| | | | | Hello Reliable Sources family! This is Oliver Darcy in for Brian Stelter... scroll down to find out where Brian's at... | | | SIX DAYS OF COVERAGE AND COUNTING... | | | When was the last time a story unrelated to President Trump dominated the news for this long? Wednesday marked day six of Harvey coverage. I can't remember another story since Inauguration Day -- maybe even since the summer of 2015 -- that has overshadowed Trump-related news like this. And with rescue operations still underway in Houston, there's no telling how long the Trump show will be put on the back burner as networks continue with wall-to-wall coverage of the scenes playing out in Texas... | | Live shots allow us to all bear witness | | Brian Stelter emails: In every storm there are iconic scenes of desperate victims and incredible rescues. Sometimes these are still photographs, seen days or weeks later. Sometimes they're amateur videos from smartphones. In Harvey those scenes are being broadcast live. It's a reflection of how TV technologies are changing and how broadcast tools are in the hands of more and more people.
>> Examples: On Sunday we saw Brandi Smith of KHOU flag down help for a stranded trucker -- live. And we saw Ed Lavandera's CNN crew help an elderly family get to safe ground. Monday on "GMA" we saw a woman plead for help from the roof of her building -- live. There have been several equally emotional interviews with stranded people since then. On Tuesday morning we saw Drew Griffin and his photojournalist Scott Pisczek save a man who'd accidentally driven into high water. And on Tuesday we also saw journalists from CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News fly aboard helicopters on rescue missions...
>> There are a variety of ways these pictures are being beamed back from the storm zone to TV control rooms. But the common denominator is that viewers on TV and on the web are seeing rescues up close and personal. There are definitely ethical considerations about putting the camera in the faces of storm survivors. But let's recognize the power of technicians plus journalists... enabling us all to bear witness... | | -- Anderson Cooper, who was scheduled to be off all week, anchored "AC360" from Houston Wednesday night...
-- Norah O'Donnell to Refinery29: "We wouldn't realize the severity of this situation without journalists... I think there's a public service element to journalism..."
-- Fox's Steve Harrigan to TVNewser: "Katrina was a punch in the nose. This is more like a python -- all of a sudden it's around your whole body..."
-- Saddest fact-check ever? There have been so many bogus claims on social media that Snopes had to publish this post on Wednesday: "Was Barack Obama President During Hurricane Katrina?" | | NYT draws criticism for Erik Prince op-ed | | The New York Times ignited controversy by publishing an opinion piece by Blackwater founder Erik Prince. The op-ed argued that private security forces, not troops, will "save Afghanistan." You can read the piece in full here...
>> Critics unloaded on the Times for giving Prince a prominent platform to argue for a strategy from which he could potentially benefit financially. President Obama's former senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, "The NYT letting Erik Prince to use the Op Ed page to argue for a strategy that would enrich him is an odd choice."
>> Prince shot back at critics in an interview with Mediaite: "If so called journalists are going to scrutinize they should review all the compensation received by the media talking head generals and the pay they receive from the defense industry," he told the outlet, among other things.
>> Asked for a response to the controversy, a Times spokesperson told me, "We would not have published the piece if it did not meet our editorial standards and we don't discuss the editorial process for op-ed submissions." A Times spokesperson added to Mic's Kelsey Sutton, "We also believe that the disclosure in the author ID, as well as in the body of the piece itself, was transparent."
>> As several people pointed out, this would have been an ideal subject for a public editor to have tackled. Too bad the Times eliminated that position earlier this year... | | It happened: Tomi Lahren joins Fox News | | It was just a matter of time... Months after she left TheBlaze on less-than-good terms, Fox News announced that it had signed up conservative pundit Tomi Lahren as a contributor. You can read my full story here...
>> Lahren will provide political commentary on Fox News' conservative opinion shows, primarily Sean Hannity's primetime program, Fox News said in a release announcing the news. She will also have a "signature role" on a digital product currently being developed.
>> In a Facebook post, Lahren wrote: "I am blessed and honored to join the Fox News team. This exciting new step will allow me to give voice to all the America-loving patriots who have had my back since day one." | | Tom Kludt emails: Lahren's hire can certainly be viewed as yet more evidence (not that we needed any) of Fox's ongoing commitment to overwhelmingly pro-Trump coverage. But I see it more as a sign of Fox's commitment to Hannity -- although, admittedly, there's quite a bit of overlap between those two considerations.
I don't know what, if any, role Hannity played in securing Lahren this job, but he certainly went out of his way to prop her up this summer, a period when her star appeared to be flickering out. Last month, for example, Hannity gave Lahren a week-long slot on his program to deliver the closing monologue each night. There's been some speculation about Hannity's future at Fox, given the string of high-profile departures from the network. But he weathered a massive backlash over his promotion of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, and now Fox has hired one of his. I'd say they're planning to stay in the Sean Hannity business for a while... | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Like CJR just before it, Poynter also has a new look... (Poynter)
-- On NiemanLab, an interesting interview with Ev Williams on the future of Medium, now that it has a Spotify-like subscription strategy and a new emphasis on compensating content creators based on engagement... (NiemanLab)
-- As tech eats the world, Gizmodo is expanding to coverage of politics, news, and all kinds of stories... (Digiday)
-- United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein criticized Trump's attacks against the media, saying they "could amount to incitement" and that "to call these news organizations fake does tremendous damage..." (NYT)
-- USA Today's new mobile site, offering personalized content based on reading habits, has users spending 75% more time on articles... (Digiday)
-- Bloomberg analyzes the great pivot to video that can't stop, won't stop... (Bloomberg)
-- An interesting read on Mic, and more generally on the journalism industry's approach to its own problems, and on diversity in newsrooms... (Medium)
-- Jack Shafer thinks the Newseum deserves to die... (Politico) | | Coverage of Trump's tax speech | | Julia Waldow emails: Trump's tax speech on Wednesday -- which also briefly touched on Harvey -- was received differently across the three main cable networks. Fox and MSNBC aired the remarks in their entirety (about 34 minutes), while CNN aired 7 minutes, then went back to hurricane coverage.
Banners differed across the networks, too:
MSNBC: "Trump talks taxes as gulf death toll climbs to 19"
Fox News: "Trump: Lower taxes on American businesses means higher wages"
CNN: "Trump speaks in Missouri amid flooding devastation" | | Speaking of Trump's tax speech... | | One notable Trump ally was anything but pleased with the president. Ann Coulter, who was one of Trump's most loyal supporters during the campaign, laced into Trump in a blistering tweetstorm for what she saw as him prioritizing tax cuts over delivering on the hardline immigration agenda she wants.
"This isn't a 'once in a lifetime' shot at tax cuts! EVERY GOP cuts taxes! This is 'once in a lifetime' shot to save US: Wall & deportations!" she wrote one tweet. In another tweet, Coulter delivered perhaps the most ultimate insult: "This is the worst, most tone-deaf speech @realDonaldTrump has ever given. Jeb! had better ideas." Ouch. You can read a full recap at the Washington Examiner...
>> Why this is important: Coulter's frustration is part of a growing trend: Trump's die-hard media supporters growing impatient with the president and what they see as his failure to deliver on the priorities they thought they were getting from him. Matt Drudge has fired warning shots at the White House. Breitbart is gearing up for war with some of Trump's advisers. And others have signaled their support hinges on Trump's ability to get things done. If Trump loses his supporters in conservative media, he is likely to have trouble holding his base. And that should worry him... | | 'As a political cartoonist, I try to get people to think' | | Politico came under intense scrutiny earlier today for a cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Wuerker. The cartoon depicted a victim of the Houston floods next to a "Don't Tread on Me" flag thanking God for being evacuated by a chopper. "Er, actually Coast Guard ... sent by the government," corrected the rescuer.
>> After critics pointed out how insensitive the cartoon was, Politico deleted a tweet promoting it.
>> Wuerker said in a statement: "As a political cartoonist, I try to get people to think—to consider the ironies and subtleties of the world we live in. This cartoon went with an extreme example of anti-government types—Texas Secessionists—benefitting from the heroism of federal government rescuers. My heart is with all the victims of Hurricane Harvey's destruction and those risking their lives to save others. We are all rooting for Texas." You can read Maxwell Tani's full report on this here... | | Facebook rolls out its on-demand video solution | | | Facebook users logging on to the website may have noticed a new tab on the left-hand column. The "Watch" section, comprised of short shows produced by various publishers, started rolling out today. As Digiday notes, "Facebook has signed deals with more than 30 different content partners to kick-start Watch. Once Watch is more widely available in the U.S., Facebook expects to offer 'hundreds' of shows, according to a spokesperson." You can read more about the new Facebook section here... | | By Julia Waldow:
-- The FCC's net neutrality comment period is coming to an end. Almost 22 million comments have been filed with the Commission... (WashPost)
-- A new report by the head of NYU's Steinhart Music Business Program depicts a solemn future for AM/FM radio... (PR Newswire)
-- ...And here's a response to the study by the National Association of Broadcasters: "Contrary to the report's conclusions, millennials are NOT abandoning local radio..." (Variety)
-- Longtime Simpsons composer Alf Clausen says he's been fired from the show after 27 years... (Variety) | | | Via Kaitlan Collins: "White House confirms" that Thursday "is Sean Spicer's last day & that they are having a 'farewell party' for him. He resigned July 21..." | | ESPN commentator walks away | | Tom Kludt emails: The now-widespread discussion about the devastating consequences of football has spawned an exodus. We've seen players retire long before they passed their primes. Parents have pulled their kids out of Pop Warner leagues. And lifelong fans have opted to look elsewhere for entertainment on Saturdays and Sundays. Now, a commentator is taking such a stand: Ed Cunningham resigned as a college football analyst for ESPN.
"I take full ownership of my alignment with the sport," Cunningham told the NYT in a story published Wednesday. "I can just no longer be in that cheerleader's spot."
The Times said that Cunningham "may be the first leading broadcaster to step away from football" over personal misgivings about the extreme physical toll the game inflicts on its players... | | New chief at Fox Entertainment | | Brian Lowry emails: Fox promoted Michael Thorn to president of entertainment, replacing David Madden, who is leaving the network after three years in the job. Thorn comes from the company's studio, 20th Century Fox Television, where his claims to fame include helping develop "This is Us," the hit NBC drama. Madden, meanwhile, is rumored to be headed to AMC, which has an opening after Joel Stillerman left to join Hulu.
The timing is noteworthy, with the fall TV season about to begin, and Fox, coming off a mediocre season, in need of new hits. Thorn reports to Fox Television Group Chairmen/CEOs Gary Newman and Dana Walden. Read the full story here via Variety... | | | "CNN debuts today on the Worldwide Web with its own homepage, accessing thousands of pages of data. The news can be accessed from a home or work computer and is continously updated." | | What happened to Bradd Jaffy? | | Bradd Jaffy, the NBC Nightly News editor who earned a large online following for live-tweeting the news, had been missing from Twitter for weeks. He vanished from the social media platform around the time BuzzFeed published a profile of him and his MSNBC colleague and fellow power-tweeter Kyle Griffin weeks ago. At first, his followers assumed he was on vacation. (Jaffy's last tweet, in which he said he was taking a break from Twitter, had sort of implied so.) But as weeks went by, people started wondering: What happened? Had he abandoned Twitter? Was he told to stop tweeting as a result of the BuzzFeed profile?
Curious, I started asking around Tuesday. Eventually, I made contact with Jaffy via email. He told me he was simply on a self-imposed Twitter vacation and said rumors he was told to stop tweeting were nonsense. In fact, Jaffy said, he had taken a similar break last September, but back then it went unnoticed.
On Wednesday afternoon, Jaffy went back on Twitter to relay the information to his followers: "oh my god I just needed a social media break! there's no grand conspiracy." | | | The Washington Post's Ashley Parker got the profile treatment from The Pennsylvania Gazette, the alumni mag at her (and President Trump's) alma mater. From the profile: "One of her duties on The Washington Post's White House beat—which she shares with five other reporters—involves setting her alarm every 15 minutes, starting at 6 a.m. The purpose of that rotating gig is to check the Twitter feed of President Donald Trump W'68 to see if he has fired off one of his famous 140-character fusillades. She and her colleagues call it the Hot Seat." You can read the full piece here... | | Brian was moderating a CNN Films screening of "The Reagan Show" on Wednesday night. He emails:
If you care about the presidency or about P.R., you're going to like this doc. It's airing on CNN on Monday night, so we had a preview screening at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. The doc, directed by Sierra Pettengill and Pacho Velez, uses footage from the Reagan-era White House Television Office. You see Reagan the actor AND Reagan the commander in chief.
At one point, Reagan is heard complaining about the Washington Post... saying, "As far as I'm concerned, they're pro-Gorbachev. They're not on our side." During our panel discussion after the screening, presidential historian Tim Naftali and I talked about how Reagan only expressed that grievance privately, not publicly... Anyway, it is a fascinating film... here's the info about it from CNN... | | News on the 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' sequel | | | Brian Lowry emails: No surprise that Sony would be eager to unspool a sequel to "Spider-Man: Homecoming," and per The Hollywood Reporter, it's negotiating to reunite the first film's writing team and director. The studio has planted its flag on a July 2019 release date. THR has the details here... | | Lisa France emails:
-- Sandra Bullock donated $1 million for Harvey relief to the American Red Cross. She has a long history of generosity in times of disaster...
-- Kermit the Frog's new voice debuted on a new "Muppet Thought of the Week..."
-- Even though another "Bachelor" relationship has crashed, warm feelings remain. Nick Viall still loves Vanessa Grimaldi despite the end of their engagement...
-- Here's some of what's streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu in September... | | | 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. | | | | | |
