| | | | On Saturday night, the president calls you a "sleeping son of a bitch." Sunday morning, you're on TV. What do you do? If you're Chuck Todd, you take the high road.
On "Meet the Press," Todd did not directly reference the insult... But he did bring up Trump's use of "vulgarities" during a contentious interview with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Todd's point: "When he uses vulgarity to talk about individuals," what should we tell our kids?
Mnuchin tried to pivot... And eventually said there were "a lot of funny moments at that rally..." So Todd responded with sarcasm, "Yes, they were hilarious." Here's my full story... | | It was wrong when Trump was just a candidate, and it's even worse now that he's the president. These jabs expose journalists to threats and intimidation. Meanwhile, there's this item from Axios: "Trump is having the time of his life. Sources describe him as giddy, having finally indulged his itch to break free of John Kelly's restraints." So... are we going to hear even more anti-media attacks from POTUS?
-- Joe Scarborough tweeted: "Trump's 1st year in a speech: 1. Attack America's free press and push the crowd to boo Chuck Todd, 2. Embrace tyrants and stop the crowd from booing Kim Jung Un..." | | Trump hits Haberman. She says LOL | | | While Todd was on the air Sunday morning, Trump called Maggie Haberman of the NYT a "Hillary flunky" who "knows nothing about me and is not given access." Haberman -- who has interviewed Trump multiple times in the past year -- responded to his bogus tweet with a simple "Lol..." | | | Jake Tapper tweeted that Haberman and Todd "are not only great journalists, they are good people. This crass name-calling is beneath the office of the presidency." | | | Scroll down for Today in Trump, including his comments about Oprah... | | | ...Emphasis on the question mark. NYT's Sydney Ember visited Meredith HQ in Des Moines, weeks after the company took over Time Inc., and here's what she learned: "Among the options under consideration are selling off Time and Sports Illustrated, or changing how frequently they are published. Time, for instance, could become a bi-weekly or monthly..." | | NYT's next podcast: "Caliphate" | | | The Times says "Caliphate" with correspondent/ISIS expert Rukmini Callimachi will be the news org's "first narrative nonfiction podcast." It was recorded over the past year... A teaser is up now... "New episodes will be released later this spring," the NYT says. "In a first for Times audio, our subscribers will get early access to the series..." | | "American Idol" returns -- this time on ABC | | | What did you think of the premiere? I'm waiting to watch it til "Idol" super-fan/my wife Jamie is awake. Lisa Respers France just emailed, and she's not impressed: "I'm not feeling the magic of Idol this time around. Seacrest feels muted (by design?) and everyone just feels too...nice. In the words of Randy Jackson, it's a no for me dawg." | | Why did ABC shelve this episode of "Black-ish" ? | | ABC and showrunner Kenya Barris say they had "creative differences." So the episode of "Black-ish" slated for Feb. 27, titled "Please, Baby, Please," was shelved. "The network has no plan at this time to air the episode or make it available through other forms of distribution," Variety's Daniel Holloway scooped Friday night.
ABC and Barris issued polite statements that tip-toed around the disagreement. "Given our creative differences, neither ABC nor I were happy with the direction of the episode and mutually agreed not to air it," Harris said. So what was the dispute about? Well, Holloway says "the episode covers multiple political and social issues." In one scene, there's an argument over the "rights of athletes to kneel during the performance of the national anthem at football games..." | | -- Ivanka Trump gave an interview to the WashPost. The story says parts were kept "off the record..." (WashPost)
-- 👏 to MSNBC's Kasie Hunt. When Anthony Scaramucci used the term "fake news" during a Sunday night segment, she shot back, "We don't use fake news on this show..." (Mediaite)
-- Here's some good news! The Medill School "received about 24% more undergraduate journalism applications for the 2018-19 school year than from the year before..." (Daily Northwestern) | | | THIS WEEK: Will the Washington Post publish its much-talked-about investigation into CBS News? ... Will Netflix announce a deal with the Obamas? ... Who will win PA 18? | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday: SXSW continues... Dylan Byers will interview Apple's Eddy Cue on stage at 11am...
-- Tuesday: Michael Isikoff and David Corn's book "Russian Roulette" comes out...
-- Wednesday: The National School Walkout, a 17-minute protest created in the wake of Parkland...
-- Friday: 10th anniversary of the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns. Watch CNNMoney for the start of year-long coverage of the scariest year in the economy in any of our lives...
-- Friday: Freedom of Information Day... | | Tuesday's special election | | | The headline in Saturday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Stakes small, interest high in 18th race." Expect to see hours of special live coverage on cable on Tuesday night... | | | With the trial scheduled to start in one week, Monday will be a big day in DOJ v. AT&T -- both sides will submit witness lists to each other and to the court. On Tuesday afternoon, there's a pre-trial conference scheduled... | | 🌞 This is "Sunshine Week!" | | "It's Your Right to Know" is the slogan for Sunshine Week, an annual effort by lots of newsrooms and advocacy groups to promote transparency. It's described as a "nationwide celebration of access to public information..." Details here...
--> David Zurawik and I discussed it on "Reliable Sources..." | | When will the Stormy Daniels interview air? | | Next Sunday makes sense... Anderson Cooper taped the sit-down with Stormy Daniels for "60 Minutes" several days ago... But the official word is that the segment doesn't have an air date yet.
BuzzFeed's well-sourced legal reporter Chris Geidner said Sunday that "lawyers associated with President Donald Trump are considering legal action to stop '60 Minutes' from airing" the interview. His story notes that "Trump and his legal team often have threatened litigation without following through on those threats in the past." When I reached Michael Cohen on his cell phone, he deferred Q's to his lawyer and told me I should wear more makeup on TV... | | CBS declining to comment... | | | As this story in Monday's NYT points out, any action to block the interview "could create a major First Amendment standoff." CBS has no comment... | | It's about money, not sex | | | WSJ reporter Michael Rothfeld, part of the team that broke the Stormy Daniels payoff story, joined me on Sunday's show. "Where the money came from" is a big part of the story, he said. The focus is on the money, not the alleged sex... | | | --> Speaking of Stormy: Hadas Gold flew to FL to write about the scene at this strip club where Daniels appeared over the weekend... | | -- "Always the Reporter, Never the Bride." This is a heartfelt column about being on the wedding beat when you're single... (NYT)
-- Jesse Watters' awkward divorce has spilled out into public view... (NYDN)
-- The Atlantic's must-read new cover story by Michael Gerson, "The Last Temptation," is about Trump and evangelicals... (The Atlantic) | | Love the lede to this Margaret Sullivan column... | | "Remember what happened last Monday and Tuesday? Of course you don't. These days, it's hard enough to remember yesterday, much less nearly a week ago."
So her column has advice for coping with news overload... | | Speaking of last Monday... | | | Sam Nunberg's TV tour was almost a week ago. Of course, he ultimately testified to the grand jury on Friday. Now he's resuming interviews. His first was with ABC's Tara Palmeri... He said "people say I had a meltdown on TV. I MELTED TV DOWN that day... I wanted to show what this independent counsel, this independent investigation, does to people like me..." | | | Jason Farkas emails: This is a fascinating NYT profile of a man who's avoided all news, except the weather, since Nov. 8, 2016. "Donald Trump's victory shook him. Badly. And so Mr. Hagerman developed his own eccentric experiment, one that was part silent protest, part coping mechanism, part extreme self-care plan." Read the whole story by Sam Dolnick here... | | "Is there anything more fun than a Trump rally?" | | | That's what Trump asked the crowd at Saturday night's rally. One minute, he's askig his fans for affirmation... the next minute, he's imploring journalists to give him credit... | | | Looking for a list of Trump's misstatements from the rally? Daniel Dale catalogued them on Twitter. This is the one that stood out to me: Trump said that "we got 52%" of women voters in the 2016 election, defying expectations. Well he actually won 41% of women overall. But he did win 52% of white women. Is that what he meant? | | "Shtick" or serious threats? | | | ☝That's the discussion we had on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." When Salena Zito, who was at the rally, said the "fake" news gripes were "part of the shtick," April Ryan responded: "This is not shtick. It's not comedy. This is real and it's dangerous." Here's my full story... | | | WSJ reporter Michael Rothfeld, part of the team that broke the Stormy Daniels payoff story, joined me on Sunday's show. "Where the money came from" is a big part of the story, he said. The focus is on the money, not the alleged sex... | | Meet the NYT's gender editor | | | Jessica Bennett, the gender editor of the NYT, also joined me on Sunday's "Reliable..." We talked about the new "Overlooked" obits project, plus Tucker Carlson's decision to launch a monthlong series called "Men in America" during Women's History Month... Bennett and I concluded that the series would be wonderful in April, but scheduling it in March was an act of trolling... | | The contrast between Trump and Winfrey | | Via CNN's Eli Watkins: "Trump said the person he most wants to run against in 2020 is Oprah Winfrey, predicting the campaign 'would be a painful experience for her.'"
Key quote: "I know her weakness." Maybe he does. But Winfrey knows Trump's weakness, too. On "The Van Jones Show," she said, "Do not spend all your time talking about your opponents. Do not give your energy to that which you really don't believe in. Do not spend an ounce of your time on that." In other words: Ignore Trump. Deprive him of attention... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- "Fresh off her Oscar win for 'Coco,' longtime Pixar producer Darla K. Anderson is leaving the animation studio after 25 years..." (THR)
-- Megyn Kelly's Friday night special on NBC, "Confronting Putin," averaged 2.3 million viewers... (Deadline)
-- Nadia Khomami writing for The Guardian: "How three billboards became the new global protest method..." (Guardian)
-- "Twitter just suspended a ton of accounts known for stealing tweets..." (BuzzFeed) | | | The First Four of the NCAA Tournament will play on Tuesday night... Here are Bleacher Report's rankings of all 68 teams... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The NYT's Joe Drape has a good piece about the cloud of scandal hanging over NCAA basketball as its marquee tournament prepares to begin, and whether analysts on CBS and the Turner networks will acknowledge as much, or, as he suggests, if the huge investment in the sport essentially purchases silence and will keep the focus squarely on the games... | | "Ready Player One" premiere | | Frank Pallotta emails: Steven Spielberg's latest film, "Ready Player One," made its world premiere at SXSW on Sunday night. Warner Bros. has pulled out all the stops at the festival to promote the film, which opens later this month. Posters are plastered on nearly every street corner in downtown Austin and the studio has put together the "'Ready Player One' Experience" -- a giant activation that incorporates virtual reality and other aspects from the film.
--> Frank will have a recap on CNN.com Monday morning... | | Spotted at CNN's party space | | | James Marsden, Mike Allen, Jake Tapper, W. Kamau Bell, Christiane Amanpour, Dan Rather, Symone Sanders, Deray McKesson, Samantha Barry, Joe Pompeo, Michael Calderone, Alex Hardiman, Erika Masonhall, Hilary Rosen, David Axelrod, Jon Favreau, Jeff Zucker, Andrew Morse, Meredith Artley, Jason Farkas, Chris Berend, Amy Entelis, Allison Gollust, and many more. There was an apple-themed photo booth... | | Tepid opening weekend for "Time" | | Brian Lowry emails: The Onion cleverly captured the discomfort some critics appeared to feel with its headline, "Negative Review Of 'A Wrinkle In Time' Peppered With Critic Assuring Readers He Still Totally Supports Diversity."
Many reviewers deemed "Wrinkle" an underwhelming movie, and its opening weekend box-office was tepid, given the budget and expectations. It happens. And it's fair to separate those conclusions from others related to the film's significance in having been directed by a woman of color, Ava DuVernay, which helped inspire pieces like the one by CNN guest columnist Kerra Bolton that labeled buying a movie ticket "the latest act of political resistance..." | | | Frank Pallotta emails: "Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins gave his film keynote talk at SXSW on Sunday, and it was something special. Not only did he finally get to read aloud the Oscar speech he would have given if there wasn't a mix up last year, but he told a really touching story about people in Miami's Liberty Square projects coming out to watch the film being made. "I turn and look back at one point and I see all these kids who are normally running through my shot. They're sitting at video village, they're literally sitting in our chairs," Jenkins said... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
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