Brian Stelter here at 7:40pm on Grammys night with the latest on President Biden, Rachel Maddow, Drew Brees, Facebook, Chris Harrison, Zack Snyder, and more...

The new Trump

Tucker Carlson has taken President Trump's place in the media firmament.

Is that a compliment or a condemnation? Depends on your POV.

But the similarities between the two men are striking. Every weekday, Carlson throws bombs, makes online memes, offends millions of people, delights millions of others, taps into White male rage and resentment, stokes distrust of Big Tech and the media, coarsens the public discourse, never apologizes for anything and -- perhaps most importantly -- sets the GOP's agenda.

Sounds like a recently retired president, right? Carlson starts fires, stirs outrage, and stokes Fox's ratings, all with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch's encouragement. "In some ways, he's smarter than Trump," S.E. Cupp said on "Reliable Sources." Her impression is that the Murdochs "are relieved that the GOP no longer wants to tackle substance and policy and just wants to live in culture wars," i.e. Carlson's speciality.

I led Sunday's show with this discussion because Carlson is causing the same debates that Trump did, and the same predicaments for newsrooms: When, and how, and how much, to cover his claims. Don't forget about the prospect of "Tucker 2024..."

My inspiration...

One of the people who inspired this "Tucker is the new Trump" argument was DC Examiner exec editor Seth Mandel, who tweeted the other day, "Tucker's baiting/trolling ability is Rodman-esque. The reason he won't be the GOP nominee is because he doesn't want it enough to run. Yet. He's the only one who in any way resembles an heir to Trump."

When folks replied to Mandel and said he was underestimating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mandel said "they're missing the point: DeSantis isn't an heir to Trumpism. He's out there governing, and doing a pretty solid job in a difficult environment. Tucker is a media figure who can get everyone talking about him." Just like Trump...

>> Jennifer Mercieca's reaction to my Sunday segment: "Tucker absolutely occupies the same media space as Trump and has been the most successful at using his same demagogic strategies."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column, involving Carlson in part: "Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure..." (WaPo)

-- I missed this the other day: "Former Fox News pundit Stacey Dash apologizes for her offensive comments" in an interview with DailyMailTV. She says "I've lived my life being angry, which is what I was on Fox News," and "I made a lot of mistakes because of that anger..." (Mail)

-- Kate Sullivan's profile of Adam Schultz: "How one photographer shapes the way the world sees Joe Biden..." (CNN)

-- Politico's new story about Trump being "adrift" in his post-presidency notes he has "avoided publicly responding to TV segments that are critical of him or the wave of recent 'cancel culture' headlines," but "he's been tempted..." (Politico)

-- Maria Bartiromo is back to host Fox's 7pm opinion hour this week... (TheWrap)

Media week ahead calendar

Monday: The Oscar nomination unveiling starts at 8:19am ET. Read Brian Lowry's preview...

Monday: Movie theaters across L.A. will continue re-opening...

Monday: Michelle Obama's healthy-eating kids show "Waffles & Mochi" premieres on Netflix...

Tuesday: New releases include Don Lemon's book "This Is the Fire" and "Fulfillment" by Alec MacGillis...

Tuesday: Virtual SXSW gets underway...

Thursday: "Zack Snyder's Justice League" arrives on HBO Max. Scroll down for details...

Thursday: The March Madness tournament begins with the First Four at 4pm ET. Here's the full schedule...

Sunday: "Q: Into the Storm" premieres on HBO...

Biden's next big interview

Biden's campaign on behalf of his newly signed Covid relief law will include an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that will roll out on Wednesday's "GMA." Per Playbook, Biden is also expected "to interview with local media during his roadshow." Further, VP Kamala Harris "will be interviewed by CBS' Gayle King on 'This Morning.'" Tara Palmeri pointed out that WH aides were absent from the Sunday show airwaves...

Presser countdown clock

Some corners of Twitter were deep into a debate about the importance of POTUS press conferences over the weekend. To sum it up: Reporters want Biden to take questions in a formal presser format. We "always want more," as April Ryan said on "Reliable." Many liberal activists and a few stray conservatives want reporters to lay off Biden and focus on more important matters. This back-and-forth will continue through Biden's first presser – and beyond.

>> So when will it take place? I asked press secretary Jen Psaki for specific timing info, but she stuck with the previously announced "later this month" timeframe...

>> S.E. Cupp said on "Reliable" that she thought the WH's decision to slow-walk Biden's first presser is part of "a strategy to be less visible" than Trump was, "but I think it's a bad strategy..."

>> Something I should have noted on TV: After Trump held the first presser of his presidency, he avoided the format for more than a year. And after he lost the election he went totally dark...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Is NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo banking that he can stay in power by waiting for the press and political crowd to move on? He was off some of the key front pages on Sunday for the first time in several days...

-- Biden explicitly weighed in on Cuomo for the first time Sunday evening when he answered a reporter's question while returning to the WH. "I think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us," he said...

-- David Zurawik on the Cuomo stories that keep coming out: "God bless the press for pressing him as hard as it is pressing him now..." (CNN)

-- Only Cuomo knows "what other names and incidents might come forward," Jake Tapper said on Sunday's "SOTU." He noted that Cuomo continues to decline interview requests... (Mediaite)

-- Justin Baragona's recap of Erik Wemple on Reliable: "WaPo media critic calls out CNN to its face over 'love-a-thon' Cuomo-on-Cuomo chats" (Beast)

-- Shane Goldmacher's story on "The Imperious Rise and Accelerating Fall of Andrew Cuomo" says Cuomo was "obsessed" with the ratings for his Covid briefings... (NYT)

More vaccine records

In recent days the US has hit new records for the number of Covid-19 vaccines administered in a single day. Or at least it seems that way. The data is complicated. Per CDC #'s, the US is well past 107 million doses administered at this point. "Currently, the largest reported single-day jump in doses administered is more than 3.2 million, and occurred Saturday morning," CNN's Michael Nedelman wrote. And on Sunday morning, "the numbers increased by another 2,697,779 reported doses."

No matter how it's sliced and diced, this is incredible progress. "Of the four largest single-day increases in doses administered, three have been on Friday, Saturday and Sunday," Nedelman wrote.

But here's the caveat: These are doses REPORTED administered on a single day. It doesn't mean people actually received the doses on a particular day. The CDC says healthcare providers are "expected" to report doses administered "within 72 hours," so it's not as simple as saying "Friday was a record day."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- From Richmond to Phoenix, some of Sunday's front pages "paid tribute to the lives lost to Covid-19." Benjy Renton shared some examples... (Twitter)

-- Other papers captured newfound optimism across the US: The Philly Inquirer's front page called it "A Return of Hope" (Twitter)

-- A must-read by Elizabeth Dwoskin: Facebook is conducting a vast study of doubts about users' doubt in vaccines. So far it is finding that "a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism..." (WaPo)

Sunshine Week 2021 promotes public access to info

Newsrooms and advocacy groups are hosting events to mark Sunshine Week, an annual initiative to promote open government and public access to info. Check out details and resources here. The AP is out with a package of stories about the importance of public records laws, including "Governments delay access to public records during pandemic" by David Lieb and "Governors evade sunshine laws to keep records from public" by Stephen Groves...

>> For more on this subject, tune in to the RS podcast via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or TuneIn...

"U.S. Has 1,000 More Troops in Afghanistan Than It Disclosed"

Sunday's most surprising headline came courtesy of the NYT's Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt, who also wrote that "having more troops in a country than the Defense Department officially acknowledges is common practice." The article refers to "sleights of hand" and "fudging of the numbers." Others might call it "lying."

>> "This is what happens when transparency is removed," the AP's James LaPorta tweeted, pointing out that the Pentagon is withholding lots of important reports about the war...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Hanna Ziady's latest: Harry and Meghan "sent a thundering charge through the British media last week with direct accusations of racist coverage, dividing the industry and putting a spotlight on its lack of diversity. Now, journalists want to know: will anything change?" Read on... (CNN Business)

-- ICYMI, I discussed the UK reckoning on race with Trisha Goddard and David Zurawik... (CNN)

-- Just in: "The Talk" has "canceled upcoming live shows amid CBS’s internal review of Sharon Osbourne’s racism controversy..." (TheWrap)

-- More proof that Meghan is fuel for the content machine: All four of the "Trending Now" stories on Page Six's website Sunday were about her... (Page Six)

Yemeni journalist freed after six months

Salma Abdelaziz reports: Yemeni journalist Adel al-Hasani, who has worked for CNN and other major media outlets, "was released from jail on Sunday after a nearly 6-month imprisonment, his lawyer Liza Manaa Saeed told CNN.... A US official involved in the push for al-Hasani's release told CNN 'the Biden administration had urged the UAE to use their influence with the STC (Southern Transitional Council) to secure his release.'"

AP photographer remains behind bars in Myanmar

As the situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate, dozens of journalists have been arrested. Among them: Thein Zaw of The AP. "Zaw's pretrial detention was extended at a court hearing on Friday," CNN's Julia Hollingsworth reports. The AP has condemned the charge and "his arbitrary detention..."

Are they or aren't they?

Entertainment sites have been full of conflicting stories about Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez for the past few days. Friday's anonymously sourced claims about the couple breaking off their engagement were followed by Saturday's stories saying they are still together. The couple said in a statement that they are "working through some things." On Sunday, per ET, Lopez mocked the recent headlines in a "cryptic" TikTok video...

>> Page Six, which started Friday's round of break-up stories, then quoted an "insider" on Saturday saying this: "Could they have a change of heart? Page Six might be responsible for bringing them back together."

Grammys night!

Many of the awards have already been handed out at the time I'm hitting send, and others will be presented in prime time alongside a bevy of musical performances. To get caught up, check CNN Entertainment. Here's a how-and-what-to-watch story by Chloe Melas...

Early winners

Here are just a few of the notable winners so far...

-- "John Prine has earned two posthumous Grammy Awards for his song 'I Remember Everything,'" the LAT's Randall Roberts wrote. Prine died of Covid-19 last April.

-- Rachel Maddow won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album "for the audiobook version of her latest book 'Blowout,'" TheWrap's Jeremy Fuster wrote.

-- Beyoncé's 9-year-old daughter Blue Ivy "has won her first Grammys trophy, making her the second-youngest person to ever take home an award at the show," HuffPost's Cole Delbyck wrote.

Geek week!

Brian Lowry writes: "In a pretty stark demonstration of bringing comic-book muscle to the realm of streaming, 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' -- all four hours of it -- premieres Thursday on HBO Max, while DC Comics rival Marvel drops 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' the next day on Disney+. For the uninitiated, Snyder's expanded version came as the answer to the prayers of a 'Release the Snyder cut' social-media campaign, after the director left the 2017 movie and allowed Joss Whedon to complete it..."

>> The NYT's Dave Itzkoff is out with a new Snyder interview...

>> Initial reactions to the new cut are very, very positive, per Collider...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- "This weekend saw box office of $20 million, with about half of all theaters open," Tom Brueggemann reports. "Raya and the Last Dragon" remained #1... (IndieWire)

-- Thanks to Disney's re-release of "Avatar" in China, James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster "has passed up Marvel's 2019 superhero extravaganza Avengers: Endgame to once again rule as the top-grossing film of all time at the global box office, not adjusted for inflation," Pamela McClintock writes... (THR)

-- "The Swag Must Go On:" Brooks Barnes and Nicole Sperling have a dishy read about Hollywood's pandemic-era Oscar campaigning... (NYT)

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