| | | | | Exec summary: The August lull is here. Big time. Sadly, my vacation is still ten days away! Jamie, can we leave early? 😉 In the meantime, there ARE some big media stories to cover... Scroll down for details... | | Laura Ingraham's claim that "most of us don't like" America's "massive demographic changes" is continuing to reverberate. I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk of an advertiser backlash. There's certainly been a widespread backlash from commentators up and down the dial. Take a look at what "The Next Revolution" host Steve Hilton said on Fox News on Sunday night. He didn't utter Ingraham's name, but he seemed to be rebuking his colleague:
"We must draw a line between populism and racism; between populism and xenophobia; between populism and white supremacy, of course, but also between populism and white superiority, which is subtly different, but equally unacceptable."
Hilton went on to say that "the incredible and unique thing about this country is that anyone can become an American." America is founded on an idea, "not rooted in a racial or ethnic identity. America is always changing..."
The key quote: "If there comes a time when white people are no longer the majority in America, as long as immigration is controlled and not a free-for-all, and as long as immigration is accompanied by integration, so everyone who's here signs up to America's laws and values, that is not something to fear or fight." | | Two new profiles of Bill Shine... | | One is by the AP's Jill Colvin and David Bauder. They say Trump's new deputy chief of staff for comms "has yet to move into a permanent office or bring on his own staff," but his presence is already being felt -- he's "clashing with reporters, improving the production quality of W.H. events and trying to shape the message" of the admin...
The other piece is by WaPo's Sarah Ellison and Philip Rucker. LOTS of colorful details here. A few of 'em:
-- "Shine has told people he wants to 'lower the temperature' on the toxic relationship between the press and the president. But so far his actions seem to have been counterproductive..."
-- "He is considering adjustments to the daily press briefings and is beginning to recruit staffers to join the communications team, which has been depleted by recent departures..."
-- "Shine's allies say his decades working with competing personalities and egos at Fox News were good preparation for Trump's West Wing..." | | Rupert Murdoch's media empire props up President Trump, creates hatred, and tries to "stir the most negative impulses in this country," New York City mayor Bill de Blasio says.
The mayor was my guest on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." I jumped in when he said Murdoch's outlets have changed the country "for the worst." I asked, "Isn't that like saying they are fake news or they're enemy of the people?"
He rejected the Trump comparison. He said he defends the right of News Corp to exist, but gets angry seeing "a profit-making giant dividing people and creating hatred and negativity and changing our political landscape... I think we have to be able to talk about that..."
Okay, but "politicians make lousy media critics," I said. "Why do you feel it's your role to be calling out a newspaper because you don't like the content?"
"Because I think it's not happening enough," de Blasio answered. The back and forth continued... CNNMoney's Jackie Wattles wrote up the interview... And here's the full video...
| | Eyes on the Dem primaries? | | Criticism of Murdoch's empire is common on the left, but it's notable to hear a politician like de Blasio speaking out so forcefully. His recent comments may be a way to stand out in a potentially crowded field of 2020 presidential aspirants. After all, Bernie Sanders' critiques of the "corporate media" won him applause in 2016. When I brought this up, de Blasio said, "I am mayor of New York City, and I will continue to be. My term goes to 2021."
| | | A corporate spokesperson had no comment. On Sunday evening, the NYPost home page led with this story: "Mayor de Blasio is a such a big believer in the free press that he let two bodyguards physically remove a credentialed Post reporter who had the temerity to ask him a question in public on Sunday..." | | -- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column is about Sleeping Giants: Online activists are hitting "hatemongers like Alex Jones where it hurts the most — in the wallet..." (WaPo)
-- ICYMI: This is the NYT's must-read investigation into the "flourishing business of fake YouTube views..." (NYT) | | Omarosa's book launch is nigh | | | As then-businessman Donald Trump said back in 2013... | | "Unhinged" is out on Tuesday. But Omarosa's TV tour began on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, and it will continue on "Today" on Monday. She shared one of her tapes from the White House with Chuck Todd on Sunday... She said it was recorded in the Situation Room... And it backed up her claim about John Kelly firing her. One obvious question for the "Today" show crew: "Omarosa, aren't you concerned about the legal repercussions of making secret tapes in highly secure areas?"
--> Walter Shaub on CNN: "There's some irony: She is being told she's being fired for misconduct while she's committing misconduct..."
---> Maggie Haberman tweeted: Like Michael Cohen, "Omarosa learned the necessity of taping to prove an event with Trump or his allies happened..."
| | Is she a whistleblower or a fame junkie? | | Is it possible she's both? When it comes to "Unhinged," two things are true are the same time.
She's a reality TV star with a villainous reputation... BUT she worked in the White House for almost a year.
Parts of the book have been corroborated by her tapes... BUT other parts of the book have been flatly denied.
There are startling claims that merit attention... BUT there are also some basic mistakes that undermine her credibility.
CNN's Kevin Liptak and co. read the entire book over the weekend... Here's his recap. And on "Reliable," I asked my panel how seriously the press should take the book... Here's the convo...
| | "This is a White House where everybody lies," Omarosa said to Todd. "The president lies to the American people. Sarah Huckabee stands in front of the country and lies every single day. You have to have your own back." Thus, she said, she taped some of her conversations...
I was struck by that explanation... and also by this comment: "I was complicit with this White House deceiving this nation," she said. "They continue to deceive this nation by how mentally declined he is... how difficult it is for him to process complex information. How he is not engaged in some of the most important decisions that impacts our country. I was complicit, and for that I regret."
| | Reactions to the book tour... | | -- April Ryan, who's had an ongoing feud with Omarosa, on "Reliable Sources:" "She's a liar, and I would say she's evil." I was not expecting that...
-- Jonathan Swan with the bottom line: "Trump has nobody to blame but himself for Omarosa's raucous book tour, in which she calls him a racist and a misogynist, and says he's in mental decline. Trump brought her into the White House at the senior-most level with the top salary..."
-- Even after all this attention, the book still has not cracked the top 10 on Amazon's best-selling books page. Right now it's at #17... Bob Woodward's "Fear" is at #11, and it's not out for another month... | | On Thursday, 135+ papers will publish editorials decrying Trump's anti-press rhetoric | | In Friday night's newsletter, I wrote about the coordinated editorial campaign led by the Boston Globe... an effort to call out Trump's anti-press rhetoric. At the time, about 70 papers had agreed to write and publish an editorial in Thursday's edition. Over the weekend, the total swelled to 100... And now, according to the Globe's deputy editorial page editor Marjorie Pritchard, the total is at "about 135." Here's my full story about the effort...
>> CNN's Hadas Gold on "Reliable Sources:" This effort "should be commended," but "I have to question how much of an effect this will have..." | | -- Another example of the power of simple questions: On ABC's "This Week," Kellyanne Conway struggled to answer when Jon Karl asked her to name an African-American person in a prominent White House role... (CNN)
-- One of the headlines from Jake Tapper's interview with Rudy Giuliani: "Giuliani backtracks, saying Trump did not ask Comey to let Flynn probe go..." (CNN) | | White nationalists outnumbered at their own rally | | Newsrooms were on high alert for Sunday's white nationalist rally right outside the White House. The rally was a bust -- just a couple dozen people turned up -- but hundreds of counter-protesters filled the surrounding streets. When the hatemongers went home early and it started to rain in downtown DC, news outlets shifted to other stories... But some critics still thought the protests received too much attention.
Jeff Greenfield tweeted: "Would have been way better if networks had led tonight with: 'After all the hype, about 25 white supremacists -- that's right, TWENTY FIVE -- marched in DC today. ' [pause] Back to you at the anchor desk."
COUNTERPOINT: Any gathering of racists in the nation's capital is newsworthy, especially on the one-year anniversary of the Charlottesville riot, and the organizers' failure to turn out more support is also newsworthy... As Poynter's Al Tompkins told me the other day, "No problem, including racism or hate, gets smaller by ignoring it..."
| | "Holding their feet to the fire" | | ...But in that same story, Lois Beckett warned that racists use news coverage as a recruitment tool. Read the whole thing here. Indira Lakshmanan said it well on Sunday's "Reliable:" Reporting on racists means "knowing how to interrogate groups whose ideas rely on a lot of lies... Holding their feet to the fire and not just giving them a free platform..."
| | | As Garrett Haake said on MSNBC: "The counter-protesters absolutely dwarfed this message – drowned it out. It was impossible for these white nationalists to communicate anything." | | Counter-protesters denounce press in C'ville | | In Charlottesville, there were several reports of protesters -- apparently self-described Antifa members -- attacking journalists.
In one case on Saturday night, a marcher cursed at a news crew and violently swatted away a camera. NBC's Cal Perry, who posted the video, described the march as "almost exclusively Antifa at that point." NBC declined further comment.
More: A WTVD crew said "members of Antifa tried to stop us from filming," and "then cut our audio cable." WaPo's Terrence McCoy tweeted that "journalists are being cursed at for doing stand ups and asking questions..." | | | Some observers said the focus on both DC and C'Ville was misplaced. Educator Clint Smith tweeted Sunday evening, "Wild how we gave all of this media coverage to like seven white supremacists & barely talked about how Puerto Rico admitted that the death toll from Hurricane Maria was at least twenty times higher than originally reported." | | | For the record, part three | | | -- WaPo's Michelle Ye Hee Lee is the next president of the AAJA... (Twitter)
-- ICYMI: Here's Gerry Smith's piece about "who killed" the American cable bundle. It's a story still in progress... And I'd like to read a lot more about it... (Bloomberg)
-- The Teen Choice Awards were on Sunday night... And here's the winners list... (Deadline) | | We often talk about Trumpworld's "echo chamber." But maybe it's more like a hall of mirrors. Picture one of those Mirror Mazes on the boardwalk... You walk in and you see the same thing over and over again, but the view is distorted, and it's hard to find a way out.
Here's my essay from Sunday's show... It's all about how Trump reflects what his pro-Trump media boosters are saying, and vice versa... | | How to catch up on "Reliable" | | | Tune in to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or TuneIn... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or watch the full program via CNNgo or VOD... | | NYT's Roger Cohen highlighted the work of the "dapper, mild-mannered" WashPost fact-checker Glenn Kessler over the weekend. Cohen says Kessler is doing "critical work" documenting Trump's untruths.
When the two men met up for a lunch interview, Kessler had his right hand "bandaged from a collision with a wine glass while he was washing the dishes." So this was Cohen's kicker: "When Kessler went to the hospital last Sunday to get stitches in his hand after the run-in with the wine glass, the physician assistant recognized the Fact Checker and said: 'Oh, we have to make sure you're able to type!'" | | Hiatt profiles Tom Arnold | | The other "RS," Rolling Stone, just dropped a big new profile of Tom Arnold and his Trump tape obsession. Remember Arnold's encounter with Michael Cohen? Brian Hiatt was there when it happened. He took the photo.
Hiatt says Arnold lied about his relationship with Cohen. "Arnold's tactics are, to say the least, unjournalistic: He's willing to say things of dubious accuracy in the interests of bull-goring," Hiatt writes. "He wants to move the story forward, to win, whatever it takes. In that moment, he reminds me of someone..." | | I made a big mistake in Friday's newsletter: I referenced "Crazy Rich Asians weekend," implying the movie was already out in theaters. Obviously it's not! Sneak peeks are underway, but the movie officially comes out on Wednesday.
Brian Lowry's review and Lisa Respers France's feature had it right... So check their stories out if you haven't already... | | "The Meg" is a Warner Bros. win | | "Going into the weekend, 'The Meg' looked like a big, fat belly flop for Warner Bros," the NYT's Brooks Barnes writes. "Surveys indicated minimal interest in the killer shark movie, which cost at least $200 million to make and market. Rival studios snickered that Warner's new marketing chief had made a rookie mistake in backing 'The Meg' with a campy ad campaign: Make a joke of your own noncomedic movie, the Hollywood conventional wisdom holds, and ticket buyers will stay home." But the "brainless" film "took in $44.5 million at North American theaters — roughly 120 percent more than most analysts had expected." The film was co-financed by a Chinese firm, and it made "an additional $97 million overseas, with China contributing half of that total."
So, Barnes says, the film is "an important success for Blair Rich, who took over as Warner's president of worldwide marketing in April." The jokey ads paid off... | | Spike Lee's best opening weekend in at least a decade | | | One more note from Barnes' story: "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" was #2 for the weekend, "Christopher Robin" was #3, "Slender Man" was #4, and "BlacKkKlansman" was #5. This was the best opening weekend for a Spike Lee film "in more than a decade." Several newsletter readers said I have to go see it sometime this week, so I might try to catch a late screening after I hit send on this... | | |
Thanks for reading! Email me your feedback... See you tomorrow...
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