| | | | Saying negative polls are "fake news." Suggesting the press is intentionally downplaying terrorist attacks. Alleging that The New York Times is "making up stories and sources."
What President Trump is saying is illogical. Journalists know it. If we're not stating the facts, frankly and forcefully, then we're doing a disservice to our viewers and readers. | | Pelley says Trump's statements are "divorced from reality" | | Anchors and reporters and editors are reaching for new ways to say "that's not true" and "that makes no sense."
Witness Scott Pelley at the start of Monday's "CBS Evening News:" "Today President Trump told a U.S. military audience that there have been terrorist attacks that no one knows about because the media choose not to report them. It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality." And Pelley went on from there...
-- A devoted nightly news watcher emails: "This is the most 'telling it like it is' I have seen in a long time..." | | Trump is giving his fans license to dismiss professional polling | | "President Trump's tweets are windows into his soul -- unfiltered, and often seemingly unmoored," Jake Tapper said on "The Lead" Monday afternoon.
One example: Trump's disturbing tweet that "any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election." I tried to correct the record about that here. POTUS is essentially encouraging his 24 million Twitter followers to ignore accurate polls and opt for an alternative reality where he is always "winning."
-- This is key: Trump ended the tweet by saying "Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting." If by "people," Trump only means the Americans who voted for him, then that's true. But the American public as a whole is starkly divided over the travel ban and other security measures. Read more...
-- HA! Seth Rogen tweets: "Any negative reviews to my movies are #FakeReviews..." | | "They have their reasons" | | | THAT was on Monday morning. Come Monday afternoon, Trump said on camera that terror attacks in Europe have "gotten to a point where it's not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that." Pressed and pressed and pressed for proof, the W.H. sent around a list of 78 attacks since September 2014, including ones that were so widely covered, they're known by a single word, like Paris, Nice, and Orlando... | | | Jim Acosta held up the list on "AC360" and said "this appears to be a talking point that's in search of a set of facts that just doesn't exist." Matt Lewis: "If anything I think the media maybe OVER-hypes terror attacks." Maria Cardona: Trump wants "everybody talking about terrorism." Maggie Haberman: "He is making the media into a bogeyman..." | | Sean Spicer also assailed Haberman and Glenn Thrush for Monday morning's sensational Page One story about Trump adjusting to W.H. life. Spicer said the story was "riddled with inaccuracies and lies," "literally blatant factual errors," and the "epitome of fake news." Like what? The mention of Trump wearing a bathrobe while watching TV in the W.H. "I don't think the president owns a bathrobe. He definitely doesn't wear one."
That's how bathrobe-gate was born. Haberman's response to Anderson Cooper: "We're comfortable in our sourcing." She said she was trying to humanize Trump, but "he doesn't always want to be humanized..." | | Trump trying to get the last word? | | | In the morning he alleged -- without a shred of evidence -- that the NYT was "making up stories and sources" about him. At night he followed up: "The failing @nytimes was forced to apologize to its subscribers for the poor reporting it did on my election win. Now they are worse!" No, the Times never "apologized..." | | A top White House correspondent emails... | | | "They are in the bunker. Already. Usually it takes months or years for a White House to go there. It took these guys a few days." | | | WashPost's Aaron Blake thinks Trump is getting this stuff about the press soft-pedaling terror attacks from InfoWars. He points to headlines like this: "MASS MEDIA COVERS UP TERRORISM TO PROTECT ISLAM" and "TERROR IN GERMANY -- THE TRUTH THEY HIDE..." | | The "Bowling Green Massacre" is related | | | This idea is connected to Kellyanne Conway's much-derided claim on "Hardball" that journalists didn't cover the "Bowling Green massacre," which leads me to this next story... | | Conway said she misspoke just "one word" on "Hardball." But it was more than that. Cosmopolitan's Kristen Mascia reported Monday that Conway brought up the "masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre" in a January 29 telephone interview with her. Mascia didn't print the quote at the time... here's why... but after Conway said it again on "Hardball" on February 2, she dug up the transcript.
-- More: After Mascia's Cosmo story came out, a third Conway reference was discovered... In this case, she said "Bowling Green attack," and just to reiterate, there was no attack... | | Time for a change of subject... | | Frank Pallotta emails: Somehow, some way, the Patriots won Super Bowl LI, and their big comeback victory may have saved Fox's TV ratings. The four quarters plus overtime averaged 111.3 million viewers via traditional TV. Overall it is the fifth most watched broadcast in American history (last year's game averaged 111.9 million).
Frank adds: What I found interesting is that Super Bowl LI was, in a way, a microcosm for the league's whole season that was marked with up and down viewership. The first half was full of lopsided play, leading some viewers to tune out, before an incredible second half and a stunning finish. Read more... | | | Via Fox's press release: "Super Bowl LI is the most live-streamed Super Bowl ever, delivering an average minute audience of 1.72 million, up +23% over last year (vs. 1.4 million) and up +224% over FOX's last Super Bowl stream in 2014 (vs. 530,523)..." | | | Scroll down for our full Super Bowl post-post-game show... | | Fox's quarterly earnings beat estimates | | | "Spurred on by its cable networks' performance and hosting the World Series, Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox on Monday reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings," THR's Etan Vlessing reports. Lachlan Murdoch touted Fox News ratings during the earnings call, citing the recent 7 and 9 p.m. moves... | | Lydia Polgreen's plans for HuffPost | | Can HuffPost win over millions of Trump voters? Lydia Polgreen believes that it can. Polgreen took over as EIC one month ago. In this interview with me -- Polgreen's first in the new job -- she previews the future of the site. Key takeaways:
-- Instead of a "liberal" voice, she wants the site to be a "voice for people who feel that the fundamental political and economic power arrangements are unfair," and that "includes a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump." Like an old-school tabloid paper...
-- This reorientation will involve new hires and some restructuring. Details TK.
-- Less personality-driven: "This is definitely not going to be the PolgreenPost."
I also asked about HuffPost's much-debated, now defunct editor's note about Trump... She didn't hold back... Read more here... | | Janice Min handing over the reins | | | NYT's Brooks Barnes broke the news: "Janice Min, who has orchestrated a stunning turnaround at The Hollywood Reporter over the last seven years, will step down as that publication's top editor at the end of February, a move that may foreshadow its sale." Next for Min: "She will join Eldridge Industries, which controls The Reporter and Billboard, in a new role devising a 'media-investment strategy...' That could mean both buying and selling..." | | Chloe Melas emails: On Monday afternoon I had a chance to catch up with Min's successor, Matthew Belloni, her longtime executive editor who wants to reassure that Min's departure is not the signal of a company shakeup.
"It's not a shake-up, it's a transition," Belloni said. It's a natural progression. This is how it's supposed to work, Janice has been tremendously successful and has groomed someone who can take the reins." He also added that he has no plans to change their coverage. "What's made The Hollywood Reporter so successful is the quote unquote 'secret sauce': news analysis, lifestyle, aspirational pieces, and I intend to keep that mixture," Belloni said. "We are not going to be lessening up on our fashion coverage or stop covering high-end real estate. It's going to continue to be a mix that people really enjoy and why people enjoy the brand." For more of the interview, click here... | | Spicer briefing on Tuesday | | Back at the W.H. on Tuesday, Sean Spicer will hold an on-camera briefing at 1:30 p.m. ET. Spicer reacted to Melissa McCarthy's "SNL" portrayal of him by saying she should dial it back a bit. (Lisa France has details here.)
Very buzzy story from Politico Monday night: White House officials were rattled by the Spicer sketch... "It was Spicer's portrayal by a woman that was most problematic in the president's eyes, according to sources close to him..." | | -- According to BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg, Michael Wolff has been shopping a book. Wolff's response: "For the record, if anyone cares, I'm not shopping a book. But what writer wouldn't want to write a book about Trump? Is there another story?" (BuzzFeed)
-- Useful analysis by CNNPolitics' Aaron Kessler and Curt Merrill: "Trump White House press briefings short? Only compared to Obama" (CNNPolitics)
-- BI's Maxwell Tani talked with editors about "what they're doing differently in the Trump era..." (BI)
-- Jason Rezaian, who's up in Cambridge on a Nieman fellowship, filed this for the Post: "How Iranian Americans can weather Trump's assault on their heritage" (WashPost) | | | WashPost's Erik Wemple says Super Bowl pre-game show viewers "saw how a millionaire TV anchor who doubles as a vanilla-milkshake-sharing friend of the president lets him off the hook on a pressing national issue." Read the critique here... | | | Part two aired on the "Factor" on Monday night. Brian Lowry emails: After the interview excerpts, Bill O'Reilly had the tables turned on him by Charles Krauthammer, who questioned him about how he felt when Trump made his comments about Vladimir Putin. O'Reilly largely punted on an answer, after starting by saying that the interview — which had "made headlines all over the world" — was seized on by the other cable networks that "hate Mr. Trump to an unhealthy degree." It was classic O'Reilly — spinning his own importance in having conducted a news-making interview, while simultaneously seeking to discredit Fox News rivals... | | O'Reilly-Trump, part three | | | ...Will air on Tuesday night. | | Via Mediaite's Josh Feldman: "Bill O'Reilly responded tonight to the Kremlin demanding he apologize for calling Vladimir Putin a 'killer.'"
What O'Reilly said: "I'm working on that apology. But it may take a little time. Might want to check in with me around... 2023." | | "Fake news" on Trump's Facebook page? | | | "Smart!" That's what President Trump or one of his aides wrote on Facebook a few days ago, linking to a story by a Middle Eastern blogging site. The headline on the Albawaba story said "Kuwait Issues Its Own Trump-esque Visa Ban for Muslim-Majority Countries." But the anonymously-sourced story is unproven. Multiple governments have denied it. It's the kind of story that the president might decry as "fake news," were it not beneficial to him. Read my full story about it here... | | | Super Bowl post-game show | | | Second most-watched halftime show ever | | | Lady Gaga nailed it. Patriotic, thrilling, heartwarming. And high-rated! Via Fox PR: "Gaga's halftime performance drew 117.5 million viewers during the 8:15-8:30 PM ET window and ranks as the second most-watched halftime show in Super Bowl history behind Katy Perry's performance at Super Bowl XLIX (vs. 120.7 million)..." | | Gaga's next act: a world tour | | | Lisa France emails: According to a schedule posted on Gaga's official site, the concerts kick off August 1 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver and the tour winds its way across the globe before ending in Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 14. More... | | Strong sampling for "24: Legacy" | | | Brian Lowry emails: One constituency at Fox didn't benefit from Sunday's thrilling Super Bowl overtime game — namely, the Fox network, whose premiere of "24: Legacy" got a very late start, beginning at 11 p.m. In the Eastern time zone. The program still generated strong sampling — an estimated 17.6 million viewers, with the highest adults 18-49 rating (6.1) in its history — but Fox is hoping delayed viewing will significantly boost that total. The show premieres in its regular timeslot on Monday night, leading into another new drama, "APB..." | | -- Entertainment editor Megan Thomas emails: Spotted at the Oscar luncheon at the Beverly Hilton on Monday... Lin-Manuel Miranda for round two of CNN's "Creators" series. The multi-hyphenate joked about sitting down for a "fake news" interview, name dropped Meryl Streep, raved about working with Rob Marshall on "Mary Poppins Returns," and explained how his creative process is like making paella. Full interview coming February 13...
-- Chloe Melas emails: Annette Bening has just been cast as the Governor of Louisiana in next installment of "American Crime Story." This time the series will focus on the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina...
-- Lisa France emails: The 8-year-old daughter of Jamie Lynn Spears has reportedly been hurt in an accident. The family hasn't released much info, but a rep for the little girl's famous aunt, Britney Spears, is asking for privacy... | | | "Reliable Sources" TV highlights | | | Watch/read/listen to Sunday's show | | "Leakiest White House" in decades | | On Sunday's show, I asked Errol Louis and Carolyn Ryan about all the leaks emanating from the W.H., even leaks ABOUT leaks. Ryan said a "very leaky campaign around Trump" has followed him "into the White House."
Key quote: "I think we're going to have the leakiest White House that we have seen in decades, partly because of colliding agendas among the Trump factions, partly because now they are also colliding with a permanent government..." | | Retiring Politico columnist Roger Simon said on the program, "Are we supposed to pretend this is an ordinary president and the times are ordinary? They're not."
Simon said journalists need to "defend the truth... We're not here to give politicians a break..." Journalists should be "checking the truth, dividing truth from fiction, pointing out how ridiculous some of his, in fact, almost all of his statements are..." | | | 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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