Exec summary: Trump mocks Ford's testimony... Plus, new books by Tucker Carlson and Steve Kornacki... Another departure from CBS... Strong NFL ratings... And emoji news from Apple...
Trump's $$$$
Susanne Craig says this investigation was, without a doubt, the hardest story she's ever done.
"Imagine," she says, "someone tossing a million white puzzle pieces into Times Square and being asked to put it back together."
Those puzzle pieces were about the Trump family business. Craig, David Barstow and Russ Buettner pieced it all together for an extraordinary story, published by the NYT on Tuesday afternoon. It will fill eight special pages of the print edition on Wednesday. Here's the front page: | | If you haven't read it yet, click here. The Times also (helpfully!) published a list of 11 takeaways from the investigation. And here's CNN's story about it.
Now for the story behind the story...
NYT assistant managing editor Sam Dolnick called this "investigative reporter serendipity:" Exactly two years ago, on October 1, 2016, "the same NYT crew published a Trump taxes story after an anonymous source sent Susanne Craig 1995 tax records," he tweeted.
Trump, of course, was elected without ever disclosing his taxes.
Flash forward five months. In March 2017, David Cay Johnston obtained a copy of Trump's 2005 returns. (Remember when he broke the story on Rachel Maddow's show?) "That triggered our journey," Craig told me. So it's fair to say this was an 18-month investigation...
The sourcing
The trio obtained confidential tax returns. Financial records. Depositions. And so on. How? I'll leave that up to you to speculate.
"We had thousands of documents. Hundreds of tax returns," Craig told me. "Piecing all that together, understanding what they did, was beyond hard. We triangulated documents. Compared tax returns to financial statements and bank statements. And then talked to sources on it. Today we put it into one story, all explained. But it started with piles of sitting in the corner of our room."
A room with a locked door
Buettner, Barstow and Craig worked in a small room on the fourth floor of NYT HQ. One of the only treats: a bottle of Jameson on the shelf.
Most NYT reporters work from open cubicles. But the trio needed privacy. So the room was kept locked, and they were the only ones with keys...
A multimedia rollout
I mentioned the "takeaways" list earlier. The NYT also had a video ready to go on Tuesday. And the same documentary crew that made "The Fourth Estate" for Showtime also tagged along on this investigation. Showtime will air the resulting "documentary short," titled "The Family Business: Trump and Taxes," this Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET. It's directed by Jenny Carchman, produced by Liz Garbus and Justin Wilkes... And it's still in the works... It'll run approximately 30 minutes on Sunday...
Trumpworld's threat: Harder calls the story "highly defamatory"
When the story dropped on Tuesday, many journalists commented -- in awe and envy -- on the super-confident tone of the story. The NYT reached what NPR's David Folkenflik likes to call "earned conclusions." These are not opinions -- these are conclusions that come from months and months of obsessive hard work. For example, the lead of the story: Trump "participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s" that included "instances of outright fraud." That is quite a conclusion.
One of Trump's pitbull lawyers, Charles Harder, sent a statement to the NYT on Monday after the paper sent him a "detailed description of its findings."
Harder said "The New York Times's allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory. There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate."
A statement from Sanders... or from Trump?
Harder's statement was followed by a release from Sarah Sanders. W.H. reporters pointed out that it sounded like it came straight from Trump's mouth.
"But the statement doesn't dispute any facts in the story," the NYT's Peter Baker tweeted. "Instead it attacks the newspaper and repeats the lie that the NYT apologized for 2016 coverage, which it did not."
Fox's spin
Here's the thing about an 18-month investigation like this: There's no real way for other news outlets to "match" the story for days... or more realistically for weeks or months. So other outlets have to report it with attribution to the NYT. I found it funny when Fox's Kevin Corke told viewers, during the 4 p.m. hour, "we'll keep digging." How? Well, he said he had reached out to W.H. officials. I can't think of a worse possible way to report on Trump's taxes.
Anchor Neil Cavuto, meanwhile, downplayed the story by saying "I don't know if there's a there there." This is one of those times when Fox's coverage actually does a disservice to its viewers...
THE BIG PICTURE
There's still so much we don't know
This story is about the Trump family, with documents dating back decades. But what about Trump's more recent tax returns? His more recent accounting practices? "The records reviewed by the Times did not include Trump's personal tax returns or his recent business dealings," CNN's story notes.
Craig tweeted, "It really underscores the need for presidents -- Donald Trump in particular -- to release their tax returns."
Baker tweeted a similar point: "Trump could help clarify anything he thinks is misleading by releasing his tax returns, as every other president has done for decades."
-- MORE TO COME? Craig told me, "We have a lot more we want to dig into..."
-- TUNE IN: Craig is booked on "GMA" and Barstow is booked on "New Day" Wednesday morning...
The day's other Times-related news...
Oliver Darcy emails: Earlier on Tuesday, before the Trump wealth story came out, the NYT tried to put out a fire about its Monday night story involving Brett Kavanaugh and a 1985 bar fight. The Times said it made a mistake by allowing an NYT Mag staff writer who had tweeted negatively about Kavanaugh, Emily Bazelon, to co-byline the story.
A spokesperson defended the story -- it was "straightforward, fact-based and we fully stand behind it" -- but said "editors should have used a newsroom reporter" to get ahold of the documents in New Haven, CT. Apparently they tapped Bazelon because she's based in New Haven... Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- BF's Craig Silverman, reporting from Singapore, explains why a new "fake news law" there "could be a big test for Facebook, Google and Twitter..." (BF)
-- New LAT owner Patrick Soon-Shiong says he has invested "close to $100 million to rebuild the paper..." (TheWrap)
-- Richard Deitsch tweets: "Last night's Monday Night Football game between the Chiefs and Broncos averaged 13.3 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, It is the most-viewed MNF game since Sept. 25, 2017..." (Twitter)
SUPREME BATTLE "FBI expands inquiry into Ford allegations"
That's the headline on CNN.com right now. "The FBI is expanding its inquiry" beyond "the initial four interviews that the White House directed to be conducted," Ariane de Vogue reports. But the FBI may be delivering summaries to the W.H. and Capitol Hill as soon as Wednesday. "It was not clear that the extra interviews would prolong the process." More here...
Trump mocks Ford's testimony
Last week President Trump called Christine Blasey Ford a credible witness." On Tuesday, he mocked her testimony. His crowd cheered and cheered.
Notably, Fox News did not carry the rally live. (Maybe, as the # of rallies is increasing, Fox's interest is decreasing a bit.)
Political reporters didn't try to contain their shock. Trump's defenders, meanwhile, said he didn't mock Ford at all: "He pointed out many of the inconsistencies in her account -- something the MSM won't do, because they're too invested in attacking Brett Kavanaugh," Ari Fleischer tweeted. "If the press were balanced, they would have raised the same issues Pres. Trump raised here."
| | A sign of Tucker Carlson's influence?
Happy book launch day to Tucker Carlson... "Ship of Fools" came out on Tuesday... LAT's Stephen Battaglio published this profile of the host....
On an unrelated note, Trump's Tuesday afternoon comments about this being a "scary time" for men in America led a lot of people to suspect Carlson's fingerprints. "If you're wondering where the president got such a notion," Anderson Cooper said Tuesday night, "maybe it's from his favorite TV station." He pointed out that Carlson has been claiming that the left is at "war" against "old white men."
Or, Cooper said, "maybe the president got the idea from his son, who maybe also got it from Fox News..."
Midterms theme: Trump v. #MeToo
POTUS kept up this theme -- "Think of your son. Think of your husband" -- at Tuesday's rally. I was reminded of SE Cupp's column from July foreshadowing "Trump's plans to overturn #MeToo." She saw this coming a while ago. Battle lines are being drawn for the midterms...
Why it matters
TV writer Jess Dweck said it succinctly on Twitter after the rally: "Why don't more women come forward to be publicly mocked by the President of the United States..."
With this in mind, I think it's fair to ask: If -- emphasis on the word if -- other women have accounts of wrongdoing by Kavanaugh, will we ever find out?
Megyn: "We are not going to know the truth"
Julia Carpenter emails from Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit: Megyn Kelly took the stage to discuss her career change, her #MeToo coverage and, of course, the news.
Kelly shared her experience covering the Duke lacrosse scandal. "I was one of two reporters who did not get that case wrong," she said in an onstage interview with Pattie Sellers. "People would say, 'How can you not stand up for the woman?' And I said, 'I call it like I see it.'" She says that experience taught her to focus on "evidence and facts" above all else.
"The whole thing in a way is a farce," she said of the Kavanaugh hearings. "We are not going to know the truth. I would submit to you that most of those senators have their minds made up."
In talking about the #MeToo coverage she led on her NBC show, Kelly cautioned women in the audience about isolating men from conversations about sexual harassment and women's rights. "In doing that coverage, I never lost sight of the need for due process," she said. "I want to urge my fellow women to remember that, because we need men to support our movement..."
IN OTHER NEWS...
Important update about the Facebook hack
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Facebook put out some seemingly good news on Tuesday night. The company said it had found no evidence that apps that use Facebook login had been affected by the breach "during the attack period."
So, that means your Tinder message should be safe. BUT, an important but: The company isn't saying what it means by "attack period." Last week Facebook told us it didn't know when the attack began and the company failed to publicly say what it now means by "attack period."
What we do know is that Facebook noticed "unusual activity" on September 16, and it took the company 11 days to plug the hole...
What's next
Donie adds: Facebook may not know who the attackers were or what they took. But the company does know who was affected. We should be learning in the coming days how many Americans were affected. Because regulators in Europe have been demanding more answers publicly than anyone in the US government, we know that less than 10% of those affected ARE in the European Union.
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- At the News & Doc Emmys on Monday night, PBS won seven awards, while CBS, HBO, and CNN each won six. "Vice News Tonight" won four and "60 Minutes" won three... (Variety)
-- I loved the photo on TVNewser of CNN's Arwa Damon clutching three Emmy statues for her work... (TVNewser)
-- With #MeToo at the one year mark, it's worth noting that CBS's Norah O'Donnell won in the Outstanding Investigative Report in a Newscast category for her coverage of sexual assault at the U.S. Air Force Academy... (YouTube)
-- "Spotlight PA:" The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and a PA watchdog site called The Caucus "are launching a joint investigative news project to collaborate on coverage of the state capital..." (Inky)
-- Wednesday on WNYC and ProPublica's investigative pod "Trump Inc.:" special guest Ronan Farrow... (WNYC)
| | CBS dismisses Brad Kern
Maureen Ryan has been investigating alleged misconduct by former "NCIS: New Orleans" showrunner Brad Kern for the better part of a year. She first wrote about the allegations for Variety last December. Now she is freelancing for THR, where she broke the news of Kern's dismissal on Tuesday.
According to Ryan's reporting, staffers went to CBS HR and tried to raise the alarm about Kern. There were two HR investigations. Kern was eventually suspended in June, leading to this week's termination. Ryan said reps for Kern "did not respond to multiple requests for comment."
The priciest show on prime time...
AdAge is out with its annual look at the cost of a 30-second commercial on broadcast TV this season.
"NBC's 'Sunday Night Football' continues to be the most expensive show in primetime, averaging around $665,000 for 30-seconds of commercial time," Jeanine Poggi reports. That's down about $30,000 from an average spot on the show last year.
"This Is Us" is "one of the few big gainers of the season, with its cost up 10% to $434,000," she says. Read the rest here...
At Advertising Week...
We're two days into Ad Week in NYC... And Digiday has a fun list of what's "in" and "out:"
"Knowing machine learning" is out, "knowing blockchain" is in... "Gushing about celebrity brands" is in, "gushing about DTC brands" is out... "Views" are out, "advanced TV measurement" is in... "chief digital officers" are out, "chief experience officers" are in... "brand purpose" is out, "brand politics" is in...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Microsoft unveiled "a new version of its desktop computer, called the Surface Studio 2, and its first pair of smart headphones" on Tuesday... (CNN)
-- Lucia Moses's latest: "Inside Apple's pitch to wary publishers..." (Digiday)
-- Emoji update ❗Apple "will likely add 70 new emoji for iPhone and iPad users later this month..." (CNN)
Spotted at Kornacki's book party
Steve Kornacki started working on the book that became "The Red and the Blue" nine years ago. Yet the timing seems perfect right now, in the Trump age, as MSNBC prez Phil Griffin noted at a book party for Kornacki on Tuesday. Spotted: Katy Tur, Ari Melber (fresh off his 50 Cent interview), Izzy Povich, Jonathan Lemire, Ali Velshi, David Bohrman, Jonathan Wald, Olivia Metzger...
Texting experiment by the NYT
Oliver Darcy emails: The NYT has launched a cool new feature for its app called The Campaign Reporter. The feature allows Alex Burns, an NYT politics reporter, to text updates as he travels the country reporting on the midterms. "Along the way, you get to weigh in and share your questions and even suggestions for reporting you want to see," the NYT said of the feature. "You have a direct line to our leading politics reporter as he helps you understand the political, cultural, and economic forces shaping the outcome of the Nov. 6 midterm." Click here to sign up...
CNN's new midterms podcast
"The Forecast with Harry Enten" debuted on Tuesday through Apple Podcasts and other pod apps. Enten, Rebecca Berg and Ryan Nobles are starting off with a weekly format... But I suspect it'll come out more often as midterm day approaches...
| | Dungey on the "Roseanne" decision
Julia Carpenter emails from the aforementioned Fortune event: ABC's Channing Dungey reflected on the decision to cancel "Roseanne" following Roseanne Barr's racist tweet, a tweet Dungey says "crossed a line that cannot be crossed."
"I don't have regrets about greenlighting the show in the first place, because they had stories to tell, stories about a certain art of our country, about people being challenged economically," she said. "We wanted to do a comedy that focused on the blue-collar, working class family. And I'm proud of those episodes from the first season."
But when that line got crossed, Dungey said she made the decision "swiftly and decisively." And she said she's most proud that ABC has managed to spin off the show with "The Conners." We were able to keep a majority of the writers and creative people still involved," she said. "I'm happy we were able to put everyone back to work."
"A Hit is Born"
Megan Thomas emails: Believe the hype. Maybe you're not among the masses who helped the trailer for "A Star is Born" rack up more than 10 million views on YouTube. Perhaps you haven't had the first song from the film's soundtrack --- "Shallow" -- on constant repeat since its release last week. But I attended a screening for the Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga love story last night and it is completely worthy of all the advance hype and Oscar buzz. Go this weekend and get lost.
>> PLUS: This featurette about the music in the film is really interesting...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Molly Ringwald says she now feels differently about scenes in some of the iconic John Hughes films which made her famous...
-- Kanye West has explained his 13th Amendment comments -- and says he wants to facilitate a meeting between Colin Kaepernick and Donald Trump...
-- The "most dangerous celeb" to search for online is... probably not who you think.
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