| | | | Lots of news today... Andrew Napolitano M.I.A. at Fox, Tomi Lahren M.I.A. at The Blaze, and have you heard about Apple's plans for AR? But the biggest story of all is about trust... | | We're at the two month mark. And the story of this presidency is about trust. LACK of trust. Monday's House intelligence committee hearing was one for the history books... and these headlines tell the story:
-- The AP: "Reality is catching up with Trump on Russia"
-- CNN.com: "Comey delivers blow to Trump's credibility"
-- WashPost: "President Trump faces his hardest truth: He was wrong"
-- NYT: "G.O.P. Responds to F.B.I. Inquiry by Changing Subject"
Gloria Borger on CNN: "I would argue that it was the worst day of his 60-day presidency." Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC: "There's no one left to defend him on this wiretap claim... except the people paid to speak for him." | | >> Scott Pelley's lead on CBS: "The president versus the FBI."
>> Douglas Brinkley quoted in the WashPost: "There's a smell of treason in the air."
>> Peter Alexander on the "NBC Nightly News:" "Tonight, for a president who's often loose with the facts, a moment of truth, after being publicly rebuked by the FBI director..."
>> Alexander dredged up this Trump quote from the campaign trail last August: "In this journey, I will never lie to you. I will never tell you something I do not believe."
>> Bill O'Reilly, gently, in his "Talking Points Memo:" "In the future, the President would be wise to embrace only facts in his pronouncements." | | | "The president would not answer Q's about wiretapping..." | | Via CNN's Andrew Kaczynski: POTUS gave two interviews to local TV stations on Monday, but he did not want to address the day's biggest story.
WDRB anchor Lawrence Smith said on air: "The White House did make it clear the president would not answer questions about wiretapping or the investigation into Russia's role in the election. So we stuck to issues most directly important to Kentucky..." | | | Spicer's credibility struggle | | On "Erin Burnett OutFront," I covered the latest challenge to Sean Spicer's credibility -- his claim from the podium that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had a "very limited role for a very limited amount of time." ABC's Jon Karl interjected right away, and Karl told Spicer to "please calm down."
The point of the piece: defending the boss means bending into contortions. Watch the segment here... | | | Counternarrative: all about the leaks | | Trey Gowdy pressed James Comey to "assure the American people that it is going to be investigated..." "it" being leaks of classified info to news organizations. As Anthony De Rosa put it on Twitter, the Democrats were about "links" while the Republicans were about "leaks." Spicer said at the briefing that leaks should be "one of the big headlines" out of the hearing, and conservative commentators agreed, but journalists mostly saw past his spin... | | Carl Bernstein during the hearing: "I can state with confidence that many intel members now decrying 'leaks' of classified info have themselves 'leaked' classified info knowingly." | | | Control room decisions... | | Fox News decided to cut away from the House hearing at lunchtime... And when Gorsuch delivered his opening statement, Fox carried it live, while CNN and MSNBC stayed with the hearing.
In the evening, Fox carried Trump's campaign-style rally live, while CNN and MSNBC stayed in regular programming. Bill O'Reilly's show started 20 minutes late because Fox aired the rally all the way til the end... | | | What Joe and Mika are saying | | Variety's Brian Steinberg has an in-depth interview with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski coming out on Tuesday... here's a taste:
Mika: "In the first weeks of the presidency, I did present a great deal of patience, and held fire a little bit. I pulled back a little, because I feel like every presidency needs a chance to get its sea legs. And you want every presidency, whether you voted for that president or not, to be a success. What you're now seeing is that hope being lost."
Joe: "Enough is enough."
This Variety.com link to the interview will be live at 6am Tuesday... | | | New York Review of Books' Robert Silver dies | | Media editor Alex Koppelman emails:
New York's journalistic and literary world has lost another titan, New York Review of Books founding editor Robert Silvers, who died Monday. He was 87. Silvers' influence extended past the magazine he helped to start and then ran -- it went, too, into the wider culture, because his magazine so often shaped it. It also quietly touched the whole of journalism; the industry is filled with people who began their careers under him.
On Twitter, after the news of his death broke, several people noted a quote of his from an interview he gave to New York a few years back that should become a mantra for all editors: "The fundamental point is that if a writer has something interesting to say, you have to ask, sentence by sentence, if it is clear as it should be or could it be clearer, while also respecting the writer's voice and tone." | | -- YouTube apologized on Monday "after its family-friendly 'Restricted Mode' blocked videos by gay, bisexual and transgender creators, sparking complaints from users..." (CNN)
-- NYMag's John Homans "is joining Vanity Fair as executive editor of The Hive..." (Politico's Morning Media newsletter)
-- "Big initiatives refined, budgets rethought after high-profile departures." The WSJ takes a close look at Politico... (WSJ) | | A few days ago Trump was publicly praising Andrew Napolitano. Now the Fox News analyst has been benched by the network. The reasons are the same: it's because the judge repeatedly relayed unreliable information from anonymous sources.
Napolitano's absence from the Fox airwaves was glaring on Monday. Fox isn't commenting, but Stephen Battaglio of the LATimes reported that "Napolitano is not expected to be on Fox News Channel any time in the near future." A Fox source confirmed this to Dylan Byers. Read more here... | | | "Suspension" by another name? | | Napolitano has not responded to requests for comment. But he has vanished amid two of the biggest legal stories of the year. In TV news parlance, this might be called a "suspension." But that's not how Fox works. The network sometimes resists outside pressure to take action against staff members.
Fox News PR did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. My sense is that the execs want this to go away as quickly as possible... Especially since Rupert Murdoch's bid for Sky is being scrutinized right now... | | | Tomi Lahren on the way out at The Blaze? | | Tom Kludt reports: The Blaze, a conservative media outlet founded by Glenn Beck that carries Tomi Lahren's nightly talk show, said Monday that the show will be off the air for a week. The Daily Caller's Peter Hasson, citing multiple unnamed sources, characterized the programming decision as a week-long suspension.
Leon Wolf, the managing editor of The Blaze, told CNNMoney only that "Tomi's show will not be in production this week."
What happened? Well, on Friday on "The View," she declared herself pro-choice on the issue of abortion... Read Tom's full story here... | | Lahren on Monday morning, when Beck was criticizing her on the radio, but before she was sidelined: "No one hunts small deer 🦌 this too shall pass."
Lahren on Monday evening: "So I've got some 'me' time tonight. Anything good on TV? 😂 #TeamTomi" | | "I think we're going to test the outer limits of the Trump 'fake news' cult. The central contention that Barack Obama wiretapped Donald Trump in Trump Tower was blown out of the water and utterly dismissed."
--Anti-Trump GOP strategist Rick Wilson quoted in the WashPost... | | | Joanne Lipman named EIC of USA Today | | Joanne Lipman, the chief content officer at Gannett, will now double as the EIC of USA Today. The announcement was made on Monday afternoon. "Lipman slides into USA Today's top masthead slot as the publication has enjoyed some fresh recognition in journalism circles after years of being regarded primarily as a middlebrow hotel amenity," Politico's Joe Pompeo writes... | | -- "BuzzFeed will not participate in this year's Digital Video NewFronts presentations." It's hosting an "experiential event" instead... (AdWeek)
-- "What now intrigues Nick Denton, founder of the now-defunct Gawker? Messaging platforms and apps..." (AdAge)
-- Meg James profiles Haim Saban... (LATimes)
-- Something to keep an eye on: Tronc, "controlled by Chairman Michael Ferro, is pushing out its vice chairman, Patrick Soon-Shiong." A power struggle? (Crain's) | | | Augmented reality features coming to the iPhone soon? | | Ace Apple reporter Mark Gurman's latest scoop for Bloomberg:
"People with knowledge of the company's plans say Apple has embarked on an ambitious bid to bring" augmented reality tech "to the masses—an effort Tim Cook and his team see as the best way for the company to dominate the next generation of gadgetry and keep people wedded to its ecosystem. Apple has built a team combining the strengths of its hardware and software veterans with the expertise of talented outsiders... As previously reported by Bloomberg, Apple is working on several AR products..." Read more here... | | | This is not an "SNL" reference... | | Dylan Byers emails: Sean Spicer took a swing at the NYT Monday night after Glenn Thrush tweeted out a new report with the claim that "Spicer has had it with Trump's tweets."
This is a textbook example of an otherwise accurate report made vulnerable by the way the reporter chose to tweet it. What Thrush actually reported was that Spicer was among the White House officials who have "told allies that Mr. Trump's Twitter habits are making their jobs harder." That is indisputably true based on all my conversations with White House sources and others close to Spicer. (Also, it's just common sense.)
But Spicer is one to nitpick -- remember, this is the guy who once went off on a reporter because they said he was born in New England when in fact he was only raised in New England. So tweeting out reports like these requires extra caution. On its own, the report is 100% right... | | Philip Bump writing for the WashPost: "Trump dismisses a poll that doesn't exist for coming from an inaccurate pollster that wasn't." Trump was apparently watching CNN's "New Day" Monday morning... when he heard the latest Gallup poll showing him with a 37% approval rating... causing him to lash out at CNN on Twitter, even though it wasn't a CNN poll. Bump explains it all here... | | | CBS and Turner celebrating "March Madness" #'s | | "Reliable" Sources intern Beverly Danquah emails: As a college student whose school didn't make it to the NCAA (unfortunately), I can still appreciate the fact that NCAA championship coverage across partner networks CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV was up 24% on Sunday, according to Broadcasting & Cable. That made it the most-watched first Sunday of "March Madness" in 24 years! | | | 'The Big Bang Theory' renewed for two more seasons | | Brian Lowry emails: There have been plenty of premature epitaphs for network TV, but it seems pretty safe to say that there might not be another sitcom renewal deal as big as the two-year one CBS just inked for "The Big Bang Theory," buying the network a helpful couple of years to try to find a worthy successor — and new linchpin, assuming the show doesn't run any further, for its lucrative Thursday lineup.
Read Lowry and Sandra Gonzalez's full story here... | | | Kim Kardashian breaks her silence | | Chloe Melas emails: Kim Kardashian has finally broken her silence on being robbed at gunpoint in Paris last fall. Where did she do it? On "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," of course. Here's her emotional play by play of what went down... | | | End of the "Missing Richard Simmons" podcast | | | For the record, part three | | | | ICYMI... Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | 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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