EXEC SUMMARY: Here's the latest on The City, Apple News+, "CBS This Morning," Politico, the "meme wars," WhatsApp, Disney+, "One Day at a Time," and more...
FIRST LOOK:
Rupert's world
Jim Rutenberg and Jonathan Mahler have been working on a New York Times Magazine cover story for the last six months. And it's coming out on Wednesday. Here's the cover: | | The subject: Rupert Murdoch's media empire. The pair interviewed 150+ people in three countries. Their story will be up on the NYT home page by 6 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
Rutenberg and Mahler acknowledge that the Fox News-White House alliance is very closely covered, and "the Murdochs themselves are an enduring object of cultural fascination." But, they write, "what we as reporters had not fully appreciated until now is the extent to which these two stories — one of an illiberal, right-wing reaction sweeping the globe, the other of a dynastic media family — are really one. To see Fox News as an arm of the Trump White House risks missing the larger picture. It may be more accurate to say that the White House — just like the prime ministers' offices in Britain and Australia — is just one tool among many that this family uses to exert influence over world events."
More to come on Wednesday...
Suzanne Scott speaks
Variety's Brian Steinberg landed the first in-depth interview with Suzanne Scott since last May, when she was appointed CEO of Fox News. Key quotes:
-- What she's doing differently: "There wasn't much communication with the staff under Roger Ailes..."
-- What she's not doing differently: "Our audience is deeply connected to our primetime shows. We are the only ones with conservative talent in primetime. We believe in free speech. We fully support our primetime talent, and we're not going to let the voices of the few impact our business."
-- Per Steinberg, "she says 85% of people who take a one-week free trial" of Fox Nation "are electing to stay on board..."
Meantime, Fox's prime time ad problems continue...
Tom Kludt emails: Monday's edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" reflected Fox's new normal, with only 16 ads -- including a pair of two-minute spots from MyPillow -- running throughout the hour-long broadcast. It's been this way for a while now. Before Carlson's racist remarks about immigrants making America "dirtier" in December, the show averaged around 36 ads a broadcast. Months later, those advertisers have not returned. Maybe that's because subsequent controversies have kept the heat on Carlson. Read on...
Fox still says the advertisers will return
Fox News president of ad sales Marianne Gambelli responded to Kludt's story by saying, "As the top-rated network in every region of the country since the 2016 election, Fox News viewers are a buying audience, consuming products across all major index categories. Our sponsors know the value of that audience which is not only unduplicated, but also highly affluent and educated." Separately, she told Variety that the advertisers who have bailed on prime time "say they are going to pause, with the intent to return." So far, there are few signs of returnees. So Fox News is not able to fully capitalize on its big ratings victories...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Q1 ratings are in: Fox News "wrapped up another quarter as the most-watched network on cable television, running its streak in total day to 11 consecutive quarters at No. 1..." (TVNewser)
-- White House security specialist Tricia Newbold, who's been dubbed a whistleblower by House Democrats, gave an exclusive interview to NBC's Peter Alexander on Tuesday... (NBC)
-- Manuel Roig-Franzia's up-close look at WorldNetDaily: "Inside the spectacular fall of the granddaddy of right-wing conspiracy sites..." (WaPo)
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST:
The City is launching on Wednesday
"The City" calls itself "an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York." The project was announced last fall... And financed to the tune of $8.5 million by foundations and individual donors... And now it's ready to report to the public. Per two sources, the website will launch on Wednesday morning... And I'll have details on CNN Business in the A.M...
The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act is being reintroduced on Wednesday...
Keach Hagey's scoop in the WSJ: Rep. David Cicilline and Rep. Doug Collins plan to introduce a bill on Wednesday "to let publishers team up to negotiate with Google and Facebook." The bill didn't really go anywhere last year. But its backers -- including the publishing biz's main advocacy group -- are hoping it will "gain momentum in a Democratic-controlled House and draw bipartisan support." Cicilline is planning to hold hearings about local news woes...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Oliver Darcy emails: NowThis announced on Tuesday (Equal Pay Day) that it is teaming up with Times Up to "highlight key issues facing women in the workplace..." (Deadline)
-- Chloe Melas emails: On the occasion of Equal Pay Day, actress Laura Dern told me she still doesn't believe she's being paid equal to her male co-stars... (CNN)
-- This new lawsuit, filed on behalf of two employees, is "claiming that Disney discriminates against female workers by paying them less than their male counterparts." Disney says the suit is without merit... (NYT)
200,000 subscribers for News+ so far
Edmund Lee's in-depth look at Apple News contains this news: "More than 200,000 people subscribed to Apple News Plus in its first 48 hours — more than Texture had amassed at its peak, according to two people..." And his story has lots more info here...
--> David Uberti tweeted that 200,000 subscribers "sounds like a big number. It's also $12 million/year split between 300 publishers..."
YouTube's harmful recommendation engine | | Tuesday's top must-read is this nearly 4,000 word story by Bloomberg's Mark Bergen about the very real ways YouTube's algorithms hurt people.
The headline: "YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Letting Toxic Videos Run Rampant." Bergen spoke with current and former staffers who said that proposals to change the recommendation engine and curb conspiracy videos "were sacrificed for engagement."
--> YouTube's response: "Our primary focus has been tackling some of the platform's toughest content challenges... Responsibility remains our number one priority..."
Bianna Golodryga out at CBS
While network newsers wait for Susan Zirinsky to reveal her plans for CBS News changes, news keeps breaking... On Tuesday morning, while "CBS This Morning" was on the air, Yashar Ali reported that the show's newest co-host, Bianna Golodryga, is being "moved off the program."
"Zirinsky felt that the show had too many anchors," according to Ali's sources. "Zirinsky had hoped to keep Golodryga at CBS to work on other news programs," but her deal allowed her to leave if she wasn't kept on the morning show, and "a source close to Golodryga said she planned to exercise her option to leave." By late afternoon, according to VF's Joe Pompeo, "her office was already being boxed up."
Golodryga was off on Tuesday. And from the looks of it, she will not be on Wednesday's show either. This seems like the type of awkward breakup that networks try hard to avoid. In any case, Golodryga remains a CNN contributor. She has not commented on the CBS exit, and a CBS spokeswoman declined to comment...
Some more CBS News news...
Pompeo's piece also notes that "CBS This Morning" has been "without a permanent executive producer since the December departure of Ryan Kadro." He reports that senior broadcast producer Diana Miller, who's been running the show on an interim basis, "is now officially getting the top job..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Keep an eye on this suit: Several former U.S. intel and military officials are suing over "rules that require them to submit book manuscripts and other writings for review long after leaving government service." They say it amounts to censorship... (WSJ)
-- The winners of this year's White House Correspondents Association Awards: McKay Coppins, Josh Dawsey, Ed Henry, and a team from Reuters... (WHCA)
-- The nominees for this year's Webby Awards are out... Disney won 40 nominations, WarnerMedia nabbed 39, Vice Media has 35, Google has 26... (THR)
Matt Kaminski named EIC of Politico
Oliver Darcy emails: After 12 years, Politico is getting a new editor-in-chief. Publisher Robert Allbritton emailed staff on Tuesday to announce that Matt Kaminski will be taking the reins from John Harris, starting on Monday. Allbritton described Kaminski as a "leader with tireless ambition and creativity" who will work with US newsroom editor Carrie Budoff Brown to "create impact and drive growth across a competitive landscape in media that continues to rapidly change."
Allbritton said Harris will "step aside from managerial duties and move into a governance role," joining the corporate board that oversees Politico. Harris, Allbritton wrote, had "long made clear" that he wanted to return to reporting. "Over the last two years, it became evident during our conversations that he was thinking seriously about a transition," Allbritton explained in his memo. "His final assignment as editor in chief was to ensure that our newsroom was led by a team in whom I have trust, and who are ready to write a new chapter of their own for Politico."
Politico poaches Natasha Bertrand
Darcy sends one more nugget of Politico news: The Atlantic's Natasha Bertrand is joining the publication as a national security correspondent. "We thought she would be a perfect fit here: she is a scoop-driven, high-metabolism reporter with the ability to quickly break news as well as turn big, important stories and deliver sharp analysis," Paul Volpe wrote in an internal memo. Bertrand will continue her role as an MSNBC contributor...
| | Happy International Fact-Checking Day!
Pro-journalism groups use the day after April Fool's to promote fact-checking. Of course, in this twisted era, fact-checkers should be celebrated every day. Here is Chris Cillizza's latest: "Happy International Fact-Checking Day! Trump has made 9,451 false or misleading claims in his first 802 days in office! That's according to the invaluable Washington Post Fact Checker."
As Cillizza wrote, the lies are "a feature, not a bug, of not only his presidency but his life..."
Shouldn't these comments be the lead story?
These are just a few of the things the president said on Tuesday:
-- Talking about his "great respect" for Germany: "My father is German, right, was German. And born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a great feeling for Germany." Fred Trump was born in the Bronx.
-- Describing what "we need" to do to fix the immigration system: We "have to get rid of judges."
-- Sowing doubt about election integrity and telling GOP lawmakers to be "more paranoid:" "We have to be a little bit careful, because I don't like the way the votes are being tallied."
-- Supporting a conspiracy theory about wind farms: "They say the noise causes cancer."
Over on Earth 2, these comments are treated as shocking breaking news, instead of being shrugged off...
"That country"
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said it not once, but twice during an interview with MSNBC's Hallie Jackson on Tuesday. He said Puerto Rico is "that country" -- when in fact it's a proud part of the United States. He later called the mistake a "slip of the tongue."
But as WaPo's Aaron Blake tweeted, it's "not difficult to see a deliberately provocative effort to other-ize Puerto Rico," between Gidley's dismissive remarks and Trump's claims that Puerto Rican officials "only take from USA."
How Ortagus has changed
Former Fox News contributor Morgan Ortagus blasted Trump as "disgusting" and "not serious" back in 2016. Now she may become the next State Department spokesperson. Zachary Cohen and Andrew Kaczynski reviewed her resume and past TV appearances for this CNN.com story... They say "officials have been preparing paperwork and examining Ortagus' background for weeks and sources close to her say she is in good standing with the President, but there is lingering uncertainty around whether Trump is fully aware of the blistering attacks Ortagus levied against him during the campaign..."
--> Ortagus is in line to replace Heather Nauert, who hasn't been visibly working for months, but who has remained on the payroll. As of Tuesday, she no longer works for the State Dept, per CNN's Michelle Kosinski...
Baier's tweet to Pirro raises eyebrows
Oliver Darcy emails: Bret Baier raised eyebrows on Tuesday afternoon -- including among some at Fox -- when he tweeted out a "congrats" to Jeanine Pirro for "a big Saturday ratings win." Baier's tweet was striking, not only because he is one of the face's of Fox's hard news division, which often is seen at odds with the opinion programming, but because it was a "Special Report" producer's rebuke of Pirro's Islamophobic remarks that went viral last month. At the time, the producer, Hufsa Kamal asked Pirro to "stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America" because "you have Muslims working at the same network you do."
EYE ON 2020
-- The second #DemDebate of the year, to be hosted by CNN, "will take place in Detroit on July 30 and 31..." (CNN)
-- On Tuesday CNN announced the dates for FIVE more 2020 town halls: Kirsten Gillibrand on April 9, Jay Inslee on the 10th, Julian Castro on the 11th, and two back-to-back on the 14th: Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang... (CNN)
-- Arlette Saenz and Jeff Zeleny's latest: "Joe Biden undeterred from 2020 race as he faces allegations he made women feel uncomfortable..." (CNN)
Who's winning the meme wars?
Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer has a smart new piece about the use of memes in politics: She says "well-funded conservative groups are making a more organized push to train young internet-savvy right-wingers in the art of meme-making, enlisting a growing army in what they see as the coming meme war of 2020." The left, she says, "is trailing the right badly, and falling even further behind..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Nicholas Quah's newest edition of Hot Pod: "Can a local public radio station make a national podcast — and build a donor base off it? In New Hampshire, they have..." (NiemanLab)
-- I forgot to include this important bit of news yesterday: "The Financial Times now has 1 million paying readers, reaching its target a year ahead of schedule..." (Digiday)
We need to talk about WhatsApp | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: Facebook likes to tell us about all the steps it's taking to fight disinformation on its platforms. But over on Facebook-owned WhatsApp, they really can't do much to stop the spread of disinfo. WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption, meaning the company is not able to read any messages. Sounds good, right?
I know most of us don't want Facebook or WhatsApp reading our messages... but that creates a ton of challenges for Facebook in stopping the spread of disinformation on WhatsApp. It's a trade off. Maybe Facebook will be comfortable saying, "It's either encrypted or it's not. If we can read your messages, so can the government." But that's an... interesting... approach from a company that has spent two years talking about how they're fighting disinfo.
--> Related: Donie wrote about how, after the New Zealand attack, FB told us all it was doing to stop the spread of the attack video — but on WhatsApp there was nothing they could do...
--> Meanwhile, in India, where WhatsApp has a huge disinfo problem, the company has set up a "tip line" ahead of the elections...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Chloe Melas confirms: Mick Jagger will undergo heart-valve-replacement surgery this week... (CNN)
-- "The Bleacher Report-produced documentary 'Quiet Storm: The Ron Artest Story' is headed to Showtime..." (Awful Announcing)
-- "Troy Carter, formerly Spotify's global head of creator services and Lady Gaga's manager for the first five years of her career, has teamed up with his longtime friend and business partner J. Erving to form a 'new, modern music and technology company' called Q&A..." (Variety)
-- This week Netflix reminded subscribers that its price hike will take effect soon... (CNN)
"Antitrust concerns" about the Oscars?
Frank Pallotta emails: DOJ antitrust division chief Makan Delrahim recently sent a letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, expressing antitrust concerns about the possible new rules for Oscar awards categories.
The letter, which was first obtained by Variety, followed news reports that Steven Spielberg wanted to create rules that could block Netflix from Oscars contention. That may raise antitrust concerns, according to the DOJ. "In the event that the Academy — an association that includes multiple competitors in its membership — establishes certain eligibility requirements for the Oscars that eliminate competition without procompetitive justification, such conduct may raise antitrust concerns," Delrahim wrote.
Per CNN's Megan Thomas, The Academy confirmed that it received a letter from the DOJ and "responded accordingly..."
--> THR editor Matthew Belloni's reaction: "The US government cares about the awards given by a private arts organization? LOL."
Iger's personal involvement with Disney+
The Information's Beejoli Shah reported this on Tuesday: "Disney's CEO Bob Iger has been personally involved in greenlighting some of the series for the streaming service, according to two people familiar with the matter. That's a sign of how closely Mr. Iger is monitoring original series production for the streaming service, Disney Plus, on which Disney is betting its future..."
| | 'Avengers: Endgame' crashes ticket sites
Frank Pallotta emails: I don't think anyone is surprised that "Avengers: Endgame," Marvel's next superhero-a-palooza, is highly anticipated, but even I think this is crazy. Pre-sale tickets for "Endgame" went on sale Tuesday morning and caused chaos. The rush to buy tickets created long lines on Fandango (seriously, the site put consumers in an online queue) and downright crashed AMC Theaters' ticket site.
The film set Fandango's first day pre-sales record in just six hours. April 26 can't come soon enough...
"This is Us" season finale time...
The third season finale episode aired on NBC on Tuesday night. Please don't tell me anything... Me and Jamie are like four episodes behind... We're going to be all caught up by the end of this week 😊
But Chloe Melas is all caught up... And she wrote this about Tuesday's episode... Click here for spoilers!
| | "One Day at a Time" moving to CBS All Access?
"While the canceled Netflix sitcom remains a long shot to survive, producer Sony Pictures Television has had conversations with multiple outlets about ways to keep the series alive — and has now fielded an official pickup offer from at least one platform," Vulture's Joe Adalian scooped on Tuesday.
The details: "Two people familiar with the matter tell Vulture that the streaming network CBS All Access, whose interest in acquiring One Day was reported a few weeks back, has now submitted an official bid to procure at least one more season of the series from Sony." But: "Netflix's deal with Sony allows it to veto any move to a streaming network for at least two years after cancellation." But, but: "It appears Netflix is unwilling to budge and allow One Day to shift to the much, much smaller CBS All Access." Stay tuned...
--> James Poniewozik tweeted: "This would be quite a trajectory: CBS --> Netflix --> CBS's Netflix..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Kim Kardashian West is expecting baby No. 4 soon via a surrogate. Here's how she picks baby names...
-- Justin Bieber's April Fool's pregnancy joke drew some serious backlash...
-- Bristol Palin is quitting the MTV reality series "Teen Mom OG."
-- Donny and Marie Osmond are ending their Vegas run after 11 years... but not because they are feuding...
Is Baldwin getting bored of Trump?
Alec Baldwin is once again floating the idea of retiring his Trump impersonation. Is it due to contract negotiations? Exhaustion? Disgust? Who knows? But he's been on the interview circuit lately, and in this interview with IndieWire he talked about playing Trump less.
"We did it like once a month, this season," he said, pointing out that "SNL" has reduced the sheer # of Trump sketches. "I think people are, uh, they want a little bit less of that," he said. "And whether I do it much longer, remains to be seen."
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me feedback anytime! See you tomorrow.... | | | |
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