| | | | | Goodbye August! September is here... my favorite month of the year... | | Clyde Haberman has been writing for The New York Times for 40 years. His daughter Maggie Haberman -- a/k/a the "Trump Whisperer" -- has been with the paper for two years. Journalism runs in the family -- Maggie's brother and husband both work at the NY Daily News.
When Clyde and Maggie both had front page stories in the NYT the other day, I asked for a joint TV interview. And the result was fantastic -- we've posted the audio as a podcast and written up the highlights for CNN.com.
While Clyde doesn't take credit for his offspring's interest in the profession, he said journalism is "the best ring-side seat you could ever have." Maggie said her father was "always just incredibly focused on the story," whether as a foreign correspondent or a metro columnist. Many people, Clyde included, would say the same thing about her work today. "She's an extraordinary reporter," Clyde said. "I think I could still hold my own in a writing game, but she's the best reporter I've ever seen." Read/hear more here... and check out the interview on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | | Maggie believes that journalists sometimes get too caught up in a narrative about Trump's volatility. "The thing about Trump that we all always write is that he changes his mind all the time," she said. "That can be true, but it is also true that he has had a series of gut impulses that have been consistent since the 1980s and late 1970s. It's really important to always track back to that, to understand what you're seeing." More here... | | Speaking of fathers and daughters... | | | A smart booking by "The View:" As the ABC talk show starts its 21st season next week, it will have Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her dad Mike on the show together... next Wednesday... | | CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports: Sean Spicer's time is finally up. Though the former press secretary has remained in the White House since he abruptly quit over a month ago, Thursday was his last official day. Spicer emailed friends and colleagues to say thanks... details here...
-- On Spicer's last day, Glenn Thrush tweeted: "Trump's comms shop is clearly stabilizing -- and it's all women..."
-- And "The Daily Show" had this not-so-fond send-off: "He never got back to us on just a few things..." | | 15 sources for the WashPost's latest story | | | "Behind the scenes during a summer of crisis," President Trump "fumes that he does not get the credit he thinks he deserves from the media, nor the allegiance from fellow Republican leaders he is owed," the WashPost's Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker report in this Friday must-read. Citing interviews with 15 sources, they say some of Trump's confidants "privately fret about his suddenly dark moods..." | | | On Thursday the W.H. said POTUS pledged $1 million in personal funds to Harvey relief efforts. His son Eric Trump tweeted at 7:11pm: "Let's see if @CNN or the #MSM acknowledges this incredible generosity. My guess: they won't." But by the time he wrote that, CNN and other outlets had already been covering the pledge for several hours. So CNN PR replied: "You guessed wrote." A montage of screen grabs showed how "we covered the pledge online and on-air well before your tweet..." | | Things that make you go "huh" | | | "Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is now a regular columnist" for Breitbart, the Kansas City Star's Bryan Lowry reports. Kobach "published his first article for Breitbart.com in June -- a piece that tied refugees to terrorism. He has published six more pieces since then and more are on the horizon." He told the paper that "Breitbart approached him about writing a regular column in June..." | | -- A team at The Daily Beast reports some disturbing allegations about the environment at Laura Ingraham's LifeZette site. LifeZette "has become a deeply uncomfortable place for women to work," the Beast says. Ingraham didn't respond to requests for comment, but the exec in question rejected the allegations against him... (The Daily Beast)
-- Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Peter Bhatia, who most recently ran the Cincinnati Enquirer, was named editor of the Detroit Free Press on Thursday... (Free Press)
-- Alex Thompson says "podcasts are becoming the left's right-wing talk radio..." (Vice)
-- Fox's experiments with six-second-long ads will expand to Fox Sports this fall, Ahiza Garcia reports... (CNNMoney)
-- CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus says the NFL national anthem protests were "one of the factors that I think perhaps led to the slight decrease in ratings last year..." (SI) | | THREE STORIES ABOUT LAYOFFS... | | ABC looking to cut 10% of costs | | Dylan Byers emails intel about the impending ABC layoffs, based on conversations with high-level ABC sources and several other media executives:
-- ABC is planning to cut roughly 10% of costs, including staff cuts. The aim is to trim non-essential projects and, callous as it may sound, non-essential staff. WSJ had the number at 300, but it could be more, could be less.
-- The exact plans for cost cutting have yet to be determined, but the WSJ report is a warning shot for staffers who will be affected.
-- Beyond staff cuts, ABC is thinking about how it can spend more efficiently and stop spending money on projects that don't drive the business forward.
-- Media execs at other networks believe the cuts are due to both industry changes and some bad decision making at ABC. They point to the "American Idol" revival, including the $25 million check for Katy Perry, as questionable decisions. The Shonda Rhimes departure and the rising cost of NBA broadcast rights probably don't help either.
-- ABC sources stress that its settlement in the lawsuit over so-called "Pink Slime," which cost ABC at least $177 million, has nothing to do with the cuts, though other media execs believe that event may weaken the news division's leverage in making its case for keeping resources/avoiding cuts.
-- The Big Picture: Like all legacy media companies, ABC needs to tighten up its staff and start being smarter about how it spends its money. | | More cutbacks at Glenn Beck's company | | Oliver Darcy emails: Glenn Beck announced Thursday that he has laid off 20% of the combined work force at his two companies, Mercury Radio Arts and TheBlaze. "My heart is heavy today," Beck wrote in a Medium post announcing the move.
His reps won't reveal the # of employees affected. But this is not the first round of layoffs at TheBlaze. Last year the company let go of about 40 employees... | | At least a dozen staffers out at the Village Voice | | 13 of the Village Voice's 17 union-represented workers are being laid off at the same time the paper is ending its print edition and becoming online-only, the NYT's Colin Moynihan reports. The union says the total # of staffers is around 40...
-- The Voice says the cutbacks "are part of a larger set of budget cuts aimed at reallocating resources as we reconfigure The Village Voice into a digitally focused company..." | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Pete Rose is out at Fox Sports after recent claims of sexual misconduct... (THR)
-- Recommended read: The "fake news" phenomenon isn't new, says the New Yorker's Adrian Chen -- it actually dates back to the 1930s, during the early days of radio broadcasts. Here's why... (The New Yorker)
-- ProPublica has developed a Facebook Messenger bot to gather reader stories about experiencing hate speech on Facebook... (Nieman Lab)
-- Gannett is deepening its relationship with advertisers by throwing hundreds of events a year... (Digiday)
-- HowStuffWorks is becoming an independent podcast network... with the help of a $15 million investment... (Ad Exchanger)
-- Al Jazeera's English language site says it is disabling comments on its website due to "users spewing vitriol, bigotry, racism and sectarianism..." (Medium) | | Celebrating local reporters | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: The flood disaster is reminding us all of just how important local newspapers, TV stations, radio stations and websites are... not just to the communities they serve, but to the rest of the nation trying to learn what's going on on the ground... Poynter's Kristen Hare looked at how the Houston Chronicle has been "all hands on deck" on Harvey coverage, and supplying shelters with free copies of the paper for the evacuees... | | | Francesca adds: A group of Texas natives who are now staffers at The Washington Post sent 20 boxes of donuts and 6 boxes of kolaches to the Chronicle's newsroom. David Fahrenthold coordinated the effort... (Poynter) | | Houston stations beginning to return to regularly scheduled programming | | | The Chronicle's David Barron tweets: "KPRC (NBC) and KHOU (CBS) have returned to network programming after full-time #Harvey coverage since Saturday." Greg Rajan adds: "It was 24/7 Harvey from pretty much Saturday night on. Kudos to all local media for stellar work done this week under trying circumstances..." | | "There's only one choice..." | | | "In the midst of documenting the flooding in Texas, several news reporters have set aside their roles as observers to help people in danger," the AP's David Bauder wrote in this recap of the past week. He quotes Ed Lavandera, who says "I tend to view myself as an observer." But when a water-logged family needs help, "there's only one choice, making sure these people get out of there as quickly as possible." He added: "Over time, not just CNN's work but all journalists' work, will stand the test of time..." | | Another father and daughter journalist story >>> | | | The Fox Business Network's Jeff Flock "was doing a live report during a rescue effort in Houston this morning when he happened to pass by his daughter, Liz Flock, who is also there, reporting for PBS NewsHour," TVNewser's Chris Ariens writes. "They both knew the other was in Houston, but hadn't had a chance to connect." Here's the moment... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Erik Wemple says the NYT still owes an apology to Sarah Palin... (WashPost)
-- In the next issue of NYT Mag, Jazmine Hughes has a profile of Teen Vogue's Elaine Welteroth, the youngest-ever editor in chief at Condé Nast, responsible for the magazine's new approach and tone, appreciated not just by teens... (NYT Magazine)
-- Speaking of Condé Nast, there's an interesting read on the company's corporate tech blog about utilizing Google AMP, which now accounts for 79% of Condé's mobile search traffic and 39% of total mobile visits... (Condé Nast)
-- Instagram Stories can now be viewed on desktop and mobile web. There are no plans to make uploads possible from outside the app, but this new feature basically eliminates the need for users to have the Instagram app to be able to access content -- an interesting shift... (The Verge)
-- Hearst has acquired the Jacksonville Journal-Courier, the oldest continuously published newspaper in Illinois, and its sister publication, The Telegraph of Alton... (The Journal Courier) | | Is David Clarke a future Fox News contributor? | | Oliver Darcy emails: David Clarke resigned his post as Milwaukee sheriff Thursday afternoon, immediately prompting speculation about whether he would land a paid contributor gig at Fox News. Clarke is a frequent guest on the channel, where he is known for serving up red meat on the network's conservative opinion shows. A source with knowledge of the situation told me that there have been no discussions thus far at Fox News about hiring Clarke for such a role.
That said, there's no telling if that might change in the days, weeks and months ahead... | | Spotify head of video is out | | | Via Francesca: Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reports that Tom Calderone is leaving Spotify. Calderone was the head of original video and podcasts for the company, and his exit is a sign that Spotify is "narrowing its video ambitions," Shaw says... | | Lowry reviews the new season of "Narcos" | | Brian Lowry emails: "Narcos" completed its Pablo Escobar storyline at the end of its second season. But the Netflix drama reloads -- shifting its focus to the Cali drug cartel, which moved to fill that void -- and delivers the same kind of high in an equally riveting third season.
The binge begins on Friday... Read Lowry's full review here >>> | | "Box Office Woes: This Could Be the Worst Labor Day Weekend in 30 Years" | | | For the record, part four | | | Lisa Respers France emails:
-- Chloe Bennet says she changed her name because "Hollywood is racist." The "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." star dropped her Chinese last name, she said, so she could get roles...
-- Decades later, Gwyneth Paltrow has admitted that she messed it up with Brad Pitt...
-- Is "Despacito" the song of the summer or not? Spotify says yes, but Twitter is singing a very different tune...
-- The first "Dancing With the Stars" cast member of Season 25 is… | | | Brian Lowry emails: After a month's worth of Princess Diana specials tied to the 20th anniversary of her death, NBC will essentially cap that onslaught on Friday with "Diana, 7 Days," a two-hour special that focuses on the aftermath. And while one might think there's not much new left to say, next week features a new flurry of now-annual Sept. 11-related documentaries, including History's "Road to 9/11," a three-part project that kicks off on Sept. 4, tracing the terrorist threat from 1990 through 2003... | | | 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. | | | | | |
