| | | | | Oliver Darcy here, filling in for Brian Stelter who is taking this Friday evening off. Please send your feedback -- and any tips you may have -- my direction. You can find me at oliver.darcy@turner.com or on Twitter at @oliverdarcy! Now let's get to the news... | | The Denver Post sends an SOS | | The Denver Post is begging to be saved -- quite literally. On Sunday, the newspaper will print a package (here's a landing page with the different pieces) centered around its survival. At the center will be a piece by the newspaper's editorial board lamenting "marching orders to cut a full 30" staffers by the start of July, and laying much of the blame at the feet of its owner, NYC hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
It's a remarkable piece, one in which The Post's editorial board goes as far as to say, "If Alden isn't willing to do good journalism here, it should sell The Post to owners who will." The board also laces into Alden's "cynical strategy of constantly reducing the amount and quality of its offerings, while steadily increasing its subscription rates," and says, "Coloradans feel the insanity of it in their bones." Read the editorial in its entirety here... | | "If the paper's demise comes to pass, there will never be another Denver Post" | | As part of The Post's Sunday package, former editor Gregory L. Moore wrote a column about the deep cuts the newspaper has endured over the years. He said he left in March 2016 after 14 years as editor "because I was done laying off journalists." Moore wrote, "If the paper's demise comes to pass, there will never be another Denver Post." Moore said he's not sure "how long The Post is going to be around," But he added, "I can tell you the watchdog as we know it is being put to sleep."
--> Context: Alden's gutting of local papers is coming under increasing scrutiny... | | Trump snubbing WHCD again | | For the second consecutive year, Trump will skip the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. The WHCA said in a statement that the White House informed it that Trump "does not plan to participate in this year's dinner" but will "actively encourage members of the executive branch to attend and join us as we celebrate the First Amendment." The WHCA added that Sarah Sanders will "represent the administration at the head table."
>> Stelter's takeaway: "Skipping the dinner is a symbol of the president's deeply strained relationship with the news outlets that cover him. While he covets attention and approval from reporters -- and has friendly relationships with some of them -- he routinely attacks the 'fake' media and tells the public not to trust outlets he opposes."
>> A former W.H. official emails, flustered by the association's decision to give Sanders a seat at the head table: "They're so stuck clinging to their outdated traditions and conventions that they're missing the willful, systematic, and effective discrediting of their entire life's work. But sure, let's send out a press release that the face of that subversion will be at our head table! SHS does as much to undermine the press corps as anyone. They're just so feeble that they have no idea how to handle being under attack -- even a year later they're complicit in just going through all the same motions." | | Sean Hannity feuds with Jimmy Kimmel | | If you've been on Twitter over the last 24 hours, there's a good chance you've caught wind of Fox News host Sean Hannity's ongoing feud with Jimmy Kimmel. The two have been exchanging barbs since Kimmel made a joke at the expense of Melania Trump earlier this week. Hannity suggested zinging Melania was out of bounds, and attacked Kimmel for doing so. That prompted Kimmel to spend four minutes of his show roasting Hannity, which triggered the Fox News host into having a Twitter meltdown...
It's hard to summarize the war of words here, but it's safe to say things have escalated into uncharted territory. Hannity has repeatedly referenced a years-old comedy bit Kimmel did to refer to the comedian as "Harvey Weinstein Jr." Kimmel, for his part, fired back by asking Hannity about Trump's lewd comments about women, something Hannity dismissed as "locker room talk." Mediaite has a recap of the Twitter fight here...
>> The clash jumped to Fox News primetime on Friday night. BuzzFeed's Jon Passantino noted on Twitter, "Hannity just spent the first 21 minutes of his show melting down over Jimmy Kimmel and threatened to 'roll tape' on the comedian 'every night for the rest of my career.'"
>> As Hannity delivered his monologue on Kimmel Friday night, a Fox News employee texted me from the newsroom. The person said Hannity's monologue was not well-received by some staffers there... | | Kludt and Lowry's thoughts | | >> Tom Kludt emails some historical context: Let's consider for a moment that Hannity vigorously defended Roger Ailes against a mountain of sexual harassment allegations back in 2016. Then, let's note that Hannity has been the biggest Trump cheerleader in conservative media. And yet, despite those two lines in his biography, Hannity likened Jimmy Kimmel to Harvey Weinstein and mocked the late night comic for sucking up to Obama.
>> And Brian Lowry raises an interesting point: "Hannity keeps tagging @Disney in his tweets, as if he's trying to get Kimmel in trouble with his bosses. That seems like an odd tactic at a moment when Fox News is having to circle the wagons on behalf of Hannity's primetime companion, Laura Ingraham..." | | This Sunday on "Reliable Sources" | | | Brian Stelter emails: I'll be joined by Dean Baquet, Olivia Nuzzi, Erick Erickson, Jeff Greenfield, and a former reporter at a Sinclair-owned station, Jonathan Beaton... The Orlando Sentinel's Hal Boedeker has a preview here... Headline: "Orlando man shares Sinclair saga on CNN..." | | -- Lester Holt will sit down with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The interview, which airs Monday on "NBC Nightly News," is sure to make news. NBC says Lynch will discuss her tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton, among other things... (NBC News)
-- Hot ticket in DC: Javelin, the PR agency representing James Comey, sent out invitations on Friday for the former FBI director's book party. It's being held on April 24th at The Newseum...
-- Ann Coulter suggested on the Lars Larson radio show that if the military would "shoot one" person illegally crossing into the country from the southern border it would "send a message to the rest" and "maybe they'll learn..." (Mediaite)
-- You can watch Chris Paine's new A.I. documentary for free, courtesy of Elon Musk, who has paid for the movie to be streamed online for free this weekend. Dylan Byers wrote in PACIFIC that it "raises significant, pressing questions about the future of artificial intelligence..." (PACIFIC) | | More fallout from The Atlantic ditching Williamson | | The fallout from The Atlantic's decision to part ways with Kevin Williamson over his extreme abortion comments in 2014 continued on Friday. The right continued to level attacks on the magazine, while others maintained their praise for the decision.
>> Kirsten Powers wrote in her USA Today column that she finds "common cause with Williamson's defenders in their concern that intellectual diversity is lacking in our society's cultural institutions," but said she doesn't think "this event is a good example of that phenomenon." Powers noted that wanting to punish women for having an abortion -- not to mention death by hanging -- does not fall within mainstream conservative thought and was one of the few positions even Trump was forced to reverse himself on.
>> Ben Domenech contended in The Federalist that he believed the firing told a story "about what happens when a talented individual has deeply held beliefs those in his profession find unacceptable." Domenech wrote, "In the case of Williamson, even someone who literally wrote a book titled The Case Against Donald Trump was unacceptable for The Atlantic because wrongthink about what ought to be the legal ramifications for tearing an unborn child apart."
>> Glenn Beck weighed in via tweet: "There is a difference between feeling unsafe and being uncomfortable. We should look for those who make us uncomfortable especially if the argument is intellectually sound." | | Zuck's retracted private messages fuel more concerns | | Facebook spent Friday dealing with another controversy. Techcrunch's Josh Constine revealed that Facebook retracted Mark Zuckerberg messages from the inboxes of some recipients. Facebook initially said the action was taken for corporate security. The social media giant later said it planned to launch an unsend feature for everyone in the next several months.
>>The revelation resulted in this story from BuzzFeed's Alex Kantrowitz which argued the company "has been operating a two-tiered privacy system that favors its leadership over its users." | | Facebook makes changes before Congressional testimony | | | Julia Waldow emails: Ahead of Zuckerberg's testimony next week, Facebook announced in a blog post that it will now verify every advertiser who wants to run political or issue ads, and will begin labeling them as such, alongside "paid for by" information. The company is also requiring verification for people who manage Pages with large numbers of followers. CNNMoney's Heather Kelly has a write-up on the changes here, and CNN's Donie O'Sullivan analyzes the "major questions" that remain here... | | It's officially awards season | | Laura Vigilante emails: The 2018 journalism awards season kicked off Friday afternoon with the George Polk Awards at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC. Spotted: Ronan Farrow, Jodi Kantor, Dean Baquet, Jeff Zucker, Nima Elbagir, Elle Reeve, Mia Farrow, David Begnaud, Stephanie McCrummen, and many more.
>> You can see a full list of the winners here... | | By Julia Waldow:
-- A recording of a CNN International staff meeting in London, leaked to BuzzFeed News, reveals managing director Tony Maddox saying he is "shocked and disappointed" by the results of an internal study that revealed a gender pay gap... (BuzzFeed)
-- Twitter is postponing a platform change that would impact third-party clients like Tweetbot, Twitterific, Talon, and Tweetings... (The Verge)
-- CJR speaks to Les Zaitz, formerly of The Oregonian, about the investigative reporting his team conducted in the 1980s on the international cult at the center of the new Netflix documentary "Wild Wild Country..." (CJR) | | Sinclair's newest statement | | Brian Stelter emails: Deans and J-school department chairs from eight different universities sent a letter on Friday to Sinclair expressing concern about the promo controversy. And Sinclair head of news Scott Livingston's response is interesting: "We stand for accurate reporting first and foremost. We understand that the promo prompted an emotional response, and we'll learn from that in the future. We value the connections our anchors have with their communities and trust that they will continue reporting local news for their viewers as only they know how to do."
Sounds like he's dealing with a lot of blowback, both internal and external... | | A sign of Breitbart's growing irrelevance | | Breitbart held its big "Masters of the Universe" town hall on big tech Thursday night -- and the event yielded no noticeable traction in the media. I searched Google on Friday morning for coverage and could not find any pick-up, including from friendly outlets on the right.
Had Breitbart hosted a similar event a year ago, this lack of coverage would have been unfathomable. You'd likely have seen reporters from various mainstream outlets descend into Louisiana to cover the event, likely with the aim of connecting the one event to a larger story arc on the right. But with Steve Bannon no longer tethered to the website, it seemed no one cared. Instead it served as yet another sign that Breitbart's relevance is diminishing. | | Trump fondly recalls phoning into TV and radio | | President Trump "has proved Scrooge-like when it comes to doling out formal interviews," as the NYT's Michael Grynbaum notes here. But Trump called into the brand-new "Bernie & Sid" show (the successor to Imus) on WABC Radio this week.
"I haven't done one of these phoners in a while," Trump said. "I used to do them all the time." He then told the hosts that his friendship with them compelled him to do the show: "I'm going to take a couple minutes and do that show. In between North Korea, and Iran, and all the other things going on." The nearly nine-minute interview didn't make much news, but you can listen to it here... | | Trey Gowdy responds to attacks from right-wing media in surprisingly candid interview with VICE | | Trey Gowdy sat down for an interview with Michael Moynihan of "Vice News Tonight on HBO," and it is worth watching. Gowdy is surprisingly candid, telling Moynihan at the start of the interview that he did not like the job of congressman and didn't have "a lot to show" for his time in Congress. Gowdy also pushed back against some of the way conservative media portrayed him. Watch the full interview here...
>> Moynihan noted to Gowdy that if he were to search his name on YouTube, he'd see a plethora of results about how he "destroyed" or "eviscerated" a liberal or Democrat. Gowdy said "it's not who I am" and added he did not think such coverage is "effective at resolving" the nation's problems.
>> Asked to respond to recent criticism Gowdy has received on the right from people like Mark Levin for backing the integrity of Robert Mueller, Gowdy said, "I have not figured out how to commercialize conservatism, as some of my critics have." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Daniella Emanuel:
-- Esquire's Jack Holmes takes apart the voter fraud "fantasy" promoted by Trump and then "Fox & Friends"... (Esquire)
-- Vice Media disclosed that the average hourly wage for their male employees in the U.K. is 18.2% higher than the average for their female employees. That's higher than the nation's average pay gap, which is 17.4%... (Variety)
-- The GPS app "Waze" is causing intense traffic and collisions on a Southern California street..."They took out my trellis, my retaining wall, my picket fence...it looked like a plane crashed through my front yard,' one neighbor said." This is only one example of the issues traffic apps have been creating across the country... (CBS News)
-- It looks like the 3D movie trend might be coming to an end: "3D ticket sales have decreased every single year for the past seven years." And GQ's Tom Philip isn't too upset about it, writing, "Finally, some good news..." (GQ) | | An error for the record books | | Tom Kludt emails a story related to the issues at The Denver Post we were discussing earlier: This one goes in the box score as an error. A big one. It's bad enough for the paper of a record to incorrectly identify the stadium of the local Major League Baseball team. It's doubly bad when the errant photo is directly under the name of the correct stadium in big, bold letters. And it's triply bad when said error came on the heels of significant layoffs.
But after using a photo of Citizens Bank Park (home of the Philadelphia Phillies) for a feature on Coors Field (home of the Colorado Rockies), The Denver Post produced a first ballot entry into the journalism screw-up hall of fame. Credit where it's due, the Post did its best to put a cheery spin on the embarrassment, inviting readers to send their favorite photos of Coors Field for a chance to win tickets to a Rockies game. | | This week on the 'Reliable Sources' podcast | | | Stelter talks with Callum Borchers, who covers media and politics for The Washington Post. As Julia Waldow writes, Stelter chats with Borchers about the "trickle-down effect Trump's TV viewing has on US politics." Listen to the podcast and read Waldow's full recap here... | | By Lisa France:
-- Singer Lorde has apologized after she got roasted on social media for making a joke about Whitney Houston and a bathtub...
-- NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said this week at The Hollywood Reporter's Power Lawyers breakfast that the network is considering rebooting "The Office" and "30 Rock." Fans of the former are so ready.
-- Blue Ivy Carter is living soooo much better than the rest of us. The daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z is only 6 but already has a stylist and personal shopper. | | Megan Thomas emails: A joke on Tuesday's episode of "Roseanne" is creating controversy. After falling asleep on the couch, Dan and Roseanne have this exchange:
"We missed all the shows about black and Asian families," Dan says, in reference to fellow ABC sitcoms "Black-ish" and "Fresh Off the Boat."
Roseanne responds: "They're just like us. There, now you're all caught up."
On Thursday, Kelvin Yu, a writer on the Fox series "Bob's Burgers," explained in a series a tweets why he felt the joke was in poor taste: "At the very least, it's reductive and belittling, as if to say those shows are nothing more than 'Black' and 'Asian' in their existence." | | This weekend's TV offerings | | Brian Lowry emails: There's a British-American flavor to this weekend's new TV offerings, starting with "Killing Eve," a series about an intelligence analyst on the trail of a Russian assassin, which adds to the current wave of killer Russians sweeping across TV for not wholly coincidental reasons. The show stars Sandra Oh, and has earned a vote of confidence by receiving a second-season renewal before its stateside premiere on BBC America.
Elsewhere, Starz continues to mine its pipeline to the U.K. With a fine new four-hour adaptation of "Howards End," starring Hayley Atwell and written by Kenneth Lonergan. It's from producer Colin Callender, who has shepherded a number of such prestige projects to Starz CEO Chris Albrecht, his former boss at HBO. | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thanks! | | | | | | |
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