| Hey there -- ignore that picture up top and don't let your eyes deceive you. This is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter who is at the Texas Tribune Festival. You can email me your feedback/tips or find me on Twitter. Now, let's get to the news... | | That is the headline on the Drudge Report this Friday evening, following a second day of high-stakes drama playing out on Capitol Hill over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
While the Senate has decided to move forward with Kavanaugh's nomination, there likely won't be any vote on the floor until the FBI completes its investigation -- which by agreement can last no longer than a week -- into sexual assault allegations against the SCOTUS nominee. CNN has the latest here. All things considered, it was, as the NYT characterized it, a "confusing day on Capitol Hill." So let's break things down...
The tick-tock
-- 9:28 a.m. ET: Sen. Jeff Flake announces in a statement that he will vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
-- 9:32 a.m. ET: Two female protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors confront Flake in a Senate elevator. CNN cameras were there and captured the entire moment on video.
-- 9:49 a.m. ET: The Senate Judiciary Committee approves a motion to vote on Kavanaugh at 1:30 p.m. ET.
-- 12:19 p.m. ET: CNN's Manu Raju notices that during the hearing Flake had "left the hearing room and asked to speak privately" to Sen. Chris Coons in the anteroom. Sen. Diane Feinstein soon joins the duo.
-- 1:45 p.m. ET: CNN's Dana Bash reports there are "serious conversations" about Flake wanting an FBI investigation.
-- 1:46 p.m. ET: Flake reenters the hearing room.
-- 1:51 p.m. ET: Flake says it would be "proper to delay the floor vote" for a week "in order to let the FBI do an investigation limited in time and scope."
-- 1:55 p.m. ET: Kavanaugh's nomination is voted out of committee and onto the Senate floor 11-10, along partisan lines.
-- 2:00 p.m. ET: Sen. Chuck Grassley abruptly adjourns the Judiciary Committee based on the "two-hour rule." Feinstein and others can be heard and seem perplexed.
-- 2:16 p.m. ET: Sen. Majority Whip John Cornyn says GOP leadership is "exploring" Flake's proposal for an FBI investigation.
-- 2:36 p.m. ET: Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she supports Flake's proposal for delay.
-- 3:56 p.m. ET: The Senate Judiciary Committee formally asks the White House to instruct the FBI to do a background check.
-- 4:56 p.m. ET: Sarah Sanders tweets a statement from Trump that said he had ordered the FBI to conduct a "supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file."
-- 8:27 p.m. ET: Trump tweets, "Just started, tonight, our 7th FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He will someday be recognized as a truly great Justice of The United States Supreme Court!"
The moment that helped change history
| | As Flake was heading to vote on Kavanaugh's fate, he was confronted by two female protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors. The extraordinary exchange was captured by CNN's cameras and showed the Arizona Republican -- clearly uncomfortable -- being excoriated for minutes by the two women. "You're telling all women they don't matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them," one of the protesters shouted. The video has been viewed millions of times online and replayed throughout the day on cable news.
>> Politico's Jake Sherman: "I've spent 9 years covering the the Capitol. I've never seen anything like that. Ever."
"He really needed to understand..."
On his program Friday evening, Anderson Cooper interviewed Ana Maria Archila, one of the protesters who confronted Flake. She told Cooper that in the moments before the confrontation she had just learned Flake planned on voting yes on Kavanaugh's confirmation. Then she said she "saw him running to the elevator" and "ran behind him." Archila added, "I was not really prepared really for my own emotions but I felt he really needed to hear it. He really needed to understand that women feel incredibly enraged..."
How CNN captured it on video
CNN's Brian Ries emails: I was curious how the moment came to be for the CNN crew who captured it, so I reached out to CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, who was a part of it. She told me that after Flake's email hit inboxes two protesters standing near their stakeout outside Flake's office asked what was going on when they spotted Flake down the hall. "We got to him when he was in the elevator, and it was one of the women, one of the protesters, who stuck her foot out in the elevator door and it opened, and that's when it all began," Malveaux said.
>> Malveaux added: "It was a moment where we stopped asking questions, because we realized this was much more of an important moment that was unfolding between the senator and these two women who had experienced sexual assault, and this was their moment, and a very significant one, so we just let it unfold. We just watched it and observed it, as it unfolded before our eyes."
Baldwin: This has been "pivotal moment in American history" | | Brooke Baldwin capped off her show Friday afternoon with a poignant monologue about this "pivotal moment in American history." Baldwin stressed that "this matters" and noted the Kavanaugh-Ford hearings on Thursday reopened "deep, painful wounds." She concluded, "What good comes of all of this? What are we going to learn? It's a generational opportunity to better ourselves and how we relate to each other as women and men. This matters the most."
Nearly 20% of households with TVs watched
The Ford-Kavanaugh hearings on Capitol Hill Thursday earned monster ratings for networks. Brian Stelter broke the numbers down here, but here are some highlights...
>> Nearly 20% of households with televisions watched the hearings at any given time between 10 a.m. and 6:45 p.m., per Nielsen ratings...
>> Fox News averaged 5.66 million viewers at any given time, MSNBC averaged 2.83 million, and CNN averaged 2.51 million.
>> As Kavanaugh testified, viewership on Fox spiked to 7.17 million...
This Sunday on "Reliable"
Stelter emails: I'll be back in NYC this Sunday... and joined by Katie Couric... this will be her first CNN interview in years... plus, Jessica Valenti, Jeff Greenfield, Susan Glasser, David Gergen, Matt Schlapp, and Lorraine Ali. See you Sunday at 11am ET!
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Alyssa Milano writes for Cosmopolitan.com about "being in the room with Kavanaugh's rage..." (Cosmo)
-- WaPo compares the chyrons on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC during the Ford-Kavanaugh hearings... (WaPo)
-- Vox assembles a chart that shows each time Ford and Kavanaugh dodged a question at the hearings... (Vox)
-- ESPN announces Don Van Natta Jr. will expand his role at the company with a new docuseries and podcast... (ESPN)
-- PBS NewsHour has announced a massive expansion of its digital efforts and has posted 9 new full-time positions online, a 69% growth to its online unit... (PBS)
-- NBC News relaunches its "Elections Confessions" digital project... (NBC)
-- Stelter emails with a correction: Last night I said Jonathan V. Last is with NRO. Obviously he's with The Weekly Standard. My apologies!
Facebook hack exposes data of 50 million users
Facebook on Friday announced a massive breach of user data. The company said that the information of nearly 50 million users had been exposed after attackers exploited a bug to gain access to those users' accounts. CNN's Heather Kelly has all the details here...
>> Via Kelly's story: "The attackers were able to take over the accounts and use them exactly as if they were the account holders. That would include posting or viewing information shared by any of that account's friends. Facebook says no credit card information stored with the company was accessed. Facebook said it does not know who the attackers were or where they were based. It also said it has already fixed the issue and informed the FBI and other law enforcement, as well as lawmakers and regulators."
SPEAKING OF SOCIAL MEDIA...
Twitter's misinformation problem
Over the last couple of years, there has been significant talk about Facebook's role in spreading misinformation. So much so that the company has implemented several measures to minimize its role in amplifying fake and misleading news. But Twitter has managed to stay below the radar, despite the platform also playing a role in spreading misinformation.
The Ford-Kavanaugh hearings put a spotlight on the issue. Over the last couple days, information that is flat-out false has gone viral on the platform. One example: A random Twitter user on Friday morning claimed the WSJ had reported the prosecutor brought in by Republicans for Thursday's hearings stopped questioning Kavanaugh because he lied. The paper reported no such thing.
The tweet was later deleted, but not until after it had spread to thousands of users on Twitter. All of this raises a question: Should Twitter be doing more to combat misinformation? Because its feed now relies on an algorithm, the company could follow Facebook's footsteps and de-rank information flagged as inaccurate. I reached out to a Twitter spokesperson earlier today and asked this, but did not hear back...
New York DA probes allegations of sexual misconduct at CBS | | CBS has caught the attention of the New York district attorney's office. The network, which just weeks forced out former CEO Les Moonves out amid accusations of sexual misconduct, has "received subpoenas about those allegations from both the district attorney and the New York City Human Rights Commission," CNNMoney's Chris Isidore reported. It's not known who exactly is being probed, and CBS declined to say...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
By Daniella Emanuel:
-- NYT is launching a one-year fellowship program for "young talent..." (NYT)
-- WaPo's Alexandra Petri was the winner of Thursday night's "Press vs. Politicians Spelling Bee..." (The Hill)
-- A new look at Pew Research Center data shows that device ownership and the use of internet/social media have plateaued after years of rising...(Pew Research Center)
-- Variety's Brian Steinberg's latest, on how "60 Minutes" is launching its newest season this Sunday, despite the lack of a new executive producer following the ousting of Jeff Fager...(Variety)
Flurry of briefs filed ahead of government's appeal of AT&T merger case
Hadas Gold emails: The last two days have seen a flurry of amicus briefs entered ahead of the appeal of the AT&T antitrust merger case. Especially notable was the fact that state attorneys general, both Republicans and Democrats, wrote supporting AT&T and the lower court's decision to allow the acquisition of CNN's parent company, Time Warner, to go through.
Also notable was one today from the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press. Though the RCFP wrote in support of neither party, it urged discovery on whether AT&T was selectively punished because of "the overwhelming hostility" Trump has shown to CNN. Remember, Judge Richard Leon blocked discovery on certain communications between the White House and the Justice Department, which AT&T sought to try and prove that they were being unfairly targeted.
>> Gold adds: No oral argument date has been set for the appeal yet but we expect it will be decided in the coming months.
Amal Clooney calls on Myanmar to pardon jailed Reuters journalists
Jill Disis emails: Amal Clooney, the famed human rights attorney, is calling on Myanmar to free two imprisoned Reuters journalists. Clooney spoke out in defense of the men, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, at the United Nations, during an event put together by the Committee to Project Journalists. She has been representing the reporters for several months. Read Disis' full story here...
Ted Turner reveals he has Lewy body dementia
In a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview set to air this weekend, CNN founder Ted Turner revealed that he is battling Lewy body dementia. Turner characterized it as a "mild case of what people have as Alzheimer's," but said it's "not nearly as bad." Tom Kludt has a full story here...
Turner's take on CNN
Turner said that he doesn't frequently watch the news these days, but that he will still tune into CNN every once in a while. Commenting on CNN's coverage, Turner said, "I think they're stickin' with politics a little too much. They'd do better to have -- a more balanced agenda. But that's, you know, just one person's opinion."
Stelter's dispatch from the Texas Tribune Festival
Brian Stelter emails from Austin: Here at the Texas Tribune Festival, you can feel the 2020 primary underway already... Democratic prospects like John Hickenlooper, Eric Holder, Pete Buttigieg, and Michael Avenatti are all speaking at sessions here... And the city, no surprise, is covered in Beto stickers...
>> Stelter adds: If you're here, stop by my 10am Saturday session with the NYT's Kathleen Kingsbury, Michelle Goldberg and Bret Stephens... It's in the ballroom of the Driskill...
A special edition of the "Reliable Sources" podcast...
More from Stelter: We set up a discussion with three leaders of three local news startups. At a time when so much is going wrong in the local news space, we wanted to highlight what's going right and learn from what they're doing. So here's the conversation with Eric Barnes in Memphis, Stephanie Lulay in Chicago, and Larry Ryckman in Denver.
They discussed reasons for launching their websites, sources of funding, lessons learned so far, and the challenges they face in the future. Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or TuneIn...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
By Julia Waldow:
-- Twitter's expected to end Q3 with a loss of 34 percent... This would make it the worst performer in the S&P 500... (Bloomberg)
-- Starz's video-completion rates in Facebook Stories are 2x greater than in the News Feed... (Digiday)
-- Washington Examiner hires Seth Mandel as its executive editor for its weekly print magazine... (Media DC)
-- IndieWire hires Christian Blauvelt as managing editor and Tambay Obenson as a staff writer... (IndieWire)
-- ICYMI: Due to "extraordinary circumstances" in which Julian Assange "has been held incommunicado," Kristinn Hrafnsson has been named editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, the company announced... (TechCrunch) | | | "We're watching history unfold, in a raw and urgent way. A retiring Republican senator dramatically changes the trajectory of a Supreme Court nomination as his sometime foil/POTUS looks on from 1600." | | -- Robert Costa, moments after Jeff Flake said his vote would be contingent on an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations leveled against Brett Kavanaugh. | | -- Ariana Grande was a planned guest for the season premiere of "SNL" but dropped out for "emotional reasons..." (Vulture)
-- Sophie Turner says the "Game of Thrones" ending will leave viewers divided... (CNN)
Tiffany Haddish's in-demand moment
Brian Lowry emails: Tiffany Haddish is having a moment, with three movies opening between now and early November. In terms of the first two, skip "Night School," a comedy with Kevin Hart, and take "The Oath," an uneven but provocative political satire for our polarized times, written and directed by her co-star, Ike Barinholtz. Read Lowry's full take here...
"God Friended Me" makes request for continued viewing
Lowry emails another one: Religion has always been a thorny topic for the major networks, but they keep returning to it. CBS, which enjoyed considerable success with "Touched by an Angel," has a promising new show with a catchy title, "God Friended Me," in which an atheist receives a "friend" request from an unexpected source in very high places.
Only modest ratings for "Murphy Brown"
Lowry emails: "Murphy Brown" generated a lot of advance attention, but the ratings for Thursday's debut -- which included a surprise Hillary Clinton cameo -- were modest: 7.4 million viewers sampled the show Thursday, which generated a mere 1.1 rating among the key demographic of adults 18-49. To be fair, the CBS comedies that preceded it were also down, as were most of the night's returning shows...
That's a wrap! Brian will be back Sunday evening. Enjoy your weekend! | | | |
