| | | | | A year that started with a Women's March ends with the "Silence Breakers." (Above photo via Time.) So many storylines are converging around the same theme at the same time. Check out the commonalities between these 16 stories... | | "I've decided it's time to tell my story," Leeann Tweeden said on November 16. It's been three weeks since then, and now Al Franken appears to be on the verge of resigning his Senate seat.
"Women Democratic senators had been talking behind the scenes for at least the past week about how to deal with Franken," multiple aides told CNN's Ashley Killough. "But those talks reached a tipping point Wednesday morning, they said, when Politico published a report at 9am ET of another woman alleging that Franken touched her inappropriately in 2006, before he was elected to office."
--> Franken will make an announcement on Thursday... Timing TBD. On Wednesday evening, his office denied a Minnesota Public Radio report that he'll resign by saying "No final decision has been made and the Senator is still talking with his family..." | | Fox hosts defending Franken?! | | | Here's what I wrote down during Laura Ingraham's 10pm conversation with Newt Gingrich about Franken: This is "political calculation" by the Dems. And "weird puritanism." He's accused of "minor stuff." Dems are acting like a "lynch mob." There's "no due process." More to come on "Fox & Friends..." | | "Let's get on the right side of history..." | | Wednesday's coordinated wave of statements calling for Franken's exit began with Kirsten Gillibrand. She "positioned herself at the crest of the wave," the NYT says. Her office issued a statement at the same time Gillibrand started "an already-scheduled news conference on sexual harassment in the workplace. She was accompanied by others, like Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson."
Carlson spoke at the introduction of the "Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Act," a bill she has been championing for months. You might recall that when she was on "Reliable Sources" in October, she said she didn't have any GOP co-sponsors yet. Now she has three. "Let's get on the right side of history with both parties," Carlson said Wednesday... | | It's been exactly two months since the NYT published its first story about Harvey Weinstein's behavior. Nice timing for the follow-up, "Weinstein's Complicity Machine," in Wednesday's paper. More on Weinstein down below. But if it weren't for the Weinstein reporting by the NYT and The New Yorker, the "Silence Breakers" wouldn't have made the cover of Time. Wednesday's "Person of the Year" reveal was obvious but still uplifting -- a chance to give credit where it's due.
"This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight," Time said. "But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries..." | | An outpouring from readers | | | Time's editors sought to highlight "Silence Breakers" from many professions, including housekeeping and farming, far from the power centers of DC, NYC and L.A. The mag received powerful responses from readers on Wednesday, via social media, emails and phone calls, with dozens of people recounting their own #MeToo experiences... | | | Remember President Trump's claim that Time told him he "was PROBABLY going to be named 'Man (Person) of the Year' like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot," so he passed? Time's new EIC Edward Felsenthal disputed the president's claim again on the "Today" show... It turns out that Time began shooting the photographs for the cover "five days before the tweet." BTW, Trump was the runner-up this year... And he refrained from tweeting about Time's selection... | | Upheaval in the literary world: Lorin Stein, the editor of The Paris Review, "resigned on Wednesday, amid an internal investigation into his behavior toward female employees and writers," NYT's Alexandra Alter and Sydney Ember scooped. The probe began in October, the same month Stein showed up on an anonymous list of "sh***y media men."
The publication's board was going to meet on Thursday to discuss the investigation. Stein got ahead of it by sending in a letter of resignation. He acknowledged abusing his position and engaging in "hurtful, degrading and infuriating" behavior. He said he is "very sorry..." | | WNYC places two radio hosts on leave | | Leonard Lopate was escorted out of WNYC's building on Wednesday afternoon. Lopate and another one of the station's best known hosts, Jonathan Schwartz, were placed on what the station called an "indefinite leave" pending "an investigation into accusations of inappropriate conduct."
The station would not comment on the nature of the accusations. And Lopate told me that he doesn't know what he's been accused of doing. When I reached him by phone, he said, "I'm baffled by this. It makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm sure that any honest investigation will completely clear me." Schwartz was not reachable. Here's my full story, including the context about the recent John Hockenberry revelations...
-- More: WNYC said that Mary Harris will fill in on "The Leonard Lopate Show..." | | How to change the culture | | | "It's easy for a corporation to fire somebody. It is hard for them to change their culture and their structure," Chris Cuomo said when we spoke on "New Day" on Tuesday. Cuomo has been making this point for weeks. So have others. Will this moment translate to systemic change? | | | "LET'S TALK: Personal Boundaries, Safety & Women in Journalism." This is a new video produced by Columbia Journalism School's Dart Center... Along with transcripts and reporting resources... The vid features Christiane Amanpour, Marcela Givaria, Azmat Khan, Alexis Okeowo, and other prominent journos... | | "Press Forward?" These women have some ideas | | | Mark Halperin was fired in October, but that was just the beginning of the story. Some of Halperin's accusers reached out to each other on Facebook and WhatsApp. The conversation merged into one centralized Facebook group. Then the women started to hold conference calls and met in person, discussing how to change the culture in newsrooms across the country. Last month the group contacted some of Charlie Rose's accusers. This month, Matt Lauer's accusers. The code name for this group was "The Silver Lining." Now it's becoming public: A group of 15 women are forming a coalition called Press Forward. Here's what Eleanor McManus told me about the effort, which will include a "detailed research study..." | | | McManus spoke about Press Forward on Wednesday's "Megyn Kelly Today." Kelly has been covering this tipping point phenomenon on an almost daily basis. At the end of Wednesday's show, she asked her studio audience, "If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual harassment and assault, can I ask you to stand?" Nearly the entire audience stood... | | | Kelly will be interviewing Alec Baldwin on Thursday... | | "We can't only be talking to ourselves. We need to educate and enlist our male colleagues. We are a freight train. The answer isn't get out of the way. It's get on board."
--Nancy Dubuc at a THR event on Wednesday... | | Wednesday's other developments | | -- NYT's update on "Transparent:" As Amazon "investigates the complaints" against Jeffrey Tambor, "the series is suspended in an agonizing limbo." Tambor's rep says he has no plans to quit the show...
-- Melanie Martinez, who appeared on the third season of "The Voice" in 2012, is denying a rape accusation made by another female singer. Here's Lisa Respers France's story...
-- "Reliable" producer Lee Alexander emails: Ellen Meny's article "All the gross sexual messages you receive when you're a local TV news reporter" shines a light on "another problem running through local TV news that affects women daily: harassment from the people who watch the news..." (Vox)
-- Wow: "The NYT wants The Weinstein Company to pay up the $229,567.68 that it owes" in unpaid ad bills, Deadline's Dominic Patten reports. That brings us full circle back to Weinstein... | | | Through his attorneys, Weinstein issued a new statement on Wednesday, primarily in response to the NYT's story about all the people who, it said, looked the other way. | | | "Mr. Weinstein has never at any time committed an act of sexual assault, and it is wrong and irresponsible to conflate claims of impolitic behavior or consensual sexual contact later regretted, with an untrue claim of criminal conduct," his attorneys said. "There is a wide canyon between mere allegation and truth, and we are confident that any sober calculation of the facts will prove no legal wrongdoing occurred. Nonetheless, to those offended by Mr. Weinstein's behavior, he remains deeply apologetic." | | | Hadas Gold emails: On Wednesday a group of Weinstein accusers filed a class action lawsuit against the producer, Miramax and board members for what they allege is organized criminal behavior to cover up Weinstein's actions for years. "Harvey Weinstein is a predator. Bob (Weinstein) knew it. The board knew it. The lawyers knew it. The private investigators knew it. Hollywood knew it. We knew it. Now the world knows it," the plaintiffs said in a joint statement released on Wednesday. The fourteen counts include "witness tampering, mail and wire fraud, assault, civil battery, negligent supervision and retention, and intentional infliction of emotional distress." Read Gold's full story here... | | | Smart piece by the WashPost's Callum Borchers: "Harvey Weinstein and Trump have a mutual friend," he says, "The National Enquirer..." | | | Gloria Allred and her client Summer Zervos are waiting to see if a judge lets their defamation suit against President Trump move toward a trial... If so, Trump's alleged sexual misconduct will remain in the headlines for months to come... | | -- Famed journalist and Quinnipiac poll spokesman Maurice Carroll has died. He was 86. (NYT)
-- ABC says it has reprimanded Chris Vlasto "for giving Donald Trump's presidential campaign proprietary exit polling data on election night 2016," Michael Calderone reports... (Politico)
-- "HQ, the hot new trivia app, is raising money in a round that could value its company at $100 million," Kurt Wagner scoops... (Recode)
-- On this week's "Reliable" podcast, I'll be talking with WashPost media critic Margaret Sullivan... Have any Q's for her? Email me... | | "Iger Likely to Stay On as Disney CEO Past 2019 if Fox Deal Is Reached" | | That's the headline on Ben Fritz's scoop for the WSJ. Bob Iger "will likely stay on past his 2019 retirement date if the entertainment company wins its bid to buy the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox, according to people familiar with the negotiations," Fritz writes. "Representatives of 21st Century Fox and its executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, requested as part of the potential sale that Mr. Iger stay on past his planned July 2019 retirement to assist with the integration of assets, valued today at $40 billion, and strategic repositioning of the combined businesses..."
-- LAT's Daniel Miller reminds us: "Iger's contract has been extended three times since he became CEO in 2005 amid a protracted search for a successor..." | | $40 billion or $60 billion? | | | The Journal's sources peg the Fox assets at $40 billion. On Tuesday CNBC's David Faber said "the enterprise value of the Fox assets in the Disney deal is seen as above $60 billion, according to sources..." | | Goodell's contract extension | | | "NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell just scored a major win. He signed a contract extension, holding onto his job despite a number of controversies swirling around the league," CNNMoney's Ahiza Garcia writes. "The terms of the deal were not made public..." | | -- Cracked laid off 25 staffers this week, a "majority of its staff," as "the great digital media purge continues..." (Splinter)
-- Jon Levine and Sean Burch's latest: What lots of people are asking: "What's the Cure for Ailing Mashable, BuzzFeed and Other Online News Sites?" (TheWrap)
-- After 39 (!) years at the @LATimes, Washington columnist Doyle McManus is taking a buyout. He'll still write occasional op-eds for the Times while exploring "new ventures," he says...
-- The BBC is launching a new project in schools "to help young people identify real news and filter out fake or false information..." (BBC)
-- A new study supported by the Tow Center: "15 ways funders, J-Schools and researchers can better support local journalism..." (Medium) | | Another delay in the regulatory review of the Sky deal | | Hadas Gold emails: The British regulator currently investigating 21st Century Fox's proposed takeover of Sky announced on Wednesday they are delaying the results of their initial findings until next month.
The Competition and Markets Authority was initially supposed to make those findings public on December 18, but said that due to the deluge of submissions they received regarding the deal they decided they need more time. The CMA is looking into how the deal would affect media plurality in Britain and whether the company would uphold British broadcasting standards.
Of course the entire inquiry could become moot should a deal happen with Disney purchasing parts of 21st Century Fox – which would reportedly include Fox's current 39 percent stake in Sky. Until that deal closes, or the parties notify them otherwise, the CMA will continue their work. They're due to give their formal recommendation to the British culture secretary in March. | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- "It seemed like jumping on a speeding treadmill as it was cranking into high gear. The hardest part was the unpredictability, and how to triage so much incoming news at once." One current and one former NYT night editor reflect on working their desks during the late hours "when Trump's tweeting starts..." (NYT)
-- If you're a "Reliable Sources" super-fan, consider applying to be Poynter's next Google News Lab Fellow... (Poynter)
-- NPR's training portal offers numerous tips and tricks to help print journalists better transition to audio storytelling. Among the sections: "De-graf the nut graf," "adjust your interview style," and "rethink your use of quotes..." (NPR)
-- Judd Apatow fans rejoice! The famed writer-producer-director is coming back to stand-up comedy in a Netflix special coming out on 12/12... (Variety)
-- Not just "Twitter Lite:" Google Go, a lower-data search app, is now available for certain Android devices... (TechCrunch) | | | Brian Lowry emails: Los Angeles' major network O&O stations have blown out regular programming today, providing breaking-news coverage of the fires... | | -- Thursday looks like it could be an even worse day than Wednesday...
-- The LA Times has lifted its paywall so anyone can access its coverage... And some local stations, including KTLA, are streaming live... | | "Westworld" resumes production | | | "HBO's 'Westworld' is set to resume production on its second season after shutting down operations on Monday due to concern over wildfire activity in the vicinity of the show's set," Sandra Gonzalez reports... | | | For the record, part four | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails:
-- Here's something inspiring. In times when some politicians seek to silence or discredit the press, others are rooting for Jamie Dupree, a radio journalist covering Congress who is losing his voice to "Tongue Protrusion Dystonia" but continues to be heard through his reporting... (AJC)
-- Wired writes about a commercial spyware operation based in Ethiopia targeting journalists in Canada, United States, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Truly creepy... (Wired)
-- Where to find great reporting on net neutrality? On an unlikely source: Reddit, Mathew Ingram says... (CJR) | | Amazon Prime Video now available on Apple TV | | | "A feud between two streaming rivals is easing up," CNN Tech's Selena Larson writes. "The Amazon Prime Video streaming app is now available for Apple TV." This had been foreshadowed earlier in the year. But it was officially announced on Wednesday, "one day after Google announced it was removing YouTube support from both Fire TV and Echo Show, Amazon's smart speaker that features a touchscreen. Google pulled the service because Amazon doesn't sell its products..." | | "The Twilight Zone" TV series from Jordan Peele coming to CBS All Access | | | Jordan Peele, Simon Kinberg, and Marco Ramirez will serve as executive producers of "The Twilight Zone" for CBS All Access... Sandra Gonzalez has details here... | | New "Black Mirror" trailer | | | Netflix released a trailer for season four of "Black Mirror" on Wednesday... Enjoy! | | "Mr. Robot" echoing a famous Trump line | | | Brian Lowry emails: Two footnotes about Wednesday night's episode of "Mr. Robot," which is racing through a pretty riveting third season: Gretchen Carlson makes a rather subtle appearance as an anchor on TV; and during one exchange when a character is told he's a puppet, he responds, "No puppet -- you're the puppet," echoing President Trump's line from his debate with Hillary Clinton... | | The "feisty women" of "Ocean's 8" | | | Megan Thomas emails: Sandra Bullock talked to EW about the upcoming all-female "Ocean's 8" and promises the cast will "fight right back" against any premature, sexist comments about the movie. "We've got some feisty women that will fight right back. It's like, let's just take a breath and let's just see if we come up with something fun. There should be a moratorium. There should be a rule, you're not allowed to say anything nasty until after it comes out..." | | | More from Megan Thomas: I'm currently binge watching Amazon's "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and got a kick out of this take from The Cut about how the show is the ultimate "winning the breakup" fantasy... | | Lowry reviews "Nightfall" and "Happy!" | | | Brian Lowry emails: In a sign of "peak TV" era abundance, two highly disposable cable dramas appear directly opposite each other on Wednesday night: History's "Knightfall," which is designed to draft off the audience of the network's "Vikings..." and "Happy!," an ultra-violent adaptation of a graphic novel landing on Syfy... | | | Lisa Respers France emails: Beyoncé was a surprise presenter to give Colin Kaepernick a Sports Illustrated award... and she had some strong words of support for the football player turned activist... | | | 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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