EXEC SUMMARY: Hello from the "Game of Thrones" final season premiere in midtown Manhattan. Scroll down for a full report... Plus Mark Zuckerberg's TV interview, Snap's summit, the latest from CinemaCon, and a new 2020 contender...
Reporters with receipts
"The Hill to Die On" is about to be everywhere.
Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer's scoop-filled book about Capitol Hill in the Trump age comes out next Tuesday, and it's already starting to make news. WaPo's Ashley Parker says the book reads like an extended edition of Sherman and Palmer's Politico Playbook newsletter, with each chapter containing "at least one or two nuggets."
President Trump, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Mark Meadows were all interviewed on the record. I peeked at the book's notes on sourcing... It says the authors interviewed "characters in this book and aides involved in the legislative process as often as several times each week stretching from Election Day 2016 through February 2019."
And check this out: "On several occasions, sources allowed us to listen in to telephone conversations or conference calls as they were happening." Plus: "Sources in both parties agreed to share meeting notes, transcripts of telephone conversations, recordings of telephone conversations, and recordings of meetings, e-mails, and memos."
In other words: They're saying they have receipts.
Some of the scoops:
Parker nabbed an advance copy and wrote it up on Wednesday -- she led with Trump sitting in an infrastructure briefing and scrawling the word "Sloppy Steve." Meaning, the president spent the meeting thinking about "how he wanted to trash Steve Bannon," the authors wrote.
The Guardian's Tom McCarthy and Martin Pengelly also obtained a copy. Their headline: "Trump floated nominating Merrick Garland to supreme court, book reveals."
Hannity is on the line
Here's more from Parker's summary for WaPo: "Sean Hannity also makes several appearances" in the book, "including on a health-care conference call with Trump and a few Republican lawmakers where, 'much to everyone's surprise,' Hannity is also on the line."
Parker says Sherman and Palmer depict the president as "bumbling, if genial." Trump "seems to have copious free time, and the book gives the impression of a president constantly dialing lawmakers just to chat..."
--> WHAT'S NEXT: I hear that Politico will publish the first official excerpt from the book on Friday...
--> THE BIG PICTURE: The market for books about All Things Trump remains very healthy...
On Page One of Thursday's NYT...
The New York Times is giving this headline big play: "BARR UNDERSTATED MUELLER FINDINGS, SOME ON TEAM SAY." It's at the top of Wednesday evening's home page and Thursday's front page... | | The news: Some of Robert Mueller's investigators "have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations," Nicholas Fandos, Michael S. Schmidt and Mark Mazzetti report.
The second graf describes the stakes: This was "one of the most consequential government investigations in American history." And some members of Mueller's team "are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel's findings, Americans' views will have hardened before the investigation's conclusions become public..."
"The View" primary continues
The ABC talk show has been a key stop for 2020 contenders. And on Thursday, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan is scheduled to be on the show. BuzzFeed's Henry Gomez, who's based in Cleveland and has covered Ryan for years, says that Ryan "is expected to announce a presidential campaign this week." Put two and two together...
--> Speaking of "The View:" Ramin Setoodeh's new book about the show is holding steady on Amazon's best sellers list...
Zuckerberg on "GMA"
ABC's George Stephanopoulos has landed Mark Zuckerberg's "first network TV interview since news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in March 2018," per an ABC press release. The interview will air on Thursday... | | Zuck spoke with CNN last year, but it's rare to see him on one of the broadcast networks. It's a "big get," Donie O'Sullivan notes, but it's "Zuckerberg's second TV interview this week..." He also spoke with the Irish public broadcaster RTÉ on his visit to Dublin on Tuesday...
Snap holding a Summit on Thursday
Kaya Yurieff emails: Snap is hosting its first-ever Snap Partner Summit on Thursday in L.A. According to Cheddar, the company is expected to launch a gaming platform for developers and more original shows. Games could provide a new source of revenue for Snap and help boost engagement. The company has struggled to grow its user base amid increased competition from Instagram and a rocky app redesign last year, which caused some users to flee the platform...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Dem lawmaker David Cicilline and his GOP counterpart Doug Collins reintroduced their "Journalism Competition and Preservation Act" on Wednesday... (Variety)
-- On Wednesday CBS News confirmed Tuesday's reports about morning co-host Bianna Golodryga leaving the network... More changes to come, sooner rather than later... (People)
-- Misinfo must-read of the day: BuzzFeed's Craig Silverman reports how research indicates older Americans "have disproportionally fallen prey to the dangers of internet misinformation…" (BuzzFeed)
-- NYT's Weiyi Cai and Simone Landon write about how white extremist killers are often inspired by others, underscoring how "the internet and social media have facilitated the spread of white extremist ideology and violence…" (NYT)
-- Charlie Warzel's latest 🔥: "Big Tech's Original Sin" (NYT)
A well-deserved award for Boutrous
Scoop: This year's Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award recipients will be announced on Thursday... One of the winners is Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., one of the lawyers who steered CNN and Jim Acosta's lawsuit against the Trump admin to restore his White House access...
The future of the L.A. Times
This news from THR's Jeremy Barr elicited gasps on Wednesday: "Shani Hilton, who has worked hand-in-hand with editor-in-chief Ben Smith in running BuzzFeed News for the last few years in New York, is leaving to work for the newly restocked Los Angeles Times."
In June Hilton will become the paper's deputy managing editor for news, reporting to managing editor Scott Kraft and exec editor Norm Pearlstine.
Looking at the masthead, I think you can see the next generation of the Times: Kimi Yoshino, Sewell Chan, Julia Turner, and now Hilton. In five years, who will be exec editor?
Georgia GOP lawmakers call for a state Journalism Ethics Board
Katie Pellico emails: Republican lawmakers in Georgia are proposing a state ethics board for journalists, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier this week. Rep. Andy Welch sponsored the bill after, per AJC, "what he saw as bias from a TV reporter who asked him questions about legislation recently."
>> PEN America flagged the request as a "pressing threat" on Wednesday, saying it "raises First Amendment issues of government control of the press."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Quick reminder: We have two open producer jobs on the "Reliable Sources" team! We're looking for a ⭐️ booker and a 💯 producer...
-- CBS has missed "its internal deadline to name a new CEO — and don't expect a decision soon," Alex Sherman reports... (CNBC)
-- After several reports about media moguls rethinking deals with Saudi Arabia, AMC Theatres is "forging ahead with its expansion in Saudi..." (Reuters)
"The most powerful media family on Earth"
There's no way to summarize Jim Rutenberg and Jonathan Mahler's three-part NYT Mag story about the Murdoch media empire. Just click here to start reading it...
The bottom line: Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan Murdoch is the beating heart of Fox's shift even further to the right. "In Australia, Lachlan expressed disdain for efforts to fight climate change and once rebuked the staff at one of his family's newspapers, The Australian, for an editorial in support of same-sex marriage," although he says through a rep that he is in favor of same-sex marriage. While Lachlan is running the newly slimmed-down Fox Corporation, his brother James Murdoch is off in the wilderness. The two men are barely on speaking terms now. "To friends, James dismissed his brother's new company as 'an American political project.'"
Lachlan texted support to Tucker...
 Oliver Darcy emails: One of the many bits of news in the NYT Mag cover story is that Lachlan Murdoch privately expressed support to Tucker Carlson after the Fox host's anti-immigration comments spurred an ad boycott in December. According to The Times, Lachlan sent personal text messages of support to Carlson amid the controversy. I pinged spokespeople for Fox and Fox News about this, but did not hear back…
--> It wasn't the only time that Lachlan backed Fox's prime time talent. The Times reported that Jon Lovett confronted Lachlan at the Vanity Fair dinner, asking him, "Do you feel proud of what's happening between 8 and 11 every night? You think this is good for the world?" The Times reported Lachlan replied, "Yeah, I think they're doing a great job."
Lachlan v. James is a broader theme of the NYT story
Darcy sends one more: The anecdote is representative of a broader theme in the Times piece: Lachlan preferred a more nationalist and populist version of Fox, supporting hosts like Carlson, while his brother James preferred a toned-down, more establishment version of the network. After Roger Ailes was forced out of the company over sexual assault allegations, which he denied, James wanted to bring in CBS News president David Rhodes to run the ship, The Times reported. But Rupert and Lachlan rejected the idea. Lachlan "considered the idea of meddling with such an important profit driver a form of madness." Ultimately, following a years-long rivalry between the two Murdoch brothers, Lachlan won…
THE DAY'S OTHER BIT OF NEWS ABOUT FOX NEWS...
Sanders agrees to a Fox town hall
Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will moderate a Fox News town hall with Bernie Sanders on April 15. Politico's Rebecca Morin described the backlash here...
| | Shrugging off Trump's incredibly strange claims
On Tuesday the president repeated his previous claim that his father was born in Germany. (His father was born in the Bronx.) The president also said "they say" that wind farm noise causes cancer. (No, it does not.) These sorts of comments are nonsensical at best. Yet there was a shrug from many corners of the national news media. I searched the transcripts of the big network newscasts. None of the networks mentioned Trump's "Germany" or "cancer" claims on Wednesday morning or Wednesday evening...
--> But "AC360" did: Anderson Cooper debunked a "list of Trump lies over last 24 hours..."
Ortagus is in at State
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named Morgan Ortagus, most recently a Fox News contributor, as the new State Department spokesperson on Wednesday. "While she would replace another Fox News alum in former spokesperson Heather Nauert, allies emphasize that her foreign policy and communications experience significantly outweighs that of her predecessor," CNN's story notes...
Time for TIME's expansion
This is TIME mag's first move to get deeper into the live events business: It is expanding the Time 100 brand by holding a day-long summit before its evening gala for the honorees. "This is what you'll be seeing from us throughout the year -- expanding existing franchises and building out new ones," Time EIC and CEO Edward Felsenthal told me.
This year's Time 100 Summit on April 23 will be sponsored by Cadillac and Citi. In future years, it will be "both a sponsored and ticketed event," Felsenthal said. Here's my full story...
On its own...
Marc and Lynne Benioff's deal for TIME took effect on November 1, and since then "we've expanded our staff by just under 20 percent," Felsenthal told me. But the transition has been gradual. This is the first week Time has its own payroll system, its own HR dept, its own ad tech systems, etc. Next: Moving to a new office...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Stephen Battaglio profiled Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on Wednesday... Chris Wallace told Battaglio, "I feel more supported in being an equal opportunity inquisitor by the new regime than I did in the old regime..." (LAT)
-- A big move in the ad biz: Accenture is buying Droga5. Sapna Maheshwari has details here... (NYT)
-- "This is a great idea," Joshua Benton writes: "In order to reduce the number of its old stories that get recirculated as new, The Guardian is making a story's age more prominent, both to readers and to those who might only see a link on social media without clicking through..." (NiemanLab)
BuzzFeed union left at the altar?
Tom Kludt emails: Wednesday was supposed to be a chance for BuzzFeed's newly formed union and the company's execs to come to the bargaining table. The problem: only one side showed up. "Five minutes after the meeting was scheduled to start, they told us they weren't going to show up," the union tweeted, accusing management of "clear union-busting."
According to Tanya Carroll, BuzzFeed's senior director of people, the no-show was due to the union changing the terms of the meeting at the 11th hour. Splinter has the accounts from both sides here.
The union says BuzzFeed "has refused to recognize an editorial unit, and only wants to recognize an extremely restrictive list of titles. This would let them easily exclude people from our union and would inhibit flexibility in our jobs..."
Welcome to The City
Following up on yesterday's newsletter item: The City launched in NYC early Wednesday morning, providing a new source for accountability journalism in the five boroughs.
Check out my Q&A with EIC Jere Hester and chairman of the board Ben Smith here... Hester said The City finds "endless inspiration in nonprofit outlets like ProPublica, The Marshall Project, The Texas Tribune, Chalkbeat, The Hechinger Report and more," and hopes to be a model for others...
--> NiemanLab notes that the startup published "a diversity report on its first day..."
Baquet's philosophy: "Report very, very, very aggressively," then "publish with some discretion" | | Katie Pellico emails: During a TimesTalk event with David McCraw and Carolyn Ryan on Tuesday, NYT exec editor Dean Baquet said "I have a philosophy, which is to report very, very, very aggressively. You can always produce stories that are more conservative than your reporting. Report aggressively and then publish with some discretion." So in the case of misconduct allegations in Trump's past, "I instructed the reporters to report aggressively to find out if in fact there were lots of women who were willing to talk about how Trump had treated them." Watch the full interview here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Bill Simmons' podcast chat with John Skipper is up... (The Ringer)
-- Vicky Nguyen is moving from NBC's Bay Area station to the NBC News Investigative Unit as an investigative and consumer correspondent...
-- Viacom "is coming to T-Mobile's over-the-top wireless TV packages..." (Variety)
Loughlin and Huffman in court
"Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were among a dozen people who appeared Wednesday in federal court in Boston as part of the college admissions scam..." Here's CNN's full story...
-- When she landed in Boston on Tuesday, Loughlin signed autographs and chatted with fans, per People mag...
-- Lisa Respers France writes: Former "Full House" co-star Candace Cameron Bure says she's supporting Loughlin..
iHeartMedia CEO: "We're looking for additions"
NBC's Claire Atkinson asked iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman: "Will you acquire other companies or do you see yourselves potentially being part of something else? The Financial Times reported there were some conversations with Apple, which was exploring a stake."
Pittman's reply: "We're looking for additions either through make it, partner, or buy it. Even during bankruptcy we bought two companies. We bought [Stuff Media] and we bought Jelli, that was essential to this whole new way of developing and buying advertising and connecting with our advertising partners, so I think we're always open to that. As far as the company goes, I really can't opine other than to say, audio is very hot today..."
Chloe's interview with Robert De Niro
Chloe Melas writes: "After becoming a political target in a bomb scare last fall, Robert De Niro has a message for anyone who resorts to violence to get their message across. 'Good triumphs over evil, light triumphs over darkness, it's that simple,' De Niro told CNN on Wednesday, while promoting the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival." Read on...
| | Lowry's dispatch from the "GoT" premiere
Brian Lowry emails: Wednesday was a historic night for HBO.
Although "Game of Thrones" doesn't premiere on TV until April 14, Wednesday marked the last lavish season premiere for the HBO blockbuster, part of a media feeding frenzy that will run through the May 19 finale. The screening was held at Radio City Music Hall in NYC, amid a changing of the guard — and perhaps the seasons — at the pay network.
Before the screening began, there was a loud round of applause for Richard Plepler, who recently exited the HBO C-suite. "Word is" that Plepler is attending the screening "but not the after party," Variety's Cynthia Littleton tweeted. "New boss Bob Greenblatt is here too. So is WarnerMedia chief John Stankey, who said he will be seeing the premiere episode for the first time tonight."
"Keep the Secrets" buttons were passed out at the premiere, reminding everyone not to spoil the episode...
Inside the premiere party
I'm filing this letter from the after-party at the Zeigfeld Ballroom... I just met up with Lowry here... I'm terrible at celeb spotting, but here are some sightings: Virtually the entire cast of the series... Plus John Stankey, Casey Bloys, John Oliver, Jeff Zucker, Jake Tapper, Tammy Haddad, Maureen Dowd, Carl Hulse, Bill Brink, Margot Weiss, Quentin Schaffer, Phoebe Robinson, Chris Licht, Keegan Michael-Key, Natalie Maines, Keith Cocozza, Edmund Lee, John Koblin, Brian Steinberg, 100s more...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- "Ellen DeGeneres, Elton John and Billie Jean King are among celebrities to follow George Clooney's lead in calling for a boycott of hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei," as the country's anti-gay law goes into effect Wednesday. Will Hollywood firms follow? (Deadline)
-- Megan Thomas emails: This is a great take by VF's Laura Bradley on why Netflix needs to let "One Day at a Time" find a new home... (VF)
-- One day before Netflix's first European production center opens in Madrid, Viacom announced a new studio there, and another in Manchester, "part of an international expansion to create Spanish- and English- language content," per THR's Jennifer Green... (THR)
"Captain Marvel" joins the $1 billion club
Frank Pallotta emails: "Captain Marvel" crossed $1 billion globally on Wednesday. Yes, a Disney film -- especially a Marvel film -- making a lot of money isn't really news, but respect is owed to Disney, Marvel and its first female led superhero movie.
"Marvel" is the 7th film from Marvel Studios to break the billion dollar plateau, and even more insane is that Marvel Cinematic Universe has made over $18.5 billion worldwide over 21 movies. That's an average of more than $880 million per film...
So much news from CinemaCon:
Helen Mirren delighted theater owners by cursing Netflix on stage...
Disney shared new "Lion King" footage...
A brief look at "It: Chapter Two" terrified the crowd...
Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham showed off a trailer for "Hobbs & Shaw..."
Jennifer Hudson performed "Memory" to promote the adaptation of "Cats..."
| | About "The Joker" trailer...
Katie Pellico emails: "The Joker" trailer dropped Wednesday, "drawing comparisons to Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver.'" The movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix, opens in theaters October 4... Twitter Moments recapped some of the reactions here...
Lowry reviews "Shazam!"
Brian Lowry emails: "Shazam!" strikes a much lighter tone than previous DC movies — a heavily comedic take on the hero once known as Captain Marvel that's more "Big" than "Man of Steel," with amusing but mixed results...
Netflix orders more of "After Life"
Megan Thomas emails: Ricky Gervais' surprisingly appealing show about grief, "After Life," is getting a second season, Netflix announced Wednesday.
"I have never had a reaction like this before. It's been insane. And heartwarming. But now I have to make sure the second season is even better so I'll probably have to work much harder than usual. Annoying really," Gervais joked about the news...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Don't miss Kim Masters' new profile of Louise Linton: "Mrs. Mnuchin, Hollywood Player?" (THR)
-- Red Bull Music Academy and Red Bull Radio are shutting down October 31, "ending a 21-year run of influential concerts, lectures and workshops..." (Rolling Stone)
-- Lisa Respers France writes: Justin Bieber has apologized for his April Fools' pregnancy prank... (CNN)
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Disney heiress warns about wealth
Megan Thomas emails: Abigail Disney (granddaughter of Roy Disney) has been making the media rounds lately. The Cut's Sarah McVeigh has a super interesting interview with her about growing up with more money than you'll ever be able to spend.
"We say, 'Job creators, entrepreneurs, these are the people who make America great.' So there are people walking around with substantial wealth who think that they have it because they're better," Disney said. "It's fundamental to remember that you're just a member of the human race, like everybody else, and there's nothing about your money that makes you better than anyone else. If you don't know that and you have money, it's the road to hell, no matter how much stuff you have around you." Read the rest here...
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me feedback anytime! See you tomorrow.... | | | |
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