Exec summary: Jill Abramson and Roger McNamee's books are out on Tuesday... the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy is coming out with recommendations... and Oprah is sitting down with Beto O'Rourke... Scroll down for details...
The Super Bowl of fact-checking
The State of the Union is typically a U.S. president's most-watched speech of the year. So Tuesday night is a big stage for President Trump. And I'm wondering: Are the networks and their fact-checking teams up to the task? | | Analytical work by the Washington Post and other outlets confirmed what many of us have felt: That Trump's level of lying, of deceit, has been getting worse. Television news divisions are in the business of broadcasting true information, so the SOTU is more of a dilemma this year than it was last year.
Fact-checkers are "busting their behinds" trying to keep up with Trump, David Zurawik told me the other day. "They're busting their brains trying to figure out better ways." Here's an example worth watching: The Reporters' Lab is attempting live fact-checking of the address with WaPo, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org through a new app called FactStream.
The app is great. But the mass audience watching on TV should be told about the president's egregious distortions and attempts to stoke fear. In some ways this is a repeat of Trump's Oval Office address last month. Will journalists keep the truth front and center?
What to watch for
Check out Jeremy Diamond and Betsy Klein's "what to watch" story here.
"Visuals matter more than anything else on television," Zurawik said on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." And the visual will feature "Nancy Pelosi standing behind him over him, literally, with that gavel. I don't know how he's going to deal with that... That visual is going to speak volumes..."
--> Jeff Greenfield writing for Politico: "The State of the Union address rarely matters, but this one does..."
--> NYT's Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman: Trump views the address "with some reverence..."
The guest list
The NYT noted that numerous Democrats are planning to send "pointed messages to President Trump with their choices of guests" in the chamber on Tuesday night. Details here...
Daniel Dale summed up the White House's list of Trump's SOTU guests in 280 characters: "family of couple killed by unauthorized immigrant; human trafficking investigator; survivors of Pittsburgh massacre; Alice Johnson; recovering opioid addict; re-hired sawmill employee; child cancer survivor; kid bullied for being named Joshua Trump."
After the SOTU...
The cable newsers will go late into the night with live coverage. Stephen Colbert will also be live, with the CBS morning crew of Norah O'Donnell, John Dickerson, Gayle King and Bianna Golodryga, plus Spike Lee. And Jimmy Fallon will be taping a post-SOTU monologue and a chat with Savannah Guthrie...
Beto with Oprah on Tuesday
Expect to hear a lot about this on Tuesday: Beto O'Rourke is one of Oprah Winfrey's guests at a live event called "Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square."
The other guests are Melinda Gates, Bradley Cooper, Michael B. Jordan, and Lisa Borders... Each of the interviews are being taped for later use on OWN and Oprah's podcast... But lots of journalists are credentialed to be in the theater, so whatever Beto says will be picked up far and wide...
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...
New members of the Post's Press Freedom Partnership
On Tuesday the Washington Post will announce two new members of Press Freedom Partnership it established in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi's murder last fall. The new additions are the International Women's Media Foundation and the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation
The Post provides complimentary ads in print and online to promote the work of the nonprofits... Here's the landing page for the partnership...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Monday night's biggest story: "Federal prosecutors subpoena Trump inaugural committee." Here's CNN's full story... (CNN)
-- Given the ridiculous right-wing conspiracy theories about RBG's health, this is noteworthy: Ruth Bader Ginsburg "on Monday night made her first public appearance since undergoing cancer surgery in December, attending a celebration of her life presented in song..." (WaPo)
-- Jill Abramson's book "Merchants of Truth" drops Tuesday... In this new WaPo piece, she says editors "remain addicted" to "reactive coverage that revolves around the president's words and tweets..." (WaPo)
Are we "Zucked?"
 Donie O'Sullivan emails: Roger McNamee's new book, out on Tuesday, is a stinging rebuke of Facebook, coming from an early FB investor and one-time mentor to Mark Zuckerberg. McNamee says Facebook and Google's business models are not compatible with democracy.
"Facebook and Google designed their products to create habits that for many people become an addiction," McNamee told me. "They manipulate attention for profit and enable bad actors to manipulate some users in ways that harm them and others."
Facebook is pushing back, with a spokesperson pointing out that McNamee hasn't been involved in the company in years. Read on...
"Crisis in Democracy" report coming out Tuesday
The Knight Foundation invested $2 million to create the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy in collaboration with the Aspen Institute. The group's first meeting was back in October 2017. The list of commissioners includes Richard Edelman, Joanne Lipman, Charlie Sykes, Meredith Artley, Richard Gingras, Anthea Watson Strong, and Nuala O'Connor. The results of their work will be published on Tuesday in a report titled "Crisis in Democracy: Renewing Trust in America."
It will contain numerous recommendations that aim "to help media industry leaders, citizens and government officials better understand the causes and consequences of a collapse in trust in democratic institutions, such as the media." Look out for the report on Tuesday morning... There's a launch event in DC too...
The Gannett ball is back in Alden's court
Tom Kludt emails: Gannett employees woke up to welcome news on Monday, but they might not be cheering for long. Yes, Gannett spurned MNG's hostile takeover bid, but the negotiations are poised to continue. MNG, for its part, seemed undeterred by the rejection, saying that it will "consider its options in the coming days," including the possibility of nominating its own board of directors. (MNG, also known as Digital First Media, is controlled by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.)
Gannett's own board chairman, J. Jeffry Louis, said in a letter Monday that he would like to meet with MNG chair Joseph Fuchs "with no preconditions" on Thursday. File this one under "to be continued." But Gannett employees are still breathing a sigh of relief – for now. "I so rarely smile when it comes to media news these days, but this made me smile," tweeted Allie Gross, a business reporter for the Detroit Free Press...
--> Here's how Gannett's USA Today is covering the news...
--> Keep this in mind: Last month the NYPost reported that Alden is "desperately looking to exit its investment," perhaps by selling MNG... even to Gannett...
A leaker or a whistle-blower?
What's the right way to characterize the man or woman who supplied Axios with copies of the president's daily schedules?
"The leak," MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said Monday, "is either the greatest act of insubordination in modern political history, or the bravest act of a White House whistle-blower. Either way, the truth bomb has been detonated -- Donald Trump doesn't do much of anything as president..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Jake Tapper on Monday's "Lead:" Trump is "falsely claiming he cannot be impeached because he's, quote, 'doing the best job of any president in the history of our country,' unquote. Also a questionable assertion -- at least if you ask the American people -- who, in a new CNN poll out today, give the president a thumbs down, with 40% of Americans approving of the job he's doing as president, 55% disapproving..." (CNN)
-- Chris Cillizza with another one of the takeaways from CNN's newest poll: "AOC is already one of the most recognizable Democrats in the party nationally. And she's been a member of Congress for all of a month. Amazing." She has Fox to thank for some of that... (CNN)
-- Alexandra Jaffe is joining the AP from "Vice News Tonight..." She'll be based in Iowa for campaign coverage... Hunter Woodall is joining from The Kansas City Star, and he'll be based in NH... (AP)
-- Erik Wemple's piece about Carol Rosenberg: "McClatchy buyouts could claim chain's full-time Guantanamo reporter..." (WaPo)
Landgraf's latest
When John Landgraf speaks, the TV biz listens. The FX CEO spoke at the TCA Press Tour on Monday...
Brian Lowry emails: Landgraf has been a frequent critic of Silicon Valley players bombarding Hollywood's business model with "money cannons," and he didn't hold back on Monday. He decried Netflix's dissemination of "cherrypicked" viewership data that's at best misleading -- and at worst, he said, "wildly inaccurate" -- when compared to current industry standards for measuring TV viewership. | | Landgraf also pointed to a likely increase in FX output to serve Disney's streaming strategy, without diluting its "laser-focused" brand. Read about the rest of his remarks here...
Speaking of FX...
The network said Monday that the NYT's new docu-series, "The Weekly," will premiere in June... Variety has a list of the rest of FX's announcements...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Monday night's headline from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Northam digs in as Virginia's political turmoil deepens..." (T-D)
-- A rare trifecta: All three cable newsers led the 8 p.m. hour with the Northam scandal. One of Tucker Carlson's banners was "THE LEFT'S HYPOCRISY ON FORGIVENESS..."
-- Speaking of Northam, here's the NYT's look at how Big League Politics "and its mission of promoting the Trump agenda and nationalist causes" has "assumed outsized influence" in Virginia... (NYT)
-- This John Zeigler "what if?" will pique your interest: "Imagining the GOP primaries in March 2016 based on what we now know..." (Mediaite)
-- Dan Froomkin makes the case: "It's time to reverse the financial polarity of the internet for news." Google and Facebook "should be paying us for our headlines..." (Medium)
Google's 'colossal' ad biz
Here's Seth Fiegerman with the headline from Alphabet's Q4 earnings: "Google's ad sales machine is still going strong." The parent company's 22% growth from the same period a year earlier "was fueled in large part by Google's advertising business." BUT "the company is now paying more to support" the ad biz... Details here...
Dan Gallagher's WSJ story calls that aforementioned ad biz colossal -- "more than $116 billion in revenue annually" -- but notes that "what Google spends sometimes overshadows what it makes." Check this out: The company's R&D bill "climbed 40% year over year to a record $6 billion in the quarter." Seconding what Christopher Mims asked on Twitter: "What the holy hell are they spending that on?"
SUPER BOWL LIII
SI's commemorative cover
This will be on newsstands on Wednesday: | | The ratings: Soft by Super Bowl standards, super by any other standard!
Even the Super Bowl isn't immune to the fragmentation of the TV business. Sunday night's CBS broadcast averaged 98.2 million viewers during the four quarters -- a mind-blowing number on any other night of the year -- but a notable drop from last year's game, when 103.4 million viewers watched on NBC.
CBS touted a different number instead: A "total audience" of 100.7 million viewers across multiple channels and streaming platforms. But either way you slice it, the overall viewership was the lowest total for a Super Bowl match-up since 2009. Here's my full story...
The big point
Sunday's relatively soft ratings compared with recent Super Bowls stand in contrast to a strong season overall for NFL viewership. On average, NFL games were up 5%. Experts said a jump in offense — high scoring and hotly contested games — led to a jump in ratings. Sunday's historically low scoring game is further proof of that thesis...
Joe Ianniello's memo
"We should all be very proud of our Company today. I certainly am," acting CBS CEO Joe Ianniello wrote in a Monday afternoon memo. He called the Super Bowl production "first class..." And said it was also a "huge success for our digital and streaming platforms. CBS Interactive achieved record signups for CBS All Access and record-setting live streams..."
The ads, 24 hours later
Do any of the Super Bowl ads stand out to you a full day later? The ones I remember most are actually the house ads for CBS! Especially this spot teasing the return of "The Twilight Zone" from Jordan Peele. And the "eye" spot showcasing entertainment, news and sports -- known internally as the "Eyeconic" -- calling CBS "then / now / always / America's most watched network."
Google's ads also stuck with me...
The ad meter says...
The best-rated spots from the game, according to USA Today's ad meter, were:
10: Audi's ad with the cashew
9: Google's "100 Billion Words"
8: Budweiser's "Wind Never Felt Better"
7: Bubly's ad with Michael Bublé
6: M&M's "Bad Passengers"
5: Verizon's "The Coach Who Wouldn't Be Here"
4: Hyundai's "The Elevator"
3: Microsoft's "We All Win"
2: Amazon's ad with Alexa and Harrison Ford
1: The NFL's "100-Year Game"
A big week ahead for CBS
Brian Lowry emails: For CBS, the Super Bowl was only the start of a huge week, which continues with the various shows promoted during the telecast (including those on CBS All Access), the time-period premiere of "The World's Best" -- which made its debut after the game -- and the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. The game should have at least heightened awareness for the Grammys, which, like the Oscars, experienced a sharp ratings drop last year... | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- "Super Bowl LIII was a win for the aged," Mark Strassman said on Monday's "CBS Evening News," noting Tom Brady is "the eldest QB to win a Super Bowl" and Bill Belichick is the "oldest winning coach..." (CBS)
-- Richard Deitsch's recap: "This Super Bowl was different because of one person: Tony Romo." (The Athletic)
-- Three PR vets are partnering with a security firm to launch a new "reputation management" business... (THR)
-- "NBC has scrapped its plans for a live musical presentation of Hair..." (TVLine)
-- Sunday night's big reveal: "The creator of the egg that broke Instagram" works in the ad biz... Because, of course... (NYT)
| | ☝ There's the Oscars class photo
Variety has a higher-resolution version here...
John Oliver is okay with being "late to everything"
Frank Pallotta emails: John Oliver sat down with journalists for his annual press breakfast on Monday, and yours truly was in attendance. The breakfast didn't break any major news about "Last Week Tonight," which returns on February 17, but it did give some insights in how the host runs his Emmy-winning show. One thing that stuck out is how Oliver is completely OK with taking his time and being "late to everything" in terms of news.
"The way that it is now, everybody's late to everything," he said. "You can be on every day and you're still technically late because something that happened this morning seems like a long time ago and has already been joked about a lot online."
"Everybody's late," Oliver added, and "Last Week Tonight" is "just really late."
"We try to have it be not so much a bug as a feature," he said...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Lisa Respers France:
-- If you had no idea that 21 Savage had any connection to the United Kingdom, you are not alone...
-- Speaking of 21 Savage, Demi Lovato quit Twitter after backlash over something she said about him...
-- Kristoff St. John was a beloved star of the soap "Young & the Restless." He was found dead Sunday at the age of 52.
| | How to catch up on Sunday's show
Read the transcript... Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or Spotify... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or catch the complete episode via CNNgo or VOD...
Covering a historic field of presidential hopefuls
My conversation-starter on Sunday's show: Is the historic nature of this diverse Dem field being taken "for granted" somehow? Should we in the press be talking more about it?
David Zurawik said it's something to celebrate: "All of these different voices are going to make this conversation of democracy, in this election, much much stronger." BUT, he said, emphasizing the but, "we can't get lost in that historic part of it, we have to ultimately focus on the POLICY."
Juana Summers nailed it: "You're seeing so many different templates of what an American president, of what a Democratic presidential nominee, can look like." But with newsrooms still lagging in surveys of diversity, journalists need to "think very critically about how to make sure that our coverage does not just reflect the prism of whiteness."
Hear from AOC's chief of staff
Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, joined me on Sunday's show to talk about how she's using social media to advance policy proposals and answer conservative critics. Chakrabarti: "It's not about social media. She's good at communicating and she's good at taking a message and actually educating people and getting people to realize how these very complex policies work." Watch...
Other highlights from Sunday's show
-- Jackie Kucinich predicted that journalists will be spending more time checking the yearbooks of politicians from now on...
-- David Zurawik applauded NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger for challenging Trump...
-- And he previewed "Won't You Be My Neighbor," the documentary about Mr. Rogers that's airing on HBO and PBS on Saturday...
-- Former RedState contributors Kimberly Ross and Andrea Ruth discussed why they quit the website via an open letter...
| | | Thanks for reading! Email me anytime... See you tomorrow... | | | |
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