Jr., BET, Comedy Central, MTV, and Spike. (Spike will be renamed the Paramount Network in 2018.) What about smaller channels like VH1? They "will be realigned to reinforce the six flagship brands."
Bakish said his intent is to bring "TV brands to film and film brands to TV in a big way." Meg James of the LATimes: Bakish aims "to dramatically alter how Paramount Pictures operates." Read more...
-- $$$: Viacom stock closed up 4.3% in the afternoon... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Viacom's plans to reorganize its cable channels — and refocus its movie output to capitalize on them, with half its releases to be tied to those channels — looks more like brand management than a fully functioning studio. If the goal was to set a course that would keep the company on a path to independence and quiet sales/merger talk, I don't think this approach accomplishes that... | | "We are in an era in which integrity is priceless, yet digital distributors have long been a platform for the fake, the faux and the fallacious..." --More blunt remarks about the coming ad market "reckoning" by News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, this time on Thursday's earnings call. The company sent the remarks around in a press release... | | On the radio with Michael Smerconish on Thursday, CNN's Chris Cuomo said, "I see being called 'fake news' as the equivalent of the N-word for journalists, the equivalent of calling an Italian any of the ugly words that people have for that ethnicity. That's what 'fake news' is to a journalist."
Earlier in the day, Trump had blasted Cuomo's interview of Senator Richard Blumenthal and called it "fake news." Trump was wrong on the facts, as CNN PR noted here.
Cuomo's remark about "the equivalent of the N-word" raised a lot of eyebrows when it lit up Twitter on Thursday afternoon. He responded quickly: "I was wrong. Calling a journalist fake -- nothing compared to the pain of a racial slur. I should not have said it. I apologize." He added, about the misuse of the term "fake news," "I hate the insult but it's not even close to the same..." | | | "You may have forgotten" about Keith Olbermann, Ben Terris admits in this WashPost profile. "It's been more than six years since the fiery liberal tirade artist left his signature show on MSNBC. But he's got a Web series now." Terris says Olbermann's videos for GQ "have been getting more than 2 million views an episodes." Now, that's not at all comparable to television ratings, because TV and web video measurement systems are totally different. Nonetheless, Olbermann told Terris this: | | "More people are paying attention to my message at the moment than they would be if I were some other host on MSNBC or CNN."
Terris reached out to an MSNBC spokesman, who delivered this sharp-tongued reply: "Why is Keith in the news [or of interest] right now?" | | Trump + the best seller lists | | | On Thursday's "Reliable Sources Livecast" -- our new lunchtime live stream -- I talked with Pamela Paul, the editor of the NYT Book Review, about various books that are enjoying spikes in sales thanks to the Trump presidency. We talked about "Hillbilly Elegy," "1984," "The Art of the Deal," and many more... Here's the 15-minute podcast... | | "Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?" | | | David Corn of Mother Jones asks: "Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?" He says "the president's own people may be under investigation" but "there has been no loud demand from the DC media (or most of the GOP) for answers and explanations...." | | Another provocative Economist cover | | Rupert Murdoch was in the room for this Trump interview | | Another scoop about Rupert Murdoch and President Trump by the FT's Matt Garrahan and Jack Pickard:
Rupert "was sitting in" when a columnist for one of his papers, The Times of London, interviewed Trump after election day. Garrahan calls it a "sign of the mogul's interest in Mr. Trump and his close relationship with the new president and his family." Details... | | | "It is gratifying to watch the media suddenly discover such concepts as the independence of the judiciary, conflicts of interest, and press freedom," Breitbart's Joel Pollak writes in his latest column. "For the eight years of President Barack Obama's tenure, the media treated conservatives who raised those concerns as racists, or cranks, or both. Now — as predicted — checks-and-balances are suddenly en vogue." He says he wants an apology... Read more... | | On Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | | Chris Ruddy, Dan Pfeiffer, Sarah Westwood, and I'll have more names for you on Friday... | | No more Daily Mail citations on Wikipedia | | Tom Kludt reports: "Wikipedia has barred citations of The Daily Mail after editors of the online encyclopedia concluded Wednesday that the British tabloid is 'generally unreliable...'" No comment from the Mail...
Tom notes that "such a move is unusual for Wikipedia, which has faced its own share of scrutiny for inaccuracies." Read more... | | George and Amal expecting 2x | | Chloe Melas emails: Beyonce is not the only star with twins on the way! George Clooney's longtime friend, Matt Damon, confirmed the news that George and Amal Clooney are expecting twins. The actor spoke to "Entertainment Tonight Canada" Thursday right as Julie Chen shared the twins news on CBS's "The Talk."
Damon told a funny story about how George told him the news last fall when Amal was just eight weeks pregnant: "Are you out of your mind?! Don't tell anybody else! Don't tell anybody else!" Damon said. "Don't you know the 12-week rule?' Like of course he doesn't. I was like, 'just shut up, man.' And then four weeks later, I'm like, 'we're good right?'"
Read Chloe's full story here... | | Lowry's weekend movie reviews | | Brian Lowry emails: Hat tip to LATimes film critic Justin Chang for this line, but weekend movie-going presents a choice between "two comedies about playboy-billionaire leather fetishists." Of those, "The Lego Batman Movie," while not wholly satisfying, is far superior to "Fifty Shades Darker," which (and I seldom say this) I saw so you don't have to...
>> Read Lowry's reviews of "Lego Batman" and "50 Shades" here... | | Talking with Charlize Theron | | | Chloe Melas emails: More inspiration from the Netflix panel I attended on Wednesday: Charlize Theron said she feels "inspired" by the younger generation of actresses in Hollywood demanding stronger female roles onscreen. Theron said that when she was coming along, the only roles were "girlfriend, wife and trophy wife." Theron is all about female empowerment these days, she's currently the executive producer of an upcoming Netflix show, "Girlboss." Read more... | | By Lisa France:
-- Katherine Jackson is accusing her nephew of elder abuse and says she's afraid to come home until he leaves her property...
-- Singer Jason Derulo has alleged racial discrimination by an airline. Things would have been much more dire were he not a celebrity, he claims...
-- Todd Chrisley is a married father of five but that hasn't stopped speculation that he is gay. But the "Chrisley Knows Best" star says that just means he "can get laid on both ends..."
And on that note... have a happy Friday! | | | 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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