Brian Stelter here. Scroll down for A&E's surprise, Anderson Cooper's questions, President Trump's next interview, and Kerry Flynn's canine arrival...
These 16 stories are all related...
Sixteen examples of the Black Lives Matter reckoning throughout the media world:
-- A&E is ceasing production of "Live P.D.," shocking many people in the TV business, since it was a hit show for the network. Scroll down for details...
-- Variety's Patrick Frater reports: "Netflix has removed four comedy shows featuring outspoken Australian performer Chris Lilley from its platform in Australia and New Zealand" due to "racial depictions..."
-- In an "emotional note to staff," Anna Wintour "has admitted that Vogue has been 'hurtful and intolerant' — and not done enough to promote black staff and designers," per Page Six's Sara Nathan...
-- The publisher of a Franklin County, Missouri newspaper, the Missourian, "apologized and resigned Wednesday after publishing an editorial cartoon that has been criticized for being racially insensitive," per the Post-Dispatch...
-- The Arizona Republic's Bill Goodykoontz has a breakdown of the "racism scandal" at Arizona Foothills magazine and how it fits into the "reckoning underway in American life..."
-- The top five books on the NYT's combined print and e-book nonfiction bestseller list this week are "White Fragility," "So You Want To Talk About Race," "How To Be An Antiracist," "Me and White Supremacy," and "The New Jim Crow."
-- NASCAR is banning Confederate flags at all races and events, partly in response to an appeal from its only full-time black driver, CNN's Steve Almasy reports...
-- Jonathan Martin's scoop for the NYT: "LeBron James and a group of other prominent black athletes and entertainers are starting a new group aimed at protecting African-Americans' voting rights." It will be called More Than a Vote and it "will go well beyond traditional celebrity get-out-the-vote efforts..."
-- Warner Music plans to stop using the term "urban" to "refer to music by black artists, according to a person familiar with the matter," Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reports. Radio giant iHeartMedia "also will phase out the expression, opting for hip-hop or R&B instead..."
-- The Grammy Awards have also "entered into the fray, by removing the word from some categories yet adding it to another, as part of a series of rule changes announced on Wednesday," the NYT's Ben Sisario reports...
-- Bon Appétit and Epicurious apologized and committed to creating change following the resignation of EIC Adam Rapoport over racism allegations, Kerry Flynn reports. The Condé Nast-owned brands said it will prioritize people of color for consideration for the new EIC position. The company also committed to anti-racism training for the staff, to resolve pay inequities and to hire more freelancers of color...
-- Matt Duckor, "the head of Condé Nast’s fast-growing lifestyle programming group, resigned Wednesday after accusations of bias from several employees," the NYT's Edmund Lee reports...
-- "WSJ Staff Faults Column on Race by Former Top Editor:" The NYT's Marc Tracy reports that "after a letter of protest from the newspaper’s union, Gerard Baker, now an editor at large, was reassigned to the opinion department..."
-- Gannett, which removed mugshot galleries from all of its news websites in 2018, has now removed them from the sites that previously belonged to GateHouse Media. Poynter's Kristen Hare explains the move here...
-- CNN's Lisa Respers France reports: Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and other prominent white women handed over their social accounts over to black voices for the #ShareTheMicNow campaign...
-- In the last two weeks, American voters’ support for the Black Lives Matter movement increased almost as much as it had in the preceding two years," the NYT's Nate Cohn and Kevin Quealy write...
"Live P.D." surprise
As THR's Alex Weprin observed, "just one month ago A&E ordered 160 new episodes (!!) of the police reality show 'Live P.D.' Today, the network canceled the series." That's why this is a much more surprising move than Paramount canceling "COPS" -- because "Live P.D." is a much bigger hit for A&E.
The network may have left a crack open in the door, saying in its statement that "going forward, we will determine if there is a clear pathway to tell the stories of both the community and the police officers whose role it is to serve them. And with that, we will be meeting with community and civil rights leaders as well as police departments."
But for the foreseeable future the show is off the air. Host Dan Abrams tweeted: "Shocked & beyond disappointed about this. To the loyal #LivePDNation please know I, we, did everything we could to fight for you, and for our continuing effort at transparency in policing. I was convinced the show would go on.. More to come..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The headline on David Bauder's latest story: "Headline-making missteps put focus on newsroom diversity..." (AP)
-- "ViacomCBS employees are asking the media company to drop a streaming channel carrying a new show by former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly," Stephen Battaglio reports... (LAT)
-- Dominic Patten says that Tucker Carlson is "losing advertisers -- again..." (Deadline)
-- POTUS ignored Q's from reporters about this: "Trump opposes efforts to remove Confederate commanders' names from military bases..." (CNN)
-- Anderson Cooper called out Kayleigh McEnany's "double speak" on Wednesday and offered some "just asking" questions... (Mediaite)
Editor of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pushes back
Oliver Darcy writes: The exec editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette forcefully pushed back Wednesday against the assertion that a black reporter had been taken of the protest story because of race. Calling it "disinformation," editor Keith Burris wrote, "We assumed the lie was so outrageous that it did not need refutation." Burris added, "Here’s the truth: No one was taken off the protest story because of race."
Burris said that, instead, reporter Alexis Johnson was "not assigned a story because of the suggestion of bias." That suggestion of bias was from a tweet "that editors felt was strong commentary — opinion — on a story the reporter was only supposed to report." Burris added, "You can disagree with that ethic, or dismiss it as passe. But you cannot, fairly, call it racism."
But as NPR's David Folkenflik, who broke news of this story earlier in the week, reported, "Burris did not address an incident that occurred at the same time involving a white reporter who was allowed to file stories on the protests despite his own tweet disparaging a man accused of looting." Folkenflik noted in his Wednesday story as well that "Johnson previously told NPR she believes managers' decisions were influenced by race."
>> Listen: Johnson was a guest on the "On Point" roundtable Wednesday...
So much news about the coronavirus is incongruent. There are stories about new cases of the virus next to stories about businesses reopening. For example...
"White House goes quiet on coronavirus as outbreak spikes again across the U.S."
That's the headline on Dan Diamond's story for Politico... He notes that "it's been more than a month since the White House halted its daily coronavirus task force briefings. Top officials like infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci have largely disappeared from national television" while Trump "is preparing to resume his campaign rallies after a three-month hiatus..."
Disneyland sets reopening date
Frank Pallotta writes: Disneyland and Disney California Adventure — Disney's flagship theme parks in California — are almost ready to reopen. The original Disney resort plans to begin a phased reopening on July 17, the company said Wednesday, pending state and local government approvals. July 17 is the 65th anniversary of the opening day of Disneyland park.
>> Disney also announced that Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel, two hotels that are a part of the Disneyland resort, plan to reopen on July 23...
>> On a related note, from John Ourand's SBJ Media newsletter: "The biggest takeaway ESPN, Fox and Turner should take from Rob Manfred's interview tonight came from the last question Karl Ravech asked: 'The percent chance that we’re playing Major League Baseball this year?' Manfred's response: '100%.'"
THURSDAY PLANNER
SeaWorld Orlando is set to reopen to the public...
Per Variety, "Los Angeles County is set to issue its guidelines on Thursday for the restart of film and TV production, allowing filming to resume as soon as Friday..."
Wesley Lowery, who's out with a new story for The Atlantic titled "Why Minneapolis Was the Breaking Point," will be on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Thursday night...
Trump on Fox on Thursday
Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner will interview Trump on Thursday in Dallas — "taping in the 5PM/ET hour and airing on the network thereafter," Fox says — Trump will be asked about the nationwide protests "and calls to defund the police, amongst other news of the day..."
Jack Dorsey wants to know...
"Did you read the article you’re about to spread?"
That's what the Twitter CEO asked his followers on Wednesday. Twitter announced that, "to help promote informed discussion, we're testing a new prompt on Android –– when you Retweet an article that you haven't opened on Twitter, we may ask if you'd like to open it first." The company says it wants to see "if reminding people to read an article before they share it leads to more informed discussion..."
>> Speaking of Dorsey, Kurt Wagner has a big new Bloomberg Businessweek story titled "Jack Dorsey’s Stand Against Trump Marks a Long-Debated Red Line..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- "CNN's Don Lemon played a supercut of White House officials, including President Donald Trump, brushing off questions about the existence of systemic racism in the country, calling out their denials as equivalent to 'white-mansplaining...'" (Mediaite)
-- The headline on Stephen Battaglio's profile of the aforementioned "CNN Tonight" anchor: "As a nation looks for answers on George Floyd, CNN’s Don Lemon steps up." (LAT)
-- Steven Holmes, a former member of the CNN Standards and Practices team, as well as a former NYTer, wrote in an op-ed, "I love The New York Times, but what they did was wrong..." (CNN Opinion)
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest: "When Fox News disappoints, Trump has a backup: the conspiracy theory-peddling OANN..." (WaPo)
The Trump campaign's laughable letter to CNN
Trump reelection campaign officials are continuing to threaten news outlets. And news outlets are not flinching. This week CNN is the target again: the campaign sent a "cease and desist letter" that "contained numerous incorrect and misleading claims," as Veronica Stracqualursi and Harry Enten reported here.
The letter demanded a retraction and apology for a recent scientific poll that showed Trump trailing behind Joe Biden. It was met with stifled laughs in legal circles. But it's serious because it shows the campaign's divorce from reality. CNN EVP and general counsel David Vigilante replied Wednesday and said the campaign's allegations "are rejected in their entirety."
"To my knowledge, this is the first time in its 40-year history that CNN had been threatened with legal action because an American politician or campaign did not like CNN's polling results," Vigilante wrote. "To the extent we have received legal threats from political leaders in the past, they have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media."
-- Michael Grynbaum and Maggie Haberman's story points out that OAN swooped in on Wednesday and said it "would be publishing a voter survey that Mr. Trump might find more palatable..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
By Allison Gordon:
-- On Wednesday I wrote about how Black Lives Matter is making its mark on map apps... (CNN Business)
-- Netflix is adding a new BLM category to its genre library... (EW)
-- A must read: "The spreadsheet that shook the theater world: Marie Cisco's 'Not Speaking Out' list..." (LA Times)
-- Following up on yesterday's news about Twitter and The 19th News recognizing Juneteenth as a staff holiday, BuzzFeed announced the same thing last week, per an internal announcement dated to June 5...
-- "Vox Media also said in a company memo Tuesday that it will observe Juneteenth as a company holiday." Quoting Jim Bankoff's note: "We hope employees can use the day in your own way for reflection and action as well as a mental break from work..." (WSJ)
Fired State IG is grilled on leaks
Oliver Darcy writes: Former State Department IG Steve Linick was pressed by Congress over a leak to The Daily Beast, transcripts released Wednesday revealed. Specifically Jim Jordan questioned Linick about who leaked the findings of an IG report to the news outlet. Linick responded that he did not know.
In a statement, Daily Beast EIC Noah Shachtman said, “Obviously, neither I nor anyone else at The Daily Beast is going to comment on our sources. But I will note that the Department of Defense Inspector General looked into whether Steve Linick’s office had leaked to the media—and found no evidence to support the accusation. We stand by our reporting. More importantly, stand against any politician or public official who tries to break the sacrosanct bonds of confidentiality between reporters and their sources.”
Tucker Carlson sells stake in The Daily Caller
Oliver Darcy writes: Tucker Carlson has sold his approximately one-third stake in The Daily Caller, WSJ's Keach Hagey reported Wednesday. Carlson sold the stake to co-founder and publisher Neil Patel. It's unclear how much Carlson sold it for. Speaking to Michael Grynbaum, Carlson said, he had not had editorial input in the site since he started hosting his prime time show: “Neil runs it. I wasn’t adding anything. So we made it official.”
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Allison Gordon:
-- A headline that should get your attention: "At Gannett's Ithaca Journal, local news staffing is down to one reporter," Rick Edmonds reports in a larger story about local news staffing... (Poynter)
-- Cameron Hood is leaving The New Yorker to join the founding team at Fastinform, a business-news startup... (Twitter)
-- NYT tech reporter Taylor Lorenz has a book deal: "Extremely Online," for Simon & Schuster, will explore how social media personalities have created a "new American dream..." (Twitter)
Speaking of Simon and Schuster...
Bolton book update
Publishers Lunch's Michael Cader wrote Wednesday: "John Bolton's book THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED has been shipped to warehouses and distribution centers in advance of its June 23 publication date."
But: "White House lawyer John Eisenberg wrote Bolton's attorney this week raising concerns that the manuscript... still 'contains classified information," per the AP.
Simon & Schuster's response: "Bolton worked in cooperation with the National Security Council to incorporate changes to the text that addressed NSC concerns. The final, published version of this book reflects those changes, and Simon & Schuster is fully supportive of Ambassador Bolton's First Amendment right to tell the story of his time in the Trump White House."
A source told CNN's Kaitlan Collins: "There’s a reason the White House wants to suppress this book. It’s catastrophic for them. An unprecedented account by a high-ranking official with unquestionable conservative credentials."
Lowry on HBO's "Wind" decision
Brian Lowry writes: HBO Max's decision to temporarily withdraw "Gone with the Wind" and add historical context in conjunction with the movie seems like a logical solution to the problematic aspects of studio library material -- a strategy, notably, which Disney+ employed by affixing disclaimers to some of its older titles. If you subscribe to the theory that the best remedy for potentially offensive speech is more speech, it's a reasonable if admittedly imperfect response, even if conservatives inevitably pounced on it. It's worth noting, too, that the process is made somewhat easier at HBO Max, since WarnerMedia's holdings include Turner Classic Movies, which regularly provides additional content related to older titles...
These films don't help the racism conversation
Lisa Respers France writes: With conversation in our culture focused on systematic racism and law enforcement's treatment of black people, some are reevaluating Hollywood's on-screen depictions of race. On the heels of the news that HBO Max has pulled "Gone with the Wind" to add "historical context," here are a few films that probably aren't the most helpful if you are trying to learn more about race and racism...
Spike Lee revisits the Vietnam War's legacy in 'Da 5 Bloods'
Brian Lowry writes: Spike Lee's latest film "Da 5 Bloods" couldn't be timelier, exploring the experience of African-American soldiers during the Vietnam War and following its path all the way through till today. But the movie's origins show, with Lee having retrofitted an existing script about veterans pursuing hidden loot into this broader, more ambitious effort, which is consistently thought-provoking but doesn't rise into the top tier of his films. Read on...
LAST BUT NOT LEAST... THE HAPPIEST NEWS OF THE DAY...
Meet Falkor!
Kerry Flynn and her boyfriend Mike welcomed home a puppy today. "We've been planning for a while for summer 2020, and well, this turned out to be convenient timing," she wrote. Meet Falkor... Via a Twitter thread full of adorable photos...
And in case you'd like follow Falkor, yes, the Mini Aussiedoodle already has a Twitter page to call his own. And an Instagram account too!
Thank you for reading... Email me anytime... Oliver will be in the chair tomorrow...
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