Oliver Darcy here at 10:20pm ET on Monday, January 24, with the latest on Peter Doocy, Abigail Disney, Jake Tapper, Amy Schneider, and more...
BriWi turns down "Evening News"
Brian Williams doesn't want to anchor the "Evening News."
Just years ago, in 2015, the notion that Williams would be rebuffing an offer to helm one of the big three nightly news programs would have been unfathomable. His reputation was in ruins for embellishing his stories as a journalist. He was booted from "NBC Nightly News" and accepted what was then a significant demotion to MSNBC.
But the tide has since turned.
Williams, who hosted the popular "11th Hour" program on MSNBC during the Trump-era, has largely rehabilitated his image. Now, he is in demand. And after departing NBC when his contract expired late last year, he's a free agent for the first time in decades. That free agent status has translated into Williams fielding proposals.
One such proposal floated to him, according to three people familiar with the matter, was to anchor the "CBS Evening News." According to the sources I spoke with, CBS News president and co-head Neeraj Khemlani recently tried to recruit Williams for the network's flagship evening news program. Two of the sources I spoke with said that Khemlani, who assumed his role less than a year ago and has been working to poach talent, tried at least twice. But it was to no avail.
Williams, the people I spoke to said, simply isn't interested in the evening news job -- which says a lot about not only Williams' turn-of-fortune, but also the diminishing allure of anchoring a nightly broadcast news program, once considered to be one of the most prestigious positions in journalism.
What about O'Donnell?
The revelation that CBS execs attempted to recruit Williams for the "Evening News" doesn't look all too great for Norah O'Donnell, who has anchored the show since 2019 and been unable to move the program out of its third-place position.
Publicly, the network has supported O'Donnell. When the New York Post reported in October that she was in danger of losing her anchor spot, Khemlani went on the record to the tabloid and praised O'Donnell. And on Monday, when asked about whether she will stay in the anchor chair, Khemlani lauded her ratings and said that CBS has "no current plans to change" what it is doing.
But all of this begs the question: If CBS is so happy with O'Donnell, whose current contract is said to be up soon, why have they shopped her job to others?
What CBS is saying
A CBS News exec told me, in reponse to my reporting about Khemlani attempting to recruit Williams, "With all of our recent hires, Bob Costa joining, and today’s streaming launch, it’s no surprise people are wondering who’s coming to CBS News next. But Brian Williams is not going to be doing the Evening News. End of Story." A rep for Williams didn't provide a comment...
Speaking of CBS' streaming launch...
CBS revamps streaming service
"CBS News is overhauling its streaming news channel with a new name and a slate of programs presented by its big-name anchors that taps into the division’s legacy," LAT's Stephen Battaglio wrote Monday. "The ViacomCBS unit is announcing today that the free ad-supported channel, known as CBSN since its launch in 2014, will become CBS News Streaming. It will integrate the division’s broadcast franchises into the channel — a shift in strategy, as it previously relied heavily on a cadre of lesser-known anchors."
Two of those anchors are O'Donnell and Gayle King. "Khemlani would not comment on the contract status of King and O’Donnell, whose deals are up this year," wrote Battaglio, who interviewed Khemlani for his story. "Their futures have been the subject of TV news industry speculation. Including them in an announcement for two high-profile shows suggests they likely will remain at the network."
"I will tell you that Gayle and Norah and Tony Dokoupil and anchors and reporters across the board are showing enormous leadership in terms of contribution to the service, and they are the pace cars for the entire division," Khemlani told Battaglio. "We’re thrilled we can tap into people of that caliber and not have separate teams across the board..."
>> THR's Alex Weprin adds: "CBS also announced an expansion of its streaming local news offerings, with CBS News Miami launching Monday, and CBS News Detroit to launch by the end of 2022..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- "A Mexican reporter who told the president three years ago that she feared for her life was shot dead on Sunday, the second journalist killed in the same area in a week and underscoring the country's status as one of the deadliest for journalists outside a war zone," Lizbeth Diaz reports... (Reuters)
-- Tom Phillips' headline: "Third Mexican journalist killed this year as press corps faces murder crisis." Phillips reports "the trio of murders have stunned Mexico’s beleaguered press corps..." (Guardian)
-- Moving to another continent: "With the Beijing Games just two weeks away, media rights groups are calling attention to China’s record of jailing journalists," Charlotte Hampton reports... (VOA)
-- Joshua Benton's latest: "Do countries with better-funded public media also have healthier democracies? Of course they do..." (NiemanLab)
Biden calls Fox reporter a SOB
I'll hand it over to Brian Stelter for thoughts on this one...
First, let's stipulate that this is not the most important thing that happened at the White House on Monday. Far from it. Second, let's recognize that the Twitter-type excitement over Biden's profane comment about Fox's Peter Doocy is a reflection of the fact that people feel like they rarely hear 'real' and 'unscripted' remarks from politicians. And third, let's acknowledge that Fox is milking this exchange for all its worth.
Now, all that said, I think Biden was wrong to call Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch" after the Fox reporter asked about inflation. And I think the press is right to hold presidents, all presidents, to high standards. That's why I thought it was wrong when Donald Trump slung the same phrase at Chuck Todd. Context certainly matters, and the backdrop to Biden's sarcasm -- after Doocy shouted "do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?" -- is very different than the destroy-the-media context of Trump's behavior. But it was still out of line. By 9pm ET, CNN's Kaitlan Collins reported, Biden had called Doocy to apologize. Doocy told Sean Hannity that Biden told him "it's nothing personal pal" and that they talked about moving forward.
Now, here are a couple of voices who disagree with my assessment:
-- Charlotte Clymer: "Biden was speaking candidly about a clown question from a propaganda outlet that works day and night to attack marginalized people. Fox News is the propaganda wing of the Republican Party, and it’s absurd that anyone pretends otherwise."
-- Tommy Vietor: "Look...before we go down an endless cycle of pearl clutching and calls for civility, can we just be honest that everyone wins here? Biden gets to vent. Democrats get to laugh. Doocy gets endless amounts of air time playing the victim. No one apologize. Just laugh and move on."
And by now, we've given this story more space than it deserves in the newsletter. Back to you, Oliver...
Watters debuts his new show
Jesse Watters permanently took over Fox's 7pm time slot on Monday. The debut episode of the show, which occupies the time slot that was once filled by Martha MacCallum's conservative newscast, was everything you'd expect from Watters. It featured a man-on-the-street package and the show welcomed viewers to text in feedback, a play on how Watters' mom texts him during shows. The program mixed jokes with right-wing and anti-media commentary. (Brian and I even made a debut on the first episode!) And Watters' first guest was Tucker Carlson who — naturally — told him to tune out the critics. "Ignore the noise," Carlson advised...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- The right-wing site The Federalist has named pro-Trump propagandist Mollie Hemingway as its editor-in-chief... (Federalist)
-- Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski says his office is "getting calls from folks who say they watch Tucker Carlson and are upset that we're not siding with Russia in its threats to invade Ukraine, and who want me to support Russia's 'reasonable' positions..." (Twitter)
-- Left-wing PAC Meidas Touch "ran an ad during last week’s 'Fox News Sunday' highlighting Sen. Ted Cruz’s past statements calling the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol an 'act of terrorism,'" Alex Griffing reports... (Mediaite)
-- Timothy Bella writes about how Joe Rogan and Fox hosts have thrust Robert Malone's discredited vaccine claims "into the limelight at a crucial time of the pandemic, when unvaccinated patients continue to fill ICU wards..." (WaPo)
Palin tests positive for Covid, delaying NYT trial
Jury selection for the trial in Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against NYT was supposed to begin on Monday. But in the morning U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said that Palin had tested positive for Covid and that, as a result, the trial will be delayed 10 days to February 3. "She is, of course, unvaccinated," Rakoff said.
Palin appeared remotely on Fox Monday night where she confirmed that she had tested positive. "Yes, I have Covid, evidently -- as of this morning, it being confirmed," Palin told Jesse Watters. "And yeah. It is what it is." Palin said she feels "totally fine." She told Watters she couldn't "talk about the case" against NYT, on account of her lawyers...
TUESDAY PLANNER
Justice Sonia Sotomayor is booked on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" timed to the release of her new children's book. Will she comment on the SCOTUS mask dustup?
Verizon reports earnings before the bell; Microsoft reports after the close...
The CNN Films and HBO Max documentary "Navalny" will have its world premiere at Sundance...
Bongino says he's leaving YouTube
Right-wing rage artist Dan Bongino announced on his show Monday that he will stop posting videos to YouTube after the platform temporarily suspended him last week for violating its Covid misinfo policy. "This will be the last [video I post] so I give YouTube the double-barreled middle finger," Bongino said. Throughout his rant, Bongino, who is an investor in Rumble, the video sharing platform favored by conservatives, asserted that YouTube is "full of liberal slobs who would like nothing more than to see censorship enacted." Bongino previously vowed to leave Twitter, but his account still does post and retweet content, mostly directing his followers to his site or Rumble...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Justin Scheck, Tom McGinty, and Newley Purnell have a big story on Facebook's free internet promises: "Internal company documents show that many of these people end up being charged in amounts that collectively add up to an estimated millions of dollars a month..." (WSJ)
-- Meta "said on Monday that its research team has built a new artificial intelligence supercomputer that it thinks will be the fastest in the world," Elizabeth Culliford reports... (Reuters)
-- Good news for Wordle fans: Twitter "has banned @wordlinator, a bot that replied to people's Wordle posts with rude messages that include spoilers for the next day’s game," Mitchell Clark reports... (The Verge)
Three headlines about NBC and the Winter Games
-- "Several Olympics sponsors are skipping what is usually an Olympics-themed advertising blitz," the WSJ reports. Companies like Visa and P&G are "caught between" Beijing and the US...
-- "NBCUniversal is slashing its TV ratings expectations for the Winter Olympics by as much as half," Insider's Claire Atkinson reported, citing marketing sources...
-- NBC is teaming up with TikTok for the games, forming a partnership "to promote the network’s coverage," TechCrunch's Amanda Silberling reported Monday. NBC told Silberling "that its advertising partners will be the first brands to pilot a new, creative ad experience on TikTok." More here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Jake Tapper will host a weekly show on CNN+ called "Jake Tapper's Book Club..." (AdWeek)
-- Alesha William Boyd has been named editor-in-chief of Mashable and Wendy Sheehan Donnell has been promoted to editor-in-chief of PC Mag... (BusinessWire)
-- Slate's editorial staff "has unanimously ratified its second collective bargaining agreement with the WGA East," David Robb reports... (Deadline)
"I couldn't stay silent"
Abigail Disney's documentary on income inequality premiered (digitally) at Sundance Monday night. The film highlights pay disparities between low-level Disney workers and corporate execs. Abigail Disney spoke on Monday to CNN's Kate Bolduan ahead of the premiere, telling her that she has been "tortured" since she was young that she was so lucky while others are not. "I couldn't stay silent," she explained. CNN's David Goldman has an overview of the documentary here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Hannah Karp and Robert Levine report on how Bob Dylan has sold his master recordings to Sony Music's Columbia Records... (Billboard)
-- Ben Sisario writes about how "Encanto" is No. 1 on Billboard's chart... (NYT)
-- Taylor Swift slams Damon Albarn for claiming she doesn't really write her own songs. "I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging..." (Vulture)
-- Paramount Network will remain Paramount Network "as the cabler nixes plans to rebrand as the Paramount Movie Network," Ethan Shanfeld reports... (Variety)
-- The Podcast Academy "is moving forward with an in-person show for its second annual Awards for Excellence in Audio (aka The Ambies) on March 22," Kimberly Nordyke reports... (THR)
"Secrets of Playboy" pulls back the curtain on Hefner’s empire
Brian Lowry writes: "A bit ungainly at 10 parts, A&E’s 'Secrets of Playboy' explores the dark side of the publishing/entertainment enterprise that Hugh Hefner built, and specifically, the extraordinary lengths taken to protect Hefner, the brand and his celebrity friends. That includes allegations that Hefner himself was 'manipulative' and abusive, capitalizing on the unequal power dynamic with the young women who passed through his orbit. Here's my full review..."
Schneider makes more "Jeopardy!" History
Amy Schneider continues to make "Jeopardy!" history. On Monday night, Schneider won her 39th game, making her streak the second longest in the show's history, only behind Ken Jennings. Vulture's Devon Ivie has more here. Schneider talked about her winning strategy on "GMA" Monday morning...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Matt Grobar reports that Chris Evans "is set to star opposite Dwayne Johnson in an upcoming holiday event film from Amazon Studios..." (Deadline)
-- Chris Willman reports that "on Jan. 21, the day most of the public learned of Meat Loaf’s death the day before, his on-demand streaming rose 4,650%..." (Variety)
-- Katie Kilkenny goes "inside the long journey to get 'The Gilded Age' to the screen..." (THR)
-- Adam Chitwood reports on how the cast of "Murder Mystery 2" is coming into focus... (The Wrap)
Scaring up more laughs
Brian Lowry writes: "CBS has taken the not-surprising step of giving an early season-2 renewal to 'Ghosts,' the season’s top-rated new comedy, along with the Monday sitcoms 'The Neighborhood' and 'Bob Loves Abishola.' Throw in 'Young Sheldon,' in the midst of a three-season renewal, and the network has a comedy foundation in place for the 2022-23 campaign..."
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day!
Reader Steve Sussmann emails: "This is my cat, Domino. I swear I did not pose her this way, she just has a knack for looking demure!"
Thank you for reading! Email your feedback anytime. I'll see you here tomorrow...
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