| | | | | Exec summary: A fiery Trump rally... a big TV station sale... another AT&T deal... and a readers guide to "Westworld." Scroll down for details... | | 11 curious quotes from Trump's SC rally | | I thought you might like to hear what President Trump's biggest fans in SC and Fox News viewers across the country heard on Monday night:
-- "Look at all those FAKE newsers back there. That's a lot," he said. "That's a lot of people." The crowd booed loudly. So much for all of the day's "civility" talk...
-- Later, Trump mentioned something he saw on "one of the OPPOSING networks. You know, the enemy, the enemy of the people, I call them..."
-- Trump sounded almost taken aback by the crowd's anger towards the media. "You're worse than I am!" he said at one point amid the boos. "We just want HONESTY. We want a little fairness. We want a little fairness, right?"
-- He said Hillary Clinton was "protected" for her alleged crimes, then drew a contrast to himself, alluding to the Russia probe: "I did nothing, and it just never ends. It never ends..."
-- He repeated some of his old lines about NBC: "I made a fortune for NBC on 'The Apprentice.' They treat me horribly." He said NBC is worse than CNN...
-- About NBC's attempt to continue the "Apprentice" with Arnold: "It bombed in about two shows, it was over..."
-- "We've never had higher polls than we have now," even from Gallup, which "treats me horribly," he said. Trump dropped four points in Gallup's latest poll...
-- He quickly added: "Polls are fake news also." It's "suppression." He said "it should be illegal, actually..."
-- One of his complaints about the coverage of detained children: "They were using pictures taken in 2014 when Barack Obama was president!" This is very misleading and generally untrue, although some folks on social media made dumb mistakes with old photos...
-- A+ line: "If I ever come into an arena and it's got empty seats, I think that's the end..."
-- His bottom line: "I'm loving what we're doing. You people are loving what we're doing."
So: What's the best way to cover a speech like that? What should journalists tell readers/viewers about it? | | | The Daily Beast's Sam Stein tweeted: "We are witnessing the presidency as the spear of a cultural grievance movement right now." | | Rallies = a live edition of Trump's Twitter feed. Case in point: He blasted Jimmy Fallon again, now that Fallon has repeated his (one-year-old!) regret about tussling Trump's hair. Trump mocked Fallon and said "now he's going to lose all of us," meaning, Trump's base.
Then he turned to Stephen Colbert, criticizing the "Late Show" host without naming him. "The guy on CBS is -- what a lowlife. What a lowlife! I mean, honestly, are these people funny?" The crowd shouted "NO!" | | Here's a sneak peek at Fallon's Monday night monologue:
"Before we begin, I just wanna give a shoutout to our show's number one fan -- the President of the United States! As you may have heard, last night, the President of the United States went after me on Twitter. So Melania, if you're watching, I don't think your anti-bullying campaign is working..."
He added: "It's crazy. The President went after me on Twitter. It's pretty much the only thing I have in common with NFL players..." | | I'd love to see David Lynch give another interview | | The Guardian's Rory Carroll recently profiled director David Lynch. One paragraph of the profile was about Trump. Breitbart and other sites aggregated the Trump paragraph, and Trump both tweeted the Breitbart piece and read aloud from it at Monday's event.
Lynch was quoted saying "he could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way."
Carroll also said Lynch is "undecided about Donald Trump," but Breitbart left that out. Trump celebrated Lynch's comments, saying, "his career in Hollywood is officially over!" | | Sean Spicer is piloting a reality TV show. Will anyone buy it? | | I'm guessing no. But let's see. Michael Grynbaum and Maggie Haberman got a hold of the pitch sheet for "Sean Spicer's Common Ground," in which he "interviews notable people in an informal setting." I've confirmed that the producers are casting for potential guests for the pilot episode... emphasis on the word "pilot."
Debmar-Mercury and Pilgram Media Group are co-producing this show. But it needs a home... and no network has bought it yet. Details here via the NYT. BTW, Spicer's book comes out in late July... | | | Alex Weprin's take via Twitter: "The pilot has to be good. If it isn't the show won't go anywhere. But, Debmar-Mercury and Pilgrim are really, really good at making compelling TV, so don't count it out." Weprin added: "This seems tailor made for two potential suitors: broadcast syndication, and streaming services. A local TV station group owner like Sinclair or New Fox could see a show like this as a McLaughlin Group replacement..." | | -- A must-read: Isaac Chotiner's interview with Jeremy W. Peters about the value of "Trump supporters still support Trump" stories. My two cents: The more voters we hear from, the better... (Slate)
-- Jay Rosen's recommendation: "It's time for the press to suspend normal relations with the Trump presidency..." (PressThink)
-- Politico's Matthew Nussbaum: "The speed with which attention has shifted from the separating of children as young as infants from their parents to a bad faith conversation about manners is shocking, even by 2018 standards..." (Twitter)
-- Charlie Warzel's latest: "Yelp, The Red Hen, and how all tech platforms are now pawns in the culture war..." (BuzzFeed) | | Hearst Mag prez stepping down | | | (Photo via The Verge.) "After eight years leading Hearst Magazines, president David Carey said Monday he will be stepping down," NYPost's Keith J. Kelly reports. "Carey said he will exit at year's end and transition to chairman in 2019 while taking a two-semester course at Harvard. The moves will immediately set off speculation on a successor for the company..." | | This combo would create the country's 3rd largest TV station owner | | ...Or the 4th largest. It depends on how you do the math. The wave of consolidation continues: "Gray Television has agreed to buy fellow television-station owner Raycom Media in a $3.65 billion deal that would create a company that reaches nearly a quarter of U.S. TV households," the WSJ's Austen Hufford reports.
By # of stations, Gray + Raycom would be the No. 3 station owner in the country, behind Sinclair/Tribune and Nexstar. By % of households reached, it would be No. 4, behind Tegna, too... | | On Monday, AT&T confirmed last week's reports: It is buying AppNexus, "which operates one of the largest independent online ad exchanges," The Information's Tom Dotan writes. "In the release, AT&T touts the combined power of the data it gets from current AT&T mobile phone customers and AppNexus' reach across the web. That, it thinks, would make it a stronger competitor to Facebook and Google, which dominate online advertising." No official word on the price tag. Dotan is skeptical...
--> GO DEEPER: AdExchanger interviewed AT&T's ad biz CEO Brian Lesser. His new division needs "to build a lot of technology, and AppNexus is a great start for us," he says. "What you can expect is that we will be furiously building. And of course we will look at partners and potentially additional acquisitions that will speed our time to market..." | | -- "With a light jab at Facebook, Apple News launches a 2018 midterm elections section that'll 'steer clear of rumor and propaganda...'" (NiemanLab)
-- Fox's Friday night tribute to Charles Krauthammer was the most-watched cable news show of the day. Krauthammer's book remains on the Amazon best sellers list... (TVNewser)
-- "The Daily Beast and CBS Television Studios have signed a first-look deal covering development of the news website's daily published content for scripted TV..." (Variety) | | The Daily Beast's Monday evening scoop: "David Bossie, the former deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump and current outside adviser to the President, has been suspended from his contributor gig at Fox News, three sources familiar with the situation tell The Daily Beast. The suspension is set to last two weeks."
This news comes one day after Bossie made a racist remark on "Fox & Friends." He later apologized. Here's the strange thing: Fox won't confirm... OR deny... that Bossie has been suspended. Apparently the network prefers to deal with these issues in private... | | When Bossie said "you're out of your cotton-picking mind," he was talking to Joel Payne. I asked Payne for his reaction to the Beast's report.
"Mr. Bossie's comments were hurtful and demeaning to me and to many Americans, especially those who share my journey as the descendants of people who lived through slavery and Jim Crow," he said. "In the spirit of forgiveness, I accepted Mr. Bossie's apology yesterday. We can all do better, myself included, and I hope this incident helps all of us learn how to disagree with less vitriol in these times..." | | On his radio show Monday morning, Glenn Beck addressed the dust-up that took place during his appearance on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" -- you know, the segment that ended with Beck walking out on his live interview with me. Beck suggested I have "Trump derangement syndrome." Fox ate it up. But the question I tried to ask Beck still stands. In fact, it's more interesting now that he's avoiding the issue.
The Daily Beast said last Friday that Beck's media empire is "imploding." Beck has not responded to the damning details in the story. Someone should ask him: What's going on with The Blaze? Are you trying to sell it? Was The Daily Beast story accurate? | | | For the record, part three | | | -- "HBO's website remained blocked in China Monday for the fourth straight day following a recent segment on 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' that took a critical look at the country..." (Variety)
-- THR's Jeremy Barr noticed that Sean Hannity has accused Clinton of "acid-washing" her emails 74 times this year, "a claim that's been disproven." Fox responded by criticizing his publication... (THR)
-- Via Hadas Gold: Facebook quietly launched a magazine in the UK that targets business leaders. But don't be so quick to call it a "magazine..." It's a marketing effort... (CNNMoney) | | Cable news split-screen... | | I'm looking out the window right now. I don't see the country Sean Hannity is describing. "The Trump hate hysteria has literally TAKEN OVER," he says. Now he's promising a "Hannity history lesson." Time to turn the channel...
...And over on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is airing exclusive video from inside a foster agency in NYC. The office serves migrant children who have been taken from their parents. "These images were shot surreptitiously by a woman who worked at the facility until last week," Maddow said. Michael Avenatti said on Twitter that he represents the ex-employee... | | | Yahoo W.H. correspondent Hunter Walker tweeted: "To me, the number one question right now is how many kids remain separated from their parents. This should be easy for the government to answer and they're not. Press should get a daily update on this until the situation is resolved..." | | "How 'Sesame Street' Helps Traumatized Children" | | | Megan Thomas emails: I was struck by this Atlantic story about how "Sesame Street" helps traumatized children. "Since reports emerged of about 2,000 children being separated from their parents.. Sesame Workshop has been in talks with groups like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the public-health philanthropy, Catholic Charities USA, and other partners to provide toolkits for caregivers who are taking care of the children." Read more... | | This year's Loeb Award winners are... | | | Chris Roush of Talking Biz News reports: "The New York Times business section was the big winner at the Gerald Loeb Awards on Monday, winning three of the most prestigious awards in business journalism." Reuters won two Loebs... The WSJ won in the international category... ProPublica, Retro Report, Quartz, and "Marketplace" also took home awards... | | Russell Crowe will play Roger Ailes | | "Russell Crowe will play Fox News founder and chairman Roger Ailes in a new miniseries for Showtime, the network announced on Monday," Frank Pallotta reports. The previously-announced series is based on Gabriel Sherman's reporting...
--> Brian Lowry adds: If you need a textbook example of a project that's going to yield dividends in media coverage/attention that likely go far beyond its actual audience, this would be a pretty good poster child for that... | | A reading list for the "Westworld" season finale! | | | Brian Lowry emails: At the risk of being a tad hypocritical about the cottage industry built around recaps, reviews and analysis of hot TV shows, it was somewhat striking to see the NYT post a recommended reading list to help understand the "Westworld" season finale. My argument would be if you need to do that much homework to figure out what went on, it's not a very good sign... | | | Megan Thomas emails: Tiffany Haddish is Jada Pinkett Smith's latest "Red Table" guest for her Facebook Watch show. Even if you think you already know everything about Haddish's inspiring life story, hearing her talk about how she's been able to help her ill mother at the nine-minute mark is worth a watch. Also noteworthy: Her story about fighting back against sexual harassment when she was coming up in the stand-up scene. Here it is... | | Newly invited to join The Academy... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continues to grow its membership -- and improve its representation in terms of women and people of color -- with its biggest class of new members since the response to #OscarsSoWhite began. Details here... | | | For the record, part four | | | Lisa Respers France emails:
-- Janet Jackson's father Joe is reportedly in the final stages of cancer. This weekend she thanked him during an awards acceptance speech...
-- There will be a public memorial in Florida on Wednesday for slain rapper XXXTentacion...
-- ICYMI: Here are the highlights from Roseanne Barr's emotional podcast interview... | | Highlights from Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | -- "The photos we're NOT seeing are far more disturbing than the photos we are seeing," Time EIC Ed Felsenthal said, defending Time's choice of the "crying girl" photo on the cover...
-- Actor and activist George Takei, a survivor of an internment camp during World War II, said Trump's rhetoric about immigration is a "big lie," calling it "grotesque and absolutely inhumane..." Here's the rest...
-- Despite his constant media criticism, "media is really President Trump's cocaine. He cannot exist without it," Norm Pearlstine said...
-- Sarah Ellison discussed her report that Trump, through Michael Cohen, was given sneak peeks of National Enquirer covers and stories. She said "we had impeccable sourcing on this." Watch... | | 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! | | | | | | |
