LOOKING AHEAD: Welcome to July! The month's biggest events are on the calendar: Independence Day, Robert Mueller's testimony on July 17, and CNN's Democratic debates on July 30 and 31. And don't forget the 50th anniversary of the moon landing on July 20...
Grading on a curve...
"President Trump lies so reflexively on trivial matters that world leaders do not know whether to believe him on important ones. This conduct has become so routine it barely merits notice," political scientist and former Bob Kerrey aide Greg Weiner writes in this new NYT op-ed.
"Routine" is a problem. "Barely merits notice" is a problem. On Sunday's "Reliable," I suggested that the media is collectively still grading Trump on a curve -- especially versus the Dems who want to take his job.
Examples: During Trump's travels in Asia, he repeatedly praised autocrats, leading Jim Acosta to ask, "What is it with your coziness with some of these dictators and autocrats at these summits?" To his credit, Trump repeatedly fielded questions from reporters. But, as HuffPost's Mary Papenfuss wrote, he "appeared to be confounded by the terms school 'busing,' as well as Western-style democratic 'liberalism.'" This was Jonathan Chait's headline for NYMag: "Trump Thinks Putin's Attack on 'Western-Style Liberalism' Was About California."
Oh, and Trump called John Bolton "Mike" again.
Some gaffes and misunderstandings matter more than others, of course. But one of my guests, Frank Bruni, expressed a concern that many left-leaning readers and viewers share: That the press will "penalize and vilify Democrats for doing things that Trump does every hour and every minute."
At the DMZ, the press was on the president's mind...
Even while taking a historic step into North Korea, President Trump was preoccupied by the media coverage of his trip and his perceived triumph. Jim Sciutto, who anchored CNN's live coverage from the DMZ early Sunday morning, said Trump made "more comments about the coverage than the moment and its meaning for the two countries."
This is not new, but it's still unusual. Here are a few examples of his gripes:
-- Sitting with Kim Jong Un: "When I put out the social media notification, if he didn't show up, the press was going to make me look very bad. So, you made us both look good."
-- Afterward: "When we put out that notice, knowing the press, like I do, if he had decided not to come, you would have hit me. You would have hit me hard."
-- "I mean, you don't report it accurately, but that's okay. Someday history will record it accurately."
Trump says the press has "no appreciation"
Amid all of this, WaPo's David Nakamura tweeted: "Trump thinks so much about the media and his image. He wants a grab for history. He should [choose] his words carefully at this moment in the DMZ. Instead he says: 'I say that for the press, they have no appreciation for what is being done, none.' Purely tactical, as always.
That "no appreciation" comment, BTW, was followed by a blatant misrepresentation. Trump claimed "there was great conflict here prior to our meeting in Singapore. After our first summit, all of the danger went away."
Earlier in the day, Margaret Talev with Bloomberg News did her best to inject some truth. In a question at a joint presser, she brought up the second summit, in Hanoi, and said "nothing has substantively changed since Hanoi. North Korea has tested short-range missiles. Why does Kim Jong Un deserve this moment?" Trump deflected by saying "We've made tremendous strides. Only the fake news says they weren't." And later: "We are so far advanced from where we were two and a half years ago that it's always insulting. And I think it's why the press, frankly, has lost such credibility. They've lost such credibility."
Around and around we go...
Bottom line: Was it anything more than a stunt?
That's the question heading into Monday morning. A stunt? A really expensive photo op? Or something more? On "Reliable," Bruni, Katie Rogers, and Bianna Golodryga discussed the coverage and Trump's praise for autocrats who oppose press freedom. Bruni called out Trump's talk about feeling "honored" to be with Kim: "It is not an honor to be there with a brutal, murderous dictator..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Betsy Klein and Kaitlan Collins' latest: "Ivanka Trump: Adviser, daughter, and, this week, diplomat" (CNN)
-- In Trump's dealings with North Korea, the "common element was that the drama played out on live television, and the president played the starring role," David Nakamura writes... (WaPo)
-- Shannon Liao reports: "A Canadian cartoonist's illustration of President Trump playing golf over the bodies of two drowned migrants went viral Wednesday. Two days later, Michael de Adder said on Twitter that he had been let go by a publishing company in New Brunswick, Canada..." (CNN)
Credit where it's due
Stephanie Grisham, the brand new White House press secretary, was "bruised a bit" in a scuffle with North Korean officials outside the room where Trump and Kim met, CNN's Jim Acosta reported.
Grisham was physically ensuring that American news crews had access to the room. Per Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs, the North Koreans were being "a little overzealous, at times trying to block US reporters' view." So it's significant that Grisham intervened... And thankfully she looked "no worse for wear" afterward, per Acosta. | | On Twitter, Ali Rogin of the "NewsHour" noted that these sorts of scrums often get aggressive fast... "Obviously no one deserves to be physically harmed and it should never come to that and I hope she's OK, but in this particular moment, it looks like Grisham was taking this aspect of her new role -- helping advocate for US access in international press pools -- very seriously."
And Frank Bruni made the point on "Reliable Sources" that her advocacy for the American press ALSO served her boss very well -- by getting the shots he wanted.
🔌: I'll be on CNN's "New Day" talking more about this in the 7 a.m. hour on Monday...
Trump and Tucker
According to Jennifer Jacobs, Tucker Carlson was a "guest member of the White House pool/White House staff for this DMZ trip." On Sunday evening Fox released the first clips from Carlson's interview with Trump, which will air on Monday night... Here, Carlson asked about Big Tech, one of the top topics on his show. Notice the statement he makes before his question:
CARLSON: Google, by some measures, the most powerful company in the world -- all information flows through it -- they're against you. They don't want you reelected. Can you get reelected if Google is against you?
TRUMP: So you know, I've been hearing that about Google and Facebook and Twitter.
CARLSON: Yes, that's right.
TRUMP: Okay. I won. They were totally against me. I won. Hillary—
CARLSON: They didn't think you were going to win.
TRUMP: Well, they fought me very hard. I mean, I heard that and they're fighting me hard right now.
Hey, speaking of the tech platforms...
About those anti-Harris smears on social media...
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Soon after Sen. Kamala Harris' debate-defining moment when she recounted being bussed to school as a little girl, a swarm of Twitter accounts began questioning the senator's race.
Context: Attempts to undermine Harris' identity as a black American woman have been festering on right-wing corners of the web for some time. On Thursday the claim was amplified -- but then quickly deleted -- by Donald Trump Jr. The NYT, The Daily Beast and other outlets wrote about this smear on Friday. And that's what led to Saturday's outpouring of support...
Harris campaign calls it a "racist attack"
Elizabeth Warren appeared to be the first Harris rival to come to her defense. Several other 2020 contenders did as well. Warren wrote, "It's within the power and obligation of tech companies to stop these vile lies dead in their tracks."
On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Harris campaign press secretary Ian Sams told me "we really appreciate all these other candidates who are speaking up." Responding to Trump Jr., he said "these are the same racist attacks as daddy tried on Barack Obama and they didn't work then and they're not going to work now. Period. They're not."
That said, he predicted that Trump allies will continue to "try to use lies and misinformation to attack her and bring her down." | |
Real rabble-rousers, not bots
Donie O'Sullivan adds: So where did this line of attack come from? From far-right-wing activists in the United States. On Sunday Twitter told me they did not find any automated coordination during the debates -- meaning the company didn't see armies of bots tweeting hundreds of tweets to spread the claim. BUT... it was clear that a lot of suspicious looking, anonymous accounts were pushing this message... meaning there could have been coordination on other forums to spread the attack using non-automated accounts. This is an even bigger challenge for Twitter...
Oxygen for the fire?
By Sunday morning, critics were expressing concern that the news media, by covering the anti-Harris smear, was amplifying it to a wider audience. I brought this up on "Reliable Sources" with the NYT's Katie Rogers, who wrote one of the first stories about Trump Jr.'s tweet. She pointed out that Jr. is a key Trump 2020 surrogate, thus a newsworthy figure.
Commenters expressed a similar concern about this story on the front page of Sunday's NYT: "Trump Consultant Is Trolling Democrats With Biden Site That Isn't Biden's." This scoop by Matthew Rosenberg revealed that Patrick Mauldin is behind the anti-Biden site.
The "slick little piece of disinformation," as Rosenberg put it, "had a big boost in May when a handful of media outlets — The Daily Caller and CNET, among others — wrote stories about the fake page beating Mr. Biden's and linked to it. Links from established media websites are weighted heavily by search engines." Rosenberg noted that the NYT did not link to the site "to avoid further boosting them in search rankings."
VF's Peter Hamby responded on Twitter: "In a completely unsurprising do-over from 2016, the mainstream press is amplifying disinformation on behalf of the mischief makers! Loving the sanitized 'we won't link to the site' as if people will never figure out how to find it..."
Facebook's new task force
Sunday night news: "Facebook has launched a civil rights task force and an election monitoring center to guard against interference in the 2020 presidential campaign and census," CNN's Brian Fung reports...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Heads up: Alex Jones was expected to be deposed on Monday, but it has been delayed...
-- "To defend against criminal fraud charges, Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes is trying to put investigative journalism on trial." I'd bet on John Carreyrou over Holmes any day... (Bloomberg)
-- The Beast's latest: "National Enquirer boss David Pecker tiptoes away from his pal Trump as scandal swirls and circulation drops..." (Beast)
-- "The editorial boards of the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer" are "joining forces..." (Observer)
"A big body blow" for Youngstown
On Sunday's "Reliable," I spoke with 2020 candidate Tim Ryan, the congressman who reps Youngstown, Ohio, about the impending closure of The Vindicator, the area's only daily newspaper. When the news broke on Friday, it was seen as another unfortunate milestone on the road away from local print newspapers. Ryan called it a "big body blow" -- "So much is pulling us apart," he said, "and those local papers pulled us together." | | Ryan said The Vindicator highlights local success stories and holds government officials accountable. "It builds culture," he said. "And that's what you lose when you lose the local newspaper. You lose that culture that pulls you together." He linked the paper's struggles to the wider community's economic difficulties... Plant closures leading to fewer subscribers and advertisers... Here's my full story...
About E. Jean Carroll's book
Believe it or not, E. Jean Carroll told me she did not expect the intensity of the media spotlight, even after her allegation against Trump was published on the cover of NYMag. She says people have been enormously supportive in person -- and she's tuned out the social media nastiness -- ahead of her book launch on Tuesday. She wants people to know that it's "not a Trump book." Here's the full story by Laney Pope, plus video of Sunday's interview...
Catch up on "Reliable"
If you missed Sunday's program, you can hear the podcast via TuneIn, Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, or your preferred app... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or catch the entire episode via CNNgo or VOD...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "The quarterfinal match between France and the U.S. at the Women's World Cup pulled in a total of more than 6.3 million viewers for Fox on Friday..." (TheWrap)
-- Fox Sports research savant Michael Mulvihill noted on Twitter: Afternoon kickoff times "that can be a challenge for TV are a boon to streaming... The last two USWNT matches, both weekday afternoon knockout games, are the two most-streamed matches in Women's World Cup history..." (Twitter)
| | Andy Ngo assaulted in Portland
In Portland on Saturday, "protesters from the left and right held separate demonstrations that eventually resulted in roving marches throughout the downtown core," The Oregonian reported. "Among the people injured over the course of the afternoon was Andy Ngo, the conservative writer who appeared to be attacked by Antifa members."
Ngo tweeted that he was in the ER and posted photos of his bruised and bloodied face. This story has been getting a ton of attention on social media, with conservatives decrying the assault and calling for wider media coverage of what happened. We don't fully know what happened yet. But even Ngo's fiercest critics on the left -- the ones who say Ngo wants Antifa to target him for political and profitable purposes -- should have no trouble saying this: The assault against him was unacceptable.
Looking back at Stonewall coverage
Troy Bentley emails: World Pride events were held in NYC and other major cities this weekend. This interesting article about Stonewall made me wonder -- 50 years later -- has anything really changed re: the media's treatment of protests?
"In the days after the Stonewall riots, depending on which paper you read, you would have been exposed to a vastly different version of events," Chad Painter wrote. The major dailies gave a megaphone to the police, while alternative outlets embedded themselves among the protesters."
The result: "If you were a New Yorker reading the mainstream papers at the time you wouldn't have known that a new civil rights movement was unfolding in the city." Then, and now, it really depends on who you're reading or watching. Here is Painter's full piece for Pacific Standard...
Amazing trailer for the next "Planet" series | | The BBC released a magnificent new four-minute-long trailer for "Seven Worlds, One Planet" on Sunday. David Attenborough shared the trailer with an adoring crowd at Glastonbury 2019. "There are seven great continents on which we human beings live... We have been making, for the last four years, a series about those things, about those seven very different continents," he said. "It starts later on this year..."
>> The trailer features music by Sia and Hans Zimmer...
Week ahead calendar
Tuesday: "Spider-Man: Far From Home" lands in theaters...
Tuesday 3 p.m. ET: England v. United States in the Women's World Cup semi-final...
Thursday: Happy Fourth!
Thursday: Season three of "Stranger Things" arrives on Netflix...
Sunday 9 p.m. ET: "The Movies" premieres on CNN...
Three weeks til "Untouchable"
"Tina Brown's media company is premiering a doc on her old boss Harvey Weinstein — whom she dubbed a 'gross, bullying predator,'" Page Six's Sara Nathan reports. "Brown launched ill-fated mag Talk with backing from Weinstein's Miramax. The film 'Untouchable' features interviews with many of the disgraced movie mogul's alleged victims including Rosanna Arquette, Hope d'Amore, Paz de la Huerta and Erika Rosenbaum. The doc, by director Ursula Macfarlane, will be screened July 21 as part of 51 Fest, a partnership between Brown's Women in the World and IFC Center..."
Despite Durant's best-laid plans...
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Kevin Durant was going to "announce his free agent decision tonight on his company owned sports business network," The Boardroom, which is carried on ESPN+. But then Wojnarowski broke the news of Durant's four-year, $164 million deal with the Brooklyn Nets via Twitter. Durant's team declined to comment until the announcement was shared on The Boardroom's Instagram at 6, Michelle Lou notes...
| | Scooter's shot...
Sunday morning's news from the WSJ's Anne Steele: "Celebrity talent manager Scooter Braun reached a deal to acquire Big Machine Label Group LLC, creating a mini-conglomerate with an array of businesses to help it compete in the streaming-entertainment age. The price was more than $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter..."
>> Variety has details: "Inside the deal..."
And Taylor's chaser
CNN's Marianne Garvey writes: "Taylor Swift called it her 'worst case scenario,' learning that her music catalog has been sold to a company owned by music manager Scooter Braun. Claiming she's been bullied by Braun for years, Swift took to Tumblr on Sunday to explain how upset she is that her songs with Big Machine Label Group ended up with Braun." Read on...
>> Via THR: "Braun's wife Yael Cohen Braun quickly took to social media to defend her husband..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Here is Lisa Respers France's guide to what's streaming in July...
-- "Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner have tied the knot again," this time in France, Michelle Lou writes...
-- Kendall Trammell writes: "Ahead of this weekend's Pride celebrations, MTV debuted a new season of the reality dating show 'Are You the One?' The twist: The show features TV's first sexually fluid cast. In other words, there are no gender limitations in the perfect love matches for its 16 contestants..."
"Toy Story 4" tops the box office again
"Toy Story 4" sold $57.9 million "in domestic tickets during its second weekend in theaters and made an additional $80.6 million overseas, according to the studio," the NYT's Gabe Cohn writes. "That puts its cumulative global ticket sales at a whopping $496.5 million so far. It also places 'Toy Story 4' slightly behind 'Toy Story 3' in terms of staying power, at least in North America."
The Warner Bros. horror movie "Annabelle Comes Home" was a "distant second," Cohn notes. "The only nonsequel or reboot in the top five was Universal's 'Yesterday,' which debuted this weekend and landed in third place, with $17 million..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- On Sunday's "Reliable," I spoke with horror movie maestro Jason Blum and "Loudest Voice" showrunner Alex Metcalf about their new series, which premiered on Showtime on Sunday night... (CNN)
Wanna feel old?
Megan Thomas notes: "Seinfeld" debuted 30 years ago on July 5. Crazy, right?
| | | Thank you for reading! Email me feedback anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
