| | | | | Exec summary: Hello from Aspen... On Wednesday I'll be interviewing Marty Baron on stage (live stream here) and I'll be on a panel about attacks on the media... If you're in town, lemme know. Scroll down for the past 24 hours of media news... | | Stephen Colbert had an idea: Would Jimmy Fallon tape a JOINT cold open with him, since President Trump criticized them both on Monday night? And how about Conan O'Brien, would he make a cameo? Both men said yes right away. The staffs of their three shows had a blast putting it together. The results are airing on "The Late Show" and "The Tonight Show," but you can watch the clip here.
In the segment, Colbert and Fallon video chat... they allude to Trump's insults... and then a very confused O'Brien joins in. "The real estate guy who sells steaks? He's President?!"
The kicker: Fallon and Colbert made plans to grab lunch at the Red Hen... | | From Colbert's monologue: "Welcome to the 'Late Show,' one and all! I'm your host -- the guy on CBS."
Since Trump referred to him as "the guy on CBS" Monday night, Colbert referred to Trump as "the guy in Washington."
He continued: "I got good news and I got bad news. The bad news is I lied, there's no good news..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: Jimmy Fallon's earlier response to POTUS, on Monday's "Tonight Show," underscored just how uncomfortable he is with being part of the larger political conversation. He sounded almost apologetic that he had to detour from the fun in which he likes to traffic to address the president's tweet. But there were two notable tidbits in Fallon's comments: 1) he accused the president of lying about Fallon calling to thank him for the "monster ratings" from his 2016 appearance; and 2) he referenced the ratings decline he's experienced the past two years, saying that Trump had "helped someone else..." | | I've been traveling all day, catching bits and pieces of CNN from airport terminal screens, so I missed most of the SCOTUS coverage. But here's Wednesday's NYT lede: "The Supreme Court upheld President Trump's ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, delivering to the president on Tuesday a political victory and an endorsement of his power to control immigration at a time of political upheaval about the treatment of migrants at the Mexican border."
Trump celebrated with an all-caps tweet, "SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN. Wow!" | | Shoutout to the sprinters | | | Gotta give credit where it's due: To the interns and other young staffers who ran the travel ban decision out to the waiting network crews. ABC's intern Liz Brown-Kaiser, in the green top, tweeted out this picture... | | | This screen grab tells the story of the night. NY1's Pat Kiernan (full disclosure, my wife's co-worker) tweeted the moment when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "looks up at @NY1 screen and realizes how big her lead is." The 28-year-old Latina, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated the TEN-TERM incumbent, Joe Crowley. CNN's story calls it "the most shocking upset of a rollicking political season.." | | | In other primary news: POTUS is taking a victory lap on Twitter since some key Trump-backed candidates emerged as winners in GOP primaries... In Utah, Mitt Romney won as expected... In upstate NY, former MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan came up short in his bid for a congressional seat... Get caught up on other primary headlines via the CNN home page... | | -- Reality Winner pled guilty to leaking classified material on Tuesday. The plea deal has her serving 5 years in prison. Freedom of the Press Foundation exec director Trevor Timm says the right word for Winner is "whistleblower." He notes that she will serve "the longest sentence ever for a leaker in federal court..." (CNN)
-- "Views From The Right:" That's the beta version of a "conservative opinion newsletter" that USA Today Network is looking to launch... (Poynter)
-- The WWE's new "five-year television rights deals" with Comcast's USA channel and Fox Sports more than TRIPLES the fees "it was receiving in its previous deal..." (WSJ)
-- One of the best things I read today: Abby Ohlheiser's dispatch from VidCon. What's it like for famous YouTube creators? And the tweens who want to become them? Lots of insights here... (WashPost) | | Dawn Ostroff jumps to Spotify | | Come this August, Condé Nast Entertainment prez Dawn Ostroff will become Spotify's chief content officer, reporting to Daniel Ek. She'll run Spotify's "content and editorial divisions, as well as the creator services side of Spotify's business," the NYT's Ben Sisario reports.
What will make THIS move into video different than Spotify's past attempts? We'll see...
--> AT CONDÉ: "COO Sahar Elhabashi will serve as interim head of Conde Nast Entertainment" until Ostroff's replacement is named, per THR... | | Fortune's Adam Lashinsky interviewed Tim Cook on stage Monday night... Here's the 30-min video...
Among other topics, Cook talked about the new "curated" Apple News section for the U.S. midterms. "For Apple News, we felt that the top stories should be selected by humans," Cook said. Why? To "make sure" the content is not simply about "enraging people." He said Apple plans to "bring this same kind of view to different subjects over time." | | These Twitter changes can't come soon enough | | | Twitter is "making changes to combat abuse and malicious automated accounts, including requiring more authentication for new users," Bloomberg reports. "For the first time, Twitter is going to require confirmation of an email address or phone number to sign up for an account." How about going a step further and verifying identity? | | -- "Internet-based TV services" like Fubo TV, Sling TV and DirecTV Now "have seen an influx of new customers thanks to the World Cup..." (Variety)
-- Lucas Shaw reports: "At the same time Netflix was firing its head flack for using a racial slur, it was hiring a head of diversity + inclusion. (Company says they are unrelated)..." (Bloomberg)
-- Here's Jill Disis's follow-up about why AT&T is buying AppNexus... (CNNMoney) | | Lester, David and Jeff on one stage | | This discussion at the PromaxBDA Station Summit in Las Vegas marked the first time that nightly news rivals Lester Holt, David Muir and Jeff Glor have spoken on a panel together. Hearst's Frank Biancuzzo moderated.
Glor: "Our goal every night is to curate the news and to have the smartest, most concise discussion at the end of the night. What we're trying to do is get to the truth and be as fair as possible..."
Holt: Where we distinguish ourselves is original content." NBC has put an "enormous amount of resources on beefing up our investigative unit, our health, our consumer, science, social -- you know, coverage of social media and digital issues -- those are the stories that are going to differentiate us…" | | "Trump shatters dishonesty record" | | Daniel Dale continues to churn out remarkable fact-checks... of every word President Trump says... and Dale has really outdone himself this time, because Trump has outdone himself.
Trump made 103 "false claims last week," Dale reports. That's fifteen per day... because Trump did a LOT of talking... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Jason Hirschhorn has been thinking about "mistakes, punishments, redemption and Billy Bush." He asks: "Do we, in fact, believe in second chances? Billy is ready to contribute in a positive way. Are we ready to accept him back?" (REDEF)
-- "Instead of abandoning print, the 119-year-old MIT Technology Review is doubling down on it," by producing something that's more like a book... (NiemanLab)
-- NYT book critic Jennifer Senior is moving to the Opinion section... She'll be a columnist beginning in September...
-- Jonathan Franzen says the novel he's working on now, his sixth, will be his last. But Taffy Brodesser-Akner's wonderful profile of Franzen points out that he's said this before... (NYT)
-- "Shares in MoviePass parent Helios & Matheson Analytics fell another 15% to close at a new all-time low of 24.62 cents as Wall Street continued to digest unsettling disclosures about its finances..." (Deadline) | |  It's by CNN's Donie O'Sullivan. He reveals how Russia's online operatives exploited the death of Philando Castile to sow divisions.
"Facebook," he says, "the same platform where Diamond Reynolds would stream the last moments of her boyfriend's life to the world, the same platform real activists would use to organize the response to Castile's death, would also be where a Russian government-linked group would seek to exploit the tragedy." Read the story here... There's also a companion 10-minute documentary on CNNgo... | | "The Silicon Valley-DC disconnect" | | There's some related and important reporting from Dylan Byers in his PACIFIC newsletter:
"Technology firms and government agencies have failed to work together to address foreign meddling in US elections and have left the 2018 midterm races vulnerable to the same Russian-led misinformation campaigns that plagued the contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, sources on both sides of the debate tell me." Read the rest here... | | A "Westworld" ratings check-up | | Joe Adalian's latest for Vulture: "Ratings for season two of 'Westworld' are down about 16 percent, even counting streaming and VOD." The show is still a big hit," but he says it's "probably a good thing if folks stop thinking of Westworld as some sort of post-GOT messiah for HBO and simply accept it as another strong -- if very expensive -- cog in the network's production machine..."
-- BTW: In last night's newsletter, the link to this NYT list of recommended reading about the "Westworld" season finale was broken. Sorry about that! Here's the link... | | David Lynch tries to set Trump straight | | Last night I said I'd love to see David Lynch give another interview... To elaborate on his views of POTUS... On Tuesday, he did the next best thing, writing a Facebook post about how his words were "taken a bit out of context and would need some explaining."
Lynch's main message: "Unfortunately, if you continue as you have been, you will not have a chance to go down in history as a great president. This would be very sad it seems for you -- and for the country. You are causing suffering and division."
Here's Sandra Gonzalez's full story... | | | For the record, part four | | | Lisa Respers France emails:
-- Slain rapper XXXTentacion broke a chart record with a posthumous No. 1 single...
-- In this new interview with the NYT, Kanye West discusses his struggle with suicidal thoughts and his worry his wife would leave him...
-- Turns out rappers Cardi B and Offset were already married when he very publicly "proposed" back in October... | | That's a wrap on tonight's newsletter. Thanks for reading!
Your feedback is welcomed. Email your likes, dislikes, thoughts straight to me:
brian.stelter@turner.com
Thank you! | | | | | | |
