| | | | | Good evening from 35,000 feet... en route to Miami for the Knight Foundation's Media Learning Seminar... I'm following along with the #Grammys on Twitter... isn't tech grand sometimes? | | Performances and politics | | | Highlights from the Grammy Awards on CBS: Beyoncé performed two songs from her album "Lemonade" during a nine-minute artistic set that celebrated motherhood... Chance the Rapper won best new artist... Adele won "Song of the Year" for "Hello..." She also had a "rough moment" and restarted a performance... Busta Rhymes called President Trump "President Agent Orange," and knocked down a wall... The late David Bowie's album "Blackstar" won in all five categories it was nominated in... James Corden rapped... Check out CNN Entertainment's full coverage here, including Lisa France's main write... | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Alec Baldwin's "SNL" brought in a 7.2 overnight rating, the show's highest overnight # since 2011. Baldwin brought in a bigger rating than the real thing: when Trump hosted the show as a presidential candidate in November 2015, the episode brought in a 6.6 overnight rating. Scroll down for much more on the show...sn | | SUNDAY'S "RELIABLE SOURCES" | | Franken and Sullivan raise doubts about Trump's mental health | | | In an interview on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Andrew Sullivan said it's time for journalists to talk publicly about President Trump's "mental stability." His view is that the president is exhibiting "bonkers" behavior -- and that "denying that or tiptoeing around it or not saying it plainly is a failure of our duty as journalists" to "call it as we see it." | | "I wish I weren't here having to say this..." | | I asked Sullivan if he felt "alone" bringing this up. His answer: "If you are not on camera or not writing, people are talking about this all the time." With emotion evident in his voice, he said, "God knows, I wish I weren't here having to say this. No one wants to be here saying this. I don't want to believe the president of the United States is just delusional or cannot accept reality..."
-- Several Democratic legislators have similarly questioned the president's mental health, mostly prominently Senator Al Franken, who said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" that some of his Republican counterparts privately "say that he is not right mentally. And then some are harsher." Pressed for details on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Franken said "a few" Republicans had expressed that concern to him... | | | "Are you guys really connected to reality?" That was Newsmax CEO and Trump confidant Chris Ruddy's response to the Sullivan interview. Ruddy's comment to me about Trump: "If he's crazy, he's crazy like a fox..." | | Ruddy sending a message through the TV? | | | Ruddy also made news by saying "there's a lot of weakness" coming from chief of staff Reince Priebus... After "Reliable," Ruddy told the WashPost's Philip Rucker that three cabinet members sent him supportive text messages about the TV appearance, implying they agreed with his assessment... By the evening, Ruddy had spoken with Priebus and had softened his position. Here's a full write-up... | | Trump's false tweet about Bernie and CNN | | Ruddy also defended his friend by saying Trump is "extremely well-informed," partly thanks to cable news, but also thanks to other sources. On Sunday morning, a couple of Trump's tweets seemed to come from "Fox & Friends" segments... POTUS claimed that Bernie Sanders was "cut off" for calling CNN "fake news" during a Friday night interview on CNN, which was completely untrue. Don't take it from me, take it from PolitiFact, which says Trump's tweet was "false..."
-- My take: Foreign governments are refreshing Trump's Twitter feed, paying close attention to his tweets, and he's choosing to post... completely false jabs at CNN?! | | Stephen Miller, "bogus talking points," and the Sunday shows | | Stephen Miller was this Sunday's designated White House spinner, appearing on four of the big five weekly public affairs programs. (Once again the W.H. declined CNN's request for a guest for "State of the Union." Jake Tapper noted this and then interviewed Chris Christie.)
As for the other four networks, well, the hosts faced a challenge. Miller spouted "a bunch of false talking points on alleged voter fraud," the WashPost's Glenn Kessler wrote in this detailed fact-check. The conclusion: "The White House continues to provide zero evidence to back up its claims of voter fraud. Officials instead retreat to the same bogus talking points that have been repeatedly shown to be false."
-- Related: The Q at the top of Sunday's "Reliable Sources:" Has there ever been a worse week for a W.H. communications team? Watch... | | Did viewers benefit from the Miller interviews? | | | NYT TV critic James Poniewozik rekindled a previously hot topic with this tweet: "Maybe it's time for producers to think about how to do a Sunday show without administration guests." Jeff Bercovici chimed in with an idea: "How about some sort of 3 strikes policy, for real? To separate the merely careless from those intentionally muddying the water." | | | After The Shows, the president pointedly tweeted: "Congratulations Stephen Miller- on representing me this morning on the various Sunday morning shows. Great job!" | | | This NYT story about the NSC cites "more than two dozen sources." It reads like a cry fo help from NSC staffers. And don't miss Kevin Liptak's CNN story about Trump and Shinzo Abe doing crisis diplomacy in the middle of the Mar-a-Lago dining area. "Fellow diners" described the scene to Liptak. Read all the way to the kicker... | | Pfeiffer calls Spicer a "walking Internet meme" | | | On "Reliable Sources," Obama W.H. vet Dan Pfeiffer said "Washington can be a tough town, but I've never seen anyone treated by their colleagues the way Sean Spicer has been." Pfeiffer, obviously speaking from the other side of the aisle, said Spicer has "undermined himself, he's lost credibility, he sort of become a walking Internet meme. And that means he can't do his job in the way Trump needs him to do it." | | -- "News anchor Chris Hurst, whose girlfriend and another co-worker were gunned down during a live broadcast in August 2015, will leave the Roanoke, Va., TV station and mount a run for the state House of Delegates." He's running as a Democrat, challenging the Republican who holds the seat... (WashPost)
-- Smart piece by Charlie Warzel: "Behind the rise of the anti-Trump Twitter conspiracy theorists..." (BuzzFeed)
-- Sulliview's latest: "I talked to people in a northeast Pennsylvania county that flipped blue to red about their news diet. What I found..." (WashPost)
-- And Jim Rutenberg's Monday column: "When a Pillar of the Fourth Estate Rests on a Trump-Murdoch Axis" (NYT)
-- "A reporter is suing the US government to learn how it vetted Trump's advisers for security clearances..." (Quartz) | | | Gerry Baker's town hall on Monday | | There will be leaks. WSJ editor Gerry Baker will be hearing from staffers at a much-buzzed-about town hall meeting on Monday. Tom Kludt and I wrote a curtain-raiser about newsroom tensions over Trump coverage... Check it out here...
-- A prominent WSJer emailed to push back on the talk of turmoil: "Just stack the coverage up since the inauguration. It's been very solid; and the editorial page has been deeply cutting..." | | Media week ahead calendar | | Monday, 2pm: Joint presidential press conference...
Monday night: Showtime's "Billions" season two premiere in NYC...
Tuesday: Valentine's Day! Do you have a dinner reservation and a heart-shaped content strategy?
Wednesday before the bell: CBS earnings... | | Live stream the Knight Foundation's seminar | | Up above, I mentioned Knight's annual Media Learning Seminar... the group calls it a gathering of philanthropic, media and tech leaders talking about the future of news and information... I'll be kick-starting the event with a 9:30 a.m. Monday session on "Trust, Journalism, Fake News, Technology and the Future of Informed Communities."
You can live-stream the two-day seminar at knightfoundation.org/live/ !
Many of the participants are past (and hopefully future!) "Reliable Sources" guests: Mike Oreskes, Carolyn Ryan, Emily Ramshow, Mike Wilson, MZ Hemingway, Chris Ruddy, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Emily Bell, Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis, Craig Silverman, and more... Marty Baron is delivering Monday's luncheon address... | | "I think people should know. They need to know that a media baron who owns lots of outlets, who owns The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, in the U.K. The Times of London... they need to know that there's this relationship." --The FT's Matthew Garrahan, on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," describing why his scoops about coziness between Rupert Murdoch and President Trump are important, and really rationalizing the point of media coverage... | | The newest Wired is all about media | | On Sunday's show we revealed the March cover of WIRED, featuring NYT deputy A.G. Sulzberger, who talked at length with Gabriel Snyder for this story.
After interviewing and shadowing three dozen other NYTers, Snyder calls the company's focus on digital subscription growth "the biggest strategic shift in the paper's 165-year history." Read the full story here... And/or watch my conversation with Snyder here... | | Tim Cook says it's "killing people's minds" | | One of the weekend's most interesting developments: In a BLUNT interview with The Daily Telegraph, Apple CEO Tim Cook urged the tech industry to take action against "fake news" stories. According to the Telegraph, he said made-up stories and hoaxes are "killing people's minds." And he called the "fake news" plague "a big problem in a lot of the world."
"There has to be a massive campaign. We have to think through every demographic," Cook said, proposing PSA's and other projects that are music to the ears of media literacy advocates. "All of us technology companies need to create some tools that help diminish the volume of fake news." Here's my write-up... | | | Cook also said: "It's almost as if a new course is required for the modern kid, for the digital kid." So what's Apple going to do? I asked an Apple spokesman if the company is committing to funding or other resources, but the company had no further comment on Cook's interview... | | "Battles with the press" send a message | | | NYT editorial page editor James Bennet during the "A block" of Sunday's show: "One of the things that's surprising about this White House is they've shown so little interest in reaching beyond the base, really, the minority base of voters that elected Donald Trump, and I think they think these battles with the press work for them, you know? And all the noise they're producing, all the furor in the briefing room contributes to the image they want to present, which is that he's doing a lot of stuff, that he's upsetting the status quo." Hear more from Bennet, Sarah Westwood and Dan Pfeiffer right here... | | | "Al Jarreau, the jazz-pop musician best known for the hits 'Breakin' Away,' 'We're in This Love Together' and the theme song to the popular 1980's TV show, 'Moonlighting,' died Sunday," CNN's Kevin Conlon writes. Jarreau was 76. Read more... | | "Being a journalist is permission for lifetime learning" | | | That's one of the many David Carr-isms I hold onto. Sunday was the two-year anniversary of David's death. One of his daughters, Erin Lee Carr, shared this remembrance... | | "SNL" sees Trump in court | | Frank Pallotta emails: Trump said "see you in court" -- and "Saturday Night Live" obliged. Alec Baldwin as Trump appeared in a "People's Court" sketch, with a judge played by Cecily Strong saying, "Mr. Trump, you understand that this is a TV court, right?"
"That's OK, I'm a TV president," Baldwin replied... | | | More from Frank: Baldwin got some help taking on the Trump administration last night thanks to the return of Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer. Referring to herself as "Spicy," McCarthy's Spicer used props to explain the travel ban, as well as a leaf blower on one of the reporters at the press conference. "You know what that was? That was me blowing away their dishonesty," the fake Spicer said. Read Frank's full story here... | | | Bill Carter says it was "without a doubt" intentional to have four women playing men, including McCarthy playing Spicer, Leslie Jones playing Trump, and Kate McKinnon playing Jeff Sessions. He also tweeted: "They obviously could not resist giving Melissa the opener. from the give em what they want dept of show biz." Bill and I will be talking about this on CNN's "New Day," 6:50am Monday... | | Fox's dismissive approach | | Knowing the ratings for "SNL" would be huge, I was amused listening to "Fox & Friends" on Sunday morning. The main takeaway about "SNL" was "this mean show doesn't really matter."
Abby Huntsman teasing a segment about it: "Spicey is back on 'SNL.' But does anyone really care?" Ed Henry during the chit-chat: "Sometimes it's talked about too much." Another host (I forget which one) later in the segment: "Do most Americans even care?" | | "Make America Great Again" dress at the Grammys | | | Singer Joy Villa turned heads with this dress on the red carpet... Details here... | | "La La Land" is the biggest winner at the Baftas | | Sandra Gonzalez writes:
"La La Land" has some major fans across the pond. The modern musical walked away with five awards at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards Sunday, including best film and individual honors for Emma Stone and director Damien Chazelle. "La La Land" had been up for seven awards.
"Lion" was another big winner, picking up best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Dev Patel. The best supporting actress category once again belonged to Viola Davis, who is on an unstoppable awards streak headed into Oscars.
Here are more of the night's winners... | | "Lego Batman" atop the box office this weekend | | "Warner Bros.' The Lego Batman Movie won the Valentine's Day weekend box-office race with $55.6 million from 4,088 theaters — the top opening of the year to date, even though it had been expected to clear $60 million to $70 million," THR's Pamela McClintock reports. "Conversely, the erotic, S&M-laced Fifty Shades Darker came in ahead of projections with $46.8 million from 3,710 theaters (tracking had suggested it might not even get to $40 million)..." | | | 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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