| | | | | Shrouding Trump's activities in secrecy | | The executive branch just became even less transparent. Time's Zeke Miller broke the news: "The Trump Administration will not disclose logs of those who visit the White House complex, breaking with his predecessor." Trump aides argued that Obama's visitor logs were incomplete, which is true, but instead of improving on the Obama disclosure process by fully opening the door, this administration is slamming the door shut... | | -- First Amendment lawyer Ted Boutrous tweets: "The White House couldn't even come up with a vaguely plausible or rational basis for withholding these visitor logs..."
-- CREW: "It looks like we'll see them in court..."
-- "Judicial Watch is disappointed" too... | | | Trump previously used Obama's visitor logs as ammo | | This isn't really a left or right issue. As Kaitlan Collins of the conservative site The Daily Caller told me Friday afternoon: "It's frustrating that the administration is discontinuing a policy that the president himself has received information from and used as ammunition against his predecessor on Twitter."
Back in March, Trump tweeted about Collins' piece describing how many times the Russian ambassador appeared in the Obama-era visitor logs. "Now he doesn't seem to like the logs so much," she said... | | | "This 'Good Friday' news dump..." | | The ACLU's view: "This 'Good Friday' news dump is simply the latest in a series of efforts by President Trump to avoid public accountability... The only reasonable conclusion is to believe the Trump administration has many things it is trying to hide..." | | Josh Rogin's idea: "There should be pool coverage of the WH entrances to track visitors if the WH won't release the logs... The more creative the WH gets denying basic transparency, the more creative the press should be insisting on it." | | | Make sure your DVR is ready... | | | So much to watch this Sunday | | Brian Lowry emails: Both Showtime ("Guerrilla") and Starz ("The White Princess") introduce new series this Sunday, but the big action is on HBO: "Girls" will finish its sixth-season run, "Veep" begins its sixth campaign, and critical darling "The Leftovers" starts its third and final season, bringing with it more cryptic confusion.
In the case of "Veep," the producers say they were lucky, in hindsight, to have moved the show out of the White House... | | | Lowry reviews "The Leftovers" | | I'm obsessed with "The Leftovers." Lowry? Not so much. "At the risk of being booted from the TV critics cool kids' table," he writes, the show "has always felt a trifle overrated -- an intriguing premise that became too enamored with its own eccentricity." Still, he says the final season is "more assured and purposeful" than the show previously was. HBO provided 7 of the 8 episodes to reviewers... holding back just the series finale... | | | With O'Reilly on vacation, Murdochs debate his future | | Dylan Byers writes: Bill O'Reilly "is scheduled to return to his show on April 24, and sources familiar with the Murdochs' discussions anticipate that the company will have a formal announcement on O'Reilly's status by then."
While Rupert Murdoch "chafes at the thought of caving to public pressure -- especially if that pressure is driven by outraged liberals who presume that where there is smoke there must be fire," son James "believes the smoke is harmful enough on its own" and "is embarrassed by the controversy." Meanwhile, Lachlan is somewhere in the middle. Read more... | | Even with O'Reilly away from the "Factor," "much of Madison Avenue is still avoiding the program, as it has since early last week," Variety's Brian Steinberg writes. "The show has featured approximately 10 national commercials each night," down from about 33 national ads pre-boycott... | | Here's what Fox's ratings flow has looked like this week... with Martha MacCallum at 7pm... a big spike at 8pm when O'Reilly's fans tune in... and Tucker Carlson at 9pm. These are all 25-54 demo #'s:
Monday: 390k at 7pm, 635k at 8pm with O'Reilly, 530k at 9pm
Tuesday: 444k at 7pm, 634k at 8pm with O'Reilly, 527k at 9pm
Wednesday: 466k at 7pm, 521k at 8pm with Dana Perino filling in, 515k at 9pm
Thursday: 487k at 7pm, 608k at 9pm with Eric Bolling filling in, 648k at 9pm
What do these #'s tell us? That O'Reilly's subs retain most, but not all, of his audience... you can see how the uptick between 7 and 8pm isn't as impressive when O'Reilly is away... | | | The meaning of "no comment" | | Tom Kludt's question: What should we make of Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy declining to say anything about O'Reilly at THR's extravaganza on Thursday? They could have simply reiterated what others involved in the matter have already said: that O'Reilly will return on April 24. Maybe he will and maybe he won't, but in offering no comment at all, Shine and Abernethy didn't exactly increase observers' confidence that he will... | | | O'Reilly's allies are mostly MIA | | Tom Kludt adds: It seems odd to say, given that he received a public show of support from the most powerful man in the world, but O'Reilly has been largely on his own as this drama has unfolded. There was that Mediaite column written by his friend, and the ad from his accounting firm in the latest issue of THR. But the dearth of O'Reilly allies who have spoken out says a lot... | | | What Boston's Fox station is doing... | | WFXT, the Fox-affiliated station in Boston, is dropping "Fox" from the name of its newscast... Now it'll be "Boston 25 News..." to differentiate from Fox News. "It's not that it's a bad brand; it's just that it's not ours," WFXT general manager Tom Raponi told the Globe... | | Sunday morning on "Reliable Sources:" Dan Rather has some sharp words about news coverage of the Syria strikes and Afghan bombing... Plus Jen Psaki, Michael Oreskes, Lydia Polgreen, Chris Arnade, and Steve Adler will join me in NYC... Join us, 11am ET, CNN 📺 | | -- First Bret Stephens, and now the NYT is hiring the WSJ's Bari Weiss for its opinion section... Michael Calderone takes a closer look at the Stephens move here... (HuffPost)
-- "Can Washington's Original Dealmaker Survive Trump?" Annie Karni profiles Bob Barnett... (Politico)
-- Steven Perlberg peels back the curtain: "Meet the NYC Democrat flacking for Ivanka Trump," PR pro Risa Heller... (BuzzFeed)
-- Will Oremus does not hold back here: he says Liz Spayd "has repeatedly failed" in her NYT public editor role... (Slate)
-- Via Laura Hazard Owen's weekly roundup: "Fake News Ale is the beer all the cool journalists are gonna be drinking this summer." It's from a brewer in Toronto... see below... (NiemanLab) | | Trump's policy changes test pro-Trump media | | The president's reversals and evolutions "have put some of Trump's supporters in right-wing media in an awkward position and sparked a fierce debate over the president's commitment to the values and policies he espoused as a candidate," Dylan Byers writes. Who's unwavering, who's willing to adapt along with Trump? Read his full story here... | | | Bradlee's book about Trump voters in PA | | Ben Bradlee, Jr. is writing "The Forgotten: How the Abandoned People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America" for Little, Brown... announced on Thursday... set to be published in the fall of 2018. Politico's Peter Sterne has details here... | | | Alec on the cover of The Atlantic | | The cover story won't come out til Tuesday, but the cover image is out now... Alec Baldwin backstage at "SNL" with his Trump wig and makeup... | | | Reclaiming the term "millennial" | | "Reliable Sources" intern Beverly Danquah emails: BuzzFeed is removing "avoid the term millennial" from its Style Guide. "At first millennial existed largely as a way for 'olds' to refer to the younger generation..." But now "it seems that millennials have now reclaimed millennial..." Read all about the meaning of the change here... | | | First look at "Last Jedi" | | Frank Pallotta emails: I am waaaay too overstimulated to properly convey my feelings over the first teaser for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," but here goes...
In the two-minute-long trailer, which debuted at Star Wars Celebration on Friday, we didn't get much but between some great battle action in space, apparent Jedi training for Rey, and the return of a SPEAKING Luke Skywalker, there was plenty to buzz about. "It's time for the Jedi to end," Luke says at the end of the trailer. Well, not if Disney, the box office, and I have anything to say about it... | | | The "Star Wars" P.R. game | | Brian Lowry emails: How the studio manages the flow of info between now and the movie's December opening is going to be fascinating. There will have to be new crumbs sprinkled out all along the way, with Disney's own D23 convention scheduled in July, kicking off six days before Comic-Con. In PR terms, it's what you call a high-class problem, but there will still be lots of constituencies expecting some new tidbit to mollify... | | | Pallotta: How being ridiculous made 'Fast and Furious' ridiculously great | | Frank Pallotta emails: No one would ever confuse any of the "Fast and Furious" films for high art, which may have helped it become one of Hollywood's most successful franchises. The B-movie stigma that has dogged the series has allowed its makers to emulate their characters and drive into the skid, and doing so has paid off.
"We never got any respect," Neal Mortiz, a producer on all eight of the "Furious" films, told me. "Honestly, we always have something to prove, and I think that's good."
The next film, "Fate of the Furious," opens this weekend and is projected for a $110 million U.S. opening, according to industry analysts. This would make it the second-largest April U.S. opening ever, behind only "Furious 7." Read Frank's full story and check out his video explainer here... | | | Asia Kate Dllion challenging the award show status quo | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: This week, I interviewed Asia Kate Dillon, a star of Showtime's "Billions" who's challenging the award show status quo by pushing for the Emmys and others to reexamine the need for gendered categories. Dillon identifies as gender non-binary. Read Sandra's full story here... | | | For the record, part three | | | 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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