Archives for March 2018

Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment, said the success of “Roseanne” was a direct result of the post-Election Day initiative to pursue an audience that the network had overlooked.

“We had spent a lot of time looking for diverse voices in terms of people of color and people from different religions and even people with a different perspective on gender,” Ms. Dungey said. “But we had not been thinking nearly enough about economic diversity and some of the other cultural divisions within our own country. That’s been something we’ve been really looking at with eyes open since that time.”

As the Nielsen numbers for “Roseanne” rolled in, ABC executives went from gobsmacked — Mr. Sherwood said he thought the early figures he had seen were a mistake — to euphoric.

“People gather round and they see themselves in this family,” Mr. Sherwood said. “It speaks to a large number of people in the country who don’t see themselves on television very often.”

By Thursday, this dusted-off sitcom centered on a highly opinionated matriarch had become a flash point in the nation’s culture wars. It had also spurred a cathartic response from many conservatives, who counted its opening-night success as their own.

Among those celebrating was President Trump, who called Ms. Barr to congratulate her on the “huge” ratings. On Thursday, he gave a shout-out to the Emmy-winning star during a rally in Ohio.

“Look at Roseanne! Look at her ratings!” President Trump told the crowd of union workers, adding: “They were unbelievable! Over 18 million people! And it was about us!”

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Right-wing pundits praised the show as a mic-drop moment for conservatives weary of being portrayed unflatteringly or ignored altogether on network shows. On Fox News, Sean Hannity congratulated her on her “massive audience,” and Laura Ingraham approvingly played a “Roseanne” clip, saying, “Funny what can happen when Hollywood makes programming that’s not condescending toward half the country.”

On Thursday, via Twitter, Mr. Hannity invited Ms. Barr to guest-host his show. “DM me,” Ms. Barr replied.

Ms. Barr, 65, supported Mr. Trump in 2016, but she makes for an unlikely conservative standard-bearer: Aside from her support of same-sex marriage and abortion rights, she was once denounced by the elder President George Bush as “disgraceful” after delivering a lewd, off-key rendition of the national anthem at a 1990 baseball game.

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On television, however, she plays a grandmother who is worried about paying the bills and grappling with a grandson who prefers to wear girl’s clothing. The onscreen Roseanne makes for a sharp foil to Ms. Metcalf’s character, who wears a “nasty woman” T-shirt and accuses Trump supporters of “wrapping yourselves up in the flag and clinging to your guns.”

“The show doesn’t advocate for Trump voters, but it respects them,” said Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican strategist based in Florida. “Apparently, this is still news to people in the entertainment business, that there is an American working class.”

For years, ABC focused on other demographic groups. With series like “The Bachelor,” “black-ish,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Modern Family,” the network’s lineup was notably diverse. But it was also geared toward upper-middle-class viewers, Ms. Dungey said.

By November 2016, ABC was coming off a TV season when it had finished in last place among the four major broadcast networks, with little hope of escaping the ratings basement in the near future. Like other networks, it was also losing viewers to Netflix and other streaming platforms.

The meeting that took place on the morning after Mr. Trump’s surprise victory led the network to reconsider its strategy. Mr. Sherwood summed up what was going through his mind that day: “Given the declines of broadcast television, the year-after-year declines, are we programming in a way that is turning people off?”

In response, ABC decided to back the singing competition show “American Idol” less than two years after it had been canceled on Fox, its original network home.

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“We went after it because that’s a show that, fundamentally, is about the American dream,” Mr. Sherwood said. “It’s about a girl with a cowboy hat and a boy with a banjo and people from small towns where music has saved their lives in different ways.”

“Roseanne,” which had its first run on ABC from 1988 to 1997, was another prime candidate for a reboot. It was a top-rated comedy that had won its share of Emmys and Golden Globes — not to mention that the woman who played its title character had become a vocal Trump supporter.

Even as the president portrayed the success of “Roseanne” as a win of his own, however, ABC executives and “Roseanne” producers rejected the notion that the show’s popularity was mainly because of its appeal to Trump supporters.

“I would compare this to ‘All in the Family,’” said Tom Werner, an executive producer of “Roseanne” and other hit sitcoms like “The Cosby Show” and “3rd Rock From the Sun.” “A number of people watching ‘All in the Family’ said, ‘Archie’s a conservative and therefore it’s a show about a conservative.’ Well, it was made by Norman Lear.

“Part of the reason the show is successful is because it taps into the frustration and disappointment that working-class people feel about the economy right now,” he continued. “But if you watch all the episodes, we don’t really mention politics as much as we did in the pilot.”

Mr. Werner pointed out that “Roseanne” will deal with the opioid epidemic and immigration in its seven remaining episodes, adding that the president does not come up much as the show goes on.

As a topical, working-class sitcom led by a Trump supporter, “Roseanne” is unique — for now. Its early ratings success is likely to spur copycats in Hollywood, which is not known for its high percentage of conservatives.

“Money is the ideology of Hollywood,” said Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center for media and society at the University of Southern California. “I can’t imagine an executive who would turn down something for ideological reasons that they think has a chance to do a good number.”

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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/business/media/roseanne-ratings-trump.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

At a news conference, he said Mr. Syed “asked me to convey his deep gratitude and thanks from the bottom of his heart to all those who have supported him and believed in him.”

The accounts by the new witness, and other evidence seeming to cast doubt on the conviction, were the focus of “Serial,” which was a wildly successful podcast in 2014 and popularized the format for a general audience.

The 12-episode series featured Sarah Koenig, a former producer with the weekly public radio program “This American Life,” telling the story of the killing, investigation and trial in a conversational narrative with interviews. It was downloaded more than 175 million times and won a Peabody Award.

Mr. Syed’s lawyer, Mr. Brown, said he had been unable to locate the witness, Asia McClain, until the “Serial” team began investigating Mr. Syed’s story. He said the podcast had been “enormously helpful” in pursuing justice for his client.

“‘Serial’ kind of shook the trees and that enabled us to get in contact with Asia McClain and bring her to Baltimore for the post conviction hearing two years ago,” Mr. Brown said at a news conference on Thursday. “‘Serial’ has also helped build this groundswell of support for us and for Adnan and for the case, and that has fueled these efforts and helped us to fight on as we have.”

Ms. McClain sent Mr. Syed two letters after he was arrested in 1999 stating that she had seen him at Woodlawn Public Library at the time that Ms. Lee was killed. Mr. Syed asked his lawyer, Maria Cristina Gutierrez, to contact Ms. McClain. She said she had “and nothing had come of it,” the panel said.

After Mr. Syed was convicted, it was determined that Ms. Gutierrez had not in fact contacted Ms. McClain.

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A friend of Mr. Syed’s, a law student named Rabia Chaudry, independently reached out to Ms. McClain, who signed an affidavit saying that she had seen Mr. Syed at the Woodlawn Public Library at the time that Ms. Lee was killed.

Ms. Gutierrez’s failure to interview or contact Ms. McClain formed a key part of Mr. Syed’s argument that she had been negligent in her defense of him. Ms. Gutierrez died in 2004.

After the podcast drew attention to the case, Mr. Syed was granted a retrial in 2016 by Judge Martin P. Welch of the Baltimore City Circuit Court.

The state appealed that ruling to the Court of Special Appeals.

He has served 16 years of a life sentence after being convicted in 2000, but has maintained his innocence for almost two decades.

Ms. Lee was last seen on Jan. 13, 1999, as she was leaving school. A few weeks later, a passer-by found her body partially buried in a shallow grave in a park in West Baltimore, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The Sun said Mr. Syed had told the police that he and Ms. Lee dated as high school students but kept their relationship secret because of cultural differences between their families. They broke up in 1998 and Ms. Lee later began dating another man.

Ms. Lee’s mother, Youn Wha Kim, took the stand at Mr. Syed’s sentencing hearing in 2000, telling the court that though she wanted to, she did not think she could bring herself to forgive Mr. Syed for her daughter’s death, The Sun reported at the time.

“When I die, my daughter will die with me,” she told the court. “As long as I live, my daughter is buried in my heart.”

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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/adnan-syed-serial.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Attacking Trump’s political rivals

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Trump was one of 17 candidates who vied to be the Republican candidate, and none of his opponents were safe from ridicule in The Enquirer.

In October 2015, a headline called Ben Carson a “bungling surgeon.” The article said he had potentially “butchered one patient’s brain.” A month later, an article called him a “disgraced doctor” with a “violent past.”

In June of that year, an article claimed that Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, had cheated on his wife, citing unnamed reports that linked Mr. Bush to a “Playboy bunny-turned-lawyer.”

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee and a favorite target of Mr. Trump, took the brunt of the scorn. A September 2015 article, using information from “sources,” said the “desperate and deteriorating 67-year-old won’t make it to the White House — because she’ll be dead in six months.”

In August 2016, she fired back at Mr. Trump and what she called “fringe media.” Mrs. Clinton said, “This is what happens when you treat The National Enquirer like gospel.”

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The 2016 election is over, but the criticism of Mrs. Clinton has continued. In February 2018, an Enquirer cover story claimed she was part of a conspiracy: “Obama Hillary Ordered F.B.I. to Spy on Trump!”

A shared foe: Obama

For years, Mr. Trump has relentlessly attacked his predecessor, Barack Obama, and The Enquirer is no different.

In January, an Enquirer headline read, “Barack Obama’s Russian Spy Inside the White House.”

In February 2017, days after Michael T. Flynn resigned as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, the tabloid claimed that Mr. Obama had a secret plot to impeach Mr. Trump. And as recently as March 2017 the tabloid continued to claim that Mr. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was foreign born, even though Mr. Trump had since let go of the false birther theory that he long promoted.

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For the love, and defense, of Trump

The National Enquirer and its parent company have not only helped the president by denigrating others, but also repeatedly praised Mr. Trump, his decisions and his character.

In March 2016, for the first time in its 90 years, The Enquirer endorsed a candidate for president — Donald J. Trump.

While Ms. McDougal and a pornographic-film star, Stephanie Clifford, who is known professionally as Stormy Daniels, have come forward and said they have had affairs with the president, The Enquirer recently ran a favorable cover that blared: “Donald Melania Fight Back! Exposing the Lies, Leaks Intimidation. How They’ll Crush Their Enemies!”

Saudi cash and a special edition

Mr. Pecker visited the White House in July 2017 and took along with him a special guest, a French businessman who advises one of Saudi Arabia’s richest men. Through an Oval Office visit and at dinner with Mr. Trump, Mr. Pecker showcased his access to the president — and word got back to Saudi Arabia.

Several months later, Mr. Pecker traveled to Saudi Arabia. In January, he sought Saudi investors to help bankroll a possible acquisition of Time magazine, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. American Media disputed that. As Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, arrived this month for a tour of the United States, Mr. Pecker’s company published a 97-page magazine about Saudi Arabia that glosses over troubling details about the kingdom.

There is no mention of the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, human rights concerns or the crown prince’s arrest last fall of many extended royals.

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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/politics/trump-national-enquirer-david-pecker.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

It was an opportune moment for Mr. Pecker to showcase his White House connections. He was considering expanding his media and events businesses into Saudi Arabia and also was hunting for moneyed partners in acquisitions.

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The intersection of the tabloid publisher with the Saudis, enhanced by the White House visit, is a previously untold chapter in the long, symbiotic relationship between the president and Mr. Pecker, which was forged in the 1990s. At the time, Mr. Trump was celebrating a real estate comeback after his casino bankruptcies and was both the subject and the source of much gossip in New York.

Mr. Pecker, who had known Mr. Grine only for a few months, invited him to the dinner to thank him for advice he had provided about investing in the Middle East, according to someone who knew of the invitation.

Word soon traveled back to Saudi Arabia about the dinner: It signaled Mr. Pecker’s powerful status in Washington.

Two months later, he was in Saudi Arabia, meeting with Mr. Grine and the crown prince about business opportunities there, according to A.M.I.

And by January, Mr. Pecker was confident enough about his growing rapport with Saudi investors that he sought their help bankrolling a possible acquisition of Time magazine, which he had long coveted, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks. A.M.I. disputed that.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The people briefed on the interactions between A.M.I. and Saudi Arabia requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

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The outcome of Mr. Pecker’s efforts to do business with the Saudis remains unclear. But he is still working to cultivate ties. This week, he and Mr. Grine both attended events in New York featuring Prince Mohammed, who is on a tour across the United States.

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Ahead of that visit, A.M.I. published a 97-page glossy magazine that is essentially a promotional brochure for Saudi Arabia and the crown prince. It makes no mention of anything troubling, like the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, human rights concerns or the crown prince’s arrest last fall of many extended royals, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an influential client of Mr. Grine’s.

The magazine — which refers to Saudi Arabia throughout as “the Magic Kingdom” — includes an interview with Mr. Grine, accompanied by a photo of him posing with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office, taken during his visit with Mr. Pecker. It talks up the relationship between Mr. Trump and the Saudis, noting that Mr. Trump “endorsed the crown prince’s high profile anticorruption” crackdown.

A.M.I. has said it produced the magazine to “capitalize” on interest in the crown prince, who is next in line to the throne, and has been careful to say it received no input or guidance from Saudi officials. That carries important legal implications: Foreign direction or control of such a purely promotional publication may require disclosure to the Justice Department. The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment.

The magazine — 200,000 copies distributed in Walmart and other outlets, with a cover price of $13.99 and no advertising — provided a unique welcome mat for the prince, whose visit comes as the Trump administration is trying to establish tighter ties with the kingdom. Both countries are touting cross-border investment opportunities, including a pledge by the Saudi government to put $20 billion into a fund that will invest in American infrastructure projects. The kingdom is also nearing a deal to buy American-made missiles and other military equipment.

Mr. Grine, a 30-year-old French citizen, has helped broker deals between Saudi investors and companies in France, Senegal and the United States. He and Mr. Pecker were introduced last spring by Ari Emanuel, chief executive of Endeavor, the huge talent, entertainment and sports company based in Beverly Hills, Calif.

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Mr. Grine and Mr. Pecker soon had a series of discussions about the investment landscape in Saudi Arabia, according to a person briefed on the talks. Mr. Pecker extended the White House dinner invitation shortly afterward.

A.M.I. would not say who else was among the “select group of friends” Mr. Pecker took to the White House at the president’s invitation. During the evening, the Middle East and the recent French elections came up. In a statement, A.M.I. said, “The entire conversation was social, with the exception of a couple very brief mentions of current events.”

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Mr. Pecker is best known for The Enquirer, but his media empire is wide-ranging. A.M.I.’s titles include Men’s Journal, Hers, Flex and Muscle Fitness.

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The publisher has used the company at times to protect close friends, including Mr. Trump. Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, recently filed a lawsuit alleging that Mr. Trump’s lawyer was secretly involved when A.M.I. tried to bury her story about an affair with Mr. Trump. A.M.I. bought the rights to her story during the presidential campaign for $150,000 but never published it. In the world of gossip media, such a maneuver is known as a “catch and kill” operation.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer Michael D. Cohen and A.M.I. have denied the allegations. Mr. Trump’s representatives say the affair never happened.

During the campaign, The Enquirer also published scathing articles about Mr. Trump’s rivals, as well as perceived antagonists like the television host Megyn Kelly. In promoting Mr. Trump, The Enquirer endorsed a candidate for the first time in its history.

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Since he entered the White House, A.M.I. titles have run articles alleging a “deep state” plot to undermine Mr. Trump. As scandals engulfed the White House, a recent Enquirer cover blared: “Donald Melania Fight Back! Exposing the Lies, Leaks and Intimidation. How They’ll Crush Their Enemies!”

The support appears mutual. Mr. Trump at times has praised Mr. Pecker’s stewardship of A.M.I. He once endorsed Mr. Pecker to run Time magazine, whose cover, Mr. Trump has incorrectly asserted, has featured him more than anyone else.

“David Pecker would be a brilliant choice as CEO of TIME Magazine — nobody could bring it back like David!” Mr. Trump wrote in a Tweet in 2013.

Asked about Mr. Pecker’s interest in Time, A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, said, “Any media executive worth his or her salt must look at any acquisition opportunity in today’s media climate.”

A.M.I. has struggled financially. It went through a series of restructurings in the last decade, including a bankruptcy in 2010 in which the company reported up to $1 billion in debts, before being acquired four years ago by two private equity funds.

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The company said in a statement that it was “in an incredibly stable financial position.”

Mr. Pecker has continued to hunt for new acquisitions. Last year, he bought Us Weekly from Wenner Media. But money remained scarce, according to A.M.I.’s financial advisers. When Mr. Pecker’s friend Harvey Weinstein suggested last fall that they team up to purchase Rolling Stone, Mr. Pecker expressed little interest. “I can not contribute any cash,” he wrote in an email obtained by The New York Times.

In that same Sept. 28 exchange, he wrote to Mr. Weinstein: “I am in Saudi Arabia on business. Can’t call from here.”

During the visit to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Grine arranged for himself and Mr. Pecker to meet with Prince Mohammed, who is the chairman of the kingdom’s deep-pocketed Public Investment Fund. At the meeting, Mr. Pecker described his vision for expanding his events business, which includes the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition, into Saudi Arabia.

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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/business/media/david-pecker-trump-saudi-arabia.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

That security breach, along with the social network’s role in spreading Russian-backed propaganda during the presidential election, bolstered an argument for regulating Facebook, Mr. Holder said.

“There needs to be a certain degree of freedom,” he said. “We don’t want to stifle the creativity that comes from those platforms.”

But he added: “There is a way in which we have to think of these platforms as communication companies. What then does that mean in terms of how they should be regulated?”

Trump is given a pass on his behavior.

Mr. Holder, who served as the attorney general from February 2009 to April 2015, said he was stunned by the support Mr. Trump still enjoyed in some circles after a pornographic-film star and a former Playboy model claimed they had sexual relationships with him.

“I find it hard to believe the conversations that we have about the conduct of this president. They are mind-blowing,” he said. “I think to myself, You gave my guy grief because he wore a tan suit.”

Mr. Holder said that if the same allegations of extramarital affairs had been made against Mr. Obama or President George W. Bush, their presidencies would have been over. “I just don’t understand how this has not had the reaction generated that would have been generated by any other president,” he said.

‘American people need to know’ the full story on C.I.A. interrogations.

Mr. Trump has nominated Mike Pompeo, the director of the C.I.A., to be the next secretary of state and named a veteran of the spy agency, Gina Haspel, as the next director. Both nominations require Senate confirmation, and Ms. Haspel will certainly face questions about her work as a clandestine officer in the agency’s counterterrorism operations. She oversaw a secret prison in Thailand involved in the rendition, detention and interrogation of detainees.

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In 2012, Mr. Holder effectively closed that dark chapter in the C.I.A.’s history, announcing that a three-year Justice Department investigation into brutal interrogations was ending without a prosecution. The decision outraged some liberals.

On Wednesday night, Mr. Holder said that Ms. Haspel would have to answer tough questions — and that the public deserved to know more about the country’s enhanced interrogation program. He said that parts of the Justice Department report and a separate Senate investigation into the program should be declassified.

“The American people need to know exactly what happened during that time period,” he said.

‘We have to do something’ about gun violence.

Responding to recent calls for a repeal of the Second Amendment, Mr. Holder said such an effort was impracticable but offered four suggestions to address what he called a “gun violence epidemic in the United States.” His remarks came days after John Paul Stevens, a retired associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, wrote an Op-Ed in The Times advocating repeal.

Assault weapons should be banned, as well as higher-capacity magazines, Mr. Holder said. Background checks should be expanded for prospective gun buyers, and the government should reinstate the funding of studies on gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Compare us to any other nation, and we are just off the charts when it comes to mass shootings and the number of people killed through the use of firearms,” Mr. Holder said. “We have to do something about it.”

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Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/politics/eric-holder-times-talks.html?partner=rss&emc=rss