| | | | Frank Pallotta here... Brian is under the weather today... | | | Protests and strikes on International Women's Day | | Wednesday is International Women's Day, commemorated in many different ways around the world, including through a day of activism in the United States called "A Day Without a Woman." How widespread will the action be and how much news coverage will it generate?
Some youth-oriented media outlets are showing support with programming changes and other attention-getting moves. MTV says it will flip its logo upside down, making the M a W for women on TV and online. Per the network, "all MTV social media accounts will go on strike, seeing they are run almost entirely by women, publicly stating that any posts today have been automated in solidarity with women on strike."
Univision's Fusion channel has three prime time specials scheduled for Wednesday night. Univision also owns Jezebel, which will have posts from male writers on Wednesday while the female staffers are "standing with other women striking across the country," AdWeek's Sami Main reports. "The site's female writers will then report on the strike on Thursday..."
Bustle has a page full of graphics for its readers to share on social media. Bustle and its sister site Romper "will not publish any content on Wednesday," per AdWeek... | | | GOP's healthcare replacement gets jeers from Trump's media cheerleaders | | "Influential right-wing websites are beating the daylights out of the Obamacare replacement plan," Axios's Jonathan Swan writes.
Details from Tom Kludt, who emails: The president called the GOP's Obamacare replacement bill "wonderful," but Ann Coulter, one of his biggest fans in conservative media, saw it differently. "Who wrote this piece of crap Obamacare replacement bill?" the provocateur said on Twitter this afternoon.
Eric Bolling, another Trump cheerleader, was also down on the proposal. "GOP had 6 years to develop Obamacare replacement," he tweeted. "Elected officials have run on that as well. Now they show up with an awful replacement."
Over at Breitbart, the bill drew negative coverage as well. By late afternoon, the site's feature story was sounding the alarm on the GOP's proposal, saying it "strips out even Obamacare's weak protections preventing illegal aliens from signing up for healthcare meant for citizens." The story quoted the Conservative Review's Daniel Horowitz, who called it a "gift to illegal aliens." And on Tuesday evening Matt Boyle posted this: "Sean Spicer Inaccurately Claims Paul Ryan's Health Care Bill 'Fully' Repeals Obamacare." | | Politico's Jake Sherman tweets: "If you are a rank-and-file Republican, who is giving you air cover to support this bill? ... Yes, I understand Trump says he's for the bill. but the coverage in the conservative press has been ruthless." | | | Trump's hour with Harvey Levin | | Last Wednesday President Trump "spent about an hour in the Oval Office chatting with Harvey Levin," the NYT's Michael Grynbaum reports. "Face time with the leader of the free world is a coveted commodity, and Mr. Trump has granted few one-on-one interviews with journalists since taking office." The subtext here, of course, is that Levin runs the Hollywood gossip site TMZ. "But he and Mr. Levin have some history," Grynbaum notes. Trump helped Levin launch a new series, "Objectified," which has been picked up by Fox News for a full season.
-- Hope Hicks' comment: "The show was a huge success, and the two were discussing future opportunities..." | | "Overall, advertising is very strong. Our balance sheet is strong. So looking forward, the news out of CBS is pretty positive and I'm feeling very optimistic about the world. Obviously, there is a lot of information coming out of Washington and although we are not the enemy of the people, we welcome the deregulations that are going on there."
--CBS CEO Les Moonves at the Deutsche Bank media conference on Tuesday... | | Brian Stelter emails: On "New Day," I said I have some sympathy for Trump's press aides, given the almost impossible situations Trump places them in. I heard from lots of viewers who said my sympathies were misplaced. Here's a representative message: "We deserve better. His spokespersons chose to work for him. They smirk when they go on these interviews. Rethink the sympathy. I'll rethink my hard stance. But we must not blink with this president's misdeeds because they're frequent and numerous..." | | | Speaking of Trump's reps.. | | Politico's Annie Karni has a must-read about special assistant to the president Boris Epshteyn, who has "offended network bookers and contributors across Washington..." She says he threatened to pull White House guests from Fox News... | | | Who do you trust more? Trump or the media? | | Dylan Byers emails: Republicans and Democrats are growing more entrenched in their attitudes about Trump and the media...
The Quinnipiac survey I reported on two weeks ago now shows 86% of Republicans trust Trump more than media, up from 78%.
Meanwhile, 88% of Democrats trust the media more than Trump, up from 86%. Independents, the most important group, still trust the media more than Trump, by 52% to 36%... | | | Trump's first anti-media tweet in nine days | | The president has been uncharacteristically restrained on Twitter lately... Not about wiretapping or Gitmo or Democrats, but in his critiques of the media... He had a nine-day streak of no "fake news" tweets. But the streak ended on Tuesday morning... He wrote:
"Don't let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big infighting in the Trump Admin. We are getting along great, and getting major things done!" | | -- "Soft-spoken yet direct, anchor Scott Pelley is emerging as a blunt evaluator of President Donald Trump on his 'CBS Evening News' broadcast," David Bauder writes... (The AP)
-- Erik Wemple asked Gretchen Carlson about her TV future. "Many conversations," but maybe nothing imminent... (WashPost)
-- Wild story: The BBC alerted Facebook to child porn on its social media platform. Then Facebook called the cops on the BBC... (CNN)
-- A pretty good deep dive by Buzzfeed: "Inside The Anti-Science Forces Of The Internet..." (BuzzFeed) | | | Pay cuts at the Gray Lady | | Dylan Byers emails: The New York Times' publisher took a 13% pay cut last year as the Gray Lady continued to endure longstanding revenue declines. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. earned $5.1 million in 2016 compared to $5.9 million in 2015 and $6.8 million in 2014, according to SEC filings. | | | Gianopulos in talks to take over Paramount Pictures * | | "Viacom CEO Bob Bakish is expected to name Jim Gianopulos chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, in what would be a triumphant resurrection for the longtime entertainment veteran after he was unceremoniously dumped last June from his job atop 20th Century Fox," sources tell Variety's James Rainey and Justin Kroll.
More: "Viacom is also heavily courting producer and former production executive Michael De Luca to be Gianopulos' top lieutenant..." But "neither Gianopulos nor De Luca have been made formal offers yet..." And "a person close to De Luca stressed that he has not made a final decision about taking the job even if offered..." | | | * There's a lot to negotiate | | THR's Pamela McClintock says "insiders have repeatedly cautioned that Gianopulos would have no interest in running Paramount if that meant having to work with some sort of a greenlight committee that would include Viacom CEO Bob Bakish and CFO Wade Davis, as has been suggested. The fact that Viacom brass want Gianopulos indicates they would be willing to cede him a certain degree of autonomy..."
-- More: Scott Stuber was also courted by Paramount, but Stuber is "expected to take the Netflix motion picture job," running Netflix's film initiative, per Deadline's Anita Busch and Mike Fleming Jr... | | | Disney's shareholders meeting is Wednesday | | Most shareholders meetings are, well, boring... but that's not the case when it comes to the House of Mouse. Wednesday at noon, Disney will hold its annual shareholders meeting, and the past couple of years have been pretty newsy. Example: Two years ago, Disney surprisingly announced "Frozen 2" to investors. This year the talk of the meeting could revolve around two lingering questions at the media company: ESPN and Bob Iger's successor.
With reports that the sports media network will be having big layoffs in the coming months and with everyone in Hollywood trying to guess who will follow Iger's legendary tenure, the meeting should be interesting. We'll have a followup in tomorrow's newsletter... | | | Trump live tweets Fox & Friends | | Tom Kludt emails: The president spent another morning tweeting out various responses to Fox & Friends, which he has described gushingly as "the most honest morning show." Over the course of two hours, Trump fired off one tweet after another that was clearly inspired by a segment that had aired on the program. At times, he even tagged Fox & Friends, just in case there was any confusion over the origins.
Let's recap:
-- 6:13am: "Fox & Friends" runs a story about the announcement of a recent airstrike in Yemen that killed former Guantanamo detainee Yasir al Silmi, who was released under the Obama administration. The show flashed a graphic stating that 122 ex-inmates had returned to the battlefield (it did not, however, indicate that all 122 had been released by Obama).
-- 7:04am: Trump tweets, "122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!"
-- 7:04am: OMB director Mick Mulvaney appeared on the program to defend the GOP's proposed replacement for Obamacare, which he said "wasn't really affordable care."
-- 7:13am: Trump tweets, "Our wonderful new Healthcare Bill is now out for review and negotiation. ObamaCare is a complete and total disaster - is imploding fast!"
-- 8:03am: During an interview with Laura Ingraham, co-host Brian Kilmeade took a shot at the past administration, saying that Russia "ran right over" Obama for eight years.
-- 8:08am: In the same interview, Ingraham expressed dismay with the GOP's healthcare bill. She specifically lamented that the legislation didn't improve competition across state lines.
-- 8:13am: Trump tweets, "For eight years Russia "ran over" President Obama, got stronger and stronger, picked-off Crimea and added missiles. Weak! @foxandfriends"
-- 8:41am: Trump tweets, "Don't worry, getting rid of state lines, which will promote competition, will be in phase 2 & 3 of healthcare rollout. @foxandfriends." | | | State's first briefing of the Trump presidency | | Brian Stelter emails: The State Department finally held a press briefing on Tuesday. Obama holdover Mark Toner fielded Q's... Fox's Heather Nauert is reportedly going to replace him, but no announcement has been made yet.
Lack of media access remains a big point of contention. Witness Andrea Mitchell once again trying to ask Rex Tillerson questions at a press photo-op on Tuesday. "Excuse me, Mr. Secretary," she said while staffers tried to force her to leave the room. "Still no answers from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson," Mitchell deadpanned afterward.
-- Related: Poynter's James Warren reports that Tillerson is considering "ditching reporters" for an upcoming trip to Asia... | | POTUS surprised his first batch of public visitors at the White House on Tuesday morning, giving us this photo, which has a surprise guest right over his shoulder... | | | Is Alec Baldwin done with Trump? | | Chloe Melas emails: Alec Baldwin isn't so sure he wants to continue playing Donald Trump on "SNL." He told Extra that he's not sure how much more viewers can take because Trump continues to be "bitter and angry..." | | | CBS' Moonves on Colbert, "Big Bang," and AT&T/TW merger | | Brian Lowry emails: CBS CEO Leslie Moonves attributed Stephen Colbert's gains in the late-night race to a hunger for sharp political satire, adding — in an obvious reference to Jimmy Fallon — that people "don't want to see fun and games." Colbert notched another narrow total-viewer win over "The Tonight Show" in ratings for last week, per Nielsen — the show's fifth straight since Trump's inauguration -- while NBC remained on top in terms of key demographics.
Among the other highlights from the exec's Q&A at the Deutsche Bank media conference, Moonves said a renewal of the network's top-rated show, "The Big Bang Theory," is on "the two-yard line" as negotiations proceed with the cast, and that the AT&T-Time Warner merger agreement indicates that content companies like CBS are currently in "a very good position." | | | Josh Gad responds to "Beauty and the Beast" controversy | | Chloe Melas reports: Josh Gad has a message for people upset that his character in the upcoming "Beauty and the Beast" film is gay. "What I would say is that this film is one of inclusiveness," Gad told People. "It's one that has something to offer everyone."
Gad plays LeFou, the first openly gay character in a Disney movie. One drive-in theater in Alabama is refusing to show the film. "Beauty and the Beast" opens in 4,000 other theaters nationwide on March 17... | | | It just got easier to find feminist films on IMDb | | Sandra Gonzalez reports: IMDB just made it easier to find films that contain the F-word -- feminism.The Internet Movie Database has added the "F-rating" to its list of search options. The distinction is given to films that are directed and/or written by a woman, feature significant women on screen in their own right, or any combination of the aforementioned. | | | "This is Us" stars hint at what's to come | | Tuesday night's "This Is Us" was heart-wrenching... And it sounds like next week's season finale will be, as well... Chloe Melas spoke with the stars of the hit NBC show, check out her story here... | | -- Singer George Michael died from natural causes, according to a coroner report... (CNN)
-- Kobe Bryant and John Turturro are just some of the names on the Tribeca Film Festival's Short Film Slate... (Variety)
-- The director of "La La Land," Damien Chazelle, will have his next movie, "First Man," about Neil Armstrong, hit theaters on October 12, 2018. Just in time for awards season... (EW) | | 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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