EXEC SUMMARY: Welcome to the weekend! Scroll down for some recommended reads, upfront updates and much more...
Best TV drama: The government
I keep asking myself: How are news consumers supposed to make sense of all this?
On Friday the House Ways and Means chairman Richard Neal issued subpoenas for President Trump's tax returns. The GOP-controlled Senate Intel Committee's subpoena of Donald Trump Jr. continued to cause shockwaves. House Judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler said Robert Mueller will NOT be testifying next week, but "negotiations" are ongoing. Nadler also offered A.G. Bill Barr a last-ditch compromise ahead of contempt vote by the full House. Top Dems are planning multiple contempt citations and talking about bundling them all together. Through it all, the Trump administration continues to stonewall Congress. I repeat: How are news consumers supposed to make sense of all this?
"It's hard for people to keep up with so many controversies."
I got in touch with CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju, who has been keeping track of it all, and he expressed a similar concern. "I often wonder how news consumers can keep up with all the developments because the news cycle is incredibly fast-moving and there are so many momentous stories developing at the same time," he wrote. "In some ways, the wild news cycle tends to benefit the president politically because it's hard for people to keep up with so many controversies."
"For reporters," Raju said, "it requires a good team with lots of resources, which we are fortunate to have at CNN. People hear different tips, share information and flag articles from competitors. For me, I have to focus on the areas on Capitol Hill that I cover to make sure I am ahead of the latest developments by talking to lawmakers and aides and keeping up with sources -- and be able to break news or be ready when news breaks. Of course, in this news environment that can be a challenge!"
| | "None of this will end well"
That's the headline on Chris Cillizza's Friday night step-back story. "Whether you choose to use the phrase 'constitutional crisis' to describe the current state of affairs or not, it's quite clear that we are in the midst of a historic fight over the system of checks and balances that have long governed how the legislative, executive and judicial branches interact with one another..."
Toobin's latest
"Our constitutional system never contemplated a President like Donald Trump," Jeffrey Toobin wrote in this New Yorker column on Friday. "The Framers anticipated friction among the three branches of government, which has been a constant throughout our history, but the Trump White House has now established a complete blockade against the legislative branch, thwarting any meaningful oversight. The system, it appears, may simply be incapable of responding to this kind of challenge." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Rebecca Ballhaus' Friday evening scoop for the WSJ: "Within a day of the release of the Mueller report last month, President Trump sought to have former W.H. counsel Don McGahn declare he didn't consider the president's 2017 directive that he seek Robert Mueller's dismissal to be obstruction of justice, but Mr. McGahn rebuffed the request..." (WSJ)
-- This Josh Dawsey/Juliet Eilperin/Peter Jamison joint is No. 1 on the Post's website right now: "Trump takes over Fourth of July celebration, changing its location and inserting himself into the program..." (WaPo)
-- Let's hear a round of applause for Politico's Michael Calderone, who is wrapping up his daily Morning Media newsletter... He wants to focus on "more original and distinctive reporting from inside newsrooms and out on the campaign trail..." 👏 👏 👏 (Politico)
-- This weekend's biggest TV event: The second to last episode of "Game of Thrones" on HBO Sunday night...
Hughes says Facebook is making American politics worse
"It's up to government to solve this," Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes told CNN's Kate Bolduan on Friday. Here's a clip from the interview.
As Hughes continues to call for government action against FB, this comment really stood out to me: "There's this thing about Facebook that is a question that I think a lot of people grapple with," Hughes said. "It's unclear: Is Facebook just showing us the way we've always been? You know, were people always screaming at each other about politics and now we can just see it when we log in? Or is Facebook -- and social media in general -- actually changing the way that we talk about our politics? For me, for a long time, I thought it was more of the former. That it was just, like, 'people will be crazy.' And people are often saying what they believe. And over time, I've come to believe that Facebook is actually contributing to that. What I know is that there are algorithms, rules essentially, that are programmed to show certain things... and those rules are set by humans."
Hughes added: "The point is that one company and one person have this outsized power. I mean, 2.4 billion people on Facebook, because Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, and so there's no accountability there." | | FB VP Nick Clegg on "Reliable Sources"
That's right: Nick Clegg, the British former deputy prime minister turned Facebook VP for global affairs and communications, will be with me for an exclusive interview on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." Hughes will be on CNN one hour earlier, during "Fareed Zakaria GPS," so I will ask Clegg about Hughes' call for a break-up of FB...
Recommended reads for your weekend 👓
-- "Save the Recordings of School Shootings," Charlie Warzel writes: The videos are "more powerful than media coverage and we can't let these witness statements vanish..."
-- In this column for The Guardian, Australian journalist Tony Koch burns down his old house: "For 30 years I worked for News Corp papers. Now all I see is shameful bias..."
-- Matthew Pressman makes the case that the anti-Trump NY Daily News "sounded a lot like Trump" 70 years ago...
-- The NYT's Kendra Pierre-Louis says she has encountered racism "more frequently in journalism than I did in previous professions..."
-- Per Christine Schmidt, here's what Membership Puzzle Project is teaching newsrooms about recruiting and retaining members...
-- Rosalind Donald writing for CJR: Why the "climate crisis is a story for every beat..."
-- Kate Brannen, reacting to the lack of on-camera DoD briefings, asks: "What Questions Is the Pentagon Avoiding?"
-- In this new piece for Esquire, Jim Rich argues that "spoiler culture has gone too far. It's turned us all into monsters..."
-- "Memes and Controversy Took Lil Nas X to No. 1:" Joe Coscarelli shows how "Old Town Road" became "an almost unprecedented cultural phenomenon..."
-- David Marchese talks with Howard Stern in this weekend's NYT Mag...
This Sunday's "Reliable" rundown
Chelsea Manning is out of jail, but maybe not for long -- she is facing another subpoena next week -- and on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" she will join me for an exclusive interview. So will Betsy Reed, the editor in chief of The Intercept. Also coming up: Nick Clegg, Catherine Rampell, Julian Zelizer, Jess McIntosh, and Carl Bernstein. Join us! Sunday at 11am ET on CNN...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- The aforementioned Julian Zelizer has a big op-ed in Sunday's Post: "Democrats are complicit if they don't impeach Trump..." (WaPo)
-- CNN's Marshall Cohen tweeted: "The former top FBI lawyer, James Baker, says he 'became sick of all the BS' and stepped up today to debunk some of the conspiracies Trump is peddling." Baker spoke at the Brookings Institution and then went on Rachel Maddow's show... (CNN)
-- "The View" co-host Meghan McCain "has been shopping a book about her relationship with her late dad," Maxwell Tani reports... (Beast)
-- The Nxivm case has been in the headlines for weeks. Now the trial is underway. Sonia Moghe will catch you up here... (CNN)
Glor's sign-off
"As we leave here tonight, I just want to say thanks," Jeff Glor said at the end of his final "CBS Evening News" broadcast Friday night. He said "this is a short broadcast, but a long game. Through it all, the people who put on the 'Evening News' remain committed. This program will be moving to Washington, D.C. in the coming months. I wish Norah O'Donnell the best of luck. But she won't need it because of all the people backing her up." Before running 90 seconds of staff credits, he thanked them, then said "I'll see you soon." (No word on where.)
-- And after the credits, the director took a live shot of Buffalo, New York, where Glor grew up. Nice touch...
-- John Dickerson will fill in on the newscast next week, per Variety's Brian Steinberg...
"Andrew Neil destroys Ben Shapiro"
Brian Lowry emails: Critics obviously delighted in Ben Shapiro's walk-off-the-set interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil, but what struck me most was his admission that he had no idea who Neil was. That's damning by itself, but not nearly as unusual as it should be, and a good reminder that failing to do one's homework before doing a live interview -- and this is a learn-by-experience mistake -- is to court disaster...
>> Shapiro's acolytes frequently post videos with titles like "Ben Shapiro DESTROYS [insert name of hapless rival here]." So Shapiro tweeted this on Friday, linking to his list of "all the dumb stuff I've ever done..." | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "Who was most opposed to freeing two reporters in Myanmar?" The NYT says it was the country's de facto civilian leader, once a political prisoner herself, Aung San Suu Kyi... (NYT)
-- Carlos Maza's caption on this video: "So much of conservative media relies on creating a version of 'the left' that just... doesn't exist." Here's the Media Matters mashup of Tucker Carlson that makes Maza's point... (Twitter)
-- I missed this earlier in the week: A new company called Ponfund is making "one-time investments in podcasts in exchange for a share of their revenue," The Verge's Ashley Carman wrote. The team is "talent-scouting the shows and makers they think have revenue-making potential..." (The Verge)
(Only) 21% of Americans say they've met a local journalist
"About two-in-ten Americans (21%) say they have ever spoken with or been interviewed by a local journalist," according to new Pew data.
I've commented in the past that it's easy to distrust or even hate journalists if you've never met one. But what if you have? "The interaction does not seem to have much influence on how people rate the job their local media are doing, according to the center's new survey. Among those who have spoken with a local journalist, 28% say the local news media do very well at keeping them informed about the most important local stories of the day, compared with 24% of those who have not spoken with a local journalist..."
Reporter arrested while covering protest in Bridgeport, CT
Hearst Connecticut Media reporter Tara O'Neill "was briefly taken into custody Thursday night as police cracked down on a demonstration on the second anniversary of an officer-involved shooting that killed a 15-year-old city youth," CTPost reports. Hearst says O'Neill is well known to the police and "there's no chance this was a case of mistaken identity." So the company is strongly objecting to the incident and saying "the public deserves a full explanation..."
| | Trump speaks with Politico
This is a rare POTUS interview outside the pro-Trump media bubble: Trump got on the phone with Politico's Daniel Lippman, Andrew Restuccia and Eliana Johnson on Friday for a "15-minute telephone interview," which stemmed from "inquiries for a separate story." This reminds me of the way WaPo's Robert Costa landed an interview with Trump after reaching out for a profile of Lou Dobbs...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Now Google can start playing podcasts straight from your search results... (The Verge)
-- Steve Harvey's daytime talk show is coming to an end in June... Cynthia Littleton details the "battle Between NBCUniversal and Endeavor" here... (Variety)
-- When Apple's show about morning TV shoots in NYC, this is what happens. Thankfully the paparazzi didn't reveal a plot twist! (Full disclosure, I am a consultant on the show.) (TMZ)
-- Anousha Sakoui writes about how Netflix is "stepping up efforts to serve Chinese-speaking viewers around the world," even though the service isn't available in China... (Bloomberg)
Revenue slips at Viacom
Friday's earnings report: "Viacom, the parent of Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, said revenue for the second quarter ended March 31 fell 6% to $2.96 billion," below analysts' estimates, WSJ's Kimberly Shin wrote.
Of note: Revenue from distribution deals was down 2% from the same quarter a year earlier. The WSJ's Ben Mullin and Drew FitzGerald reported on Thursday that Viacom "accepted a substantial decrease in payments for carriage of its channels" in recent dealings with AT&T. It was an admission that Viacom has less leverage than it used to have...
>> But: "Lower operating expenses helped lift the company's profit 41% from a year earlier to $376 million, or 93 cents a share." VIA stock closed up 2.4% on Friday...
Eye on Georgia
Several production companies say they will not film in Georgia due to a newly signed law that bans abortions in the state if a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Lisa Respers France has the story here...
Brian Lowry emails: WaPo's Steven Zeitchik gets past the rhetoric to the heart of whether outspoken challengers can make good on their calls not to film in Georgia because of its restrictive abortion law -- namely, getting the major studios, which have been largely mum, to forgo those attractive tax credits and film elsewhere. It's a short list of talent with the power to say "I won't do this in Georgia," but they're going to have to lead the way...
| | Upfront week is almost here!
Brian Lowry emails: As ratings decline... as the parents of the broadcast networks prioritize streaming... and as upfront presentations balloon into synergistic displays grouping multiple networks under their corporate umbrella... the major broadcasters head into their traditional upfront-week showcase cast in an unusual role: Supporting players. Read on...
Upfronts scoreboard
NBC has cancelled "Star" after three seasons... And "I Feel Bad" after one season... But on the flip side, it has ordered a new sitcom from Kenan Thompson... | |
ABC has cancelled "Speechless," "For the People," "The Fix," "The Kids Are Alright," and "Splitting Up Together" while renewing "Fresh Off the Boat," "American Housewife," "Bless This Mess," "Single Parents," and "The Rookie." Shondaland's "Grey's Anatomy" and "How to Get Away With Murder" and "Station 19" are also returning...
CBS has cancelled "Murphy Brown," "Life in Pieces," "Happy Together," and "Fam" while renewing "Bull," "Hawaii Five-0," "Madam Secretary," "MacGyver," "SEAL Team" and "SWAT..."
And I am sure I'm missing some of the headlines. Check out EW's "Deathwatch 2019" for updates...
Fewer new shows being ordered this season?
"As of Friday night, total volume is at 27 new series pickups — down considerably from last year's 37," THR's Lesley Goldberg writes. Here's her brand new piece...
Another record for Greg Berlanti
Another story by Lesley Goldberg: Prolific producer Greg Berlanti "currently holds the record for the most number of live-action scripted series on the air — a mark he set with 10 back in 2017. Now, two years later, that record has nearly doubled as the Warner Bros. TV-based super-producer has converted all three of his broadcast pilots to series orders. With pickups for Fox's 'Prodigal Son,' The CW's 'Batwoman' and Riverdale spinoff 'Katy Keene,' Berlanti's total number of scripted series currently in the works sits at a jaw-dropping 18..."
Constance Wu disappointed?
Constance Wu "skyrocketed to fame as the breakout star of 'Fresh Off the Boat,' which at the time of its 2015 premiere was the first Asian American comedy on broadcast television in two decades," THR's Rebecca Sun wrote Friday.
More recently Wu starred in "Crazy Rich Asians." And she shot a forthcoming film, "Hustlers," opposite Jennifer Lopez. But ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat" is still going. ABC ordered a fifth season on Friday. On Twitter, Wu said she was "so upset" and "literally crying" along with a string of curse words. She tried to walk it back later, but the message was clear.
As Sun noted, Wu is "arguably the most currently in-demand Asian American actress of her generation." The point: "Wu has been eager to take advantage of the momentum in her movie career, and the demands of a broadcast series schedule could interfere with that, insiders tell THR..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West have welcomed their fourth child, a boy born on Thursday...
-- Look what you made Taylor Swift do, Arya Stark! The singer says "Game of Thrones" influenced her "Reputation" album...
-- Justin Bieber has a new song out with Ed Sheeran...
No more "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" on network TV
"Victoria's Secret will no longer air its annual fashion show on network television after declining viewership and increasing criticism of the spectacle featuring supermodels in the retailer's skimpy lingerie," WSJ's Khadeeja Safdar reported Friday.
Declining viewership may be an understatement -- Last year "the broadcast had a total viewing audience of 3.3 million people, according to Nielsen, down from 10.4 million in 2011." Back to a webcast, perhaps?
"They don't give it a chance. They pull the plug."
Busy Philipps says she "felt a little bit like the rug had been pulled out from underneath me" when E! decided to cancel her talk show. The ratings were soft, but she felt like "Busy Tonight" had "only just started to hit its stride."
"You know, people talk about looking for white spaces in the market," she told Variety's Daniel Holloway. "And then you're like, 'Oh, wait. Maybe the white space is this for a reason — because they don't give it a chance. They pull the plug." Here's the full interview... | | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you Sunday... | | | |
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