The Hollywood Reporter – 28.02.2018

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 35 FEBRUARY 28, 2018

OLIVER: ROY ROCHLIN/FILMMAGIC. CONTRERAS-SWEET: J. COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES FOR SBA. BURKLE: STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES FOR LACM

A. PINTILIE: PASCAL LE

SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES. GATELY: MICHAEL KOVAC/GETTY IMAGES FOR A+E NETWORKS/LIFETIME. HANNITY: TAYLOR HILL/FILMMAGIC. CURY: KEV

ORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES.

Illustration by Bartosz Kosowski

↑ Television

NBA’s Game

Defying a downturn, ratings

hit a four-year high. p. 38

Film

Heroes Unite

Disney could tweak Fox’s

growing X-Men slate. p. 38

$246.78 (+9%)

MADISON SQUARE

GARDEN (MSG)

Activist shareholder Silver

Lake takes a 4.9 percent stake

in the owner of the arena in

New York and other venues.

$40.44 (-16%)

ROKU (ROKU)

The digital streamer says

it could lose up to $55 million

in 2018, while Wall Street

analysts expected a $36 million

loss for the year.

they even think about it.” He

points out that Sen. Marco

Rubio could have been joined by

Trump or Republican Florida

Gov. Rick Scott, but both declined

CNN’s invitation. “That’s

not CNN’s problem,” he adds.

From a ratings perspective,

Zucker’s town hall was a big

hit, winning its time slot with

2.9 million viewers (Fox News

still led the night with an aver-

age of 2.5 million compared with

CNN’s 2.4 million). But the gun

dustup highlights the increasing

polarization of news audiences

as even an ambitious and timely

CNN event — conceived as an

opportunity for students and

parents to share their grief rather

than as a Crossfire-style debate

on gun policy — nonetheless is

subject to heightened scrutiny

and cries of advocacy journalism.

“People even view grief through

T

he “fake news!” chants

started without a prompt

on Feb. 22, filling the cav-

ernous meeting room at Gaylord

National Hotel and Convention

Center outside Washington, D.C.

There, a pugilistic Sean Hannity,

hosting his Fox News show live

at the 2018 Conservative Political

Action Conference, told the

crowd that CNN had “scripted” a

question for a Parkland, Florida,

student to ask at a Feb. 21 town

hall on gun violence.

An hour before Hannity, fellow

Fox News host Tucker Carlson

had interviewed the student who

originally made the accusation,

and President Trump used Twitter

to amplify what quickly became a

narrative for right-leaning media:

CNN, rather than providing an

open forum for expression, had

effectively rigged the debate.

That the incendiary claim was

Jeff Zucker and Jake Tapper respond to meritless attacks on an ambitious town hall event as the

high-rated forum for Florida shooting survivors becomes a flashpoint for the new era of media wars

BY JEREMY BARR

subsequently debunked — with

CNN releasing emails among the

student, his father and a network

producer as proof — didn’t faze

some in the pro-Trump crowd.

In fact, even as the town hall was

receiving plaudits from the main-

stream media, the Florida event

was being used as an

example of how CNN

has morphed into a

partisan player. “CNN

has decided to take

this path where they

are kind of left-wing advocates,”

says Matt Schlapp, chairman of the

American Conservative Union

and organizer of CPAC.

It’s a characterization that CNN

president Jeff Zucker finds

insulting. “That criticism is silly,”

Zucker tells THR. “The fact is we

were there, we presented both

sides. People who want to criticize

are looking to just criticize before

John Oliver

A judge dismisses a lawsuit

by coal baron Robert Murray

over an in-depth segment

by the Last Week Tonight host

that described the mogul as

a “geriatric Dr. Evil.”

Maria Contreras-Sweet

and Ron Burkle

The potential Weinstein Co.

buyers’ $500 million bid

seemingly collapses as the

company instead chooses to

file for bankruptcy after

being sued by the New York

attorney general.

Liz Gateley

The Lifetime head of

programming exits without a

job lined up as owner A+E

Networks taps two execs to

fill the void.

CNN, Guns, Television and

‘Grief Through a Partisan Lens’

Heat Index

Showbiz Stocks

Feb. 16-26

Hannity

Adina Pintilie

The Romanian director’s

provocative sex-and-bondage

drama Touch Me Not is the

surprise Golden Bear winner

at the Berlin Film Festival.

The Re ort

Behind the Headlines