| | | | | New insight into the Fox News probe | | Just how much have federal investigators found in the ongoing probe of Fox News? WSJ's Joe Flint and Michael Rothfeld have lots of new details in this scoopy Thursday night story -- here are some of the highlights:
-- Prosecutors have "spoken to women who accused Roger Ailes" of sexual harassment, including "current on-air contributor Julie Roginsky and Laurie Luhn, former director of corporate and special events..."
-- "Former Fox News communications chief Brian Lewis, once a top aide to Mr. Ailes, was also subpoenaed and met with investigators earlier this spring," according to the WSJ's sources...
-- Along with Q's about settlement payments, "prosecutors also have shown an interest in alleged intimidation tactics authorized by Mr. Ailes, including the hiring of a private investigator to dig up negative information on women who complained..." | | | Will the government move forward? | | Flint and Rothfeld note that "the government won't necessarily move forward with a criminal prosecution."
One way to read that sentence: "The Trump administration won't necessarily move forward with a prosecution of the administration's favored network."
Another way to read that sentence: "These cases typically have to clear a really high bar." | | Private investigator Bo Dietl was a Fox News contributor until last August, when he was let go after Ailes resigned.
The WSJ's sources say investigators are looking into Dietl's role pursuing info about people "perceived to be a threat to either Mr. Ailes or the channel." Dietl told the paper that he "was used by Fox News to look into the pasts" of Ailes accuser Gretchen Carlson and Bill O'Reilly accuser Andrea Mackris... | | | Meanwhile, here's what Rupert was up to Thursday night... | | Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch introduced President Trump at a black tie event on the USS Intrepid. Rupert called him "my friend." | | | "I even want to thank the media" | | How upbeat was Trump feeling Thursday afternoon after the GOP health care bill passed the House? So upbeat that he said at a Rose Garden celebration, "I even want to thank the media."
The broadcast networks aired special reports about the vote, and the cablers were all over it of course. The vote was generally framed as a short-term win for the Trump White House, though there was widespread skepticism about the bill's chances in the Senate and the long-term repercussions of the legislation. One of CNN.com's headlines during the afternoon said "AT LAST, A VICTORY FOR TRUMP."
But this banner on "AC360" captured the mood by the end of the day: "HEALTH CARE BATTLE IS FAR FROM OVER." | | | The pictures versus the words | | The Rose Garden event provided a visual "victory" for Republicans, even though many reporters and commentators pointed out that it was akin to a halftime celebration. Do you think the president's pictures overpowered the media's words?
-- RCP's Alexis Simendinger tweeted: "Americans will look at Rose Garden celebration PIX and think the Affordable Care Act was repealed and replaced. (And that's the messaging)" | | | "The Health Care Reporter's Full Employment Act" | | After the Examiner's Philip Klein tweeted that "GOP Senate plans to draft a whole new bill rather than use House bill as starting point," Vox's Sarah Kliff chimed in, calling this "The Health Care Reporter's Full Employment Act, I presume..." | | | Conservative media ignored health care bill -- then trumpeted its passage | | Tom Kludt emails: The American Health Care Act was pretty much ignored by Breitbart News – and other conservative outlets – in the leadup to Thursday's vote on the bill. Perhaps it was a reflection of the misgivings that many on the right, including plenty of GOP lawmakers, still had with AHCA. Or maybe those outlets didn't want to be perceived as endorsing a bill that, up until the last moment, was no sure thing to pass.
Whatever the reason, it all changed after House Republicans reached the magic number of 217 and passed the legislation. Read Tom's full story here... | | Breitbart "is now openly campaigning for Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows to become Speaker of the House," Jonathan Swan of Axios reports... | | Matt Negrin's latest video for "The Daily Show:" News anchors (including CNN's Jake Tapper and Richard Quest) sorta-singing "Na na na na, hey hey, goodbye" to report on the House Democrats who directed the song at Republicans after the vote... You'll get a kick out of this video... | | "How am I doing? Am I doing OK?
I'm president.
Hey -- I'm president!
Can you believe it? Right?"
--President Trump at Thursday's Rose Garden celebration... | | | This week's podcast guest: Caitlyn Jenner | | Caitlyn Jenner's new book "The Secrets of My Life" debuted at No. 8 on the NYT best sellers list this week. During the book tour, I sat down with Jenner in DC and talked with her about media strategy... her famous interview with Diane Sawyer... her political ambitions... and much more. It was a fascinating conversation... and it's now online as this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast... check it out here on CNN.com or directly through iTunes... | | -- "Zola Mashariki, formerly the head of originals at BET, has moved ahead on legal claims she foreshadowed upon her ouster from the network in March." She is "suing Viacom, BET, and former president of programming Stephen Hill, alleging rampant gender discrimination at the network..." (THR)
-- "Roger Ailes is trying to sell his New Jersey home, and is asking for less than he paid for it." New asking price is $1.65 million... | | -- Three promotions I missed on Wednesday: CNN's Maria Spinella is the new E.P. of "CNN Tonight..." frequent Fox News guest Jessica Tarlov is now a paid contributor... and Cal Perry is the new global editor of digital content at NBC News... | | | What TV types are wondering... | | Is Sinclair Broadcasting trying to create a Fox News rival? Could Bill O'Reilly end up there?
The FT's Matthew Garrahan raises the possibility in this new look at the bidding war over Tribune. He writes: Could Sinclair chairman David Smith's "end goal be a conservative news brand to rival Mr. Murdoch's Fox News Channel? ... If Sinclair is trying to put together the pieces of a Fox News competitor, it is doing so quietly — and significant challenges remain. Fox News has a dual revenue model, generating income from cable carriage fees and advertising. A free-to-air offering from Sinclair would have to rely only on advertising. However, if through acquisition Mr. Smith is able to broadcast to more of the US, he would certainly garner more of the influence that friends say he craves. And the biggest star in the conservative media universe — Mr. O'Reilly — is suddenly available..."
-- Related: the NYT's Page One look at Sinclair... | | | Two new legal developments involving Fox | | Tom Kludt emails: A pair of developments on the Fox News legal front. Lawyers representing Diana Falzone, the Fox News reporter who filed a gender discrimination suit earlier this week, have now asked the New York City Commission on Human Rights conduct an investigation into her claims. And Douglas Wigdor, the New York lawyer who is representing the current and former Fox employees who have filed racial discrimination claims against the network, has a new client: Fox Radio correspondent Jesscia Golloher, who filed a lawsuit today alleging that she was fired within 24 hours of lodging a complaint... | | | Tucker Carlson ferreting out French media bias now? | | Quoting Tucker Carlson on Thursday's show: "The French presidential runoff just three days away, and the press isn't even trying to hide who they want you to support..." | | Day two of the declines in the media sector... the S&P 500 Media Index slipped 2.5% on Wednesday and another 0.5% on Thursday...
"A tepid outlook for television ad revenue and concerns about the longevity of the big pay-TV bundle are causing jitters among media investors," WSJ's Shalini Ramachandran and Suzanne Vranica write. "Despite beating analyst expectations for revenue and profit, Viacom shares were down nearly 7% late Thursday as investors worried about long-term trends." But as the S&P index indicates, other media companies have not been hit as hard. Read more... | | "Rising retransmission fees helped CBS beat analyst predictions in the quarterly earnings announced Thursday, and the stock was rising 2% after the closing bell after finishing 1% higher in regular trading," THR's Paul Bond reports... | | Today's big media merger! | | No more speculation about Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's relationship status! They're engaged.
Page Six's Emily Smith broke the news Thursday morning... "Morning Joe" guests dropped hints about it on the air... and then the couple confirmed it in an interview with Vanity Fair's Emily Jane Fox. Here's my full story... | | | Election polling post-mortem | | The American Association for Public Opinion Research's study of election polling landed on Thursday... and the results are just about what you'd expect... "National surveys were generally accurate in projecting the popular vote but state polls had 'a historically bad year' in forecasting the results in the electoral college," the WashPost's Dan Balz writes... | | | Why some polls under-estimated support for Trump | | Here's the actual report for your reading pleasure. The researchers say "there are a number of reasons as to why polls under-estimated support for Trump." The main three:
-- "Real change in vote preference during the final week or so of the campaign."
-- "Adjusting for over-representation of college graduates was critical, but many polls did not do it."
-- "Some Trump voters who participated in pre-election polls did not reveal themselves as Trump voters until after the election, and they outnumbered late-revealing Clinton voters." | | | This part of the report is for the president... | | | How many "Game of Thrones" spin-offs will there be? | | Frank Pallotta reports: "Game of Thrones" viewers may get to spend a little more time in Westeros than they'd thought. A spinoff -- or possibly spin-offs, plural, or prequels or sequels -- of the immensely popular HBO drama is in the works. The network said in a statement Thursday that it has closed deals with four writers to "explore different time periods of George R. R. Martin's vast and rich universe."
"There is no set timetable for these projects," the network said. "We'll take as much or as little time as the writers need and, as with all our development, we will evaluate what we have when the scripts are in." Martin will also be involved in writing scripts...
-- Bottom line: It's possible that there could be multiple new shows -- or none at all... | | | 'Star Wars' story group manages teeming galaxy | | Brian Lowry emails: May the 4th (as in "May the 4th be With You") has gone from a gag among fans to what amounts to a Disney-endorsed "Star Wars" holiday. And the studio's grand plans for the franchise -- with prequels and stand-alone projects -- calls for a "guardian" of its timeline, known as the Lucasfilm Story Group... | | That's what Brian Lowry calls this. He writes: With "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" kicking off summer blockbuster season tonight, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in review scores on sites like RottenTomatoes.com and Metacritic.com for big movies and genre TV shows.
The number usually starts high, with a flurry of as-soon-as-the-embargo-lifts reviews from the trades and dedicated, more fan-oriented websites. The average then tends to gradually come down as outlets like the NYT, LA Times and WSJ weigh in closer to release. Worth noting that some of the latter are weighted more heavily on Metacritic, which probably contributes to the slide... | | | 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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