December is right around the corner. But I am not sure if that's good news or bad news. Brian Stelter here with the latest on Maria Bartiromo, President Trump, Christopher Krebs, Jen Psaki, the FCC, Amazon, "The Undoing," and much more...
Complicit
Trump is Trump. There's nothing new to say about the man. But there is still lots to learn about his enablers. So many people, from GOP functionaries to Fox News hosts, are helping him to undermine democracy by denying the election and attacking reality. So many people are complicit.
People like Maria Bartiromo. Formerly an acclaimed journalist, known around the world for making CEOs tell the truth, now she tees up Trump to recite lie after lie. Her Sunday morning call with Trump on Fox News was his first "interview" since he lost the election, but it wasn't a real interview at all. He wasn't ready to acknowledge that he lost, and neither was she. He displayed delusional weakness. She was complicit. And she's far from the only one.
GOP leaders stay silent
Ron Brownstein on CNN Sunday night: As Trump's conspiracy theory about the "rigged" election "gets more and more fantastical and far-reaching, implicating the DOJ, the FBI, and Republican governors, the silence of Republicans in Congress -- Mitch McConnell in particular, Kevin McCarthy in particular, who are allowing this poison to spread in the American political system -- looks more and more like a modern analogue to the silence of Republican congressional leaders during the rampages of Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s. I think history will have no trouble finding a parallel between Mitch McConnell's efforts to kind of look the other way and what so many Republican leaders did until Joseph Wells said, at long last, sir 'have you no decency?'"
Trump is backsliding
He lost the election nearly four weeks ago yet he refuses to admit it. Judging by his tweets, he's spiraling even deeper into denial. The Bartiromo interview was a sign that he's prepared to do battle in public -- a disturbing display of weakness that some people interpret as strength. His Thanksgiving evening Q&A with reporters was another sign of the same thing. After holding a call with members of the military, he fielded Q's for the first time in three weeks -- the "longest gap" of his presidency -- mostly by deflecting and deceiving. When he walked out, one reporter asked "Is this the language of a dictator?" and another said, "Mr. President, some people say you're denying reality."
On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Jonathan Rauch placed Trump's recent statements in the context of information warfare. Trump is running a "classic Russian-style disinfo campaign," known as the "firehose of falsehood," which is when you "push out as many different stories and conspiracy theories and lies and half-truths as you possibly can," Rauch said. "The goal here is to confuse people, and he's doing very well at that. This is a classic propaganda tactic."
>> Craig Mazin, the creator of HBO's "Chernobyl," reacted to my segment with Rauch by reprising one of the most memorable lines from his series: "The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all."
The Murdochs own this
Trumpism is a big part of Fox's business model. The men who control Fox, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, were evidently pleased enough by Bartiromo's propaganda, proud enough of her Trump sycophancy, that they rebroadcast her 10am ET hour at 3pm.
Right afterward, at 4pm, news anchor Eric Shawn matter-of-factly dismantled what Trump and Bartiromo had just built. (No wonder why Trump keeps attacking Fox's weekend news anchors.) Shawn said Trump "doubled down on his claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections even though local and national election officials as well as federal and state courts in multiple states -- and in some cases the Trump campaign's own lawyers -- have said there is no evidence to prove that." He added, "Experts say such claims are simply unsupported falsehoods that are not backed up by any facts."
That's clear, convincing language... So then why did Fox broadcast all of Trump's claims without any real-time followups? A Fox spokesperson did not respond to my inquiries...
Trump said Hannity 'gets it,' but...
During the Sunday morning phoner with Bartiromo, Trump praised Mark Levin's show "last night," even though Saturday's airing was just a repeat of a six-day-old episode of Levin's show. He also said "Sean Hannity, he knows, he gets it. He gets it." Meaning... what? That Hannity believes Trump won the election? On Sunday night, Hannity posted a tweet that said the media helped "drive Trump from office," which was notable primarily for his admission that Trump's presidency is over. To understand some of the rage on the far-right, take a look at the replies to Hannity's tweet.
>> A few days ago I quoted a longtime on-air staffer at Fox saying that "our audience has absolutely been radicalized," and that's what a lot of this is about... The audience. Bartiromo's Sunday morning show has a much bigger audience than the Fox newscasts later in the day...
Darcy's questions
Oliver Darcy writes: "In the past Maria Bartiromo has been portrayed as a member of Fox's 'straight news' division — an arm of Fox that Bret Baier and Chris Wallace serve as the faces for. So it's worth asking: Where are they? Are they OK with their colleague fanning the flames of these deranged conspiracy theories? Do they think that deranged behavior represents them well?"
>> Darcy's other Q's: "Is Trump 'coming out of his shell' so to speak? Will he call into Hannity and 'Fox & Friends' in the coming days?"
The irony is rich
Oliver Darcy adds: "If you've watched Fox News over the past week, you've no doubt seen a segment or two assailing reporters for lobbing supposed 'softball' questions at Biden. These segments have dominated Fox's talk shows lately. Which made Bartiromo's "interview" a display of astounding double standards and heaps of hypocrisy. Think about Bartiromo's "interview" the next time Fox has the nerve to attack reporters for the questions they ask Biden or members of his forthcoming admin..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- In this story about families being torn apart by politics, Sabrina Tavernise quotes a woman who gets to the heart of it all: "This is not even a political divide, it's a reality divide." (NYT)
-- "60 Minutes" and Scott Pelley landed the first interview with Christopher Krebs, the cybersecurity official fired by Trump after telling the truth about the election... (CBS)
-- This is surely not the most important metric in the world, but still worth noting: For the first time since 2015, Trump is consistently losing followers on Twitter. Factbase has measured small declines for 11 days in a row... (Twitter)
-- Essential new story by Paul LeBlanc: The QAnon conspiracy is fake, but "the harm it's doing to child welfare groups is real..." (CNN)
-- One of the many takeaways from this Derek Thompson joint is the phrase "Instagram socialism," i.e. "highly educated, but not necessarily high-earning, urbanites who shop like capitalists and post like Marxists and frequently do so in adjacent tabs..." (The Atlantic)
When lies come back to haunt you
Oliver Darcy writes: "Sometimes when you throw out a lie it boomerangs and hits you right back in your face. That's what appears to be happening in Georgia, with the GOP seemingly struggling to convince Republicans to vote in the runoff Senate elections. RNC chair Ronna McDaniel over the weekend fielded questions from skeptical Republicans at an event. One person, for instance, asked why Republicans can trust the election when it's "already been decided." McDaniel encouraged these Republicans to vote, but it will be interesting to see whether Trump and the GOP's lies about election rigging actually depress their own voters from turning out..."
Lowry's take
Brian Lowry writes: "I've been thinking a lot about Trump's frequent warning that the media will suffer a crushing blow without him, which dovetails with Sunday's Reliable segment about a more sedate presidency under Biden. Both of those arguments assume that Trump is exiting the stage, when he's made clear that he has no intention of doing so, in part because that's how he monetizes his name. In that sense, Trump needs the media's oxygen at least as much as it needs him to boost ratings and traffic, which is why his 'You'll be sorry when I'm gone' warnings have always struck me as an idle threat..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Did Tucker Carlson help get Sidney Powell fired? WaPo's deep-dive into Trump's attempt to get the election overturned included this line: "Aides said the president was especially disappointed in Powell when Tucker Carlson ... assailed her credibility on the air..." (WaPo)
-- Spend some time with this piece from David Brooks about the "rotting of the Republican mind." Brooks writes, "We live in a country in epistemological crisis, in which much of the Republican Party has become detached from reality..." (NYT)
-- Speaking of which: Ivanka Trump raised eyebrows when she gave One America News (OAN) a follow on Twitter over the weekend... (Twitter)
-- And speaking of Twitter, here's my thread about how a totally made-up OAN segment about Biden made its way to the president, who embarrassed himself by sharing it with millions of followers... (Twitter)
-- My overarching Q about Trump's unhinged tweets and rants: Why has no one successfully intervened? Most people have family members, friends and colleagues who would have taken the phone away a long time ago... (CNN)
Week ahead calendar
Monday: Biden will receive his first Presidential Daily Briefing
Monday: Zoom will report earnings after the bell
Tuesday: World AIDS Day
Wednesday: The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting airs on NBC at 8pm
Friday: "Selena," a series devoted to the late singer's early life, premieres on Netflix
Also Friday: Francis Ford Coppola's revised "The Godfather Part III" hits select theaters, in advance of a Blu-ray/digital date on Dec. 8
Biden in a boot
President-elect Biden's weekend foot injury spurred many comments about an impending return to "normal" presidential news. What's more banal than twisting an ankle while playing with the family dog?
At the same time, however, Biden's age -- he's "set to be the oldest president in US history," CNN's story noted -- makes any and all medical news especially relevant. His doctor said Sunday evening that he has hairline fractures in his "mid-foot" and will "likely require a walking boot for several weeks." On Twitter, reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere said it's notable "how much more detail is being offered proactively about the president-elect’s minor condition than was offered about the current president's condition after he contracted the coronavirus."
On a related note...
Biden sets his comms team
WaPo's Annie Linskey broke the news on Sunday afternoon: "Biden hires all-female senior communications team." Jen Psaki will be press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre will be the principal deputy press secretary, Kate Bedingfield will be WH director, Pili Tobar will be her deputy, Symone Sanders will be the chief spokesperson for Kamala Harris, and Ashley Etienne will be comms director for Harris. Elizabeth Alexander will be first lady Jill Biden's comms director.
Linskey wrote, "It is the first time all of the top aides tasked with speaking on behalf of an administration and shaping its message will be female." This triggered a round of media bias complaints from the Trump WH and its allies, who asserted that the current WH comms team is "entirely female-led." WH deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews wrote, "Apparently the achievements of GOP women don't count in the eyes of the media." They should count, and they do, but the clear difference here is that Biden is jump-starting his WH with an all-female team and making a statement about diversity – that's why the appointments garnered headlines on Sunday. Furthermore, as Maggie Haberman noted, some of Trump's top comms aides are men...
What the outgoing and incoming @PressSec have in common
They have CNN in common – and here's what I mean. Kayleigh McEnany was a CNN political commentator during the 2016 cycle. Then she joined the GOP en route to the Trump WH. Psaki, meanwhile, became a CNN commentator shortly after her term as the Obama WH comms director ended in 2017. She left CNN at the beginning of this month to advise Biden's transition team...
Coming soon to the press briefing room?
Psaki tweeted on Sunday evening: "We can't wait to share what we are thinking as we get closer to inauguration, but @K_JeanPierre and I spoke just this A.M. about taking the next few weeks to think outside of the box about how to ensure we are making the Biden-Harris agenda more accessible from the podium." The resumption of daily press briefings will be a welcome start...
>> Reporters and editors are pushing the Biden team to provide more access, as Politico editor Carrie Budoff Brown told me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." She predicted that covering Biden "will be tougher" than Trump on at least one level because "Biden is known to be very leak-free..."
>> Marc Ambinder also brought this up on Sunday: "You aren't going to see this team leak much, if at all," he said. "They will go by / through / around media gatekeepers when necessary..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Jessica Rosenworcel is "widely considered to be one of the leading candidates to succeed Ajit Pai" as FCC chair, Gene Maddaus reports... (Variety)
-- "2020 isn't the first time," and Andrew Solender made a timeline to prove it: "Trump has pushed some form of voter fraud conspiracy in at least 8 elections since 2012..." (Forbes)
-- Ari Fleischer says he's writing a book titled "Broken" for Broadside Books. He says "it's about the MSM in the era of Donald Trump and beyond..." (Twitter)
"A staggering rate"
This is the lead headline on CNN.com right now: "Covid-19 is killing Americans at a staggering rate." Subheadline: "The US has surpassed 100,000 new daily Covid cases for the 27th consecutive day as those who traveled for the holiday risk spreading the virus..."
Covid-19 task force members are all over TV
All the major Sunday shows had reps from the administration's Covid-19 task force. They all prepared Americans for the hard winter ahead. And they all called on Thanksgiving weekend travelers to get tested... "But when it came to whether individuals should quarantine or isolate, and for how long, responses from the nation's leading experts differed," CNN's Chandelis Duster and Naomi Thomas reported...
>> Dr. Anthony Fauci is doing another FB Live chat with Mark Zuckerberg Monday at 6pm ET...
Hundreds of roses
Gannett-owned newspapers across the state of Wisconsin decked out their front pages with hundreds of roses on Sunday, each rose signifying one Wisconsinite who died from Covid-19 in a single week...
"We thought he would live forever"
NBC's Corky Siemaszko writes: "The German invasion, torture at the hands of the Gestapo, the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald — newsman Jan Krawiec survived them all and got his life's story out way ahead of deadline. It was a silent killer called Covid-19 that did what the Nazis couldn't do. It took Krawiec's life last month at a nursing home in suburban Chicago. He was 101." A friend said "we thought he would live forever." Read more about his life here...
Millions are still suffering
Oliver Darcy writes: "Much of the recent coronavirus coverage has focused on the surge in cases and a possible vaccine. But it's also important that news orgs continue to spotlight the pain and suffering occurring throughout the country. So many Americans are still out of work or earning far less than normal due to decreased hours; small businesses are still closing their doors; evictions are taking place; and countless Americans are now relying on food banks to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Congress has still failed to pass a stimulus bill to offer some relief. These are important stories that cannot be overlooked."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Harry Enten highlighting his poll of the week: "How the coronavirus is really the only issue that matters..." (CNN)
-- Lenny Bernstein's latest is "inside a hospital as the coronavirus surges: Where will all the patients go?" (WaPo)
-- While ill with Covid-19, Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post spoke with GOP sources who remain skeptical about the virus. The conversations distilled why "it's so important to talk about the virus and emphasize that it is real..." (CNN)
-- Here's another first person account from a WaPo staffer: "As a food writer with covid, I worried I'd lose my sense of taste," Tim Carman wrote. "It turned out to be much worse..." (WaPo)
A special presidential envoy for press freedom?
That's what the Committee to Protect Journalists is proposing. In the past four years authoritarian leaders "have embraced the Trumpian rhetoric of fake news" and "restricted the flow of information globally at a critical time," the group's exec director Joel Simon told me. "One way that the Biden administration can reverse some of the damage is to speak out consistently whenever journalists are jailed or they're threatened, where there's censorship." He recommended "a new position, a presidential envoy for press freedom, who would be empowered to speak out whenever journalists are under threat and ensure that U.S. foreign policy is focused on defending journalists and their rights around the world..."
Time for Twitter to label entire accounts?
Oliver Darcy writes: "Trump spent much of the holiday weekend tweeting lies and conspiracy theories about the election (including suggesting that more than a million votes came out of 'thin air'). Nearly every tweet from the president at this point is labeled for misinfo. Which had me thinking: Why doesn't Twitter just take the step of labeling his entire account as a known source of election disinfo? And why stop there? Why not label accounts that repeatedly spread claims the platform has to fact-check? That would help users weed out reliable sources from bad-faith actors (especially bad-faith actors who have verified badges). Think of it as a version of NewsGuard for Twitter..."
All in the family?
Brian Lowry writes: "Maureen Dowd again indulged in one of her strangest traditions over the long weekend: handing her NYT column over to her conservative brother. While it's easy to understand the 'See? Even in the best of families...' impulse, it still comes across as a particularly eccentric means of demonstrating the point."
>> Kevin Dowd's column included a media-centric graf. "A word of caution to Fox News," he wrote: "Your not-so-subtle shift leftward is a mistake. You are one of a kind. Watching the quick abdication of Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum following the election (joining an already hostile Chris Wallace) was like finding out my wife was cheating. No one is tuning in to listen to the musings of Chris Hahn and Marie Harf..."
A bonus interview on this week's podcast...
Salon's Amanda Marcotte joined me to discuss "Trumpism" as a movement. She argued that Trump the man is a bore, but the fan base must be covered and scrutinized. The discussion with Marcotte is a bonus on this week's Reliable podcast, which also includes Sunday's entire telecast. Listen in via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, or your favorite app...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Important read ahead of "Cyber Monday," which seems like a quaint concept, now that every day is a cyber-shopping day: "Pushed by pandemic, Amazon goes on a hiring spree without equal..." (NYT)
-- "NBC's coverage of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday" attracted 20.7 million viewers, down just a tad from last year, when there was an actual parade... (Deadline)
-- Correction: In our pre-Thanksgiving edition, I linked to Variety's story about the parade but IDed the wrong writer. The story was by Michael Schneider...
-- Jim Friedlich gave thanks for local journalism on Thursday... (Inquirer)
Disney warns of additional layoffs to come
The company "is planning to shed 32,000 employees by the end of March — 4,000 more than previously announced — as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hammer its parks and resorts business," per an SEC filing on Wednesday, Hanna Ziady wrote...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Michael Gerson's message over the holiday weekend: "We need more moral journalism and moral commentary..." (WaPo)
-- Read about the life and legacy of a phenomenal journalist: "David Holwerk, whose ability to make good judgments and quick decisions as editorial-page editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader led to three finalists and one winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the newspaper, died Monday. He was 73." (Herald-Leader)
-- What's the state of the "nonfiction game?" The NYT interviewed HBO documentary heads Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller about "How they're navigating the evolving landscape..." (NYT)
Undone
No spoilers about "The Undoing" please! The finale aired on HBO Sunday night, but I'm waiting to watch the episode until my wife gets home from work Monday morning. Morning TV hours makes prime time TV ill-timed...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN
-- "Peacock has apologized for a Saved By the Bell episode that referenced Selena Gomez's kidney transplant in a brief scene as well as donated to the singer's lupus charity following social media criticism over the episode..." (THR)
-- "Amazon has opted not to order a second season of 'Utopia,' its straight-to-series adaptation of the British drama, written by Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn..." (Deadline)
-- Brooks Barnes' overview for Sunday Business: "In the 110-year history of the American film industry, never has so much upheaval arrived so quickly and on so many fronts..." (NYT)
-- Cynthia Littleton's look at the landscape: "Hollywood grapples with mass layoffs as the biz redefines itself for streaming future..." (Variety)
Thanksgiving box office report
Variety's Rebecca Rubin writes: "Only one new movie, Universal and DreamWorks' 'The Croods: A New Age,' was released in theaters" during the Thanksgiving weekend. The film "surpassed expectations, generating $9.71 million over the weekend and $14.22 million since opening on Wednesday," but those expectations were seriously muted due to the pandemic. Overall, "it's the lowest Thanksgiving haul in modern history." Details here...
Remembering Dave Prowse
"May the force be with him, always!" his former agent, Thomas Bowington, said in a statement to the BBC after Prowse's death at the age of 85 was confirmed on Sunday. "Though famous for playing many monsters -- for myself, and all who knew Dave and worked with him, he was a hero in our lives," Bowington said.
Prowse was best known for playing Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, "but it was his role as the 'Green Cross Code Man' from a British road safety campaign that Prowse said he was most proud of," CNN's obituary notes. A beautiful contrast between villainous and heroic roles...
Pet of the day
WITH A BIRTHDAY THEME...
USA Today TV editor Gary Levin's birthday was on Saturday. His wife Sara wrote: "It's a milestone but we don't need to talk about that! 😂"
Sara sent in this photo of Gary with the family dog Penny:
Thank you for reading. Send me your feedback anytime. We'll be back tomorrow...
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