| | | | NYT news alert at 8:01pm: Obama admin "rushed to preserve intelligence of Russian election hacking," Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman and Michael Schmidt reported, citing "more than a half-dozen current and former officials," some of whom "said they were speaking to draw attention to the material and ensure proper investigation by Congress."
At 9:04pm, it was the WashPost's turn. Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller reported: "Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions spoke twice last year with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose." (CNN's Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz have matched the report.)
CNN's Dana Bash was hosting a town hall event with John McCain and Lindsey Graham when the Post story hit. So she asked about both stories... Graham discussed the prospect of a special prosecutor... And/but McCain understandably said it's "hard for me to reach conclusions when you're just quoting from the latest news." | | At the time I'm writing this, 10:30pm, top Democrats are calling for Sessions to resign. Both CNN and MSNBC are in breaking news mode covering these stories -- Brian Williams attributed them to "the papers that are battling over news in the Trump era" -- while Fox News is in a taped episode of "Hannity..." | | >> Michael S. Schmidt tweets: "Trump WH keeps saying: nothing needs to be investigated. But disclosures tying Trump world to Russia keep coming in..." | | | Anonymous sources times ten | | Two more examples of essential reporting relying on anonymous sources:
-- NBC's Cynthia McFadden, William Arkin and Ken Dilanian: "Ten current U.S. officials across the government who have been briefed on the details" of the Yemen raid "told NBC News that so far, no truly significant intelligence has emerged from the haul," contradicting President Trump's claims...
-- The Atlantic's Julia Ioffe: The "deconstruction" of the State Department is "well underway." This response from one of her dozen sources tells the story really well: "I can meet tomorrow or today, whenever! Do you want to meet right now?" | | | Another must-read by Haberman and Grynbaum | | In Thursday's NYT: "He joked with ABC's George Stephanopoulos after filleting him in public, brought up a recent '60 Minutes' episode with CBS's Scott Pelley and shook hands with Jake Tapper of CNN, the cable network that the commander in chief loves to hate. All presidents lunch with major news anchors. But this week's White House gathering was different. The president kept his guests 30 minutes beyond the allotted hour, was gracious and spoke so much that he left his peekytoe crab salad untouched — a recognition, those close to him say, that he must sell himself to the Washington news media because he believes the people who work for him cannot."
This story is the latest to question Sean Spicer's press office leadership... BTW, according to Haberman, "NYT reached out to Spicer three times for a comment on this piece. No emails returned..." | | | Phrase of the day: "Misdirection play" | | At the aforementioned lunch, President Trump said the "time is right for an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides." There was buzz about Trump possibly adding this view to his joint address... but he didn't. So what happened? CNN's Sara Murray said on "Inside Politics" that the White House fed things "that they thought these anchors would like, that they thought would give them positive press coverage for the next few hours. A senior administration official admitted that it was a 'misdirection play.'"
John King reacted thusly: "So we're not supposed to believe what the senior-most official at the lunch says? ... Maybe we shouldn't believe what they say."
Mother Jones' headline: "Trump invents new word for lying: 'Misdirection play.'" | | "Some of the problems Mr. Trump promised to solve last night don't actually exist."
--Scott Pelley on Wednesday's "CBS Evening News." Scroll down for complete day-after coverage... | | Snap "had previously proposed a range of $14 to $16 a share," but on Wednesday the company priced its IPO at $17 a share, CNN's Seth Fiegerman reports. "That will reportedly give Snap a market value of nearly $24 billion, making it the largest U.S. tech IPO since Facebook." | | | Trading will start on Thursday... | | On the NYSE... Quick reminder that Snap "suffered losses of $515 million in 2016, up from a loss of $373 million the year before..." | | | Sinclair making a play for Tribune | | Reuters' Jessica Toonkel and Liana Baker broke the news: "Sinclair Broadcast Group has approached rival U.S. broadcaster Tribune Media to discuss a potential combination, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday."
-- Lots of possibilities: "Sinclair also could look at buying parts of Tribune, such as the dozen CW broadcast stations it owns, or its media holdings such as the WGN America cable network and its stake in the Food Network."
-- Reminder: Trib CEO Peter Liguori is set to leave later this month. He declined to comment on the merger talks... | | A Sinclair-Tribune combo would "require a relaxation of current FCC rules," USA Today's Mike Snider notes.
Key context: In media circles, Sinclair is seen as especially Trump-friendly -- Paul Farhi wrote about that back in December. Some staffers say that's bogus.
-- Flashback: Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley said last week that "more consolidation" is necessary, and added, "We're quite optimistic about new leadership" in DC "and their plans to deregulate the industry..." | | Entertainment editor Megan Thomas emails: On the PwC/Academy story, Cheryl Boone Isaacs only talked to the AP on Wednesday, but our Molly Shiels quickly matched the news. Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan will remain partners at PwC, but will no longer be on the firm's team working for the Academy, according to a source with knowledge of the matter...
Click here for more of the day's Envelope-gate developments... | | -- A must watch: Jake Tapper's response to President Trump saying "they lost Ryan..." (Mediaite)
-- "Trump has withdrawn the nomination" of former Democratic FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel... (DC Examiner)
-- Kurt Andersen and Alec Baldwin are teaming up to write a "satirical book" about Trump... due out in November... (NYT)
-- "More than $65 million:" That's how much Penguin Random House paid for Barack and Michelle Obama's books, Matthew Garrahan and David Bond report... (FT)
-- "Paul Kangas, co-anchor of the popular public television show 'Nightly Business Report' from 1979 to 2009, died Tuesday at the age of 79..." (Talking Biz News) | | | Fellowship honoring Gwen Ifill | | Wednesday night at the 3rd Annual Congressional Dinner, the "PBS NewsHour" and the Washington Press Club Foundation announced the Gwen Ifill/PBS NewsHour Journalism Fellowship... a ten-week fellowship that will start in June... Details here... | | | CNN's new weekend evening anchor | | CNN's Denver correspondent Ana Cabrera, a frequent fill-in anchor, is moving to New York and becoming the network's weekend evening anchor. The promotion is effective immediately. Cabrera is taking over for Poppy Harlow, who recently moved to weekday mornings... | | Lots of news nuggets in Marisa Guthrie's profile of CNN Digital... including this: Throughout all of CNN, television plus digital, "profit for 2016 neared $1 billion, and the short-term outlook suggests the Trump bump will lead to another $1 billion haul." Quote from Jeff Zucker: "It's going to turn 2017 into an even better year than we already expected to have."
Now, focusing in on the digital business: "Digital profit at CNN was close to $150 million in 2016. With global digital ad revenue poised to surpass television as early as this year, Zucker's mandate is to grow CNN's digital revenue into a $1 billion business in five years..." | | -- My apologies to Matt Lait, CNN's new managing editor of investigations... I misspelled his last name in last night's newsletter... lesson learned!
-- "Netflix in talks with veteran producer Scott Stuber to run its ambitious original film initiative..." (THR)
-- Brian Chen says the Nintendo Switch, coming Friday, is about to "zoom to the top of people's wish lists..." (NYT)
-- Have you heard of Blind? Apparently it's the "app where the best Silicon Valley gossip is right now..." (Mashable)
-- More talk time for Chris Hardwick: "AMC is expanding 'The Walking Dead' aftershow 'Talking Dead' into a year-round talk franchise..." (Variety) | | Columnists and TV commentators were impressed. The word "presidential" was used a lot. This, in turn, infuriated left-leaning viewers and readers who accused journalists of "normalizing" Trump and said the bar was being set ridiculously low. Chuck Todd said it well on MSNBC: "Trump changed his tone, but not his tune..."
-- Great minds think alike: Headline on James Poniewozik's NYT column: "President Trump Changes His Tone, if Not His Tune" | | Brian Beutler: "The media's reaction to his speech to Congress was shameful."
Alex Pareene: "Here's what you have to understand about the sort of people who become anchors, nonpartisan pundits, centrist columnists, and cable news political correspondents: They didn't sign up to be the resistance. They don't want Donald Trump to fail. They want him to 'pivot' and 'act presidential.'" | | MRC's Brent Bozell: "Beyond radical leftists, liberal media had a hard time attacking @RealDonaldTrump's speech. That speaks volumes." He linked to Curtis Houck's piece for NewsBusters, which said the networks were "caught flat-footed by 'disciplined' Trump..." | | Trump's speech averaged 47+ million viewers via TV at home, according to Nielsen... Solid, but not spectacular... The # was "lower than the roughly 53 million viewers who tuned in for Obama's first joint address in 2009, but higher than Obama's last SOTU, which drew 31 million viewers last year," Frank Pallotta reports....
-- The network with the biggest ratings was a cabler: Fox News. 10.7 million viewers during the speech... | | Tom Kludt emails: I thought all the "pivot" talk was quite predictable. Why? Because this speech was an opportunity for Trump to reach a broad swath of the country that isn't plugged in to the daily (if not hourly) drama that comprises most news cycles. Sure, Trump's speech brought in lower ratings than Obama's first joint congressional address, but it was still undoubtedly a larger audience than what he drew last week at CPAC, or the week before that at his madcap news conference. Trump can probably resume his media bashing and blatant distortions in those venues – not to mention on Twitter -- because, while it may get a rise out of those of us in the press, much of the country won't notice. Or care... | | | Drudge wants Trump vs Oprah race | | Dylan Byers tweets: "Welcome to March 2017, where everyone — Oprah, Bob Iger, Mark Zuckerberg, Kanye West — is supposedly going to run for president in 2020." A comment about 2020 from Oprah Winfrey -- taped in December, but publicized on Wednesday -- spurred dozens of news stories all day long. Matt Drudge cheered on the idea: "Trump vs Oprah would be the most epic race in American history. MAKE THIS HAPPEN..." | | | Shep Smith takes on Trump and catches hell from Trump fans | | Tom Kludt emails his latest: When Shep Smith begins his broadcast each afternoon, some Fox News viewers say it's their cue to flip the channel. Take a look at Smith's Twitter mentions, which are filled with calls for his ouster. Such is life for a Fox anchor who dares to hold President Trump accountable. On a channel where coverage of the new administration has been sympathetic, sometimes even fawning, Smith has distinguished himself as the most consistently adversarial voice. And that has made him perhaps the least popular host among a faithfully pro-Trump audience... | | More from Tom: It might be tempted to compare Smith to Megyn Kelly. Smith's adversaries on social media certainly have. But I quibble with the comparison for two reasons. For all of her tussles with Trump, Kelly was a pretty reliable steward of Fox's conservative message throughout her 12 years at the network. Smith, on the other hand, has demonstrated a greater willingness to break from the channel's conservative orthodoxy – long before Trump became president. Another difference: unlike Kelly, Smith has mostly avoided the wrath of Trump so far... | | | NBC adds to Windy City wave | | Brian Lowry emails: "Chicago Justice" gets a preview Wednesday night, in advance of its time-period debut on Sunday. That brings the number of shows in producer Dick Wolf's Chicago franchise to four — along with "Chicago Fire," "Chicago Med" and "Chicago P.D." — occupying a huge swatch of NBC's lineup.
And just to cement the parallels to Wolf's earlier posse of "Law & Order"-branded series, this latest hour has a direct connection to that as well: A prosecutor on the show, played by Philip Winchester, is named Peter Stone, the son of the assistant D.A. that Michael Moriarty played on "Law & Order" from 1990-94. Plus, Richard Brooks — who co-starred with Moriarty — guest stars in the premiere as his former "Law & Order" character... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Lisa France emails: Sure, she's been a star since she was a kid and Emma Watson gets that fans want to meet her. But here's why she's no longer taking selfies with her adoring public...
-- Chloe Melas emails: Thursday night is the highly anticipated screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." It's all entertainment reporters are talking about right now because it's the hardest invite to get your hands on right now. Frank Pallotta and I thankfully made the cut and will be there...
-- More from Lisa: What do a former Beyonce backup dancer, an Olympian and the guy who pounded on Rocky have in common? They are all contestants on season 24 of "Dancing With the Stars..." | | | 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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