Hey! Hope you had a great long weekend. This special edition of the newsletter is a summer media guide -- let's start with the next few days, then look further ahead...
Week ahead calendar
Tuesday: "Anthony Bourdain Remembered," CNN's hardcover book celebrating Bourdain's life, hits bookshelves...
Tuesday afternoon: The annual luncheon for Pulitzer Prize winners...
Tuesday evening: "Running with Beto" premieres on HBO...
Wednesday: The CBS board will convene on the same day as the company's annual meeting...
Wednesday night: "Big Little Lies" season two premiere screening in NYC...
Thursday: "Rocketman" hits theaters...
Thursday evening: The first of four CNN town hall events this week... The other three are on Sunday...
Friday: "When They See Us" starts streaming on Netflix...
Friday: ""Galaxy's Edge" opens at Disneyland in California...
Sunday: NYT's "The Weekly" debuts on FX...
"Siege" soon
Michael Wolff's follow-up to "Fire and Fury" comes out in one week. His publishing house says "Siege" will be "equally explosive." If history is any guide, there will be leaks from the book in the next couple of days... and an exclusive excerpt somewhere... In the case of "Fire and Fury," The Guardian nabbed a copy first, spilled some of the beans, and then NYMag published the first excerpt six days before the book was supposed to come out. Henry Holt rushed the book out a few days early. Expect to hear about "Siege" very soon...
"When They See Us" is a must see
Last week THR's Rebecca Keegan called Ava DuVernay the "Mogul for This Moment." Duvernay's "four-part series 'When They See Us,' about the five Harlem teenage boys who were wrongfully convicted of rape in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, premieres in full on May 31 and grapples with ideas the director has been marinating on for decades — ideas about race, criminal justice and who gets to write history," Keegan wrote.
There's much more to come. Lisa Respers France emails: It was so intense to film "When They See Us" that DuVernay had crisis counselors on set. Later this week I'll have a story featuring interviews with some of the stars...
SUMMER 2019
WHAT TO WATCH / READ / SEE...
One month til the first Dem debate
The countdown is on. The first two-parter debate will take place on June 26 and 27 on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo. The second debate will be on July 30 and 31 on CNN...
So many shows are coming back!
Brian Lowry emails: The first full week of June will be a big week for prestige TV, with the return of "The Handmaid's Tale" on June 4, more "Black Mirror" on June 5, and season two of "Big Little Lies" on June 9.
Later in the summer: "The Hills" returns on MTV on June 24... "Stranger Things" is back on Netflix on July 4... "BH90210" premieres on Fox on August 9. The NYT's Mike Hale has a list of 22 new and returning shows here... And Deadline has a pretty complete calendar...
"The Loudest Voice"
Showtime's "The Loudest Voice," about Fox News and Roger Ailes, hits on June 30... I have seen the first two episodes, and I can safely say that you will want to see this show... | | Buy tickets for these...
Disney's big summer will continue with "Toy Story 4" on June 21 and "The Lion King" on July 19. Other notable releases: "Late Night" on June 7, "Yesterday" on June 28, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" on July 2, "The Farewell" on July 12, "Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood" on July 26, and "Where'd You Go Bernadette" on August 16...
>> More: NPR's summer movie guide has 27 flicks...
New albums from Madonna and Springsteen
The NYPost's Chuck Arnold writes: "It's gonna feel like 1984 all over again when two of the ultimate '80s icons — Madonna and Bruce Springsteen — release new studio albums on the same banner day: June 14. While we can't expect her to make another 'Like a Virgin' or him to make another 'Born in the U.S.A.,' all eyes and ears will be on them to see if they've still got it 35 years after they ruled the pop world." More...
Key dates
The Tony Awards are live on CBS June 9...
Code Conference starts June 10...
Cannes Lions begins June 17...
The G20 summit is on June 28 and 29...
The Tour De France begins July 6...
Emmy nominations come out on July 16...
The 50th anniversary of Woodstock is in mid August...
What to read
I mentioned "Siege" up top. Here are some of the other nonfiction titles on my summer list: "Dignity" by Chris Arnade, out June 4; "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, out June 6; "Three Women" by Lisa Taddeo, out July 9; and Jia Tolentino's essay collection "Trick Mirror," out August 6. Plus three from cable newsers: Jim Acosta's "The Enemy of the People" on June 11; Joy-Ann Reid's Trump book, "The Man Who Sold America," out June 25; and Tomi Lahren's "Never Play Dead: How the Truth Makes You Unstoppable," out July 2.
But I'm no expert. So I defer to Vulture's "12 books we can't wait to read this summer," Yahoo's "35 hottest reads," Bustle's "50 new books of summer 2019," and these features from WaPo, Bloomberg, and Shondaland. Some of the most anticipated titles on the fiction lists include "City of Girls," Elizabeth Gilbert's first novel in six years, out June 4; Taffy Brodesser-Akner's novel "Fleishman Is in Trouble," out June 18; Colson Whitehead's "The Nickel Boys," out July 16; and Laura Lippman's "Lady In The Lake," out July 23.
More recommendations
-- The New Yorker's summer theatre preview: "The Public's 'Much Ado About Nothing,' a new musical adaptation of 'Moulin Rouge!,' cultural cross-pollination at the Shed, and more." I still want to see "Oklahoma!" and "Ink" and "Hillary and Clinton..."
-- Here's Nick Quah's list of six buzzy new podcasts for the summer months...
-- And here is CNN's summer movie gallery...
Apollo's 50th anniversary | | America will re-live the moon landing this summer... 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission... and I've been working on something special related to the anniversary that will be out in June...
>> Plan ahead: CNN's television premiere of "Apollo 11" is on June 23 at 9 p.m. ET...
How far will Holzhauer go?
"On Monday night, while the rest of America reeled from Memorial Day celebrations, James Holzhauer obliterated his rivals on the way to his 28th straight 'Jeopardy!' win," the NYPost's Hana R. Alberts wrote.
Will he beat Ken Jennings' record? Right now he's within $325,000. And these episodes were all taped weeks ago. Stay tuned...
Other Q's about this summer
-- Will Robert Mueller testify in front of television cameras?
-- Will the courts continue to side with the Democrats amid House investigations of the Trump admin?
-- How much louder will the Dem calls for impeachment get?
-- What effect, if any, will Trump's formal 2020 campaign launch event have?
-- Will the CBS and Viacom boards decide to reunite?
-- Will any of the media companies with streaming services in the works make any big announcements?
-- I'm sure I'm missing some events and questions... Email me with other items to add here!
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Donie O'Sullivan reports: "Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg will not attend a hearing in Ottawa later this week, despite receiving summonses from the Canadian parliament.... The decision could result in the executives being held in contempt of parliament..." (CNN)
-- Quoting from Coral Davenport and Mark Landler's story on Page One of Tuesday's NYT: "The attack on science is underway throughout the government..." (NYT)
-- NYU's Jay Rosen tweeted in response to the story: "The attack on climate science, the refusal to be briefed, the rejection of the intelligence community's work, the put down of the diplomatic corps, the undermining of the press. Different parts of the same thing..." (Twitter)
BREAKING
Sports Illustrated acquired by a brand development company
"Marketing and brand development company Authentic Brands Group has purchased the intellectual property of Sports Illustrated from Meredith Corporation for $110 million," WaPo's Ben Strauss reported Monday night. "The sale is not a traditional exchange of assets but instead creates an unusual partnership to steward the country's most iconic legacy sports magazine."
Here's the plan: "Meredith will continue to print the magazine and manage the editorial side of Sports Illustrated for at least two years as part of the deal, people with knowledge of the agreement told The Washington Post, while Authentic Brands will license the magazine's brand and all of its content. That could include a litany of offerings such as SI for Kids-branded youth sports camps or SI-branded athletic equipment such as foosball or ping-pong tables. Authentic Brands will also be able to license and monetize nearly 60 years worth of Sports Illustrated photography and magazine covers." More...
>> "It's the same type of relationship we have with the Martha Stewart Living brand," Meredith exec Jon Werther told the WSJ...
| | "People think they can say anything and get away with it."
Political scientist and Time mag contributor Ian Bremmer caused a ruckus on Sunday by tweeting out a quote, attributed to Trump, that he just made up in order to criticize the president for siding with Kim Jong Un. Some journalists and commentators fell for it and shared the fake quote. WaPo's Eli Rosenberg explained the whole thing here.
On Monday morning Trump slammed Bremmer and said "this is what's going on in the age of Fake News. People think they can say anything and get away with it." Trump, of course, is the "say anything" president...
...And as for Bremmer, he came out and said that "my tweet yesterday about Trump preferring Kim Jong Un to Biden as President was meant in jest." He apologized and said he "should have been clearer."
Back to the libel laws...
Rosenberg's story zoomed in on the most newsworthy part of this episode: "Trump again called for libel laws to be changed." Trump "has long said that he would like to change U.S. libel laws, which shield defendants from guilt unless they are proved to have made false and defamatory statements against public officials with malicious intent. That standard dates to a Supreme Court decision from 1964."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Asawin Suebsaeng is out with a new story about One America News Network: He says the Fox wannabe channel's "overt flattery seems to be paying off," as Trump is tuning in "more often than ever..." (Beast)
-- WaPo's Jennifer Rubin (among many others) is criticizing the NYT for giving "prominent placement on its home page" to a list of Trump's "juvenile nicknames for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates." Rubin says "this serves no purpose other than to highlight his name-calling and reinforce his abusive conduct..." (WaPo)
A tale of two HBO documentaries | | Brian Lowry emails: "Running With Beto," which premieres Tuesday, is a deep dive into Beto O'Rourke's unsuccessful 2018 Texas Senate bid, but it plays better as an inside look at an underdog campaign -- complete with small victories and frayed nerves -- than a flattering profile of the candidate himself, which it obviously is...
Sunday night's "Game of Thrones: The Last Watch," meanwhile, offered a ground-level view of the grueling work of producing the show's final season, one that tilted toward the challenges faced by the crew and background actors. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson tweeted that it was "one of the best portraits I've seen of what a huge production feels like from the POV of all the folks doing the day to day work."
The TV campaign
Back to "Running with Beto" for a moment. The NYT's James Poniewozik says the film is "also an example of the very of-the-moment challenge of running for office in the Trump era. To pitch yourself as a president, you must first prove yourself as a show."
He notes: "Getting airtime has been key to winning elections for decades. But in 2019, as the Democrats each argue they're the ones who can cancel a TV star president's 24-hour reality show, there's also a meta aspect to each appearance: You do media in part to prove that you can use media well enough to win." Read on...
| | Disney celebrates $113 million domestic open for "Aladdin"
"It may be a whole new world for Aladdin, but it turned out to be another lucrative opening weekend for Disney," THR's Mia Galuppo wrote Monday. "The live-action feature grossed $112.7 million stateside over the Memorial Day weekend, beating out even high-end estimates that the film would bow to $100 million." More...
Coming up next...
Brian Lowry emails: The Memorial Day movie season already got off to a big start with "Aladdin," and two more odes to intellectual property, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and the X-Men movie "Dark Phoenix," will test just how robust this summer is going to be over the next two weeks. The latter is especially interesting as the first major Fox studio release -- from its part of the Marvel stable -- since its acquisition by Disney... | |
ICYMI... Here are some of the highlights from Sunday's televised edition of "Reliable Sources:"
Picking up on the patterns
I led Sunday's show by describing Trump's go-to rhetorical device: "I know you are, but what am I?" My two cents: Journalists need to keep track of these patterns and point them out instead of just reporting each individual jab...
"Covering the food fight" versus "why is he throwing the food?"
Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden, clearly no friend of Trump's, said this pattern is "projection," with Trump "attacking other people for what he is doing."
"I agree that you have to detect the pattern," she told me, "but I also think the media has a role in finding out why he acts this way. Why did he have this meltdown? Why is he doing these things? Instead of just covering the fight." She added: "What he relies on is the media doing exactly what it did in 2016, which is just covering the food fight, instead of asking, 'Why is he throwing the food?'"
Speaking of that...
Trump and the attention economy
No, it's not just your imagination: Trump is tweeting a lot more often. He is clearly savvy about the attention economy. But there are some signs that he is garnering less attention than he did, say, one year ago. Google data showing "interest over time" for the search term "Trump" shows him at or near a yearly low for the past month. And Andrew Tyndall's research into the nightly newscasts shows that Trump sound bites have dropped by a quarter in the past two months.
All of this could be fleeting, of course. And this next data point may be a coincidence. But the president is tweeting a lot more often. We counted 664 tweets and retweets in the past 30 days, up from 226 in the same time period last year. The question arises: Is Trump having to try harder and harder to get the public's attention? On Sunday's show, David Frum, Olivia Nuzzi and Neera Tanden disagreed about whether his actions are "rational..."
David Frum's key point
"Misinformation is a demand problem as well as supply," David Frum said on "Reliable." When it comes to something like the Pelosi video, "I don't think the people who repeat them are FOOLED. I think they enjoy the lie themselves," he said. "They are co-producers. The demand for false information may be an even bigger problem than the supply."
"Very dangerous for journalism"
The indictment of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act is "very dangerous for journalism," whether or not Assange is considered a journalist, First Amendment lawyer Ted Boutrous said. He said the case "poses great risks" for the news industry. Here's why...
The latest from SF
Why did San Francisco police raid the home of freelance journalist Bryan Carmody? Was California's shield law violated? Boutrous and SF Chronicle editor Audrey Cooper spoke with me... Here's the segment... | | | Thank you for reading! Send me your feedback anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
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