Think back, if you remember the day July 20, 1969. Or imagine, if you weren't born yet. It is a Sunday evening in the middle of a sultry summer. Television screens are aglow with live coverage of the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are about to step onto an alien surface, never quite sure if they'll make it home. An untold number of engineers and technicians are working behind the scenes to beam their live pictures from the Moon back to Earth. Anchors like Walter Cronkite are narrating every step. And the family members of the astronauts are watching Cronkite to see what's about to happen.
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Saturday is the 50th anniversary. This milestone has been on my mind all year because Apollo represents what we were. What we are. Hopefully what we could be again.
These days television seems to divide us. But on July 20, 1969 TV united us.
Armstrong's first step was at 10:56:20 p.m. ET. "It took place 238,000 miles out in space, yet it was shared by hundreds of millions of people on earth," said Richard Salant, the president of CBS News at the time. "The step on the moon was an awesome achievement; so was its reporting on television because it emphasized television's extraordinary ability to unify a disparate world through communicating with so many people, in so many places, and thus providing them with a common -- and an extraordinarily satisfying --experience."
Salant's reflections were published in a book that CBS released in 1970. The book has been lost to history, but I procured an old copy. Salant, writing on behalf of CBS, wrote that Apollo 11 "ranks as the single most satisfying effort in our collective experience as journalists. All too often, we are forced to report man's shortcomings. In this instance, from the moment of blast-off to the moment of splashdown we were continually conscious of being involved in one of the great triumphs of the human spirit."
"We went to the moon on television."
That's the lead on this wonderful new column by LA Times critic Robert Lloyd. Television rallied support for NASA, TV newsmen educated Americans about space, and the space program provided a bounty of dramatic programming for the broadcast networks.
"Television pictures afforded the audience the virtual sensibility of being there with Armstrong," James R. Hansen wrote in his Armstrong biography "First Man." Without the pictures, "the human experience of the First Man's first step" would have been "very different."
What to watch, hear, read
-- CNN's "Apollo 11" film relies entirely on the archival footage. It is truly extraordinary. It is airing at 9pm and again at 11pm ET on Saturday... don't miss it...
-- For a deeper dive, check out my five-part podcast, "Apollo 11: Beyond the Moon," which is all about the film, the mission, and the future of space travel. Episode two features Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins...
-- CBSN says it will stream CBS "archival footage of the moon landing and moon walk" starting at 3:35pm...
-- NASA TV will also be replaying the original footage on Saturday... Here are the details...
-- I agree with WaPo TV critic Hank Stuever: "What's better than a TV shot of Apollo 11? The looks on the faces back home..."
-- Did you know? Tracking facilities in Australia played a key role in getting "the TV signals back from the Apollo 11 moonwalk." Here's the fascinating backstory...
-- NBC's Lester Holt reflects on watching the moon landing as a 10-year-old: "It may have been the moment that awakened the journalist in me..."
-- The NYT recommends 11 movies for the Apollo 11 anniversary...
-- This week on The New Yorker Radio Hour: How does the moon-landing-hoax conspiracy theory continue to thrive? Plus, watching the moon landing in real time...
-- Al Tompkins has a big picture look at "what the live broadcast of the moon landing meant to America" at the time...
-- And Joshua Benton looks back at the NYT's MEN WALK ON MOON front page and the poet who was chosen to "sum up the goggling achievement for posterity..." | | Did you know?
According to Hansen's biography, Armstrong "fully intended" to say "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
"I would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable," he told Hansen, suggesting that "a" could be added to the quote in parentheses...
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Cronkite's sign-off
I know this is long but I think you'll enjoy reading it. This is how Cronkite signed off on July 24, after four hours covering the splashdown of the astronauts:
"Well, man's dream and a nation's pledge have now been fulfilled. The lunar age has begun. And with it, mankind's march outward into that endless sky from this small planet circling an insignificant star in a minor solar system on the fringe of a seemingly infinite universe. The path ahead will be long; it's going to be arduous; it's going to be pretty doggone costly. We may hope, but we should not believe, in the excitement of today, that the next trip or the ones to follow are going to be particularly easy. But we have begun with 'a small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind,' in Armstrong's unforgettable words.
"In these eight days of the Apollo 11 mission the world was witness to not only the triumph of technology, but to the strength of man's resolve and the persistence of his imagination. Through all times the moon has endured out there, pale and distant, determining the tides and tugging at the heart, a symbol, a beacon, a goal. Now man has prevailed. He's landed on the moon, he's stabbed into its crust; he's stolen some of its soil to bring back in a tiny treasure ship to perhaps unlock some of its secrets.
"The date's now indelible. It's going to be remembered as long as man survives — July 20, 1969 — the day a man reached and walked on the moon. The least of us is improved by the things done by the best of us. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are the best of us, and they've led us further and higher than we ever imagined we were likely to go."
NOW TO TODAY'S NEWS...
BuzzFeed recognizes union, ending standoff
Bloomberg's Gerry Smith reports: "BuzzFeed agreed to voluntarily recognize an employee union, ending a standoff that included a walkout and months of negotiations. After Bloomberg reported on the accord Friday, the union confirmed the agreement in a tweet..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- BREAKING: "FTC approves settlement with Google over YouTube kids privacy violations..." (WaPo)
-- Julie K. Brown says this was a Friday news dump: "Palm Beach sheriff opens internal affairs investigation into handling of Jeffrey Epstein..." (Herald)
-- "A judge on Thursday quashed a search warrant used by SF police to search a journalist's phone in what was part of a controversial investigation into the leak of a police report on the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi..." (SF Chronicle)
-- Today's reminder that you never know what people are going through: "The View" co-host Meghan McCain has written a powerful column for the NYT about her recent miscarriage... (NYT)
Whiplash
Here's how "The Lead" summed up where we are: "As with Charlottesville rally, Trump offends, walks back, then re-offends on 'send her back' chant."
"The president," Jake Tapper said, "was doubling down on this racist attack on these women; then he was expressing regret that the chant was going on; now he's pushing it again and he's acting as if Ilhan Omar is the Democratic presidential nominee."
Yes, Kaitlan Collins said: "We've seen this pattern play out before with the president, where something happens; he distances himself from it or denies it; and then later he doesn't like the coverage of how he's backed off something, so then he doubles down back to his original statement."
The result: Trump's supporters and detractors can cite different quotes and say he meant entirely different things...
Friday's developments
-- Trump exercising his First Amendment rights while assailing others' First Amendment rights, chapter 910: "These women have said horrible things about our country and the people of our country. Nobody should be able to do that and if they want to do that, that's up to them..."
-- CNN's Abby Phillip said Trump "declined to answer questions about whether it would be appropriate for someone to tell Melania Trump, who was not born in the United States, to go back to where she came from. That was just one of many questions he dodged today..."
-- Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen writing for WaPo: "As I watch the conflict between the president and four minority congresswomen, I know I've seen this movie before. The first release was called '2016.' The second was called 'Put Colin Kaepernick in his place.' Here is how the plot goes..."
Friedman and Trump's conversation
President Trump tweeted a stream of insults at Thomas Friedman on Friday, accusing the NYT columnist of "kissing my a.." (Trump's dots) in a recent phone call, then writing "really nasty" columns.
Friedman's latest column referred to "the racist, divisive, climate-change-denying, woman-abusing jerk who is our president."
So Friedman responded with a tweetstorm of his own. Read Trump's and Friedman's and see which account you believe...
Farai Chideya on this week's "Reliable" podcast
"Racial resentment has been a winning political strategy" in the past, but journalists are too often reluctant to call it what it is, journalist and author Farai Chideya told me on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast.
We talked about a question she posed on Twitter recently: "Is the political press better prepared to cover the weaponization of race and national origin in 2020 than it was in 2016?" In some ways, yes, she said, but the news media lacks "mechanisms for charting" the racial resentment "in real time." We also discussed coverage of white supremacist ideology; the importance of knowing "your political history;" and the need for a truly "integrated political press." Listen to the conversation via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred app...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Chris Hayes' bottom line: "The people who feel moral revulsion at that display last night must collectively mobilize in greater numbers than the chanters..." (Twitter)
-- Jamelle Bouie says anti-Trump voters make up the majority of the U.S. electorate, yet they "are practically invisible in recent mainstream political coverage..." (NYT)
-- Matthew Rosenberg and Glenn Thrush are moving to the NYT's political investigations team... Rosenberg "will cover disinformation and other types of digital malfeasance for the 2020 campaign..." (NYT)
-- Speaking of the NYT: BuzzFeed's Davey Alba is joining the paper to "cover disinformation and other tech topics, based in NY..." (Twitter)
Le Batard breaks ESPN's "no politics" policy | | ESPN's Dan Le Batard "called his network's relatively new politics-free stance 'cowardly' in the face of President Donald Trump and his supporters' racist remarks," CNN's Jazmin Goodwin wrote.
The network has not commented on Thursday's commentary. Le Batard "was back on the air Friday morning, even as ESPN higher-ups made clear to employees — including Le Batard — that the network's policy on avoiding pure political commentary hasn't changed, according to a person familiar with the matter," WaPo's Ben Strauss reported...
Lowry's take
Brian Lowry emails: ESPN can impose whatever policy it wants about having talent stick to sports, and it's easy to understand the rationale behind treating the network as essentially a haven for fans, where sports are the main product. That said, sports radio hosts have a long history of talking about a wide variety of topics — from pop culture and parenting to their personal lives — and Le Batard made a pretty devastating point about using athletes as a "meat shield in the most cowardly way" to discuss political topics, weighing in only when a player dares to venture an opinion. What seems clear is that if the president continues along his recent path, the challenges for ESPN are only going to become more formidable on this front...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- All of those headlines about "meth-gators" and "hyper-aggressive" alligators? The mayor of the Tennessee town where the warning came from "says the post was clearly meant as a joke, but the humour may have been missed outside the region..." (BBC)
-- Hadas Gold reports: "ITV has teamed up with the BBC on a streaming product that gives British audiences a new alternative to Netflix." A version of BritBox, which is already available in the US and Canada, will debut in the UK "in the final three months of this year..." (CNN)
-- After struggling to retain video viewers, Business Insider has moved away from "viral hits" and towards "advertiser-friendly" series... (Digiday)
Recommended reads
-- CNN's MJ Lee spent time with three women who say they were assaulted by Donald Trump. Title of her story: "'The forgotten' women of the #MeToo movement..."
-- Pete Buttigieg quoted in Mark Leibovich's new profile: "I've discovered that a show like 'Veep' is more realistic than most Americans would care to imagine..."
-- Meg James' deep dive: "Univision owners want to sell. After 12 years and $13 billion, what went wrong?"
-- David Marchese's Talk column in this Sunday's NYT Mag: "Graydon Carter on Vanity Fair, Jeffrey Epstein and an editor's power..."
-- Hearst exec Matt DeRienzo's advice: "To Slow Decline, Newspaper Print Editions Should Act Their Age." He says print papers should focus on what the "core group" of older readers wants and needs...
-- Tara Lachapelle writes: "The TV-network giants went through ratings hell. It's time for Netflix's own version of that..."
-- Bill Carter's latest for CNN Business: "HBO is king, women rule comedy and other takeaways from this year's Emmy nominations..."
-- Joe Adalian's story about "Schitt's Creek," which I really want to binge: "The Making of an Emmy-Underdog Success Story..."
-- Katherine Miller says "the 🙃 emoji is the breezy, nihilist face of 2019..."
This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"
I'll be joined by Dan Rather, Tara Dowdell, Bhaskar Sunkara, Tim Alberta, Astead Herndon, and Adam Serwer... Plus a surprise or two... Join us Sunday at 11am ET on CNN...
Episode four of "The Loudest Voice" this weekend
Brian Lowry emails: If you read this newsletter and aren't watching Showtime's "The Loudest Voice," you probably should be, flaws and all. Either way, it's worth flagging a line in this Sunday's episode, where Fox's Roger Ailes (as played by Russell Crowe) counsels the young editor of the newspaper he owns: "There's a whole world of people out there who don't know what to believe. … You tell those people what to think, you've lost them. But if you tell them how to feel, they're yours."
| | Disney has dominated. Now here comes "The Lion King"
Frank Pallotta emails: The US box office is down 9% from last year and the summer has been lukewarm at best, but you wouldn't know that if you looked at Disney's 2019.
The House of Mouse has dominated, making $2.1 billion domestically and holding the top four highest-grossing films of the year. Now here comes "The Lion King."
The photo-realistic reboot of the 1994 animated classic made $23 million on Thursday night, and projections range from $150 million to $180 million or maybe even more. If it hits this weekend, it'll keep Disney's reign over the box office going...
Bad reviews? Hakuna Matata
Pallotta adds: "The Lion King" is a beloved brand and it has the voice work of Beyoncé, so it might not matter that it's not beloved by critics (it has a 56% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes).
"It faces challenges including mixed reviews and fans of the original questioning the need for this newly re-imagined telling, but it's looking like the allure of the film, particularly for kids, will be incredibly strong," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told me...
The "King's" reign may go beyond its opening
One more note from Pallotta: Even if "The Lion King" doesn't have a big opening this weekend, it could have weeks of success for the rest of the summer.
Next week's big film is Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," but that film is rated R and isn't competing for the same audience. After that is "Hobbs & Shaw" on August 2 (again, a different audience) and then really nothing big until "It: Chapter 2" on September 6...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Lisa Respers France reports: Production on the set of the DC Universe series "Titans" has been shut down for two days after beloved special effects coordinator Warren Appleby died in an accident...
-- Marianne Garvey emails: Notoriously secretive Netflix invited us to see how its hit series "Queer Eye" gets made. We spoke to producers and the casting director about the hard work and heart that goes into the Emmy-nominated show...
-- One more from Garvey: Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt would like to remind everyone it's been 10 years since meet-cute movie "(500) Days of Summer" was released...
Comic-Con trailers!
IndieWire has a collection of every movie and TV show trailer released at the convention... Vox and TIME also have best-of lists...
Hulu's Friday surprise: "Veronica Mars" is out early
"Hulu has released all eight episodes of the show's fourth season, a week earlier than scheduled," Whitney Friedlander writes. "The release came on Friday after creator Rob Thomas, star Kristen Bell, and others conducted a panel during Comic-Con..."
"Superman" flies again on the CW
Brian Lowry emails: Director Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" was largely considered a disappointment, creatively and commercially. But the CW has nevertheless shrewdly cast the 2006 movie's star, Brandon Routh, to again put on the cape and play Superman in an upcoming crossover event, pulling together the series "Arrow," "The Flash," "Supergirl," "DC's Legends of Tomorrow," and the upcoming "Batwoman..."
| | | Thank you for reading! Send me your feedback... We'll be back on Sunday... | | | |
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