| | | | At an Axios breakfast event on Thursday, Mike Allen showed how simple questions can elicit important answers. He asked Ivanka Trump "do you think that we're the enemy of the people?"
She seemed surprised by the question. "Sorry?" The crowd laughed. Allen repeated the question. "No!" she said. "I do not."
One of the president's daughters, and one of his senior advisers, publicly broke from his Stalin-era "enemy" rhetoric. The Allen-Trump exchange stayed in the headlines all day along. So I asked Allen about his strategy behind the question.
"Being a reporter is the opposite of being a trial lawyer: The best questions are when you don't know what the answer will be," he said...
| | A question for everyone else | | A newsletter reader named Rafaella emailed me with an idea: "How about asking every interviewee -- before starting the interview -- the same question live for everyone to see: 'Do you believe the press is the enemy of the people?' If they can't simply reply 'no,' don't offer your platform. Respect their point of view but don't allow them to continue to promote their agenda on live TV offering them CNN's global reach. At some point this nonsense has to stop. It is beyond dangerous."
| | Rafaella's idea, of course, applies to Sarah Sanders and other Trump aides. At Thursday's W.H. briefing, Sanders had numerous chances to say what every patriotic American knows: That the press is not the "enemy of the people." But she passed up every chance, lest she publicly contradict her boss. "Enemy of the people" is "official White House policy."
Was Trump watching the briefing? Probably. Later in the afternoon, he tweeted, "They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!" This is a common tactic by Trump. He frequently tries to drive a wedge between "good" news outlets he approves and "fake" outlets he condemns. This is one of the reasons why real unity is so important...
| | A rally on Tuesday. A rally on Thursday. Another one coming up on Saturday. Here's the thing: Trump is singing the same tune. He's just being louder about it. That's the story of his rallies... and his tweets for that matter. Some of what he says is shocking and unpresidential, but also, on another level, sorta boring.
He's acting like "the media" is on the ballot in November. He did much the same thing two years ago. This week there's been a new burst of attention around his hateful rhetoric, and I don't think that's a bad thing, but I think we should specify that he's repeating himself...
| | Dispatch from Wilkes-Barre | | On nights like Thursday, when Trump doesn't say much if anything that's "new," his sustained attacks on the media stand out even more. He called journalists "fake" AND "disgusting" and so on.
Via CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who was there: "Remember when President Trump got good press? He does. He was waxing nostalgic about those heady New York tabloid days -- after spending much of the night railing against the media. 'I didn't need this. I didn't need this. I didn't need it!' Trump said of the presidency. 'I had a very nice life. I used to get actually good press.' He added: 'I didn't need this, but I love it.' It was a momentary riff in a speech that is running more than an hour. But in the next breath, he called the press 'horrible, horrendous people...'"
| | "A tale of two White Houses" | | That's what Anderson Cooper called it on "AC360." On Thursday afternoon the president's top national security officials sounded the alarm about Russia's efforts to "weaken and divide" the United States. The serious discussion in the W.H. briefing room was carried live by all the cable news nets. But Trump didn't mention it at his Thursday evening rally. Instead he said "we're being hindered by the Russian hoax -- it's a hoax, OK?" Thus, two White Houses...
| | -- James Oliphant of Reuters tweeted: Trump "bonds with supporters through a sense of shared grievance. Even though things are going well economically, there is still little positivity at these rallies. There will always be things to be angry about..."
-- The Daily Beast says Trump pal David Pecker and the National Enquirer have made "a conscious decision to pull back on their pro-Trump coverage..."
-- Meantime, is Trump ever going to answer Robert Mueller's questions? Politico has an update...
-- Carl Bernstein just now on "CNN Tonight:" "This is worse than Watergate because the system worked in Watergate..."
-- The Daily Mail obtained a small part of Omarosa's forthcoming book. Drudge's headline about it: "OMAROSA'S REVENGE..." | | Moonves and the elephant in the room | | Les Moonves had a message on Thursday's CBS earnings call: "I'm in charge, I'm delivering for investors, and I'm not planning on going anywhere."
He didn't say that explicitly -- he said it through his opening remarks and his answers to analyst questions and his confident tone. But he didn't say a word about the sexual misconduct allegations that everyone else is talking about. Nor did he reference his ongoing legal battle with Shari Redstone. It was strange. Here are a few key points...
| | Why didn't the analysts even try to ask? | | Jill Disis emails: It wasn't surprising that the call began with a statement that "the scope of today's call" would "be limited to the quarterly results of the company." CBS cited "the advice of counsel." Okay. But what stunned a lot of observers was that none of the eight analysts who got a chance to ask a question brought up the harassment allegations or Redstone.
One would think that regardless of CBS' request, they would try to ask. I reached out to a few of the analysts, but haven't heard anything back yet. A source tells me that the questions were not pre-screened.
>> Brian Wieser, a senior analyst at Pivotal Research, who listened in but didn't ask a question, on what happened: "Many companies, you'll notice, will only allow certain analysts to ask questions. Suffice it to say, you're likely to have analysts who are likely to ask questions that are not going to push the needle too much..."
| | Hey, that's not my typo, that's from the "CBS Evening News!" This embarrassing on-screen error is making the rounds in TV news circles... But to the news division's credit, it continues to cover the Moonves story on its newscasts...
| | Nathanson says CBS is "uninvestable" | | Thursday's actual earnings were strong! CBS is growing its revenues, adding more digital subscribers, etc. But "those things don't matter much right now," Michael Nathanson wrote in a blunt note to investors Thursday evening.
His conclusion: "We admit that while we have no clue as to what will happen here, we do know that CBS stock, at this point in time, is simply uninvestable." He cited the uncertainty about Moonves' future. "It is patently obvious that if Moonves is forced out by the CBS Board on the back of sexual harassment, CBS will be materially weakened by the loss of an irreplaceable programming executive…and the stock should fall further." But, he added, "before this issue hit the market, we would have said that CBS is also uninvestable due to the battle taking place between the CBS Board and National Amusements..."
| | -- Jill Disis has more on the earnings report and the call right here...
-- "Advertisers are remaining quiet," AdAge's Jeanine Poggi reports...
-- There were no updates on the status of "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager on Thursday. Here's my story from Wednesday...
-- LAT's Meg James and Richard Winton reported Thursday morning: "CBS board members learned several months ago that the LAPD had investigated an alleged sexual assault" by Moonves. No charges were filed...
-- Felix Gillette on CBS and "key man risk:" "By so closely enmeshing its corporate story with its leader's heroic personal narrative for so long, there's little room for CBS to delineate between Moonves's cloudy future and its own..." | | The view from the TCA Press Tour | | Brian Lowry emails from the twice-annual gathering of TV critics: CBS' statement on its earnings call is almost surely the line the network will employ at its TCA session, which is scheduled for Sunday. It's worth noting that in addition to CBS, two networks it owns in whole or part, CW and Showtime, are slated to present on Monday.
Fox, meanwhile, at its session on Thursday, again touted the benefits of "New Fox" being unencumbered by ties to a major studio. It's an argument, frankly, that runs counter to everything the major networks have been saying and doing over the past few years, when the emphasis has been on owning most of what they produce and exploiting it across multiple platforms, from streaming to international sales... | | -- This looks like it's working! Facebook's "pilot program" to help 14 midsize newspapers boost subscriptions is earning praise from publishing execs... (WSJ)
-- "Haim Saban is considering stepping down as chairman of Univision Holdings Inc. and has told associates he wants Peter M. Kern to take his place..." (Bloomberg)
-- Media and tech vets Brett Bouttier, Betsy Morgan, and Jeff Berman have formed a holding company "looking to buy and build direct-to-consumer companies..." (Variety)
-- Fox personalities Gregg Jarrett and Jeanine Pirro are No. 1 and No. 2 on the NYT's nonfiction best sellers list... (NYT) | | NYT stands with Sarah Jeong | | On Wednesday the NYT added The Verge's Sarah Jeong to its editorial board. The Times was praised for its effort to add tech experts to the staff. But within hours, Tom Kludt writes, there was "criticism and indignation from conservatives" who dug up "years-old tweets in which she spoke disparagingly of white people."
These digital wars seem to be happening more and more often. In this case, the NYT stood by Jeong, "while disapproving of some of the rhetoric she has used on Twitter." Read Kludt's full recap...
>> And here's the NYT's statement...
>> Jeong, who is Asian, said she used to respond to "torrents of online hate" with "what I thought of at the time as counter-trolling." While "it was intended as satire, I deeply regret that I mimicked the language of my harassers..."
>> To the surprise of absolutely no one, Fox's opinion shows accused the Times of "racism" on Thursday night... | | If you haven't read it yet, check out the note from Jeong's soon-to-be-former employer. The Verge said Jeong's main critics were bad-faith actors -- "online trolls and harassers" -- who "want us, the Times, and other newsrooms to waste their time by debating their malicious agenda."
Key graf: "They take tweets and other statements out of context because they want to disrupt us and harm individual reporters. The strategy is to divide and conquer by forcing newsrooms to disavow their colleagues one at a time. This is not a good-faith conversation, it's intimidation." | | -- Do you believe this? MoviePass says "talk of our demise is greatly exaggerated..." (CNNMoney)
-- "In a surprise move that could have major implications for Hollywood," the DOJ "is scrutinizing antitrust rules that for decades have governed the way movie studios do business with theaters," i.e. the Paramount consent decrees... (LAT)
-- ESPN VP Kevin Wildes will be the exec producer of "GMA Day..." (Variety)
-- Jessica Valenti "has secured a deal with Holt for her sixth book." The working title is "The Misogynists: Who They Are, Why They Hate Us and How to Stop Them..." (The Cut) | | Texas Tribune and TIME working together | | | On Friday morning, TIME and The Texas Tribune will announce a three-month-long "editorial partnership to report from the U.S.-Mexico border." Reporters and photogs from both outlets will work out of the Tribune's Rio Grande Valley bureau, writing stories and making videos together... | | Judge dismisses lawsuit against Fox News filed by parents of Seth Rich | | Oliver Darcy emails: A federal judge on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit filed by the parents of Seth Rich against Fox News, one of the network's reporters, and a Texas businessman. Judge George B. Daniels wrote in his opinion that he dismissed the case over the plaintiffs' "failure to state a claim."
Thursday's decision was not all that surprising for those who attended oral arguments in June. Read the rest here... | | | Via The Trace: "The NRA says it has not been able to renew its media liability insurance," at least partly due to Andrew Cuomo's pressure campaign against companies that work with the gun rights group. In court papers, the group says that if it "cannot secure a policy soon, it could be forced to shutter its multimillion-dollar television network, NRATV, or a number of its print publications..." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Wow, that was fast: A Daily Beast story published on Saturday, titled "How an ex-cop rigged McDonald's Monopoly game and stole millions," is set to hit the big-screen with help from Fox, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon. Universal, Netflix, and Warner Bros also entered the bidding war... (Deadline)
-- Liz Heron, the EIC at Upworthy and GOOD, said Thursday that most of her team was laid off -- and that she resigned -- from the joint company... (Twitter)
-- Elisa Gabbert asks: "Is compassion fatigue inevitable in an age of 24-hour news?" (The Guardian)
-- Historian and author James W. Loewen draws a line from poorly taught history classes to the current "post-truth" era... (The Atlantic) | | When Apple crossed the $1 trillion mark... | | "Apple just became the first American public company to cross $1 trillion in value," CNNMoney's Paul R. La Monica wrote Thursday. The company's stock is up more than 20% for the year.
How did Businessweek mark the occasion? This is one of the ways: A clever tweet mocking its infamous 1996 cover story about Apple, "The fall of an American icon..." | | Congress to press Facebook, Twitter on lack of coordination re: Russian troll threat | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: Facebook's announcement on Tuesday that it had detected and removed suspicious accounts targeting Americans was some much-needed good publicity for the company after last week's stock disaster. But not everyone was happy about it. Twitter began calling lawmakers on Tuesday essentially asking what took Facebook so long, a congressional source tells us. The calls prompted concern on the Hill about the apparent lack of coordination between the companies on the issue ahead of the midterms, we're told...
>> PLUS: From Russia With Love? The mystery Facebook account that sent one New York activist a bunch of red roses... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Daniella Emanuel:
-- A U.N. expert on freedom of expression said Thursday that Trump's attacks on the press could lead to violence against journalists... (Reuters)
-- To keep up with the constant firings and changes in the Trump admin, news outlets have been prewriting stories, Charles Bethea reports... (The New Yorker)
-- Viceland has ordered "American Junkie," a docuseries on the opioid crisis, for a Sept. 12 premiere date...(Deadline)
-- Casey Newton interviewed Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom about how the company has beat out Snapchat with Instagram Stories...(The Verge)
-- And here's a related chart all about that from Recode... | | Why is Warner Music buying Uproxx? | | | Warner Music says the deal is part of redefining "what it means to be a dynamic, future-focused music company." The acquisition of Uproxx (a digital publisher focusing on "youth culture") was announced on Thursday... No terms were disclosed... THR has more here... | | | For the record, part five | | | By Emily Kohlman:
-- Get caught up on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of Parliament's 18-month look at the "fake news" problem... (Poynter)
-- Google plans to work with news orgs like ProPublica to return more datasets in search results after a Google News Lab study found that just more than 50 percent of US news orgs have at least one data journalist on staff… (NiemanLab)
-- A short story by Ernest Hemingway, written in 1956, was published for the first time on Thursday... (NYT) | | Fox's reality show strategy | | "Fox has been fighting the notion that the network will shift to a model dependent on sports, live events, and unscripted programming" once the broadcast network is divorced from the Fox studio.
But as Variety's Daniel Holloway notes here, more and more of Fox's real estate "is being given to unscripted shows." At the TCA press tour on Thursday, "Fox revealed series orders for three new unscripted programs: competition show 'The Masked Singer' and game shows 'Spin the Wheel' and 'Mental Samurai.'"
I'm most interested in "Spin the Wheel," which will be hosted by Dax Shepard, exec-produced by Justin Timberlake, and will feature a prize of up to $20 million... | | Tim Allen speaks about the "Last Man Standing" revival | | | Sandra Gonzalez has all the details from TCA here... Allen said he believes ABC's cancellation of his series was a "financial" decision, not an ideological one... Now the sitcom is back, on Fox, and his character remains a conservative Republican... But Allen said "I don't think we're going to comment specifically on Trump" on the show... | | Lowry's weekend movie reviews | | | Brian Lowry emails: The hunt for the next "The Hunger Games" has been a preoccupation for the major studios, but other major young-adult movie hits have proven elusive. "The Darkest Minds" — intended to be the first of a trilogy devoted to Alexandra Bracken's book — is an especially derivative addition to the genre. It marks the live-action debut of "Kung Fu Panda" sequel director Jennifer Yuh Nelson. | | | Disney fares better with "Christopher Robin," a sweet riff on the Winnie the Pooh characters, with a spoonful of "Mary Poppins" worked into the plot. The studio, however, doesn't seem to think reviews are going to drive attendance... Reviews were embargoed until 10pm ET Thursday... So here's what I posted just now... | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- It's not just Beyoncé: Rihanna is also making Vogue history...
-- Paris Jackson is putting to rest rumors that Demi Lovato's apparent drug overdose is inspiring her to enter rehab...
-- Linda Hamilton is back as "Terminator's" Sarah Connor and she looks majorly bad ass...
-- Call your girlfriend! Robyn is back, with new music... | | | Thanks for reading! Email me your feedback... We'll be back tomorrow... | | | | | | |
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