EXEC SUMMARY: Michael Cohen is heading to prison, Disney is celebrating another "Avengers" record, Susan Zirinsky is making some big changes, and we're all seeing the Infowars presidency in action...
Eye on CBS News
Susan Zirinsky's plan for the future of CBS News will be announced on Monday. Per multiple sources, Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King will announce at least some of the news on "CBS This Morning..."
In the mornings...
King will be at the center of the revamped morning show, joined by Saturday anchor Anthony Mason and correspondent Tony Dokoupil. Current co-host John Dickerson seems headed to a "60 Minutes" post...
In the evenings...
If O'Donnell ascends to the job, replacing Jeff Glor, as is expected, "she would join a short but exalted list of women who have served as solo evening news anchors at the three major networks, including Katie Couric at CBS and Diane Sawyer at ABC," the NYT's story notes. Right now Judy Woodruff is the anchor of the "NewsHour" on PBS...
What about Glor?
His future seems uncertain. He was elevated to the evening news job just 18 months ago. Glor critics say he didn't rate. Glor fans say he didn't get support from the network. The NYT, citing two sources, says he will "probably be offered another job at the network; Mr. Mason's move to weekdays leaves open his Saturday morning slot..."
Bill Carter's perspective
Bill Carter is out with a brand new piece for CNN Business. He says "CBS News has been in desperate need of this shakeup..." And Zirinsky is "the right person in place to lead this upheaval..."
He also argues that CBS has been a follower, not a leader, during this period of Trump-era tumult. He asks: "How much of the important news did CBS News break?" Here's his full column...
"Morning Edition" has a new sound
NYT's Niraj Chokshi explains: "For 40 years, NPR's 'Morning Edition' has welcomed listeners to the program with the same airy theme song. On Monday, that will change. For the first time since it began broadcasting in 1979, the program is replacing its signature song with a propulsive and layered new theme that features real and electronic instruments while still paying homage to the buoyant melody its nearly 14 million weekly listeners have come to know and love." | | The thinking, per NPR chief marketing officer Meg Goldthwaite: "We wanted to freshen the music and get it ready for what we hope will be another 50 years. It just felt like it was time." Hear the old and new editions here...
WEEK AHEAD CALENDAR
-- Monday evening: POTUS will present Tiger Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a W.H. ceremony...
-- Monday night: The Met Gala!
-- Tuesday: Google I/O gets underway... Ars Technica has a list of expected announcements...
-- Tuesday: George Packer's book about Richard Holbrooke and David McCullough's new book "The Pioneers" hit shelves...
-- Wednesday: Disney and IAC earnings after the bell...
-- Thursday: News Corp earnings after the bell...
-- Thursday evening: Anderson Cooper moderates a CNN town hall with James Comey...
-- Friday: Viacom earnings before the bell...
-- Sunday: Mother's Day!
Another amazing "Avengers" record
"The Disney and Marvel film has crossed the $2 billion mark at the worldwide box office," Frank Pallotta reports. "It's the fifth film in history to do so," and the fastest to ever hit the $2 billion mark.
Jon Erlichman tweeted out this list showing the "time it took to reach $2 billion at the box office." Movie tickets, of course, were a whole lot cheaper in the days of "Titanic:" - Titanic: 5,233 days
- Force Awakens: 54 days
- Infinity War: 48 days
- Avatar: 47 days
- Endgame: 11 days
So where does "Endgame" go from here?
More from Frank's story The film now sets its sights on the highest grossing film in history, "Avatar." Comscore's Paul Dergarabedian "thinks it has a shot, but it won't be easy with more big summer movies on the way." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- With a little help from Bob Iger... "Tweet by Air Force spouse brings latest Avengers movie to Afghanistan and Qatar bases..." (Stars and Stripes)
-- Brooks Barnes says this weekend's box office totals laid bare "the have and have-nots of Hollywood in brutal fashion..." (NYT)
-- The most-read story on the WaPo website right now is by sports columnist Sally Jenkins: "Forget Maximum Security's misstep; the whole of horse racing is a foul..." (WaPo)
-- Deepest condolences to the friends and family of Rachel Held Evans, the popular Christian writer who died Saturday at age 37. She "wrote books that examined faith, doubt and life in the Bible Belt..." (CNN)
WSJ's must-read, must-see
By now you've probably seen this incredible WSJ analysis of the economic collapse of local newspapers... If not, check it out here... | | Hats off to Keach Hagey, Lukas I. Alpert, Yaryna Serkez and the team that brought this to life...
Cohen has something to say
Michael Cohen has to report to federal prison on Monday "to begin serving three years for lying to Congress and other crimes..." And he's thinking about holding a press conference before entering the prison. So stay tuned...
The new ICE leader...
...Is Mark Morgan, former chief of US Border Patrol during the final months of the Obama admin. Morgan refashioned himself as a "vocal proponent" of Trump's wall, CNN's Sarah Westwood notes.
Here's why I wanted to highlight Morgan's hiring: Morgan "has been a fixture on Fox News lately," Media Matters head Angelo Carusone tweeted. "He started appearing on the network regularly in January and has been on at least 49 times so far this year..."
--> Laura Ingraham will be hosting her Fox show from the US-Mexico border in Texas on Monday night...
| | The Infowars president
A big move by Facebook, banning several accounts, sparked big blowback from the commander-in-chief over the weekend. President Trump's furious reaction to Facebook's bans showcases that he is, I'm sorry to say, the "Infowars president."
-- He is promoting the same alternative universe as Infowars.
-- He is sharing videos produced by Alex Jones' proteges.
-- He is retweeting repugnant characters like Paul Joseph Watson.
The bottom line: Trump is embracing, rather than rejecting, Jones' brand. Apparently he thinks Infowars content is useful to him. He sees that Infowars personalities align with him. Remember, he even gave an interview to Jones back during the 2016 campaign...
Darcy's take
On Sunday's "Reliable," Oliver Darcy added, "Infowars might have been banned from Twitter, but it seems to have found a new home over on Trump's Twitter feed." While he's promoting and legitimizing Jones' media outlet, "we should talk about how he's trying to tear down credible sources for news, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN," Darcy said. "He was questioning why these news organizations have the ability to be on Twitter -- while saying that Infowars should be reinstated. It's nuts."
Let's be clear: Trump legitimizing Infowars is dangerous
Oliver Darcy adds: Sometimes, we tend to dismiss Trump's Twitter activity as not mattering much. But it does. Think about this: The President of the United States worked in the last couple of days to legitimize and promote Infowars, while simultaneously working to delegitimize credible news organizations. This weekend's tweets from the president were not only morally repugnant, they were dangerous...
>> Related: The Atlantic's David Frum wrote: "Trump has staked the prestige of the presidency on a gang of bad actors with shady histories who use social media to profit from deceit and the inflaming of racial and religious hatred. They are his supporters, after all, and he does not have so many to lose..."
When is Mueller going to testify?
That's what I asked on Sunday's "Reliable," noting that Robert Mueller has yet to speak out on camera about the Russia probe.
On "Fox News Sunday," Rep. David Cicilline seemed to make news when he said that Mueller had tentatively agreed to testify on May 15... Newsrooms scrambled in response... But then the Dem walked it back on Twitter, saying "we are aiming to bring Mueller in on the 15th, but nothing has been agreed to yet... Sorry for the confusion..."
>> Later in the day Trump said Mueller "should not" testify, "just two days after telling reporters the attorney general should make that decision..."
>> Former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer tweeted: "This is one of those things that should be obvious, but if Mueller truly and totally exonerated Trump, why wouldn't Trump and the Republicans want him to testify about that exoneration" ?!
Trump's float?
One of the top stories on Politico's homepage Sunday night: Trump "floated the idea of extending his constitutionally limited time in office, complaining online that two years of his first White House term were 'stollen' as a result of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation."
So many contradictions...
...But are Trump's statements routinely reported this way? As a series of ever-stranger contradictions? The president, apparently picking up on something Jerry Falwell Jr. wrote, said Sunday night: "Despite the tremendous success that I have had as President, including perhaps the greatest ECONOMY and most successful first two years of any President in history, they have stollen two years of my (our) Presidency (Collusion Delusion) that we will never be able to get back..."
So, as WaPo's Josh Dawsey tweeted, "Trump has argued that the first two years of his presidency were the most successful ever while also arguing Democrats stole them. He has argued that the Mueller report was a 'total exoneration' and also an unfair, political document written by '18 angry Democrats.'"
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Kevin Poulsen documents how one of Trump's preferred channels, One America News Network, "has no qualms with playing the mouthpiece for Kremlin-hatched conspiracy theories..." About Syria, for example... (Beast)
-- Melania Trump marks the one-year anniversary of her "Be Best" platform on Monday. On Sunday's "New Day," CNN's Victor Blackwell showed "the stark contrast between the first lady's push to prevent cyber bullying and President Donald Trump's history of insulting others online..." (CNN) | | Eye on the markets...
The Dow has been on an absolute tear lately... And many of the conversations on the Sunday shows were about why Trump is not polling better, given the performance of the broader economy. Why doesn't he make the economy his main message? When NYT politics editor Patrick Healy brought this up on "Newsroom with Ana Cabrera" Sunday night, I said Trump tends to press the FEAR button instead of the FEEL-GOOD button. "That's his instinct," Healy agreed...
Speaking of fear...
Our lead story on CNN Business right now, by Rob McLean, is titled "Dow futures plummet 400 points after Trump renews tariff threat on China."
As WaPo's Robert Costa wrote on Twitter, "This is the story to watch on Monday. How will the markets react to the latest U.S.-China trade tensions? Will they prod the president to pull back his threats? Or, prompt him to escalate?"
The FB debate
On Sunday's show, Oliver Darcy, Irin Carmon, Kmele Foster and Judd Legum discussed Facebook's rules, freedom of speech objections and conservative politicians' claims about social media "censorship." Watch the 🔥segment here... | |
Trump needs this fight?
Progressive writer Judd Legum, reacting to Trump's rallying cry about social media "censorship," said this on Sunday's "Reliable:" He's "doing this because he needs people to believe that Facebook is against him." Legum said Trump 2020 is running a "whole series of ads that are misleading." So "he can't let them draw a distinction between what Infowars is doing and what NBC or CNN or any mainstream media organization is doing..."
Ben Shapiro's view about the bans
"I'm troubled by the fact that Facebook can't articulate a clear standard by which it decides who gets to stay and who gets to go," conservative host and editor Ben Shapiro told me. He supports bans when people incite violence, but is concerned about the company's definition of "organized hate." Watch...
Setting the record straight about James Woods
Oliver Darcy emails: Trump and other GOP politicians were not only outraged at FB over the weekend, they were upset that far-right actor James Woods was put in a Twitter time-out. Trump and Ted Cruz wrongly said Woods was banned. So let's set the record straight: Woods' account is locked because he tweeted something that broke the Twitter rules. Specifically, he tweeted a hashtag that referred to hanging people. A Twitter spokesperson told me that once he deletes the tweet, his account will be reinstated...
>> Trump also tweeted that Woods is a "responsible Conservative voice." That statement is untethered from reality. Woods regularly employs extreme rhetoric. He's called Hillary Clinton the "Godmother of ISIS." He called Christine Blasey Ford "the Devil." He's even suggested the "feminist movement" has attempted to "destroy masculinity in boys" through "prescription pharmaceuticals."
>> Final point: Before his Twitter account was locked, Twitter was actually amplifying Woods' tweets by inserting them into the feeds of users who did not follow him. I wrote about that in March...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column: "Mark Zuckerberg claims that, at Facebook, 'the future is private.' Don't believe him..." (WaPo)
-- Pavni Mittal emails: Speaking of FB, The Verge's Casey Newton, who has reported extensively on Facebook moderators, spoke with PBS NewsHour Weekend's Hari Sreenivasan about how the content is moderated and the toll it takes on the mental health of those who go through this disturbing content daily... (PBS)
-- Here's a bit more from my interview with Ben Shapiro: What's being lost when faith is left out of the conversation? (CNN)
Anatomy of a political smear
This is a story about how political operatives tried to take down a presidential candidate, and ended up just humiliating themselves. It's also a story about how a smear was spread by right-wing websites -- and was cleaned up by newsrooms that took some time to check the facts.
On April 29 someone shared a post titled "Pete Buttigieg Sexually Assaulted Me" on Medium... Sara Murray and I have the rest of the story here...
"What it's like for student journalists to cover a shooting at their own school"
That's the headline on Emanuella Grinberg's latest for CNN.com. It happened at UNC Charlotte, home of the Niner Times newspaper, just a few days ago. So Grinberg spoke with members of four student papers, including the Niner Times, about what it's like... Here are their stories... | | Pictured above: The staff of The Niner Times in Charlotte...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Emily Bell's latest: "How ethical is it for advertisers to target your mood?" (The Guardian)
-- Happy three-year anniversary to "AM Joy" on MSNBC... (Twitter)
Seattle Times reporter accused of Twitter harassment
SeattlePi's Zosha Millman writes: "Seattle Times journalist Mike Rosenberg has deactivated his Twitter account after another journalist accused him of sending sexually explicit and harassing messages."
Talia Jane posted the accusations on her Twitter feed and contacted the paper's editors. The Seattle Times said "we have suspended the employee pending an investigation by our human resources group."
Crosscut's Lilly Ana Fowler spoke with Rosenberg briefly on Sunday, and said "he did not deny sending messages but said they weren't intended for her."
>> Jennifer Wright, reacting to Jane's tweets, asked: "How many women have been contacted by a man in their industry supposedly for something professional, only to have him say something sexual as soon as you reply?" There are scores of replies here...
Some of Halperin's accuses say he hasn't apologized
Oliver Darcy emails: WaPo's Paul Farhi reported on Friday that three of the women Mark Halperin allegedly sexually harassed/assaulted say the disgraced journalist never apologized to them. Farhi's story seemed to prompt Halperin to tweet on Sunday that he hopes "to have a chance to apologize directly" to the women he "treated badly." Halperin added, "It's the right and necessary thing to do. I cannot imagine how difficult this experience has been for them."
Halperin, of course, is trying to mount a comeback. In recent weeks, he has resumed tweeting, appeared on SiriusXM to deliver political commentary, and launched a news blog...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Chloe Melas writes: "While being honored at GLAAD's 30th Annual Media Awards Saturday night, Madonna took the chance to explain why she has long identified with the LGBTQ community..." (CNN)
-- The Daytime Emmy Awards are being presented at the time I'm sending this out... Here's the winners list... (Deadline)
-- Amy Poehler made a surprise appearance at the awards -- to present Judge Judy with a Lifetime Achievement Award... (THR)
| | Lowry recommends "Chernobyl"
Brian Lowry emails: HBO tends to save its best movie and miniseries-wise for close to end of the Emmy-eligibility window, which likely explains the Monday evening premiere date for "Chernobyl," a devastating five-part account of the 1980s nuclear disaster, starring Jared Harris as the scientist sounding the alarms. Subsequent episodes will follow each Monday. Read on...
The "Must See TV" class
Brian Lowry emails: The LAT's Steve Battaglio has a good look at the class of TV execs that graduated from NBC's "Must-See TV" era. It's more than just nostalgia, since several of them are now in leading content positions, including FX's John Landgraf, ABC's Karey Burke, Showtime's David Nevins and WarnerMedia's Kevin Reilly. It's those executives, notably — as a wave of studio-backed streaming sites prepare to lift off — that are also taking a leading role in trying to pilot the industry transition into its digital future...
Sandler rates well on "SNL"
Brian Lowry emails: "Saturday Night Live" equaled its highest metered-market rating of the season (a 4.8, when Matt Damon hosted in December), per NBC, with Adam Sandler as host. Sandler spent a lot of time reminiscing about his earlier time on the show, in what was one of the most self-indulgent hosting gigs I can remember. That produced several awkward moments — such as bragging about how much money his movies have made at the box office — but one memorable highlight: Sandler's musical tribute to the late Chris Farley, his "SNL" castmate who died at the age of 33.
--> More from "SNL:" Cecily Strong as Brooke Baldwin, asking Mikey Day, who's playing a CNN correspondent in a war zone: "Are you using Snapchat to connect with us?" (YouTube)
No "Thrones" spoilers here, but...
Quoting from George R.R. Martin's newest blog post: "We have had five different GAME OF THRONES successor shows in development (I mislike the term "spinoffs") at HBO, and three of them are still moving forward nicely. The one I am not supposed to call THE LONG NIGHT will be shooting later this year, and two other shows remain in the script stage, but are edging closer..." (CNN)
--> I agree with Alex Sherman on this point: "'Game of Thrones' doesn't mark the end of appointment TV — Hollywood always gives viewers what they want..." (CNBC)
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
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