EXEC SUMMARY: Court TV is back, Sheila Nevins is joining MTV, Barack Obama is taking his time writing his memoir, and Disney is about to release Q1 earnings...
57 days without a formal W.H. briefing
Tuesday marked 57 days without an on-camera press briefing at the White House. Wednesday will be day 58. This is a record. Up until now, according to CNN's Allie Malloy, the longest stretch of time with no briefing was 42 days.
"But they just lie at the briefings!" you say. Yes, but... it's not too much to expect regular briefings AND reliable answers from a taxpayer-funded spokesperson.
Here are a few of the stories that warrant comment from the press secretary on the record and on camera right now:
-- The W.H. instructed former counsel Don McGahn to rebuff a subpoena from the Democrats...
-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "Trump is goading us to impeach him..."
-- The Dow suffered its worst day in five months...
-- Per CNN's Tami Luhby, the admin "has taken a step toward changing the way the poverty threshold is calculated, a move that could strip many low-income Americans of their federal benefits..."
-- Trump is reportedly "livid" after Axios revealed that a former campaign aide misled donors...
And then there's THIS story, which the NYT dropped on Tuesday evening:
"Decade in the Red"
Well, Michael Barbaro tweeted, "the reason the president does not want us to see his contemporary taxes has now become abundantly clear."
"Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Losses" is the web title of Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig's latest.
Here's the Page One headline: "Trump Tax Figures Show A Decade of Huge Losses..." | | WATCH: Craig was on "AC360" and Buettner was on "Cuomo Prime Time."
The banner on Chris Cuomo's closing argument read: "IF TRUMP WANTS RESPECT, HE SHOULD RELEASE HIS TAX RETURNS." At a minimum," Cuomo told the president, "the truth will come out on your own terms."
A few minutes later, Don Lemon said this on CNN: "The president of the United States is a fraud and a con man. And the fraud and the con is on us, the American people. Now we know why the president wants to keep his tax returns hidden..."
The biggest takeaway...
NYT editorial writer Binyamin Appelbaum tweeted: "This is an amazing story but for me the biggest takeaway is the massive amount we still don't know about Trump's finances and business dealings in the 25 years that follow the end of this story."
Leaks in the dam...
Rachel Maddow's take on Tuesday night: "There is this dam he is trying to build here, and shore up here, to hold back access to his tax information and financial information. And it is starting to spring leaks all over the place... And it is hard to know what's going to happen when that dam finally breaks, given the president's palpable desperation on this issue."
Don't expect daily briefings anytime soon
Back to the topic of my lead -- I wanted to note this record-long briefing drought because W.H. chief of staff Mick Mulvaney addressed it in a new interview with Politico. The briefing "looks unlikely to return to its regular functioning under Mulvaney's leadership of the White House staff," Nancy Cook wrote Monday.
Mulvaney's comment: "I would throw it back to the press. Look, are you really making the argument that you don't have access to information? Goodness gracious, the president is available to the press himself almost every single day. You're getting it straight from the president of the United States in a way that I'm pretty sure is unparalleled."
If you mean unparalleled in the depths of its deception, then yes... In any case, a chance to shout questions to the president is not a substitute for a scheduled briefing with a government spokesperson...
"Denying daily access to the press"
At the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press dinner in NYC Tuesday night, honoree Andrea Mitchell brought up the sorry state of the briefing room. Mitchell said the W.H. briefing "now has been reduced to reporters chasing White House aides as they walk back after appearing on one favorite morning show."
And she pointed out that other key administration posts, including the State Department and Pentagon, are "denying daily access to the press..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Sheryl Sandberg held meetings with Senators on Capitol Hill on Tuesday... (Bloomberg)
-- Mark Murray tweeted: "Maybe the most important thing to understand when it comes to public opinion and the Mueller probe. It's Fox News viewers vs. everyone else." He cited these NBC/WSJ poll results... (NBC)
-- Credit where it's due: "Kim Kardashian West has helped free 17 inmates in 90 days," Chloe Melas reports... (CNN)
-- 🔌: I'll be on WAMU and NPR's "1A" on Wednesday, talking about Trump's Infowars presidency... (1A)
Freedom for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo
Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo "spent 511 days in prison for doing their job, and doing it exceedingly well. Now they can return home to their families," WaPo's Jason Rezaian wrote Tuesday.
It is a joyous day. But "the reality is that it will be very difficult for them to return to work as reporters in their homeland," Rezaian noted. And he knows what he's talking about...
Reuters execs feeling proud and relieved
Reuters EIC Stephen J. Adler spoke with the pair via videoconference on Tuesday morning New York time. Adler is being tight lipped, and understandably so, about the next steps. At the aforementioned Reporters Committee dinner on Tuesday evening, exec director Bruce Brown began his remarks with a huge cheer for the Reuters reporters. Adler and the colleagues at his table smiled with pride and relief...
This year's RCFP honorees
Along with Mitchell, this year's honorees at the Reporters Committee event were David Bradley, April Ryan, John Carreyrou, and the founders of City Bureau.
Ryan spoke movingly of her role as a W.H. correspondent. "I do not ask questions just for myself, but for those who needs answers to pressing issues in their lives," she said. | | Outgoing chair David Boardman thanked the Knight Foundation for what he called a "transformational investment" -- a $10 million commitment from the foundation to support local news.
Spotted: Laurene Powell Jobs, Jeffrey Goldberg, Jennifer Preston, Jeffrey Goldberg, Peter Lattman, Keith Cocozza, Kyle Pope, Alex Hardiman, Tim O'Brien, Jessica Benvenisty, Susan Zirinsky, Don Baer, James Bennet, Wolf Blitzer, Amy Entelis, Brooke Baldwin, Elise Garofalo, Karen Kaiser, Lauren Easton, Joey Jackson, Laura Vigilante, Rebecca Kutler, Nima Elbagir, Paul Steiger, Ben Smith, Justin Smith, Noah Oppenheim, Jenifer Fenton, Stacey Rubin, Christa Robinson, Jonathan Kaplan, Stephen Battaglio, Barbara Raab, Inna Rudsky, Sarah Ellison, Jenn Topper, Amelia Nitz, and many more...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
By An Phung:
-- Fact-checking Trump is a labor-intensive process. WaPo's Glenn Kessler has some anxiety about what his team will do "when it comes to campaign season and he's holding three rallies a day..." (Poynter)
-- Condé Nast's parent company Advance Publications has been on a shopping spree to diversify its assets, buying up "a group of European theaters, a maker of plagiarism-detection software, a majority stake in an esports analytics firm and a stake in a rocket operator..." (WSJ)
-- Rolling Stone is launching a competitor to Billboard charts, Joe Pompeo reports... (VF)
Court TV is back in session
Wednesday marks the first day for the relaunched Court TV, "back from the dead after more than a decade," The AP's Andrew Dalton wrote. The channel will be "available over the air and on some cable providers depending on the market... The new owners bought Court TV's name, logo and library, and will revive its practice of airing trials virtually in their entirety for much of the day..."
--> Dan Abrams, who founded the rival Law&Crime Network, says the rebooted Court TV "really has no value to a modern audience..." (Mediaite)
Sheila Nevins joining MTV
"Sheila Nevins, the grande dame of documentary film, who left HBO in 2017 after nearly 40 years, has joined MTV to start a nonfiction film and specials division," the NYT's Brooks Barnes wrote Tuesday. She will develop projects for MTV AND "for outside buyers, including streaming services."
It's a big move by MTV -- a statement to the entire industry. MTV prez Chris McCarthy's quote says it all: "We couldn't believe that Sheila would even take a meeting with us. As we grow and expand MTV, we see our role as amplifying young people's voices. We're excited for her to bring a new generation of filmmakers to the forefront."
--> What Nevins told WaPo's Steven Zeitchik: "What we're going to try to do is shock young people into looking at the real world. And I'm ready to give a hot young audience a special that doesn't feel tedious..."
No Obama memoir this year
Edward-Isaac Dovere tweeted out some publishing biz news on Tuesday: "Barack Obama's presidential memoir, which many people had thought was going to come out in 2019, won't be published this year, according to a person familiar with the writing process."
In a followup story, the AP's Julie Pace noted that this sets up "the likelihood that the highly anticipated book will drop during the 2020 campaign..." | |
Big Tech and FBI fighting Russian disinfo together
Donie O'Sullivan emails: When it comes to fighting online foreign disinformation targeting the U.S., according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. He said Tuesday, "when we supply leads and information to the social media companies, there's all kinds of ways they can leverage their own tools and kick some of these accounts off of their platforms very, very quickly in a way that would be hard for any agency of government to do and there were a lot of success stories in that regard in 2018."
"Russians are focused on sowing divisiveness and discord in this country and pitting us against each other and I think that part we see alive and well," he warned...
A "Knock Down The House" followup?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "is in talks with documentary filmmaker Rachel Lears about a new project that would chronicle the freshman Democrat's Green New Deal policy movement, according to two sources familiar with the project," Sara Fischer and Alexi McCammond reported Tuesday...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Another sign of a broader shift: "The Salt Lake Tribune, owned by the Paul Huntsman family, will change from a for-profit entity to a newspaper and nonprofit foundation..." (UtahPolicy)
-- NYT graphics editor Steve Duenes was named one of the paper's deputy managing editors on Tuesday... (NYT)
-- Liana Baker, a veteran of the media and tech beats at Reuters, is jumping to Bloomberg as the new U.S. Deals Team Leader... (Talking Biz News)
-- Todd Gitlin's newest column: "As the republic teeters, will the news media get serious?" (CJR)
Baltimore TV anchor ousted after backlash
Last week, while covering Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh's resignation, WJZ anchor Mary Bubala said to a guest: "We've had three female, African American mayors in a row. They were all passionate public servants. Two resigned, though. Is this a signal that a different kind of leadership is needed to move Baltimore City forward?"
She went viral for all the wrong reasons. She apologized on Twitter repeatedly. The station confirmed to NBC that Bubala is no longer employed.
Bubala wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, "I wanted to do an on-air apology but was not allowed. Unfortunately, I now stand in the path of the tornado. WJZ was forced to let me go. I am saddened and shocked by this decision..."
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Journalism is under attack. Civility is under attack. Trust is under attack. We have to fix that, not only with great reporting, but with trust in the news and trust in our brand."
--Incoming "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell, in an interview with Brian Steinberg of Variety...
Disney earnings on Wednesday
Benjamin Rains of Zacks writes: "Disney shares have jumped over 15% since the company laid out at its April 11 investor day more of its plans for its direct-to-consumer streaming TV platform." The company will release Q1 earnings after the bell on Wednesday...
Disney sets new "Star Wars," "Avatar" films
Frank Pallotta emails: Get ready to spend the holidays in a galaxy far, far away or on Pandora until 2027. Disney announced Tuesday that it's producing three more "Star Wars" films (yay!) but we'll have to wait until 2022 (boo!). The other "Star Wars" films will hit in 2024 and 2026.
In news from other cinematic galaxies, the sequel to "Avatar" has been bumped from December 18, 2020 to December, 17, 2021. It will then alternate every year with "Star Wars," releasing films in December of 2023, 2025 and 2027. So it appears that Disney has booked the holidays with two of the biggest blockbuster brands for the next decade. Read on...
Lowry's take
Brian Lowry adds: Disney's reshuffled release schedule is as good a demonstration as any of just what an outsized percentage of box-office market share the studio appears destined to control, at least in the near future, with its acquisition of those Fox Entertainment assets. It's also noteworthy that Disney is essentially seeking to plant its flag in the Christmas release period from 2022 forward, with the latest "Star Wars" movie already set for this year...
Variety, meanwhile, is asking a question that many in the movie industry are no doubt pondering — namely, what "Avengers: Endgame" and the reliance on giant tent poles mean for an already challenged class of mid-sized films...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Eriq Gardner says this is a "first-of-its-kind decision from a Florida federal judge" saying that "the owner of a DC-based radio station that is broadcasting Sputnik International" must register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act..." (THR)
-- Anousha Sakoui writes: "Old-guard financial firms are targeting youngsters like Netflix with apps that can help customers weed out payments for services they no longer use or have forgotten about -- even as options to take on more monthly expenses multiply..." (Bloomberg)
| | Marie Osmond replacing Sara Gilbert on 'The Talk'
Marie Osmond, who previously served as a guest host on "The Talk," is officially joining the show in September, replacing Sara Gilbert, who announced her departure last month. Sandra Gonzalez has more here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Ryan Faughnder interviewed the MPAA's new film ratings head Kelly McMahon. His question: "Can the 46-year-old mom and corporate lawyer bring fresh eyes to the system?" (LAT)
-- The CW just picked up "Batwoman." Now "the Greg Berlanti-produced DC Comics entry becomes TV's first live-action scripted series with a lesbian superhero — played by an out actress — at its center," Lesley Goldberg reports... (THR)
"Law & Order: SVU" hits a huge milestone
Brian Lowry emails: USA Today put together a comprehensive look at the "Law & Order" franchise, as spinoff "Special Victims Unit" will pass the original in terms of total # of episodes on Thursday. That's 457, for those keeping score -- a whole lot of chalk outlines over the last 30 years...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx are at least "Met Gala official." The actors have long been thought to be a couple, but has been silent about it. Then they made the scene together at the gala...
-- Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have been divorced since 2005, but that didn't stop a photographer from asking him about them getting back together...
-- The 2019 CMT Music Awards nominees were announced Tuesday. Here's the list!
-- The new Netflix game show "Flinch" has divided viewers, with some viewing it as "torture," and others seeing it as more like "Fear Factor..."
Lowry reviews "Wine Country"
Brian Lowry emails: Amy Poehler makes her directing debut in "Wine Country," a light Netflix comedy, in which she also co-stars with a number of fellow "SNL" alums and shares story credit. Think of it as an inexpensive pinot grigio — hardly a medal winner, but it goes down pretty easy...
Cheers, everyone! | | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
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