Brian Stelter here at 11:30pm ET Monday with the latest on Twitter, Fox News, Mike Pompeo, CNN, Ken Burns, Condé Nast, and more...
Tell us what happened
Nearly one week since the attack at the Capitol, key federal agencies "have yet to brief the public directly," CNN's Geneva Sands, Jeremy Herb and Christina Carrega report.
The US Capitol Police is mute. The FBI, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have all failed to hold a single press conference. "The US experienced a terrorist attack," Jake Tapper said on Twitter, "and yet not one federal law enforcement agency has held a press conference to give even basic information about what happened. Not DOJ nor DHS nor the WH. A total dereliction of leadership."
Questions are piling up -- but few officials are answering. I began hearing concerns about this late last week, and the complaints reached a crescendo on Monday. "It has been five days since the most significant attack on a branch of the United States government since British forces set fire to the U.S. Capitol in 1814, and yet the American public has not heard from federal law enforcement authorities," Democratic Reps. Joe Neguse of California and Veronica Escobar of Texas said in a letter Monday.
As if to prove the point, the US Capitol Police did not respond to CNN's request for comment about this problem. And DHS "did not respond to questions on whether the department plans to hold a news conference in the coming days and why it hasn't done so already." Read on...
Chad Wolf should speak out now
I'm not holding my breath about this, but every administration official who resigns -- most recently the acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf -- should immediately tell the public about their recent interactions with the president, the president's state of mind, etcetera. Wolf was seen repeatedly at the WH after last week's riot, according to CNN reporting...
Lawmakers are trying to help...
On Sunday Democratic congressman Jason Crow received a briefing from Army secretary Ryan McCarthy, and then Crow's office released a summary of the call, providing some much-needed new info about the investigation. Crow said on MSNBC Monday morning that we are witnessing "the birth of a domestic terrorist movement. This is not going away. Donald Trump has radicalized his most fringe supporters, he has given them permission, he has given them license to be violent."
Later on Monday, Rep. Tim Ryan told reporters that two Capitol Police officers had been suspended, and another individual had been arrested for their alleged roles in the riot. Then his office followed up and said he misspoke about the arrest. So this is how info is trickling out -- imperfectly and incompletely. Relying on lawmakers for read-outs of investigations is obviously problematic, as anyone who's ever played a game of Telephone knows. The authorities should be speaking directly to the press and the public. Late Monday, the Capitol Police's acting chief did confirm that several officers were suspended; the issuing of a statement is a small step in the right direction...
Thank you to whomever leaked the FBI's bulletin
Keeping the public in the dark does lots of damage in lots of ways. Here's a fresh example: The internal FBI bulletin about plans to "storm" government offices. The FBI should be out front, on camera, alerting Americans to threats. Instead, ABC News had to obtain the FBI bulletin on its own and cite info from anonymous sources.
CNN and other newsrooms confirmed the bulletin's contents later in the day. It says that "armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the US Capitol from 17 January through 20 January..."
Don't ignore the chest pains...
On "AC360" Monday night, when Anderson Cooper asked if 1/6 was the end or the beginning, former DHS cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs said "this is the equivalent of ignoring that pain in your chest for a couple weeks and then all of a sudden you have a catastrophic heart attack. We are on the verge of what I fear to be a pretty significant breakdown in democracy and civil society here." Krebs said his hope is that "through serious people in law enforcement stepping up and showing a visible presence" in the coming days, the immediate insurrection will be quelled. But for the next couple of years, he said, "we have to continue chipping away at the disinformation and the propaganda and the lies that have been spread over the last several years" that have incited the insurrectionists...
Trump is still in charge
He is silent publicly, but he's still in charge. The House will meet at 9am ET Tuesday. Democrats will continue to pressure VP Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. Impeachment will follow later in the week.
--> Pence and Trump are back on speaking terms now. A source close to the VP tells CNN that Pence wants to telegraph "to our allies and adversaries that we have a fully functioning government." Do we?
--> "The GOP is retreating to a tried-and-true playbook," WaPo notes: "Accusing Democrats of overreaching and dividing the country with a second push for Trump’s impeachment..."
--> The NYT's editorial board on Monday evening called on Trump to be impeached again: "As long as he is not held fully to account," the board said, "any future chief executive might feel equally unbound by a lawless precedent..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The Dispatch senior editor David French: "It cannot be emphasized enough that radicalized Trumpists have created a culture of intimidation and fear through wave upon wave of targeted threats. It applies to media, to politicians, and to any prominent voice who stands in their way. It's evil." (Twitter)
-- New from WaPo: As lawmakers "trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president." He was too busy watching the riot on TV "to act or even bother to hear their cries for help..." (WaPo)
-- The WaPo story indicates that House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy called into TV networks during the riot in part to get the president's attention...
-- Speaking of McCarthy's calls: Jonathan Swan reports that Trump had a "tense" phoner with McCarthy on Monday morning. Trump wrongly blamed "Antifa people" for the attack, and McCarthy is said to have responded, "It's not Antifa, it's MAGA. I know. I was there..." (Axios)
-- Despite hearing the president's delusions and denialism on the phone, McCarthy sent a letter to GOP colleagues later in the day opposing impeachment. He floated censure instead...
-- The last line of this harrowing video and text story, titled "This is what it looks like when the mob turns on you," hit me hard: "While we share a country, we do not share a reality." (WaPo)
New videos... but not on every channel
"Wednesday's insurrection was one of the rare live-TV atrocities that grew only more sickening, more terrifying, more infuriating as more days passed," the NYT's James Poniewozik wrote Monday. Most of the major networks have highlighted the new, graphic videos that have emerged day by day. I'm sure you've seen them all across CNN. So I think it's important to point out that the right-wing outlets favored by Republicans are not nearly as interested in a full accounting of what happened. I fast-forwarded through all three hours of Monday's "Fox & Friends" to confirm what I suspected: Fox showed NONE of the new videos of Capitol violence. The show talked way more about Parler than about the dead police officers.
On a possibly related note, many Republican seem eager to move on. Over on the other side of the aisle, Rep. Dan Kildee told Kate Bolduan on Monday, "We only, in the past couple of days, have come to understand exactly the kind of danger that we were facing, and that sort of re-traumatizes everybody..."
Coming up on Tuesday: Trump's Alamo stunt
You might be wondering about the news media's coverage of Trump's trip to Alamo, Texas on Tuesday. Ostensibly he is going there to celebrate the southern border wall. But there's a lot of concern about what he'll say and how he'll say it. Let me just reiterate what I said on CNN Monday morning: Responsible TV networks will not air Trump live and in full. Not after his incitement last week. But I think we'll see a repeat of last Wednesday's rally coverage, meaning that Fox and other pro-Trump networks will air Trump live, while other outlets will exercise editorial judgment and ingest what he says, then decide if any of it is newsworthy. Maybe Fox management will prove me wrong and skip the speech, we'll see...
Rupert Murdoch is back
For long stretches in 2020, key Fox News staffers did not feel much of Rupert Murdoch's influence. That might have been because he was riding out the pandemic at a country estate west of London. But the patriarch is asserting himself again at Fox News -- and moving his network even further to the right.
On Monday Fox News demoted Martha MacCallum from the 7pm hour, a very prominent time slot, and moved her to 3 o'clock. MacCallum's show was conservative in many ways, but it was considered by Fox to be news, not opinion, and it wasn't "working," in TV biz parlance. So her show will be replaced next week with a right-wing opinion show, i.e. the type of incendiary programming that Fox viewers overwhelmingly prefer. Murdoch was directly involved in the decision, two sources told me. And he's not done: Further changes are expected to the programming lineup in the coming weeks. Here's my full report...
Fox's audience is "pissed"
Several Fox sources have described the Fox audience as "pissed" and "furious" about both Trump's loss and Fox's coverage, which has skewed to the right, but evidently not far enough for Trump loyalists. Booting MacCallum from the 7pm hour looks a lot like appeasement. It's also a response to the obvious ratings pressures. CNN has been beating Fox, and Newsmax has been peeling away some of Fox's viewers. One Fox staffer offered a blunt interpretation of the moves on Monday: "Newsmax won."
To be clear, Newsmax has a far smaller audience than Fox at any given time of day, but its sudden ratings surge in November has caused a great deal of heartburn inside Fox. Newsmax blasted out a statement on Monday that said "the Fox is on the run. The rise of Newsmax TV has caused a major shake-up at Fox News." Fox hit back and called out Newsmax's CEO by name, saying "Chris Ruddy is irrelevant..."
>> Bill Hemmer now has to vacate the 3pm time slot to make room for MacCallum. He is heading back to the mornings, where he'll anchor alongside Dana Perino, who is also losing her solo hour at 2pm.
>> Instead of anchoring a solo hour at 1pm, Harris Faulkner will anchor at 11am, leading into her "Outnumbered" talk show. From 1 til 3pm, Sandra Smith will co-anchor with John Roberts, who is leaving his chief WH correspondent post.
>> Who will win the 7pm time slot? A rotation of opinion hosts will get one week each, beginning with Brian Kilmeade...
>> What else is Rupert planning?
CNN's promotions
The contrast between Fox and CNN's announcements on Monday was impossible to miss. Fox demoted a news anchor while CNN promoted a whole bunch of DC journalists.
The aforementioned Jake Tapper was named "lead anchor for all major Washington events," like election nights. And his program "The Lead" was expanded to two hours, effective in April. Abby Phillip, Dana Bash, Pamela Brown and Jim Acosta were all named to anchor positions. Kaitlan Collins was promoted to chief White House correspondent; Jeff Zeleny was named chief national affairs correspondent and Manu Raju was named chief Congressional correspondent. Some important notes:
>> Wolf Blitzer and "The Situation Room" will remain in place at 6pm ET. Blitzer "will also have a principal anchor role for all major breaking news and continue to host CNN special reports," the network said. CNN boss Jeff Zucker told staffers that Blitzer will remain with CNN for a long time to come.
>> Phillip will host "Inside Politics" on Sundays starting January 24. John King will continue to helm the weekday edition. Welcome to Sunday mornings, Abby!
>> Speaking of Sundays, Bash will co-anchor "State of the Union" with Tapper, with the two journalists trading weeks.
>> There were lots of other new assignments too. Here's my full story...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Former Vice News DC bureau chief Shawna Thomas, who was most recently at Quibi, will lead "CBS This Morning" as its new executive producer... (Variety)
-- A CNN spokesperson told Maxwell Tani that Andrew Yang is no longer a network contributor as he gears up to run for NYC mayor... (Daily Beast)
-- Peacock host Mehdi Hasan argues: "Donald Trump and his mob succeeded in getting this far because we, the media, failed. We failed you." (Twitter)
-- Speaking of failures, Tucker Carlson interviewed Josh Hawley on Monday night, but only talked about Simon & Schuster's decision to cancel Hawley's book deal. Not "a single question about the deadly riot he encouraged," Aaron Rupar wrote... (Twitter)
-- Lachlan Markay joined Axios on Monday and immediately published a scoop: "The publisher of The Epoch Times, a stridently pro-Trump publication with a flair for conspiracy theories and links to Chinese dissidents, nearly quadrupled its revenue during the first three years of the administration..." (Axios)
Cumulus Media's (empty?) warning to hosts
Oliver Darcy writes: "Cumulus Media warned its conservative talk-radio hosts last week to stop disputing the results of the election, according to a memo obtained by an industry blog and confirmed by other news orgs. 'We need to help induce national calm NOW,' Cumulus EVP Brian Philips wrote, adding the company 'will not tolerate any suggestion' otherwise. The memo threatened to fire those who violated the policy. But as Paul Farhi noted in his story, Mark Levin, one of the company's hosts, appeared to ignore the memo after it was sent out. I reached out to Cumulus for comment on Monday, but didn't hear back..."
>> Of note: Premiere Networks — which is far more influential in right-wing media than Cumulus as it distributes the shows of top hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck — hasn't appeared to have taken such action...
Morrissey disaffiliates from GOP
Oliver Darcy writes: "Prominent conservative blogger Ed Morrissey announced on Monday that he can no longer in good conscience affiliate with the modern-day GOP. Morrissey wrote on Hot Air that he asked himself what it means to be a Republican and if the party respected the values it once held. 'The answers to both have led me to disaffiliate myself from the GOP after the disgrace that took place in Congress last week, with not just tacit but explicit cooperation from party leadership,' Morrissey wrote. Writing about last week's incident of domestic terrorism, Morrissey also argued, 'The caveat of 'I don’t support violence in any way' is meaningless — a dodge around the betrayal of the principles on which this party stood at one time...'"
The Trump shunning
Call it a shunning. Call it a blackout. Or call it corporate America's attempt to stand on the right side of history. Almost every hour on Monday, there was further evidence of what CNN's Fredreka Schouten called a "corporate revolt." Trump was said to be especially wounded by his loss of Twitter and the PGA.
>> Brian Lowry writes: "Trump having turned himself into a corporate pariah is fascinating and worth watching. He'll still find people willing to do business with him, but the blue-chip brands shunning him is a consequence that I think will hurt him – and certainly those close to him -- more than a lot of other consequences would. Last week's note from Forbes editor Randall Lane about not hiring Trump people in PR roles was also pretty remarkable..."
Bongino promises Parler will return
Oliver Darcy writes: "Speaking on Fox Monday, Parler co-owner Dan Bongino said his platform will 'be back by the end of the week,' vowing that he'd 'go bankrupt' before he allowed the company to fail. Later in the day, Mashable reported that by Monday afternoon Parler had transferred its domain name to Epik, 'a domain name registrar that has become a safe haven for far-right websites.' NYT's Davey Alba pointed out, specifically, that Epik is in business with sites like Gab, The Daily Stormer, and 8chan..."
>> Darcy adds: "Of note: While Bongino used his Fox hit to go on an unhinged rant in which he called yours truly a 'loser piece of garbage' who wants to see him communicate via 'carrier pigeon,' it's worth pointing out that his media empire is still dominating on Facebook and he is not banned from any major tech platforms..."
Twitter's stock sags
Oliver Darcy adds: "Parler is facing an existential crisis, but Twitter didn't have a great Monday either. The company's stock took a dive during the first day of trading after Trump's ban. At one point, the stock fell as much as 10%, though it later recovered a bit before closing down roughly 6%. Jim Cramer put it this way: 'I am telling you the real Donald Trump was a great salesperson for Twitter.' Cramer argued that Twitter will need a new draw soon..."
Belatedly wiping away the lies
First, Facebook's move: The platform says it is "removing all content that mentions the phrase 'stop the steal,' a full 69 days after Election Day," Brian Fung wrote Monday.
Second, Twitter's move: The platform says it has banned than 70,000 QAnon-promoting accounts since Friday. So, NBC's Ben Collins tweeted, "this explains prominent Republicans losing followers en masse..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- A reminder from Donie O'Sullivan: "With social media companies cracking down, some Trump supporters may find themselves in even darker corners of the internet..."
-- For the history books: "By the time the social media platform Twitter permanently suspended his account on Jan. 8, 2021, President Donald Trump had posted 2,520 tweets degrading journalists and the media as a whole..." (Press Freedom Tracker)
-- "Some Parler users are moving to telegram and hard-right extremists are trying to radicalize them as potential new converts," Ali Breland reports... (Mother Jones)
-- Tom Junod writes: "We must remember 1/6 the way we remember 9/11." (The Atlantic)
Halting donations
Many media companies are among the entities that say they will halt donations to Republicans who voted to overturn the election. AT&T, CNN's parent, announced a suspension on Monday. A little while later Reuters reported that Verizon is doing the same. Same thing at Comcast: "The peaceful transition of power is a foundation of America’s democracy," the cable company and NBC owner said. "This year, that transition will take place among some of the most challenging conditions in modern history and against the backdrop of the appalling violence we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol last week. At this crucial time, our focus needs to be on working together for the good of the entire nation."
Meanwhile, they're silent on this...
Oliver Darcy writes: "While AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon all released statements on Monday saying they will suspend political contributions to members of Congress, it is worth pointing out what these companies have not commented on: their distribution of right-wing channels that for weeks promoted election denialism. As Alex Weprin pointed out, 'It’s pretty easy for companies to suspend political advertising when it will be a full year before any major congressional/senate campaigns really kick into gear.' In contrast, it is much more difficult to address the systems that allowed for such lies to flourish and spread..."
Pompeo demeans VOA
This is an important story by CNN's Nicole Gaouette, Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood. The lead: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Voice of America news service of 'demeaning America' in a speech that a watchdog group criticized as 'political propaganda' and a violation of the government-funded agency's own rules." His "culture war rant" was shown live around the world through VOA channels. Afterward, he ignored questions from VOA reporters. Read all about it here...
>> Kudos to VOA's senior WH correspondent Patsy Widakuswara for attempting to question Pompeo. Surely she will be lauded by her bosses, not punished... right?
Ken Burns to guest-author Playbook
Oliver Darcy writes: "If you open up Tuesday's Politico Playbook, expect to see something different. Filmmaker Ken Burns will be at the newsletter's helm as part of its 12-day run featuring special guest writers. Per a source, Tuesday's edition will 'draw on Burns' filmography and use video clips to discuss what history can tell us about this moment...'"
Prime time special on January 20?
"The Big Three broadcast networks are mulling a roadblock special to air in primetime Jan. 20 celebrating the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States and Kamala Harris as Vice President," Variety's Daniel Holloway and Joe Otterson reported Monday. "Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell Variety that the special would be 90 minutes to two hours in length and would be produced by Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, the same team that handled the DNC..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Kerry Flynn:
-- The Chicago Tribune is relocating its newsroom. Ryan Orio says the move leaves "the city's largest newspaper without a downtown office less than three years after its exit from the landmark Tribune Tower..." (Tribune)
-- Janice Min is joining TIME as a contributing editor, focusing on culture, business and entertainment. Her first piece strikes a hopeful note: "The Hollywood Escape Economy Is Just Around the Corner..." (TIME)
-- Zendaya is GQ's February cover star. As Foster Kamer noted, Zendaya was more "celebrated" externally compared to Kamala's Vogue cover... (GQ)
Condé's 2020 milestones
Kerry Flynn writes: "In a Monday memo titled 'New Year Update,' Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch told staff he was 'optimistic for all that lies ahead,' adding that they saw an 'economic upturn in September' and was 'ahead of our audience targets.' Lynch congratulated Vanity Fair US, specifically, for its audience growth, writing that it 'now has the largest audience globally of any single title' and that its total audience in Q4 was up 89% and 'loyal audience' (people who visit the site at least four times per month) was up 184% from 2019 to 2020."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- "Donna Speciale, the Madison Avenue veteran, will take over ad sales at Spanish-language broadcaster Univision as that company re-organizes under new management," Brian Steinberg reports. Speciale is one of six newly appointed execs... (Variety)
-- "Because of the worsening pandemic, ESPN traveled to Miami Gardens with a skeleton crew" for Monday night's College Football Playoff championship between Alabama and Ohio State, "especially when compared to previous years," John Ourand reports... (SBJ)
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- "On Monday, former Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings debuted as the show's first post-Alex Trebek guest host. Jennings paid tribute to Trebek just after he walked out on stage. 'Sharing this stage with Alex Trebek was one of the greatest honors of my life,' he said..." (Deadline)
-- Kim Masters' Monday scoop: Kevin Hart has struck "an enormous, Adam Sandler-type deal with Netflix... The deal calls for Hart to star and produce four features for the streamer and then enter into a first-look deal..." (THR)
-- Lisa Respers France writes: "'Bridgerton's' Regé-Jean Page addressed whether he's dating his costar Phoebe Dynevor... (CNN)
-- One more from Lisa: Lori Harvey and Michael B. Jordan are now Instagram official.. (CNN)
-- "Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis are all set to bank over $1 million per episode" for their new HBO Max series... (Variety)
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Parrot of the day
Lynn writes: "My little parrot Louis sits on my shoulder to read the newsletter every morning, but he has been so traumatized by the events of the past week that he has taken up residence in the bamboo and says he's not coming out until it's over. May that be soon!"
Thank you for reading. Oliver will be running the show tomorrow. Email us anytime...
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