| | | | | Exec summary: I'm back from OC MD... and curious to see where the Trump-Putin news cycle goes on Wednesday... What will Trump tell CBS? Here's a preview... | | How will Trump answer these questions? | | Hey, Jeff Glor, no pressure. But you're about to have the biggest interview of your career.
On Wednesday afternoon Glor will tape part two of his interview with President Trump. Part one was conducted on Saturday afternoon in Scotland, two days before Trump's world-shaking meeting with Vladimir Putin. Right after part one was taped, CBS News announced the interview and explained that it was a two-parter, with the follow-up coming on Wednesday after the meeting. The stakes could not be higher. Here he is on the Acela, prepping, on Tuesday night... | | This moment brings me back to May 2017, when NBC lucked into the most consequential interview of Trump's presidency. Lester Holt was scheduled to interview Trump on a Thursday. The network announced the sit-down on a Monday.
As I reported at the time, the main news peg was thought to be a recent health care vote in the House. But then James Comey was fired on Tuesday. Folks wondered if Trump would back out of the interview due to the ensuing controversy. But Trump went ahead... And in the Holt interview, Trump admitted that he was thinking about "this Russia thing" when he decided to ax Comey.
Trump taped another interview that day... with Fox's Jeanine Pirro... but nothing memorable came out of it. Holt's interview will be in the history books. Will Glor's? Like I said: No pressure!
| | Here's a thought experiment: Given Trump's disastrous performance at Monday's presser, and the laughable attempt at a clean-up on Tuesday, do you think the White House would have willingly scheduled an interview with a non-Fox network for Wednesday?
I'm going to venture to say no...
| | Glor had never interviewed Trump until the sit-down and stand-up interviews in Scotland last weekend. There were numerous bits of news, including Trump casting the EU as a "foe." As the Acela picture shows, Glor is now prepping for part two... And CBS News prez David Rhodes and DC bureau chief Chris Isham are deeply involved too...
PLANNING AHEAD: Expect a clip from the interview sometime Wednesday afternoon... It will stream on CBSN... And big chunks of the interview will air on the "CBS Evening News..." | | Pretty much every time I watch Fox talk show hosts interview Trump, I see missed opportunities. This was one of those times. Tucker Carlson's pre-taped interview with Trump in Helsinki aired on Tuesday... While Carlson did ask about John Brennan's claim that Trump's behavior was "nothing short of treasonous," he just let Trump call Brennan a "bad person" without any followup...
And later on, when Trump blamed Barack Obama for doing "nothing" when Russia meddled in 2016, Carlson skipped all the obvious follow-up Q's. For instance: "What about now? Your director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, says the 'warning lights are blinking red again.' What are you doing NOW to protect our elections?" Carlson didn't ask. Maybe Glor will... | | | On Tuesday, under extreme pressure, POTUS tried to clarify some of his words from Monday's presser. It didn't make any sense. Would? Wouldn't? Whatever. This was never just about "words." Most Americans recognize that Trump's words can't be trusted. The scandals, plural, from his Europe trip were about his deeds, demeanor, mindset. Reducing this to a spat about language is a serious mistake... | | "Serious people" questioning Trump's "loyalty" | | One of the banners on "AC360" Tuesday night asked: "Did Pres. Trump's Helsinki Remarks Amount To 'Treason'?"
Did you think you'd see that banner in the first 18 months of Trump's presidency?
Here's what Carl Bernstein said earlier in the hour, before the "treason" discussion: "We've never seen anything like this in our modern history. We are having serious people, both publicly and privately, Republicans and Democrats, questioning the loyalty of the President of the United States to our own country. This is extraordinary. It never happened with Richard Nixon."
>> Around the same time, over on MSNBC, the banner on "All In" said, "Republicans do little in response to Trump's disastrous performance in Helsinki..."
>> Most of what I saw on Fox News's 8 and 9pm programs: Media bashing...
>> "If Barack Obama had done this," Fox News would have burned "to the ground," Fox turned CNN contributor Kirsten Powers said...
| | Veteran political analyst Jeff Greenfield told me: "Anyone who says he/she's surprised by what happened this week has been willfully blind. The skeptics who signed up with Trump because of judges, taxes, did not take seriously the prospect that Trump's defects of character and temperament could lead to disaster. 'The grownups will protect us from his worst instincts.' How's that working out?"
| | "Trump's aides fear the worst is yet to come" | | | Key graf from Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman's story in Wednesday's NYT: "Trump's aides fear the worst is still to come. If the past is any guide, they said privately, Mr. Trump will spend the coming days digesting the continuing fallout from his encounter with Mr. Putin, and he will look for someone other than himself to blame..." | | Hey, where is Sarah Sanders? | | Another sign of a White House in crisis: The press shop is declining to hold daily briefings. There was no briefing on Tuesday, even though everyone was back from Europe. There is no briefing currently scheduled for Wednesday either.
>> IT'S A DROUGHT: I just checked WhiteHouse.gov. The most recent press briefing by Sanders was on July 2, more than two weeks ago... | | | -- CNN's Erin Burnett: "How stupid does Trump think we Americans are? The president's excuse for his embarrassing press conference... does not add up..." | | -- David Remnick's latest: "Trump's performances in Europe, and now in Washington, clarified nothing. They only raised dark suspicions and aroused the sickening feeling that we are living in the pages of the most lurid espionage ever written..."
-- NPR's David Folkenflik tweeted: "The Bill Shine case study in crisis communications management by Harvard Business Review is going to be off the hook..." | | Irin Carmon joining NYMag | | Oliver Darcy emails this scoop: New York magazine has hired Irin Carmon as a senior correspondent covering reproductive rights, SCOTUS, sexual harassment, and the media, among other things. Carmon, who will write for web and the print magazine, is the co-author of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biography "The Notorious RBG" and was one of the reporters who broke news in the WashPost of sexual harassment and assault allegations against Charlie Rose.
In a statement, NYMag EIC Adam Moss described Carmon as a "superb, dogged reporter" who he has "admired for years..." | | "Murdoch Scores Another Win as Rival Sinclair Deal Imperiled" | | | That's the headline on this story by Bloomberg's Gerry Smith. He says the sudden setback for Sinclair is the "latest evidence of Murdoch enjoying a hot streak in the nation's capital." As we all know, Murdoch and Trump are close... and Trump's admin "has recently made a series of decisions that could benefit Fox's business or thwart its competitors..." | | *but just for an hour!
Oliver Darcy emails: The CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference is set to begin on Wednesday at The Pierre Hotel in Manhattan. Kicking things off will be Jim Cramer interviewing CNBC host turned W.H. official Larry Kudlow. The interview will be streamed on CNBC and air at 8:45am ET. Stephen Bannon is also set to speak at the conference... | | -- "Walmart is considering launching a subscription streaming video service to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video," per people familiar with the situation... (The Information)
-- Is W on the chopping block? Kali Hays hears it's a possibility. Closing the mag is "one possible scenario that's being floated" as part of Condé Nast's continuing "restructuring..." (WWD)
-- Jason Rezaian has shared the cover of his forthcoming book "Prisoner" on social media... It will be "one of the last titles" from Anthony Bourdain's book imprint... (Instagram) | | Isaac Lee leaving Univision | | Hadas Gold emails: Univision chief content officer Isaac Lee is leaving the Spanish-language media behemoth. The departure was confirmed on Tuesday. While it wasn't exactly a shock to some insiders I spoke with, it comes at an already difficult time for the company.
CONTEXT: Lee was a key exec. He created the millennial-focused Fusion (which is likely soon to be spun off and sold) and became well known for defending Univision's tough reporting on Trump. Now he'll set up his own production company, focusing on developing "the same diverse relevant, independent content that will appeal to diverse audiences globally." More... | | Univision "is being dressed up for sale" | | Gold adds: Univision's IPO idea is dead. Disappointing financial results have led to job cuts. And new CEO Vincent Sadusky is looking to sell many of its digital assets. "The company is being dressed up for sale," a source close to Lee and Univision told me. "It has $7 billion in debt. Private equity want to exit. No appetite from markets for an IPO. Telemundo is catching up to them. They don't have sufficient scale at a time when all traditional media is bulking up..."
All of which is to say, in the words of the source, the next few months at Univision will be "gloomy..." | | Tuesday's Netflix headlines | | There were loads of Netflix headlines on Tuesday, in the wake of its surprise subscriber # miss on Monday. The company's stock was down 5% at the close on Tuesday... Which means Disney is, for the moment, back on top with a slightly bigger market cap...
-- A reality check from CNNMoney's Jill Disis: "Netflix stock is tanking, but Hollywood would kill for its problems..."
-- CNBC picked up on Netflix's argument that it has lots of room to grow: The company "only takes up 8% of the time you spend watching video..."
-- Variety: "Netflix has set its first slate of films based on the stories of Mark Millar, and enlisted a number of A-list talent to develop the movies..." | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Donie O'Sullivan emails: Turns out the infamous Facebook data that got Cambridge Analytica (and Facebook) into so much trouble earlier this year, had been accessed from Russia, a British MP tells us. Who accessed it? When? And how? This will be one to watch...
-- Embarrassing: "Mic reporter Emily Singer has deleted a tweet and apologized after stating that an alleged Russian spy, who was recently arrested, was photographed in the Oval Office in 2017..." (The Hill) | | Diamond & Silk 1, Facebook 0 | | Oliver Darcy emails: The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday morning aimed at "examining the content filtering practices of social media giants." Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter all sent representatives to the hearing to testify. Facebook exec Monika Bickert kicked things off by saying Facebook "badly mishandled" communications with Diamond & Silk earlier this year and offered an apology to the pro-Trump social media personalities. Bickert added, "We appreciate the perspective they add to our platform."
Facebook's capitulation to Diamond & Silk was stunning. Diamond & Silk repeatedly went on Fox News and misled large audiences by claiming Facebook had censored them. Facebook had not, as I wrote about here. But Facebook apologized. Why? I can only guess that the company bent over backwards and did so to avoid the appearance of bias against conservatives.
And speaking of that... | | Early Tuesday morning, the WSJ's Ben Mullin and Deepa Seetharaman dropped this story about publishing execs accusing FB of being "overly deferential to conservatives." At a meeting with FB officials last week, BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith challenged The Daily Caller's presence at the meeting.
Smith sent a follow-up email to Daily Caller publisher Neil Patel... laying out the case... You can read that fiery note here via Steven Perlberg… | | | For the record, part four | | | -- The "great CNN baby boom!" Don't miss Cosmo's story about the "unprecedented number" of women at CNN who "are proving they can handle a maddening news cycle and morning sickness..." (Cosmopolitan)
-- Sara Fischer's latest: "Snapchat is launching a news partnerships initiative..." (Axios)
-- Vox Media "is beginning to license Chorus, the technology that underpins the portfolio of sites it owns and operates..." (WSJ) | | Lowry reviews "Dark Money" | | | Brian Lowry emails: "Dark Money," a documentary about the influence of money in politics made more timely this week by changes in IRS rules, is receiving a theatrical rollout in advance of its airing on PBS this fall. Beyond the ramifications of the Citizens United case, the film also focuses on the challenges faced by local journalism through the plight of Montana reporter John Adams, and the threat to the vital role the press plays as an independent curb on such excesses. Read Lowry's full column here... | | THR's next cover: "Hollywood's Age of Anxiety" | | | Does this cover speak to you? It sure feels true to me. The Hollywood Reporter's next cover story is about the "jittery" entertainment industry -- subhed: "Disruption. Uncertainty. Consolidation. Trump" -- it'll be out on Wednesday... | | -- Lisa Respers France writes: Kim Kardashian has defended Kylie Jenner being called "self-made" by Forbes mag...
-- More from Lisa: Taylor Swift was shut out of nominations for the major categories at the MTV Video Music Awards, and her fans are not happy about it...
-- Chloe Melas writes: "The life of the late actor Paul Walker will be celebrated in a new documentary" premiering on Paramount Network next month... | | Underwhelming start for Sacha Baron Cohen's new show? | | Brian Lowry emails: Sacha Baron Cohen's act hasn't changed, but the worlds of media and politics have. And the response to his Showtime series, "Who is America?," reflects that, while shedding light on some of the excesses that TV cameras can foster.
And I'd echo this point by Salon critic Melanie McFarland, responding to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's criticism of Cohen: "Nobody made Dana Rohrabacher endorse arming toddlers. He chose to do that."
Episode one premiered on Sunday. Although Showtime was eager to promote other metrics for the show -- including sign-ups for its streaming service and on-demand viewing -- the linear rating for the premiere was tepid at best: 327,000 viewers, per Nielsen. So the show's biggest dividend could be in media coverage, which is no small detail for a pay channel that relies on subscribers... | | | Thanks for reading! Email your likes, dislikes, thoughts straight to me: brian.stelter@turner.com | | | | | | |
