| | | | "I feel like TONIGHT, Donald Trump became the president of the United States," Chris Wallace said on Fox News after the big speech.
Over on CNN, Van Jones (!) said something similar, pinpointing the way President Trump honored the widow of Navy SEAL Ryan Owens: "He became President of the United States in that moment. Period."
CNN's instant poll of speech watchers found positive sentiments: | | | TelePrompTer Trump, not Twitter Trump | | The TV arguments afterward went like this:
Person A: Trump was "softer," surprising and presidential. This was by far his best speech yet.
Person B: C'mon, the bar is being set incredibly low. He uttered platitudes and didn't advance a policy agenda.
A and B: Hopefully he won't tweet something ridiculous in the morning.
Tom Brokaw: "Most presidential he's been." George Stephanopoulos: "Quite a traditional structure." Scott Pelley: "The fewest personal pronouns of any Trump speech we've heard." Chuck Todd: Same Trump agenda, but "selling it in a softer way."
-- Bottom line: Daily Beast EIC John Avlon tweets: "Reality Check: Twitter Trump is still the real Trump. Tele-prompter Trump is the one who sounds presidential..." | | Quoting from Katy Tur's tweetstorm: "What the President did with Owen's widow was capital P Presidential. It was the single most extraordinary moment I've seen from Trump - by far. *BUT* remember that moment came after Trump seemed to blame his generals/Obama for Owen's death this morning. And NBC News exclusive reporting: senior intelligence sources dispute WH characterization of raid as success. No significant intel *yet.* Which would mean that Trump isn't being honest with a grieving wife. And that is anything BUT presidential."
-- ICYMI: by HuffPost's Igor Bobic: "Donald Trump Blames SEAL's Death On Military: 'They Lost Ryan'" | | VP Mike Pence will reiterate the president's points on TV and radio all day long on Wednesday... He'll be on MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox News (not CNN) in the morning... Plus Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, and Sean Hannity's radio shows... And "The O'Reilly Factor" and "For the Record with Greta." | | -- Via CNNPolitics: "Trump delays new travel ban after well-reviewed speech"
-- The WashPost's fact-checking team found 13 notable inaccuracies. Glenn Kessler: "By Trumpian standards, 13 misleading claims is better than usual. But by speech-to-Congress standards, it's poor..."
-- Per Twitter: "@POTUS speech was the most Tweeted #SOTU or #JointSession address ever," with 3 million tweets, "surpassing the previous record of 2.6M..."
-- About the president's lunch with network anchors: "Trump went on background with reporters as a 'senior administration official,'" according to BuzzFeed... | | | Only one mention of "media" | | If you thought POTUS would decry "fake news," you were surprised. Trump's only mention of the media came when he touted the Department of Homeland Security's new VOICE office -- for "Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement" -- he said the office will support "those who have been ignored by our media..." | | "No mention of broadband in Trump's comments on revitalized infrastructure," the WashPost's Brian Fung noted. No mention of the Internet at all... No Twitter or Facebook shoutouts... | | | Scarborough and Hannity in the chamber | | Joe Scarborough was spotted in the hall sitting next to Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings. And Sean Hannity was there as a guest of GOP congressman Louie Gohmert. Afterward, Hannity hosted Fox's 11pm hour... | | | Here's the rest of the day's media news... | | | YouTube unveils its cable-like bundle | | CNNMoney's Selena Larson was at the rollout of "YouTube TV" on Tuesday. The bundle "will cost $35 a month and offer access to content from broadcast networks as well as YouTube," she writes.
Basically the service includes the broadcasters plus the big cable channels they each own -- so ABC and ESPN, NBC and Bravo, Fox and Fox Sports. Cable players like Turner (CNN's parent) and Viacom are not included, at least not yet. Read more... | | There are now a bunch of competing cable-like streaming services: Sling TV, AT&T's DirectTV Now, and Sony PlayStation Vue. YouTube's version stands out for its price point, its unlimited cloud DVR offering and the relative lack of cable channels... | | | A historic $$$$ book deal: | | | Penguin Random House to publish pair of Obama books | | Penguin Random House has prevailed in a bidding war for a pair of books by Barack and Michelle Obama.
The announcement came a few hours after the FT reported that an auction between several prominent book publishers had surpassed the $60 million mark. It is unclear how much Penguin Random House ultimately paid for the two books. But the FT said it amounted to "a record sum for US presidential memoirs."
Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle says he'll work with the former first couple to "make each of their books global publishing events of unprecedented scope and significance." Here's my full story...
-- The books will not come out this year... they're likely to be released in 2018... but there are no official publication dates yet.
-- Flashback: Crown reportedly paid about $10 million for the rights to George W. Bush's memoir... | | | Time Inc. wants to know how much it's worth | | "Time Inc. asked potential suitors to submit acquisition offers by next week," Bloomberg's Alex Sherman reports. "Time's board of directors wants details on how possible buyers value the company so it can determine whether to pursue a sale of the entire business or individual magazine titles..."
-- Five interested buyers, including Meredith and an "investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr."
-- Usual caveat: "The company may also choose not to proceed with a sale at all..." | | -- The first hire for CNN's new investigations team: managing editor Matt Lai, a veteran of the LATimes, will work with investigations exec editor Lex Haris...
-- Kendis Gibson is Diane Macedo's new co-host on ABC's overnight newscasts... (ABC)
-- NYT's Adam Liptak explores this Q: "Barring Reporters From Briefings: Does It Cross a Legal Line?" (NYT)
-- Microsoft is introducing a $10 monthly gaming subscription service for Xbox One... (Kotaku) | | | MSNBC's new prime time exec | | Former "Today" and "NBC Nightly News" executive producer Jonathan Wald is heading back to 30 Rock: After six years at CNN, overseeing Piers Morgan and Don Lemon's prime time shows, Wald is becoming the senior VP of programming and development at MSNBC, reporting to Phil Griffin. Along with oversight of prime time, Wald will "develop new programming including long-form, and special events." TVNewser's Chris Ariens broke the news... Read more here...
-- Related: No word yet on who will replace Wald at "CNN Tonight..." | | | Fifth month of wins by Fox Biz | | "Fox Business Network topped CNBC in viewership during the business day for the fifth consecutive month, an illustration of dramatic growth at an upstart network that began operation a decade ago," the AP's David Bauder reports.
As Bauder writes, it's a "startling change" since CNBC was "once considered the unquestioned leader." (CNBC.com still has Bauder's wire story on its web site!) Of course, CNBC rejects Nielsen ratings. And Fox Biz's programming is more political than CNBC's. Check out this stat: "Of the 4.5 million people who have watched at least one hour of Fox Business this year so far, 83 percent have also watched at least an hour of Fox News, Nielsen said. Meanwhile, only 10% of those viewers said they watched at least an hour of CNBC..." | | -- How'd Fox, CNN and MSNBC fare for the month of February? Deadline's Lisa de Moraes has a detailed look here...
-- A humblebrag: "Reliable Sources" at 11am, "State of the Union" at 12pm and "Fareed Zakaria GPS" at 1pm were all #1 in the 25-54 demo for the month... | | | CNN inviting J-school students instead of celebs to WHCA dinner | | Via THR: "CNN will be attending this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner, but the network's attendees will be swapping in journalism students for the usual celebrity guests." The network's statement: "We feel there is no better way to underscore our commitment to the health and longevity of a free press than to celebrate its future..." | | "It is time for you to get your groove back, media. Because, let's face facts, you kind of let yourself go a little bit for these past few years. Put on a few pundits."
--Jon Stewart on Monday's "Late Show..." | | | Academy sticking with PwC? | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: Late Monday night, the Academy released its first official statement on the "best picture" matter... emphasizing that PricewaterhouseCoopers took full responsibility for the gaffe... adding that the Academy will "determine what actions are appropriate going forward."
It's worth noting that the firm does more for the Academy than just the Oscar ballots, so it won't be that easy to sever ties. While the "La La Land" and "Moonlight" teams have seemingly moved on, expect the behind the scenes drama over the mistake to unravel for some time... | | | Oscar #'s run into a niche | | Brian Lowry emails: Before "Envelope-gate" recedes too far in the rear-view mirror, a little historical context about those mediocre Oscar ratings, which are part of a larger trend among award shows: There's no single factor, but the fact that more art-house movies and cable TV shows are dominating the awards -- projects seen by fewer people than when, say, "Titanic" or "ER" won Oscars and Emmys -- is surely one of the causes... Read more here... | | | Weak start for "When We Rise" | | In other Oscar-related ratings, it was a mixed bag for ABC on Monday: Jimmy Kimmel received a boost -- perhaps in part to hear his side of what happened Sunday -- but the opening night of the four-part gay-rights miniseries "When We Rise" pretty much tanked, drawing only about 3 million viewers, despite a lead-in from "The Bachelor..." | | | Kanye West's long new song | | | Lowry reviews two new dramas | | Brian Lowry emails: Two dramas -- one pretty good, the other very -- premiere this week, both about showbiz, and both with ripped-from-the-headlines undertones: E!'s "The Arrangement," about an actress who enters into a contract marriage with a famous movie star; and Hulu's miniseries "National Treasure," about a major comedy star accused of rape... Read Lowry's full review here... | | | Netflix releases trailer for "Five Came Back" | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: In Netflix news, I'd recommend checking out the trailer for its upcoming documentary series "Five Came Back" when you have a chance. It's based on Mark Harris's book "Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War," and tells the stories of five directors who enlisted to serve their country "and bring the truth back to the American people." It features interviews with Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo Del Toro, Paul Greengrass and Lawrence Kasdan, and is narrated by Meryl Streep. It looks really powerful... | | -- Sandra Gonzalez notes: FX's "Feud" doesn't debut until Sunday but the cable network announced Tuesday its already renewed the Ryan Murphy anthology for a second season that will center on Prince Charles and Diana. Setting my DVR now...
-- Lisa France emails: If we get to send longer GIFs on Twitter, you can thank Lin-Manuel Miranda... | | | 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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