TGIF! Brian Stelter here at 10:33pm ET on Thursday, January 13 with the latest on NBCU, TikTok, Jessica Lessin, "Baby Shark," Maren Morris, the NFL, and more...
Biden's first year in review
In the coming days the minute-by-minute stories about President Biden's victories, defeats and struggles will be joined by sweeping reviews of the president's first year in office. The Fox crowd says he's already a failure. Some in the progressive wing are almost as critical. More sober or at least less partisan minds, like history professor Julian Zelizer, say Biden's current challenges are very real, but "they shouldn't be seen as a clear indication of where his presidency is headed." In this CNN Opinion column, Zelizer notes that "we have seen many presidents recover from a difficult start."
For the purposes of this newsletter, I want to zoom in on Biden's relationship with the press corps, which is the topic of this new Committee to Protect Journalists special report by Leonard Downie Jr.
Downie previously evaluated Donald Trump's damaging attacks against the media. Obviously, Biden's rhetoric "is a stark contrast" to Trump's viciousness, he wrote. "However, one year into the Biden administration, press freedom advocates remain concerned about issues like the president's limited availability to journalists, the administration's slow responses to requests for information, its planned extradition of Julian Assange, restrictions on media access at the U.S. southern border, and its limited assistance to Afghan journalists."
Downie spoke with 30+ journalists, academics, advocates, and White House officials. His report is a well-rounded look at the push and pull between the presidency and the press corps. It concludes with some recommendations from CPJ...
Biden's #1 topic: Covid
Ahead of Biden's one-year anniversary in office, CNN's Sam Fossum and Betsy Klein compiled records of his public remarks. Since inauguration day, Biden has made remarks at least 263 times, not counting interviews. "Biden has most frequently spoken about the coronavirus pandemic (56 times), followed by his domestic agenda (48 times), and the economy more broadly (31 times)," they found. "The President has made remarks on foreign policy 26 times and spoken 15 times on various natural disasters. Other topics of note include political speeches (10), gun violence (5), and voting rights and democracy (4)."
What the press corps wants
More access, of course. As this recent AP story demonstrates, Biden holds fewer press conferences and grants fewer interviews than his recent predecessors. He holds informal Q&A sessions more often, but in the words of White House Correspondents Association president Steven Portnoy, "the historical record of a presidency requires more than fleeting Q&A."
"The free people of the world benefit when the American president demonstrates his willingness to stand for questions," Portnoy told VOA. "We believe more formal opportunities to engage the president on a broad range of public concerns would be in the public interest."
>> Patsy Widakuswara's story for VOA is titled "Under Biden, Press Given Respect but Not Access..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- NBC's Kelly O'Donnell: "The president declined to take questions today and continued his COVID briefing off camera. As we left I said, 'Maybe a press conference soon Mr. President? We would look forward to that.' And the president responded, 'Me too.'" Believe it when you see it... (Twitter)
-- Zachary B. Wolf says "two bits of breaking news Thursday made it painfully clear to President Joe Biden how limited his power actually is..." (CNN)
-- NYT chief WH correspondent Peter Baker writes: "Hasn't been a good season for Biden’s powers of persuasion. He couldn’t convince the Senate to pass Build Back Better or voting rights, the Supreme Court to sign off on his vaccine plan or the Russians to back off Ukraine. What will be Plan B?" (Twitter)
-- VP Kamala Harris's response to Craig Melvin's Qs about the admin's response to the pandemic "quickly became a meme" on Thursday, "with comparisons to scenes from TV shows like The Office and Veep..." (Politico)
-- Mike Memoli has struck a deal with Twelve Books to write "The Long Run," a book about Biden, to be published after the 2024 election... (Axios)
Three lives well lived
-- Terry Teachout, the WSJ's drama critic and cultural columnist and a monthly contributor to Commentary, died Thursday. He was 65. Both publications are mourning the loss of an artistic giant. Journal editor Matt Murray called him "a great writer and an infectious and informed enthusiast of the arts, whose work was filled with joy over the process of creating..."
-- John Adams, "a Baptist minister turned journalism innovator known for his wry wit and ability to connect with people, has died." He was 46. Adams oversaw The Arizona Republic's social media, visuals, podcasting and "other efforts to connect the community with the news..."
-- Mike Cochran, "who covered Texas for The Associated Press for nearly 40 years and at one point ended up serving as a pallbearer for the presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald while reporting on his funeral, died on Tuesday." He was 85. Read his incredible life story here...
Today in Covid
-- The Supreme Court's ruling against Biden's business vaccine mandate was the lead story across the network evening newscasts...
-- Joy Reid's reaction on MSNBC: The "six right-wingers" on the court "should all have right-wing talk radio shows. They are not justices in the great tradition of Supreme Court justices. They're just politicians..."
-- One of Fox's main narratives this week: "Mainstream media resorts to shaming, insulting unvaccinated Americans as COVID surges." Examples include a WaPo opinion piece...
-- Before the ruling on Thursday, Biden made what he called a "special appeal to social media companies & media outlets" to deal with Covid disinfo. "It has to stop," he said...
-- Glenn Beck, who has been battling Covid, says it has started to "go into my lungs." He told Mark Levin it's "a little disturbing..." (Insider)
-- On a more positive note, data is backing up what those of us in NYC are seeing with our own eyes: "In a handful of places that were among the first to see a surge of the Omicron variant last month, reports of new coronavirus infections have started to level off or decline..."
-- Brian Lowry notes: "Three award events moved to March today: Producers Guild, Critics Choice and AFI. It looks pretty clear that the desire to stick with in-person events means hoping these postponements can wait out Omicron..."
-- The Guardian presents the best headline of the day: "Face masks make people look more attractive, study finds."
FRIDAY PLANNER
Biden will speak about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law at 12:30pm...
"Scream" the "requel" opens in theaters...
"Ray Donovan: The Movie" tries to clean up loose ends, two years after its last episode on Showtime...
One of Bob Saget's final interviews
CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook, "a good friend" of Saget, taped an interview with the comedian back in December. "He reflected on making people laugh when he was just 4 years old," the network says. The interview will air on Friday's "CBS Mornings..."
Donations are pouring in
Lisa Respers France reports: "Donations are pouring in for Saget's favorite charity, for which he served on their board for more than 20 years. One of his fellow board members has offered a $1.5 million grant to match any donations made in honor of the star. Saget became a staunch advocate for the Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF) following the death of his sister from the rare autoimmune disease..."
>> Related: Marianne Garvey interviewed Saget's close friend Jeff Ross. "He was this global superstar, TV star, but he passed away, alone in a hotel room, on the road, like a true comic," Ross said. "I think that in a odd way that is sort of poetic and perfect. Even though way too soon, it's kind of how I would want to go..."
Happy birthday, "Today"
The Empire State Building is glowing orange tonight for the "Today" show's 70th anniversary celebration:
For Friday's special broadcast, "we've got some surprises, we've got some games, we've got some emotional moments," exec producer Tom Mazzarelli told TVNewser.
>> Regarding the question I raised yesterday about whether Matt Lauer would appear in the show's flashback segments, Mazzarelli said "we're going to look back at our history, and he's a part of our history." So in other words, yes...
THREE GREAT READS
-- Climate change activist Genevieve Guenther talks to The Revelator about how the press is covering the issue... (The Revelator)
-- Forbes' ranking of the highest-earning TikTok stars of 2021 is continuing to garner a lot of attention. On Thursday, the WSJ pointed out that some viral video makers "are making more than America’s top chief executives..." (WSJ)
-- A must-read by Brooks Barnes about the playful song from "Encanto" that has topped the music charts: "Here's how Disney created its biggest smash since 'Let It Go...'" (NYT)
The news media can't quit "officer-involved shootings"
An Phung emails: "The public response to George Floyd’s murder prompted many newsrooms to re-evaluate and then ditch the use of the words 'officer-involved shooting.' But this data-driven collaboration between HuffPost and the Garrison Project provided a 'disheartening' update around that language: While usage of the phrase declined in 2020, it started to rise again in 2021. 'This represents a return to the rates of the mid-2000s, after usage of officer-involved had begun to significantly increase,' they reported. More here..."
Jessica Lessin on this week's "Reliable" pod
Last week The Information founder Jessica Lessin wrote a column titled "why influencer journalists should not be the future of journalism." So: What are "influencer journalists?" What should we make of the current crop of news site startups? Which ones are most likely to survive and thrive? We talked about all of that on this week's "Reliable" podcast. Lessin shared the news that The Information, which is profitable in large part thanks to its annual subscription price, saw 45% revenue growth last year. Tune in via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your preferred app...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Anita Zielina, building on Justin Smith and Ben Smith's plans for a new media company, explored this question in a new NiemanLab piece: "What would a truly global media company look like?" (NiemanLab)
-- Very disappointing news: Paramount Plus has pulled the plug on "60 Minutes Plus," a streaming spin-off of the newsmag. Brian Steinberg reports that "the company expects to work with employees to find other jobs within ViacomCBS..." (Variety)
-- A remarkable project by WaPo: The paper "compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents..." (WaPo)
-- CNN's Max Foster on the day's Royal Family news out of the UK: "If you think of it as a family firm, what they’ve effectively done is sack Prince Andrew." (CNN)
1/6 deniers dealt another brutal blow
Oliver Darcy writes: "A key talking point among 1/6 deniers and right-wing media personalities has gone as follows: 'If it were really an insurrection, why has no one been charged for such a crime?' Fox's Brit Hume, for instance, tweeted Thursday morning, "Here's a thought. Let's base our view on whether 1/6 was an 'insurrection' on whether those arrested are charged with insurrection. So far, none has been." Well, that talking point will no longer work. The DOJ announced Thursday afternoon that it had charged 11 people, including the leader of the Oath Keepers, with seditious conspiracy charges. This was, as Marshall Cohen wrote for CNN, 'a watershed moment in the year-long investigation...'"
Big Tech subpoenaed
Darcy writes: "The 1/6 committee is 'demanding records from Alphabet, Meta, Reddit, and Twitter relating to the spread of misinformation, efforts to overturn the 2020 election, domestic violent extremism, and foreign influence,' it said Thursday. Bennie Thompson said that he found it 'disappointing' that after 'months of engagement,' answers to the committee's 'basic questions' have not been provided. CNN's team has details here..."
>> Donie O'Sullivan's question: "Days after January 6, Sheryl Sandberg sought to play down the role Facebook was used in organIzing the riot. Will these comments line up with what the committee finds through subpoena?"
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Madeline Peltz writes about how Jason Miller is "on a tour of far-right fever swamps" as he promotes his social media app GETTR... (MMFA)
-- Speaking of Miller: Tom McKay asked him about Joe Rogan trashing GETTR. Miller said that the company has "been in contact" with Rogan's team and hopes to have "addressed any concerns he may have..." (Gizmodo)
-- Philip Bump excoriated Sean Hannity for his "deeply embarrassing" interview with Paul Manafort... (WaPo)
RNC v. debate commission
On Thursday the NYT's Maggie Haberman broke the news about a looming RNC rule change that would undermine the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized general election debates for decades. Donald Trump, of course, was furious with the commission in 2020, and so were some of his fans.
Ultimately, as Rory Cooper and Mo Elleithee pointed out on Twitter, the Republican nominee in 2024 will decide whether to debate, regardless of any rule or pledge, but this is still a telling sign of the right's complete and utter rejection of institutions, even those co-chaired by Republicans...
>> Chris Cillizza's analysis: "This move by the RNC is rightly read as the latest example of Trump's successful erosion of any sense that nonpartisan entities can (and do) exist. For him, everyone is either for him or against him -- and he's decided the Commission on Presidential Debates is against him..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Nigeria has lifted its ban on Twitter after a six-month suspension... (CNN)
-- Erik Wemple writes about Ruth Shalit Barrett's lawsuit against The Atlantic, which also criticizes his coverage of her story: "It appears that Barrett wants the public to know more about the story’s collapse..." (WaPo)
-- Annie Karni has a new beat. NYT says she will be joining its Capitol Hill team after spending the previous three years on the WH beat... (NYT)
TEN. BILLION. VIEWS.
Yours truly, also known as "Daddy Shark," would like a little bit of credit for helping Pinkfong reach this milestone. "'Baby Shark,' the inescapable earworm beloved by some children and often feared by their parents, has hit a new milestone -- 10 billion views on YouTube," CNN's Scottie Andrew wrote Thursday. "Not only is it the most-viewed video on the platform, a record it set in November 2020, but it's now the only video on the site to reach 10 billion views, YouTube confirmed to CNN..."
NFL ratings are up ⬆
Frank Pallotta writes: "The NFL bounced back to ratings dominance following a 2020 season that was disrupted by the pandemic — showing once again that pro football is still the biggest audience draw on TV. The league's viewership for the 2021 regular season was up roughly 10% overall from the year prior, bringing in an average of 17.1 million viewers per game on TV and digital. That is the highest regular season average since 2015, according to the league." Nielsen's addition of out-of-home viewing #'s helped. So did 2021's advantages over 2020, like an additional week of games and the lack of a national election. Read on...
>> Here's the eye-popping stat: "During the regular season, NFL games accounted for 48 of the top 50 and 91 of the top 100 most watched telecasts..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- "NBCUniversal, the media company most critical of the audience measurement data it receives from Nielsen, is testing an alternative service," iSpot.tv, "to track viewing of the Olympics and the Super Bowl" next month, Stephen Battaglio reports. Some ad clients are also participating in the test... (LAT)
-- ViacomCBS and Comcast have struck a "multiyear carriage deal," Georg Szalai reports... (THR)
-- "Discovery+ is bolstering its reality offering," Peter White reports. "The factual giant’s streaming platform has struck a licensing deal with NBCUniversal Global Distribution that will see it add a raft of non-scripted library titles to its service..." (Deadline)
Lowry reviews "After Life"
Brian Lowry writes: "Ricky Gervais has usually done two seasons of most of his series, which makes 'After Life,' whose third and final arc premieres Friday on Netflix, a bit of an outlier. Distinguished by its premise about Gervais' character dealing with crippling grief after the loss of his wife, the season provides some closure but reinforces that the show had reached its expiration date." Read the rest here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- "The man pictured as the naked baby on Nirvana's 'Nevermind' album cover has revived his 'child pornography' lawsuit against the band after it was dismissed by a federal judge in California last week," Nancy Dillon reports... (Rolling Stone)
-- "HBO Max is developing a series about one of the first Black millionaires in history with both Steven Soderbergh and Don Cheadle onboard as executive producers," Joe Otterson reports... (Variety)
-- Pete Davidson is set to star "in the new Miramax horror thriller 'The Home' with 'The Purge' helmer James DeMonaco directing the pic," Dominic Patten and Justin Kroll write... (Deadline)
-- "'White Lotus' breakout Murray Bartlett has signed onto a new limited series," James Hibberd writes. "The Australian actor and SAG Awards nominee has joined the ensemble cast of Hulu’s 'Immigrant...'" (THR)
Nashville's future
Joe Coscarelli's newest story for the NYT is about this: "Maren Morris seems to have realized in real time that the most rebellious way to be a young female country singer was to insist on staying a country singer." Despite "proven Top 40 chops," she has "still chosen to call Nashville home on her third album, 'Humble Quest,' due out in March." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN
-- Lisa Respers France writes: "Kanye West, Billie Eilish and Harry Styles will be headlining Coachella this year -- if it happens..."
-- One more from Lisa: Kylie Jenner has become the first woman to hit 300 million followers on Instagram...
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day!
Reader Ron Eisenberg emails: "That’s Homer our cat reading over Hamood, our Guinea Pig’s shoulder. They never miss reading CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter..."
Thank you for reading! Email your feedback and pet photos anytime. Oliver will be compiling a TGIF edition tomorrow...
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