| | | | | Exec summary: Scroll down for the latest on the "Roseanne" scandal, including Disney's strategy for dealing with President Trump's jab... But first, some of the day's other news... | | Is it ever OK for a journalist to fake his own murder? "This is a question not taught in most journalism ethics class," Wired's Nicholas Thompson deadpanned on Wednesday.
This time yesterday, we all thought Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko was dead, the latest in a string of Kremlin critics to meet a terrible end. But the "murder" was a ruse. Babchenko "showed up alive at a news conference on Wednesday to declare that his murder was faked by Ukrainian security services in an effort to foil an assassination plot against him," CNN reports. Journalists in the room were stunned and baffled...
>> The Moscow Times' headline: "'Slain' Russian Journalist Arkady Babchenko Rises From the Grave"
>> The Committee to Protect Journalists has some serious concerns about this... Here's why... | | The end of "The Americans" | | | This is a huge day for FX and for "The Americans" fans. The series finale -- which runs more than 90 minutes -- is a doozy. Reviews are embargoed until after the episode ends... And I'm sending this out while it's still airing... But check CNN.com for Brian Lowry's review overnight. The short version of his piece: "It's really good..." | | Harvey Weinstein was arraigned last week. Now a grand jury in NYC has indicted him "on charges of rape in the first and third degrees and first-degree criminal sexual act," CNN's Darran Simon reports.
Per his attorney Ben Brafman, "Weinstein intends to enter a plea of Not Guilty and vigorously defend against these unsupported allegations that he strongly denies. We will soon formally move to dismiss the indictment and if this case actually proceeds to trial, we expect Mr. Weinstein to be acquitted..."
>> While this was happening downtown, the reporters who exposed Weinstein were being honored uptown... Scroll down for details... | | AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's appearance was one of the highlights of Code Conference day two. Stephenson said his pursuit of Time Warner is about "building the ability to compete" with tech giants.
And what if the government succeeds in blocking the deal? "I don't want to go there," he said. "Right now we're just focused on winning this thing." You can see Peter Kafka's full interview with Stephenson here... | | -- "Joy Reid promoted an infamous 9/11 conspiracy documentary on her blog." Reid and MSNBC are not commenting... More to come on this... (BuzzFeed)
-- "BuzzFeed News plans to launch a new video interview show in the next two months, to stream on Facebook Watch." Weekly, 20-minute episodes... (The Information)
-- Two big new hires at Rolling Stone: D.C. bureau chief Andy Kroll and chief TV critic Alan Sepinwall. The mag says it will relaunch in July... (NYPost)
-- Former Rolling Stone, TNR and NYMag editor Eric Bates is joining Vanity Fair as an exec editor... And Daniel Kile has been promoted to exec editor too... | | S.E. Cupp on HLN Wednesday night: "Valerie Jarrett is taking the high road with Roseanne. As for the president? He's taking the only road he knows: Victim in Chief."
He and Roseanne Barr have that in common. They're both telling their Twitter followers that they are the real victims here... victims of a double standard. "That's what [Trump] does and that's what a lot of his voters like -- to be in a state of perpetual grievance," Kirsten Powers commented on "AC360."
Barr has been tweeting all day long. Too many tweets to count. Trump has only posted once about this... | | Trump hits Iger... and Iger ignores him | | I guess he couldn't help himself. Despite press secretary Sarah Sanders insisting to reporters on Tuesday that the president was preoccupied focusing on a host of other issues, Trump injected himself into the Roseanne news cycle on Wednesday, doing so with a shot at Disney CEO Bob Iger. What's notable is that Trump's tweet -- his only comment on the matter -- did not denounce Barr for her racist remark.
As Anderson Cooper said on "AC360" Wednesday night: "If you thought he might use this moment to say something about racism or bigotry, he did not." Instead "he made it about himself."
So what did Disney do? What did Iger do? Nothing. Iger just ignored Trump's jab. Disney PR did not respond to requests for comment. I think this is quite a savvy PR strategy... | | White House says Trump was pointing out media bias | | At the daily briefing, the W.H. insisted Trump was not defending Roseanne or her racist tweet. Sanders argued Trump was "simply pointing out the bias," the "hypocrisy in the media." She called out three Disney employees who are outspoken Trump critics: Jemele Hill, Joy Behar, and Keith Olbermann. "This is a double standard that the president is speaking about," Sanders said.
Barr approvingly retweeted the briefing room exchange... | | Roseanne blames ... Ambien? | | Oliver Darcy emails: Roseanne Barr crafted a bizarre excuse for her racist tweet, suggesting on Wednesday morning that Ambien was to blame. She later added that she was "not giving excuses" but has "done weird stuff on ambien," claiming she once "cracked eggs on the wall at 2am." Then she deleted her Ambien tweets.
>> Sanofi won the day by responding with this stinging tweet: While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication." | | While Barr is being LOUD on Twitter, ABC is keeping quiet. Barr's manic tweeting, including more conspiratorial retweets and confusing replies to fans, just affirmed the network's decision to pull the plug.
Oliver Darcy emails: In a note that I obtained Wednesday afternoon, Ben Sherwood told ABC staffers that the decision to cancel "Roseanne" came down to "doing what's right and upholding our values of inclusion, tolerance, and civility."
The ABC chief said the network is "so sorry" that so many individuals "who poured their hearts and lives into the show" were "swept up in all of this." Sherwood said that ABC wished them well and they "hope to find another way to work together down the road." | | "Roseanne" without Roseanne? | | "Roseanne" the show is dead. But how about "The Conners?" This story comes with lots of caveats. But it's definitely a possibility, as Sandra Gonzalez and I reported here.
Hey, why not kill off Roseanne's character and keep the show going? Different sources have different assessments of how likely or unlikely a re-reboot is. One source told me it is "too soon" to talk about resuscitating the family sitcom, but "there will be a time to sit down and look at all the options."
Read the rest here... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The ending was shockingly abrupt, but those who have followed Barr's career through its stormy history can't be entirely surprised to see the latest iteration of her hit ABC comedy come to a dramatic conclusion. Read full his analysis here... | | Recommended reads and links | | -- "For all the success, there was also a vague sense of foreboding" among "Roseanne" staffers, John Koblin reports in Thursday's NYT...
-- On the "Yeah, But Still" podcast, one of Barr's children, Buck, said he had been trying to keep his mom OFF Twitter... He says he even changed her password at one point...
-- On "AC360," Barr's ex-husband Tom Arnold said he had a feeling the reboot "would not end well," due to Barr's social media instability... | | The always savvy @Netflix account tweeted out on Wednesday: "Reminder: @OneDayAtATime is a sitcom about a tight-knit, working class family that tackles extremely topical social issues in a smart and innovative way. Ya know, if you're suddenly looking for a show like that..."
"One Day At A Time" is one of several shows Sandra Gonzalez cited in her latest story. The title: "There are a lot of shows about the working class not named Roseanne..." | | By Oliver Darcy:
-- Donald Trump Jr. is working on a book with right-wing millennial pundit Charlie Kirk, according to The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani. The book "would attempt to lay out the Trump clan's political ideology," Tani reports... (The Daily Beast)
-- The AP has updated its stylebook to provide guidance on quoting emoji and GIFs. Yes, you read that right. I spelled emoji with no "s" at the end. That's because the AP also updated its stylebook to say that the plural use of emoji is emoji... (Poynter)
-- ICYMI: Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Fox News that he thinks it is "outlandish and outrageous" for Rudy Giuliani to be pushing Trump's unfounded "spy" claim... (Mediaite) | | Kim Kardashian met with POTUS to discuss prison reform on Wednesday. Yep, there was an Oval Office photo. The always-plugged-in Yashar Ali tweeted: "I'm told her decision to not smile was intentional..."
The NYPost's Thursday cover about the meeting is definitely controversial. The headlines include "TRUMP MEETS RUMP" and "Kim Thong Un..." | | Some of the captions I liked:
-- NBC's Peter Alexander: "The other Kim summit"
-- CNN's Betsy Klein: "The President, keeping up"
-- BuzzFeed's Tom Gara: "It's amazing that the most powerful person in the world is just taking casual meetings with Trump like this"
-- @TheDailyShow: "I broke the Internet." "I broke the country!" | | Trump tweet prompts NYT correction | | Oliver Darcy emails: On Wednesday, the NYT said the president was right. The paper issued a correction after Trump put its reporting on blast. Via Twitter, Trump called out the paper for reporting that 1,000 people attended his Tuesday rally, writing that "in fact it was many times that number."
>> Sure enough, Trump was correct. The Times issued a correction in its story that said it used "an incorrect figure" and that "while no exact figure is available, the fire marshal's office estimated that approximately 5,500 people attended the rally."
>> Julie Davis, the author of the story and a CNN political analyst, owned up to her mistake, tweeting, "My estimate was way off, and we have corrected our story to reflect the fire marshal's estimate of 5,500 people. When we get it wrong, we say so." | | Sanders faces tough question from 13-year-old | | More from Oliver Darcy: Sanders faced a tough question in the briefing room on Wednesday -- but it did not come from an adult. It came from Benje Choucroun, a 13-year-old reporter with TIME for Kids. He asked Sanders about school shootings, explaining that his school recently had a lockdown drill and that students are worried "about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school."
Sanders choked up while responding: "I think that as a kid and certainly as a parent, there is nothing that could be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe, so I am sorry that you feel that way," Sanders said. "This administration takes it seriously..." | | Melania responds to speculation | | | It's been 20 days since Melania Trump has been seen in public. But she says all is well. "I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!" she tweeted... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Check out this new reporting from CNN's Kevin Liptak on Trump's weight-loss regimen: "fish and half a bun..." (CNN)
-- "What's the hurry?" Erik Wemple calls out Sarah Sanders for her rushed briefings. Great video here, too... (WashPost)
-- Fox and NFL PR vet Natalie Ravitz is Oath's new chief comms officer... She'll report to Tim Armstrong... (TechCrunch)
-- Fast Company's new cover story: "How Reese Witherspoon is flipping the script on Hollywood..." (Fast Company) | | Univision confirms CEO transition | | Hadas Gold emails: Univision officially has a new CEO -- Vincent Sadusky will take over for Randy Falco on Friday -- though Falco will stay through the end of the year in an advisory role. Details here...
>> Gold adds: Some in the media biz are wondering if Sadusky is being brought in to oversee a deal after Univision pulled out of an IPO. Sadusky's last role was CEO of Media General, where he oversaw the sale of the company to Nexstar Broadcasting Group in 2016... | | More readers coming directly to publisher websites | | Scott Galloway tweeted: "Publishers assumed if Facebook started showing less news, then people would just read less news. But it turns out that they'll go outside Facebook to seek it out."
He was reacting to this very interesting story by Digiday's Lucia Moses. "Chartbeat is publishing new data today that shows that since October, more mobile readers are coming to publishers' sites and apps directly than from social platforms, namely Facebook," Moses reports. "The number of weekly pageviews" coming direct "has steadily climbed since October, while Facebook-driven pageviews have declined..." | | | For the record, part four | | | -- Via Dylan Byers' PACIFIC newsletter: "HBO Documentary Films is producing a documentary about 'the rise and fall of Theranos.'" Alex Gibney will direct... (CNN)
-- Daniel Funke's latest: "How to fact-check politics in countries with no press freedom..." (Poynter)
-- I feel like a dolt for forgetting to include this news yesterday: Tronc is buying The Virginian-Pilot for $34 million... (Axios) | | | These are the Pulitzer winners who gathered at Wednesday's luncheon at Columbia U: | | | "Two of Harvey Weinstein's accusers," Rosanna Arquette and Annabella Sciorra, "watched from the audience as journalists whose work led to his arrest received their Pulitzer Prize awards on Wednesday," the AP reports... | | | Kendrick Lamar, Ronan Farrow and David Remnick snapping a picture at the Pulitzers luncheon 👍 | | Brian Lowry emails: In hindsight, we probably should have paid more attention to this Vulture piece in February about "Star Wars" fans rooting against "Solo," in part because of "The Last Jedi."
This particular quote stood out: "So is there any possible scenario in which Solo will indeed flop? Not likely according to Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore Inc. 'In a way, Star Wars films are flop-proof,' he says..." | | The end of "This Is Us" is already in the works | | Sandra Gonzalez picked up so many interesting details from this recent panel discussion about "This Is Us."
Though creator Dan Fogelman "claims to have not yet written a word of Season 3, he and the show's writing team are deep into planning the story arcs and surprises in store," Gonzalez writes.
Fogelman has already planned the series finale: "Our writers and I ... know where it ends. We have a path for each season of the show. We've always had a plan. We didn't want to get stuck." Read the rest here... | | | Megan Thomas emails: Vulture's lists are always great, but this one was particularly funny: "The 15 most absurd job titles in 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette' history..." | | | HEY, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS LETTER? Email your feedback and thoughts to brian.stelter@turner.com... the feedback helps us improve this newsletter every day... Thank you! | | | | | | |
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