Hey there, and welcome to the Reliable Sources newsletter. This is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter, who is out on the West Coast for the next few days. I love your feedback, and also your tips, so do get in touch with me on Twitter or via email. And now, to the news...
What the Hannity-Manafort messages tell us | | | Hundreds of private messages between Sean Hannity and Paul Manafort were released by a court Friday afternoon. The messages, which are from 2017 and 2018, shed some light on the relationship between the Fox News host and Trump's former campaign chairman. They show how sympathetic Hannity was to Manafort as federal authorities zeroed in on Manafort, and how Hannity was willing to use some of his power to help. A good portion of the messages showed Manafort lavishing praise on Hannity, while Hannity urged Manafort to appear on his program.
But despite the sheer volume of the messages, and some noteworthy lines and comical exchanges, I was struck by how almost no new information was revealed. I can't imagine anyone who watches Hannity's Fox program, or listens to his radio show, would be surprised by the messages. In fact, the messages read like a script he would rattle off on any given night. In them, he railed against the media, the Mueller probe, and the Democrats. As THR's Jeremy Barr put it in a tweet, one thing the texts underscore is the idea that Hannity is a "true believer" who "actually means what he says every night."
>> Chris Hayes' take: "Sean Hannity is not two-faced, he is not duplicitous, and he is not putting on a show. The Sean Hannity of the texts is the Sean Hannity you get every night. He's basically performing his deep state monologues to Paul Manafort via text."
Manafort: I'll "never" give up Trump or Kushner
Manafort told Hannity in one exchange that he would "never" give up Trump or his family, particularly Jared Kushner. "They would want me to give up DT or family, esp JK. I would never do that," Manafort texted. Hannity replied, "Understand. There is nothing to give up on DT. What did JK do?" Manafort said, "Nothin, just like i did nothing. They will want me to make up s--- on both." More on that exchange here...
Other noteworthy lines / exchanges
-- Hannity says, "The left may win and get me fired at some point. But I don't give a s---. I'll get 2 Dixie cups and talk to myself."
-- Manafort tells Hannity that in a "fair world" he would win a Pulitzer Prize. Hannity replies, "Lol. I'll take these assholes going to jail."
-- Hannity says an "FBI friend" told him that he "swears I'm gonna get shot. Haha."
-- Manafort asks Hannity if he'd tweet out a link to a GoFundMe page to raise money for his legal defense. Hannity replies, "Paul, it may be problematic with Fox. I need to get the OK. Hope u understand."
-- Hannity promises Manafort a "no surprises" interview if he and his lawyer would appear on his show. He also offers to not do the interview live, but instead to pre-tape it.
Hannity's response
Shortly after the messages became public, Hannity turned to Twitter to respond. He noted that his view of the special counsel and treatment of Manafort "were made clear every day to anyone who listens to my radio show or watches my TV show." Hard to disagree with that...
Can you imagine?
While the text messages did not expose Hannity as duplicitous, and they did not reveal any explosive new information, it's worth noting that in an alternate universe, where say an MSNBC host texted a Democratic political operative, right-wing media types like Hannity would be losing their minds.
What I find interesting is that those on the right often accuse "the media" of working hand-in-hand with the Democratic Party. And here, we have an example of the most prominent conservative personalty on Fox doing EXACTLY THAT with a Republican operative...
Recommended reads for the weekend
-- Jazmine Hughes' piece for NYT Mag is about Judge Judy's empire... Don't miss the detail about how she negotiates her contracts -- or, rather, doesn't negotiate...
-- Christine Biederman goes inside "BackPage.com's vicious battle with the feds" for Wired...
-- A food media must-read: Chris Crowley's oral history of Serious Eats...
-- Stelter loves Lyz Lenz's new CJR profile of Bustle boss Bryan Goldberg: She says his "attempts to buy up legitimacy are working..."
-- Elizabeth Newcamp's essay for Slate: "What It's Actually Like to Be on 'House Hunters' —Twice..."
-- WaPo's Hamza Shaban recapping a new Pew study: "Americans lack trust in social networks' judgment to remove offensive posts..."
-- And ICYMI, Casey Newton's latest tour de force about the traumatic lives of Facebook content moderators...
On Sunday's "Reliable"
Along with Newton and one of the former Facebook moderators Newton profiled, Shawn Speagle, Stelter will be joined by Samantha Vinograd, David Dreier, Shani Hilton, Ana Kasparian, and Ron Brownstein...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- "He heard from his generals and his diplomats. Lawmakers weighed in and so did his advisers. But among the voices ringing in President Trump's head was that of one of his favorite Fox News hosts: Tucker Carlson..." (NYT)
-- Speaking of which: Here's a helpful breakdown of "what Trump's Fox News cabinet wants him to do about Iran..." (Media Matters)
-- Chris Wallace says Trump's account about why he suddenly chose not to strike Iran "doesn't hold together..." (Mediaite)
-- "Pigs fly!": Joe Scarborough admits to agreeing with Sean Hannity when it comes to Iran... (Mediaite)
NBC News airs special report after Trump explains Iran decision to Chuck Todd in interview
Chuck Todd taped his "Meet the Press" interview with Trump on Friday morning -- and it came at a newsy time. In the interview, Trump explained to Todd why he ultimately chose not to execute a military strike on Iran. Shortly after taping, NBC News broke into its normal programming with special coverage at 12:45 pm ET to air the clip, and provide additional reporting...
In the clip, Trump reiterated what he had said earlier in the day in a tweet, telling Todd he "didn't think it was proportionate" to launch an attack that would claim about 150 lives over the downing of an unmanned drone. The full interview will air on Sunday's "Meet the Press." It's Trump's first appearance on the program as president...
"Apollo 11" lifts off on CNN
Stelter emails: CNN Films' "Apollo 11" has its television premiere on Sunday evening. If you haven't seen it in theaters yet, you're in for one heck of a ride. And if you HAVE seen it already, you probably want to watch again.
I want to get in a plug for my five-part podcast, "Apollo 11: Beyond the Moon," a companion series that's about both the film and the moon landing mission. I spoke with astronaut Michael Collins, author Margot Lee Shetterly, film director Todd Douglas Miller, author Douglas Brinkley, correspondents Miles O'Brien and Rachel Crane, and more... Here's the pod on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher...
Counting down to the 50th anniversary
Brian Lowry emails: The LAT's Steve Battaglio has a good roundup of the spate of programming devoted to the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind," including CNN's film....
E. Jean Carroll accuses Trump of sexual assault in NY Mag excerpt
| | Famed advice columnist E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s in an excerpt of her forthcoming book "What Do We Need Men For?" published Friday by New York magazine. In the excerpt, Carroll details a series of encounters she has had throughout her life with "hideous men." The final "hideous" man she wrote that she encountered was a "blond" who "grew up to be the president of the United States."
Carroll wrote that the alleged assault occurred in the fitting rooms of Bergdorf Goodman. She wrote that Trump assaulted her after asking her to try on a piece of lingerie that he had picked out. She said that during the incident Trump unzipped his pants and penetrated her before she ran out of the fitting room and store. Her full account is here...
>> Carroll was on MSNBC's "The Last Word" on Friday night talking about the alleged assault: "It became a fight. And it hurt. And it was against my will..."
Trump makes demonstrably false claim while denying Carroll's account
Trump issued a long statement on Friday afternoon denying Carroll's accusation. He accused of her using it to try to "sell a new book" which he contended should be "sold in the fiction section." But there's one part of Trump's denial that raised some eyebrows. Trump said he had "never met" Carroll, which is demonstrably false, given that NY Mag published a photo of them together in the excerpt posted on Friday. So why did some news outlets blast out alerts and stories quoting Trump's claim without noting this?!
Why didn't NY Mag call it "rape"?
It was a question some people had after reading Carroll's harrowing account: Why not call it a "rape"? A person familiar with the matter at NY Mag told me that the editors "believe the assault she described was indeed rape," and so it was used in the search headline for its news post.
But the person said that because Carroll "did not use the word 'rape' to describe the assault," editors "respected her choice of 'assault' and 'attack'" in the excerpt and promo language...
Carroll also accuses Moonves
Trump wasn't the only notable "hideous" man that Carroll accused of sexual assault. She wrote in her piece that Les Moonves also attempted to force himself on her in the 1990s. Carroll said that following a professional interview with him, they got into an elevator together and he went after her "like an octopus" with "his arms squirming and poking and goosing and scooping and prickling and prodding and jabbing." Moonves "emphatically" denied the claim to NY Mag... New York Post's coverage mysteriously disappears | | | This is strange. Earlier today, New York Post reporter Joe Tacopino published a story about Carroll's accusations against Trump. The headline was, "Famed columnist E. Jean Carroll claims Trump sexually assaulted her in 1990s." (An archived version of the story is available here.) The story was prominently featured on The Post's homepage.
But hours later, the story in the Murdoch-owned tabloid vanished. The post was removed from the homepage, and the URL started directing readers to a 404 page. I asked a spokesperson for the New York Post what happened. I never received an explanation. I also asked Tacopino if he knew what happened. I have yet to hear back from him either... 🤔
>> Shameless ask: If you do happen to know, I'm very curious. Do email me!
Trump peddles ridiculous conspiracy theory
Trump on Friday morning peddled a baseless -- and nonsensical -- conspiracy theory against NYT reporter Michael Schmidt. Trump accused Schmidt of "feeding false stories" about him and his associates to the FBI. He claimed it was evidence of the "unprecedented hatred" he has been putting up with from the "crooked" newspaper.
But, as WaPo's Aaron Blake points out, the "claim instantly falls apart upon further inspection." If you take a look at the email that Trump is citing as evidence, it's pretty clear Schmidt was communicating with the FBI public affairs department about a story "three of my colleagues are working on" about an FBI investigation.
The idea that Schmidt was tipping off the FBI about work the FBI was doing doesn't make much sense. As NYT's comms shop pointed out to Trump on Twitter, "We don't feed stories to the government or anyone else. We routinely reach out to those who figure prominently in our coverage for comment to ensure fairness and accuracy."
The Washington Examiner issues lengthy correction
One day prior, on Thursday, The Washington Examiner had published a story that helped inject this conspiratorial narrative into the right-wing media universe. After Trump's tweets, it received criticism. Yashar Ali called it "disgraceful" and "shameful," noting that it helped "spread misleading framing about how the press works."
The author of the WaEx story agreed on Friday that it was "fair criticism." And in the afternoon, the conservative news organization affixed a lengthy correction to the story, explaining that it had been updated to "remove the characterization that the New York Times reporter 'fed information' to the FBI." WaEx added, "We regret that this story did not adhere to the Washington Examiner's normal standards and procedures."
Judge presiding over Sandy Hook case says she was threatened
Sarah Jorgensen emails: The judge in an ongoing defamation suit against Alex Jones by families of Sandy Hook shooting victims was threatened on Jones' InfoWars website, according to a Friday court filing. Judge Barbara Bellis was informed by Connecticut State Police about the threats, which were "made by individuals on the defendant Infowars website," according to the filing.
The court filing does not expand upon the nature of the threats and does not indicate who exactly made the threats on InfoWars. State police had been approached by the FBI about the threats, according to the filing. Earlier this week, Judge Bellis handed down sanctions against Jones after he threatened one of the Sandy Hook families' attorneys on his broadcast last week...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Officials from C-SPAN, CBS News, ABC News, CNN, and Fox News have sent a letter "protesting the South Carolina Democratic Party's decision to grant MSNBC exclusive live rights to show this weekend's party convention..." (AP)
-- Another shakeup at Vice: Max Tani reports that Vice News Editor-in-Chief Ryan McCarthy is leaving. A source confirms that to me... (Twitter)
-- Pete Hegseth continues to downplay the case against the Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher. On Friday, he said the Navy is "on a witch-hunt" because Gallagher "didn't kill ISIS the way they want him to..." (Mediaite)
-- David Bauder looks at how LGBTQ coverage is "still evolving 50 years after Stonewall..." (AP)
Nadler says he apologized to Hope Hicks for calling her "Ms. Lewandowski"
After receiving sharp criticism, Jerry Nadler on Friday said he "just screwed it up" when he called Hope Hicks "Ms. Lewandowski" three times during her closed door hearing this week. Nadler, talking to CNN's Manu Raju, said he "meant nothing" by it, and added to Raju that he apologized to Hicks in the hearing.
Random House acquires rights to Weissmann's book
Last night, Stelter reported that Andrew Weissmann was shopping a book proposal to publishers, and that word of a deal might be imminent. On Friday, citing a publishing executive with knowledge of the deal, the Times reported that Random House is the winning bidder. Stelter heard the same... But Random House is staying silent about it for now...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "'First-generation fact-checking' is no longer good enough. Here's what comes next..." (NiemanLab)
-- Erik Wemple offers his take on the farewell drinks some reporters arranged for Sarah Sanders... (WaPo)
-- The Committee to Protect Journalists speaks to technology journalists and legal experts who "shared significant concerns" about how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act "could be used to implicate journalists in the criminal activities of their sources..." (CPJ)
-- Kyle Pope writes that "all news is global," explaining that "journalists around the world are tackling the same problems at the same moment, in strikingly similar ways..." (CJR)
HuffPost says it will remove anti-vax content
In a letter posted Friday morning, HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen announced that the website would remove former posts from contributors which spread misinformation about vaccines. "After a monthslong review, HuffPost has decided to remove dozens of blogs that perpetuate the unfounded opinion that vaccines pose a health risk to the public," Polgreen wrote.
"Allowing these blogs to remain on our platform does a disservice to our readers that outweighs any ostensible value as part of the public record," Polgreen added. Polgreen said that the "size of our archive is daunting," but said editors will "continue to review and remove content that fails to meet our standards when we find it."
What prompted the action?
Business Insider's investigations head John Cook tweeted that Polgreen's announcement came after J.K. Trotter "reached out to HuffPost" earlier in the week for a story he was writing about the anti-vax content on its site. "They asked for some time to respond," Cook tweeted. "This morning, HuffPost EIC @lpolgreen asked for an additional hour to put together a response before we published."
"After that hour had passed, she published this post announcing that HuffPost would be removing anti-vaxx posts after a 'monthslong review,' making no mention of that fact that we had been inquiring about those posts for days," Cook added in another tweet...
>> You can read Trotter's full piece here. In it, he notes that "as false beliefs continue to fuel an unprecedented outbreak of measles, it's not just social media platforms that bear responsibility for keeping the conspiracy alive."
| | By Lisa Respers France and Chloe Melas:
-- Rihanna day drinking with Seth Meyers is delightful...
-- Here's what Kylie Jenner thought of the Jordyn Woods drama...
-- The "Stranger Things" Season 3 trailer is action-packed...
-- Cardi B indicted by grand jury on unspecified charges in strip club case...
-- Shepard Fairey on the 2020 presidential election and disrupting the status quo...
$140 million weekend expected for "Toy Story 4"
Disney projects "Toy Story 4" to rake in $140 million in its debut weekend, Frank Pallotta reports. The movie made $12 million on its opening night. More details here...
Check out this Amazon Prime response to a lawsuit
Brian Lowry emails: Whoops. Props to Amazon for coming up with this tweet in response to the news that a Christian group was urging Netflix to cancel the series "Good Omens" for its irreverent depiction of religion, clearly unaware that the program airs on Amazon Prime: "Hey @netflix, we'll cancel Stranger Things if you cancel Good Omens."
>> For his part, series creator Neil Gaiman tweeted in response to the petition, "This is so beautiful... Promise me you won't tell them?"
| | | Thanks for reading! I'll be back filing in for Brian on Sunday's letter, so send me any weekend tips you might have... See you then! | | | |
