A question to ponder as we head into our week: Which explosive new development in the ongoing maelstrom in the Trump Administration will turn out to be the most consequential this week? Let’s see, we have:
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The firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe late Friday.
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The revelation that a firm called Cambridge Analytica bought private information harvested from more than 50 million Facebook users — without their knowledge — to develop techniques that were later used in the Trump campaign.
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Reporting that discovered Trump made senior White House staffers sign nondisclosure agreements that were meant to last beyond his presidency.
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And finally, Trump’s lawyers claiming in court papers on Friday that Stormy Daniels — who allegedly had an affair with him beginning in 2006 — has violated a confidentiality agreement at least 20 times, opening her up to damages of $20 million.
We’ve apparently moved on from the fallout from the earlier firestorm that was ignited with the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the speculation that national security adviser H.R. McMaster’s job was in jeopardy. (Speaking of his firing and that Daily Beast story that contained a crude anecdote about Tillerson’s firing, please read this story by Poynter’s Indira Lakshmanan, who cautions that off-the-record reporting, though prevalent throughout Washington, can burn journalists.)
We can’t possibly list the volumes of stories that have been written about the weekend’s developments, but we thought we’d bring you some of the ones we found interesting:
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“Is America on the verge of a constitutional crisis?” Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes write in the Atlantic that “There’s a better term for what is taking place in America at this moment: ‘constitutional rot.’”
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“Facebook may have violated FTC privacy deal, say former federal officials, triggering risk of massive fines” from the Washington Post.
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This tweet from Channel 4 News in the UK promises undercover video that will provide further insight into Facebook’s claims about Cambridge Analytica. Watch for news to break out of this sometime this afternoon (barring some form of legal intervention).
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This is a really interesting Twitter thread from Can Duruk, a technical product manager who once worked as a lead developer at Uber. One of his points: “B) A single repository of billions of people's private data has a life of its own, and I don't think even the smartest people on earth could protect it. Conversely, it already exists, so how we ‘divide’ it is unclear. Where are the seams? Who controls the new ones?”
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“Newly Emboldened, Trump Says What He Really Feels” is the latest from Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, who talked with a dozen people and reports: “Some of Mr. Trump’s allies have said that Mr. Trump was trapped in a West Wing cage built by Mr. Kelly, and has finally broken loose.”
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“What went wrong in the Stormy Daniels Case?” asks Amy Davidson Sorkin in The New Yorker. She notes that if the president would have just let her talk, the story would have been gone in a flash. Now, she writes, “the President’s lawyers seem not to have considered what Clifford’s next move would be: challenging the arbitration. They had, in effect, engineered something of a win-win situation for her.”
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And finally, this one is unrelated to the weekend’s events, but it packs a major punch: “What Hope Hicks Knows,” by New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi. The story is based on reporting that includes dozens of interviews conducted over five weeks with more than 30 current and former senior White House officials.
Quick hits
MARCH INTO JOURNALISM: Three journalism students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, say they’ll be covering next weekend’s march in Washington, D.C., for the Guardian. Kevin Trejos, Suzanna Barna and Lewis Mizen spoke on the #NeverAgain movement’s first international trip, to a global education conference in Dubai. The three high school students got worldwide support from the educators and shout-outs from Charlize Theron, historian Simon Scharma and “Quantico” star Priyanka Chopra. David Beard was in Dubai and reports the story for Poynter.
JUSTICE: Remember the African-American man who was beaten in a parking garage by white nationalists during the Charlottesville, Va., melee? We hadn’t realized this, but he was charged with assault for his actions before that incident. On Friday, he was acquitted of the charges.
EVEN WITH VIDEO EVIDENCE …: Police in New York still have a problem with “testilying,” according to this New York Times investigation.
AN UNEASY COEXISTENCE: “Shep Smith has the Hardest Job on Fox News” is the Time headline on a profile of the news anchor. It notes the tension between his fact-based reporting and the pundits who take over during the evening hours. Of his colleagues Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, he says: “We serve different masters. We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want.” Despite his odd-man-out status, Smith recently signed a multiyear contract renewal. … And to prove Time's point: Sean Hannity fired back on Friday in a tweet, calling him “clueless.”
UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP: Rachelle Cohen, editor of the editorial pages for the Boston Herald, writes of the sense of sadness as the newspaper comes under new ownership today. She ends with the scrappiness the paper is known for: “On the wall of this office which will no longer be mine is a framed front page of the Dec. 4, 1982, Boston Herald with its bright red 'YOU BET WE’RE ALIVE' headline — a constant reminder of a perilous time in a perilous business. That it is still alive — and will remain so next week — is the ultimate triumph and a tribute to those who were part of its history.”
A NEW DATE FOR STORMY: Brian Stelter reports that the Anderson Cooper interview with porn film actress Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, is scheduled to air March 25 on “60 Minutes.” Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney, also told CNN’s “New Day” on Friday that his client was “physically threatened to stay silent,” but he didn’t elaborate who did the threatening.
A 50,000-MEMBER BOOK CLUB: Started in January, Now Read This is a Facebook group collaboration between PBS NewsHour and The New York Times. NewsHour reporter Elizabeth Flock said the only criteria for the book selected each month is that “it illuminates something people are already talking about and would want to understand more deeply. … A lot of work goes in to what books will provoke thoughtful discussions and get people excited.”
MORE BAD NEWS: At a time when U.S. publishers can least afford a newsprint price hike, the Commerce Department has announced a 22.16 percent import tariff on Canadian newsprint companies it says are unfairly pricing their paper against U.S. mills. Because the costs are expected to be passed along, publishers are sounding the alarm.
THAT’S GONNA COST YOU: Snapchat saw $800 million of its value wiped out last week after a third-party ad incensed pop singer Rihanna. The ad was for the mobile game "Would You Rather?" It presented users with two options: "Slap Rihanna" or "Punch Chris Brown." Brown pleaded guilty in 2009 to beating Rihanna during an argument while they were dating. The singer posted this response on her Instagram account: "Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain't my fav app out there! But I'm just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess! I'd love to call it ignorance but I know you ain't that dumb. You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV victims and made a joke of it."
‘PARIS REVIEW’ REVIEWS EDITOR CANDIDATES: The magazine founded by the late George Plimpton is seeking a replacement for ousted editor Lorin Stein, who resigned after allegations of sexual harassment. At least a dozen people came before five members of the Review board of directors to make the case for why they should be the one chosen, writes Boris Kachka in New York Magazine. He identifies most as women, and quotes a member of the Review staff as saying: “There was no doubt a feeling that to do otherwise would be a middle finger to feminism.”
TAX MONEY AT WORK: Mother Jones magazine took a close look at a commission at the Interior Department to promote big-game trophy hunting and the “economic benefits that result from U.S. citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting.” What they found: “a reality-TV safari hunting guide, a former beauty queen, gun industry representatives, members and affiliates of a controversial trophy hunting group, and a veterinarian associated with an exotic animal breeding facility in Florida that sells endangered animals to roadside zoos.” If the thought of trophy hunting sickens you, don’t read this; it will enrage you.
POST-MORTEM ON ‘OVERLOOKED:’ Though the New York Times did the right thing by giving a good amount of resource and space recently to important women who never got an obituary in its pages, it still needs to examine its biases, reports Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in The Intercept. She cites as just one example the 2016 death of Venida Browder, the mother of Kalief Browder, who was pressed into activism after her son’s years-long mistreatment at Rikers Island led to his suicide. And there was this stat: “Of the 1,055 solo-bylined obituaries in 2017, nearly 88 percent were penned by men, according to The Intercept’s analysis.”
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