| | | | On Wednesday night NYT's Emily Steel broke the news of another settlement involving Fox News and its parent company:
"In late February, 21st Century Fox reached a settlement worth more than $2.5 million with a former Fox News contributor who reported that she was sexually assaulted by an executive at company headquarters two years ago, according to people briefed on the agreement. The contributor, Tamara N. Holder, has said that the network executive tried to force her to perform oral sex on him in February 2015 when the two were alone in his office, according to interviews with four people briefed on her account, and documents that detail her claims."
More from Steel's story: "Ms. Holder did not immediately report the episode to the company or the police, fearing that doing so would ruin her career, interviews and documents show. Ms. Holder reported her allegations to Fox News last fall. The network investigated her claims, and the executive, Francisco Cortes, the vice president for Fox News Latino, was terminated, according to two people familiar with the matter. Ms. Holder left Fox News after her contract expired on January 1, 2017."
Fox has confirmed the settlement in a statement. Read more here... | | | Time Inc. sales process is moving forward, but with one fewer bidder | | WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg reported Wednesday evening: "In a signal that Time Inc.'s sales process is entering the final stages, the publisher's board on Tuesday decided to go forward with discussions with potential buyers and has called for final bids within two weeks, according to people familiar with the situation."
But then... at 8pm Politico's Joe Pompeo broke the news (via a tweet) that the investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., one of the prospective buyers, was dropping out of the process.
Trachtenberg confirmed and changed his lead for Thursday's paper. He says "it is believed that there are still multiple bidders involved in the process," including Meredith... | | | Ricketts acquires Gothamist | | "DNAinfo, the local-news organization owned by right-wing billionaire Joe Ricketts, announced today that it has purchased Gothamist LLC, a network of web sites covering cities from New York to Los Angeles." Jezebel's Brendan O'Connor reports that "at some point either before or after the acquisition... Gothamist deleted critical coverage of Ricketts from its New York and Chicago sites..." The posts were removed "about a month ago," according to Gothamist co-founder Jake Dobkin... | | I missed this on Tuesday: Ken Doctor reported that Tronc "is closing in on a deal to buy Us Weekly from Jann Wenner's Wenner Media. The purchase price likely would be in the $85 million to $95 million range, sources said..."
Bloomberg's Brooke Sutherland weighed in on Wednesday: "Buying Us Weekly would give Tronc access to millions of digital readers that it's not reaching now and could help it attract different kinds of advertisers catering to audiences that care what lip gloss Gigi Hadid uses. But I'm skeptical of the ultimate financial payoff..." Read more... | | | Spicer's big error about Fox News | | Dylan Byers emails his latest story:
At Wednesday's briefing Sean Spicer wrongly claimed that Fox News reporter James Rosen had his phones "tapped" while Barack Obama was president. That claim, which has been propagating in conservative media for several days, was shot down by none other than Rosen himself during a recent appearance on Fox News. "I was not wiretapped, my parents were not wiretapped, which is where you place a listening device on someone's telephone line and you listen to their conversations," Rosen told Fox & Friends on Sunday after the show's hosts claimed his phones were tapped. (Rosen's emails and phone records were subpoenaed).
When asked to clarify the administration's stance, deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders told me, "There are multiple reports on this matter." Sanders did not cite specific reports, but several right-wing outlets have falsely claimed that the Obama administration wiretapped Rosen. "In fact, it's widely known that Obama's Justice Department targeted journalists with wiretaps in 2013, most famous Fox News' James Rosen and his family," The Blaze reported, erroneously, on Saturday. Read Dylan's full story here... | | | Investigation into the latest WikiLeaks leak | | "A federal criminal investigation is being opened into WikiLeaks' publication of documents detailing alleged CIA hacking operations," CNN's Barbara Starr reported. For Thursday's "Reliable Sources Livecast," our weekly web show and podcast, I'll be talking about Wikileaks with CNNMoney cybersecurity reporter Jose Pagliery... Look for the link in tomorrow night's newsletter... | | "All these people with long legs and short skirts talk about how people feel about the news."
--Mika Brzezinski commenting on Fox's noon talk show "Outnumbered," responding to criticism from some of the show's hosts... Details here via TheWrap... | | "Jason Miller might have declined a job in the White House, though it would seem that he'll still be defending President Trump with his new role as a paid commentator for CNN," Mediaite's Ken Meyer writes. CNN announced Miller's new contributor deal on Wednesday morning...
Also announced on Wednesday: Shermichael Singleton, "a former top HUD aide who was fired after an op-ed critical of Donald Trump he wrote resurfaced," is also coming aboard as a contributor, BuzzFeed's Darren Sands reports... | | Izzy Povich, a 19-year veteran of MSNBC who left the cabler last year, is joining CNN as the new VP of morning programming. She is succeeding Jim Murphy, who will now oversee CNN's documentary unit. Javi Morgado continues as the E.P. of "New Day." Variety's Brian Steinberg broke the news in this story about the growth of "New Day..." | | -- Trevor Noah on Wednesday night's "Messy Truth:" "When I see Trump, I see a stand-up comedian. He connects with audiences in the same way..." (Mediaite)
-- Paramount's "much-ballyhooed deal to receive $1 billion of slate funding from two Chinese companies has hit a major road bump..." (Variety)
-- Lester Holt will be a grandfather this fall: Morgan Holt, wife of Lester's son Stefan, is expecting her first child. Stefan shared the news on Instagram... | | | Disney's Iger defends role on Trump's business forum | | Frank Pallotta emails his latest:
During Disney's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, Bob Iger fended off complaints from the audience over his presence on Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum. "I made a decision that I thought was in the best interests of this company and the industry," Iger said.
Iger added that his membership on the forum does not act as a symbol of support for any of the president's policies. Iger even quoted from the song "The Room Where It Happens" from the Broadway hit "Hamilton" to explain his position. "There's an opportunity to have a voice in the room where it happens to speak for our company and its investors," Iger said. "But I respect your opinion." His defense received applause from the room... | | Earlier this week David Bauder wrote about how Scott Pelley is emerging as a blunt evaluator of President Donald Trump on his 'CBS Evening News' broadcast." Wednesday night, another example: He rattled off examples of Trump's conspiracy theories and errors and asked Leon Panetta, "Is it appropriate to ask whether the president is having difficulty with rationality?" Panetta essentially answered "yes" without using the word... Here's the video... | | | FCC chair quizzed about Trump's anti-media talk | | New FCC chairman Ajit Pai fielded Q's at a Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing on Wednesday. CNNMoney's Seth Fiegerman says Trump's anti-media rhetoric came up:
Pai was "grilled by two senators about whether he agrees with Trump's recent claim that the media is the enemy of the American people. Pai demurred to both senators. 'I don't want to wade into the larger political debates,' he said. When pressed about his response, Pai added: 'I believe that every American enjoys the First Amendment protections guaranteed by the Constitution...'"
-- More: "When asked by Senator Tom Udall if he would resist any effort by the White House to 'use the FCC to intimidate news organizations,' Pai stressed the FCC's independence. 'We are an independent agency,' Pai said..." | | | Breitbart battling the GOP's Obamacare replacement | | Conservative media's campaign against the GOP's proposed Obamacare replacement continued on Wednesday... Tom Kludt wrote all about it here... He emails:
Breitbart ran a story Wednesday morning that detailed Trump's support for the bill, but much of the day's coverage focused squarely on Ryan. Consider this piece that quoted Ryan as saying the legislation was written outside of regular order. Nowhere in the story did it mention that Trump also supported "Ryan's Obamacare 2.0..."
-- A little history via Tom: Breitbart has never been a Ryan fan. The Hill reported last October that Steve Bannon often labeled Ryan as "the enemy..." | | | Hamby's "Good Luck America" is back | | "Snapchat is launching the second season of 'Good Luck America,' its political news show hosted by former CNN correspondent Peter Hamby, in an attempt to explain President Trump's turbulent administration to the social service's millennial-skewing audience," Variety's Todd Spangler reports. "To date, it remains the only show developed and produced in-house by Snapchat." The show returned on Wednesday morning... | | Rumor has it that Jennifer Lopez and A-Rod have been dating for several months... Thus, Thursday's NY Daily News cover... | | | Chloe interviews Michelle Dockery | | Chloe Melas emails: Michelle Dockery, best known as Lady Mary Crawley from "Downtown Abbey," spoke with me about what International Women's Day means to her. She said, "I think it's simply women having rights and conversations and engaging and talking, and I feel like certainly that's something I'm seeing happening much more. I was at a dinner party recently, we were having a conversation, women having a conversation and being very open about our experiences and engaging, and I think that's ensuring that every woman has that right to speak up..." | | | "This Is Us" keeps getting bigger and bigger | | | Brian Lowry emails: Tuning up for its season finale, "This Is Us" delivered a series-high 11.2 million viewers on Tuesday... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- What happened to Paul Shaffer after David Letterman retired? NYT's Dave Itzkoff has the answers here...
-- Chloe Melas emails: Eva Mendes reveals the reason why she rarely attends public events with Ryan Gosling in a new interview with Shape Magazine...
-- Brian Lowry notes: In TV renewal news, FX ordered the Tom Hardy period drama "Taboo" for a second season, while Showtime picked up "Billions" for a third... | | 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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