SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

THREE CNN EMPLOYEES QUIT OVER FAKE STORY – FROM THE WRAP:  Three CNN employees have handed in their resignations over a retracted story linking President Trump to Russia, the network announced Monday.  The article was removed from CNN.com on Friday after the network decided it could no longer stand by its reporting.  “In the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignation of the employees involved in the story’s publication,” a network spokesperson told TheWrap in a statement.  One gets the feeling that some people at CNN are finally coming to their senses about the "anti-Trump all the time" programming that has defined the network for months.  Such self-realization does not seem present at the three major networks or at The New York Times or Washington Post.

MEGYN COLLAPSING – FROM VARIETY:  “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly” continued its downward trajectory in the Sunday overnight ratings, with the new NBC newsmagazine slipping to a new low in both the key demo and total viewers. Meanwhile, Fox fell to an average of less than 1 million viewers on a rerun-dominated night.  Airing at 7 p.m., “Sunday Night” averaged a 0.4 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. That is down from a 0.5 and 3.6 million viewers last week’s episode, which featured Kelly’s controversial interview with InfoWars founder Alex Jones.  I have nothing against her and wish her well.  But I wonder if she's been so over-hyped that she cannot possibly meet expectations.  She's supposed to take over a full hour of the Today Show, although I wonder whether NBC will go forward with that plan in the face of her low ratings.  I have a sense also that many viewers may resent her rocket ride to fame, and may also resent the fact that she abandoned the network, Fox, that made her famous.

AND THE WINNER IS – FROM AFP:   Moscow (AFP) - Russians have picked Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin as the greatest figure in history, a new poll said Monday, beating President Vladimir Putin into joint second alongside poet Alexander Pushkin.  In the poll conducted in April by the Levada Centre independent pollster, Russians were asked to pick the ten greatest individuals of all time.  Stalin came out on top with 38 percent, while Putin shared second place on 34 percent with Russia's beloved national bard Pushkin.  Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, Tsar Peter the Great and first man in space Yury Gagarin came next in the list of 20 people, with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in last place on six percent.  Strange taste, these Russians.  Stalin is the greatest?  Putin is second?  What about Elvis?

June 26, 2017