| | | | A Facebook endowment for journalism? | | Should Facebook step up and fund journalism directly? Google and other tech giants too? That's what Emily Bell and Steven Waldman are proposing in a pair of new essays... | | "America needs a radical new market intervention" | | "What independent journalism needs more than ever from Silicon Valley is a significant transfer of wealth," Bell writes at CJR.org. The British native says "America needs a radical new market intervention similar to that made by the UK Government in 1922 when it issued a Royal Charter and established the BBC." She says Google's "Digital News Initiative" and the "Facebook Journalism Project" are not enough. And she links to Waldman's piece... | | How to raise $4.4 billion | | In this NYT op-ed, Waldman says training and tech (what the Facebooks of the world have been offering to newsrooms) is critical, but "what journalism needs most now is money, and lots of it — to fund full-time local journalists. What these companies have donated so far is too little given how wealthy they are, how much harm they're (inadvertently) doing — and how much good they could do... All Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Laurene Powell (widow of Steve Jobs) have to do is fund 3,000 journalists. If the leaders of these companies put the equivalent of just 1% of their profits, for five years, to the cause, local American journalism would be transformed for the next century. That would be $4.4 billion — enough to establish a permanent endowment to fund local journalism..." Read his full op-ed here, and Bell's piece too... | | "Facebook's new head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, is seeking to mend the company's relationship with the media through a series of off-the-record get-togethers at her Tribeca home," BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg reports... David Remnick, who was at the first one, says "They are this enormous player in the news business, and they don't yet know how to think about their own role and near hegemony..." | | -- Former U.S. Navy admiral William H. McRaven, the architect of the bin Laden raid, says Trump's "enemy of the American people" sentiment "may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime..." (MyStatesman)
-- Vulture's Boris Kachka tries to figure out: "Why Was Times Theater Critic Charles Isherwood Fired?" (Vulture)
-- Internal memo at The Atlantic: "Annie Lowrey is joining us as a writer. She'll focus on covering economic policy..."
-- The Daily Beast is hiring the Free Beacon's Lachlan Markay to be its new White House reporter... (Politico) | | Dylan Byers writes: Republicans trust President Trump. Everyone else trusts the media. That's one finding from a new Quinnipiac U poll...
Specifically: Quinnipiac's survey found that 86% of Democrats said they trusted the media more than the president. But among Republican voters, the balance is flipped: 78% said they trusted Trump more than the media, while just 13% said they trusted the media more.
Overall: 52% of voters trust the media more than they trust Trump, while only 37% said they trusted Trump more...
Also: There is a profound split between college-educated white voters and non-college-educated white voters, with the former trusting the media more (55% to 37%) and the latter trusting Trump more (also 55% to 37%). Read more... | | An Emerson poll grabbed headlines earlier this month for finding that "voters find the Trump administration to be more truthful than the news media," the opposite of Quinnipiac's finding. But the Emerson poll was conducted using ONLY landline telephones. That's one of the reasons why it did not meet CNN's polling standards. Quinnipiac, on the other hand, does meet those standards... | | Brian Lowry emails: It's worth remembering that the campaign to discredit the mainstream media has been cultivated through relentless work by conservative talk radio and Fox News for 20-plus years. Radio host-turned-MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes addressed this dynamic particularly well in a recent NYT op-ed, in which he stated that the effect of those attacks was to "delegitimize those outlets and essentially destroy much of the right's immunity to false information..." | | James O'Keefe says he has "secret recordings" inside CNN | | Conservative provocateur James O'Keefe is setting his sights on CNN. On Tuesday he teased a forthcoming operation involving an unnamed media outlet... And on Wednesday he confirmed that he'll release "CNN Leaks" on Thursday morning.
In a phone interview, O'Keefe told me that he has "a few hundred hours" of "secretly recorded material" from inside the network... He's drawing inspiration from WikiLeaks' document dumps, posting a large volume of material online without listening to all of it first... "This is all legally recorded information," he said...
-- If you're not familiar with O'Keefe's past work, here's a recap. He sometimes uses undercover stings to trap his targets, and he has a reputation for shady tactics, selective editing and exaggerated statements... | | When I asked why CNN is one of his targets, O'Keefe said, "My audience, the American people, are deeply upset at the media... We think our media needs to be held to account, and CNN is kind of the leader of that. CNN has a very important role as an arbiter of news."
O'Keefe says he is targeting other newsrooms too. On Thursday, he's announcing a "financial award" to encourage other sources to come forward...
-- David Frum's reaction to my story: "As predicted: pro-regime trolls use hacks & leaks as weapons against those deemed a threat by the head of government..." | | Tom Kludt reports from CPAC | | Tom Kludt emails:
Greetings from CPAC, where activists and media types are still getting settled in. Radio row is still mostly bare, as teams of producers begin to assemble the equipment for their various broadcasts. The conference really will begin in earnest on Thursday, but Wednesday still provided a highlight: Sean Hannity taped his show from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention. If you were wondering if this year's edition of the confab would echo the anti-media tenor exhibited by President Trump, Hannity's taping might have provided some answers. Shortly after taking the stage, he led the crowd of activists in a call and response. Who was the worst news outlet in last year's campaign, he wondered. "CNN!" the audience responded in unison...
OTOH: My colleague Greg Krieg spoke to roughly 20 people here at the conference, all of whom were unfailingly polite and cordial... | | What a difference a year makes | | More from Tom: It's striking to think that a year ago, Trump bailed on CPAC at the last minute amid reports that some activists were planning to stage a walkout of his speech. What a difference a year makes. Trump, of course, is now on tap to address the conference on Friday. His two top advisers, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, will take the stage on Thursday. There will also be plenty of Trump's media sympathizers speaking: Lou Dobbs, Joel Pollak from Breitbart and the aforementioned Hannity. And yet -- the contretemps surrounding Milo Yiannopoulos reminded us this week that the fissures on the right that were exposed by Trump's candidacy still remain... Read more from Tom here... | | In the LAT: "Loud and angry, protesters turn congressional town halls into must-see political TV." That's why the WashPost has created the "YELL-O-MATIC," a tool for "watching people yell at elected officials..."
Wednesday night's newsiest event was GOP Sen. Tom Cotton's town hall. A seven-year-old stood up and expressed concern about, among other topics, possible cuts to PBS funding...
-- Jamie Weinstein's reaction: "Not a set up at all. I'm sure the kid thought of that Q on his own and drove to town hall to ask it..." | | | Why Kellyanne Conway was off TV for a week | | Dylan Byers emails:
White House sources tell me that Kellyanne Conway was sidelined from television appearances for a week for making statements that were at odds with the administration's official stance.
Conway disappeared from TV last Tuesday, one day after saying that Michael Flynn had the president's "full confidence." Hours later, Flynn resigned. That morning, she claimed Flynn had offered to resign, even though Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump had asked Flynn for his resignation. Those statements, which came amid existing public scrutiny over Conway's credibility, led the president and his top advisers to conclude that her appearances were doing more harm than good for the administration, the sources said. She was "off message," a White House source said. Here's Dylan's full story... | | | Things that make you go 'hmmmm...' | | Following the publication of the article, Conway called to take issue with the premise and said she would be appearing on Sean Hannity's show on Wednesday evening... | | During that interview, Hannity called Byers' report "fake news," and said that Conway has been booked on his program for "weeks."
"Somebody's trying to stir up trouble," Conway said, though she didn't say whether that "somebody" is in the White House or the media.
She also said "I don't think I have to explain myself if I'm not going on TV if I'm out with four kids for three days looking at houses and schools..." | | | Silence @ the State Department | | There's been relative silence from the U.S. State Department for over a month, CNN's Nicole Gaouette noted in this story on Tuesday. The most visible sign of this: No on-camera briefings.
On Wednesday acting spokesman Mark Toner, an Obama holdover, responded in a statement, saying the department "continues to release statements regarding world events and reporters continue to be briefed about upcoming trips and initiatives." Soon, he said, there will be "regular press briefings" again... | | "The media has become much more polarized. If I were a U.S. journalist, I would be looking to launch The Trump Watch."
--Matt Kelly, editor of The New European, a "pop-up" paper for Brits who opposed Brexit. He spoke with Joseph Lichterman about the paper's success... | | This section of Tara Palmieri's latest Politico piece about Trump's TV and Twitter habits got a lot of pickup on Wednesday: "Leaving him alone for several hours can prove damaging, because he consumes too much television and gripes to people outside the White House..."
-- NYT's James Poniewozik responds in a tweet: "Re Trump's aides trying to limit his cable-news ragewatching: If someone got him to binge some good scripted shows, they could change the world..." | | | Farhad Manjoo spent a week ignoring Trump news | | His NYT column about the experiment is a must-read...
Pull quote: "On most days, Mr. Trump is 90% of the news on my Twitter and Facebook feeds, and probably yours, too. But he's not 90% of what's important in the world..." | | Brian Lowry emails: Without getting too far into the prognostication business, Lisa France and I went through a category-by-category analysis of the Oscar ballot, with the likely winners (and some of the likely losers who deserve to win). As usual, most of the key categories look pretty easily predictable, meaning those with dreams of winning an office pool will need some luck, especially in the fringe-y "No, I haven't seen all the documentary shorts"-type categories... | | Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey, who had three years remaining on his contract, announced Wednesday that he is leaving the studio, effective immediately.
"It comes as Viacom's new chief executive, Bob Bakish, aggressively shakes up the management ranks," LAT's Meg James writes.
Grey said in an internal memo that he'll "remain engaged" during a transition period... "Possible candidates to run the studio include former Warner Bros. film executive Jeff Robinov, former Fox film chief Jim Gianopulos and Rob Friedman, who left rival studio Lionsgate in September..." | | Chloe Melas emails: The liveliest awards show across the pond, The Brit Awards, aired Wednesday night from London's O2 Arena. Some of the biggest moments from the show: Katy Perry shaded Trump and Britain's Prime Minster, Theresa May, during her performance of "Chained to the Rhythm..." Coldplay's Chris Martin performed a duet with the late George Michael (yes, you read that correctly)... and One Direction beat out their former bandmate, Zayn Malik, for Video of the Year... Read more here... | | Chloe Melas emails: Demi Moore is returning to TV for the first time in over a decade. She's been cast on Fox's hit show "Empire." Moore will make her debut on the season three finale and have a recurring role in season four. To find out who she'll be playing, read 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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