EXEC SUMMARY: Dan Le Batard's absence, Maria Elena Salinas' new role, Paul Waldman's must-read, another Billboard milestone for Lil Nas X, and much more...
Puerto Rico's boiling point
Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism "published the 900 pages of chats that served as the boiling point for protestors" now demanding Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's resignation, CNN's Leyla Santiago wrote Monday.
I wanted to know more about the organization known as CPI. It has broken many, many stories in the past eleven years. But this month has been unlike any other in its history. "As soon as we scrolled through the documents," exec director Carla Minet told me, "we knew we had to publish."
That was back on July 13. The protests have been growing in size and strength ever since. Reporters have depicted the profane messages as a breaking point for Puerto Ricans who were already fed up with corruption across the island. And the center has been reporting about that, as well: David Begnaud, a CBS News correspondent who has spent months in Puerto Rico, tweeted that CPI "has done great work exposing alleged corruption." | | The ProPublica of Puerto Rico
The center specializes in going to court to fight for documents -- a tactic that proved especially important in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. CPI has led the way in reporting on the direct and indirect death toll from Maria. Last year it published a database of hurricane-related deaths. Melissa Mark-Viverito, the Puerto Rico-born former speaker of the New York City Council (and one of the figures targeted in the texts), told me that CPI's role has been "invaluable" in the wake of Maria.
The site's biggest story yet
Minet said the scandal that's erupted from the text messages "is definitely" the most significant story in the site's history. One of the results has been CPI's best week of donations ever. A few days ago Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted that "it's more important than ever to support investigative journalism" in Puerto Rico, sharing a message from his father Luis A. Miranda, Jr., who encouraged donations to CPI.
Minet said the center has also been a substantial increase followers on social media. And some thank you gifts have shown up at the newsroom -- including a coffee plant. Fuel to keep going! Here's my full story...
Shep challenges Rosselló
Rosselló joined Fox's Shep Smith for his "first one-on-one interview since scandal engulfed his governorship more than a week ago," and Smith "did not hold back," Politico's Caitlin Oprysko wrote. Here's how Smith challenged the governor...
Trump: "I'm the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico."
That's really truly what Trump said on Monday afternoon. It's the type of quote that can't merely be fact-checked. It must be... I don't know... gut-checked?
Stephen Colbert, who knows a thing or two about truthiness, played the soundbite and reacted this way on Monday's "Late Show:" "Excuse me? Excuse me? The best thing? I got two words for you: Ricky Martin. You sir! You sir! You sir are livin' la vida loca!"
Don't believe your eyes!
Trump keeps saying, in effect, "don't believe your eyes." Last week he said he started speaking "very quickly" after his rally crowd chanted "send her back." News outlets disproved his claim by playing the clip of him soaking up the chant while remaining silent for 13 seconds.
 It happened again on Monday. Trump tried to dispute a detail from a WaPo story by saying "there were no talking points" about the so-called "squad" of freshman congresswomen. But a WaPo photographer, Jabin Botsford, literally took a photo of the typed talking points.
And just like that, we're back to the Marx Brothers: "Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"
Paul Waldman's must-read
"Right now Trump is whipping up racist animosity against four Democratic congresswomen while simultaneously arguing that his attacks have nothing to do with race. When, for instance, he argues that he never spoke about them with the aid of talking points, though there are photographs of him holding the talking points, it's hard not to think he's trying to send the media chasing one bizarre lie after another, to drive us all mad," WaPo opinion writer Paul Waldman said Monday.
His full column is a must-read. He thinks ahead to 2020, imagining Trump coming up with preposterous lies about his general election rival, lies that are promoted all throughout the pro-Trump media universe. "Meanwhile," he forecasts, "voters' social media feeds are inundated with fake organizations and fake people offering a dizzying array of misinformation, leaving them stumbling from one supposed blockbuster revelation to the next and utterly unable to figure out what is real." The nation's news media simply is not ready for this potential mess, he says.
"The whole thing begins to take on a feeling of madness, where the only safe harbor lies is in the tribe that offers you belonging and the conviction that the people you hate are even worse than you thought. That's what's coming. And it hasn't even begun." Read it...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Come to this story for the sweeping two-year budget agreement -- stay for Jeff Zeleny's color about Nancy Pelosi negotiating the final details while aboard a delayed Delta flight waiting to take off from Detroit to DC. "A few minutes after Trump sent out his tweet about the budget deal, Pelosi got off the phone as the plane entered an active taxiway. She moved onto a crossword puzzle in the Sunday Times Magazine..." (CNN)
-- Jane Mayer's reexamination of the allegations against Al Franken was one of the most-talked-about stories of the day... I'm not fully read in on all the pro and con arguments about the piece, but you should check it out for yourself here... (New Yorker)
-- The Daily Beast is being rightly criticized for this Robert Silverman story titled "Inside Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera's Far-Right Politics." It focuses on his "pro-Israel advocacy." Guy Benson calls it an "atrocious hit piece..." (Town Hall)
-- Silverman's response to some of the criticism: "Rivera is free to express any political opinion he wants... But his public politics can and should be the subject of reporting..." (Twitter)
-- "Where's the Coverage of Civilian Casualties in the War on ISIS?" Alexa O'Brien has been researching and writing about this subject for six months for Airwars. Here are some of her key findings... (Defense One)
TUESDAY PLANNER
Trump delivers remarks at Turning Point USA's Teen Student Action Summit 2019 at 11am...
Snap reports earnings after the close...
Mueller countdown
-- The top headline on CNN.com right now: "Mueller's testimony must not stray from his report, DOJ says."
-- Anderson Cooper debunking some of Trump's anti-Mueller claims: "Literally every single assertion of fact from the President there is not true. It's false."
-- Garrett Graff has the "definitive congressional guide to Robert Mueller's mind."
-- The NYT is out with "19 questions we have for Mueller," including "would you charge the president if he weren't in office?"
-- "It's time for Robert Mueller to lose the mystery, drop the double-speak and stop the riddling. He needs to tell the American public where he stands -- straight, clear and in plain English," CNN analyst Elie Honig writes...
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest column: "The media is getting a second chance to cover Robert Mueller's findings — and this time get it right."
The "racist" debate rages on
WaPo's Erik Wemple says Reuters "is struggling with descriptions of Trump's racist tweets." He hears there's been "a 'brawl' within Reuters over how to handle the matter, with a masthead edict not to use 'racist' in the Reuters voice, according to a source with knowledge of the proceedings." Details here...
A correction to Sunday's show
On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I said one of the "standards editors" at NPR said "we should not be in the business of moral labeling." This was VP Keith Woods, arguing that newsrooms shouldn't state that Trump's tweets were racist. I called this "the view from NPR," but I was incorrect. Woods' opinion piece did not reflect the news organization's position -- in fact, NPR's newsroom disagrees with him -- and reporters have been calling the "go back" tweets racist for the past week.
-- ICYMI: The Atlantic came out with this last month: "An Oral History of Trump's Bigotry..."
AOC, a made-up story, and a police officer's threatening message
Two police officers have been fired in the wake of this: "Gretna police officer suggests U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'needs a round' in social media post."
Chad Calder's follow-up story on Monday said "the author of the Facebook post, Charlie Rispoli, and another officer who 'liked' the post, Angelo Varisco, were both fired for violating the department's social-media policy."
But I want to flag something from Calder's initial story -- about the insidious effect of made-up stories on social media sites. The officer's original anti-AOC comment "referred to a fake news story he posted to his personal Facebook page on Thursday at 1:51 p.m. The story's headline attributed a fabricated quote to Ocasio-Cortez saying, 'We pay soldiers too much.' The photo on the post is marked as 'satire' and it had been labeled 'false' by the website snopes.com on Wednesday, but Rispoli appeared to be upset by it."
Le Batard and Pitaro at loggerheads
Dan Le Batard took the day off from his ESPN radio show after a series of conversations with ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro over the weekend. In the wake of Le Batard's commentary assailing Trump and calling ESPN "cowardly" for having a no-pure-politics policy, some prominent voices have been coming to his defense -- but Pitaro isn't loosening up on the policy.
Nor was Pitaro persuaded by his phone calls with Le Batard, Sports Business Journal's John Ourand reports: Pitaro "consistently cites research that shows that ESPN's audience views the network as an escape from politics. The research, he says, makes it clear that ESPN loses viewers when its hosts discuss politics."
So the two men are clearly at odds. Le Batard skipped his radio show on Monday... but he did tape his TV show... and "ESPN expects Le Batard to host his radio show tomorrow," per Ourand. Read my story here...
Donald Trump Jr.'s "Triggered"
CNN's Betsy Klein writes: Donald Trump Jr. has a new book coming out. "Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us," is out on November 5, just in time for Christmas and just under a year before the election...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- WaPo exec editor Marty Baron says he is "definitely staying through the 2020 election," calming the nerves of some staffers, Michael Calderone reports... (Politico)
-- Kristian Rouz, identified on air as a "correspondent" for the small pro-Trump cable channel OANN, is also "on the payroll of the Kremlin's official propaganda outlet, Sputnik," Kevin Poulsen reports... (Daily Beast)
-- Joshua Benton's followup to the NYT's recent reporting: "By running unwitting PR for Jeffrey Epstein, Forbes shows the risks of a news outlet thinking like a tech platform..." (NiemanLab)
-- "Although the U.S. government is still struggling to define regulations for the broader tech industry, it's finding ways to take action over the growing portion of the internet used by kids," Sara Fischer and Kim Hart report... (Axios)
CBS signs Maria Elena Salinas as a contributor
Maria Elena Salinas, who left Univision at the end of 2017 after 30+ years, is joining CBS News as a contributor. The network says "Salinas will contribute reports across CBS News broadcasts and platforms and will frequently appear on coverage of the run-up to the 2020 election..."
What's with the "equal time" excuse?
The Cumulus explanation for spiking Blair Garner's interview with Pete Buttigieg -- citing the FCC's "equal time" rule -- doesn't add up. I've been hearing from numerous experts about this. Cumulus' rationale "is flat wrong," media researcher Dylan McLemore tweeted. "The equal time rule is indeed 'widely understood' ... to NOT include 'bonafide news interviews,' even by entertainment hosts like Garner." McLemore cited late-night talk show interviews as an example. "So what's the real reason?" he asked...
Some of what helps and hurts trust in media
Frederic Filloux's latest Monday Note is a look at how trust in the news media varies around the world -- and why. A few key quotes:
-- "To reinforce the overall trust in news media, nothing works better than favoring direct access to online sources."
-- "Consumers who pay, trust their media more."
-- "The damages inflicted by all forms of social media have been tremendous," by devaluing the notion of info and creating lots of confusion about accurate versus made-up news. "While social remains a fantastic playground to test innovative products or tap into new audiences, it is clear that the information industry needs a decisive reconnection strategy with its consumers." More...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Charlie Firestone is retiring after 30 years at the Aspen Institute... Now there's a search for a new Executive Director of the Communications, Technology and Innovation Program... (PDF job description)
-- Clearly I'm not the only fan of Slate's daily advice columns: They are "strange, funny, deep, and increasingly a major traffic driver for the site," Laura Hazard Owen writes... (NiemanLab)
--Speaking of Slate, Ruth Graham wrote this critique of Graydon Carter's Air Mail newsletter... (Slate)
Cable blackouts: From bad to worse
Brian Lowry emails: Variety's Brian Steinberg points out that cable blackouts (see AT&T-CBS, and Dish/practically everybody) are becoming more common, which would seem to reflect the uncertainty surrounding that distribution system, exacerbated by the studios that own many of these networks bypassing those entities in launching their own streaming services...
| | "Old Town Road" ties the big Billboard record
"Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' rode right into its 16th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 today, tying the record for longest consecutive time in the top spot," NPR's Emily Abshire wrote Monday. "Only two songs have achieved this long of a streak before in the chart's history. Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's 'One Sweet Day' was first in 1995, and held the record for more than two decades until Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee — with an assist from Justin Bieber on the remix — tied it in 2017 with 'Despacito.'"
But here's the key context, per Abshire: The rapper has "dominated the Hot 100 in part by exploiting Billboard's murky remix policy, which counts the original song and its remixes as one when it comes to calculating chart position (as long as the remixes don't deviate too far in composition). Lil Nas X has released four official versions of 'Old Town Road,' the newest of which, featuring rapper Young Thug and viral star Mason Ramsey, came just last week, in time to push listening numbers up ahead of week 16..."
| | 'The Lion King' sinks its teeth into critic-audience divide
Brian Lowry emails: The boffo box-office numbers for "The Lion King," which is still licking its wounds from tepid reviews, is already inviting some to question whether critics are "out of step" with audiences. While there are a few crumbs of truth in that, there are more misconceptions, starting with the whole point of a construct like this, which is designed to be largely review-proof; and the fact that most critics are providing opinions about the movie without seeking to dissuade people from seeing it, or harboring delusions that their reviews will. Read on...
This movie can't come soon enough
On Monday "Sony has released the first trailer for the upcoming film about the late Fred Rogers, 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,'" Marianne Garvey writes. "In the teaser, schoolchildren sing to Rogers on the subway and we see Tom Hanks dressed as the children's television host on the set of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.'" The film will be out in time for Thanksgiving...
Cameron says congrats to Marvel
Brian Lowry emails: In what's now become a Hollywood tradition, "Avatar" director James Cameron congratulated Marvel for unseating his movie as the top-grossing worldwide release of all time, just as George Lucas congratulated Cameron when "Titanic" sank "Star Wars." Of course, it's all a bit more incestuous now that "Avatar" and Marvel share space under the Disney corporate umbrella... | | FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Turns out Lenny Kravitz loves Jason Momoa, too...
-- Miranda Lambert and her new husband are having a great summer...
-- Beth Chapman's final reality series is set to air in September. She died in June at the age of 51 after battling cancer.
"Lies" aftermath
Megan Thomas emails: For those who are caught up on "Big Little Lies" and feeling mixed about the second season, I liked this take from The Atlantic's Sophie Gilbert, asking if ANY show could "meet the expectations that the HBO series set."
Gilbert wrote: "There just aren't that many shows out there, still, that give such substantial time to the subject of how women think and feel... Amazon's Fleabag is one; Hulu's Shrill is another. The Handmaid's Tale, once a window into the interiority of a woman whose mind was her only release, has long since lost its potency. And yet there are more series than ever, which is why one so studded with extraordinary actors has the privilege of being that most unlikely thing of all for many people: a disappointment." Read on...
How about a third season?
Some viewers are clamoring for a Season 3 after Season 2's finale, Lisa Respers France writes...
>> Vulture's Joe Adalian tweeted: "HBO execs have been clear for some time that there's no plan for a third season of #BigLittleLies, and that it's highly unlikely there'll be one any time soon, if ever. I think a lot of fans of the show will read finale as cliffhanger, but...it probably isn't..." He added: "Do I still think this group of actors will reunite in some project based in Northern California sometime within the next five years? I do! Especially if HBOMAX doesn't hit its subscriber targets out of the gate." | |
ICYMI...
Catch up on the most recent episode of "Reliable Sources"
Read the transcript, watch the video clips on CNN.com, or hear the full episode on our podcast...
Covering the pattern
Here's what I wanted to get across on Sunday's "Reliable." Yes, some parts of Trump's track record on race are well known: Birtherism. Mexican "rapists." A "total and complete shut-down of Muslims entering the U.S." Judge Curiel. "Shithole countries." Charlottesville. And many news outlets have been referring back to these episodes while covering "go back" and "send her back." Journalists have been seeking to connect the dots.
But this pattern goes back even further... to the DOJ's discrimination lawsuit against Trump in the 1970s... and his call for the Central Park Five to be executed in 1989... and so on. There's a pattern, going back decades and continuing up until the present day. Covering the pattern requires history, context and time. Are news outlets up to the challenge? Here's my opening essay from TV...
Notable quotes
-- "Newsrooms need to recognize that race and identity will be the central, key point of this election," Astead Herndon said...
-- Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder and editor of Jacobin, reacted to Fox's portrayal of "toxic" socialist policies... He said "it really behooves them to try to scare monger people..."
-- The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, who coined the phrase "the cruelty is the point" last year, says a key part of the president's relationship with his supporters is "this sort of community flaying of the president's enemies..."
-- "American Carnage" author Tim Alberta said "the decline in some of those more institutional mainstream media outlets" coincided with "the growth of Fox News and with the Republican Party as a whole moving farther and farther to the right..."
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