| | | | | Wolf Blitzer on CNN: "A historic day here in Washington, with the first of what could be many indictments..." So this special midday newsletter is designed to cover the coverage... | | The toughest day of the Trump presidency | | There's so much news today, it's hard to fit in a single headline. Right now CNN.com's two-line banner says "One Trump associate pleads guilty. Two others are indicted."
I'm grateful for all the sidebars and timelines and fact-checks and explainers... Readers know this news is important, but they don't necessarily know all the reasons why... And they have lots of questions. My humble advice for newsrooms: Answer those questions head-on... | | Challenge for reporters: Cutting through the FOG | | | The Trump administration and its media allies want this to be foggy. When you say "Russia," they say "Hillary." Sarah Sanders did it at Monday's strange press briefing... after reading an old parable about taxes to promote Trump's tax cut plan... She said "today's announcement has nothing to do with the president" (untrue) "nothing to do with the president's campaign" (untrue) "or campaign activity" (untrue). This part was music to Fox's ears: "The real collusion scandal," she said, "has everything to do with the Clinton campaign, Fusion GPS and Russia." This "change the subject" dodge has to be called out... | | How the news broke... and then broke some more | | The #MuellerMonday news broke between 7:50 and 8am ET. CNN was first on TV, NYT was first on the web. The first wave of stories were just about Paul Manafort. The second wave, within minutes, was about Rick Gates. ABC, NBC, and CBS aired network-wide special reports shortly after 8am.
Then came the third wave of stories -- around 10:30 -- about George Papadopoulos pleading guilty. A huge surprise. Between 10:30 and 11:30, you could feel a shift in the coverage. It began to sink in that Papadopoulos is more closely connected to the Russia collaboration scandal.
Papadopoulos was arrested in July. July! And it didn't leak. (That is a counter to one common anti-Mueller talking point, that his office is "leaky.")
Papadopoulos lied to the FBI "about his interactions with foreign officials close to the Russian government," so this is, as CNN's story says, "the campaign's clearest connection so far to Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election." And he's apparently been cooperating with the government for months...
-- Helpful: "Who is George Papadopoulos?" | | In the afternoon, the news kept coming... | | -- Politico's 1pm scoop: Dem lobbyist Tony Podesta "stepping down from lobbying giant amid Mueller probe..."
-- Later in the 1pm hour, Manafort and Gates pled not guilty... | | Journalists "unearthed" so much of this... | | | >> CNN's Marshall Cohen tweeted: "Reading these indictments, one thing is clear: JOURNALISTS unearthed so many bits and pieces of this scandal... stuff now accepted as fact." | | CNN and MSNBC are treating today's news with the nonstop seriousness it deserves. Rolling breaking news coverage. Fox News and Fox Business are covering it every hour, but not with the same sense as urgency. Producers are weaving in lots of Fox-friendly topics, like Clinton "scandals" and protests at NFL games. My impression as a viewer: The Fox talking heads who deliver the day's message would rather talk about ABM -- Anything But Mueller...
Scroll down for Tom Kludt's complete recap of Fox's coverage... But first, back to the real news... | | | CNN's justice reporting team revealed on Friday night that the charges had been filed under seal. The WSJ, Reuters and other outlets matched CNN's sourcing, but the NYT and WashPost did not, which gave some people pause. There was chatter and concern in newsroom circles: "Why hasn't the Times confirmed it?" But CNN's sources were proven right on Monday morning... Which is why Fox is running banners like this... "GROWING CONCERN OVER WHO LEAKED INFO ON INDICTMENTS." Obviously the big story is not the leak, it's the Trump-Russia ties... But this is the "fog" I was describing earlier... | | | WashPost lede: "The one-two punch" was "designed to send a powerful message to everyone else caught up in the probe: the prosecutors aren't bluffing..." Andrew Napolitano on Fox: "This is the first of many dominoes to fall..." CNN's Pamela Brown: "This could be just the beginning..." CNN's Kate Bolduan: "Put on your seatbelts..." Meanwhile, the NYT's Nate Cohn tweeted: "Trump approval falls to 33% in Gallup tracking. It's his all-time low..." | | Will Trump stop calling this "fake news?" (I don't think so) | | | WashPost headline: "With money laundering charges against Paul Manafort, Trump's 'fake news' claim is harder to defend." But the cries of "fake news" have never really been defensible. It's always been a trick to deflect and dismiss unpleasant news. Some people prefer a stay in state of denial, so Trump will keep calling Russia a "hoax..." | | In the online pro-Trump media universe... | | | Oliver Darcy emails: The dominant talking point emerging from the online pro-Trump media universe is that the charges are from years ago and unrelated to the 2016 campaign. The Drudge Report featured a headline that said the indictments "focused on business dealings, not campaign" and another amplifying Trump's claim they were from "years ago." Breitbart also featured a headline that stated, "12 counts unrelated to 2016 campaign." On Twitter, among the pro-Trump media personalities, this talking point was also used... | | Sean Hannity hasn't tweeted today... | | ...But this old tweet from his account is making the rounds. It's from August 19, 2016, when Manafort left the campaign. It's a Newt Gingrich quote from "Hannity:"
"Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this [Trump] campaign to where it is right now." | | John Kelly on Ingraham's show tonight | | Brian Lowry emails: Strictly in terms of people being focused on the news, it turns out Fox News picked a pretty good day to launch its revised primetime lineup, featuring Laura Ingraham at 10pm ET and Shannon Bream at 11pm...
-- Ingraham has an exclusive interview with W.H. chief of staff John Kelly at 10... | | | Jake Tapper will anchor a special hour, "THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION," at 11pm on CNN... | | Murdoch outlets continuing to cast doubt on Mueller | | | For a while now, Rupert Murdoch's WSJ and NYPost have assailed Robert Mueller in print and publishing pieces urging him to step aside. Murdoch's Fox channels have amplified this. See: | | | A 12:45pm segment on "Outnumbered" cited a NYPost column calling for Mueller to resign... | | Fox still focused on Uranium | | As I described on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Trump's media allies have been furiously trying to change the subject, from Trump's troubles to Hillary Clinton's so-called "scandals." It's been a "campaign of confusion." When Trump tweeted "why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" he was reflecting what he's heard from right-wing media.
With that in mind, I was struck by something Fox's Sandra Smith said on "Outnumbered:" "It's amazing how the conversation has changed," she said to her co-hosts. "I mean, it was all the dossier, Uranium One, Hillary Clinton, the Democrats last week." That wasn't really the "national conversation" last week. It was the right-wing echo chamber conversation... | | How "Fox & Friends" handled the breaking news | | | Tom Kludt emails: A news story like this forces Fox News to confront a familiar tension between its ideological allegiance and editorial responsibility. That the news broke during Trump's favorite show, "Fox & Friends," was symbolic in that regard. Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt didn't ignore the news -- how could they? -- but they didn't abandon their role as Trump boosters, either. The three channeled the feelings of their viewers quite often. "Just because you're indicted doesn't mean you're guilty of anything," Kilmeade said. A bit later in the morning, Earhardt cut to the chase: "What if Manafort doesn't have anything on the president? No more Russia collusion? Are we done with this?" | | | -- More from Tom's story: On Fox's 9am newscast, Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith provided a fairly straight recitation of the news, but they also found time to cover plenty of other stories, from the Bob Menendez corruption trial to the ongoing NFL anthem protests... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Tom's story highlights some of the recent misleading characterizations of media personalities and pundits in conservative media. Fox, for example, introduced Alan Dershowitz as a "life-long Democrat." Whatever his party identification, Dershowitz has largely operated as a defender of Trump's throughout this investigation... | | Late night is all new for Mueller | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Call it good timing. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, James Corden are all new this week, just as the Mueller investigation is ramping up. Plus: "SNL" returns on Saturday with host Larry David, so that show will surely have plenty to say too, even though the story will likely change 72 times before this weekend... | | | The Daily Mail's David Martosko tweeted: "All of a sudden Jeff Flake's 'speech for the ages' seems like a month ago, and I can't remember anything about the JFK papers..." | | Kevin Spacey apologizes for alleged sex assault against a minor | | A big hat tip to BuzzFeed for breaking this story. Adam B. Vary interviewed "Star Trek: Discovery" actor Anthony Rapp, who accused Kevin Spacey of making a sexual advance at him when Rapp was 14. Spacey didn't comment to BF, but he issued a statement Sunday night that apologized for "deeply inappropriate drunken behavior."
Spacey went on to say that "this story has encouraged me to address other things about my life... I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man." Some news outlets made that the headline -- and received widespread criticism for overlooking the assault allegation. ABC, for example, changed its headline... | | Spacey criticized for how he came out | | | Among other critics of Spacey: Vanity Fair movie critic Richard Lawson, who said "this exposes the gay community to a million tired old criticisms and conspiracies" and added "How dare you implicate us all in this." Lisa Respers France has a recap of the criticism here... | | What about Netflix and "House of Cards?" | | | Season six of Spacey's "House of Cards" is in production now... No comment from Netflix as of yet... But the show's creator, Beau Willimon, has commented, calling the allegations "deeply troubling..." | | "Concerns" in the London theater community | | Megan Thomas emails: The London theater community is likely where the Kevin Spacey story will travel next. He's made London his primary residence for more than a decade and is the former artistic director of the Old Vic. (Spacey left that role in 2015.)
Via Deadline: "Victoria Featherstone, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, was asked today during an interview on Radio 4 if she was aware of any egregious conduct by Spacey when he was working as artistic director of the Old Vic in London." Her answer: "I think that many people in the theatre and in the creative industries have been aware of many stories of many people over a lot of years, and Kevin Spacey would be one of the people that people have had concerns about, yes..." | | New NYT story about Weinstein | | | The paper just published this: "Previously undisclosed accounts of rape, forced oral sex and groping expand the time frame of accusations against the movie producer Harvey Weinstein." Story by Ellen Gabler, Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor... | | NBC terminates Mark Halperin's contract | | | Oliver Darcy's latest: NBC News and MSNBC have severed ties with "Game Change" co-author and veteran journalist Mark Halperin, days after multiple women told CNN he sexually harassed or assaulted them during his time at ABC News. An MSNBC spokesman told CNN on Monday morning that Halperin's contract with both had been terminated... | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Hamilton Fish V, the publisher of The New Republic, is taking a leave of absence as the company investigates allegations that he harassed female employees... (The Daily Beast)
-- BuzzFeed obtained a Facebook ad-sales pitch that gave political advertisers a "blueprint to a divided US..." (BuzzFeed)
-- Emily Bell points out that while we focus on ads on Facebook as a tool to sway public opinion, the concept of branded content is not too distant. "The inability to tell what's advertising and what isn't is a problem for democracy. But it's one that media companies are loath to tackle," she argues... (The Guardian) | | About that amazing World Series game... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Before it gets lost, one footnote to Sunday's coverage: That crazy, insane, extra-inning World Series game ended well past 1 a.m. on the East Coast. If you're Major League Baseball, and trying to breed interest among younger fans, those kind of start/finish times are no way to do it... | | Two days of Google, Facebook, Twitter testimony | | A Senate subcommittee will hear from Twitter, Facebook and Google's lawyers on Tuesday afternoon... And then the same reps will testify at Senate and House Intel Committee hearings on Wednesday...
-- So: Will we finally see the Russia-linked FB ads this week?
-- "Facebook owes Americans the truth" -- Donie O'Sullivan notes that this petition has 70,000+ signatures... | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Tuesday: Happy Halloween!
-- Tuesday 8:20pm ET: World Series game 6...
-- Wednesday: See you at the Video Everywhere Summit in NYC...
-- Wednesday: NYT earnings before the bell, Facebook earnings after the bell...
-- Thursday after the bell: Apple earnings...
-- Sunday: NYC marathon... | | Catch up on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | Watch the video clips on CNN.com, read the transcript here... or listen to the podcast... On the podcast, skip ahead to the five minute mark, past the "who will be indicted?" talk... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I 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. | | | | | |
