Exec summary: Hope you had a great weekend! We're moving apartments this week, so things are very busy in the Stelter household. Here's what happened this weekend... And what's going to happen this workweek...
Mr. Misinformation | | I'd like to kick off this newsletter with some good news. But the overwhelming story right now, IMHO, is President Trump's profound dishonesty, on display all weekend long at rallies and on Twitter.
"In one speech" on Saturday, Daniel Dale says, "the president invented nonexistent riots in California and a nonexistent Democratic policy of giving luxury cars to unauthorized immigrants. Afterward, he touted a nonexistent plan to pass a major tax cut in the next 10 days."
Dale, who fact-checks every word that Trump says, is an indispensable resource right now. He caught Trump's claim that "we are looking at putting in a very major tax cut for middle-income people. And if we do that it'll be sometime just prior to November." A new middle class tax cut?! Congress is not even in session.
For this reason, and a thousand others, I labeled the president "Mr. Misinformation" on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." The segment was all about the plague of smears, scams and lies that still exists on Facebook and Twitter, two years after the "fake news" virus was first diagnosed. The companies are trying to address these problems -- but it amounts to an overwhelming game of whack a mole. Here's what Donie O'Sullivan and Philip Bump told me on the show...
Bernstein: "This is a new territory of untruth"
"Look, we have had presidents in the past who have lied. There's no question about that," Carl Bernstein told me. "But what we have never had is a president of the United States who uses lying and untruth as a basic method to promote his policies, his beliefs, and his way of approaching the American people and engaging with the world."
Bernstein's point: Trump's "default position is to use untruth to go toward his objectives."
My question: Are journalists doing enough to document and debunk Trump's dishonest tactics?
Four new examples to examine
-- Much of Trump's talk about the migrant caravan has a conspiratorial edge. A new example: "Democrats want caravans. They like the caravans. A lot of people say, 'I wonder who started that caravan...'"
-- On Friday night, NYT reporter Emily Cochrane asked Trump about evidence for his claims that the "caravan" is full of "hardened criminals." His reply? "Oh please, please, don't be a baby..."
-- Trump tweeted on Saturday night that "all levels of government and law enforcement are watching carefully for VOTER FRAUD," even though cases of voter fraud are vanishingly rare. "Cheat at your own peril," he said, even though his own voter fraud commission was dissolved in January...
-- WaPo's Glenn Kessler tweeted on Sunday: Trump "tells audiences the opioid bill passed 'very little Democrat support.' The vote was 98 to 1, with only Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) opposing it. The House passed it 393 to 8. Even a rare bipartisan achievement can't be celebrated?"
"Hidden Tribes" | | Partisan TV shows and talk radio and social media feeds are popular... but they are poisonous. In this interview for Sunday's show, More in Common co-founder Tim Dixon told me that most Americans are NOT locked in the cold civil war that's taking place on cable newscasts and talk radio shows. Instead, 67% of Americans are part of what he calls the "exhausted majority." So what should the media do to represent those voices? Here's what Dixon said...
-- BTW: Dixon's points relate to what Ben Sasse said on "SOTU" Sunday morning...
Bruni on "Trump's Perverse Advantage"
Brian Lowry emails: The second half of "Reliable Sources" – specifically, the Bernstein and Tim Dixon interviews – dovetailed pretty nicely with Frank Bruni's latest NYT column, which asked members of the media to provide more context and substance and resist the temptation to cover the "saucier" sideshows of the Trump presidency. It's an appealing thought, but given the nature of the current news cycle, perhaps a naïve one...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Jim VandeHei's four fairly provocative ideas for fixing "fake news" received a lot of ridicule on Twitter on Sunday... But hear him out first... (Axios)
-- YouTubers are running for office in Brazil, "and they're winning by huge numbers," Ryan Broderick reports... (BF)
-- "Republicans Find a Facebook Workaround: Their Own Apps..." (NYT)
The CBS board has (another) new interim chairman
CBS Corporation is going through another big change -- but this one is entirely out of the company's control. Richard Parsons said Sunday night that he is resigning from the company's board of directors just four weeks after becoming the interim chairman of the board. He cited his multiple myeloma diagnosis. "Unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges, and my doctors have advised that cutting back on my current commitments is essential to my overall recovery," he said.
So board member Strauss Zelnick is the new interim chairman of the board. CBS said the changes take effect immediately. "The appointment follows a unanimous decision this evening by the CBS Board," the company said. Here's my full story...
On Monday's morning shows...
Erica L. Green, Katie Benner and Robert Pear's scoop is leading NYTimes.com right now. The headline: "Trump Administration Eyes Defining Transgender Out of Existence."
The Times says this possible new definition is "the most drastic move yet in a government effort to roll back recognition of transgender people under federal civil rights law." So I think we'll be hearing about this on Monday's morning shows. CNN's John Avlon will be addressing the story in his "Reality Check" segment on Monday's "New Day..."
CNN's CITIZEN conference is on Monday
In a first-of-its-kind endeavor for the network, CNN is holding a "day long political forum" in NYC on Monday -- it's called CITIZEN by CNN -- and it will include "speakers and panel discussions before an invite-only audience" ahead of November's midterm elections. Nancy Pelosi, Jared Kushner, Rahm Emanuel, Jeff Flake, and Michael Bloomberg are just a few of the notable names who will be on stage. I'll be interviewing A.G. Sulzberger at 2:40pm -- for one of his first sit-downs since becoming the NYT publisher. Have a question I should ask him? Email or tweet me...
Media week ahead calendar
Monday: The CITIZEN by CNN conference...
Tuesday: The Future Investment Initiative summit begins in Riyadh, without any of the expected media partners... Plus, Verizon earnings, and the start of the World Series...
Wednesday: AT&T earnings... Plus, three works by Banksy hit the block...
Thursday: Alphabet, Amazon, Twitter and Comcast all report earnings...
Friday: Charter earnings...
A busy week of debates
CNN's Jake Tapper moderated Sunday night's debate between the Florida gubernatorial candidates... Click here for a complete recap...
And it was just the first in a big week of midterm debates. CNN's Michelle Krupa has a list here...
Donie says "this is the perfect time for a disinformation op to strike"
Donie O'Sullivan emails: Friday's indictment of a woman who was (maybe still is) managing cash for the Russian troll group that caused so much trouble online in 2016 shows that they're still around. In the first half of this year, the group spent more than $10 million.
As we enter the final weeks of the election campaign, this is the perfect time for a disinformation op to strike -- close to the election with little time to correct the record. I wrote about this with Geneva Sands this weekend — the threat hasn't gone away...
| | THE JAMAL KHASHOGGI CASE He gave his life
Jamal Khashoggi is dead. But the repercussions of his death are just beginning to be understood.
Khashoggi's former editor at the Washington Post, Karen Attiah, spoke with me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." She said it's still hard to wrap her head around the fact that he's gone. His family is "devastated." Amid all the geopolitical drama, "at the end of the day, this was a man, this was a human being who just wanted to write and gave his life for it. And it's -- it hurts. It still hurts."
The Post's position: Saudi Arabia is engaged in a coverup
Post publisher Fred Ryan said Saturday that Saudi Arabia's announcement was not an explanation at all, but a "coverup." He said "the Saudis cannot be allowed to fabricate a face-saving solution to an atrocity that appears to have been directed by the highest levels of their government."
-- CONTEXT: Ever since Khashoggi vanished, the Post has put its full weight behind the case. A multi-pronged approach — that other news outlets will hopefully never have to use... I wrote about it here...
-- IN THE DAYS AHEAD: "We're still going to write and we're still going to push for answers and to push for a credible international investigation," Attiah told me... Trump talks to WaPo
In a Saturday night interview with Josh Dawsey, Trump said he knows the Saudis lied and deceived the world about the circumstances of Jamal's disappearance. But the president also had words of support for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trying to have it both ways? "He's seen as a person who can keep things under check," Trump said of bin Salman, adding, "I mean that in a positive way." Here's the interview...
-- Dawsey and Philip Rucker's Sunday followup: "Trump prizes strength, but the world may see weakness in reluctance to confront Saudis" The Saudis speak to the US through Fox
This was a legitimate scoop for Fox News and Bret Baier, no matter what. But I have to wonder if the Saudi royal family was trying to communicate to Trump and his aides through Trump's favorite network. On Sunday morning Baier had an exclusive interview with Saudi Arabia foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, who said Khashoggi's death was a "tremendous mistake" and part of a rogue operation.
Covering it up "compounded the mistake," the foreign minster said. "That is unacceptable in any government." He said that the crown prince was not aware of the operation beforehand. More here... Worldwide pressure
"An increasingly vocal chorus of international voices have to come to question Saudi Arabia's story," CNN's Euan McKirdy writes. "On Sunday, the UK, French and German foreign ministers released a joint statement," saying "nothing can justify this killing." Read on... What's next
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that he will make remarks on the case on Tuesday.
Attiah, Khashoggi's editor at the Post, told me that it's time for the Turks "to tell us what they have," meaning evidence of the killing... There have been a lot of leaks, a lot of rumors, but precious little on-the-record info...
-- PLUS: Attiah said it's vital to "push for answers" about other Saudi scandals and atrocities... Watch our full conversation here...
Monday's WSJ editorial
Saudi Arabia "has hurt itself badly" in the past few weeks, the WSJ editorial board says. Trump "will lose control of the Saudi-U.S. relationship if he doesn't speak truth to these Saudi abuses and to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman..."
Notes and quotes
-- This story in Monday's WaPo notes that "Saudi officials have failed to answer questions about where Khashoggi's remains are and have offered inconsistent narratives for how he was killed..."
-- Another big story in Monday's paper: "Inside the Saudis' Washington influence machine..."
-- Nic Robertson's latest for CNN.com: "Saudi Arabia's Khashoggi story is preposterous but MBS will get a pass..."
-- On Sunday's "Reliable," I said that Trump's response to the Saudi crisis has been riddled with lies. For example, he keeps talking about the Saudis spending "$110 billion" in arms deals with the US. Watch...
-- Trump is also linking the possible arms deals to American jobs. "The jobs #'s he gives are totally made up. He said it was 40,000 jobs in March. Now he's up to over a 'million' jobs," Philip Bump told me...
-- Jonathan Swan of Axios adds: "From which source did Trump get these rapidly inflating statistics? I asked the White House press office. No response by deadline..."
The politics of fear
Trump and his media allies on Fox News claim that the Central American migrant caravan is causing a "crisis" at the US border... | | But the reality is that the migrants are weeks away, and may never reach the United States, Dara Lind said on Sunday's "Reliable."
A moment later, Max Boot let it rip -- he lit into the right-wing coverage, saying that "demagoguery," "racism" and "nativism" are fueling the pro-Trump narrative. We also discussed the power of the caravan pictures -- Boot urged the press to zoom in -- when you "actually talk to them as individuals, you understand these are people who are suffering and that we should be empathetic to," he said...
How to catch up on Sunday's show
Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or TuneIn... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or watch the full episode via CNNgo or VOD...
| | Rutenberg's latest
Remember when the Trump admin's border separation policy was the nation's top story? Brownsville, Texas, "was riding the crest of The Algorithm as the trending topic of the day," Jim Rutenberg writes in Monday's NYT.
He visited Brownsville to see what it's like when The Algorithm moves on to something new. Local resident and volunteer Sergio Cordova asked him, "Where are all the cameras now? The kids are still in there." Read on...
Our "short-attention-span country"
Rutenberg's column pairs well -- TOO well -- with another story in Monday's NYT: Victims of Hurricane Michael are worried about being "left behind," being forgotten. Glenn Thrush and Alan Blinder say it's a "growing worry for people who are caught between a short-attention-span country that has seen one disaster after another and the long-term effort it takes to rebuild battered lives..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "Amy Schumer said Friday she would not do a Super Bowl commercial this year, in support of ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick..." (TIME)
-- Hasan Minhaj's new Netflix series "Patriot Act" starts streaming in one week. Here's Dave Itzkoff's preview... (NYT)
-- Read Amy Kaufman's powerful profile of Jonah Hill... (LAT)
Viacom's streaming strategy
Did you see the news about MTV rebooting "The Real World" for Facebook Watch?
With the way TV is changing, "we can't actually make that show on cable," MTV prez Chris McCarthy told the WSJ. But he predicts that "Real World" would "kill it" on a streaming service.
According to Keach Hagey and Joe Flint, Viacom "is seeking to become a studio that mines its library of intellectual property for content to sell to the streaming services and other third parties." More of these deals are in the works. Read on...
| | Huge open for "Halloween"
Frank Pallotta writes: "Halloween," the eleventh film in the horror franchise, nabbed a strong $33.3 million on its opening day Friday and is expected to bring in roughly $80 million domestically this weekend for Universal. That's up from earlier projections of $60 million -- so this could be one of the biggest openings in October's history...
-- AND: The highest grossing debut for the franchise...
Jamie Lee Curtis celebrates
"OK. I'm going for one BOAST post," she tweeted on Sunday. "Biggest horror movie opening with a female lead. Biggest movie opening with a female lead over 55. Second biggest October movie opening ever. Biggest Halloween opening ever."
She added a hashtag: #WomenGetThingsDone. | |
Lowry's view from L.A.
Brian Lowry emails: Los Angeles is a sprawling, disconnected metropolis, and about the only thing that connects it consistently are the Dodgers and Lakers. So the next few weeks should be an interesting time in town and local media, with the Dodgers again playing in the World Series while the Lakers are busy inaugurating the LeBron James era, which already has bold-faced names flocking back to the Staples Center. L.A. radio personality Steve Mason noted that the VIP room at the Lakers game was "more crowded than I have ever seen it." James should keep it that way, especially if the Lakers look competitive again...
That's a wrap on today's newsletter... See you tomorrow... Email me feedback anytime!
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