| | | | Scott Pelley on CBS: "The president who fancies himself a master of the Art of the Deal is still an apprentice in the science of politics." | | Dylan Byers writes: Many conservative websites seemed even more eager than progressive sites to stress the "catastrophe" or "humiliation" that was the failure of the American Health Care Act... It's a reminder that the same conservative media that helped carry Trump to the W.H. can be a powerful adversary if and when Trump fails to satisfy their expectations... Read Dylan's full story here...
Friday night, Breitbart claimed to have exclusive details -- unverified by any other news outlet -- about a discussion to replace Paul Ryan as speaker. And this was the banner on Drudge... | | | "A learning experience..." | | I asked CNN's Phil Mattingly what this has been like. From his Capitol Hill live shot location, he replied:
"Surreal. Everything about it. We're at peak Spring Break season so between the tourists and reporters, lawmakers could hardly get into Speaker Ryan's office throughout the day. Wouldn't have changed much if they'd never gotten in -- the votes were simply never there. A learning experience for reporters like me who figured they would -- simply had to -- find some convoluted way to get it done, and members who assumed the same..." | | Dylan Byers writes: Trump has called the media corrupt, dishonest, the enemy of the American people. But when the House decided to pull the vote, some of Trump's first calls were to the media, and specifically reporters from the WashPost and NYT -- two of the news outlets he has attacked the most.
"Hello, Bob. So, we just pulled it," Trump told Robert Costa. Of course, Costa tweeted right away... while still on the phone with the president... relaying the "we just pulled it" quote to the world...
-- Later, Costa wrote this account: "At first I thought it was a reader with a complaint since it was a blocked number..." | | CNN's Noah Gray snapped this picture of the hallway outside Sean Spicer's office right after Trump's call to Costa... | | | (Meaning, what will Trump tweet?) | | Trump's other call was to Maggie Haberman. Later in the day, she tweeted this:
"Trump is not going away this weekend. He was deeply disciplined in phone interviews. The big question is what happens now when he sits in the White House residence and watches television coverage of the bill's failure." | | "Based on the media coverage, it won't be an easy aftermath," The AP's David Bauder writes, quoting Jake Tapper calling the defeat "ignominious" and Bret Baier saying "the president took a hit today." BTW, Merriam-Webster said "lookups for 'ignominious' are up 4,695%..." | | | Local media's enduring influence? | | CJR's Trudy Lieberman makes an interesting point: that local newsers "sounded the alarm" about the bill. She says "editorials and news coverage in numerous American communities responded with a clear message that such measures simply didn't pass muster for their communities." Read more... | | | And here's the president's favorite local paper... | | | The NYPost... will have this on the cover on Saturday: | | | Trump's attempts to distract from AHCA? | | Was the White House trying to distance itself from AHCA by rolling out "a series of unrelated policy and jobs announcements" on Friday?
Dylan Byers writes: Trump announced his approval of the Keystone XL pipeline... And hours later, he held an event at which he said that Charter had committed to investing $25 billion and hiring 20,000 workers in the United States -- though in fact those jobs had been in the works for more than a year.
Importantly, neither announcement was limited to a mere press release: in both cases, Trump himself was on camera for the event, giving the White House visuals of the president engaged in things unrelated to the AHCA. At the same time, reporters were kept out of the room during the Charter event, meaning that the White House could get that visual without risking the spectacle of a reporter asking Trump about the bill and its chances. Read more... | | | If you're wondering about the Charter announcement... | | CNNMoney's Julia Horowitz fact-checked it right here. Bottom line: Charter said it would need to hire these workers once the Time Warner Cable acquisition closed. (Charter PR exec Justin Venech sure had an interesting day!) | | | Sunday on "Reliable Sources:" Nancy Gibbs | | "Our audiences don't care what we think, they care what we can find out," Time mag EIC Nancy Gibbs told me in an interview today... See the rest on Sunday's show, 11am ET... | | I'll be hosting the show from the roof of CNN's Los Angeles bureau... joined by Carl Bernstein, Dylan Byers, April Ryan, John Phillips, Brian Lowry, and Jon Lovett... | | -- "Fox News Channel says it has fired Judy Slater, who worked as a comptroller" there for nearly two decades, "in the wake of what it called 'abhorrent behavior' that had been brought to the attention of senior management in recent weeks..." (Variety)
-- More and more advertisers are backing away from Google amid content concerns: WSJ's latest story cites Pepsi, Coke, Wal-Mart, and Dish "suspending" all $$ except "targeted search ads..." (WSJ)
-- This joke is no joke: BuzzFeed is publishing a hardcover print book, "The President and the Big Boy Truck Book," based on David Mack's listicle from Thursday... (BuzzFeed) | | | "Netflix: The Monster That's Eating Hollywood" | | ...That's the headline on this page one WSJ story, in print on Saturday. Joe Flint sums up the story this way: "Once its savior, Tinseltown now fears Netflix will eat everything in its path." Co-author Shalini Ramachandran with a highlight: "Citing lack of buzz for Chelsea Handler's show, some worry about getting lost on Netflix's crowded shelf of originals."
Indeed... at breakfast with a studio exec and then at coffee with a well-known Hollywood producer this morning, before the WSJ story dropped, that exact same concern came up repeatedly... | | | This week's "Reliable" Livecast: Chris Arnade | | | Treasury Secretary plugs his movie | | Brian Lowry emails: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took some heat for plugging "The Lego Batman Movie," which he produced, while talking with Mike Allen at an Axios event on Friday. One suspects he won't be apt to promote the next major animated movie: "The Boss Baby," featuring Alec Baldwin... | | | Things that make you go hmmm... | | NBC's Ken Dilanian tweets: "The National Enquirer--which has close ties to Trump world--is now turning on Mike Flynn." The cover of this week's issue says "TRUMP CATCHES RUSSIA'S WHITE HOUSE SPY!" | | | "I feel like my dad and Sean Spicer had a baby..." | | Megan Thomas emails: Melissa McCarthy stopped by "Ellen" on Friday... and she explained how her Sean Spicer portrayal came about...
-- Memorable quote: "I feel like my dad and Sean Spicer had a baby and it's me." | | | Streaming service with a twist | | Sandra Gonzalez emails this intriguing story: Reuters reports that AMC is planning to release a streaming service that would offer its programming commercial-free for a per-month fee. The twist? You'll also need a cable subscription. Unlike HBO or Showtime, this service is not intended to be a standalone service. AMC declined to comment to the publication... | | | Lowry reviews "Life" (no pressure) | | Brian Lowry emails: "Life," starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, is a pretty taut thriller with a 1950s feel to it, built around what "Alien" taught us 40 years ago -- namely, that space is the ultimate haunted house... Read the full review here... | | Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson lent his muscle to "Rock and a Hard Place," a "Scared Straight!"-type HBO documentary about young men given the chance to avoid prison by entering a boot camp program. It premieres on March 27.
Quoting from Brian Lowry's review: "Johnson clearly deserves credit for investing his time and energy, leveraging his stardom to provide this exposure to a program that promotes rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration. But at a time when the lines between reality TV and true documentaries have a way of blurring, "Rock and a Hard Place" plays like something caught in its own awkward middle ground." Read more here... | | Megan Thomas emails: Dave Chappelle has two new Netflix specials. An interesting new column in Vulture asks, "Do We Expect Too Much From Dave Chappelle?"
--> If you haven't caught an episode of "Feud" yet on FX, do. It's fantastic. For "Feud" fans who can't get enough, this New Yorker read by Richard Brody points out what the series misses in its portrayal of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis... | | | Memorial for Reynolds and Fisher | | Chloe Melas emails: A public memorial for Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher will be held at Forest Lawn cemetery Saturday afternoon. Thousands of fans are expected to turn out... | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. | |  | | 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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