Biden briefing room milestone; Psaki's POV; Trump's next interview; 'gag order' revelations; media week ahead calendar; remembering a book world visionary

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Welcome to the start of a new workweek! Brian Stelter here at 9:10pm ET Sunday with the latest on the DOJ, the NYT, the VP, the WWDC, and another better-than-expected box office weekend...

Back to normal in the briefing room

The White House press briefing room will return to 100% capacity on Monday after 15 months of pandemic-era social distancing.

This will be another highly visible step toward normality for President Joe Biden and his administration. The White House Correspondents' Association's pre-pandemic seating chart will be back in effect. Reporters will only need to be tested on a daily basis, regardless of vaccination, if they're in a press "pool" that day. (That's out of "an abundance of caution," the WHCA said.) "More than 98% of over 500 survey respondents reported they'd been vaccinated for Covid-19," CNN's DJ Judd noted.

Five takeaways from my interview with Jen Psaki

"This is a job of a lifetime," WH press secretary Jen Psaki told me in an in-depth interview that aired on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." My goal was to talk big-picture with Psaki, and to get personal, beyond the news-of-day Qs that get asked at the briefings. Here are five of the takeaways:

-- Resuming daily briefings, after the Trump era's ups and downs, "is something that sends a message to the world that we're not afraid to engage," Psaki told me. "We're not afraid. We believe in the free press."

-- Why she calls on right-wing outlets like Fox and Newsmax: Biden "pledged to govern for all Americans," so "that means talking to a range of outlets -- liberal, conservative, people who have different areas of interest."

-- What she's thinking when she "shuts down" questions with a conspiratorial tone or a vague accusation: "I also have a responsibility not to allow the briefing room to become a forum for propaganda or for pushing forward falsehoods."

-- Psaki cited her experience serving as State Department spox in the Obama years, when reps of the Russian and the Chinese media were "in the briefing room asking me questions that were directed by their government."

-- When asked about the fact that Biden has only held a single formal presser, she said "he takes questions several times a week" in more informal settings and she expects that to continue. Here's my full CNN.com story with further notes and quotes...

This next story, about press freedom, broke after I taped the interview with Psaki on Friday, which is why I didn't ask her about it...

An affront to the First Amendment

The New York Times' explosive Friday night story about being subjected to a gag order relating to a government leak probe caused fallout all weekend long. Let's just be clear: Spying on journalists is an affront to the First Amendment. And a "gag order" on a news outlet is oxymoronic.

There are still some unanswered Qs about the Trump-era snooping, including, were gag orders imposed on any other news outlets? (The Washington Post says it was not subject to any such order.) Why did the Biden-era DOJ advance this effort until recently? And how will the new policy work, exactly?

While Biden's Justice Department said Saturday that it will not resort to secret seizures of reporter phone and email logs in leak investigations, journalists "remain angry that it happened in the first place and have no guarantees that a future president (or the current one) will maintain those policies going forward," CNN's David Goldman wrote Sunday.

>> On "Reliable Sources," NYT reporter Adam Goldman said some US prosecutors have treated the media "like drug gangs." His records were seized during probes in both the Obama and Trump eras. "There should be teeth" to these new guidelines, he said, "it should be codified. There needs to be enforcement action so when prosecutors take these outrageous steps they're held accountable."

>> WaPo publisher Fred Ryan is out with a new op-ed about this subject. "The inconsistency between presidential words and Justice Department deeds dictates the need for full accountability and transparency," he says... "A full accounting should be produced and released for the American public to see."

>> NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger: "There is significantly more that needs to be done."

>> Of note: Kaitlan Collins' off-the-cuff question to Biden last month may have prompted this change in DOJ policy...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Katie Benner with the scoop of the weekend: During Trump's final weeks in office, chief of staff Mark Meadows "repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories" about the election. This is kooky stuff... (NYT)

-- CNN obtained the same emails and matched Benner's reporting. Meadows even brought up an "insane theory that Italians somehow used satellites to steal votes from Trump," Marshall Cohen noted... (CNN)

-- On Sunday's "Reliable," I discussed the debate about Trump's newsworthiness with Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, who said Mediaite stories about Trump still get lots of clicks... (CNN)

-- Nicole Perlroth's stark statement: "We are racing toward — in fact have already entered — an era of visceral cyberattacks that threaten Americans' way of life. And yet, despite the vulnerabilities these attacks reveal, we have yet to fundamentally change their behavior. What will it take?" (NYT)

Send me your questions about "HOAX"

This week I'm on a book tour for "HOAX," my accounting of the twisted relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News and the GOP. The book is coming out in paperback on Tuesday with twelve brand new chapters and newsy insights from Fox and WH insiders. I feel like I've completed the story of the Fox-Trump merger. Now here's my call to action: What do you want to know about the right-wing media mind meld? I'll share my reporting in a Q&A format later this week. Click here to email any questions...

>> To order a copy, check out Bookshop, Amazon, or B&N. And if you'd rather hear the story, a brand new audiobook edition will also be out on Tuesday. Oh, and here's some good news: If you ordered the e-book of the first edition last year, it will automatically update with the new chapters 👍

Here's a sneak peek...

This is the new prologue, the new first page, of "HOAX:"

"On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, when thousands of President Trump's deluded supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy sheltered in place with his security detail and racked his brain about what to do. McCarthy had promoted Trump's anti-democratic crusade to stay in power despite losing to Joe Biden. But now everything was at risk — the lives of his fellow lawmakers, the future of his party, the entire American experiment. Medieval battle scenes were playing out in the people's house. The police were overwhelmed. McCarthy needed Trump to call off the mob. So he placed a call to the most influential body in the president's life: the Fox News Channel."

That's right – McCarthy called Fox, before he phoned CBS or ABC or any other media outlet, because his own personal plea to Trump went unheeded, and he needed to get through to the man. My reporting builds on what was already known about McCarthy's maneuvers that day, and shows just how critical Fox was on January 6.

SPEAKING OF TRUMP...

Trump's dangerous campaign

Maeve Reston's headline for CNN.com about his Saturday night speech to the NC GOP minced zero words: "Trump advances dangerous disinformation campaign as more states move to restrict the vote."

That's how it was framed by some other media outlets, too. Trump's speech was a story but it wasn't treated like a HUGE story. CNN didn't carry it live. Notably, neither did Fox News. Fox ran a pre-taped episode of "Watters World" instead. But Newsmax and One America News aired the speech wall to wall. So did C-SPAN, by the way, in keeping with its see-for-yourself mandate and its 2024 coverage commitment... but I noticed a big uptick in Twitter chatter about whether C-SPAN was doing the right thing by running Trump unfiltered.

Trump's crowd didn't applaud vaccine accomplishments

Personally I thought the most newsworthy aspect of Trump's speech was the silence. The crowd was loud when it wanted to be – there was cheering and applauding when he promoted a ban on critical race theory. But when Trump touted the Covid-19 vaccines and took credit for 'em, you could hear crickets in the room. You could hear the vaccine resistance. Trump is newsworthy because he exacerbates divides in America, and because he makes them visible. In one America, vaccines are a life-saving miracle. In another America, they're not supposed to be applauded...

>> Maggie Haberman's comment: There's "real dissonance between Trump praising the vaccines and his administration's work on them and where some of his base is on being willing to take them..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- While Fox didn't carry the speech live, Fox reporter Mark Meredith interviewed Trump beforehand, in what was billed as an "exclusive televised pre-speech interview," And Fox Business host Stuart Varney will have a phoner with Trump on "Varney & Co." Monday morning. Fox is calling that one an "exclusive," too. So Fox viewers are seeing plenty of 45...

-- In response to Meredith, Trump would not commit to another Trump-Mike Pence ticket in 2024: "It's too early to be discussing running mates certainly..." (Fox)

-- Pence has decided to "bend to the will of a delusional man living in a fantasy world," Jake Tapper said on Sunday's "SOTU." But "you can't agree to disagree about the threat to the life of Mike Pence. You can't agree to disagree on the threat to the life of American democracy." (CNN)

-- A liberal group, MeidasTouch, is crying foul because Fox has declined to air its TV ad about January 6. But let's be honest – this seems like a bid for attention. Fox is within its rights to object to the messenger behind the ad, not the message... (LAT)

Sunday's big night of TV...

The Kennedy Center Honors are airing on CBS at the time I'm hitting send on this letter. Brian Lowry recommends the broadcast: "Covid resulted in a mixed outdoor/indoor presentation, and in ways felt like a breath of fresh air. Plus, as always, a lot of classy performances." Elsewhere, the "Pose" series finale is debuting on FX and the final episode of "The Story of Late Night" is airing on CNN. "Late Night" executive producer Bill Carter is live-tweeting along with the episode at 9pm ET...

Media week ahead calendar

Monday: Apple's WWDC begins with a keynote at 1pm ET. Details below...

Monday evening: A special edition of "AC360" features Anderson Cooper's hour-long interview with Barack Obama...

Tuesday: New nonfiction releases include Lawrence Wright's "The Plague Year..."

Wednesday: "Loki" brings his brand of mischief to Disney+...

Wednesday: The Tribeca Film Festival opens in NYC with premieres of "In The Heights" in all five boroughs...

Friday: "In The Heights" arrives on HBO Max and in theaters nationwide...

VP in Guatemala and Mexico

After some plane trouble caused a false start, VP Kamala Harris is now en route to Guatemala for "her first foreign trip as vice president, amid political pressure to stem the flow of migrants into the US." NBC's Lester Holt will anchor "NBC Nightly News" from Guatemala City on Monday and will tape an exclusive interview with the VP there. The sit-down will air Tuesday on "Nightly" and other platforms. The VP then heads to Mexico...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Should the infrastructure bill include money for local news? Here's why Steven Waldman says yes... (CNN)

-- ICYMI: Elahe Izadi's story is about "the new journalism — and the PR firms behind it..." (WaPo)

-- Over the weekend "Israeli police detained a well-known Al Jazeera reporter," Givara Budeiri, who was covering a demonstration "in the contested Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem..." (AP)

-- Budeiri's left hand was fractured, according to Al Jazeera. "Her arrest drew sharp condemnation from press freedom advocates and media watchdogs." A cameraman's equipment was also destroyed... (Al Jazeera)

-- "The darkest days of my life:" Read CNN correspondent Vedika Sud's first-person account of "reporting on India's brutal second Covid wave.." (CNN)

Microsoft removed 'Tank Man' images on Tiananmen Square's anniversary

Quite a "mistake" by Microsoft: The photos from Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 "were taken down globally from Bing, Microsoft's search engine, Friday — the 32nd anniversary of the event," CNN's David Goldman reports. "A Microsoft spokesman said they were taken offline by mistake, attributing the removal to 'human error.' The images reappeared around the world — outside of China — on Saturday." So what happened? Someone was scrubbing Bing within mainland China, in accordance with China's censorship rules, and accidentally applied the changes worldwide?

👀 on Apple

Here's some of what to expect at Apple's WWDC this week, per CNN's Clare Duffy and Rishi Iyengar: Revamped MacBooks. Updated iMessage features. And an overhaul of the iPad operating system. All the usual caveats apply -- nothing's official yet -- but we should see some redesigned MacBook Pros on Monday. Also: "Industry watchers expect Apple to double down on its privacy focus during WWDC this year." Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- The news about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's baby girl Lilibet was embargoed for noon ET on Sunday. That's how it works sometimes... (People)

-- "Fans of the couple hoping that a photo of Lili would be released are set to be disappointed, however," The Daily Beast reports, "with sources saying the Sussexes did not plan on releasing a picture any time soon..." (Beast)

-- Matthew Belloni's latest scoopage: "Chris Harrison, host of The Bachelor for 20 years and the face of the ABC franchise, is now negotiating his exit, according to two sources. Like many couples on the show, it's definitely not an amicable split." Belloni's reporting is in the subscriber-only "What I'm Hearing" newsletter. You can request a sign-up by emailing Fritz@Puck.news...

Remembering a book world visionary

"Richard Robinson, who as the longtime head of Scholastic Inc. presided over such bestsellers as J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' novels and Suzanne Collins' 'The Hunger Games' series along with a wide range of educational materials, reading clubs and book fairs, has died," the AP reported Sunday. He was 84.

The Scholastic brand is close to the heart of countless kids and adults. It is the world's largest publisher of children's books. And some of that is thanks to Robinson, who was named CEO in 1975, and was still running the company until Saturday. Robinson "had been in excellent health and had been overseeing Scholastic's long-term strategic direction and day-to-day operations for the better part of five decades," the company said in a statement...

Another better-than-expected weekend at the box office

Brian Lowry writes: "New Line and Warner Bros.' 'The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It' continued the trend of beating modest early-summer box-office expectations, although as Exhibitor Relations coyly noted, the $24-million domestic-weekend debut came 'despite being available simultaneously on HBO Max. The devil is in the details.' But the 'details,' in the case of these hybrid streaming-theatrical releases, aren't being made readily available, which explains why box-office reporting at this point amounts to covering the industry with one hand tied behind your back..."

Prince's birthday

Lisa Respers France writes: "Monday would have been Prince's 63rd birthday in a year that both marked the fifth anniversary of his death and has seen much focus on his beloved Minneapolis. On his birthday I have a story coming talking to his famous protégée and 'Purple Rain' costar Apollonia Kotero about who she believes is carrying on his legacy, what she thinks he'd be doing right now and how he was in the process of 'righting his wrongs' when he died in 2016." Look for the piece on CNN.com on Monday...

Time to live 'High on the Hog'

Lisa Respers France writes: "The weather is heating up, which means our thoughts turn to cookouts and such. There's nothing better to watch when we are in that frame of mind than Netflix's new limited series 'High on the Hog.' It's just one of the pieces of content I talk about in the latest issue of Pop Life Chronicles..."

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST....

Pet of the weekend!

CNN anchor Poppy Harlow writes: "This is about as wild as it gets in our house on Friday nights! Sienna's pajama party with her best friend Ollie, our Covid year rescue pup:"