| | | | For Jimmy Kimmel, this is deeply personal | | If you thought Tuesday's commentary by Jimmy Kimmel was scorching, just watch Wednesday night's. Kimmel devoted his opening monologue to the health care battle... Senator Bill Cassidy's "Jimmy Kimmel test..." and his numerous critics.
Kimmel played Cassidy's comment on CNN's "New Day" that he "doesn't understand" the proposed bill -- and blasted Cassidy for "playing the 'all comedians are dummies' card." The proposed Graham-Cassidy bill is, "by many accounts, the worst health care bill yet," Kimmel remarked...
-- About President Trump wanting to repeal and replace Obamacare: "He just wants to get rid of it because Obama's name is on it..."
-- About Fox's Brian Kilmeade criticizing him as an elitist: Kilmeade is a "phony little creep" who's "dying to be a member of the 'Hollywood elite...'" | | -- Kimmel put up a graphic with phone #'s for five key lawmakers...
Bottom line: This is deeply personal for Kimmel... So he's going to keep pressing on this issue. Frank Pallotta will have a complete recap overnight on CNN.com... | | "A true sentence in 2017..." | | Alex Burns tweeted: "Jimmy Kimmel has emerged as a significant political obstacle to President Trump's health care agenda, is a true sentence in 2017..."
-- Kimmel appreciated this Politico headline: "Kimmel, not Cassidy, is right on health care, analysts say"
-- View from the right: NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck tweeted: "Now time for the Kimmel Political Hour, featuring strawmen Republicans as heartless ghouls who want children to die!" | | If there's one thing I know for sure about Thursday, it's that... there will be more leaks. Every single day brings new leaks about Robert Mueller, President Trump and Russia. On Wednesday the NYT's Michael Schmidt revealed that Mueller "has asked the White House for documents about some of President Trump's most scrutinized actions since taking office, including the firing of his national security adviser and F.B.I. director." He attributed this to "White House officials." Then a WashPost foursome -- Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, Carol D. Leonnig and Adam Entous -- reported that, in July 2016, Paul Manafort "offered to provide briefings" on the GOP campaign "to a Russian billionaire closely aligned with the Kremlin." Portions of Manafort's emails were "read to" a Post reporter...
Thursday's NY Daily News cover showcases the NYT reporting: | | "Broadening and deepening" | | James Clapper on "CNN Tonight:" "It appears to me that the scope of the investigation is broadening and deepening as the requests for information -- as they have been reflected in the media reporting -- seems to be getting more and more pointed and more and more specific."
Don Lemon asked: "Does this mean the president could be the central focus" of the probe? Clapper: "The inference you could draw is that he is. But I don't know that..." | | According to Tucker, the "real threat to our country" is... | | New rule: Wherever there's a leak of information, there's a Fox News personality decrying the leak. On Tuesday night Tucker Carlson said that the "permanent class" in DC, terrified by Trump's win, is using "secret surveillance and politically motivated leaks to menace their political enemies." The banner said "THE REAL THREAT TO OUR COUNTRY."
Look, Carlson's an opinion host. But on Wednesday Julie Banderas, a news anchor on Fox, called the NYT and CNN "irresponsible" for recent stories about Manafort, asking, "Where do these media organizations start to take responsibility for meddling in our U.S. government?" She said "it's illegal to leak this stuff. It should be illegal to report on it if you're reporting on top-secret information." I winced at that quote. Banderas is a journalist advocating to make some forms of journalism a crime. Earlier in the segment, her guest Howard Kurtz said "it is illegal to leak this kind of information and yet everybody in the media just kind of races past that..." | | The October issue of WIRED includes a compelling look at Snopes by writer Michelle Dean... It highlights how the site's founder, David Mikkelson, has downplayed his ex-wife Barbara Mikkelson's role in the creation and growth of the site... Dean says this "stands out with David because he has spent his career being scrupulous about the facts..."
The story is fascinating for all sorts of reasons, and readers of this newsletter get the first chance to read it... Here's the Wired.com link... | | Michael Calderone just started work at Politico... and on Wednesday night he landed this scoop: "Preet Bharara, whom President Donald Trump fired as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is joining CNN as a Senior Legal Analyst."
A CNN spokeswoman confirmed the news to me... and said his first appearance on the air will be on "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" this Sunday...
-- Also joining CNN's ranks of contributors: Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics... | | Leaked video shows Lawrence O'Donnell freaking out at staff | | Oliver Darcy emails: Mediaite managed to get their hands on a profanity-laced eight-minute video of MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell raging at his staff last month. It's not entirely clear what is going on in the video, but it seems something was wrong with O'Donnell's earpiece. "You have insanity in my earpiece. F***in!" he says. Things only got worse when O'Donnell heard an apparent hammering noise. "Stop the hammering!" he shouted. "I'll go down to the goddamned floor myself and stop it! Keep the goddamned commercial break going! Call f***ing Phil Griffin! I don't care who the f*** you have to call!"
>> Darcy adds: After Mediaite published the video, a regular guest on O'Donnell's program texted me to say that this behavior isn't out of the ordinary for the host. "He berates them," the person said. "As a guest it's stunning. It's uncomfortable." | | | O'Donnell tweeted Wednesday evening: "A better anchorman and a better person would've had a better reaction to technical difficulties. I'm sorry." | | Another sign of stress in the digital media biz: CNN Digital's shortfall | | CNN Digital is facing a budget shortfall of "about $20 million," and that's causing some "end-of-the-year belt-tightening," BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg reported Wednesday. Overall, "CNN's TV business makes up for stresses in digital," since cable news ratings have been higher-than-expected across the board this year. But, as Perlberg notes, CNN's digital biz has been affected by the same advertising issues that BuzzFeed and others been grappling with.
CNN's statement to Perlberg included a topline revenue # for 2017... something I haven't seen shared for CNN Digital before... and it also included a shot at BF: "CNN Digital will bring in more than $370 million for 2017 — its highest revenue in history. The company remains the #1 digital news source in the nation, handily beating all its competitors, including BuzzFeed, in users, video and even millennial reach. There are more than 660 people working for CNN Digital and there are no plans for freezes, cutbacks or layoffs of any kind. In fact, we are continuing to invest." | | The National Enquirer says sorry to Judge Judy | | | Oliver Darcy emails: The National Enquirer issued an apology today to Judge Judy on Wednesday after publishing articles that said she suffered from "brain disease," was fighting Alzheimer's, cheated on her husband, and that her daughter faced jail time. "None of these statements are true, and we unequivocally retract them," the apology published on its website said. You can read the full note here... | | -- "Lillian Ross, who became known as the consummate fly-on-the-wall reporter in more than six decades at The New Yorker, whether writing about Ernest Hemingway, Hollywood or a busload of Indiana high school seniors on a class trip to New York, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 99." (NYT)
-- Sean Spicer gave an interview to Erik Wemple on Wednesday... and on Thursday, "GMA" will air a Paula Faris sit-down with Spicer... (WashPost)
-- It's not just the big networks that have passed on Spicer... "Not even One America News Network" wants to hire him as a commentator... (The Daily Beast)
-- "Ayman Mohyeldin will soon get his own weekend show" on MSNBC at 5pm Sunday... followed by a new show hosted by Kasie Hunt... (TVNewser) | | Record-smashing sales of Clinton's book | | Frank Pallotta reports: Hillary Clinton's "What Happened" sold 167,000 hardcover copies in the United States in its first week. That is the largest first week sales for a hardcover nonfiction book since 2012's "No Easy Day" by Mark Owen. Clinton's memoir sold more than 300,000 copies across all formats, which includes hardcover, e-book, CD and digital audio books. "What Happened" also had the best week of digital audio sales in the company's history and the best week of e-book sales for any nonfiction book from Simon & Schuster since the 2011 publication of "Steve Jobs," by Walter Isaacson...
-- More: "What Happened" is debuting at #1 on the NYT nonfiction list... Katy Tur's "Unbelievable" is at #2...
-- Nate Silver's reax: "The notion that 'nobody wants to re-litigate 2016' is sort of a myth..." | | Ahead of her 9am launch on NBC next Monday, Megyn Kelly flew out to L.A. and taped an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show..." It aired on Wednesday...
This week's People mag also has a big spread about Kelly... Of her time at Fox, she said, "I'm not a political animal and I never have been. The subject matter was not true to my soul." More interviews to come... | | | Kelly will be on with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday night... | | -- Reporters in Puerto Rico sought shelter as Hurricane Maria made landfall on Wednesday morning. Now the island's lack of power and other essentials will be a story for days to come... (TVNewser)
-- The Miami Herald's Patricia Mazzei has the story of one San Juan radio station that stayed on the air even while losing its roof... (Herald)
-- On Saturday Univision will broadcast a live seven-hour special to "to benefit communities impacted by recent natural disasters..." (Univision)
-- In the face of plummeting traffic metrics from comScore, Mic is challenging the relevance of comScore's data, given that it doesn't factor in content consumption on social media. Huh?! (Business Insider)
-- Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: Craig Silverman points out that Trump is using Facebook ads to target his supporters and reassure them about the border wall... while asking for donations... (BuzzFeed) | | "NFL ratings are down again this season. Is it time to panic yet?" | | | Frank Pallotta's answer: No, at least not yet... It's too early to really know what's going on with the ratings. But this is a big and ongoing issue for the industry. Here's his full story... | | Today's Facebook-related headlines | | "Responding to evidence that its tools had allowed ads to be directed at users who used racist comments or hate speech in their profiles, Facebook said Wednesday that it would change how ads can be targeted," the NYT reports. Here's the announcement from Sheryl Sandberg...
-- Senator Mark Warner speaking on "AC360" about the Russia probe: "I wish Facebook would be more transparent and more forthcoming..."
-- Politico's Wednesday night headline: "The Senate's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is about to turn its sights on Twitter..."
-- Dylan Byers tweets: "Twitter will meet with Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, 9/29..." | | The King of Cable News Becomes a Martyr | | Tom Kludt emails: Back in April, just after Bill O'Reilly's sacking at Fox News, I went on a radio show to talk about the stunning fall for a man who for so long seemed impervious to any scandal or controversy. One of the hosts suggested that, if he were ever going to re-enter the public arena, O'Reilly would have to offer up a mea culpa. Not a chance, I said.
Now, I'm not claiming extraordinary prescience here; anyone even vaguely familiar with O'Reilly's career knows that contrition isn't his thing. And yet, the degree to which he has tried to make himself into a martyr is startling. As he tells it, several women have concocted bogus allegations as part of a "far left" plot. His downfall, O'Reilly repeatedly insists, is a reflection of "evil" in the culture -- not flagrant mistreatment of women, but a mob mentality aimed at powerful people who liberals find disagreeable.
>> And so the quest for martyrdom rolled on with O'Reilly imparting this pearl of wisdom to newly minted Fox News host Laura Ingraham: "I have to warn you — for 20 years of my life, while I was on the Fox News Channel, I was attacked personally every single day. You will be, too... They have millions of dollars to spend to destroy me and to try to destroy Sean Hannity, who was smart enough to fight back. They're going to come after you." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- A new WAN-IFRA report surveying 235 news execs and managers from 68 countries found that "reluctance to innovate" topped the list of answers to the question, "What is the single most important risk to your news organizations' future success?" (Nieman Lab)
-- The RIAA says that streaming retail revenues are up to $4 billion (a 17% increase from last year), and paid subscriptions to music streaming services now reach 30.4 million... (Variety)
-- Hulu and NBC have reached a SVOD deal that allows Hulu to show all eight seasons (194 episodes) of the original "Will and Grace" series, starting Sept. 21... (THR)
-- Quartz's co-president and EIC Kevin Delaney: "Pivot to video is code for 'we don't know what our business model is..." (Digiday) | | Why Glenn Thrush quit Twitter | | | "Reliable Sources" producer Lee Alexander emails: To tweet or not to tweet? For journalists lately … that is the question. Writing for Poynter, Indira Lakshmanan talked with the NYT's Glenn Thrush about why he recently left the platform. She also gives some great advice for journalists who are keeping their accounts active. If you want to keep your Twitter feed out of the headlines – this is a must read... | | Breitbart continues scorched-earth war against Trump-backed Senate candidate | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Breitbart continued on Wednesday to rip into Luther Strange, the Alabama Senate candidate backed by Trump and Republican leadership. Steve Bannon has backed Judge Roy Moore and, as I reported yesterday, ordered Breitbart editors to step up their overwhelmingly negative coverage of Strange. Throughout the day, that was on display. The far-right website's homepage was littered with stories on the race trashing Strange... | | Prestige TV puts premium on top writers | | | Brian Lowry emails: As Shonda Rhimes' deal with Netflix underscored, the infusion of deep-pocketed new players into the TV business, like Amazon and Apple, has put a premium on big-name writing talent, with Hulu's Emmy win further highlighting the dynamics of an industry in flux. And top agents like Chris Silbermann of ICM, who represents Rhimes, and WME TV head Rick Rosen expect the trend to continue... Read Lowry's full column here... | | "Battle of the Sexes" out Friday | | | Another one from Lowry: "Battle of the Sexes" derives its title from the much-ballyhooed 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. While it's surely worth seeing in depicting a seminal moment in the women's-rights movement, in the broad strokes, the movie is easier to like than love... | | | For the record, part four | | | What "Ratings Man" missed about the Emmys ratings | | Brian Lowry emails: As Vanity Fair notes, expect Stephen Colbert and perhaps some of his late-night brethren to have a field day with President Trump's tweet about the weak Emmy ratings. But at the risk of stating the obvious, the tweet's assumption -- that politics, and the broadsides directed at the president, were responsible for the mediocre numbers -- conveniently ignores a host of factors, including low-rated nominees on cable or streaming services, no "Game of Thrones" this year, and competition from "Sunday Night Football," to name a few...
-- An emailer adds: "If the Emmys are tanking bc they are too 'liberal,' how does 'Ratings Man' explain the late night ratings, where everything from Colbert to Maher to SNL are on fire?" | | | Email reliablesources@cnn.com... we appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
