Archives for October 2019

Near the start of his new book, “The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate,” Tom Brokaw writes that he has been “reflecting on the enduring lessons, high drama and historic consequences of that fateful year.” Brokaw, then in the early stages of his broadcasting career, was NBC’s White House correspondent during the scandal that ended Nixon’s presidency. In recounting what he saw then, Brokaw keeps the “enduring lessons” to general terms; his book makes just one sly mention of President Trump, otherwise sticking to the historical record and not wading into the current moment’s impeachment news. Below, Brokaw talks about his path to becoming a writer as well as a broadcaster, the breakneck pace of news gathering today and more.

When did you first get the idea to write this book?

I have to give Jon Meacham some of the credit here. We were talking about what I was going to do for my next project, and I was fumbling around with some big ideas. He said, “Look, you were at Watergate. What about a reporter’s notebook? It’s always a great technique for reporters to go back and detail what happened.” And I thought, Watergate’s been done and done and done.

I sat down, a little before January 2018, and made some memory notes about what I’d not yet seen published, small moments and larger moments. I’ve got very good recall, and I would call former colleagues to see if they remembered certain things the same way. I also had an excellent researcher who would help me with things I got stuck on.

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What’s the most surprising thing you learned while writing it?

The difference between then and now. I unpacked the other day my portable typewriter. It was like uncovering something from the tomb of Egyptian rulers. It’s technically beautiful, and it still works. I dragged that sucker all over the world. It just seemed so antiquated to me. And I thought about it as more than just as an instrument, but as a symbol of the difference between then and now. I didn’t have an iPhone or an iPad, and I wasn’t punching in 24-7 what my immediate thoughts were. We had regular press briefings in the White House, about 30 of us, and we’d go to work on the story of the day until we got it all in place. And then, on the broadcasting end of it, I’d get it ready for John Chancellor and the evening news. I’d go out and stand on the lawn and do my report, and then go back and start working on the “Today” show for the next day.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/books/tom-brokaw-fall-of-richard-nixon-watergate-interview.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

New Looney Tunes Cartoons and classics from the vault will also stream at HBO Max.

Series that seem in keeping with the HBO brand are also on the docket, including “Americanah,” a 10-episode limited series based on the book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and starring Lupita Nyong’o and written by Danai Gurira, who will serve as executive producer; “Circe,” a 10-episode series based on Madeline Miller’s 2018 best-selling novel; and “Station Eleven,” a post-apocalyptic series adapted from the best seller by Emily St. John Mandel, to be directed by Hiro Murai, who is known for his work on the FX show “Atlanta.”

Ann Sarnoff, who was named the head of the Warner Bros. film and television studio in June, highlighted the studio’s upcoming slate — including the debut of “The Joker” — and its classic movie library, including films from Warner Bros., MGM and Criterion Classic, that will stream on HBO Max. Intended to replace the much-loved and now-defunct streaming site from Turner Classic Movies, Film Struck, the monthly offering will comprise classics that “can’t be seen anywhere else.”

There will also be competition and reality shows, including a matchmaking show produced by Ellen DeGeneres. Conan O’Brien, whose “Conan” is broadcast on TBS, will put together five stand-up comedy specials featuring up-and-coming comics for HBO Max, the company announced at the event.

HBO Max hopes to appeal to young viewers with four young-adult films from the uber-producer Greg Berlanti, including “UnPregnant,” which tracks two teenagers on a road trip to New Mexico to terminate a pregnancy before the start of college. A “Gossip Girl” reboot and “Grease: Rydell High,” a musical series, also play to that audience. On Tuesday, Mr. Berlanti revealed two new projects: “Green Lantern” based on the classic DC property and “Strange Adventures,” a one-hour anthology series featuring characters from across the DC canon.

HBO Max also announced that Elizabeth Banks, Issa Rae and Mindy Kaling will each produce a half-hour comedy series for the service. Ms. Banks will produce “DC Super Hero High,” a half-hour series set at a boarding school for gifted children. Ms. Rae’s show follows a female rap group from outside Miami trying to make it in the music industry. Ms. Kaling’s “College Girls” follows three freshman roommates at Evermore College in Vermont.

WarnerMedia made its presentation after ATT’s third-quarter earnings report, in which it announced a steep decline in its DirecTV subscribers and an overall decline in profit. Elliott Management, one of Wall Street’s biggest and most aggressive hedge funds, which owns about 1 percent of ATT shares, has been critical of the company’s move into entertainment. The success of HBO Max will figure into ATT’s ability to stave off those investors.

Randall Stephenson, the chief executive of ATT, closed the event, saying, “This is not Netflix. This is not Disney. This is HBO Max. This company in the next three years will invest $4 billion in building HBO Max.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/business/media/hbo-max-price.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

“Where they do not,” he added, “they are not.”

By late afternoon, the Deadspin home page returned to topical sports stories: the World Series game on Tuesday night and N.F.L. head coaches. “Deadspin staffers had nothing to do with the changes on the front page,” the staff’s union said in a tweet.

In fact, Mr. Maidment assumed direct control of Deadspin on Tuesday, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. G/O Media has been looking for a new full-time editor in chief since its previous editor, Megan Greenwell, left in August.

There has been a broader debate in sports journalism about how much, or little, coverage there should be of politics. ESPN has publicly wrestled with a sense of journalistic obligation to acknowledge divisive events during an unusually polarizing moment in American life, while balancing it against many fans’ desire for sports to serve as a welcoming refuge from the wider world.

Less than a year ago, posts on The Concourse, the section of Deadspin reserved for non-sports coverage, averaged more than twice as many page views as average Deadspin posts, according to internal numbers seen by The Times. Concourse posts made up approximately one of every 50 Deadspin posts.

The dispute reflects an atmosphere between G/O Media and Deadspin that has become increasingly tense.

It is the second conflict between G/O Media management and staff this week. The sites published a post stating they had heard negative reader feedback about ads that autoplayed with volume on the websites and “are as upset with the current state of our site’s user experience as you are.” Management took down the post, according to the staff’s union, which condemned the move.

Ms. Greenwell, Deadspin’s last editor in chief, published an essay in August on her final day accusing Great Hill Partners and the chief executive of G/O Media, Jim Spanfeller, of “narrowing the scope of Deadspin’s coverage” for business reasons.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/business/media/deadspin-editor-fired.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

Until Mr. Trump’s statements, however, even internet speculation did not assert that CrowdStrike was owned by a rich Ukrainian or suggest that a Democratic server was hidden in Ukraine.

“CrowdStrike’s co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch is a Russia-born U.S. citizen, who has spent all of his adult life in the United States, and has no connection to Ukraine,” the company says on its website.

CrowdStrike concluded that two espionage groups connected to Russia were responsible for the D.N.C. breach. The Justice Department and the F.B.I., after conducting their own investigations, confirmed that Russia hacked the emails. There was no single server and there was no indication that the company moved one to Ukraine.

Mr. Trump’s own former Homeland Security secretary, Thomas P. Bossert, called the president’s assertion that Ukraine intervened in the 2016 elections on behalf of the Democrats “not only a conspiracy theory” but “completely debunked.”

Is the whistle-blower aligned politically with Democrats?

Mr. Trump’s allies — and the president himself — have asserted that the whistle-blower is left-leaning and biased, a notion spread by the president’s supporters across social media and right-wing websites.

Little is known about the whistle-blower other than that he is a career C.I.A. analyst. One of the whistle-blower’s lawyers has rejected the claim that his client is partisan. “Our client has never worked for or advised a political candidate, campaign, or party,” the lawyer, Mark Zaid, wrote in a series of tweets. “Our client has come into contact with presidential candidates from both parties in their roles as elected officials — not as candidates.”

The whistle-blower, whose identity remains secret, was once detailed to the National Security Council at the White House. Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the American intelligence community, found unspecified indications of “an arguable political bias,” suggesting the whistle-blower favored a rival political candidate, according to a Justice Department memo. It’s possible that the whistle-blower did interact with the vice president. Officials from the National Security Council regularly work in the White House for briefings and other meetings.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/business/media/fact-check-biden-ukraine-burisma-china-hunter.html?emc=rss&partner=rss