| | | | | Exec summary: Disney's fee fight with Altice over ESPN is now public... Jimmy Kimmel is thanking John McCain... the NYT has a new media editor... plus, scroll down for updates on Facebook and a preview of this Sunday's show... | | Trump opines on NFL, Clinton, Sessions, health care, Twitter, Melania's shoes | | President Trump played his hits at an Alabama rally on Friday night... resorting to his favorite anti-media talking points... firing up his crowd but bending the truth at the same time. He repeated his usual line about journalists being "among the most dishonest people." He complained that the networks refuse to show his crowds, at the exact same time CNN and Fox showed wide shots of the crowd. And he falsely accused CNN of turning off its live camera because he called the channel "fake news."
I know what you're wondering -- did he say anything new, different, unexpected? Yes... | | Enough soundbites for an entire weekend | | | CNNPolitics' Sophie Tatum wrote five separate stories about the rally (!!) while Eric Bradner wrote the mainbar. Newsy bits: Trump said he "hopes" Hillary Clinton runs again in 2020... When the crowd chanted "lock her up," he said they should talk to Jeff Sessions... He blasted criticism of Melania Trump's decision to wear high heels while heading to Texas after Hurricane Harvey... He touted his use of Twitter... And on the topic of Obamacare repeal and replace, he said "we're going to do it eventually..." | | Trump said "NFL ratings are down massively" (not true) | | When the president mentioned the national anthem protests at NFL games, I had a feeling he'd bring up the ratings. Sure enough, he said "the NFL ratings are down massively." But instead of blaming the Nielsen declines (which have been modest, not massive) on Colin Kaepernick and co., he said, "the #1 reason happens to be that they like watching what's happening... with yours truly." Meaning politics/news. Still, he said the protests are "hurting the game," and he said NFL owners should fire the players who participate. This is likely to trigger a brand new news cycle over the weekend...
-- More: Trump, channeling "The Apprentice," described what he'd like to hear from NFL owners: "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he's fired. He's fired!" Trump added: "For a week, [that owner would] be the most popular person in this country. Because that's a total disrespect of our heritage. That's a total disrespect for everything we stand for." Here's Sophie Tatum's full story for CNNPolitics... | | "Prediction," ESPN's Jemele Hill wrote on Twitter after the rally, "not one NFL owner, not Roger Goodell will say one word about what he said about Kaep or other NFL players. Not. A. One."
-- As the WSJ's Jason Gay said earlier this week: "Sports are political. Period."
-- NRO's David French: "I'd bet real money more players take a knee this week..." | | "I call it the Russian HOAX" | | Trump has used the word "hoax" in connection with Russia every month for the past six months. He started doing it in March. On Friday, he did it on Twitter AND at the rally...
"No, Russia did not help me," he said at the rally. "I call it the Russian HOAX. One of the great hoaxes."
I know it's easy to get numb to this nonsensical rhetoric... but c'mon. On "The Lead," Jake Tapper pointed out that "the entire government has been clear that Russia meddled... There is, in fact, only one major figure in the entire U.S. national security apparatus who does not accept that Russian election interference happened. And that happens to be the person who would have most directly benefited from it," i.e. the president... | | Breitbart reporter stopped from attending the rally? | | | "Breitbart News was denied entry" to the rally, the Washington Examiner reported. There was speculation that Breitbart was blocked because it has been attacking Strange and promoting Roy Moore. (Oliver Darcy reported earlier this week that Steve Bannon ordered the anti-Strange coverage.) As David Drucker tweeted: This is "as uncool as when this happened to mainstream outlets." Later in the evening, Jeff Poor said he belatedly "made it in, with an assist from the White House. Better late than never." The site covered the news this way: "Low-level Luther Strange staffer briefly blocks Breitbart News from entering Trump rally..." | | On Friday night Disney made its fight with Altice public. It warned customers that they might lose ESPN and other Disney channels at the end of the month. Here we go...
The deadline is September 30. Disney says "our company has never had a disruption of service for our family of networks and there is no reason that should change now." Altice says Disney is demanding "hundreds of millions of dollars more in retransmission costs and sports programming fees, among other outrageous anti-consumer demands that impede Altice from offering more flexible video packages for customers." Here's my full story... | | Did Jimmy Kimmel help kill the health care bill? | | Frank Pallotta emails: Jimmy Kimmel spent the week on TV battling a health care bill he didn't believe in. On Friday, Kimmel may have won. Following McCain's announcement that he won't vote for the new GOP bill, Kimmel took to Twitter to say, "Thank you @SenJohnMcCain for being a hero again and again and now AGAIN." Read more...
-- Bill Carter: "Nothing is as arcane as this health care debate and what Jimmy has done is boil it down to a basic question: Will we be okay if my kid gets sick?"
-- Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff tweeted Friday night: "KIMMEL 2020!" | | Kimmel was in touch with Schumer... | | The Daily Beast's scoop: "Kimmel and his team were in touch with health care officials, charities and advocacy groups, multiple sources told The Daily Beast. He also was in touch with the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) who, according to a source familiar with their conversations, 'provided technical guidance and info about the bill, as well as stats from various think tanks and experts on the effects of [Graham-Cassidy].'"
--> Kimmel's spokesman Lewis Kay confirmed to me: "We've heard from and spoken to a lot of people, including Senator Schumer and the many charities and healthcare organizations that oppose this monstrous bill..." | | What Kimmel's wife/head writer is saying | | Molly McNearney tweeted Thursday in response to the critics who are telling comedians like Kimmel to "stay in your lane:"
"It would be irresponsible knowing what we know and experiencing what we experienced to 'stay in our lane.' Move over. We're merging."
On Friday, she posted a new tweet in the voice of their newborn son Billy: "Hey @SenJohnMcCain -Thanks for fighting for kids like me. @SenatorCollins & Senator @lisamurkowski you're up! ❤️ Billy" | | "Reliable Sources" guest list | | | Bill Carter will join me on Sunday's show... along with Neera Tanden, Sarah Kliff, Carl Bernstein, and Julia Ioffe... Plus, I'll have an exclusive interview with Senator Mark Warner, who's leading the Democratic charge against Facebook... Join us Sunday at 11am ET... | | | This will be Preet Bharara's first interview as a CNN senior legal analyst. He'll be interviewed by Jake Tapper on "SOTU..." | | The next NYT media editor is... | | | Jim Windolf. NYT business editor Ellen Pollock announced the appointment on Friday. Windolf will take over for Bill Brink on Tuesday. Brink has been the media desk editor since 2015... he's becoming the retail and consumer editor on the business desk... so Windolf is moving over from Men's Style to oversee the coverage... | | -- Big profile of attorney Douglas Wigdor in the NYT. "So far this year" he has filed "11 suits against Fox News for defamation, sexual harassment and racial discrimination..." (NYT)
-- Oliver Darcy emails: The Associated Press deleted a tweet from its politics account on Friday. The tweet said Betsy DeVos used a private jet to travel for work, but failed to note that it is her personal plane that she says she pays for at her own expense...
-- What's a side effect of the "pivot to video" some startups are attempting? "Audience shrinkage..." (Digiday) | | Error-laden NYT book review sparks controversy | | Oliver Darcy emails: An error-laden New York Times book review published earlier this month has prompted controversy both inside and outside the newspaper's newsroom. Vanity Fair's Joe Pompeo reported on the drama in an in-depth piece published Thursday and quoted sources saying the book review was "humiliating" and said "it's being talked about a whole lot."
Read Oliver's follow-up here... | | Meet the man portraying Murdoch on the London stage | | | Hadas Gold emails: There's a play in London about a young Rupert Murdoch's first newspaper takeover of the Sun in 1969. It's called "Ink" and is at the Duke of York's Theater. Some people have said the play portrays Murdoch in a "sympathetic" tone, but in an interview with The New York Times, the play's writer, James Graham, and star Bertie Carvel, say that people often overlook the fact that Murdoch was and is a visionary who had a huge impact on journalism and politics... | | "ESPN Will Count Linear, Streaming Audiences as One" | | | Next week ESPN will "cease reporting separate live viewership figures for linear TV and streaming, and instead report them as a single number," Variety's Brian Steinberg reports. The move to Nielsen's "total audience" #'s will take effect on Monday... | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- The Washington Post is embracing Apple's new AR push and will feature more AR stories in its app... (WashPost)
-- While many newspapers are moving toward subscription models, this analysis by CJR shows that many papers still rely on ad revenue almost exclusively... (CJR)
-- Very interesting piece by Paul Farhi about Sleeping Giants, the Twitter account that is managing a massive advertising boycott against Breitbart... (WashPost)
-- Interesting profile of the new NYT Styles editor Choire Sicha... (The Daily Front Row) | | "Facebook could still be weaponized again for the 2018 midterms" | | That's the headline on Donie O'Sullivan and Eric Bradner's latest story.
O'Sullivan emails: Mark Zuckerberg said he wants to clean up political ads. But he didn't define what a political ad is. If I sponsor an NYT, WSJ or CNN article from my Facebook Page that just so happens to align with a candidate's policy -- is that a political ad? On TV, in newspapers, and on billboards it's pretty clear -- on Facebook, not so much. There are more ways to advertise on Facebook, and the social network has cut the cost of entry to political advertising from thousands of dollars on TV to a couple of bucks. If Facebook wants to figure this out in time for the midterm elections next year, they've got a lot to do... | | The view from Facebook HQ | | | What's the view from Menlo Park? Dylan Byers has a must-read about how Facebook is viewing the Russian ad scandal. "In the grand scheme of things," Facebook sources told him, "the ad scandal is a minor glitch. It just requires some tweaking..." | | -- When will Congress obtain the ads and data that FB has promised? In the coming days, apparently...
-- TPM reports that FB initially withheld the ads purchased by "Kremlin-affiliated trolls" because some of them included photos stolen from other users... | | | Although Trump insists otherwise, "most Americans say it's likely that Russian-backed content on social media did affect the outcome of the 2016 election, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS," polling director Jennifer Agiesta writes... Read all about it here... | | For your weekend listening... | | Here's this week's "Reliable" pod | | Digital Context Next CEO Jason Kint says tech companies like Facebook wield an "uncomfortable" amount of power over the media industry. You can listen to our podcast conversation with Kint via iTunes or other podcast services.
"Little nuances and changes" to something like Apple's iOS11 "can dramatically affect an entire ecosystem," Kint said. Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman has a write-up here... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- The Google News Lab tracked search trends for stories about 40 of the most newsworthy events from Trump's presidency, spanning from Jan. 20 to Sept. 1... Axios's Stef W. Kight says the study -- full of spikes that signal "increased Googling" -- reveals that "while Trump's presidency has been action-packed, the public's attention span doesn't seem to last for long..." (Axios)
-- Poynter has created a "code of drone journalism ethics" that takes airspace laws, privacy, and safety into consideration... (Poynter)
-- ICYMI: Our "Reliable" segment about John Kelly limiting Trump's media diet was featured on this week's episode of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee..." Go to the 1:23 mark in this clip... (YouTube) | | Andrea Tantaros needs a new lawyer... | | Hadas Gold emails: Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros' lawyer Judd Burstein has dropped her as a client in her case against Fox News on Friday, citing an "irretrievable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship," though he did not detail where the breakdown in the relationships were. Tantaros is suing Fox, alleging illegal electronic surveillance.
Fox had previously pushed back against the allegations by calling for sanctions against Burstein. In his filing notifying the court that he was dropping Tantaros, Burstein said "to be clear, the reasons for my seeking to withdraw have nothing to do with the merits of the case. To the contrary, I continue to strongly believe in the merits of Ms. Tantaros's claims." | | The story behind the story: Why Jedediah Bila suddenly quit "The View" | | Oliver Darcy emails: On Monday, Dylan Byers and I reported that Meghan McCain is in late-stage talks to join ABC's "The View." Our report was published after Jedediah Bila abruptly announced she would be leaving the daytime show. But there's an interesting backstory here. The Daily Mail reported on Friday that Bila was "blindsided by the shakeup" and only learned from a "friend at CNN" who tipped her off over the weekend.
Though I'm not sure we can be considered "friends," I am fairly certain I am the person at CNN whom the report is referring to. On Friday I had been tipped that McCain was in talks to join "The View" and had started poking around. As I was trying to confirm the tip, I called Bila over the weekend and asked her about what I had heard. She seemed taken aback with what I said. According to a Daily Mail network source, "After she heard, Jedediah called the execs at ABC and they were basically like, 'Oops, you weren't supposed to find out this way.' She went from being initially shocked to furious that they would treat her this way..." | | It's true, Kylie Jenner is pregnant | | | Lisa Respers France emails: Here's the news so many people care about but will pretend they don't: Kylie Jenner is pregnant. The 20-year-old makeup mogul is expecting her first child in February with rapper boyfriend Travis Scott. She's the youngest in the Kardashian-Jenner clan. Some fans found the timing of the news "leaking" days before the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" 10 year anniversary special very... interesting... | | | "Bulletin," I yelled to my wife on Friday afternoon... TMZ had just broken the news about Kylie's pregnancy... and I knew she wanted to know right away. Other outlets were able to match the story within hours... CNN's story by France and Chloe Melas (who's still on maternity leave herself!) cited "two sources close to the 'overjoyed' family..." | | Showtime wins the TV rights to "The President is Missing" | | | Julia Waldow emails: Showtime has acquired the TV rights to President Bill Clinton and James Patterson's forthcoming thriller novel "The President Is Missing..." Les Moonves was personally involved in the bidding war... | | Record box office for "It" | | "'It,' the blockbuster adaptation of Stephen King's novel about a child-eating clown, has pushed past 'The Exorcist' to become the highest-grossing horror film on a domestic basis," Variety's Brent Lang reports.
But "the crown comes with some caveats. 'The Exorcist' is still the top-grossing horror film on an international basis, having netted $441.3 million globally to 'It's' $404.3 million. The horror classic also made its money in 1973, so this record doesn't take inflation into account. It's still a stunning result for the King adaptation, and a reason to celebrate at Warner Bros. and New Line..." | | | For the record, part four | | | -- By Lisa Respers France: Marilyn Manson says being wrongfully connected to the Columbine massacre "destroyed" his career at the time...
-- Julia Waldow emails: Martin Scorsese is teaching an internet course in movie-making through MasterClass... The class costs $90 to take, and students can even upload video questions for the director to answer... (Variety)
-- The fourth season of Amazon's "Transparent" dropped on Friday... Sam Wollaston's review for the Guardian says the new season is "even more essential in the age of Trump..." (The Guardian)
-- One more from Lisa: You can now binge-watch "Will & Grace." For the first time ever all eight seasons of the popular sitcom are streaming on Hulu and the NBC app. That means you can indulge before the show returns next week... | | | 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. | | | | | |
