EXEC SUMMARY: Scroll down for Stephen Colbert's latest victory, Christopher Wray's warning, CNN's scoop about Trump's security clearance scandal, BuzzFeed's stunt, and much more...
Gayle King interviews R. Kelly | | R. Kelly says "I didn't do this stuff. This is not me. I'm fighting for my f****** life."
Gayle King landed Robert Sylvester Kelly's first TV interview since he was charged last month with sexual abuse. It was taped in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, just in time for the "CBS Evening News." Jeff Glor's broadcast -- in a highly unusual move -- led with excerpts from the interview and pushed ahead to Wednesday's "CBS This Morning."
In one of the excerpts, "Kelly points to the camera and says it would be stupid of him to hold girls against their will," CNN's Sandra Gonzalez writes.
CBS says the interview will roll out over two days on the morning show. It lasted for more than an hour, per a CBS spokeswoman... Kelly became very emotional at several points... and King also sat down with the two women who are living with him, who Kelly says he is dating. That interview was emotional too...
Scoop after scoop for Gayle King
Amid ongoing speculation about whether she will renew her contract with CBS, it's remarkable to see how many news-making interviews she has scored lately.
Last week she had exclusives with the director of "Leaving Neverland," the accusers, and members of the Jackson family... A few weeks ago, she had an exclusive with Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam...
NBC gains rare access to the Central African Republic
NBC's Cynthia McFadden just returned from a five-day reporting trip to the Central African Republic. "According to NBC this is the first time an American TV team has been able to report inside the country in five years," People's Adam Carlson writes. "The trip required months of preparation and security planning." Her team "traveled with armed United Nations peacekeepers and rode in cars with bulletproof windows, among other measures."
McFadden's first report from the deeply troubled country will air on the "Today" show Wednesday morning. The report is eight minutes long -- most pieces on "Today" are one or two minutes -- so the show is making a statement by carving out a big chunk of time for this underreported story...
Another late night milestone
"Stephen Colbert can finally claim complete bragging rights," the NYT's John Koblin writes. "For the first time, Mr. Colbert's 'Late Show' on CBS has drawn a bigger Nielsen rating point among young adult viewers than any other late-night talk show. Until now, Jimmy Fallon's 'Tonight Show' on NBC has been the leader in that category." Read on...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- A Sacramento Bee reporter was detained and two other journalists were arrested while covering a protest march on Monday night... (Sac Bee)
-- Fox's Janice Dean released her memoir "Mostly Sunny" on Tuesday, and it hit the top 10 on Amazon...
-- In the book, Dean writes about her complicated relationship with Roger Ailes, who harassed and propositioned her when she started working at Fox. Dean says she encouraged other women to come forward with their "Roger stories" after Gretchen Carlson sued. Jeremy Barr has details... (THR)
-- In other Fox News news, former producer Rachel Bernstein's lawsuit against Bill O'Reilly and Fox was tossed out on Tuesday, Eriq Gardner reported... (THR)
-- "Fox News quietly ditched Trump-loving Sheriff David Clarke..." (Daily Beast)
FBI director: Disinfo campaigns continue 'virtually unabated'
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Greetings from the RSA cybersecurity conference in SF. FBI director Christopher Wray spoke here on Tuesday and sounded the alarm on social media disinfo campaigns, run from abroad, targeting the U.S.
Wray said that the campaigns are continuing "virtually unabated," and the FBI expects those campaigns to stay going throughout 2020.
On a somewhat brighter note, he also said that the FBI and social media companies have become better at sharing info about fake accounts...
He's not running
Some staffers at Bloomberg News are breathing a big sigh of relief now that Michael Bloomberg has decided not to run for prez. "Nobody was looking forward to having to figure out how to cover the campaign, and politics in general, with Mike as a candidate," one newsroom staffer told me.
Remember, Bloomberg had mused about potentially ending the newsroom's political coverage or selling the company if he embarked on a run...
Sheekey's message
Bloomberg announced his decision -- and a new campaign called Beyond Carbon -- through an op-ed at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday. He said he thought he could win the general election against Trump, but had doubts about securing the Dem nomination.
Bloomberg's longtime adviser Kevin Sheekey sent the link to associates and said, "It is with some personal regret, as you know, because I think Mike is the president we need at this moment in history. But in any case, don't expect to hear less from him (or me) as we go forward. We have a lot to do, and neither of us has ever been one to sit still."
The not-running list is getting longer
The Atlantic's Edward-Isaac Dovere tweeted: "Four 2020 announcements so far this week -- Hickenlooper in, while Holder, Merkley and Bloomberg are out -- and it's only Tuesday." All eyes on Biden, O'Rourke and Abrams...
WSJ posting three dozen (!) new jobs
Louise Story, who became the WSJ's editor of newsroom strategy last fall, is getting reinforcements. On Tuesday she and Matt Murray announced "that we are creating additional newsroom departments and posting more than three dozen new jobs." The jobs are in five areas: Young Audiences, Membership Engagement, Newsroom Innovation, Audience Data, and R&D. The paper is recruiting reporters, developers, designers, product managers, data specialists, etc... Details here...
NYT adding more audio staffers
Michael Barbaro tweeted: "NYT Audio just made FIVE new hires as we expand the ambition of The Daily and how we cover the biggest stories of the year." Here's the announcement.
Lisa Tobin told Nick Quah that there are two key objectives: One, "The Daily will just keep getting stronger," with mini-series, on-the-ground foreign reporting, etc... And two, "a handful of the most journalistically significant stories of the year will want to be told at a level of scope and ambition that will break from The Daily." Think more standalone series like "Caliphate..."
Pick up a BuzzFeed Newspaper on Wednesday
 MediaPost's Alex Weprin tweeted: "BuzzFeed will release its first newspaper tomorrow morning. Yes, in print. On paper. Ben Smith and Ben Kaufman will help distribute copies in Union Square and Penn Station in NYC."
Kaufman, the newly appointed CMO of BuzzFeed, is leading the stunt along with Smith... BF says it's a "one-time, special edition BuzzFeed Newspaper, showcasing the latest news stories and favorite BuzzFeed content in an easy to consume mobile format..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Imtiaz Tyab is joining CBS News from Al Jazeera English and Ian Lee is joining the network from CNN... Both men will be based in London...
-- ABC's embeds: James Goldston announced "18 campaign producers / reporters who will cover the 2020 presidential candidates" on Tuesday... Here's the list... He said "we've never had a bigger embed class, or more applicants for the roles..."
-- Congrats to the winners of this year's Scripps Howard Awards, including the South Florida Sun Sentinel, MSNBC, ProPublica, and the NYT... (PRNewswire)
-- A recommended read by Steven Greenhouse: "Five union members from across the Rust Belt reflect on eroding faith in the media..." (CJR)
-- Centerbridge Partners is considering backing Ice Cube's bid "to buy a group of regional sports networks being sold" by Disney... (Bloomberg)
"Disney Weighs Distribution Deals for Streaming Service"
That's the headline on Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel's latest for The Information. So maybe Disney+ won't be completely "direct to consumer?"
Ahead of an April presentation to Wall Street analysts about the streaming service, "some key questions—including whether to distribute through U.S. cable operators or companies like Apple—are still being hammered out," Dotan and Toonkel wrote.
This is interesting too: "Some insiders say Disney may test Disney+ in the Netherlands in the next couple of months, at least six months before it launches formally in the U.S. at the end of the year... An attempt to iron out any kinks in the service before it is released to intense scrutiny for an American audience..."
Greenblatt says Netflix "doesn't have a brand"
The WarnerMedia shakeup is sinking in... And new entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt is talking about the company's streaming service mission. He told Variety that "we have a really great chance of being in that game in a significant way." Key quote: "Will we be as voluminous as Netflix? No. Do we have the plethora of name brands as Disney? No. What we do have are brands that are really significant, starting with HBO."
Greenblatt also spoke with NBC and said something that got tongues wagging.
"Netflix doesn't have a brand," he said. "It's just a place you go to get anything — it's like Encyclopedia Britannica." He added: "That's a great business model when you're trying to reach as many people on the planet as you can."
Cinemax chief stepping down
Brian Lowry emails: People have been waiting for shoes to drop at HBO since the announced restructuring and exit of CEO Richard Plepler, and here's one: HBO miniseries/Cinemax chief Kary Antholis will leave after 25 years with the company, with his responsibilities shifting to HBO Films president Len Amato. Deadline has the details, noting that a number of HBO veterans have been offered early retirement packages...
Hey, no pressure, Randall Stephenson!
In this new piece, Bloomberg's Tara Lachapelle says "Stephenson may be viewed years from now as an astute dealmaker, or in shorter order as the person who ruined two iconic American companies; it all hinges on getting the initial WarnerMedia integration right..."
| | Following up on the new Trump v. AT&T report...
WaPo columnist (and CNN analyst) Max Boot's latest column cites Jane Mayer's reporting about POTUS telling Gary Cohn and John Kelly to make sure that the DOJ filed suit against AT&T's takeover of Time Warner in an apparent effort to punish CNN. Boot's view: "If Trump really attempted to ruin CNN, he deserves to be impeached," because "this is banana republic stuff..."
Some of Tuesday's real stories that Trump would call "fake"
-- WaPo's first scoop of the day: "Congressional Democrats are likely to request 10 years of President Trump's tax returns in coming weeks, tailoring their inquiry in a way they hope will survive a court battle, according to lawmakers and others involved in the discussions..."
-- CNN's Pamela Brown and Kaitlan Collins broke this news: Trump "pressured his then-chief of staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn to grant his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump a security clearance against their recommendations, three people familiar with the matter told CNN..."
-- NYT's Peter Baker summing up his latest story with Maggie Haberman: "Six more checks to Cohen shed light on the parallel lives Trump was living as president of the United States — at once managing affairs of state while secretly paying the price of keeping his personal secrets out of the public eye..."
This "ought to be shocking" | | Anderson Cooper on "AC360" Tuesday night, citing this new Quinnipiac poll: "Nearly 2 out of 3 people believe the president committed crimes before taking office... At any other time, with any other president, in any known universe, that answer would be just as unthinkable as the question itself. I mean, think about it: 64% of people, including a third of Republicans, believe Donald J. Trump was a criminal when he raised his right hand and took the oath of office. A full 45% believe he's committed crimes while in office. Now, that OUGHT to be shocking. Now, it sounds kind of barely surprising. But as normal as the completely abnormal now is, determining whether or not the POTUS is a crook is still important..."
Weirdness from the White House...
Tom Kludt emails: The W.H. held a background briefing with reporters on Tuesday -- a standard exercise between administrations and the press corps. Less standard was the admin's refusal to identify the individual leading the briefing. The unusual breach of norms came during a "background call" held in the morning ahead of Trump's executive order aimed at preventing veteran suicides. Such calls are typical, often held ahead of a big moment -- be it a presidential signing ceremony or a major speech, like the State of the Union. But they usually come with a stipulation: the individuals conducting the calls will identify themselves on the assumption that the reporters will not identify them by name, instead using generic labels like "senior administration official." On Tuesday's call, the Trump press shop eschewed the first part of that agreement, failing to identify the main speaker and ignoring several requests from the press to do so. W.H. reporters were left miffed. "That's not how 'on background' works at all," Andrew Feinberg tweeted...
Why the initial refusal?
More from Tom Kludt: After being left in the dark, those reporters faced a dilemma over what exactly to do with the information shared on the call; as Feinberg put it, the White House was asking the press "to report on the words of a random person whose identity is unknown to us." For that reason, CNN initially chose not to report on the call. But the White House did eventually identify the official, and CNN proceeded with its coverage of the call. But the question remains: why the initial refusal? The W.H. didn't respond to my inquiries about the matter...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Prosecutor turned MSNBC analyst Daniel Goldman has been hired by Rep. Adam Schiff's office "to lead the Trump investigation," Jeffrey Toobin reported Tuesday... (New Yorker)
-- The recent re-release of a book by Roger Stone has landed him in even more hot water with Judge Amy Berman Jackson... (CNN)
-- Stone's Instagram account has also been a point of contention... Ari Melber commented that Stone might "literally go to jail for the gram..." (Mediaite)
-- Small world! Judge Jackson's son Matt was on "Jeopardy" on Tuesday night...
NABJ challenges CNN
The National Association of Black Journalists says it's putting CNN on a "special media monitoring list" because the group is concerned "about the lack of black representation within the ranks of CNN's executive news managers and direct reports to CNN President Jeff Zucker." The group is also calling for a civil rights audit of CNN's hiring and development practices for black employees. And it is citing "Zucker's refusal to meet with a four-person NABJ delegation."
CNN PR says he is happy to meet with the group -- there's just an issue with one member of the delegation, TV One's Roland Martin.
"For months, we have been working with NABJ to schedule a meeting because the relationship between CNN and NABJ is very important to us," a network spokeswoman said Tuesday night. But: "Unfortunately, the significant and reckless damage that Roland Martin did to CNN while partnering with us during a 2016 Democratic Town Hall has made any meeting that includes him untenable. Mr. Martin displayed an unprecedented and egregious lack of journalistic ethics and integrity by leaking questions prior to the town hall." So CNN has told NABJ that everyone else is welcome at the meeting, but not Martin. TVNewser has more here...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Shoutout to "CBS Sunday Morning:" Last weekend was the show's "best viewer delivery since Jan. 8, 2017," about 6.3 million total viewers...
-- Cynthia Littleton interviewed Vincent Sadusky, who's been the CEO of Univision for nearly a year... "On Sadusky's watch, Univision is investing big in local and national news operations and looking for more ways to get live programming on its air..." (Variety)
-- I loved this Jessica Roy story about how Sim City "inspired a generation of city planners..." (LAT)
The Tribeca lineup is out!
The Tribeca Film Festival announced its feature film lineup on Tuesday. Here's the full list. IndieWire's Kate Erbland writes: "This year, the program has reached a new milestone: gender parity across its three competition sections..."
| | Remembering Luke Perry
Megan Thomas emails: This appreciation of Luke Perry by Vulture's Angelica Jade Bastién artfully captures what so many of us loved about watching Perry as Dylan McKay.
"Without Perry's fiercely tender portrait of a teenage bad boy with hidden depths, shows like Gossip Girl, Dawson's Creek, and, of course, Riverdale wouldn't exist. These shows are playing with the tools that Perry, and 90210, created. Many actors that populate teen soaps, or are trying to craft their niche as stars, have tried to replicate Perry's particular blend of charisma and tenderness. You can see echoes of it in the careers of Noah Centineo, Timothée Chalamet, and, of course, Cole Sprouse, whose vision of Jughead is a pale imitation of Perry's effortless cool. Each of these actors uses vulnerability as part of their star image. Perry still has an allure all these years later because he felt more earthbound and more sincere than other visions of the tenderhearted bad boy that have come along since. Ultimately, what Perry had was authenticity."
Production on "Riverdale" has been halted
For TV shows that lose a star like Perry, there's no perfect way to say goodbye, Sandra Gonzalez wrote on Tuesday.
Per her story, "production on 'Riverdale,' which this week will air the 14th episode of its third season, was halted upon news of his death and remained shuttered on Tuesday, according to a source close to the show. 'Riverdale' is a heavily serialized show, which will present a challenge as producers decide whether to halt the action to address Perry's death or attempt to work his departure into a storyline tastefully, if such a thing can even be done." More...
Early reviews for "Captain Marvel" | | Brian Lowry emails: "Captain Marvel" is flying toward a big weekend box-office-wise, with a huge international forecast for Marvel's first film built around a female superhero. Qualitatively, though, it's a lesser light in the Marvel universe -- basically an appetizer before the next "Avengers" sequel. Then again, Marvel has been somewhat victimized by its own success in terms of expectations after "Black Panther."
The reviews also underscore the methodological difference between aggregator sites Rotten Tomatoes -- which boils down its average to a simple thumbs up or down -- and Metacritic, which provides room for more nuanced analysis.
>> Read Lowry's full review here...
Winter has arrived, and so has the "Game of Thrones" trailer
Frank Pallotta emails: Fans of the HBO fantasy series (hi!) finally have a trailer for the final season of "Game of Thrones." HBO released the video via Twitter on Tuesday with a simple message stating: "the trailer is here."
The dark teaser -- both figuratively and literally (seriously, I could hardly see anything) -- offers glimpses of several major characters including Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen preparing for battle. Watch and read here...
>> CNN's David Wright cracked me up with this tweet: "1M+ views so far on the game of thrones trailer, which says it's raised $2.5 million since launch w/ over 250,000 unique small dollar donors from all 50 states..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Brooks Barnes calls this a "feline coup:" Warner Bros. has scored the rights to Hello Kitty for a film and "possible spinoff projects..." (NYT)
-- "Nashville" is on the road to Broadway... Lionsgate is working on a stage musical... (Deadline)
-- Craig Marks is becoming the LAT's music editor, succeeding Todd Martens, who will "become a critic covering games and immersive entertainment..." (LAT)
-- Tiffany Haddish, a "sought-after free agent," has signed with UTA... (Deadline)
After "Neverland"
Via Lisa Respers France, here's what we learned from part two of "Leaving Neverland."
France also wrote this piece about black celebs that's a must-read.
"There was a time when the presence of a black person on television was cause for celebration," she wrote. "In the early days of TV, black families would crowd around the set to catch a glimpse of the representation. Now that reverence for some has taken the form of being extremely protective of black stars, especially when they are accused of wrongdoing. From Michael Jackson to Bill Cosby and R. Kelly, the response from supporters of the men who have been accused of sexual misconduct has been almost as explosive as the allegations they all denied." Read on...
Sizable audience for part one
Brian Lowry emails: Part one of the documentary drew 1.3 million viewers for its initial airing, a figure that will grow considerably when all platforms and repeat airings are tabulated. In the context of HBO docs, that's a solid number, behind only "Going Clear" (the Scientology documentary) and "Bright Lights" (about Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher). Still, given the enormous amount of coverage and controversy, it's relatively modest in the bigger scheme of things -- slightly below the "True Detective" finale, which played against the Oscars -- perhaps a reminder that it's been a decade since Jackson's death, and the King of Pop isn't as top of mind as he might have been even a few years ago...
About the Jackson estate's "financial interest..."
More from Brian Lowry: As for HBO's Oprah Winfrey-hosted special after part two on Monday, the most significant aspect might have been Winfrey's seal of approval, coupled with her acknowledgement that she fully anticipated catching hell for it from Jackson¹s most vocal fans. Director Dan Reed, notably, also shot back at Jackson's estate, saying that because of the threat posed to profiting from Jackson's music, the beneficiaries have "a gigantic vested interest, a financial interest, in smearing these two young men, and in discrediting them."
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