Say hello to the weekend! Oliver Darcy here at 9:20pm ET on Friday, Dec. 3, with the latest on "60 Minutes," HBO, The A.V. Club, MailOnline, Showtime, and more...

NYT's accidental ad buy on Fox

Fox News viewers may have noticed a conspicuous new advertiser gracing their screens over the last several weeks: The New York Times. That's right, for a brief time, the paper of record was running a bunch of spots for its new advertising campaign, The Truth Takes a Journalist, on the right-wing-rage network.

I noticed the ads airing on some of the channel's most hyper-partisan offerings, hosted by Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Dan Bongino, Mark Levin, and others. This inevitably led to NYT ads running adjacent to extremist commentary. For instance, this week the NYT ran a spot on "Fox News Primetime" in the commercial break directly after Lara Logan compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to the "Angel of Death" Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

But according to a NYT spokesperson, the ad buys on Fox were due to an accident — "a mistake." The paper never intended to air this particular ad campaign on the network, the spokesperson explained. And the spots have since been pulled. "We are not currently running ads on Fox News," the rep told me, though the NYT "on occasion" does intentionally purchase spots on some of the network's shows.

"There was a mistake with an ad buy through DirecTV. Fox News was not intended to be part of this buy," the rep added, explaining that NYT "alerted [DirecTV] and the issue was quickly resolved."

More specifically, the issue was resolved by Wednesday of this week. The spokesperson also stressed that the ads only aired in homes which use DirecTV as a TV provider: "They did not run across other carriers." But what a contrast it was...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Former Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt calls out the network for allowing Tucker Carlson's 1/6 truther special: It "was beyond reckless and is another mile marker down the road to the kind of Alex Jones-ian InfoWars-ian garbage that makes it impossible to have any kind of a conversation..." (Mediaite)

-- Ben Mathis-Lilley explains the "Fox News-QAnon rift that maybe revealed Tucker Carlson asking Hunter Biden to help his son get into college..." (Slate)

-- Eric Kleefeld writes about Neil Cavuto's interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci: "Even as the two worked to educate viewers about the need for COVID-19 vaccination, Cavuto conspicuously did not point out that many of the narratives they were trying to dispel had been platformed by his own network..." (MMFA)

Lara Logan: Secretly sidelined?

Has Lara Logan been quietly benched by Fox News? All indications are yes. Logan has not appeared on the right-wing channel since the Monday "Fox News Primetime" appearance in which she compared Fauci to Mengele. Fox isn't commenting on the matter, but prior to that Monday appearance, Logan was a mainstay on the network. Now she has disappeared. However, a hush-hush period in the penalty box is not sufficient: As groups like the ADL and AJC have indicated, Fox should publicly say something...

This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"

Brian Stelter writes: "I'll be joined by Peter Klein, a former producer for Lara Logan, who is stunned by her recent conduct. Plus: Sara Fischer, Eric Boehlert, Julie K. Brown, Jay Rosen, and Religion News Service national writer Bob Smietana. See you Sunday at 11am ET on CNN..."

Sunday night TV guide

A "20/20" special about "West Side Story" airs Sunday at 7pm ET on ABC. Scroll down for details...

"Sunday Night Football" features the Seattle Seahawks taking on the San Francisco 49ers...

The 2021 National Christmas Tree Lighting airs at 8:30pm on CBS...

Elle Reeve helms a new CNN Special Report, "White Power on Trial: Return to Charlottesville," at 9pm...

The series finale of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" airs at 10:14pm on AMC...

Reality Winner's first TV interview

Reality Winner has granted "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley her first interview since she was released from prison. In a clip released on Friday, Winner said that she leaked classified info to the media because she "had pledged service to the American people" and "it felt like they were being led astray." In Sunday's segment, she will talk about the emotional and physical consequences of her incarceration...

>> In other "60" news, the program's longtime head of comms Kevin Tedesco is retiring. "The team at 60 Minutes will miss his integrity and relentless commitment to telling the world about our work," and many beat reporters will miss him too...

Biden's cold generates headlines

As Biden spoke Friday about the job numbers, one of the top headlines to emerge was not related to the economy, but the President's health. Biden had a noticeably hoarse voice and coughed during his speech. That (obviously) led to speculation that he had contracted Covid. But Biden and his doctor said that he has tested negative for Covid and simply has a cold. Biden suggested his "one-and-a-half-year-old grandson who had a cold who likes to kiss his pop" was responsible for infecting him. Later in the day, a WH aide knocked the press corps for asking more about Biden's cold than about Friday's jobs report...

>> Separately: WHCA prez Steven Portnoy emailed members Friday to say that "a member of Monday’s in-town pool received a positive test result for COVID-19 this morning, following mild symptoms that began on Wednesday.” The person was in the briefing room Monday. Portnoy urged members to get their booster shots...

>> Biden is set to attend the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night, "reinstating a longstanding tradition that was interrupted" by Trump...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- CNN read a copy of Mark Meadows' memoir. It's full of... alternative facts. (CNN)

-- "Three federal appeals court judges quizzed lawyers for E. Jean Carroll, the DOJ and Trump on Friday "to determine the fate of Carroll's defamation lawsuit against Trump," Kara Scannell reports... (CNN)

-- NYT is "investigating an editor for its product review website over abusive voicemails and other messages directed at a gun rights group in Michigan," Rudy Takala reports... (Mediaite)

-- Barry Meier takes a look at "how those Trump/Russia stories got shopped to the media..." (The Nation)

-- The A.V. Club will shutter its Chicago offices, Tarpley Hitt reports: "The website’s EIC, Scott Robson, told employees that they would be required to move to Los Angeles, where he's establishing a new office, or else lose their jobs..." (Gawker)

-- "MailOnline editor-in-chief and chief executive Martin Clarke has announced he is stepping down," Alex Green reports... (Independent)

Stephen Glass, lies, and love

Brian Stelter writes: "Bill Adair, the PolitiFact founder and Duke professor, has just published an absolutely riveting read about Stephen Glass, 'the most notorious fraud in journalism.' Adair wanted to learn more about how Glass rebuilt his life after making up articles for The New Republic and other magazines. He found that Glass now works in personal-injury law and 'his colleagues and friends say he is scrupulous about the truth,' as Adair reports in this piece for Air Mail, which will officially go live on Saturday. But Glass's life changed when his partner became ill. 'For more than 15 years, he had worked hard to lead a truthful life,' Adair writes. 'And now he was being forced to lie.' Open this tab; you won't regret it..."

More weekend reads

By Brian Stelter:

-- This weekend's Washington Post Magazine is all about local news... (WaPo)

-- "Carlos Watson Has a Cold:" I meant to link to this incredible William D. Cohan tale yesterday. Stay for the end... (Puck)

-- Charlie Warzel writes that the "tech moguls are looking for a new playground..." (The Atlantic)

-- David Streitfeld says the gigantic Amazon online store's "less traveled aisles seem mysterious even to Amazon, like a neighborhood left by the authorities to fend for itself." He explains why that's a problem... (NYT)

-- Actor Josh Malina challenges Mel Gibson and asks: "Why is Hollywood still hiring this raging anti-Semite?" (The Atlantic)

-- Alexis Soloski asks: "In the ’90s, 'Sex and the City' celebrated single women. Can a new, more nuanced version make a comedy of middle-aged ones?" (NYT)

-- There's so much goodness in this Dan Zak profile of Lorne Michaels... (WaPo)

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Before calling a Post-Dispatch journalist a "hacker," the Missouri government actually "was preparing to thank the newspaper for discovering a significant data vulnerability, according to records obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a Sunshine Law request," Jack Suntrup reports... (Post Dispatch)

-- "Today media attorneys are focused on the rising number of lawsuits that threaten their reporters from telling truthful stories, but the threats that we should be most concerned about are those that our journalist colleagues face online," writes D. Victoria Baranetsky... (CJR)

-- Maria Ressa is "permitted to travel to Norway to receive her Nobel Peace Prize at an official Dec. 10 ceremony, the Philippine Court of Appeals has ruled," Sammy Westfall reports... (WaPo)

-- "Four former Serbian intelligence officers have been jailed for the 1999 murder of prominent journalist Slavko Curuvija..." (Euronews)

"Tinderbox" author on this week's "Reliable" podcast

Brian Stelter writes: "James Andrew Miller, author of the new HBO oral history 'Tinderbox,' shares so many insights on this new episode of the RS podcast. He interviewed five decades' worth of network executives, stars and producers, along with the media moguls who are working on the pending combo of WarnerMedia and Discovery. Tune in via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Rebecca Klar reports on how the Facebook Oversight Board is "asking the public to weigh in with comments on the social media platform’s cross-check program for some high profile users..." (The Hill)

-- Mitchell Clark reports that Twitter is "losing design and engineering leaders in restructure" under new CEO Parag Agrawal... (The Verge)

-- Speaking of Agrawal: Shortly after he was appointed, "right-wing media began making baseless accusations of impending censorship on Twitter by taking Agrawal’s previous statements out of context," Rhea Bhatnagar writes... (MMFA)

Twitter to conduct review of exploited policy

Earlier this week, Twitter rolled out a new rule that effectively prohibits users from sharing people's private photos. Almost immediately, that policy was exploited by white nationalists and other extremists who targeted researchers who had posted their photos. Twitter on Friday said it had become aware of "a significant amount of coordinated and malicious reports." The company also said its enforcement teams "made several errors." Twitter said those enforcement errors were corrected and added that it is now "undergoing an internal review to make certain that this policy is used as intended." Here's Brian Fung's full story...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Kerry Flynn:

-- Lee Enterprises "rejected Alden's attempt to nominate a slate of three board directors, filed a week ago, right on the deadline for shareholders to propose candidates," Rick Edmonds writes... (Poynter)

-- How can LA Times compete with NYT's "The Daily"? It's all about “a tone and a vibe that isn’t so stressed and harried and so intense,” says Jazmín Aguilera, the paper's head of audio... (Digiday)

-- Gerry Smith and Crystal Tye produced a BuzzFeed-inspired quiz testing your knowledge of SPAC deals. I'm Chamath, a SPAC king/queen... (Bloomberg)

-- Following BuzzFeed's and Grab's SPAC deals, Lauren Hirsch writes: "SPACs have made it easier and faster for companies to go public, but recent trends might lead some to question whether it was worth it..." (NYT)

Showtime talent show solidarity with Vice Union

Kerry Flynn writes: "In a recent letter to Nancy Dubuc, WGAE members who work on Showtime -- where Vice's TV series now airs -- urged Vice management to 'quickly reach a fair and equitable collective bargaining agreement.' Signees include Desus Nice, Ziwe and Lilly Wachowski. Negotiations are expected to end on Monday, but they are still bargaining over key issues, per THR. 'While we won’t comment on ongoing negotiations, we remain committed to making progress toward a new agreement even if it requires additional bargaining dates,' Vice said in a statement..."

"West Side Story" reimagines the original

Brian Lowry writes: "Steven Spielberg directs his first musical with 'West Side Story,' described as a 'reimagining' of the 1961 film. While the movie doesn’t completely answer the question of why remake a classic at all, this somewhat grittier version does showcase its splendid cast in a way that proves there’s a place for it, too..."

>> Related from Lowry: "Also, ABC has scheduled 'Something’s Coming: West Side Story – A Special Edition of 20/20' for Sunday night, featuring an interview with the late Stephen Sondheim. Added synergistic bonus: The new version of 'West Side Story' is being released by 20th Century Studios, which like ABC is a unit of Disney..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

-- "Paramount Plus has unveiled an official trailer for the 'Yellowstone' prequel series '1883,'" Katie Song writes... (Variety)

-- "Fox is snapping another season of 'Lego Masters' into place," Rick Porter writes... (THR)

-- "Netflix will premiere 'Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story,' a three-episode documentary about private zoo operator Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle, on December 10," Denise Petski writes... (Deadline)

-- "George Clooney was offered $35 million for a single day of work in an airline commercial, but he turned it down because of the airline’s association with a particular country," Adam Chitwood writes... (TheWrap)

Another "Parasite" breakthrough?

Brian Lowry writes: "The New York Film Critics Circle has named the Japanese film 'Drive My Car' best picture, triggering chatter about whether there could be another 'Parasite'-type breakthrough at the Oscars in 2022. The awards also produced amusingly contrasting takes from EW – which seized on actor winners Lady Gaga and Benedict Cumberbatch to proclaim those honors 'shake up the Oscar race' – and the awards website Goldderby, which more accurately cautioned, 'Don’t count on these when making your Oscar predictions...'"

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- Gavin Bridge conducted an analysis of broadcast TV and found "a viewership landscape that’s radically different today than the one in 2015, with all time slots seeing significant declines in total broadcast TV primetime viewing..." (Variety)

-- Missed this earlier: "AMC has officially ordered a series based on the Anne Rice 'Lives of the Mayfair Witches' novels." It's the second project in what may be an expanding Rice-inspired universe... (Variety)

-- David Clinch has joined Mather Economics as global head of partnerships... (Twitter)

In this week’s TV OT column...

Brian Lowry writes: "Sandra Gonzalez provides some options for joyful viewing heading into the holidays, and takes a look at 'Succession' in advance of this season’s penultimate episode, which I consider its best of this flight. Separately, give a chutzpah award to Netflix for 'Voir,' a collection of visual essays that celebrates going to the movies, on a streaming service whose business model is built around providing people reason to stay home. Read the column here..."

You are receiving this message because you subscribed to CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter.

Subscribe to Reliable Sources

Our mailing address is:
Cable News Network, Inc.
Attention: Privacy Policy Coordinator
One CNN Center, 13 North
Atlanta, GA 30303

unsubscribe from this list