White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

Mark Zuckerberg Resists Calls to Appear Before Congress in Open Testimony

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Photo Courtesy Getty Images

All eyes are on Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who has so far remained silent throughout developments in the growing Cambridge Analytica scandal which has raised serious questions about the way in which Facebook handles user’s personal data. Reports came last week as whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed that his former employer Cambridge Analytica used the data of more than 50 million users.

Facebook has now agreed to meet with several congressional committee staffers including the Senate and House Intelligence Committees as well as both houses’ Judicial and Commerce committees. This comes as Facebook’s stock has tumbled nearly 8% on Monday, March 20th and continues to drop into Monday.

While this is surely a tough week for Zuckerberg and Facebook as a whole, things could soon get a lot more precarious. Lawmakers are already calling for the Facebook creator to appear before Congress in open testimony. The British parliament has already issued a request that Zuckerberg appear before members in the coming weeks.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar released a statement detailing her concerns with Facebook’s actions and called upon Zuckerberg to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, “They say ‘trust us,’ but Mark Zuckerberg needs to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about what Facebook knew about misusing data from 50 million Americans in order to target political advertising and manipulate voters.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal said to reporters Monday evening, “Zuckerberg ought to be subpoenaed to testify if he won’t do it voluntarily.”

 

Trump, Melania, and Ivanka Set to Revisit Early Primary Successes in New Hampshire and Iowa

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Ivanka Trump along with Jared Kushner, Melania Trump, and Sarah Palin before the campaign stop in Iowa during the 2016 primaries, Photo Courtesy Haddad Media

President Trump, First Lady Melania, and Ivanka Trump are hitting the road to visit the sites of their earliest presidential contests on Monday, March 19th. President Trump is set to reveal his long-awaited plans to combat the opioid drug epidemic in Manchester, New Hampshire. This will mark Trump’s first visit to New Hampshire since 2016, where he won his very first presidential primary. First Lady Melania Trump will also be accompanying the president on this trip.

President Trump is expected to make two stops in New Hampshire, according to a report last week in the Concord Monitor. He’ll first announce his drug epidemic plans, which will reportedly include controversial measures like the death penalty for high-trafficking drug dealers, at Manchester Community College. He will then be visiting the Manchester Central Fire Station to get a tour of Safe Station, “a ‘first-of-its-kind program’ in which people battling drug or alcohol addiction can safely seek help at one of the city’s 10 fire stations without fear of arrest.”

Rachel Greenberg and Ivanka Trump in Iowa, Photo Courtesy Haddad Media

Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump landed in Iowa Monday morning to visit the Waukee Innovation & Learning Center for a tour and to meet students and faculty at the Waukee School District’s Aspiring Professional Experience program. The visit is an extension of the White House’s infrastructure plan, which includes expanding federal job training programs. President Trump came in second place at the 2016 Iowa Caucus, behind his then-opponent Senator Ted Cruz.

According to the pool report, Ivanka Trump “was accompanied by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, acting Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, Waukee Community School District Superintendent Cindi McDonald and Waukee APEX Director Michelle Hill.”

White House Correspondents’ Dinner – No Stormy Daniels

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Don Lemon, Stephanie Ruhle, and Matt and Morgan Walsh at the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Garden Brunch supporting NS2 Serves, Veterans program

Washingtonian Magazine reports that Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who is claiming a sexual relationship with President Trump, will not attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 28th.  No news organizations has invited her according to her attorney.  President Trump has not confirmed his appearance at the annual dinner honoring journalists who cover the White House and supporting journalism students.

“For a while in Washington, there was a trend of media outlets inviting celebrities to ruffle the guest of honor. In 1998, Insight magazine brought Paula Jones to the dinner, four years after she sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment and months after news of his affair with Monica Lewinsky broke. Clinton, for the record, never missed a WHCA dinner while in office.

The year after that John F. Kennedy Jr. brought the Hustler publisher Larry Flint to dine with George magazine. The New York Times boycotted, with then DC bureau chief Michael Oreskes (yes, him) calling the event “unseemly” and a “circus.”

But Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, will not be carving time out of her Make America Horny Again tour to hit Washington’s nerd prom. According to her attorney Michael Avenatti, no news outlets have invited her, and she would have no interest in going even if they did.”

Click here for Amanda Whiting’s full report: http://bit.ly/2pm3RuG

 

 

 

Donald Trump Jr. On Road to Divorce With Wife Vanessa

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Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad now Ambassador to China with Donald Trump, Jr. and wife, Vanessa, at the Snowflake Garden Brunch in Des Moines, Iowa days before the Iowa Caucus, Photo Courtesy Haddad Media

Donald Trump Jr. and his wife Vanessa Trump are on the rocks and reportedly heading for divorce. The couple, married since 2005, is weighing their options after the tumultuous first year of father Donald Sr.

Don Jr. has reportedly been traveling a lot lately without his wife, who has apparently been left to raise their five children alone. Don Jr. and his brother Eric Trump have been left with the Trump Organization after their father made his splash in Washington, surely adding to the relational strain. Friends tell Page Six that Don Jr. has been acting strangely and tweeting erratically, which may or may not run in the family.   

While divorce papers have not yet been filed, friends are expecting them to do so very soon.

You can read the full report here.

Students Walk Out While Viacom Steps Up to Demand Gun Control

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Students across the country march for gun control, Photo Courtesy Reuters

Public school students around the country left their classrooms on Wednesday, March 14th in a show of solidarity to the victims of the Parkland, Florida massacre which led to the shooting deaths of 17 high schoolers. The 17-minute walkout memorialized the victims while students held signs demanding gun control legislation.

During the walkout, Viacom-owned networks from MTV to BET to Nickelodeon and Comedy Central suspended their regular programming to bring the walkouts to television, airing interviews with students from around the country. MTV took things a step farther by handing over the reins to their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to students so that they could use the expanded platform to get their message out.

Shari Redstone, the vice chair of Viacom, has also announced that she is donating $500,000 to support the March for Our Lives, a protest calling for stricter gun laws taking place in Washington, DC and around the country on March 24th.

Facebook to News Publishers: Don’t Count On Us

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Graph showing traffic estimates between Google, Facebook, and Twitter over time, Photo Courtesy Parse.ly

A new study finds that social media giant Facebook has become increasingly less influential when it comes to the way news is distributed. Analytics firm Parse.ly has gathered data from over 2,500 publishers and found that “ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, more than 40 percent of traffic to [the 2,5000 sites] came from Facebook. By the end of 2017, Facebook accounted for less than 26 percent of traffic to those publishers,” according to a report on Parse.ly’s findings from Wired’s Fred Vogelstein.

Vogelstein says that, “Facebook’s role in distributing news has been falling dramatically for more than a year,” and that this trend is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. Facebook claims that the decline in clicks is due to the increasing appetite for video in news feeds.

Another important factor driving Facebook’s flailing news distribution is the increasing use of Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which allows certain content to load more quickly. Vogelstein attributes Google’s push to deliver more newsy content with Facebook’s decline.

He also speculates that publishers consider Facebook’s responses since January to be “schizophrenic” and therefore less willing to deliver content through the platform.

Vogelstein highlights a number of fumbles on Facebook’s part, “For example, one week after announcing that it was changing news feed to promote more meaningful interactions between friends and family and deemphasize news, Facebook said it would start giving boosts to the most trustworthy publications based on user surveys. A few weeks later it said it also plans to boost content from local newspapers, in an effort to help struggling publishers who’ve watched much of their ad revenue flow to Facebook and Google.”

Campbell Brown, Facebook’s news partnership leader, said at a Recode conference last month that, “My job is not to go recruit people from news organization to put their stuff on Facebook. This is not about us trying to make everyone happy.  My job is to ensure that there is quality news on Facebook and that the publishers who want to do quality news on Facebook have a business model that works.”

You can read Wired’s full report here.

 

SXSW Media Roundup

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CNN’s Apple-themed party, Photo Courtesy Brian Stelter, @brianstelter

The media stars were out in full force at this year’s SXSW in Austin, TX, which was characterized by big questions like ‘How do we separate truth from fiction in our social media timelines?’, ‘How do you engage online audiences in deeper, more meaningful ways?’, and ‘What’s with all the apples?’

CNN’s Jeff Zucker hosted an apple-themed party dubbed “Go Bananas”. Fake news, get it? Think apple pillows, apple old fashioneds, and for Plain Janes, regular old apples. The apple theme comes from CNN’s new campaign “Facts First”, which you can find below. Also at the party, David Axelrod hosted a live taping of his podcast “The Axe Files” with Pod Save America host Jon Favreau.

The New York Times celebrated its music issue at Irene’s Bar with a live band and discussions on music, tech, and politics. The Times also gave out “Truth” swag to remind folks to check out their new truth-in-news themed campaign.

Vox’s Jim Bankoff and Kara Swisher hosted an invite-only event called “The Deep End” with dinner supplied by food blog giant Eater where Recode’s Kara Swisher interviewed Jose Andres to a crowd that included Sen. Mark Warner, Ezra Klein, Austin mayor Steve Adler, and Katie Couric.

There’s still plenty of politics left at SXSW. Politico’s Daniel Lippmann will be hosting a panel with Joe Lockhart, Tim Miller, and Aubrey Quinn called “Communicating in the Era of Constant Crisis” on Tuesday at 9:30am at the JW Marriott.

AFL CIO President Richard Trumka Praises Trump’s Steel Tariffs in Exclusive Interview with Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli

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Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli Scores Interview with AFL CIO President Richard Trumka

Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli nabbed an exclusive interview with AFL CIO President Richard Trumka, who out is supporting Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional district, on Friday, March 9th. The Pennsylvania election, happening Tuesday, March 13th, is the first special election of 2018. The victor will fill the seat vacated by Tim Murphy, who retired in October.

While Trumka is supporting a Democrat he is quick to give credit to President Trump for his recently proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum and says the move will help Republican candidate Rick Saccone saying, “You’re going to see steel plants expand their capacity. It’s going to create jobs. When you enforce laws, everybody gets a fair playing field.”

You can watch Cirilli’s full interview with Richard Tumka here.

NYT Haberman Says Trump Will Contact Reporters Directly in Post-Hope Hicks White House

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Maggie Haberman in front of Air Force One, Photo Courtesy Vanity Fair

Donald Trump stunned reporters in the White House briefing room on Thursday, March 8th with a surprise appearance, his first ever in front of the correspondents who usually grill Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The brief appearance acted as a teaser for his planned meeting with Kim Jong Un. President Trump is reportedly angry at Sanders for her comments about his legal case with the porn star Stormy Daniels.

Washington’s favorite White House columnist, New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, says that this move is indicative of a post-Hope Hicks White House and for Trump’s interactions with the press a sign of things to come.

President Obama to Netflix Spokesman Confirms Conversations with Barack and Michelle Obama

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The New York Times has exclusive reporting on conversations between President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, to join Netflix. “Former President Barack Obama is in advanced negotiations with Netflix to produce a series of high-profile shows that will provide him a global platform after his departure from the White House, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Under terms of a proposed deal, which is not yet final, Netflix would pay Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, for exclusive content that would be available only on the streaming service, which has nearly 118 million subscribers around the world. The number of episodes and the formats for the shows have not been decided.

Mr. Obama does not intend to use his Netflix shows to directly respond to President Trump or conservative critics, according to people familiar with discussions about the programming. They said the Obamas had talked about producing shows that highlight inspirational stories.

But the Netflix deal, while not a direct answer to Fox News or Breitbart.com, would give Mr. Obama an unfiltered method of communication with the public similar to the audiences he already reaches through social media, with 101 million Twitter followers and 55 million people who have liked his Facebook page.”

“President and Mrs. Obama have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire,” Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to the former president, said Thursday. “Throughout their lives, they have lifted up stories of people whose efforts to make a difference are quietly changing As they consider their future personal plans, they continue to explore new ways to help others tell and share their stories.”

Read the rest here.