Good morning.
- Night of clarity and confusion
Well, that was quick. The networks were fast and sharp in calling the New Hampshire results in a feast for political junkies, even throwing in all the caveats about the results not necessarily being predictive of the campaign ahead. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump won by “harnessing working-class fury” (The New York Times) and an “insistence on shaking up American politics” (The Associated Press) in victories “so decisive that the drama of primary night shifted to the Republicans battling for second, third and fourth place.” (The Washington Post)Yup. It even brought the claim that a Trump v. Sanders race was vaguely imaginable and a boost for a possible Michael Bloomberg run. (The Washington Post)
Sanders used his victory speech to deliver more messages than a Western Union office, including a rejection of the meanie “media establishment” that gave him short shrift. Hillary Clinton was, well, Clinton-esque in casting an indefatigable air amid her “humiliation” (The Atlantic) but inadvertently reminding us of what Bill Clinton biographer David Maraniss tweeted is the “cycle of loss & recovery” in the family. (@davidmaraniss)
Trump reiterated his familiar talking points about eight hours after his occasional nemeses at Fox News mistakenly declared him the winner in a testing malfunction. (POLITICO) And kudos to, among others, video wall maestro John King of CNN, Fox’s Charles Krauthammer and energetic Steve Kornacki of MSNBC (good with an improved co-anchor tandem of Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow). New Hampshire, as most said, didn’t settle the GOP establishment alternative to Trump or Ted Cruz, especially given Marco Rubio’s “collapse.” (Slate)
But whether it was evidence, as suggested MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, of a newly engaged electorate was as problematic as basing so much coverage inside taverns (presumably where “real people” are). It guarantees a long, expensive and ratings-grabbing few months for the press (will even the apparent Duraflame log on Fox’s set peter out?) since it’s fascinatingly unclear as to when closing time will roll around.
- “Your breasts drive me crazy”
Many female journalists have stories about abusive male editors and news directors. And so do their counterparts overseas, which is why “the news director of Iran’s Press TV, Hamid Reza Emadi, has been caught with his pants down. Almost literally.” Anchor Sheena Shirani says she’s been sexually harassed by Emadi, as other women have claimed, and apparently has recordings of phone conversations and the photos to prove it. She’s a 32-year-old single mother. “I’m really desperate. Satisfy me,” he’s heard declaring. “My balls are bursting.” (Mic) - Party over for Twitter VIPs
Are you a billionaire, Hollywood star or reality TV celebrity? Well, Twitter had stopped showing ads to you in an apparent attempt not to piss you off and to get you to tweet even more. Well, the party’s apparently over and the ads returning. (Re/code) - Incestuous Washington
Gawker has done a terrific, if depressing job in lifting curtains obscuring the incestuous relations between Washington reporters and the people they cover. It’s adroitly made various Freedom of Information Act requests for emails of government officials. Now it finds an example of a then-Atlantic writer bowing to the insistence of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s flack.In return for an advance copy of a foreign policy speech, spokesperson Philippe Reines demanded the reporter describe her speech as “muscular” and note the eminent souls seated before her. “Got it,” responded the writer, Marc Ambinder. He proceeded to do the flack’s bidding and, in another exchange, send the same flack an email with the subject line, “She kicked A” after a Clinton appearance on “Meet the Press.” (Gawker) This sort of thing surely happens routinely. But we rarely see the actual proof. Fortunately, Ambinder was contrite amid the Gawker disclosure. (The Washington Post)
- Redstone redlines ex-lady friend
Media mogul Sumner Redstone cut his former companion out of his will, supposedly “depriving her of $70 million.” (The Wall Street Journal). She’s decades the junior of Redstone, 92. Their relationship has been well-chronicled. (Vanity Fair) - Scott Simon and Tony Bennett
Well, we hope the NPR weekend host and the pop music icon prove a better fit than, say, Coldplay with either Bruno Mars or Beyonce at the Super Bowl. He’s taking a six-week leave to do a book with the singer. (Current) - “Put a Glock to their heads”
The president of Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland canned two faculty without apparent warning. One was an adviser to the student paper “that revealed the president recently told faculty members concerned about his retention plans that they needed to change the way they view struggling students. ‘This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can’t. You just have to drown the bunnies — put a Glock to their heads,’ the president said.” (Inside Higher Ed) - AOL to rescue Yahoo?
Verizon has dispatched Tim Armstrong, who runs its AOL unit, to explore if it should have serious interest in grabbing Yahoo. (Bloomberg) Verizon’s CEO had previously said on Jim Cramer’s CNBC show that it might have some desire for certain assets. (Yahoo) “Yahoo’s core business, which includes popular services like Yahoo Mail and its news and sports sites,” would presumably be the lure. (Reuters) - Viacom stock no laughing matter
The corporate parent of Comedy Central, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon and BET saw its stock tank 21.5 percent, its lowest since 2010 amid chagrin over its earnings and, it seems, the strategic reticence of its CEO. (Deadline) That’s real money, folks, cutting $3.5 billion from Viacom’s market value, or down to $12.7 billion. It wasn’t alone. The stock price of Tribune Publishing, whose newspapers include the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, continued south after the company ditched its dividend and sold a big chunk to a Chicago tech entrepreneur. Its stock was down nearly 15 percent to a 52-week low. (MarketWatch) - Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Alan Fisco will be chief financial officer at The Seattle Times. He is executive vice president there. Carey Butler will be chief security officer at The Seattle Times. She is vice president and chief technology officer there. Sharon Prill is now vice president of strategic initiatives at The Seattle Times. Previously, she was publisher of the Yakima Herald-Republic. Bob Crider will be publisher of Yakima Herald-Republic. Previously, he was editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic. (Email) | Job of the day: WLUK is looking for a reporter and anchor. Get your resumes in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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