| | | | | Exec summary: POTUS talks to "Fox & Friends," CNN suspends Paris Dennard, Omarosa hits No. 1 on the NYT's list... Plus the BBG has a new name, "Big Bang" is ending, and much more... | | This Google Trends chart shows a huge spike in US searches about "impeachment" in the 24 hours after the Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort bombshells. Impeachment is being talked about on cable news every hour, with some people taking it seriously and others dismissing the possibility. On CNN, ex-Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo told Poppy Harlow that Trump is closer to impeachment than he was 48 hours ago.
Meanwhile, over in Sean Hannity's bubble, thoughtful conversations about President Trump's legal morass are just more evidence of a grand plot against the prez. "The destroy-Trump liberal media is cheering in unison for Team Mueller, every step of the way," Hannity claimed Thursday night.
So now what? I guess this is my long way of admitting that I don't know. | | | This is the mag cover you'll see on almost every morning show Thursday A.M.: | | | "IN DEEP," the cover says. This is Tim O'Brien's third TIME cover illustration that features Trump. I'm sure you remember the other two... | | | Ever since Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday afternoon, his lawyer Lanny Davis has been everywhere. Seriously, he's given more than 20 TV interviews in the past day. And he's been talking to print reporters and radio stations too. On Wednesday evening I saw him on Chuck Todd's MSNBC show, Martha MacCallum's Fox show, and Anderson Cooper's CNN show, just to name a few. He has several more interviews slated for Thursday. It's a flood-the-zone strategy -- and in some ways he's just playing catch-up, since Rudy Giuliani has been a frequent guest on cable news too. It's also reminiscent of Michael Avenatti's cable-centric strategy. This televised legal drama is a spin-off of The Trump Show... | | I asked a friend of Lanny's about the say-yes-to-every-show strategy. "He has not been able to speak for a while because of the criminal investigation," the friend said. "Now that Cohen has pled, he can go and talk again and wants to do everyone he promised he would do for weeks. He will do it all now and then stop."
The friend added: "Avenatti and Giuliani have been talking non-stop --- now it's Lanny's turn to defend his client." | | | He said on "AC360" that Cohen "might be able to be useful to the Special Counsel about whether Trump knew ahead of time about the hacking of the Hillary Clinton e-mails... I think what he can say would be useful and that's the way I have to leave it." | | The National Enquirer's partnership with the Trump campaign -- to "catch and kill" stories that might hurt Trump -- was even more extensive than we knew. That's one of my takeaways from Michael Cohen's guilty plea on Tuesday. Here's my full story for CNNMoney...
| | WSJ says Pecker "provided prosecutors" with key info... | | The government's filings show how the Enquirer was weaponized by Trumpworld -- with the full knowledge and assistance of American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker. Famed First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams told me that "if Mr. Pecker and his company acted as is alleged, there should and very likely would be no viable First Amendment defense for them."
But AMI and Pecker do not seem to be in any imminent legal trouble. The WSJ reported Wednesday night that Pecker "provided prosecutors with details about payments Mr. Cohen arranged with women who alleged sexual encounters with President Trump, including Mr. Trump's knowledge of the deals..."
-- Reps for AMI and Pecker have not responded to requests for comment since the Cohen news broke. I wonder if an outlet known for embarrassing celebs is now feeling some of its own embarrassment...
-- MORE: The NYT has another big story about this, "How a Tabloid Enabled Cohen To Keep Scandals Under Wraps." on its Thursday front page...
| | Jim Rutenberg on this week's "Reliable" podcast | | One of the authors of that story, Jim Rutenberg, joined me on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast. The famed Enquirer "tip line became a trip wire" helping Trump, Rutenberg said on the pod. He's been covering AMI for the better part of a year, so we talked about "catch and kill," underhanded tactics elsewhere in the "gossip world," and potential legal consequences. Plus, he described sprinting across the NYT newsroom when Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday...
Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn or Stitcher... | | "Can you stand here today and say the President has never lied to the American people?" NBC's Hallie Jackson asked at Wednesday's press briefing. She pointed out that Trump said "he knew nothing about these payments, when, in fact, we now know he knew everything about these payments. So has he lied?"
"I think that's a ridiculous accusation," Sanders said. I know that's a ridiculous answer. Lying is one of the few constants of the Trump era.
Some fact-checkers have been reticent to label falsehoods as "lies," for much-debated reasons. So that's why Wednesday's decision by the WashPost was notable: For the first time, Fact Checker columnist Glenn Kessler applied the L word.
"The president's statement was a lie — and the people speaking for him repeated it," he wrote. Here's his anatomy of the lie... | | | "In a divided, disbelieving nation, will this really turn out to be the epic moment it looks like? Or will Trump's intense, years-long campaign to undermine the media -- and truth itself -- pay off now, in the clutch?" | | | -- Margaret Sullivan's latest column, titled "This is the moment all of Trump's anti-media rhetoric has been working toward..." | | CNN suspends Paris Dennard | | Pro-Trump commentator Paris Dennard, who previously worked at Arizona State University, was fired from his job there four years ago "for making sexually explicit comments and gestures toward women, according to documents and a university official," WaPo's Aaron Davis reported Wednesday evening.
Dennard is well known to CNN viewers for his staunch defenses of POTUS. He told the Post that he still believes the harassment allegations are false.
When I reached out to CNN PR for comment, a spokeswoman responded with this: "We are aware of reports of accusations against Paris Dennard. We are suspending Paris, effective immediately, while we look into the allegations." | | Trump's "Fox & Friends" chat airs Thursday | | Trump tweeted Wednesday evening, "I will be interviewed on @foxandfriends by @ainsleyearhardt tomorrow from 6:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. Enjoy!"
No, the interview is not three hours long 😉It was taped on Wednesday, and Fox released clips throughout the day... It was evidently more of a chat than a hard-hitting interview... with questions like "Michael Cohen, tell me about your relationship with him."
But there was some news made... Trump said the hush money payments "came from me..." And Ainsley Earhardt said on "Hannity" that Trump told her that he is considering a pardon for Paul Manafort...
| | He says 80% of the media is the "enemy of the people" | | | Earhardt asked about Trump's media attacks in the gentlest way possible -- "is the press the enemy of the people?" -- prompting more of the same from POTUS. He always tries to drive a wedge between "good," approved outlets and "bad" ones... "real" versus "fake" news... This time, he said the "fake news" is the enemy, and "it's a big chunk, OK? Somebody said what's the chunk. I said 80%. It's a lot. It's a lot." He went on to say the NYT is "crazed" and "like lunatics." | | | You'll recall that I was underwhelmed by Omarosa's performance on the Amazon and B&N sales charts last week. While she never quite hit No. 1 on Amazon, her sales were strong enough to snag No. 1 on the most prestigious list in publishing, the NYT's. "Unhinged" debuted at the top of the Times combined print and e-book best seller list on Wednesday. Here's my full story... | | The latest from her publisher | | | No specific sales figures or info about new printings, but a Simon & Schuster rep said "we're delighted that readers have responded enthusiastically and it is selling well in all formats, print, ebook and audio. Omarosa continues to promote the book and is committed to telling her story." More... | | -- Hunter Schwarz measured the Fox-Trump feedback loop, Instagram edition: 24% of Trump's Instas are just reposts from Fox, oftentimes posts of his own tweets... (COVER/LINE)
-- Trevor Noah says his first thought before work is "What's happening in the world? And what else can we talk about that's not him?" (The Wrap)
-- A must read: Sarah Ellison and Dan Zak's profile of Kimberly Guilfoyle... (WaPo)
-- Margaret Brennan on the role of journalists: "If you're just inflaming your electorate, are you making anything better?" (Forbes) | | Politico poaches Morrongiello | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Gabby Morrongiello is jumping from The Washington Examiner to Politico, according to a person familiar with the move. A spokesperson for Politico confirmed the news. Morrongiello will continue to cover the W.H. and starts her new gig in October... | | Fox's faulty attack on CNN | | Oliver Darcy emails: Fox News claimed on Wednesday that CNN had turned a blind eye to the revelation that Mollie Tibbetts had been murdered by an undocumented immigrant -- despite an overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary. A FoxNews.com story said CNN had chosen to "ignore" the news, but that was not the case. CNN TV covered the news on multiple shows, starting in prime time on Tuesday night and extending into Wednesday. The news was also featured front and center on CNN.com on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Despite being confronted with evidence proving his story to be demonstrably false, the Fox News reporter who wrote the story stood by it in a series of tweets. The whole incident was a great example of Fox News wanting something to be true, and running with the narrative despite pesky facts getting in the way... | | About Fox's intensive coverage of the Tibbetts tragedy... | | | I'd recommend Peter Beinart's piece for The Atlantic about this. Fox has been leading its homepage with updates on the crime for the past day. On one level, he says, "Fox is simply covering the Iowa murder because it distracts attention from a revelation that makes Trump look bad. But dig deeper and the two stories are connected: They represent competing notions of what corruption is." Read on... | | -- Big scoop for "GMA:" James Longman has an exclusive interview with the entire Thai soccer team that was rescued from the cave... It's airing on Thursday morning...
-- Leslie Moonves "has hired Daniel Petrocelli to represent him in the ongoing internal investigation," Eriq Gardner reports, citing sources... (THR)
-- Every cut hurts: "The Omaha World-Herald today laid off 10 employees in various departments. In addition, five staff members have decided to retire. The changes affect about 3 percent of the newspaper's staff..." (Omaha.com) | | Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson | | The high-stakes exhibition match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson is officially set for Thanksgiving weekend. And WarnerMedia "has secured worldwide media distribution rights," the company announced Wednesday.
This is a moment when AT&T (CNN's parent) is flexing its muscles, two months after taking control of Turner and the rest of WarnerMedia. "This one-of-a-kind, winner-take-all matchup provides a great opportunity to show fans the benefits of AT&T and WarnerMedia coming together," Turner prez David Levy said in a statement. "For the first time since AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner (now WarnerMedia), Turner, DirecTV and HBO will present a multi-faceted presentation of the live event and accompanying content across a vast array of platforms." Variety has details here... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Evan Spiegel has embarked on a "self-improvement project" that involves hiring a management coach, reading management books, furthering communication with employees, and spending more time with board members, Sarah Frier reports... (Businessweek)
-- Business Insider's politics, news, and military/defense teams are moving over to INSIDER... (Digiday)
-- Jeff Bezos posted the first job advertisement for what is now Amazon 24 years ago today. Jon Erlichman documented it here... (Twitter) | | The Broadcasting Board of Governors has a new name | | Hadas Gold emails: The US agency that runs services like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe is changing its name. The agency used to be known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors. But now it's the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The reason? Current BBG CEO John Lansing said in an announcement that "the term "broadcasting" does not accurately describe what we do. The new name reflects our modernization and forward momentum while honoring our enduring mission to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy."
The USAGM, as it is now known, may soon go through some big changes as Trump's nominee to lead the agency, Michael Pack, awaits confirmation. | | The silver lining to all these hacking stories... | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: It might sound like there's been a lot of hacking attempts in the lead up to the midterms revealed this past week. And there has: Two Democratic campaigns last week, Microsoft's announcement about Russians targeting the Senate and conservative think tanks, AND news on Wednesday that the DNC thwarted a potential attack just one day earlier.
But it is GOOD we're hearing about this -- because it means that cyber security is being taken seriously. In the case of Microsoft and the DNC, both organizations thwarted what could have been pretty devastating attacks. No doubt, there's a lot more out there... | | Corbyn wants to tax Big Tech to help fund the BBC | | | Hadas Gold emails: UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn often criticizes the media. But on Thursday he'll turn those critiques into suggestions. At a speech during the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Corbyn will announce several proposals for the media industry in the UK. Most notable? Taxing big tech firms like Facebook and Netflix to help subsidize the BBC and that would contribute to an independent fund for public service journalism. The other proposals include giving not-for-profit media outlets charitable status and allowing everyday taxpayers to elect the BBC's governing board. Corbyn's speech is a late addition to the festival... The BBC has more here... | | It's official: Season 12 of "The Big Bang Theory," debuting September 24, will be its last. CBS and Warner Bros. Television, in announcing the news on Wednesday, said the show will rank as "the longest-running multicamera series in television history." Sandra Gonzalez has a full story here.
Per EW, star Jim Parsons "was ready to walk away from the hit sitcom," and that's what effectively led to the finale news... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Every time a show like "The Big Bang Theory" ends, there's a temptation to write a "Death of broadcast TV"-type epitaph. I won't go that far. But it does seem fair to say that a major hit of the long-running CBS sitcom's magnitude won't be easily replicated in the current crowded peak-TV climate... | | Lowry reviews "The Happytime Murders" | | | Brian Lowry emails: The footnote to the late-summer mess that is "The Happytime Murders" proves more interesting than the movie. Sesame Workshop actually sued the R-rated puppet comedy over its slogan, "No Sesame. All Street," but needn't have bothered. Director Brian Henson has rightfully said that his father, the late Jim Henson, would have embraced the idea of stretching the brand in this fashion. It's the execution, alas, that quickly unravels... | | |
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