Welcome to the Reliable Sources newsletter. This is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter, who has departed New York City to celebrate the Fourth.
Quick housekeeping note: We will be taking the rest of the week off for the holiday, with Brian returning on Sunday. Now, let's get to the news...
Holiday news dumps?
| | Newsrooms will be operating on skeleton staffs from Thursday through the weekend as employees -- like most of the country -- take time off to celebrate Independence Day. Public relations officials know this, which is why they often time the release of unflattering news to occur during holiday weeks when reporters are off, and America is unplugged not paying much attention.
So as July 4 approaches, it's fair to wonder: What major news dump awaits us? Will there be a dump from the Trump administration, which is -- like always -- embroiled in all sorts of controversies? Or will a Big Tech company like Facebook, which has a history dumping news ahead of holidays, quietly release some information of significant importance? Only time will tell, but it seems more than likely that something will happen.
Military concerned about Trump's July 4 event
Our own Jim Sciutto broke news Wednesday morning that the military chiefs have concerns about the politicization of Trump's Independence Day "Salute to America" event in DC. Sciutto's source said that when the event was being planned, leaders at the Pentagon had reservations about using tanks and other armored vehicles for display.
NYT also published a story later about how the event has rankled some military and defense officials. The story included quite the quote from retired four-star Marine General Anthony C Zinni, who also formerly headed the United States Central Command. Speaking of Trump's Fourth of July event, Zinni said, "Leave tanks for Red Square."
Questions ahead of "Salute to America"
-- What kind of speech will Trump deliver at the event? Will he stick to a more unifying address, or will he riff about politics and the media?
-- Will Trump's festivities get rained out?
-- How much attention will the event get? Fox is planning coverage, but CNN and MSNBC are not expected to carry it live.
-- How upset will Trump be with the resulting news coverage?
Just try to imagine...
Stelter had a great point on Wednesday, when he summed up the past seven days, and questioned how the right would be reacting had Obama behaved in a similar manner: "Between Trump's tanks, meeting Kim at the DMZ, being 'honored' by autocrats at the G20, busing, and 'Mike' Bolton, the 'what if Obama....' meter is off the charts this week."
Related stories
-- Mother Jones obtained the guidance the Pentagon provided servicemen and servicewomen ahead of the July 4 event. It gave three sample messages, including, "I am proud of my job and my vehicle/tank..."
-- Politico reported that White House and RNC officials are "anxious" about the event, and have been "scrambling" to distribute tickets...
Trump calls his administration's own on-the-record comments "fake news"
First Trump told Americans not to believe anonymous sources. Now he's telling Americans not to believe on-the-record information from his own administration.
On Wednesday morning, the president stunned reporters when he tweeted, "The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect, or, to state it differently, FAKE!" Of course, those news reports were based on statements provided by Trump's own Justice and Commerce departments.
>> Axios reporter Jonathan Swan tweeted: "If nothing else, questioning straight reporting of on the record statements from two federal departments is an expanded definition of 'fake news.'"
...and causes a major shift in policy
Not only did Trump's tweet storm stun reporters and political observers, but it also ended up prompting the Justice Department to reverse course and seek to determine whether it would be possible to add a question on citizenship that would comply with the Supreme Court's recent ruling. That colossal shift in policy was leading the websites of major news organizations like CNN and NYT heading into the holiday weekend...
RECOMMENDED MEDIA READS FOR THE HOLIDAY
-- California has a new law governing bots and how they interact with users online. But will it "strengthen democracy?" (New Yorker)
-- Rebecca Traister writes that political punditry is "embarrassingly outpaced" by the candidates who "appear smarter, more thoughtful, and to have a nimbler grasp of American history" than those covering them... (NYMag)
-- Taylor Lorenz writes about how young people are "abandoning hyper-produced personalities for people who seem just like them" in this fantastic profile of Emma Chamberlain... (The Atlantic)
-- A look at the "simple way Apple and Google let domestic abusers stalk victims..." (Wired)
-- Why do people rewatch footage of sports injuries? As Sam Anderson writes, "Injury footage is deeply unpleasant. It shows a human in overwhelming pain, not only physical but emotional. Sometimes it shows the end of a career. And yet we can hardly look away..." (NYT Mag)
Meghan McCain, "miserable" at ABC, is thinking about leaving "The View"
More drama behind the scenes at "The View." Sources told Brian and me that McCain feels dejected and sabotaged by her colleagues at ABC, and is seriously considering departing the show. As one senior ABC employee told me, McCain is "miserable" at the network. A friend of McCain's added to Stelter that she "doesn't think it's worth it anymore." The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove, who was first to break news of McCain's dissatisfaction, characterized McCain as "exhausted and defeated."
One of McCain's concerns is a parade of recent leaks that seem intended to hurt her. She believes ABC should be doing more to defend her. But people I spoke with pushed back against that assertion. A senior ABC employee told me that the network has gone "above and beyond" to support McCain. And a television executive associated with the show also said any suggestion otherwise was nonsense. You can read our story with all the details here...
Fox Nation chief was accused of misconduct in 2011
The executive tapped to head the Fox Nation streaming service, John Finley, was accused in 2011 of misconduct, THR's Jeremy Barr reported on Wednesday. Finley, who was at the time Sean Hannity's EP when the accusation was made, was ultimately cleared after a human resources investigation found insufficient evidence, Barr reported.
But the probe did turn up what Barr described as a "problematic email." And two former Fox producers said the woman had felt she needed to exit the network following the conclusion of the investigation, Barr reported. More details in his story here...
>> Fox's full statement to THR: "This 2011 allegation of misconduct was immediately reported to the Human Resources department with a request for an investigation. Although no evidence was found to back up the claim, further steps were taken to ensure the comfort of the staffer, including the implementation of a new reporting structure."
Univision's owners are trying to sell the company again
Brian Stelter emails: Ben Mullin and Cara Lombardo's Wednesday evening scoop: Univision is exploring strategic options including a possible sale, a process that could culminate in a long-sought deal for the Spanish-language broadcaster's private-equity owners." Morgan Stanley, Moelis & Co. and LionTree are advising...
Here's how the Univision board of directors is pitching the assets, per a Wednesday night statement: "Univision's strategic value has never been greater... The U.S. Hispanic audience represents one of the very few certain growth opportunities in today's media marketplace... The demographic and economic drivers of Hispanic consumers will spur growth in media consumption and spending for years to come, and we want Univision to be in the best position to capitalize on this historic opportunity..."
This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"
Stelter emails another one from his road trip: Sunday is a ways away, but we already have some A-list guests lined up: Carl Bernstein, Catherine Rampell, Ret. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, and the first TV interview with the authors of the new book "The Method to the Madness," Allen Salkin and Aaron Short. See you Sunday at 11am ET on CNN!
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- What went wrong at the Youngstown Vindicator, the family-run newspaper in northeast Ohio that is shutting down at the end of the summer? Lukas Alpert takes a look, noting the closure of the newspaper "stands out because it has operated as a monopoly in a city of 65,000...." (WSJ)
-- The cartoonist who was set to replace the artist fired after drawing a viral image of Trump golfing next to the two dead migrants has quit. He said the social media backlash has been brutal and that he "wouldn't wish this on anyone..." (CBC)
-- A school district in Norfolk, Virginia, ordered high school student journalists to delete a video report documenting the school's poor conditions... (Virginia Pilot)
Adviser to Iranian president urges Trump to listen to Tucker Carlson
You don't see this every day. An adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted Wednesday advising Trump to listen to Fox host Tucker Carlson on the United States' foreign policy toward Iran. Carlson, of course, was one of the loudest -- and perhaps most persuasive -- voices on the right urging Trump to avoid military conflict with Iran.
The adviser to Rouhani, Hesameddin Ashena, tweeted that Trump "can listen to Pompeo and we'll make sure he stays a one-term President" or "he could listen to @TuckerCarlson and we might have a different ball game." I'm not sure I have ever heard of a foreign gov't urging a United States president to listen to a Fox host over a cabinet member before...
CREW deletes story on Heather Nauert
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington published a widely shared report on Wednesday which said that former State Department spokesperson and former Fox News personality Heather Nauert had received $167,000 from Fox after having entered government. But CREW's story relied on an uncertified financial report. In fact, the final certified financial report indicated the opposite, and a State Department legal adviser issued a statement saying so. A Fox spokesperson also told me she did not receive a salary while at the State Department.
Nauert turned to Twitter to point out the story was incorrect, and demand an apology. "Your report about me is flat out wrong," Nauert tweeted. Soon after, CREW acknowledged the error, saying in a statement that it had "pulled the post down" as the story "no longer reflects the information contained in the newest version" of the financial report.
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Sam Stein tweeted that one name floated to him as a possible buyer of ThinkProgress was Tom Steyer. But a Steyer spokesperson told him the billionaire "has no plans" to purchase the progressive website... (Twitter)
-- David Zurawik writes about how "ProPublica and NBC show how righteous media serve democracy..." (Baltimore Sun)
-- A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered the unsealing of up to 2,000 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein after the Miami Herald asked the court to issue a ruling... (Miami Herald)
Haberman answers questions from readers
NYT recently invited readers to send in questions for White House correspondent Maggie Haberman. On Wednesday, the newspaper published the answers to a series of questions selected from about 400 readers. Some highlights...
-- On gathering information: "There are encrypted messages, phone calls and meetings in spots where we won't run into people who can identify one or both of us. Protecting the confidentiality of sources is vital."
-- On Trump's view of NYT: "I do think the paper occupies a singular place in his psyche, representing, to him, the elites who he thought didn't take him seriously when he was a developer from Queens trying to move into the Manhattan market."
-- On social media: "We could all be better on Twitter, especially me. I have gotten into needless fights that have made me come off poorly, or made people question my intent, and I deeply regret those moments."
-- On the work-life balance: "The last four years have been very hard on my children, and I am trying to carve out as much time for each of them as I can. It means putting down my phone as much as possible and being present for them."
...Haberman also says she scrapped previous book project
One bit of news from the Q&A... In 2017, it was reported that Haberman and Glenn Thrush had inked a Trump book deal. Soon after, Thrush faced allegations of misconduct, and he was eventually dropped from the deal.
In recent months, there have been whispers that Haberman had also scrapped the project. In her Q&A published on Wednesday, Haberman confirmed the news, writing, "I am no longer writing the book that I was under contract to write."
Carl Cameron says Fox's prime-time lineup was "more than I could stand"
| | Former Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron spoke with Brian for this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast. Cameron praised Fox's news division, but said the "opinion hosts in prime-time and elsewhere on Fox had become more than I could stand."
Cameron added that he had "no objection to opinion hosts," but explained that he believed they should still operate in "accurate, fact based, verifiable" information. The former Fox correspondent also discussed Front Page Live, a website he is working with now that aggregates news from across the web.
>> LISTEN 🔊: You can hear the full episode of the podcast on Sitcher, TuneIn, and iTunes...
| | Meet your new "Little Mermaid"
Frank Pallotta emails: Disney made some waves on Wednesday with the announcement of Halle Bailey as Ariel in its upcoming live-action reboot of "The Little Mermaid." The singer posted a photo of an African American cartoon version of Ariel on Twitter, writing, "Dreams come true…" The film is expected to go into production next year.
>> Context from Pallotta: Disney has had some success in 2019 with live action reboots of its animated classics thanks to "Aladdin" conjuring up more than $870 million globally. And the biggest roar of all is possibly still to come with its remake of "The Lion King," which opens in two weeks.
"Stranger Things" tackles teen troubles in third season
Brian Lowry emails: For your Fourth of July bingeing pleasure, Netflix has dropped the third season of "Stranger Things," where the kids aging into their teens bring with it a new array of problems, but the same old threats, and more nostalgic 1980s movie and TV references than you can shake a collection of Stephen King books at. Read Lowry's full review...
>> Meanwhile, CNN's Paul La Monica considers whether Netflix's home-grown originals, such as "Stranger Things," are enough to offset the loss of acquisitions such as "The Office" as studios funnel more of those signature properties to fill the shelves of their own streaming services.
Merge the movie and TV academies?
Lowry emails another one: In the "This won't happen, but it's interesting to think about" department, THR's Stephen Galloway proposes a merger of the movie and TV academies — that is, the organizations that present the Oscars and Emmys, respectively — citing the blurring lines between the two media, including the question over the eligibility of Netflix movies such as "Roma."
While that's true, both academies have their specific turfs, and there are practical reasons to stay separate, making Galloway's assertion that "at some point the two organizations must become one" an overreach.
| | | Thank you for reading! Email me your feedback + tips while Brian is away... Happy Fourth of July! | | | |
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