| | | | It's time for new investments in news literacy | | | "We're not at war with the Trump administration. We're at work," WashPost editor Marty Baron said last week. I think he summed up how most journalists see themselves: "We're at work." But there's a problem with that formulation: A lot of well-meaning people don't understand our work. They don't know why newsrooms behave in the ways they do. They don't know who or what to believe. President Trump says real news is "fake news," his aides claim that journalists just make up sources, and it's all incredibly confusing... | | Democracy demands media literacy | | | On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I said that democracy demands media literacy. News literacy. And this particular moment in time demands serious investments by newsrooms and by tech giants. Groups like the News Literacy Project and universities like Stony Brook are trying to tackle this problem. Execs at Facebook and Google are thinking a lot about it too. So it's an opportune moment to brainstorm new ways to help our customers... And try to regain trust... | | Lots of folks need to be more news-literate, including some folks at Mar-a-Lago. A Friday night segment on Fox News apparently inspired Trump to reference Sweden during his Saturday afternoon rally remarks about threats from immigrants. For nearly 24 hours, the Fox connection was just a theory... until POTUS confirmed it in a tweet on Sunday afternoon.
To be clear, there was no terror attack or other incident in Sweden on Friday night.
If you haven't watched the Fox segment yet, click here. A conservative filmmaker interviewed by Tucker Carlson described a "surge of violence" while scary pictures appeared on the screen. Credible sources suggested the segment was way overblown. Here's a fact-check by the BBC: "Sweden has generally low crime rates."
Meanwhile, Fox continued to promote the segment on Sunday night, with the headline "What the U.S. could learn from Sweden's refugee crisis." 🤔 | | | Sweden's U.S. embassy responded to the president with this: "We look forward to informing the US administration about Swedish immigration and integration policies..." | | Trump's "enemies" tweet is sinking in | | | Reactions to the president's vulgar comment about "fake news media" being "the enemy of the American people" poured in all weekend long. On "Reliable Sources," I made the point that he wasn't talking about all news outlets -- he singled out five of them. CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and the NYT. Perhaps he's trying to drive another wedge between the sources he likes and the sources he dislikes... | | My take from Sunday's show: The American press is stronger than any demagogue, but Trump's attacks do present real challenges. Consider this: For as long as you and I have been alive, no American president has publicly spoken this way about the press.
Trump's words are poison -- a verbal form of poison -- meant to affect your view of the media world. Meant to harm news organizations... | | Read this by Bret Stephens | | What he's "saying" versus what he's "doing" | | Quoting Salena Zito from "Reliable Sources:" "People believe we spend too much time focusing on what he says about us. And they would like to see us spend more time on what he's doing. Does that make sense?" Definitely -- and RedState's Jay Caruso made a similar point in the "B block."
But I argued that attacking the media IS what Trump is doing -- between press conferences, Saturday's rally, and carefully crafted tweets, he has spent quite a bit of time tearing down news outlets he detests... | | "Avoid the language of the attacker because it evokes their frame and helps make their case," linguist George Lakoff writes.
In this case, Lakoff says journalists shouldn't be saying they're "not the enemy," because it repeats Trump's frame... Instead, "journalists are the courageous people we trust to #ProtectTheTruth..." | | Bernstein says Trump's media attacks are worse than Nixon's | | "Trump's attacks on the American press as enemies of the American people are more treacherous than Richard Nixon's," Carl Bernstein said on Sunday's "Reliable." More:
-- "We've never seen in an American president such open authoritarian moves and rhetoric. This is a terrible time we're living in..."
-- "We are not enemies of the American people. In fact, we're the last resort of the American people to a dictatorial and authoritarian inclined president..." | | John McCain's comment to Chuck Todd about suppressing free press -- "that's how dictators get started" -- got a Saturday/Sunday news cycle started.
On ABC's "This Week," Rand Paul reacted: "I see President Trump expressing his opinion... But I see no evidence that anybody is putting forward any kind of legislation to limit the press..."
Similarly, Trump campaign surrogate and new Fox contributor Steve Cortes responded with a tweet: "Dictators suppress media. Trump...makes forceful, reasoned, and popular arguments against media bias. Get off your high horses." | | Presidents Day programming note | | | Bill Carter and I will be on CNN's "New Day" talking about all of this... 6:50am ET... | | How often does Alex Jones speak with Trump? | | This question comes up in Jim Rutenberg's Monday NYT column, which is all about Alex Jones' "conspiracy workshop" Infowars.
Jones has previously said he spoke with Trump shortly after the election. How about since then? Quoting Rutenberg: "Jones told me that he had spoken with Mr. Trump since that call, though an aide to the president, communicating on the condition of anonymity, played down the frequency of their contact..." | | Reince says "the media should stop with this unnamed source stuff" | | For some reason the POTUS aide insisted on anonymity to speak with Rutenberg. Keep that in mind when you read what W.H. chief of staff Reince Priebus said on "Face the Nation" Sunday morning:
"I think that the media should stop with this unnamed source stuff. Put names on a piece of paper and print it. If people aren't willing to put their name next to a quote, then the quote shouldn't be listed."
The NYT's Glenn Thrush reacted on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," saying anonymity is necessary when jobs are on the line, "particularly when you have an administration where the president and his spokesperson talks about, for instance, firing people in the bureaucracy who don't agree with them..." | | "A free press isn't the enemy of America. It's a big part of what makes America great."
--Jon Karl in an unusual end-of-the-show commentary on ABC's "This Week..." | | Limbaugh is having fun watching... | | Rush Limbaugh has Trump's back, Tom Kludt reports:
During a rare TV appearance, on "Fox News Sunday," Limbaugh said news outlets are "enemies of Trump, and Trump won the election on substance..." He added, "The media did not make Donald Trump, and they can't destroy him. But the media thinks -- and when I say media, let me define: ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times, that cadre -- they have a formula, they have a blueprint for destroying Republican political officials they don't like. It's not going to work on Trump. He doesn't fit that mold. They're trying to every day. It's kind of comical to watch."
Although he's wrong about the existence of a "blueprint," I appreciate Limbaugh's attempt to at least specify which outlets he was skewering... | | Watch/listen to Sunday's show | | | For the record, politics edition | | | -- WashPost's Philip Bump: "After a lid was called last night, Trump showed up at a Mar-a-Lago event without telling press..."
-- Video: "Secretary of Defense James Mattis disagrees with Trump's stance on media..."
-- ICYMI: Fox's latest poll of registered voters finds a stark divide in the country over who's more truthful, Trump or the media...
-- The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove: "How Stephen Colbert Became Late Night's King of Trump Resistance..."
-- BI's Maxwell Tani observes that "Trump has increasingly garnered prime real estate on the front pages and splashes of entertainment sites..." | | | Media week ahead calendar | | It's Oscars week!
-- Wednesday: CPAC begins... Tom Kludt will be there for us...
-- Thursday morning: FCC meeting in DC...
-- Sunday morning: "Reliable Sources" live from Atlanta...
-- Sunday evening: The Academy Awards live on ABC... | | Dems meeting Trump on his home turf... Twitter | | | On Friday's "The Lead," I described how Democrats are turning to social media to mount a comeback. So far, they can point to lots of new followers, but not much political success. Here's the package... | | | Eight days 'til Trump's big address... | | | Lynn Sweet made a good point on "CNN Newsroom" Sunday night: "His next big speech of note will be a joint session to Congress." But there hasn't been a lot of chatter about it because so many other Trump stories are stealing headlines. The SOTU-like speech is on February 28... | | "Trumpification" in the Netherlands | | Erik Mouthaan, A U.S. correspondent for the Dutch TV station RTL, emailed to share this news:
"The Dutch elections are March 15th and on Sunday anti-immigrant leader Geert Wilders, leading in the polls, called my station 'lowlife scum' for interviewing his brother who had been critical in public about Wilders' political platform. The PVV leader also withdrew from two debates my station is organizing. An example of 'Trumpification' of political discourse in a crucial election year in Europe... | | "The West Wing" versus "The Office" | | Annie Linskey's story in the Boston Globe contains this gem of a quote from a "person who worked closely with the Trump campaign," describing White House dysfunction on condition of anonymity:
"The person, who like many in Trump world turns to the TV industry for metaphors, acknowledged widespread chaos: 'You want it to be like The West Wing,' said the person. 'It is more like The Office where there are some who you wonder: What do you do all day?'" | | | Sandra Gonzalez is covering the WGA Awards Sunday night... She'll have a full recap on CNN.com overnight... | | Check out the Creators series | | Entertainment editor Megan Thomas emails: Our complete "Creators" series is up, featuring 14 inspiring storytellers... Including Oscar nominee Lin-Manuel Miranda explaining his tasty creative process. Watch!
-- More: Cramming for your Oscar viewing party next weekend? We've got you... | | | More from Megan Thomas: Why movies matter: Interesting NYT opinion piece from Vernon Jordan -- yes, that one -- on the power of movies to change our hearts. | | | "Planet Earth II," now "Blue Planet II" | | | "Planet Earth II" wowed U.S. viewers on Saturday night. This news followed on Sunday: "BBC America has greenlit Blue Planet II, a new seven-part series presented by Sir David Attenborough that will take a deep dive into the world's oceans," Deadline's Liz Calvario reports... | | | ICYMI: the beginning of "Billions" season two | | | Brian Lowry emails his latest review: "Billions" was a bright spot for Showtime its first season. But the second season, premiering Sunday night, looks like less of a sure thing -- and given the Trump administration's Goldman Sachs connection, perhaps a little ill-timed... | | | 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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