| | | | Right now "the media is a powerful tool in getting justice," actress Jessica Barth said on CNN's special town hall on Thursday night. The subject was sexual harassment in America. "Talking about it breaks the taboo," host Alisyn Camerota said. Camerota was joined by Gretchen Carlson, Anita Hill, and other guests... Here's a full recap by Julia Carpenter... Plus a live blog...
-- Camerota to Barth: "We invited dozens of Hollywood actors" who have alleged misconduct by powerful men, "and you're the only one who agreed to have this conversation on national television." Barth said there's still "a lot of fear" and "shame..."
-- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: "The #MeToo campaign is changing everything..." | | New stories from WashPost and NYT | | | At the start of the town hall, Camerota referenced the day's brand new stories about sexual misconduct -- allegations against Roy Moore and Louis C.K. The stories came from the WashPost and NYT respectively... | | Three WashPost reporters, Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites, shared bylines on this meticulously reported and contextualized story about Moore, the GOP nominee for a US Senate seat in Alabama. Reporters on Capitol Hill immediately began asking lawmakers for comment, and there were many variations of the following: "If true," GOPers said, "Moore must drop out of the race."
--> WashPost W.H. editor Dan Eggen asked on Twitter: "All 4 women on record, corroborating witnesses, 30 sources total - what would it take to overcome 'if true' caveat?" | | What journos should be asking: "Do you believe her?" | | | MSNBC's Kasie Hunt tweeted: "The question every senator needs to answer about Roy Moore is: 'Do you believe her?' It's taken until this cultural moment in 2017 for the answer to that question to be, 'yes.'" | | "These women didn't seek out the press." | | It's worth repeating this point that NRO's David French made: "These women didn't seek out the press. According to the Post report, its reporters reached out to them after hearing that 'Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls.'" There was initially a lot of reluctance to speak...
-- Chris Hayes on MSNBC: "The question now is whether more women will come forward, as they have in the wake of other reports of abuse by powerful men..." | | Oliver Darcy emails: Breitbart came under heavy fire for pre-empting the Post and attempting to frame the story as a politically motivated hit job from a liberal outlet. In a three-part headline on its front page, the far-right website -- which is headed by Steve Bannon and strongly backed Moore during the Alabama primary -- said that "WashPost plans to hit Roy Moore" with the allegations, prominently noted that Moore called it a "smear campaign," and curiously pointed out that the Post is owned by Jeff Bezos and endorsed Democrat Doug Jones. Throughout the day, other Breitbarters ran cover for Moore. "This is such a sad, punk move from Breitbart, and people are going to remember it," tweeted WaPo's Dave Weigel.
Indeed, the whole thing was quite rich coming from Breitbart, the same outlet that subtly attacked the media over Harvey Weinstein. Breitbart suggested the media had covered up for its own -- well, what's Breitbart doing now?
--> Bannon attacked "the Bezos Amazon Washington Post" Thursday night and said "that's what I mean when I say opposition party..." | | Hannity sticking by Moore | | | Tucker Carlson barely mentioned the Moore scandal on Thursday night. But Sean Hannity spent much of his hour talking about it -- with a panel of guests who stood up for Moore and cast doubt on the accusers. Overheard on the show: "Don't rush to judgment." "There is a feeding frenzy right now." "Everybody lies." The WashPost "has a dog in this fight." "Slow down before innocent lives are ruined." Etc... | | NYT: "Louis C.K. Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct by 5 Women" | | The Louis C.K. story hit less than two hours after the Post story. Three bylines on this one as well: Melena Ryzik, Cara Buckley, and Jodi Kantor. If you haven't read it yet, click here...
-- Lisa Respers France's story notes that Gawker wrote about some of these rumors back in 2015. Gawker's sibling site Jezebel wrote a followup piece about the "rumors" in the wake of the NYT story...
-- Trevor Noah's reaction on Thursday's "Daily Show:" "At this point, we're going to need a new Oscars category this year: Best Actor Whose Movies We Can't Watch Anymore..." | | C.K. to issue a statement "in the coming days" | | Chloe Melas emails: The NYT story had been expected for weeks. Louis C.K. knew it was going to drop any day, so his PR team preemptively cancelled the New York premiere for his upcoming movie "I Love You, Daddy." The premiere was supposed to be held Thursday night at the Paris Theater. C.K. also cancelled his scheduled appearance on "The Late Show."
His rep Lewis Kay told the NYT that C.K. would not answer any of the paper's questions. Now the word from Kay is that C.K. will issue a "written statement" in "the coming days..." | | Brian Lowry emails: While the fate of "I Love You, Daddy" appears somewhat up in the air in terms of its scheduled Nov. 17 theatrical release, in the good-bad timing dept., the "For Your Consideration" screener of the film happened to arrive on Thursday...
-- Glenn Whipp of the LA Times tweeted: "In the film, Louis C.K. plays a writer who idolizes an auteur rumored to be a child molester... A running theme in the movie: You can't judge the private lives of people you don't know. Especially artists." | | | HBO said Thursday night that C.K. will not appear in its upcoming "Night of Too Many Stars," Sandra Gonzalez reports. Also, his previous projects will be pulled from HBO On Demand services. FX, meanwhile, said it was "very troubled" by the allegations. "The network has received no allegations of misconduct by Louis C.K. related to any of our 5 shows produced together over the past 8 years... The matter is currently under review..." | | Thursday's other developments | | -- The Los Angeles County D.A. has established a "task force" in response to the sex abuse allegations in Hollywood...
-- There's a #MeToo march planned for this Sunday in Hollywood, per the LA Times...
-- Powerful read from Vox's Sarah Wildman: "I was harassed at the New Republic. I spoke up. Nothing happened."
-- The NYT's Laura Holson reports that André Balazs, the celebrity hotelier, has been accused of inappropriately touching several women...
-- ABC reports: "Black Cube, a private agency run by former Israeli intelligence officers that Harvey Weinstein enlisted to gather information on his alleged accusers, will donate profits from the case to organizations benefiting sexual assault victims..."
-- The NYT has a short profile of Weinstein's "defense lawyers on both coasts:" Blair Berk in Hollywood and Benjamin Brafman in Manhattan... | | -- Check out Dominic Patten's in-depth interview with Megyn Kelly about the Weinstein scandal, her new show and more... (Deadline)
-- Hadas Gold's latest: "Russia is threatening action against U.S. media outlets operating there as soon as next week." Read her full story... (CNNMoney)
-- The Musical.ly app is being acquired by "Chinese news and information site Beijing Bytedance Technology Co. for as much as $1 billion..." (WSJ) | | Disney stays quiet re: Fox talks | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Much like Fox on Wednesday, Disney was quiet about its recent talks to buy Fox assets during a Thursday afternoon earnings call. An analyst tried to ask a question noting that Disney didn't say they couldn't talk about it, but was cut off and told that Disney wouldn't respond to any reports that were circulating... | | Disney/ESPN streaming tidbits | | | Frank adds: Disney chief Bob Iger shared some info about the upcoming Disney streaming service. It'll be released in 2019, and it'll include a live-action "Star Wars" series, a Pixar series, and other original content. Still no name, however. What did get a name, though, was Disney's new ESPN streaming service: ESPN Plus. That one will launch next spring... | | Lackluster earnings for Disney... but more "Star Wars" | | | More from Frank: What is one way to deal with lackluster earnings? How about announcing during your earnings call that there's going to be more "Star Wars"?! That's how Disney dealt with its earnings, which were decidedly meh. The company announced that the beloved franchise would get a whole new trilogy following the current one. It'll be developed by Rian Johnson, who is currently the director of "Last Jedi," and will have new characters away from the Skywalkers. Read more... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The "Star Wars" announcements -- a new movie trilogy, and a new live-action TV show to launch Disney's nascent streaming efforts, in the same way CBS All Access turned to "Star Trek" -- offer a reminder that Disney holds the keys to the biggest intellectual properties in the pop-culture universe, and it's not going to be bashful about using and leveraging them... | | -- SI's Richard Deitsch reports that "ESPN will lay off more than 100 staffers after the Thanksgiving holidays..." (SI)
-- Via David Bauder: "While Fox News has spent hours talking about Hillary Clinton and an Obama-era uranium deal in recent weeks, its news anchor Shepard Smith avoided the story entirely..." (AP)
-- Eliana Plott landed a fascinating interview with former W.H. comms director Mike Dubke... If he has any regrets, he says, it's that he didn't fire suspected leakers... (Washingtonian) | | AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says he is in "advanced stages of negotiations" with the Justice Department over his pending acquisition of (CNN's parent) Time Warner. But if there's no deal, "we're prepared to litigate now," he told Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Dealbook conference on Thursday.
As we've previously reported, AT&T has gamed out this hypothetical court case. The company is confident that it would prevail in court. But will it really come to that?
It really might. Stephenson said Thursday he has been taken aback by the government's objections to the deal. "This is a classic vertical merger. There are no overlaps of competition. There are no competitors being taken out of this market," he said. But the Justice Department's antitrust division apparently feels differently. Here's my full story... | | Did you know that Makan Delrahim lobbied on behalf of Comcast while the company was acquiring NBCU? Now he's the DOJ antitrust chief who's challenging AT&T. Jackie Wattles and I profiled Delrahim for CNNMoney... Read our full story here...
We brought up Delrahim's October 2016 statement that "I don't see this" AT&T deal "as a major antitrust problem." So why did Delrahim change his mind? According to the NYT's Cecilia Kang, "Delrahim has said his comments last year about AT&T and Time Warner were taken out of context." Hmmm... | | | During the audience Q&A at the Dealbook conference, I asked Stephenson about the concerns expressed by Dem lawmakers that President Trump's anti-CNN stance is affecting the antitrust review. "Do you have any reason to believe that there's a Trump factor?" He answered: "I have no reason to believe that. Look, my only -- my only -- interaction with anybody in the federal government on this deal -- I want to think before I say this definitively -- has been with the Department of Justice." | | | Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein briefly discussed the matter while addressing a business audience in MD on Thursday morning. "We need to make sure we go about it in a serious and nonpolitical way," he said, "to make sure we're making a responsible decision about ensuring there's appropriate competition in the market." He said Delrahim is personally reviewing the AT&T case and "potentially there will be further review within the department..." | | CNN PR responds to Drudge tweet | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Matt Drudge took to Twitter on Thursday to predict that CNN president Jeff Zucker will be "out either way at CNN," seemingly referencing recent drama surrounding the AT&T-Time Warner deal. Drudge characterized CNN's primetime ratings as "abysmal" and said Zucker's "feud" with Trump was "too personal and ridiculous." CNN shot back at the Internet-news mogul in a searing tweet pointing out that the network is "pacing to have its 2nd highest year in primetime since 2008 -- behind only 2016 elex year." The tweet, which included an eye-rolling emoji, concluded noting, "Those are the facts." | | "Media ownership must have the same resolve as our newsrooms" | | Politico owner Robert Allbritton said this at Thursday night's International Center for Journalists' annual Awards Dinner:
"In many ways, the independence of a free press in American democracy has never been more important. This is especially true given the perception that the independence of a news organization is being used as a bargaining tool in a private business transaction -- the AT&T/Time Warner merger. As a publisher, this gives me deep concern. Media ownership must have the same resolve as our newsrooms. We must never allow threats or intimidation to impact the quality of our journalism, or the value of or brands. Administrations come and go, but principles last forever..." | | Wu says DOJ "ought to explain its concerns" | | | Columbia Law prof Tim Wu says in this Friday NYT op-ed that "there are good reasons for the Justice Department to be concerned about this merger." But, he adds, "the unfortunate fact is that Mr. Trump has engendered so much distrust in government that everything that any federal agency does these days seems questionable," so the DOJ "ought to explain its concerns about the merger to the public and to Congress..." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- "Watch What Happens Live" host Andy Cohen "has extended his extended overall deal" at Bravo through 2020... (THR)
-- HBO's smash-hit "Big Little Lies" could be back in production as early as next spring, TVLine reports... (TVLine)
-- A new update from Apple (iOs 11.1.1) corrects that oh-so-confusing bug around the letter "I..." (CNN Tech) | | Lee Alexander emails: Lauren McGaughy was one of the first reporters to arrive in Sutherland Springs to report on the horrific mass shooting that left 26 people dead on Sunday, and she says the media owes the grieving community an apology. Witnessing how the media swarmed the small town, she kept thinking there must be "a better way to cover a tragedy like this."
In her op-ed for the Dallas Morning News, McGuaghy reflects: "As journalists, our role as observers and investigators in times of tragedy is important. But so is our empathy and our humanity. As a profession, we must have a conversation about how best to chronicle horrors like this. We can do better." | | | This week's "Reliable Sources" podcast | | | How the "Paradise Papers" were exposed | | | On this week's podcast, NYT reporter Jesse Drucker talks with me about the massive leak of documents from the law firm Appleby. Scores of newsrooms scoured through the docs, known as the "Paradise Papers," and it was all coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Listen to the conversation via iTunes here... and we'll have a recap up on Friday... | | Here's to 70 more years of "Meet the Press" | | | "Meet the Press" had a 70th anniversary bash at the Newseum on Thursday evening... "Meet the Press belongs, in many ways, to Washington," Chuck Todd said... Spotted: Andy Lack, Savannah Guthrie, Ted Cruz, Phil Griffin, Andrea Mitchell, Tom Brokaw, Kellyanne Conway, Maureen Orth, Don Nash, Keir Simmons, Hans Nichols, Ken Strickland, Ari Melber, Jo Ling Kent, John Reiss, Pat Leahy, Susan Rice, Charlie Dent, Dana Bash, Hugh Hewitt, Robert Costa, Stephanie Ruhle, Debbie Dingell, Joe Crowley and many more... | | Taylor's album drops Friday | | Midnight is the release time... Per Billboard, "most streaming executives have been told that 'Reputation' will not be available on their platforms for at least its first week and possibly longer..."
But you can stream one of the new songs, "New Years Day," via ABC's social media sites... That's because ABC had the "world premiere performance" of the song during Thursday night's "Scandal..." | | New season of "Good Girls Revolt?" | | | >> Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reports: "Almost a year after it was canceled by Amazon after one season, feminist period drama 'Good Girls Revolt' might be coming back. I hear Sony Pictures TV Studios, whose TriStar Television division produced the series, is preparing a pitch for a new season that would go out shortly..." | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- "Grey's Anatomy" aired its 300th episode Thursday night, but Shonda Rhimes is not promising too many more milestones. She said the show will end when Ellen Pompeo quits...
-- Corey Feldman told HLN's Carol Costello that he is living in fear after talking to police about sexual abuse claims. The former child star says he is on a mission to raise awareness about pedophilia in Hollywood...
-- GLAAD released its annual report on LGBTQ representation on TV Thursday. While GLAAD sees improvement, the organization also said Hollywood still has much to do to be fully inclusive... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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