Forward

Exec summary: Scroll down for new excerpts from Jill Abramson's book, Hasan Minhaj's response to Saudi Arabia's censorship, and Sloane Crosley's double feature...

"Oversight begins"

Preet Bharara tweeted Wednesday night: "Oversight begins tomorrow. Happy new year."

With Congress officially returning and Democrats taking control of the House, Thursday "is the day Donald Trump's presidency totally changes," CNN's Chris Cillizza wrote here...

Pelosi and Guthrie

Savannah Guthrie had an exclusive sit-down with Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday... It will air on Wednesday's "Today" show... In a clip released by NBC, Pelosi said of Trump's border wall $$ demands, "No. How many more times can we say no? Nothing for the wall."

Paragraph of the day

WaPo's Robert Costa writing about Mitt Romney and so much more: "Trump's presidency is under siege following Republican losses in the 2018 elections. An ongoing government shutdown, volatile financial markets, the special counsel probe, right-wing discontent over Trump's failure to secure funding for a border wall, and empowered House Democrats all loom before the president, who has been isolated and lashing out at his critics. The collision of threats has frayed the bonds between Trump and some top Republicans even as the president retains strong support in polls of party voters."

Romney and Tapper

Bill Kristol told Costa that Romney's op-ed is "a permission slip to have a real conversation about 2020."

To that point, Romney gave his first live interview to CNN's Jake Tapper... And he said "I haven't decided who I'm going to endorse in 2020. I'm going to wait to see what the alternatives are..."

-- This Washington Examiner editorial calls on Romney to provide "real rather than rhetorical checks" on Trump...

-- Jack Shafer's take: "Senator Mitt Romney Is the Season 3 Character We Needed"

TV networks give Trump a massive platform for fact-free rambling

Oliver Darcy emails: Should news outlets immediately air Trump's pool sprays in full? It's certainly a question worth asking. News organizations no longer air every Trump rally and they have (mostly) matured past the days in which they would simply blast out Trump's dubious claims on Twitter without putting them in proper context.

But cable news networks are still airing the president's pool sprays (often in full) immediately after they happen, giving him a massive platform to peddle all kinds of nonsense. Wednesday was no exception when CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all aired 30+ minutes of Trump rambling about various issues, often irrespective of the facts. It's worth asking: Why not wait until journalists can vet video of the pool sprays, pull out relevant bits, and contextualize them for viewers before rushing to air?

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Investors were jolted when Apple shares were briefly halted after the market closed on Wednesday... Shortly before 5 p.m. ET, the company slashed its revenue guidance... Seth Fiegerman has the full story here... (CNN)

-- Marc Gurman's analysis: Apple's Tim Cook "Faces Toughest Test Yet Navigating iPhone Slowdown" (Bloomberg)

-- Tribune and Charter's Spectrum are doing battle, and now there's a blackout... (Deadline)

-- FiOS dropped TheBlaze, Comcast and FiOS dropped Fuse: "Channels starting to get cut as cable TV struggles for life..." (Axios)

-- How NBC News is beginning 2019: With its four shows at No. 1 in the key demos for the third straight year... (NBC PR)

Inside Jill Abramson's new book

In yesterday's newsletter I mentioned that I'm looking forward to former NYT exec editor Jill Abramson's new book "The Merchants of Truth." Now there's a lot more to say about it...

Because Fox's Howard Kurtz published some choice quotes from the book on Wednesday morning. Abramson, who was replaced by Dean Baquet in 2014, says Baquet's news pages "were unmistakably anti-Trump. Some headlines contained raw opinion, as did some of the stories that were labeled as news analysis."

Right-wing websites picked up on Kurtz's story and highlighted this passage from the book: "Given its mostly liberal audience, there was an implicit financial reward for the Times in running lots of Trump stories, almost all of them negative: they drove big traffic numbers and, despite the blip of cancellations after the election, inflated subscription orders to levels no one anticipated. But the more anti-Trump the Times was perceived to be, the more it was mistrusted for being biased."

But Abramson barely wrestles with the fact that there's been lots and lots of undeniably bad news about Trump. Of course stories about dysfunction and disarray are going to seem "negative!"

Kurtz and the aggregators also left out Abramson's ample praise for the paper: She wrote that the paper "maintained its quality..." And that "the news report as a whole had never been stronger..." And that the "route back to improved financial health turned out to be its most traditional strength, great reporting." Here's more...

Exclusive excerpts from the book

-- Abramson says Trump "changed journalism" in some "healthy ways" -- for example, by eroding ridiculous "on the one hand, on the other hand" coverage.

-- Re: her successor Baquet's decision to call Trump's birther lie a "lie" in a headline: "This was brave and right."

-- She also says Baquet "made the paper's coverage tougher" and "doubled down on investigative reporting in Washington."

-- She says NYT editors in 2016 "had no animus toward Clinton" but "the paper made some bad judgment calls and blew its Clinton coverage out of proportion." She says the "special arrangement" with Peter Schweizer was a "misstep" that gave Schweizer's "Clinton Cash" book "immense credibility."

-- At the Washington Post, conversational writers and "Trump's serial lying" drove "the tone of the Post's coverage in an anti-Trump direction."

-- That said, Jeff Bezos and Marty Baron were "deeply committed to the Post's mission to uphold the First Amendment."

"The Merchants of Truth" comes out on February 5...

Arkin leaves NBC, warns of "Trump circus" and "perpetual war"

There are goodbye notes -- and then there's William Arkin's frustrated farewell to NBC News. Honestly, you can skip my summary and just read the entire 2,228-word memo here. He says his time at NBC News has been "gratifying." But he bluntly expresses his displeasure with the "Trump circus," US foreign policy failures, and the state of TV news.

"In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners of Donald Trump, I think -- like everyone else does -- that we miss so much," Arkin wrote.

Arkin, a sharp critic of what he calls "perpetual war" and the "creeping fascism of homeland security," also wrote that American press is not aggressive enough about covering military engagements. "I find it disheartening that we do not report the failures of the generals and national security leaders," he said. "I find it shocking that we essentially condone continued American bumbling in the Middle East and now Africa through our ho-hum reporting." He said that most of his critiques of NBC apply to the rest of the news media, as well. Read it all here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Oliver Darcy emails: Twitter is looking for a deputy breaking news lead to join its curation team who will help lead the team in "delivering accurate, timely and relevant information to Twitter customers..." (Twitter)

-- A tip of the hat to WSJ's Lara O'Reilly, who's passing the baton of the CMO Daily newsletter to Nat Ives... (WSJ)

-- Check this out from Tim Carman, formerly the writer of the "$20 Diner" column: "My column's name does a disservice to the immigrants whose food I celebrate. So I'm dropping it." (WaPo)

"Netflix's balancing act: Saudi law vs freedom of speech"

That's the headline on Hadas Gold's story about Netflix's removal of a critical "Patriot Act" episode from its streaming service in Saudi Arabia.

Plus, here is Hasan Minhaj's reaction to the controversy: "Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube. Let's not forget that the world's largest humanitarian crisis is happening in Yemen right now. Please donate."

FT's Agenda investigating whether reporters were fooled by a Moonves impersonator

One day after CBS said Les Moonves would not receive his $120 million severance, Moonves told Agenda, the FT's corporate governance news service, that "it's far from over."

Or did he? In the December 18 edition of this newsletter, I noted the quote, like lots of other reporters did, and I marveled at Agenda's scoop. I had never heard of the outlet before. But now there's concern that the Agenda reporters were duped. "In the weeks since the piece first appeared online, people close to Moonves have told me that he never spoke to the two reporters, that he has no idea what Agenda is, has never read it, and wouldn't have said the things in the article that were attributed to him," VF's William D. Cohan wrote Wednesday.

So were the reporters fooled by a Moonves impersonator? Well, there's now an editor's note atop the story: "We are currently reviewing elements of this article which are disputed (by Les Moonves's public relations team). We are treating these concerns seriously and, if necessary, we will update the article in due course."

When I reached out on Wednesday, a spokesman for Moonves told me: "The FT Agenda will be informing me of the results of their investigation into the matter tomorrow afternoon."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Katie Pellico emails: The FCC is scheduled to suspend most of its activities midday Thursday in the dark of the partial shutdown. Included in these activities are merger reviews, including the pending Sprint/T-Mobile deal...

-- "Dancing with the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba is "joining 'The Talk' as permanent co-host, replacing Julie Chen who quit in September after nine seasons..." (People)

-- The lineup for Coachella will be posted any day now... Kanye West "will not be performing due to a disagreement over staging..." (Variety)

"To Catch a Predator," Facebook edition

NBC News, which aired the "To Catch a Predator" series in the mid-2000s, published this important piece on Wednesday. Brandy Zadrozny reported that there are dozens of "online groups across the country unified by what they say is a mission to expose and shame people they allege are or could become sexual predators."

I highly recommend reading the whole story.

After Zadrozny contacted FB for her story, the site "temporarily suspended several predator hunter accounts, removed some individual posts and deleted at least one group entirely. Some groups voluntarily removed their own pages to escape what they saw as a purge." But others, like POPSquad, "appeared to be unaffected." One of POPSquad's targets killed himself after an encounter. Read on...

Two new reads from Sloane Crosley

In next Sunday's NYT Book Review, she has an essay on "How Hollywood Gets the Publishing Industry Wrong..." And in Vanity Fair, she has the February cover story, a profile of Laura Dern...

Don't do this!

@Netflix tweeted Wednesday, "PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE." Huh?

"Netflix is begging fans not to participate in the 'Bird Box Challenge,' a viral social-media stunt that centers on people putting on blindfolds and sometimes injuring themselves or others," The Daily Beast's Will Sommer explained...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- "Roku is trying out the Amazon Channels model, adopting a strategy from one of its biggest competitors," Ben Mullin reports... (WSJ)

-- Sharon Waxman trying to lead by example: TheWrap has achieved gender equity among its film critics... (TheWrap)

-- THR awards columnist Scott Feinberg: "Oscars: It's January, So Why Is There Still No Host?" (THR)

Remembering Bob Einstein

Brian Lowry emails: RIP Bob Einstein, a.k.a. Super Dave Osborne, whose 50-year comedy career began with "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and most recently included his recurring stint on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." As "Curb" creator Larry David remembered him, "It was an amazing, unforgettable experience knowing and working with him. There was no one like him, as he told us again and again." Read on...

Oh and Samberg's Golden Globes plan

Katie Pellico emails: Golden Globes hosts Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh tell THR that the "Trump quotient" will be "low" in their remarks at Sunday's ceremony, promising instead to point "to actual real change" in Hollywood.

Oh adds: "I don't really think that [getting political] is for the hosts necessarily. You make it an open and safe place for whoever wants to use that platform to speak."

The Louis C.K. backlash

Brian Lowry emails: The blowback against Louis C.K.'s surfaced routine that included jokes about the Parkland kids and transgender community has also produced defenses of the comic, including this piece by the National Review's Kyle Smith. In a similar vein, Ricky Gervais tweeted, "You can joke about whatever the f--- you like. And some people won't like it and they will tell you they don't like it. And then it's up to you whether you give a f--- or not. And so on. It's a good system."

The real question is what Louis C.K. hopes to accomplish with these appearances. Because... while Gervais is right in the broad strokes... after the scandal that sidelined him, Louis C.K. and his defenders are being naïve if they don't realize that anything he does or says is going to be perceived much differently than it was when he was a media darling and being hailed as a genius auteur...

What Netflix is learning from "Bandersnatch"

Katie Pellico emails: Did Netflix's "Bandersnatch" herald a new era of interactive television? In any case, these "interactions" are doing wonders for the company's ability to track (and presumably better cater to) its viewers' refined tastes.

The Verge's Jesse Damiani writes: "The greatest advantage lies in the data Netflix can gather from user participation and the ways that data could be used to create an internal programmatic marketing infrastructure... Where the company previously focused its data gathering on the ways users engaged with its content — what they watched, when, and for how long — this new data is indicative of real-world decisions like product preference, musical taste, and engagement with human behavior."

Kim and Kanye's fourth child is on the way

Us Weekly broke the news on Wednesday morning: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are expecting their fourth child via a surrogate. A source close to the couple confirmed the news to Chloe Melas... Full story here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Lisa Respers France:

-- It's a new year, but the same old Kanye West love for President Trump...

-- Tiffany Haddish bombed big time on stage during her standup. Now people are defending her...

-- Remember when she reportedly lost her $5 million engagement ring? Now Toni Braxton and Birdman look like they are over...

And that's a wrap on today's edition. Hope your new year is off to a strong start. Send me your feedback via email anytime. We'll be back tomorrow!