| | | | | The sun came out in Houston on Tuesday, but the flood emergency in Texas and Louisiana remains the country's top story. Officials don't know how many people remain trapped. The death toll will almost certainly continue to rise. The NYT's headline right now: "Storm Will Not Relent, and Texas Can Only Take Shelter; Floodwater Still on Rise as U.S. Rainfall Record Is Shattered." Major news organizations are moving in even more reporters and resources... | | Some members of the traveling press corps thought that President Trump's trip to Corpus Christi and Austin was underwhelming. This lede by Politico's Josh Dawsey is getting a lot of play: "It was a presidential trip to a deluged state where the president didn't meet a single storm victim, see an inch of rain or get near a flooded street." But, Dawsey says, the trip "gave the optics-obsessed president some of the visuals he wanted."
Speaking of optics, pool reporter David McSwane was suspicious about the hundreds of Trump supporters who, he said, "somehow managed to know exactly where the president was" during a briefing in Corpus Christi. Trump spoke to the crowd and cameras, cheered on the recovery effort, waved the Lone Star State's flag, and said "what a crowd, what a turnout." McSwane tweeted later: The turnout of supporters was notable "because few knew where Trump was actually going. Someone organized that..."
-- The headline on Jenna Johnson's WashPost piece: "Even in visiting hurricane-ravaged Texas, Trump keeps the focus on himself."
-- No surprise, the tone on Fox News was totally different Tuesday night... "powerful," "presidential," etc... | | -- Alisyn Camerota will be co-anchoring CNN's "New Day" from Houston Wednesday morning...
-- ABC has scheduled a special report about Harvey's aftermath... Wednesday at 10pm... George Stephanopoulos will anchor...
-- Paul Farhi tweets: "Tremendous images of Texas flooding via news orgs using camera-equipped drones. Quite impressive use of this technology..."
-- Jeff Greenfield emails: "My wife raised a good question -- if there are 30,000 homeless in a region of 4-5 million, are there significant parts that have NOT been hit by Harvey -- from the coverage, it looks like the whole city is underwater. I think it's worth looking at on CNN..."
-- Will Bunch's latest column: "I could easily fill a whole column with tales of journalists -- derided by many, including our commander-in-chief, as the 'enemy of the American people' -- aiding and abetting their alleged enemies..."
-- About that... Lester Holt told the WashPost's Callum Borchers... "I would hope that I would never have to prove or justify my love of this country. I'll say that. But I would also say I've seen some incredible work from Americans of all professions here in Houston..." | | Interviewing people "during their worst times" | | Kurt Bardella said it best: "This woman on CNN just became the face/voice of pain in Houston."
During the 1pm hour on CNN, Rosa Flores was interviewing a mother who had just been rescued after several days. Her children looked traumatized. After describing the ordeal, the woman criticized the CNN crew for "trying to interview people during their worst times." Her voice shaking, the woman wanted the interview to be over -- "with me shivering cold, with my kids wet! And you're still putting a microphone in my face!"
Flores repeatedly said sorry and moved the microphone away. The Daily Caller and Trump aide Kellyanne Conway seized on the clip to chastise CNN... but those were political cheap shots. As Erik Wemple wrote on Twitter, this was a tough situation: "News value of testimonials is high, and Flores has been respectful throughout. Most people seem happy to talk." Flores and her team spoke with the mother off-camera ahead of time, asked her to come on the air, and she agreed. The exhaustion and emotion in her voice conveyed just how dire the situation has been for some Houstonians.
-- CNN PR said in a statement: "Our hearts go out to this woman and her family. Our reporter handled the situation graciously."
-- Conway on Fox News later in the day: "We want to thank the media for really connecting people with the information they need." | | Facebook and Twitter still empowering rescuers | | We're continuing to see rescues orchestrated with the help of social media -- something I wrote about on Sunday. KTRK, the ABC affiliate in Houston, showed another example on Tuesday night -- reporter Kaitlin McCulley was on a boat in Kingwood, TX when a twitterer sent him a nearby address -- "family needs rescue and you are close right now!" She was on the scene within minutes.
-- Related: Alan Rosen, a Harris County official, told Lester Holt that "social media has helped us message... find out where people needed to be rescued... deploy assets..." | | Weather Channel staying live til Saturday (at least) | | The Weather Channel is staying live with storm coverage for "at least 188 consecutive live hours," the AP's David Bauder reports... "The cable network has covered the story live around the clock since 5 a.m. ET on Friday and plans to continue until 1 a.m. Saturday, if it has wound down by then..."
-- Ratings: The Weather Channel out-rated Fox, CNN and MSNBC in the 25-54 demo on Friday and Saturday... We've seen this before during major storm stories... | | | Bauder's story also noted that "network star power has been in short supply in Texas, with NBC 'Nightly News' anchor Lester Holt the biggest name on the scene early." Norah O'Donnell continues to co-anchor CBS newscasts from Houston... while Tom Llamas fills in for David Muir on ABC... Many A-list anchors, like Muir, Matt Lauer, and Robin Roberts were scheduled to be off work on this normally quiet pre-Labor Day period... | | Making sure the coastal areas are not forgotten | | CNN's Joshua Chavers flagged this tweet from iCyclone founder Josh Morgerman: "Pass Christian & Mississippi were sort of forgotten after KATRINA. I hope Rockport & Aransas Pass don't become #HARVEY's 'Pass Christian.'"
--> Chavers emails: I'm not sure if he specifically means to refer to media coverage, but it's something worth thinking about in the coming weeks and months. The wind damage and complete structural devastation near Harvey's landfall are sadly similar to some of the images seen out of the Gulfport/Biloxi areas after Katrina. Will Rockport and Aransas Pass be "forgotten?" The answer, in large part, will hinge on media coverage... | | Fund-raising efforts by entertainers | | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: I wrote about Hollywood's efforts to help Harvey's victims. Among them: "Supernatural" star and Texas native Jensen Ackles, who is mobilizing the show's passionate fanbase to raise money for the relief effort. Though he's in Vancouver filming the show, far from his Austin-based family, he told me that organizing the campaign -- which has raised more than $160,000 as of Tuesday afternoon -- felt like the right thing to do... | | Speaking of entertainers... | | Fox's Jesse Watters was fooled by the viral photo of a shark roaming the flooded streets of Houston. This picture makes the rounds every time there's a disaster. But Watters was apparently unaware of that... he brought it up on Monday's "The Five..." and was mocked for it. On Tuesday afternoon he tweeted: "I sincerely apologize if I caused concern or alarm to anyone..."
-- Related: Craig Silverman tracked down the guy who first tweeted the pic in relation to Houston... (BuzzFeed News) | | TUESDAY'S OTHER NEWS... STARTING WITH A SCOOP... | | Jacobs says Gianforte still won't him an grant interview | | Ben Jacobs says Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte has reneged on what Jacobs believed was a commitment to grant him an interview. Gianforte was elected to the House on May 25, one day after he body-slammed Jacobs. Jacobs is now going public about the dispute after two months of interview requests. He says Gianforte is continuing a "pattern of avoiding responsibility for his actions."
Gianforte's team, for its part, says the congressman never offered an on-the-record interview -- but that he will be happy to sit down with Jacobs for an off-the-record meeting. "Congressman Gianforte's offer to Mr. Jacobs remains on the table," a spokesman told me Tuesday night. Here's my full story... | | Judge dismisses Sarah Palin's suit against the NYT | | Tom Kludt emails: You'd be hard-pressed to find a journalist who didn't appreciate these words on Tuesday from Judge Jed Rakoff: "Nowhere is political journalism so free, so robust, or perhaps so rowdy as in the United States. In the exercise of that freedom, mistakes will be made, some of which will be hurtful to others. Responsible journals will promptly correct their errors; others will not. But if political journalism is to achieve its constitutionally endorsed role of challenging the powerful, legal redress by a public figure must be limited to those cases where the public figure has a plausible factual basis for complaining that the mistake was made maliciously, that is, with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard of its falsity."
And with that, Rakoff dismissed Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against the NYT. The Times believed all along that the Constitution was on its side. The paper's attorneys argued that its editorial writers may have erred in a June piece, which suggested that an ad from Palin's PAC incited Jared Loughner to carry out the 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, but that such mistakes are protected by the First Amendment. Rakoff, a colorful jurist, concurred. Read Tom's full story here... plus Rakoff's opinion... | | No response from Palin's team yet | | Tom adds: Palin hasn't commented yet, but the NYT says it is "delighted" by the ruling. "Judge Rakoff's opinion is an important reminder of the country's deep commitment to a free press and the important role that journalism plays in our democracy," the NYT said. "We regret the errors we made in the editorial. But we were pleased to see that the court acknowledged the importance of the prompt correction we made once we learned of the mistakes..."
-- Related: As Tom wrote last week, Palin's lawsuit was the latest in a string of threatening legal challenges to news organizations. Rakoff's ruling represents a rare victory in the courtroom… | | -- Via An Phung: Joe Pompeo talked with more than half a dozen journalists about Trump's war against leaks... and how "news organizations are making sure their security protocols are air tight..." (VF)
-- An also flagged this: Sean Spicer finally got to meet the Pope... (America Magazine)
-- CNN's Jeremy Diamond confirmed Bloomberg's scoop: Trump fumed at staffers over the size of his Phoenix rally crowd last week... (CNN)
-- What's going to happen to the Newseum? Margaret Sullivan has the details about a "full-blown review of its long-troubled finances..." (WashPost)
-- Thank you, "Reliable Sources" viewers: in August, for a second consecutive month, the show ranked #1 in its cable news time slot among 25- to 54-year-olds... (CNN PR) | | Sky stops showing Fox News in the U.K. | | While the Murdochs seek British government approval for their takeover of Sky, this happens...
21st Century Fox is "pulling Fox News off the air in Britain," Charles Riley reports. Why? The official reason is that because the network "averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the U.K.," 21CF "concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the U.K..." | | August cable ratings: Rachel Maddow on top | | Brian Lowry emails: President Trump often mentions his power as a ratings draw, but there's one beneficiary he tends to overlook: MSNBC. The network's press release about August #'s notes that Rachel Maddow's show was the top-rated program on cable news for the month, both on a total-viewer (2.8 million) and 25-54 demo basis. And in the A.M., "Morning Joe" (1.1 million) equaled its all-time audience high. While Trump has at times overstated his influence on ratings, the left-leaning network -- long accustomed to cellar-dwelling status -- has clearly achieved gains thanks to apprehensions about his presidency...
-- Brian Flood's August cable recap for The Wrap: "MSNBC, CNN Show Significant Growth But Still Lose to Fox News" | | Trump @replies to "Fox & Friends" criticism | | Amid fresh reports that Laura Ingraham's new deal with Fox News... including a show of her own... could be announced soon, @realDonaldTrump's Tuesday morning tweet to Ingraham is noteworthy. He must have been watching "Fox & Friends" when Ingraham said the federal government needs more staff. He replied to the show and Ingraham right away via Twitter... Politico has the details here...
--> Our Trump/TV tweet tracker notes that something similar happened back in March... | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- CJR has a new look! (CJR)
-- YouTube also spruced up its logo and its mobile app... (TechCrunch)
-- The Sunlight Foundation announced a $125,000 grant from the Lodestar Foundation to expand on Sunlight's initiative tracking Trump's conflicts of interest, which began in November 2016... (Sunlight Foundation)
-- Digiday asked Reuters' Rust Belt correspondent Tim Reid to share his account of a typical day-in-the-life. Reid says in many of the areas he covers, people "feel really passionately" about Trump, "and the more he gets criticized and attacked, the more their support for him intensifies..." (Digiday) | | Apple sparring with the studios over pricing... | | | Ben Fritz and Tripp Mickle's latest: "Apple is scrambling to strike deals with Hollywood studios to offer ultrahigh-definition films on its new Apple TV, but discussions have been hampered by disagreements over pricing, according to people with knowledge of the talks." Apple wants a $20 price point, the studios want $25-30... | | Comparing "Thrones" with "Twin Peaks" | | Brian Lowry emails: One of the criticisms about the just-concluded season of "Game of Thrones" has been that the show began moving too fast as it sped past George R.R. Martin's books. But as the snail-paced revival of "Twin Peaks" comes to an end, it makes a pretty strong case that when it comes to premium TV, the hare beats the tortoise...
Read Lowry's full column here >>> | | "Venice Film Fest Director Defends Lack of Female-Helmed Movies" | | | Megan Thomas emails: More film festival debate about a lack of female-directed movies. Of the 21 films screening in competition at the Venice Film Festival, which begins Wednesday, only one -- Vivian Qu's "Angels Wear White" -- was directed by a woman. THR has more details... | | | ICYMI earlier this week: This is CNN Entertainment's new series As Told By Her, highlighting iconic work by women in television... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Kim Kardashian West has been slammed for channeling Jackie Onassis in a photoshoot for Interview magazine. Complaints ranged from some thinking the comparison of the reality star to the former first lady disrespectful to the view that Kardashian West appeared to be so dark in the cover shot and accompanying photo spread that it looked like she was in blackface. The blackface issue is not new, as just weeks ago the mogul deflected similar complaints about ads for her new makeup line by saying she's just simply tan...
-- Yes, those were nude photos of Justin Bieber on Selena Gomez's Instagram. But she didn't put them there, and we've seen them before...
-- The short life and tragic death of Bobbi Kristina Brown is coming soon to the small screen. TV One will air a biopic about the only child of the late superstar Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown, who died in 2015... | | Clooney talks Trump (and more) | | One more from Megan: George Clooney talked about fatherhood, his new film "Surburbicon," and his somewhat optimistic take on the state of the country in a new interview with the AP.
Of course he talked about Trump... of course. "It becomes increasingly clear how in over his head and incapable this man is of being president of the United States," Clooney said. "The good news is that our other institutions — meaning press, finally, and judges and senators — have proven that the country works. There is a check and balance..." | | | 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. | | | | | |
