EXEC SUMMARY: Welcome to Monday... this could be a very busy workweek... So scroll down to get caught up. Luminary is launching its podcasts... WarnerMedia and Disney are ready to make some news... and "Leaving Neverland" is breaking the spell...
"Leaving Neverland," part one
I walked into a Starbucks shop on Saturday. Michael Jackson's "Beat It" was playing on the overhead speakers. I cringed. The reason: "Leaving Neverland."
The new film "Leaving Neverland" is forcing a reexamination of Jackson and his artistry. Slate's Jack Hamilton says there's no severing his art from his obsession with children: "It's in his songs. It's in his videos. You'll never hear him the same way again."
That is, after you hear from Wade Robson and James Safechuck.
Part one of "Neverland" debuted on HBO on Sunday night. Part two will air on Monday night... but it is already available on VOD.
What's next
The second half of the documentary "moves through Jackson's trial, introduces Robson's and Safechuck's wives, and takes the audience through their decision, after years of publicly proclaiming Jackson's innocence, to come forward with their accounts," per the NYT's Elizabeth A. Harris...
>> >> "Michael Jackson Cast a Spell. 'Leaving Neverland' Breaks It." That was the headline on this Wesley Morris piece about the power of the film...
The film's champions
Of all the people involved with "Finding Neverland," the two accusers should be given the most credit. The film's director Dan Reed should come next. Reed worked with both HBO in the United States and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom...
>> At HBO, the co-head of documentaries Nancy Abraham was the point person... Her boss Casey Bloys and CEO Richard Plepler both supported the project.
>> Channel 4 will be airing the film later this week.
Why did the Jackson estate sue?
The estate's $100 million lawsuit against HBO garnered headlines -- and drew even more attention to the film. So, why sue? They don't have "very good legal arguments," Jennifer Rodgers told me. So "I think it's about the money. They're trying to protect this financial boon that has been the Michael Jackson Estate since he died -- and the money may dry up if this scandal keeps gaining steam..."
The estate calls the film a "public lynching"
"Michael always turned the other cheek, and we have always turned the other cheek when people have gone after members of our family - that is the Jackson way," last month's statement from the family said. "But we can't just stand by while this public lynching goes on, and the vulture tweeters and others who never met Michael go after him."
Counter-programming for Jackson fans
Via Variety's Erin Nyren: On Sunday night the Jackson estate released "a concert film on YouTube the exact length of the first part of the documentary... On Monday, a second concert film, 'Live at Wembley Stadium' will air the same time as the second part of 'Leaving Neverland." Wow...
Jane Mayer's new examination of Fox News
"TRUMP TV," Jane Mayer's story in this week's New Yorker, is all about Fox News. The story won't be up on the web until Monday morning, but suffice to say you're going to want to read it.
Mayer has stunning new reporting about Rupert Murdoch, Jared Kushner, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Bill Shine, and the AT&T-Time Warner deal. "In the past two years," she writes, "many people who watch the network closely, including some Fox alumni, say that it has evolved into something that hasn't existed before in the United States..."
BREAKING
Deadliest tornado outbreak in five years
| | Officials in Lee County, Alabama say at least 23 people have died after a devastating tornado blew through on Sunday... And the death toll is expected to climb. This appears to be the deadliest tornado outbreak anywhere in the U.S. since 2014. Check CNN.com for the latest updates overnight...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Bernie Sanders will be on "The Breakfast Club" Monday at 7 a.m. ET. The uncut interview will be posted to the show's YouTube channel at 8:15 a.m...
-- Trumpworld, 5G policy, and the wireless future -- read Jonathan Swan's latest... (Axios)
-- In this new story, Paul Farhi examines how magazine-style TV shows are blending "news programming with outright salesmanship, leaving viewers to figure out which is which..." (WaPo)
Luminary intros its podcast lineup
The podcast start-up Luminary is emerging from stealth mode with "more than 40 exclusive shows, all without ads," thanks to "nearly $100 million in funding and a subscription-based business model that it hopes will push the medium into a new phase of growth," the NYT's Brooks Barnes reported Sunday night.
Here's the list of shows.
>> The key quote from CEO Matt Sacks: "We want to become synonymous with podcasting in the same way Netflix has become synonymous with streaming. I know how ambitious that sounds. We think it can be done, and some of the top creators in the space agree." Get the details here...
Media week ahead calendar
Monday: Pretrial hearings begin in Kevin Spacey's sexual assault trial...
Tuesday: Mardi Gras Day...
Wednesday: Ash Wednesday...
Friday: It's International Women's Day... and Harvey Weinstein is due back in court...
Friday: SXSW begins in Austin... I'll be moderating this featured session about the NYT's forthcoming FX and Hulu show, "The Weekly..."
Friday: Via Brian Lowry: "Captain Marvel" opens, potentially jump-starting a thus far moribund box-office year lagging far behind 2018, which at this point was boosted by "Black Panther..."
Sunday: Three CNN town halls in a row! Live from Austin during SXSW...
Is this the week?
NBC's Ken Dilanian on "Kasie DC" Sunday night: "We believe that Robert Mueller is close to wrapping up his investigation. The report could go to the Justice Department as soon as this week."
No disrespect intended to Dilanian, but we've been hearing this for a while. Is Mueller really about to submit a report? I guess we all have to wait and see...
Trump's "defensive posture" | | POTUS has had many "worst week ever" moments, but "this one was fundamentally different," Maggie Haberman told me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources."
His appearance at CPAC was a "record-setting speech in length," and it showcased "his defensive posture," she said. Watch...
A nonexistent manuscript?
The president keeps tweeting about an alleged "manuscript" of a pro-Trump book written by Michael Cohen before he flipped. But there's no evidence that this document exists. It IS true that Center Street struck a book deal with Cohen based on a proposal last year, but then the deal was scrapped... And the publisher said it never received any "manuscript" from Cohen.
Trump said Sunday morning that the "Fake Media won't show" the manuscript. So he's saying that newsrooms are suppressing it -- a full-on conspiracy -- even though there's no evidence that the manuscript even exists.
>> Haberman pointed out that this is a classic Trump talking point: "That here is some hidden hand that's kind of pulling the string."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Sebastian Gorka "is no longer a Fox News contributor," Jeremy Barr reported... Gorka is citing his gigs with Salem Radio and Sinclair... (THR)
-- Isaac Chotiner spoke with BuzzFeed's Jason Leopold, who said that Michael Cohen's public testimony "confirmed the central thesis of our report..." (New Yorker)
-- Rene Chun wrote a profile of David Pecker in 2001... but it wasn't published until now... (The Daily Beast)
-- Speaking of Pecker: Amy Chozick took a close look at "how Jeff Bezos went to Hollywood and lost control..." (NYT)
Any day now...
Disney's $71 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox could take effect any day now. Officials in Brazil gave conditional approval last week. Regulators in Mexico are the final known hurdle -- and they've been coordinating with their counterparts in Brazil, which indicates an imminent resolution. I'm expecting the deal to close before Friday the 15th...
The waiting is the hardest part
Fox-controlled networks like FX and Nat Geo are in "a strange state of limbo" right now, AdWeek's Jason Lynch wrote in this new piece Sunday night. Staffers "know where they are going, and who their new bosses and the general strategy will be, but none of those changes can actually take place until everything has been completed, a situation that is even more complicated with upfronts fast approaching..."
Expect more news out of WarnerMedia this week...
WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey is expected to bring on Bob Greenblatt, the former chairman of NBC Entertainment, in a new role that will combine HBO and Turner. As I said on Sunday's show, some of these changes are about freeing up more $$$ to make more content to make the business more competitive.
AT&T's big challenge is the same as Disney's and all the rest -- the challenge is keeping up with changing consumer habits. How are you watching TV? What do you want from streaming services and wireless providers? The companies that figure this out are the ones that will win the streaming wars...
More investment coming to CNN Digital?
Stankey believes CNN's digital operation is not reaching its "potential," and knows it "requires more investment in product development and data analytics," the WSJ's Ben Mullin reported Sunday, citing sources. The story says Stankey has been working with CNN boss Jeff Zucker on "initiatives to move in that direction in a relationship that has been collaborative so far..."
A more centralized approach
Brian Lowry emails: Variety's Michael Schneider offered a good contextual look at the WarnerMedia shuffle, pointing out that the kind of siloed structure that the company previously featured – with autonomous fiefdoms – is losing out to a more centralized approach. He pointed to the establishment of senior content officers to broadly oversee programming (including streaming efforts) at other companies, including Viacom, AMC Networks and CBS...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Frank Bruni says "It takes two to bamboozle: the illusionist and the enraptured..." (NYT)
-- Remarkable piece by Adam Sokol: "The Life of a Comment Moderator for a Right-Wing Website" (NYT)
Inside the Gridiron dinner
The Gridiron Club held its annual dinner on Saturday night in DC... POTUS did not attend, but Ivanka Trump did... She joked: "The press seems to think it's ironic that I, born of great privilege, think people want to work for what they are given. As if being Donald Trump's daughter isn't the hardest job in the world."
WaPo's Emily Heil wrote that one unknown "reverberating around the hotel ballroom" was this: "Can't we all just get along? Could a group of reporters mingle with their sources in an era where the Big Boss routinely derides them as fake news and an enemy of the American people?" Heil: "A decided yes to that one, as top members of the media mixed comfortably with Trump administration types..."
Haberman's most important lesson on the Trump beat
On Sunday's show, I asked Maggie Haberman about the most important thing she's learned while covering Trump. In her answer, she urged caution: "There is a tendency to act as if every new revelation somehow changes what is going on or changes the path or changes the future." Watch her full answer here...
Acosta: White House leaves press "out in the cold"
Later in the hour, Jim Acosta joined me to discuss the press access restrictions at the Hanoi summit, and other points of tension between the press corps and the White House. Watch...
Calling out CPAC's pro-Trump "grifters" | | Oliver Darcy, fresh from CPAC, joined me on "Reliable" to discuss the "grifters" of the conservative movement. We were joined by Olivia Nuzzi, who said the president is the "grifter in chief," and by Bill Kristol, who explained his support for a new movement called "end the grift..."
Kristol: 'We're now in late stage Trumpism'
During that aforementioned segment, Kristol asserted that Trump boosters like CPAC chair Matt Schlapp are well aware of the president's penchant for lying, but are turning a blind eye to it. Watch...
Could Hannity be forced to testify about Cohen and Trump?
On Sunday's show, I expressed some concern about this... Noting Sean Hannity's status as a member of the media... But CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers said lawmakers and prosecutors have good reason to speak with the Fox host. She said this is about his friendship with Trump and Cohen, not about his role on Fox: "What Sean Hannity did, and I think he really stepped in it here, is to say 'I personally have information that contradicts what Michael Cohen said under oath.'" Watch...
Catch up on Sunday's "Reliable"
Read the full transcript on CNN.com... Listen to the pod via Apple, Spotify, or your preferred app... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or watch the full episode via CNNgo or VOD!
| | NYMag's socialist cover
Simon van Zuylen-Wood's cover story, titled " Pinkos Have More Fun," is subtitled "Socialism is AOC's calling card, Trump's latest rhetorical bludgeon, and a new way to date in Brooklyn."
Zuylen-Wood writes that "the race to the left was stoked by an attitudinal shift in the young, mainstream press... But Twitter — a medium that structurally encourages moral grandstanding, savage infighting, and collective action — is where young socialism lives." Read on...
The quotable Adam Moss
I talked with outgoing NYMag editor Adam Moss on Sunday's show... The whole thing is up on our podcast... And Daniella Emanuel recapped it here for CNN Business. (Sunday was Daniella's last day -- she's off to a new job out west -- and she is irreplaceable!)
-- On Moss's departure at the end of this month: "I think you have to be a little crazy to do this job, and I didn't have that anymore. I also kind of felt that it was 15 years. It's good for the organization to get new blood, or get a sense of rejuvenation."
-- On the digital revolution: "You just had to jump into businesses that you didn't yet understand and figure them out as you're going along. And that is exhilarating, but it was, you know, it sort of a took a toll on focus."
-- "I love print and I will be a print reader forever." But "you can't look back. You really just have to see what is the opportunity. And there's so much good." Thanks to the web, "you can reach more people now than you ever could before..."
"What is new, what is next"
When I asked Moss for his advice for his successor David Haskell, he said, "Make this your own. Forget about me... It would be a big mistake to try to be too reverential toward the past. And I think that media is always about what is next. What is new, what is next."
The problem with 'kidfluencers'
What a lead by Sapna Maheshwari: "Samia was an influencer before she could talk." Her story: "Brands are giving lucrative endorsement deals to young children on YouTube and Instagram, raising questions about whether their young followers should be seeing that kind of marketing." Read on...
| | Weekend box office report
Tyler Perry's "A Madea Family Funeral," the last Madea movie, at least for a while, "sold an estimated $27 million in tickets at 2,442 North American theaters, or roughly 30% more than analysts had predicted," the NYT's Brooks Barnes reports. "The turnout was enough to challenge 'How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,' the megamovie in the marketplace, for first place at the weekend box office. In the end, 'Hidden World' (Universal) pulled ahead to collect roughly $30 million at 4,286 cinema." Read the rest here...
Strong opening for "Apollo 11" | | Via TheWrap's Jeremy Fuster: "After a 2018 where the indie box office was defined by documentaries, two of the studios that fueled that boom, NEON and CNN Films, are back with Todd Douglas Miller's 'Apollo 11,' which takes a look at the iconic moon landing on its 50th anniversary. The film opened exclusively on 120 IMAX screens this weekend and earned $1.65 million, scoring a strong per screen average of $13,750..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Katie Pellico:
-- "Green Book" is enjoying "the biggest post-Oscar bump in 8 years," bringing in nearly $5 million in box office sales since last Sunday... (THR)
-- A similar story for "A Star is Born:" The soundtrack is back at No. 1... (Billboard)
-- Is Fortnite a fix for the stalling 'attention economy'...? (The Verge)
Lowry's take on Spielberg
Brian Lowry emails: The level of indignation over the weekend about reports that Steven Spielberg will suggest movies primarily made for consumption at home (i.e. on TV) should be eligible for Emmys, not Oscars, is a little much. For starters, the director first raised the issue nearly a year ago, so the assertion that this is somehow bitterness tied to Netflix's "Roma" campaign doesn't really hold water. It's also worth noting that other premium-TV players, mainly HBO, haven't made a major fuss about this, despite producing movies that undeniably would have had performances worthy of Oscar consideration. (HBO has been aggressive in qualifying its documentaries for Oscar submission.)
The bottom line is that if Netflix and presumably other relatively new contenders want to consistently play in the movie-awards space, people committed to Academy traditions and the movie-going experience will need to ask the service to justify that classification, beyond just buying its way into it. The distinction will likely fade eventually, but at the very least, there's still some work to be done in achieving "clarity," as one Academy governor told Indiewire, on getting from here to there...
"SNL" highlights
The "SNL" recreation of the Cohen hearing, led by Ben Stiller, was fine... But this joke really stood out to me... Kenan Thompson as Rep. Cummings said at the start of the "hearing," "I'm told I should tease this because it's all anyone cares about anymore: Coming up, a performance by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez." Cut to Melissa Villaseñor playing AOC, smiling and winking at the camera... | | For more of the takeaways from Saturday's "SNL," read Frank Pallotta's story here...
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