| Hope you had a great weekend! Brian Stelter here at 8:45pm ET with the latest on "60 Minutes," Vox, Vice, John Boehner, "Godzilla vs. Kong," the BAFTA Awards, and more...
War on truth still rages
My Sunday morning lead on TV was inspired by the recent work of two CNN colleagues, Donie O'Sullivan and Clare Foran. I talked about the Trump-era "war on truth" and how it's still being waged, each and every day, even though it might be less visible now. The conspiracy thinking, the demonizing, the gaslighting... It's all still happening. So let me hand it over to Donie:
Donie O'Sullivan writes: "A Trump supporter named Kinnet Ehring McSweeney asked me a question this weekend at a gathering of the former president's supporters at his golf club in Doral, Florida. 'What is so terrible about conspiracy theories anyway?' I responded that the baseless theories were being used to undermine the integrity of America's elections – and had helped inspire a violent insurrection just three months ago. She disagreed – in her mind, she said, the election was stolen and the 1/6 riot was mostly peaceful. Besides, she said, she wasn't convinced Trump supporters were actually responsible for the violence that did happen in DC. It was a conspiracy theory on top of a conspiracy theory."
Polls continue to show that such views, however farcical, are not "fringe." They are widely held. And Donie witnessed this firsthand at Doral: "At the event," he said, "multiple speakers and attendees sought to re-write the history of 1/6 and continued to embrace the lie that the election was stolen. And then, an hour north of Doral, Trump repeated many of the same lies about the election when Republican donors visited Mar-a-Lago Saturday night. According to Politico, some donors privately panned Trump's speech... But the key word was "privately..."
"An existential threat"
CNNPolitics reporter Clare Foran is out with an excellent story featuring the very small number of Republican lawmakers who are speaking out against conspiracy thinking. In the story, freshman GOP Rep. Peter Meijer makes a critical point – QAnon-style politics could doom the party.
"The fact that a significant plurality, if not potentially a majority, of our voters have been deceived into this creation of an alternate reality could very well be an existential threat to the party," Meijer said. This is so much bigger than just Q: "When we say QAnon, you have the sort of extreme forms, but you also just have this softer, gradual undermining of any shared, collective sense of truth," Meijer said. He believes conspiracy theories fuel "incredibly unrealistic and unachievable expectations" and "a cycle of disillusionment and alienation."
Seen in this light, Tucker Carlson's conspiratorial commentaries -- my lead story in last Friday's newsletter -- are dangerous to the GOP as well as society writ large. Read Foran's full story here...
"Can you?"
Richard Deitsch, a reporter with The Athletic, shared a clip of Donie's interviews from Doral and asked a question I think many Americans are asking, "Say this is your aunt, uncle, mother, grandpa, nana — how do you combat this level of false belief and cultism? Can you?"  ADL is still waiting for Fox's response
Fox News has yet to publicly respond to the Anti-Defamation League's letter calling for Tucker Carlson's ouster. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt joined me on Sunday's "Reliable" and denounced Carlson for taking white supremacist talking points and using a "primetime platform to mainstream them for millions of Americans." He asked, "Where are the Murdochs? Where is the rest of the board at Fox? Again, where are the shareholders, the institutional investors?" He also said Fox's "entire primetime lineup" needs to be scrutinized. Alexis Benveniste has a recap here...
>> Carlson is preying on his largely white audience's fears of being "replaced" in an increasingly multicultural America. And yet, as I discussed with Philip Bump, Carlson's boss Rupert Murdoch is the ultimate immigrant success story...
>> On "Reliable," Amanda Carpenter pointed out how the "white replacement conspiracy theory fuses with the big election lie" and says "it is really the same idea..."
The first shots of the Civil War, 160 years later
"At around 4:30 in the morning 160 years ago [Monday] a treasonous South Carolina militia attacked the U.S. government at Fort Sumter, near Charleston, SC, and the U.S. Civil War began," Jake Tapper said on Sunday's "SOTU." He pointed out that "in some parts of the country, and in the hearts and minds of too many of our fellow Americans, the war continues to rage." Portions of his commentary were aimed at the likes of Carlson, though he didn't mention Carlson, nor did he need to. Watch... FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- Some news from Australia, another Murdoch stronghold: "Paperwork filed with at least one government agency" suggests that Fox Corp could be preparing to make the American feed of Fox News more widely available there... (SMH)
-- Jim Acosta on Trump's Saturday night rantings at Mar a Lago: "Every day is kind of a grievance groundhog day. It seems he gets up every day, gripes about the election, and wakes up the next day still a loser..." (Mediaite)
-- Joan Donovan joined Michael Smerconish to talk about "networked conspiracies" like QAnon... (CNN)
-- "Hatemonger" author Jean Guerrero is out with an op-ed about "the media's whitewashing of Stephen Miller's white nationalism..." (LA Times)
-- "Democrats and Republicans no longer speak the same language, and "at this point, each team could use its own dictionary," Michelle Cottle writes... (NYT) BREAKING
Vox is buying Preet Bharara's podcast company
On Sunday night "Vox Media said it is acquiring Cafe Studios Inc., publisher of a popular podcast hosted by former Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, part of a bid to expand its growing audio business," the WSJ's Ben Mullin scooped. "Bharara will join Vox Media as a host, co-founder and creative director of Cafe, which will continue to exist as a brand."
>> Another bit of news in Mullin's story: Vox Media "was one of the companies recently approached by a SPAC connected to Group Nine," but Vox "is unlikely to do a deal with that firm..." Media week ahead calendar
Monday: "The Talk" resumes on CBS with a talk about "race and healing..."
Monday: Ana Cabrera begins anchoring CNN's 1pm ET hour...
Monday: Lawrence Jones is this week's host of Fox's 7pm hour...
Tuesday: "American Insurrection," a deep dive into the extremist groups behind the Capitol Riot, airs on PBS' "Frontline..."
Friday: "Biden will hold a press conference with Japanese PM Suga on Friday — the first foreign leader visit of his administration," per Kevin Liptak...
Saturday: Prince Philip will be laid to rest...
Next Sunday: Kate Winslet returns to HBO in the limited series "Mare of Easttown..." Five big new nonfiction books
All landing on Tuesday:
-- John Boehner's "On the House" is the No. 1 bestselling book on Amazon right now, fueled by early excerpts and a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview. Boehner's first print interview is with USA Today's Susan Page. Boehner will also be on Monday's "NBC Nightly News," Tuesday's "Morning Joe," and Tuesday's "The Lead with Jake Tapper..."
-- Two other books were featured on "CBS Sunday Morning:" Karen Tumulty's "The Triumph of Nancy Reagan" and Patrick Radden Keefe's "Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty." Here's an excerpt from Tumulty's book...
-- Keefe's work about the Sackler family and the opioid crisis is full of bombshells. NYT reviewer Jennifer Szalai says "his portrait of the family is all the more damning for its stark lucidity..."
-- Also rising up the Amazon chart this weekend: Admiral William H. McRaven's "The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived..."
-- And the book I'm personally most excited to read this week: my friend Lisa Napoli's "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR." VF has the first excerpt... FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- Jon Stewart will be among the speakers at a bipartisan Capitol Hill presser in support of the Presumptive Benefits for War Fighters Exposed to Burn Pits and Other Toxins Act. Later in the day, NBC will air Lester Holt's exclusive interview with Stewart... (Senate)
-- Ben Smith's Monday NYT column is about Substack's impact on the media industry, with word of a number of new writers moving to the platform: "The former Yahoo News WH correspondent Hunter Walker, the legal writer David Lat and the columnist Heather Havrilesky." Plus: NYT opinion writer Charlie Warzel... (NYT)
-- Another piece of news from his column: Bustle Digital Group confirmed "that it's reviving the legendary blog Gawker under a former Gawker writer, Leah Finnegan..."
-- "For Black journalists, working Chauvin trial drains emotions," David Bauder reports. His lead: "At the end of a stressful day, Sara Sidner seeks the friendly wag of a dog's tail. Shaquille Brewster turns to sports on TV, and Julia Jenae talks things out with colleagues." Read on... (AP) Vice apologizes for altered Cambodian genocide photos
Oliver Darcy writes: "Vice on Sunday apologized for an article that featured manipulated images of victims of the Cambodian genocide. On Friday, the outlet published an interview with artist Matt Loughrey who had retouched photos of victims from a notorious prison. But observers pointed out that some of the photos of the victims had been additionally altered to add smiles to their faces. That manipulation prompted Cambodia's Ministry of Culture to demand Vice remove the images. Eventually the article was taken down. Vice said in a statement, 'The story did not meet the editorial standards of VICE and has been removed. We regret the error and will investigate how this failure of the editorial process occurred...'" How journalists are advancing the Matt Gaetz scandal
On Sunday's "Reliable," NYT reporter Katie Benner told me about covering the investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz. She said "it involves characters that all feel incentivized for various reasons to talk to the press," which partly explains why there have been so many revelations. Another reason: Key bits of info, like tweets and Venmo transactions, have been left out in the open, providing a digital trail for reporters to follow... Reunion spring
Right now the best things on Instagram are the photos and videos of newly-vaccinated family members meeting up for the first time in months. Here's my contribution: Sunny reuniting with her Pop Pop. My wife posted a video.
And three CNN anchors is a trend! On social media Poppy Harlow and Kate Bolduan shared similar photos of weekend reunions. Harlow wrote: "It's been way too long! Thankful for grandparents more than ever!" Spreading the good word about vaccines
On Sunday's "Reliable" I noted that Saturday represented yet another high-water mark for vaccines reported administered in a single day. I said that live on-air vaccines of TV anchors and vaccine selfies from public figures are helping to show that the process is safe and easy. Rachel Maddow's Friday night monologue, for example, was incredibly persuasive.
Then I asked why none of Fox's biggest A.M. or P.M. stars have shared their own vaccine selfies or shown themselves receiving a dose. This question evidently triggered far-right commentators, and by the end of the day Russia Today had written about the brief segment, focusing on me being "lampooned." Hmmm. The scrutiny should be on those, like Brian Kilmeade and Laura Ingraham, who have big platforms but aren't showcasing all the benefits of the vaccines... FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- CNN's latest on the Covid state of play: "As vaccinations keep rising, so do Covid-19 hospitalizations among those who aren't vaccinated..." (CNN)
-- How did the pandemic change you? Jennifer Levitz observes that "Covid-19 was a wake-up call, leading many to make lifestyle and career changes..." (WSJ)
-- What about last Sunday's "60 Minutes" story about Florida's vaccine rollout? Robby Soave told me it was wildly flawed and it fed GOP distrust of the media: "Being anti-media is probably the single thing that unites all conservatives..." (CNN)
-- On this Sunday's "60," Scott Pelley asked if the "Covid recession is behind us," and Jerome Powell said it's over for many, but others are "still not working" and "we're going to keep those people in mind..." (CBS)
-- "Covid conspiracy theorists are seeking to profit from the millions of followers they have built up on Instagram during the pandemic by marketing health supplements, wellness courses and juicers to them..." (Guardian)
-- Matt Burgess reports that Covid conspiracy theories "are going viral in Arabic." He writes, "Facebook has been criticized for failing to curb misinformation in English. But little attention has been paid to the scale of the problem in Arabic..." (Wired)
-- "Researchers warned for years that Facebook's phone number lookup tools were ripe for abuse," Rob Price reports... (Insider) Inside the WSJ power struggle
The NYT's Edmund Lee delivered the media biz must-read of the weekend, titled "Inside the Fight for the Future of The Wall Street Journal," revealing a "divided newsroom" and a "brewing power struggle" between top editor Matt Murray and publisher Almar Latour. "The third character in the ongoing Journal drama," Lee wrote, is Louise Story, who led an internal team that created "a 209-page blueprint on how The Journal should remake itself." This document, The Content Review, has not been formally shared with the newsroom. But Lee obtained a copy and shared some of the highlights. Start from the beginning here...
Fascinating and frustrating
Brian Lowry writes: "The granular data about how/what people read online in the WSJ's internal audit is equal parts fascinating and frustrating. That's because as much as that kind of info – and surveys about what kind of stories people want – tell you, they only go so far, such as my suspicion that those who do read earnings stories probably occupy higher income brackets (a big selling point to the Journal's advertisers) than other baskets of coverage..."
OVER TO THE WSJ FOR THIS NEXT STORY...
Inside the Tribune power struggle
"A few weeks ago, New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital was on the verge of acquiring Tribune Publishing... with seemingly no one in its way. Then it offended one of its partners in the deal, setting off a battle that could help shape the future of local news in America," the WSJ's Lukas I. Alpert wrote over the weekend.
According to Alpert's account, Stewart Bainum Jr. -- who would have taken control of The Baltimore Sun if the Alden deal went through -- decided to challenge Alden and make a bid for the entire company when "Alden tried to raise the cost of a fee agreement that would substantially jack up the price." Bainum declined to comment, but his ally Stephen Joyce tacitly confirmed it... FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR -- The weekend's biggest ad world story also came from the WSJ: "Google for years operated a secret program that used data from past bids in the company's digital advertising exchange to allegedly give its own ad-buying system an advantage over competitors, according to court documents filed in a Texas antitrust lawsuit..." (WSJ)
-- "I thought my job was to report on technology in India. Instead, I got a front-row seat to the decline of my democracy." Let Pranav Dixit explain the rest... (BuzzFeed News)  One on one with Clarissa Ward
"It's always a difficult situation," CNN's Clarissa Ward says, "when the only way to get into a country is go through the brutal, oppressive regime that is responsible for the massacres that are happening. So you have to ask yourself, what are the potential merits, what are the potential pitfalls?"
Ward just returned from Myanmar, and she joined me on Sunday's "Reliable" to talk about the controversial aspects of the reporting trip. In this case, she said, "we felt it was so vital to go into Myanmar," even under military escort.
"What I had never anticipated," Ward said, was the way her arrival in the country went viral. "I suddenly was getting thousands and thousands of messages on social media from people saying, listen, we know you can't see us, but we hope you can hear us. That was incredibly moving." Watch the rest... And read Ward's analysis piece for CNN.com too... Remembering Fatima Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria's mother Fatima passed away from Covid-related complications in India. She was 85. Fareed paid tribute to her on Sunday's "GPS" and spoke about the "sorrow of distance," noting that he was unable to see his mother for the last time due to the pandemic. "Goodbye Ma," he said. "I love you."
If you were watching, you were likely moved to tears hearing Fareed talk about his mother's influence on his life, as well as the lives of so many others. Fatima was such an inspiration. May her memory be a blessing, too. 🙏 How to catch up on Sunday's "Reliable"
If you missed today's telecast, you can watch video clips on CNN.com; catch the full episode via CNNgo or VOD; or tune in via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app...  "Godzilla vs. Kong" is doing "monster business"
That's the irresistible conclusion from THR's Pamela McClintock: She says "the tentpole is doing monster business and has already passed up fellow Warner Bros. release Tenet to become the top-grossing pic of the pandemic era in North America. Globally, its total through Sunday stood at $357.8 million, with an international total of $288.3 million." More... This weekend's big awards
Brian Lowry writes: "'Nomadland' appeared to move a couple of steps closer to an Oscar with director Chloe Zhao's win at the Directors Guild awards on Saturday, making her the first woman of color so honored; and its best-picture win at the BAFTAs. The one major upset in Britain was Anthony Hopkins for best actor over the late Chadwick Boseman, although that seems a much more likely British outcome than the Academy Awards..."
>> The DGA's top TV awards went to the final season of "Homeland," "The Flight Attendant" and "The Queen's Gambit..."
>> Via Variety, here is the full list of BAFTA winners... FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- "Bowen Yang had fans rolling when he played the iceberg who sunk the Titanic during 'Weekend Update' on Saturday Night Live..." (THR)
-- The "SNL" take on the Derek Chauvin trial: a Minnesota morning show... (CNN)
-- Sunday's "60 Minutes" aired the first clips from the unreleased Prince album "Welcome 2 America..." (CBS)  SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet pals of the day
UTA agent Rick Ramage writes: "Marley (Dog) and Jerry (Cat) catch up on their Z's over the weekend in between issues of CNN's Reliable Sources."   Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback and tips anytime. See you tomorrow... Share this newsletter:
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