Watch: The Video of 'Ashamed' Uber CEO That Has Him Apologizing (Again)

Ad Age "Media Guy" columnist Simon Dumenco's media roundup for the morning of Wednesday, March 1: There's the Trump-driven big story (No. 1) and then there's the story behind -- or rather, before -- the big story (No. 2), which is actually about a story that didn't become a story. Does that all make sense? Of course not. But such is life in Trump's America. 1. To get a sense of how well-received President Trump's Tuesday night speech to Congress was, here's a quick scan of some of this morning's analysis: "Donald Trump Finally Sounded Like a President" (Time), "Trump's teleprompter triumph" (the subject line of Bloomberg View's email news digest), "Presidential Trump" (CNN) and this from the normally Trump-bashing Daily News: Today's front page... DON HITS RESET https://t.co/ZGs8BBeZ3L - Takes brighter tone before Congress - Tribute to SEAL brings widow to tears pic.twitter.com/fIsSp3lcYr 2. That said, the most remarkable thing about this morning's front page of The New York Times is a story headlined "President Rips Up the Script, Then Sticks to the Teleprompter." The web version of the story, by Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman, is headlined "Ever a Showman, Donald Trump Keeps Washington Guessing," and reads, in part, When Mr. Trump sat down with television anchors at the White House for an off-the-record lunch on Tuesday, he was supposed to preview his first address to Congress. Instead, he suddenly opened the door to an immigration bill that would potentially let millions of undocumented immigrants stay in the country legally. Such legislation from the "build the wall" president would roil politics in the capital, and Mr. Trump told the anchors that nothing like that was actually in the speech as it was then drafted. But he turned to aides and suggested that maybe they should include it. (He didn't include it.) 3. Much of Eric Newcomer's Bloomberg News report headlined "In Video, Uber CEO Argues With Driver Over Falling Fares" isn't about the video -- which shows "a heated argument over Uber's fares between the CEO and his driver, Fawzi Kamel, who then turned over a dashboard recording of the conversation to Bloomberg" -- but about Uber's horrible recent string of bad PR, and how this video just makes it that much worse. In the wake of the Bloomberg story, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick apologized to Kamel and told Uber employees that "To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement." 4. The YouTube version of Bloomberg's Kalanick-Kamel face-off, by the way, is No. 1 this morning on YouTube's "Trending" chart. No. 2 is an Ed Sheeran performance video, and No. 3, well, um, maybe I'll just show you. Spoiler: Mayim "Big Bang Theory" Bialik guest-stars in this Good Mythical Morning segment, and per the video's description: "Let's put things on our heads and try and guess what they are." 5. Per the Associated Press (via washingtonpost.com) this morning: "US consumer spending rose at sluggish pace in January, as inflation reached 4-year high." 6. Via L.A. Weekly's Dennis Romero late last night: "New owners took over Los Angeles Magazine today and quickly laid off more than a half-dozen staffers -- all of them women, according to information obtained by the Weekly. A member of the editorial staff who did not want to be named said the layoffs included the publisher, the editor-in-chief, the head of digital strategy and the copy chief." 7. And finally, remember when celebrities used to "consciously uncouple"? That was then, this is now: Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are taking a break from their relationship, Us Weekly can confirm. "Before rumors or falsifications get out of hand we can confirm that Orlando and Katy are taking respectful, loving space at this time," their reps tell Us Weekly in a statement. Simon Dumenco, aka Media Guy, is an Ad Age editor-at-large. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.

Watch: The Video of 'Ashamed' Uber CEO That Has Him Apologizing (Again)

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