| | | | | Oliver Darcy here at the helm, in for Brian Stelter, who's swears he's not looking at his phone while on vacation. (I think he is.) It's the year 2018, so you already know it was a jam-packed news day. Let's dive right on in! | | Déjà vu: The government shuts down...again | | Here we are again. Congress failed to pass a budget before its midnight deadline, courtesy of Rand Paul, resulting in second federal government shutdown since the start of 2018.
>> CNN's Don Lemon, delivering the news to viewers: "It is midnight here on the East Coast. The dysfunction of the federal government is on full display." Over at MSNBC, host Rachel Maddow pointed out, "Right now we are in our second government shutdown in less than three weeks."
>> Both CNN and MSNBC stuck with the breaking news and immediately put up a clock counting up, notifying viewers of how long the federal government had been shut down. Over on Fox News, host Shannon Bream brought viewers the breaking news before the network started a re-run of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
>> The Senate is expected to pass a deal in the morning, with the House following after. CNN has you covered here... | | Fox's bizarre 'EXCLUSIVE,' and the Trump feedback loop | | I'm not really sure what to make of this Fox News "EXCLUSIVE." On Thursday evening, chief national correspondent Ed Henry published what the network portrayed as a bombshell: "Democratic Sen. Mark Warner texted with Russian oligarch lobbyist in effort to contact dossier author Christopher Steele." The story was given airtime on "The Story With Martha MacCallum," "Tucker Carlson Tonight," and on "Hannity." But while the messages -- which Henry said he obtained through a Republican source -- were framed as damning, there didn't appear to be much in there.
>> As BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner noted, "Fox News waited until the 34th, 35th, and 36th paragraphs ... to explain the key context." The key context? That Warner had already disclosed the texts in a meeting last October.
>> Marco Rubio took to Twitter to dismiss the story, writing, "Sen.Warner fully disclosed this to the committee four months ago. Has had zero impact on our work."
>> Of course, the story was received quite differently by Trump. The president completed the all too familiar Fox feedback loop, tweeting, "Wow! -Senator Mark Warner got caught having extensive contact with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch. Warner did not want a 'paper trail 's a 'private' meeting (in London) he requested with Steele of fraudulent Dossier fame. All tied into Crooked Hillary." | | Raj Shah debuts behind the podium to a split screen | | White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah made his debut behind the briefing room podium Thursday afternoon -- and was faced with a difficult task. Shah was relentlessly grilled by the press corps over the White House's handling of abuse allegations against Rob Porter. He didn't provide many answers -- a source told Jim Acosta he was "not about to give a tic toc" because it would have been "too damning" about what top White House officials knew of the allegations before they became public -- and stuck to a set of talking points. In one instance, when he did diverge from the script, he raised eyebrows, saying, "I think you have got to take allegations seriously, you have got to take denials seriously." That said, Shah did earn praise for saying the White House "could have done better" to handle the situation, a rare acknowledgement of mistake by this administration.
Things only got more difficult for Shah as the briefing continued. The Dow plunged more than 1,000 points, leading to a split screen of the tanking market and the daily briefing on Fox News. CNN's chyron read, "DOW NOSEDIVES 1,000+ POINTS AS SLIDE CONTINUES." Shah was asked in real-time about the Dow's dive, telling reporters, "The president, like the rest of the White House, is concerned about long-term economic indicators and factors. And fundamentals in terms of long term are very strong." | | Omarosa: Things in the White House are 'bad' | | Former "Apprentice" star and Trump aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman was brazen about her time in the White House, describing things as "bad," saying she was "haunted by tweets every single day," and suggesting America should be worried: "It's not going to be OK."
Shah was asked about Omarosa's comments at the briefing, and appeared to have a prepared zinger: "Omarosa was fired three times on 'The Apprentice,' and this was the fourth time we let her go. She had limited contact with the President while here. She has no contact now." | | The enigma of the Trump admin | | Brian Stelter emails from Miami: I'm here for the DCN summit... And for a little R&R... Frank Sesno will be hosting this Sunday's "Reliable Sources" while I introduce Sunny to Florida...
But before I logged off, I filed this profile of Hope Hicks, "the enigma of the Trump administration," the comms director who has never given a TV interview. She is the yin to Trump's attention-grabbing yang... And right now she's in a terrible place for a press-shy person to be: In the middle of not one but two W.H. scandals... | | | Stelter adds: Naturally, Hicks declined to comment. She is said to be dating Rob Porter. True? Untrue? She won't say. She does not tweet. She does not seek the TV limelight. This cloak of mystery has given rise to a kind of fan fiction on Twitter among Trump detractors... They imagine Keri Russell or Allison Williams someday playing Hicks in a movie about how she sabotaged Trump and saved the country... | | -- The New Republic's Graham Vyse takes a look at "The Left's War Against The New York Times..." (TNR)
-- Reuters publishes an investigation of the Inn Din massacre in Myanmar that left 10 Rohingya dead in a mass grave. During the reporting of the story, two Reuters journalists were arrested... (Reuters)
-- The Newseum has released a report on sexual misconduct in the media and launched an initiative to combat the problem... (Newseum)
-- Business Insider's Mike Shields looks at the new ad team NBCUniversal is building to help marketers navigate Snap, Apple News, BuzzFeed, and Vox... (Business Insider)
-- Brooke Baldwin gets emotional while reading a post written by former White House aide Rob Porter's ex-wife detailing alleged abuse... (CNN) | | British lawmakers address fake news in DC | | Hadas Gold emails: I spent the day watching London take on Washington as the entire 11-member Digital, Media, Culture and Sport committee held the House of Common's first live broadcast hearing outside of the U.K.
The hearing focused on social media, fake news, and alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.K. referendum to leave the European Union. Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube all had their turn in front of the panel, which used the opportunity to reprimand the company representatives for what they say is a lack of transparency and unwillingness to investigate, without prompting, the degree to which foreign agents used their platforms to influence the Brexit vote. | | Hadas details a tense moment: At one point chair Damian Collins ripped into Facebook's U.K., Middle East and Africa policy director Simon Milner and head of global policy management Monika Bickert for suggesting Facebook was not responsible if foreign actors paid for political ads relating to U.K. elections on the platform -- something that is technically illegal in the U.K. "If Facebook was a bank and someone was laundering money through that bank, the response wouldn't be, 'We're just the platform through which this laundering is taking place.' That bank would be closed down. People would face prosecution," he said.
| | Twitter & YouTube disclose new info | | | Hadas adds: Twitter revealed that it found 49 accounts connected to the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency had sent messages about Brexit in 2016, though the company had said previously they had not found any strong evidence of IRA accounts meddling in Brexit. YouTube announced at the hearing that they found no evidence of accounts linked to the Russian government paying for Brexit-related ads on its platform, but agreed to look further into the matter. | | Porter ex-wife's emotional interview with Cooper | | Josiah Ryan emails: In an emotional interview that lasted more than half of the first hour of "AC360" Thursday, Jennifer Willoughby, Porter's second ex-wife said the former-White House aide had asked her to remove allegations of abuse she made last year on her Instagram account and in a blog post. "He had asked me multiple times to take down my Instagram post," she said.
Willoughby also expressed worry for Hope Hicks: "If he hasn't already been abusive with Hope, he will. And particularly now that he's under a lot of stress and scrutiny." | | Was Fox shamed into covering the Porter story? | | Rob Porter's resignation from the White House amid allegations of domestic abuse was covered extensively by news networks on Wednesday night. Only outlier? Fox News. The network entirely avoided covering the explosive story during prime-time programming. (I should note Fox did cover it Wednesday during "Special Report" and earlier programs.) According to Tom Kludt, as of 9am Thursday, the network had gone about 15 hours before discussing Porter.
People started noticing this -- it was incredibly obvious the network was avoiding the subject when Kellyanne Conway was not asked a question about the scandal during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" -- and stories began popping up about the story's absence from the Fox airwaves, including from our own Tom Kludt. Soon after, Fox News resumed coverage of Porter's exit from the White House. The network aired segments throughout the day -- take a look at this Shep Smith segment -- and the Fox News homepage was updated to include a story. | | Speaking of 'Fox & Friends'... | | | Kludt emails: The show is hiring! Media Twitter lit up on Thursday with news of two openings at the most influential show in cable news: a senior producer and a head writer. Sam Stein imagined on Twitter what the job postings could have said: "Have you ever thought about shaping history? Do you want to change the course of humanity? Would you like to be a top adviser to the president? Well, this job is for YOU!" | | Dems want docs on DOJ's lawsuit to block AT&T deal | | | Top Democrats in the House on Thursday sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking for documents related to the DOJ's decision to file a lawsuit to block the AT&T - Time Warner deal. The Democrats wrote Sessions in the letter, which you can read here, that while they took "no position on the legality of the transaction or the merits of the lawsuit itself," they were "deeply concerned by reports of inappropriate interference by the White House and, in particular, your refusal during your testimony on November 14, 2017 to answer questions relating to your communications with the White House regarding this matter." Variety's Ted Johnson has a full story here... | | Some news on Thursday's earnings call: "Viacom is planning to launch an ad-supported direct-to-consumer streaming service by September, using all the content is has been hoarding since pulling out of services like Hulu and Netflix," the WSJ's Keach Hagey tweeted. Here's her story with Austen Hufford.
--> WSJ editor Amol Sharma added: "Questions that remain: Will you need a cable TV login to access it? If not, how can it be 'complementary' to pay TV distributors? Is it because it will only have old programming, or a limited selection? Whatever this is, it is clearly not like CBS All Access..." | | By Julia Waldow:
--The NYT officially announced its 2017 fourth-quarter and full-year results on Thursday. Numbers on the subscription front were positive, with revenues totaling over $1 billion, or 60% of the year's total revenues, in 2017. (NYT)
--And in more NYT news: Rumaan Alam is joining the Books desk as the special projects editor and Kim Murphy is joining the National desk as an enterprise editor... (NYT, NYT)
--In a boost for local reporting, the now-defunct DNAinfo Chicago will live on through Block Club Chicago, a neighborhood-focused organization backed by blockchain and reader subscriptions... (Nieman Lab)
--"It only took 12 years, but Twitter has finally turned a quarterly profit..." (CNNMoney)
--Google and Facebook might be tech giants, but they constitute less than 5% of publishers' digital revenue, a new report from Digital Context Next shows... (Digiday) | | Twitter failed to remove hundreds of Russian propaganda videos aimed at Americans | | | Donie O'Sullivan emails his latest: Twitter told Congress back in October they removed almost 3,000 Kremlin-linked Twitter accounts that targeted Americans. This week, we found a pair of Vine accounts that were associated with two of those Twitter accounts. The Vine accounts were still available to view. CNN told Twitter about the Vine accounts (Twitter owns Vine), and Twitter removed them. But the company wouldn't provide us with any information on how they missed them in the first place...Read Donie's story here. | | Fox News demonstrates just how much journalistic integrity it has (Hint: not so much) | | On Wednesday morning, Fox News published and hyped a story that stripped context from texts between two senior FBI officials to suggest former President Obama was involved in the Hillary Clinton email probe. Hours later, both CNN and the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal published stories effectively debunking this claim. You can read my story on this here...
But Fox News never issued a correction. Instead, the Trump-friendly outlet quietly moved its initial story off the website's homepage and substituted it for another story with a slightly different frame. I asked a Fox News spokesperson again tonight if the network planned on updating the story informing its readers about the mistake, but did not hear back...
Flashback to last year: Remember when Fox News was less-than-transparent after it was forced to retract its story on Seth Rich? At the time, a senior Fox News employee told me this: "It really forces the question, how much journalistic integrity does Fox News really have? Because most other news outlets, these situations come up, but they are dealt with appropriately. People are held accountable. People are fired, they are disciplined or whatever. But this is like classic Fox. No one ever gets fired from Fox for publishing a story that isn't true."
| | Who's Ronan's next target? | | The Drudge Report set the media world abuzz on Thursday morning with a text-only headline declaring that Ronan Farrow had set his eyes on a "new target."
I pinged Farrow to see if he'd offer an additional hint at to what this could mean, but he referred me to a spokesperson for the New Yorker who said the magazine doesn't comment on what it hasn't published. That said, Farrow did tell Gayle King earlier this week that his piece, which is in the edit stage, is "not about Weinstein." | | O'Reilly knocks Lawrence, Scarborough, and Brzezinski | | | Tom Kludt emails: Bill O'Reilly paid a visit to the NYC radio program "The Bernie and Sid Show" on Thursday, where he had choice words for some MSNBC personalities. Lawrence O'Donnell, O'Reilly said, is "the worst," "bottom of the barrel," "a smear merchant," "a nasty individual" and "a guttersnipe" (an O'Reilly classic!). He said that Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are shameless, joking that the pair would join the John Birch Society for a couple extra million dollars. That's standard O'Reilly invective, of course. My biggest takeaway? A guy who used to go on Letterman and Leno is now resigned to "The Bernie and Sid Show." | | "Pod Save America" heads to HBO | | | Frank Pallotta emails: "Pod Save America" is heading to HBO this fall for a series of hour-long specials on the campaign trail. The guys behind the popular podcast, Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor responded with one of the best statements I've read in a while: "We are so grateful that HBO is taking a chance on us, even though these live shows will have so few dragons and sex robots." | | This week's "Reliable" pod | | | Jacob Weisberg, chairman and editor in chief of The Slate Group, is Brian Stelter's guest on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast... They talked about market coverage, Trump's reaction to the stock market volatility, "false equivalence," the space between news and opinion, and the influence of "bad faith actors" who tinker with the truth. Check it out on Apple Podcasts or TuneIn... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Dana Perino quips back to colleagues after they pivot to Clinton: "Back to Clinton scandals, here on Fox News!" (Mediaite)
-- Former Cato Institute employees say they were sexually harassed by co-founder Ed Crane... (Politico)
-- "Why Maclean's is asking men to pay 26% more for our latest issue..." (Maclean)
-- CNN contributor Amanda Carpenter slams White House: "They protect abusers!" (Mediaite) | | The NBC family has arrived in South Korea for the 2018 Winter Games. "Nightly News" host Lester Holt did his Thursday evening broadcast -- which included an interview with VP Mike Pence -- from Pyeongchang. At 8 p.m. ET, NBC kicked off its official coverage of the games, with a broadcast the night before the opening ceremony. And Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker will be broadcasting "TODAY" live from Korena peninsula starting Monday.
Here's how to watch tomorrow: Viewers can stream the opening ceremony live at 6 a.m. ET on Friday via the NBC Sports app or at NBCOlympics.com. The opening ceremony will then be broadcast on NBC Friday at 8 p.m. ET... CNN has this handy medal table ready to go for you. | | Say what? Fox exec under fire for Olympics column | | Fox News Executive Vice President John Moody earned criticism for an opinion piece he authored for FoxNews.com on Thursday. In the column he wrote, "Unless it's changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been 'Faster, Higher, Stronger.' It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to 'Darker, Gayer, Different.' If your goal is to win medals, that won't work."
Critics immediately ripped into the piece. Dave Holmes, editor at large at Esquire.com, called it "the dumbest thing" he'd read in ages. Deadspin's Laura Wagner mocked him in a piece she wrote. And MSNBC host Chris Hayes tweeted, "Fox New's executive Vice President goes after United States Olympic Committee for touting the diversity of its athletes." I reached out to a Fox News spokesperson to see if Moody had any response, but did not hear back... | | Will the Olympics be the same without the Russians? Nyet | | | Brian Lowry emails: Although appeals are pending on behalf of some athletes, as it stands the Winter Olympics will go on without the Russians, who were suspended due to a doping scandal. The International Olympic Committee's action might be good for sports, but it risks depriving the event — as a TV spectacle that came of age during the Cold War era — of what were once its trademark heavies. Read Lowry's full story here... | | Mike Tirico carries the torch as NBC's Winter Olympics host | | | Pallotta emails: Mike Tirico will take over for Bob Costas as the voice of NBC's prime time Olympics coverage when the games kick off on Friday. It's the first time since 1992 that Costas hasn't been the host. Tirico has big skis to fill since Costas has hosted a record 11 Olympics for the network. But he told me recently that he's ready for the challenge: "I've said it a few times, you definitely follow, you don't replace because Bob has just such a long history doing it." | | The games are raking in the 💰💰💰 | | | Ahiza Garcia emails this statement from Dan Lovinger, EVP, Advertising Sales, NBC Sports Group: "We have surpassed $900 million in national ad sales for Pyeongchang 2018, a Winter Games record. Advertisers continue to support the Olympics because they recognize the unparalleled value and reach it provides over 18 days and nights. We look forward to adding to this milestone as the drama of the Games unfolds over the next few weeks." | | -- "How Facebook is Killing Comedy," by Sarah Aswell... (Splitsider)
-- "The Death of Newsweek," by Jonathan Alter... (The Atlantic)
-- "From Expensing Yachts to Chasing The Onion: I Watched the Newsweekly Die From the Inside," by Matthew Cooper... (POLITICO Magazine)
-- "Hanya Yanagihara Made a Style Magazine for the Trump Era," by Carolyn Twersky... (The Cut) | | Kate Upton breaks her silence on alleged harassment by Paul Marciano | | | Chloe Melas emails: Kate Upton has now provided details about Guess co-founder Paul Marciano's alleged sexual misconduct. Upton spoke candidly to Time magazine and alleged that Marciano verbally harassed and touched her inappropriately starting when she was 18 years old. Marciano denied the accusations in a statement to CNN calling them "absolutely false." Upton claims that Marciano's behavior continued for years, and that she would get fired from jobs when she denied his advances. | | 'Seeing Allred' shines light on Gloria Allred | | | Brian Lowry emails: Gloria Allred's crusading on behalf of women couldn't be more timely, but Netflix's documentary devoted to her life and career, "Seeing Allred," is such an unabashed valentine to the attorney/advocate as to feel a tad toothless. | | 'Fifty Shades' trilogy reaches its climax | | | Lowry emails: The "Fifty Shades of Grey" movie trilogy comes to what looks like a merciful end with "Fifty Shades Freed," which ties things up in more ways than one. Notably, the second film earned far less than the first, and based on tracking estimates, this one should top the weekend but figures to continue that downward trajectory. | | MoviePass passes two million users | | | Pallotta emails: MoviePass is not slowing down. The $10 a month unlimited movie service just crossed two million subscribers less than one month after passing 1.5 million users. "We're giving people a reason to go back to the movie theaters and they're going in droves," CEO Mitch Lowe said in statement. "With awards season here, we hope we can make Hollywood and exhibitors very happy by filling seats with eager audiences." | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... he loves the feedback, corrections, suggestions, and tips. But since he's taking some R&R, you can also email me: oliver.darcy@turner.com... Thank you... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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