| | | | | TGIF! A dozen different stories could be tonight's lead... from Apple to Alex Jones... plus Frank Pallotta's interview with Seth Meyers... so scroll down for all of it... | | "This is my last broadcast for the 'CBS Evening News,'" Scott Pelley said Friday night. "We hope this has been something of a lighthouse for you to help you with your bearings in a stormy world." He thanked CBS News employees and paraphrased founding father James Madison to say that "freedom of the press is the right that guarantees all the others."
"The stakes are that high," Pelley said.
Pelley told viewers he's heading over to "60 Minutes" while Anthony Mason helms the nightly news starting Monday. He didn't mention that Mason is just the interim anchor, and he didn't allude to his disappoint over management's decision to move him off the broadcast. "For all of us at CBS News all around the world," he said, "goodbye and good luck." | | "The president becomes his own leaker" | | That's how Jake Tapper put it on Friday's "The Lead," citing @realDonaldTrump's tweet about being investigated. Trumpworld aides tried to metaphorically delete the tweet by claiming the president was just reacting to news coverage -- i.e. the WashPost's report that he's being investigated for obstructing justice.
Those aides weren't the only ones seeking anonymity on Friday. A Justice Department source told CNN's Evan Perez that Rod Rosenstein was not asked by the W.H. to issue that strange Thursday night statement urging Americans to be "skeptical about anonymous allegations." Of course, Perez's source insisted on being anonymous... | | AP says Trump is "yelling at television sets in the White House" | | | More from Oliver Darcy: An interesting nugget in this Associated Press story... it describes the president as "increasingly angry" and upset over the expanding Russia probe... specifically, it says he's "yelling at television sets in the White House carrying coverage and insisting he is the target of a conspiracy to discredit — and potentially end — his presidency." | | What pro-Trump outlets are not covering | | Ben Shapiro tweets: "Trump's DHS announced it would keep the heart of Obama's amnesty. There are currently zero words on Breitbart's front page about it."
Oliver Darcy has a story all about that... he emails: It's always interesting to see how the pro-Trump media grapples with the president when he breaks a campaign promise. Today's strategy was to ignore the news altogether. DHS announced that the Trump administration would maintain an Obama-era program providing protection to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children by their parents.
Normally the reaction from right-wing media would be something like, "WEAK ON IMMIGRATION! AMNESTY!" Instead, the story was passed over. It was nowhere to be found on the the front pages of Breitbart or the Drudge Report. FoxNews.com did not appear to cover it either. One Breitbart staffer told me: "If we're not covering it, we deserve to be hammered."
Oliver's story isn't a "hammer," but you can read it here. After it went up, Breitbart belatedly posted a story about the DHS move... | | POTUS getting in his own way, vol. 147 | | GOP media strategist Alex Conant tweets: "Want example of how Trump gets in own way? I did TV hits in last 48 hrs hoping to praise #Cuba news. Instead, topic was his bizarre tweets."
As it so happens, Conant is booked on this Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." along with Matt Schlapp, Kaitlan Collins, Charlie Warzel, Mo Ryan, Sally Kohn, Steve Deace, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Oliver Stone. Now that's an alarm-clock-worthy, DVR-worthy lineup. Join us on CNN Sunday at 11am ET... | | -- A must-read by Terry Heaton about Pat Robertson's "700 Club:" "How The Religious Right Pioneered Propaganda As News" (HuffPost)
-- Greg Gianforte won't answer the AP's questions about why his campaign initially painted Ben Jacobs as the instigator" of the body-slam... (AP)
-- Bids for the Chicago Sun-Times are due on Monday afternoon... Ken Doctor has an update on the state of play here... (TheStreet) | | Apple poaches two Sony execs! | | An exec move heard 'round the media world. "Reliable" intern Howard Cohen emails: One day after resigning from Sony Pictures TV, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht joined Apple on Friday to oversee the development of original video content. Apple SVP Eddy Cue said the company has "exciting plans in store for customers and can't wait for them to bring their expertise to Apple."
Sony is now left with two vacancies in a division that generates significant revenues for the studio. Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra spoke with Variety about the situation... | | So many Q's in Hollywood... | | | Brian Lowry emails: An interesting question about Apple, given Friday's news: Will the company pursue generally traditional programming, as Amazon has, or will the company look for ways to specifically blend whatever it commissions with its technology? Either way, if deep-pocketed competitors are something of a nightmare, Hollywood executives should sleep a bit more restlessly tonight... | | New round of buyouts at the LATimes | | "We need to address the current economic realities as we work to secure our future. To do that, we are offering a limited voluntary buyout plan for certain Los Angeles Times employees," editor and publisher Davan Maharaj said in an internal memo Friday afternoon. Only staffers with 15+ years of service will be eligible.
--> I taped a podcast with Maharaj earlier this week... we talked about the "Trump effect," his paper's digital strategy, the future of print and more. Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman has a recap on CNNMoney... and you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes right here... | | "The media climate now, in both news and entertainment, is too often of a goading, insinuating resentment, a grinding, agitating antipathy."
--Peggy Noonan in Friday's WSJ... | | Tucker Carlson sidelined by appendicitis | | | "The Fox News host went to the doctor Thursday after getting a fever," TVNewser's Chris Ariens reports. The doctor recommended he check into the hospital as it appeared he likely had appendicitis. 'Tucker is now being treated for appendicitis,' a Fox News spokesperson says. 'He is in good spirits and expects to back on the air soon.'" Ed Henry filled in Thursday and Dana Perino filled in Friday... | | NBC slams Alex Jones (but is still airing Megyn Kelly's interview with him) | | What's NBC's response to Alex Jones releasing embarrassing audio clips of Megyn Kelly trying to persuade him to do an interview? This Friday morning statement: "Despite Alex Jones' efforts to distract from and ultimately prevent the airing of our report, we remain committed to giving viewers context and insight into a controversial and polarizing figure, how he relates to the president of the United States and influences others, and to getting this serious story right. Tune in Sunday."
But if you tune into NBC's Connecticut affiliate WVIT, you won't see the story... the station has decided not to air it. Here's my full story...
-- Related: Tom Kludt's story about what families of Sandy Hook victims are saying... | | Dylan Byers emails: TV execs I spoke with today say much of the blame for the current fiasco should be placed on NBC. The network invested tens of millions of dollars into turning Kelly into the next Charlie Rose or Barbara Walters, they said, but has failed to take the time and strategic approach required to achieve the desired goal. Said one veteran TV exec: "Think of Megyn as a product. The product is not a cable news warrior, it's a host in the tradition of Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters and Katie Couric. But what they've done is rush her on the air into controversial interviews, reinforcing a political brand."
"They've made a fundamental mistake about Megyn which is they think she's a super star," the exec added. "What she is is a cable star, and that is a very different solar system..." | | | Dylan adds: Kelly has long sought the role of America's Top Interviewer. In 2015, she told Variety, "Barbara Walters has retired, Diane Sawyer left her anchor role. Oprah has moved to the OWN network and is doing a different thing now. So why not me?" What the first month of "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly" has shown is that wanting to be Walters, Sawyer or Winfrey does not necessarily make it so. Establishing that reputation can take years. In Kelly's case, it requires a transformation from her former role as cable news host into someone more trusted by the general public... | | NBC's argument continues to be... | | | "Wait and see." "Don't judge the story til it airs." The problem with that, BuzzFeed's Charlie Warzel asserts, is that NBC doesn't "understand the Internet..." | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Particularly relevant on the day of the not-guilty verdict in the Philando Castile case: BuzzFeed News counted at least 45 instances of violence live-streamed on Facebook since December 2015... (BuzzFeed)
-- Is the flawed distribution system in the comic book industry a big reason why Marvel canceled Roxane Gay and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther comic series? The system "rewards the status quo, instead of taking risks and breaking new ground..." (Vox)
-- The Guardian reports that a security flaw exposed the personal details of over 1,000 Facebook content moderators to suspected terrorist users. One of the affected moderators quit Facebook and went into hiding for fear of retaliation... (Guardian) | | Jezebel editor Emma Carmichael stepping down | | Tom Kludt emails: The remnants of Gawker Media (now known as Gizmodo Media) will be saying goodbye to another stalwart: Emma Carmichael, the beloved EIC of Jezebel, announced Friday that she will be stepping down from that role on July 14. (She'll stay on through September in a "consulting editor role," wherein she'll help the company find new leadership for Jezebel.) Carmichael has been a mainstay in the Gawker ecosystem... In a note to staff, Carmichael said she is "simply a little burnt out and ready to take a break from running a website..."
-- The context: Gizmodo Media has been endured something of an exodus in the 10 months since it was acquired by Univision. Heather Dietrick left for the Daily Beast last month and standout writer Ashley Feinberg joined Wired a few weeks ago... | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Matt Drudge has made it known over the past several months that he is not pleased with the Republican Party. On Friday morning, he tweeted out a fiery reminder: "BURN," he said of the GOP. Drudge was unhappy with how party leaders have -- or have not -- defended Trump in recent days as the Russia investigation heats up... | | Seth Meyers: "I guess we can call a lie a lie a lot faster than journalists do" | | Frank Pallotta emails: The current late night era can be split into two parts: before Trump and after. But for Seth Meyers, Trump has always been a "looming cloud" (sound familiar?) over the "Late Night" host. I sat down with Meyers this week and he told me that Trump has been "a part of my life since that night in 2011" when he famously roasted the then-host of "Celebrity Apprentice" at the White House Correspondents Dinner...
-- Key quote: "I think comedians are very well equipped to deal with the Trump administration because they've sort of eroded all of the sort of values of communication that we were used to for presidents, so journalists are sort of at a loss sometimes to call it what it is. So, I guess we can call a lie a lie a lot faster than journalists do." Read/watch more of the interview here... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- ESPN EVPs John Kosner and Marie Donoghue are leaving the network... while Connor Schell is becoming an exec VP overseeing all content creation. John Ourand has a full rundown of the changes... (SBD)
-- Bill O'Reilly tells Colby Hall: "We are assembling a team of journalists and are considering a number of options as BillOReilly.com is quickly developing into a major enterprise..." (Mediaite)
-- I missed this a couple days ago: Lacey Rose's interview with Ryan Seacrest about "Live" and his life... the story says he's nearing a deal to return to "American Idol..." (THR)
-- Happy fourth birthday to CNN's morning show "New Day..." (Variety) | | Lowry reviews "47 Meters Down" | | | Brian Lowry emails: It's been more than 40 years since "Jaws" made its debut, but the low-budget thriller "47 Meters Down," starring Mandy Moore and Claire Holt, is a reminder that sharks and summer can still be a reasonably potent combination. Read more... | | "Cars 3" also new in theaters this weekend | | | If you missed Lowry's review, check it out here... | | Today's "Bachelor" updates | | Lisa Respers France emails: DeMario Jackson told "Inside Edition" he was let go in the wake of allegations of misconduct on "Bachelor in Paradise."
Also today, I talked with a contestant from last season's "Paradise" who said the show is not at all the booze-soaked hook-up fest some imagine. At times being on the show can be down right boring, he said... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Jada Pinkett Smith, others connected to Tupac slam "All Eyez On Me..."
-- "Shark Week" going for gold with Michael Phelps...
-- And last but not least: Lorde admits she was this secret onion rings reviewer... | | | Have a great weekend everybody! | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Email us... we're at reliablesources@cnn.com... we appreciate every email. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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