| | | | | At midnight ET time ran out... The cable news countdown clocks went away... And the federal government shut down. WashPost's web headline: "Government funding lapses for first time since 2013." CNN's TV banner: "GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BEGINS, SENATORS STILL NEGOTIATING." Drudge: "SHUTDOWN 2018." | | | Now it's time for count-up clocks that point out how long this stalemate has lasted. Oh wait, CNN.com already has a "government has been shut down for..." clock: | | -- John Avlon: "Government shutdown with unified control: a perfect metaphor to mark one year of President Trump..."
-- Alexander Nazaryan: "If you need a reminder of why so many Americans hate politics, turn on your television right now..."
-- Laura McGann: "More Free idea: we set government funding to expire at noon next time..." | | Live look at the vending machine in the W.H. press break room... | | | Pic via hungry USA Today reporter Gregory Korte: | | CNN's Jeff Zucker may be in mix for ESPN job | | Is there a chance Jeff Zucker could jump from one iconic media brand, CNN, to another, ESPN? On Friday night, that question suddenly caused a lot of media industry chatter. It's been one month since John Skipper abruptly resigned, so Bob Iger is actively searching for a new prez. He's considering both internal and external candidates.
--> Important: CNN spokeswoman Allison Gollust said "Jeff loves his job at CNN, and has no interest in running ESPN." | | The speculation about Zucker was sparked by a story on Deadline.com titled "CNN Boss Jeff Zucker Eyed By Disney For Top ESPN Job." The story by Nellie Andreeva said "multiple sources close to Zucker confirmed to Deadline that he has had conversations for the top job at the sports giant." Multiple sources confirmed this to me and Dylan Byers, but the sources disagreed about whether Zucker had initiated the talks, or merely answered Disney's call...
--> More: Andreeva initially wrote "I hear that he met with Disney chairman and chief executive officer Bob Iger last week." But that sentence was later cut from her story. Multiple sources denied to CNN that there's been any in-person meeting between Zucker and Iger... | | Context: Zucker joined CNN five years ago | | | A larger-than-life figure in the TV biz, he is widely credited with boosting CNN's profile, ratings and profits, and supporting the network's journalists amid strong criticism from President Trump. Some other things to keep in mind: Zucker is a sports junkie and a live-TV expert, and he knows how to manage on-air personalities -- three key points for ESPN. Here's our full story... | | It's been one year since Barack Obama handed power to Donald Trump. One year since the weekend of "American carnage," street protests, Sean Spicer's crowd size complaints, Kellyanne Conway's introduction of "alternative facts," and a Women's March that far exceeded expectations in several cities.
This weekend, we're going to see special TV coverage of the one-year mark... and extensive coverage of the anti-Trump protests planned in major U.S. cities... all coupled with coverage of this past week's chaos in D.C. | | Video: How Twitter defined Trump's first year | | | There were hundreds of tweets attacking the "fake" media... new nicknames for his adversaries... fiery statements that spawned news cycles -- and then there was "covfefe." Here's my package for Saturday's special CNN coverage... produced by Michael Tarson... all about Trump and his Twitter use... | | 🎧 Charlotte Alter on this week's "Reliable" pod | | The cover of this week's Time mag features photos of 48 first-time female candidates. The story, titled "The Avengers," is by Charlotte Alter.
"I talked to dozens and dozens of first-time female candidates for this story, and most of them said that essentially they marched because of Trump, but they're running because of Hillary," Alter told me on this week's podcast. She said "this is energy that's happening specifically on the Democratic side." (She perceives that some Republican women are "retreating.") What's so difficult about covering the women's movement, she said, "is that almost nothing applies to ALL women."
>> Check out our podcast conversation here, via iTunes or Stitcher... | | | Alter will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," along with Jeff Greenfield, April Ryan, Douglas Brinkley, John Gizzi, Olivia Nuzzi, and Neera Tanden... See you Sunday at 11am ET... | | | One year in, how has Trump changed the press and how has the press changed him? I'll be asking the panelists... But I'd love to know how some of you react to those Q's... Send me a note if you have anything to share. | | -- In Touch Weekly versus the National Enquirer! Bauer versus American Media! Check out Tom Kludt's story all about the tabloid rivalry and how Trump is involved... (CNNMoney)
-- Netflix has picked up "an explainer show from Vox Media" exploring "the big questions of today." Ezra Klein is an exec producer... (THR)
-- Via Gerry Smith: "Remember Aereo? There's a new TV service just like it -- except it's free. Broadcasters aren't pleased..." (Bloomberg) | | | As a newsroom staffer said to me: "This is THE weirdest possible time for the Los Angeles Times." A union vote and an exec scandal converged on Friday afternoon... | | LAT employees vote to form union | | | A tally by the National Labor Relations Board revealed that LAT newsroom employees overwhelmingly (248-44!) voted to form a union, a historic first for the paper, which had long been staunchly anti-union. Here's Tom Kludt's full story... | | Ross Levinsohn on an "unpaid leave of absence" | | Later in the afternoon, the WSJ's Sarah Rabli broke the news that CEO and publisher Ross Levinsohn was being sidelined -- barely 24 hours after NPR's David Folkenflik revealed a record of "questionable behavior" in Levinsohn's past.
Quoting Tronc head Justin Dearborn's memo: Levinsohn "has voluntarily agreed to take an unpaid leave of absence, effective immediately... The company has retained Sidley Austin LLP to conduct a review of the allegations regarding his behavior." Times president Mickie Rosen "will lead the Los Angeles Times" in Levinsohn's absence... | | Making a bad thing worse... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Setting everything else aside, Kevin Roderick, a former editor at the LA Times, made an excellent point about how Levinsohn mishandled the response to this story by ignoring Folkenflik and going directly to his boss, thus sending a terrible message to the paper's reporters... | | Facebook to rank news outlets by trust | | | Facebook "is using surveys to rate news organizations and assign them trust scores. It will use those scores, along with other factors, to decide how much to show a source in people's news feeds," CNN Tech's Heather Kelly reports... | | Bardella joining HuffPost | | | Scooplet: Political commentator / former Breitbart and Capitol Hill spokesman Kurt Bardella is joining HuffPost as a columnist for the new HuffPost Opinion vertical... He'll be contributing a weekly column... | | -- Fox News has replaced its Saturday morning business block of four shows with a two-hour "Cavuto Live" business show... Starting this weekend... (THR)
-- This Sunday is John Dickerson's last day moderating "Face the Nation." No successor named yet. Claire Atkinson reports that "CBS News is considering several female candidates..." (NBC)
-- ICYMI: Michael Calderone's piece about the turmoil at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette... A "pro-Trump editorial ordered up by the paper's publisher" is one of several points of contention... (Politico) | | Trump passing on the Super Bowl? | | For weeks I've been asking: Will President Trump sit down for a Super Bowl Sunday interview like he did last year, and like Barack Obama did every year? So far, Trump has not committed to doing so.
The game is on NBC... And on Friday, Variety's Brian Steinberg reported that the W.H. has indicated to NBC News that Trump "will not take part" in the usual pre-game interview. But "NBC News' invitation to the President to take part in such a discussion remains open..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: If Trump does indeed skip the interview, it reflects an overdue break from one of the Super Bowl's more superfluous traditions. The attempt to have any kind of substantive policy discussion with the president, and then segue to lighter banter like "Who do you like in the game?," has never really made much sense, and tends to produce awkward handoffs from sports to news. Simply put, an audience soaked in beer, nachos and game-day prognosticating isn't necessarily looking for a side of current events... | | About this Sunday's games! | | Jaguars v. Patriots are at 3:05pm ET on CBS... Vikings v. Eagles are at 6:40pm on Fox... I'm taking Jamie to the Eagles 🦅 game in Philly!
--> Brian Lowry emails: Fox will use this Sunday's NFC championship game -- an event likely to attract nearly 50 million viewers -- as a springboard to launch "The Resident," a new medical drama most notable for the jaundiced view it takes of the healthcare system... | | New statement about Newark arrests | | Nine members of a reality TV crew were arrested Thursday at Newark International Airport after allegedly trying to sneak an "inert device" through security. Brynn Gingras and I wrote about the arrests here...
--> On Friday evening, Endemol issued this new statement: "Some cast and crew members of an upcoming series, 'Staten Island Hustle,' produced by Left Hook Media and Endemol Shine North America for air on CNBC Primetime, were detained at Newark Airport. The team was producing an episode about a new product, vacuum compression luggage, which allows travelers more room for clothing and has no other intended use. Unfortunately, there appears to have been a misunderstanding, and we regret any inconvenience to TSA and other authorities on the ground for complications that may have been caused." | | Michael Wolff was the one-on-one guest on "Real Time with Bill Maher" Friday night. Maher told him, "You have done the impossible: You have Made America Read Again."
Wolff recycled some of his comments from past interviews... And slammed Trump again... "Literally 100% of the people around him always returned to saying, 'Well, he's like a child.'" | | | For the record, part three | | | -- "Disney's BAMTech Media has hired former Apple and Samsung executive Kevin Swint as SVP and GM, Disney SVOD Service, to build, and ultimately run, the company's upcoming Netflix competitor..." (Variety)
-- "Justine Sacco, the PR exec who was fired from IAC for her tweets, has landed back at IAC's Match Group..." (Recode) | | Twitter is informing 677,775 people that they interacted with Kremlin-linked trolls | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: On Friday night, Twitter let us know that it found another 1,000 Kremlin-linked troll accounts (that brings the total to almost 4,000) and that it's going to email almost 700,000 users who interacted with the accounts. Among those getting an email will likely be Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump, Jr., Michael Flynn, and Sebastian Gorka...
>> We obtained the email notification -- it doesn't tell people what troll accounts they interacted with...
>> Twitter also said it had also found more than 50,000 Russian-linked automated accounts that tweeted about the presidential election. But no more details on them... yet! | | Friday's DOJ v. AT&T hearing | | Hadas Gold emails: AT&T is seeking pricing data the Justice Department has obtained from other companies in previous mergers, but the DOJ says it's not their data to give it out. AT&T's lawyers said during the hearing that obtaining the data would help them argue against the government's theory that their proposed takeover of Time Warner would result in an increase in prices. Judge Richard Leon gave the DOJ until Monday at noon to resolve the issue -- otherwise, he said, he'd issue an order forcing the DOJ to return the data to the companies, who then face subpoenas from AT&T and TWX...
-- More from Gold: The Justice Department also raised the prospect of a stay in the hearing, due to the possibility of a govt shutdown. But Judge Leon, who has urged speed in this case, said he hopes "cooler heads prevail" three blocks away from the courthouse on Capitol Hill and said he wanted to keep the case going. The next hearing is Feb. 2... | | Axios held a one-year birthday party at Nobu DC on Thursday night... Jim VandeHei said "a lot of you have been longtime supporters, longtime readers. A lot of you have been longtime leakers. We won't name any names. But when I write my next book with Michael Wolff, you'll find out..."
Spotted: Peter Alexander, Bret Baier, Jeremy Bash, Wolf Blitzer, Jay Carney, Margaret Carlson, Steve Case, Gary Cohn, Mark Cuban, Josh Dawsey, Linda Douglass, Sam Feist, Chris Frates, Juleanna Glover, Sergio Gor, Tammy Haddad, Carl Hulse, Chris Isham, Michelle Jaconi, Valerie Jarrett, Doug Jones, Jonathan Karl, Katty Kay, Daniel Lippman, Kevin Madden, Betsy Fischer Martin, Jonathan Martin, Jason Miller, Phil Musser, Paul Needham, Jeff Nussbaum, Tara Palmeri, Rand Paul, Mark Penn, Dina Powell, Ned Price, Sally Quinn, Josh Raffel, Susan Rice, Fred Ryan, Eric Schultz, Michael Steel, David Urban, Bob Woodward, Kristen Welker, and many more... | | MoviePass gets into film acquisition | | | Frank Pallotta emails: MoviePass announced some big news at Sundance on Friday: It plans to co-acquire films with distributors. The company is trying to find ways to make $$$ off the films that it helps you go see. I spoke with the company's CEO, Mitch Lowe, and I'll be sharing his plans for the company next week... | | | Chloe Melas emails: The GLAAD Media Awards nominations are out. Jay Z, "This Is Us" and others are being recognized... Netflix received seven nominations for shows; ABC, CBS, and NBC each scored six nominations; Amazon received three noms. Read more... | | "Star Wars Rebels" sets 90-minute series finale | | | Brian Lowry emails: "Star Wars Rebels" officially has an end date, with the Disney XD animated series to air a 90-minute finale on March 4, and Ian McDiarmid -- who played Emperor Palpatine in the movies -- providing the character's voice during these closing episodes. The real question is how the producers can end a show that seems destined for a tragic finish without sending the children who make up a big part of its audience screaming from the room. Read more... | | | For the record, part four | | | Lisa Respers France emails:
-- Is it #TimesUp for Woody Allen? The list of actors refusing to work with the legendary actor is growing...
-- Lupita Nyong'o is penning a children's book about colorism...
-- The cult classic 80s film "Heathers" is getting a TV series reboot... And according to the trailer it's a bit more inclusive in the new version... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I love the feedback, corrections, suggestions, and tips. Thank you! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
