Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Welcome to August! Oliver Darcy is in Detroit at the CNN debate, I'm in NYC, and this edition of the newsletter has contributions from half a dozen colleagues. We start with the debate that just wrapped:

Who won?

What does it tell us about the modern political debate process that... The top trending question on Google, during the debate, was "Who is winning the debate tonight?"

Afterward, the search engine said that Tulsi Gabbard was the most-searched candidate in all 50 states, similar to Marianne Williamson's dominance in 49 of 50 states on Tuesday night.

Oliver Darcy emails: This of course does not mean that Gabbard walked away with the most support of the Democratic contenders. It simply means that people were intrigued enough to search for her name. More Google data here...

The lead story

Maeve Reston, who wrote the night's lead story for CNN.com, summed it up this way: The candidates "ganged up" on Joe Biden throughout the debate, "leaving a noticeably more energetic Biden taking shots from all sides while defending his record."

Chris Cillizza says Biden came away as a winner, "barely." His other winners were Gabbard, Cory Booker, and Julián Castro. Noticeably absent from his list: Kamala Harris. Read on...

--> A decent # of commenters on Twitter said Elizabeth Warren won night two by not being on the stage...

Top tweets

-- During the final half hour of the debate, Michael Smerconish stepped back and asked "if the status of this race really shifted in Detroit? I suspect not. Some helped themselves. No one tanked. Many won't make next cut..."

-- Neera Tanden: "The last time we had a large field - 2007/2008 - the Democratic candidates spent a lot more time attacking the Bush record than these folks are discussing the sitting president that one will face next year..."

-- James Fallows: "Of 20 people on stage these past nights, Dems can imagine at least 6 or 8 as plausible candidates and office-holders. Trick is to get from 20 contenders, to 6-8 plausibles, to 1 nominee, with minimum fratricide..."

Who spoke the most?

No surprises here: Biden had the most time, followed by Harris and Booker. Yang was the candidate who spoke the least, with Bill de Blasio and Castro joining him in the bottom three pack...

Trump lingers in the background

For the second night, Trump was the most-tweeted-about US politician during the #DemDebates, according to data from Twitter. That's not super surprising, given the # of times the candidates invoked his name. But it's still noteworthy...

Darcy's first debates...

Darcy emails from the debate hall: Prior to this week, I had never seen a presidential debate in person -- and while it is great to watch on television, being in the audience offers a unique POV. The one element that does not quite translate onto TV is the energy inside the debate halls. Both debates at the Fox Theatre kicked off with applause that can only be described as a deafening pandemonium. The excitement in the room was also palpable at other times. When candidates delivered zingers, thunderous applauses often ensued. Regardless of politics, being there in person, feeling the electricity in the room, has been pretty incredible...

About those protesters...

Darcy adds: There were a couple of brief disruptions on Wednesday night. The first interruption came when a handful of demonstrators shouted for the firing of the officer who put Eric Garner in a deadly chokehold. "Fire Pantaleo!" the protesters shouted, before being escorted out. The second interruption happened when a couple of protesters heckled Biden for the Obama admin's record on deportations. All in all, everything remained peaceful and the protests only caused minor delays...

Yang took shots at the pundits

If Bernie Sanders played the media critic on night one, Andrew Yang played the role on night two. "You know what the talking heads couldn't stop talking about about after the last debate? It's not the fact that I am somehow No. 4 on the stage in national polling," he said. "It was the fact that I wasn't wearing a tie. Instead of automation in the future, including the fact we automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs. Hundreds of thousands right here in Michigan." He got meta and commented on the artificial nature of debates: "We're up here with makeup on our faces and our rehearsed attack lines. Playing roles in this reality TV show. It's one reason why we elected a reality TV star as our president." Yes, but everyone chooses his/her own role and lines...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Here are the closing arguments from all of Wednesday's candidates...

-- Here are CNN's fact-checks of night two... And night one...

-- Daniel Dale tweeted after night one, "One notable thing about checking the Democrats, as opposed to Trump, is that the statistics they cite are overwhelmingly either accurate or at least rooted in an actual source. With Trump, you have to be suspicious that almost everything is invented."

Tomi Lahren's repugnant commentary rankles some of her colleagues

Oliver Darcy writes: Fox News personality Tomi Lahren drew criticism for a reprehensible piece of debate commentary on Kamala Harris that she offered in a tweet Wednesday night, slurring Harris with the suggestion that Harris had used her relationship with Willie Brown to advance her career.

Lahren seemed to double down on her tweet, urging her followers to look into their relationship. I asked a Fox spokesperson if the tweet was in accordance with network standards, but did not hear back.

I did hear from several Fox employees who reached out to me on their own accord. "It makes me sick that I work for the same company as Tomi Lahren," one Fox employee told me. "Mindblowing how we give this woman a job." Another employee texted me the URL to Lahren's tweet, calling it "unacceptable." I reached out to the Harris campaign, which declined to comment...

Another hateful tweet from Trump...

Earlier in the day, Trump criticized the lone black moderator on CNN's stage, Don Lemon, by insulting Lemon's intelligence and objecting to a debate Q that invoked Trump's "bigotry."

CNN declined to comment and Lemon stayed focused on debate prep. But I took the opportunity to point out that hateful tweets like these, targeting individual journalists, are a safety concern.

GLAAD also spoke out, saying Trump's "continued attacks on the intelligence of prominent Black Americans are abhorrent and telling."

Tuesday's #1 program

Trump hit Lemon, but he wasn't done. He also commented on the "very low ratings for the Democratic Debate last night" and said "they're desperate for Trump!"

By "very low," he meant "down from the debut episode on NBC." The combined audience on NBC, Telemundo and MSNBC was 15 million for night one last month. On Tuesday CNN drew about 8.7 million viewers on TV and another 500,000 via streaming for a total of 9.2 million.

Still, the debate out-rated "The Bachelorette" finale on ABC and "America's Got Talent" on NBC. And the debate topped the comparable second debate of the 2016 cycle, as I wrote about here.

Still, Trump has a point: Dems have not generated the kind of viewership that the Trump-powered GOP debates did. Trump's first debate scored 24 million viewers on Fox; second debate had 23 million on CNN...

Lowry's take

Brian Lowry writes: For people outside the professional political / pundit / journalistic class, ratings seem like an imperfect way to measure the impact of something like the Mueller hearings and now the debates. It's pretty clear many won't commit the time to watching live but will consume the highlights in bits and pieces — either online, or on TV — over the next few days....

142 days since the last White House press briefing

CNN White House producer Allie Malloy noted that Wednesday was yet another milestone in the W.H. press briefing drought: It has been 142 days since the last formal, on-camera briefing, which is 100 days past the previous record drought of 42 days...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is set to be interviewed on "America's Newsroom with Bill Hemmer & Sandra Smith" Thursday morning... His first national television interview this week...

-- Trump is appointing Sean Spicer to the US Naval Academy board of visitors and David Urban to the US Military Academy board of visitors... (CNN)

-- This is a fun piece by Ben Paynter inside "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" social media war room on a Dem debate night: "How the real-time meme factory makes the funny sausage out of hand waving and other bits of debate-night ephemera..." (Fast Company)

-- Fox's Neil Cavuto asked his colleague Lou Dobbs a reasonable question — what has Trump done to "contain the deficits and the debt?" — and Dobbs lost it… (Mediaite)

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...

Luminary and NYMag's new collaboration

Luminary's newest podcast series is a collaboration with New York magazine called "Tabloid." The first eight-episode season, launching on Monday, is "The Making of Ivanka Trump," hosted by Vanessa Grigoriadis. Ivanka's mother Ivana Trump is one of the interviewees. Here's a sneak peek.

And here's the pitch from Luminary and NY Mag: Each season "will tackle a flashy tabloid tale, researching it to the hilt and revealing whole new depths of intrigue—and drama."

--> Grigoriadis has a companion feature story running in next week's NY Mag...

LA Times is struggling to grow its digital subscriptions

Wednesday's must-read from Joshua Benton: "The L.A. Times' disappointing digital numbers show the game's not just about drawing in subscribers — it's about keeping them."

Benton was following up on Tom W. Jones' Poynter report about a memo that revealed "the Times is nowhere close to meeting its digital subscription goal," having netted "only 13,000 digital subscriptions in 2019."

"We just have so much catching up to do," Norm Pearlstine told Jones. "So I don't think of it as ominous, but I do think it's important that we get out front after having been behind for so long."

This is about "churn" management, among other things. Benton has a lot of smart things to say here...

Gawker reboot is stuck in limbo

The NY Post's Alexandra Steigrad broke this news during Tuesday night's debate: "A planned relaunch of snarky news and gossip website Gawker is on hold indefinitely." Bustle Digital Group has laid off the staffers who were hired to run the site. Bryan Goldberg "said he plans to relaunch the site at a later, unspecified date..."

--> And "there's even more churn at Bryan Goldberg's Bustle as Nylon Editor-in-Chief Gabrielle Korn is exiting after five years," Keith J. Kelly reported Tuesday night...

Speaking of Kelly...

NY Post forecasts "culture clash" at Vice Media; staffers push back against "reductionist" take

Katie Pellico writes: Some Vice staffers pushed back Wednesday against Keith J. Kelly, whose recent article forecast a "major clash of cultures" -- not to mention "a new round of layoffs" at Vice Media -- if the company takes over Refinery29, as is rumored. Kelly contrasted "the male-focused Vice Media and female-focused Refinery."

Vice EP Subrata De told the Post "you got this wrong" on Twitter: "So tired of these reductionist items." She continued, "Had you bothered to talk to anyone who actually works @vice, including our many women leaders (here because we're damn good at what we do) you'd realize how wrong you are."

Vice News correspondent Arielle Duhaime-Ross tweeted that Vice is "by far one of the most diverse newsrooms I've ever stepped foot in. Relying on this tired version of what VICE used to be is lazy AF."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Per The Information, "Facebook has approached Netflix, Disney and other media companies about putting their streaming services on a new Facebook device for making video calls from televisions..." (The Information)

-- "PG&E Corp. told a judge it 'strongly disagrees' with a WSJ story suggesting that the utility knew its equipment near the ignition point of California's deadliest wildfire badly needed upgrades and nonetheless deferred maintenance..." (Bloomberg)

-- The WSJ responded by saying "the Journal's article on PG&E was deeply sourced and thoroughly reported. Company officials were given ample opportunity to respond in advance of publication. Their lawyers have strained to no avail to challenge our article, which we stand behind fully."

A senior Amazon exec is taking a sabbatical after 21 years

Clare Duffy writes: One of Amazon's longest-serving senior executives, Jeff Blackburn, plans to take a one-year leave in 2020. Blackburn has been with the company since 1998 and is now senior vice president for business development, overseeing Amazon's video streaming and production units, advertising and mergers and acquisitions. He is a member of the "S-Team," the inner circle of top executives at Amazon who closely advise CEO Jeff Bezos. Blackburn has been instrumental in many pivotal moments at the company, including making investments in cloud services, the purchase of online movie database IMBD in 2009 and the 2017 deal with the NFL to stream Thursday Night Football for Prime members.

An Amazon spokesperson said Blackburn is taking time off to spend with his wife and family. Jeff's sabbatical will begin in early 2020, and we look forward to welcoming him back in 2021," the company said in a statement.

The broadcast networks are suing Locast

Aereo redux? Nonprofit streaming service Locast is facing a federal lawsuit from the parents of the CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox broadcast networks, the WSJ's Joe Flint and Drew FitzGerald scooped on Wednesday. The networks allege that Locast "is retransmitting the signals of their local TV stations without permission, in violation of copyright law." Read on...

What else does Shari Redstone want to buy?

If/when the CBS-Viacom combo comes to life, Shari Redstone "has held conversations about quickly pursuing acquisitions that would help the company compete with other sizable media operations," NBC's Claire Atkinson wrote Tuesday. "Redstone has floated two different companies for possible deals: movie and television studio Sony Pictures Entertainment and nonfiction TV company Discovery Communications."

--> The next key date: August 8, when both Viacom and CBS report earnings...

"China's Fox News"

This is a great read by the NYT's Javier C. Hernández in Beijing: "Inside a bustling, 700-person newsroom in downtown Beijing, Hu Xijin leads a 24-hour propaganda machine that some media scholars call China's Fox News." Xijin runs the Global Times, "a popular tabloid controlled by the ruling Communist Party." Read all about it here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Moscow police say they have made an arrest in the gruesome murder of Russian Instagram star known as Yekaterina Karaglanova... (CNN)

-- The newest front in the culture wars: Mario Lopez has apologized for "ignorant" comments he made about parenting and gender identity. Some conservatives are defending what he originally said and saying he was "smeared," while others are thanking him for backtracking... (CNN)

-- "Steve Hasker, a top executive at CAA brought in by TPG as CEO of CAA Global, has left the agency" after less than two years, Ryan Faughnder reports... (LAT)

"Jane the Virgin" closes the book with pitch-perfect finale

Brian Lowry writes: "The final season and series finale were completely true to those values, offering a fitting sendoff filled with unabashed emotion and romance that neatly tied up the loose ends with a big bright bow." Here is his spoiler-filled review...

"Pro-Choice States Target Georgia's $10 Billion Film Business"

That's the headline on Anousha Sakoui's latest for Bloomberg... She says "Georgia's passage of one of the country's strictest abortion laws has triggered a nationwide competition to lure TV and film production from the state in the event of a boycott..."

Lowry's "Hobbs & Shaw" review

Brian Lowry writes: "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" is essentially a brand extension for Universal, casting Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in an unpretentious vehicle that's all about hurling macho insults at each other and blowing stuff up...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- The Woodstock 50 festival has been canceled, Sandra Gonzalez reports... (CNN)

-- "Woody Allen's $68 million lawsuit against Amazon for terminating his lucrative film deal has taken a hit. On Wednesday, a judge dismissed several of the filmmaker's claims," Eriq Gardner reports... (THR)

-- A former ANTM contestant, Kiara Belen, is suing Bravo, Ryan Seacrest Productions and others, alleging she appeared "nearly fully nude" in a 2017 episode of Bravo reality series "Shahs of Sunset..." (TheWrap)

-- By Seth Abramovitch: "How 'Succession' Became the Perfect Show for the Trump Era..." (THR)

Netflix's uneven march into movies

Brian Lowry writes: Netflix continues its uneven march into movies, making a big splash with the trailer for Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" on Wednesday, the same day the it rolled out Chris Evans' first post-Captain America role with "The Red Sea Diving Resort," an utterly mediocre rendition of a fact-based story about Israeli Mossad agents smuggling Ethiopian Jews to safety in the late 1970s, using an abandoned hotel as cover. It's the kind of movie that would have been in and out of theaters in a few weeks without the streaming service as a platform...

Behind the scenes of Meghan Markle's British Vogue collaboration

Marianne Garvey writes: I interviewed Salma Hayek about being part of Meghan Markle's British Vogue collaboration. Turns out, Megan had some strict rules about who could know what. Salma spills the deets here...

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