Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Hey there, this is Oliver Darcy, filling in for, uh, wait, who used to write this newsletter? (Just kidding, Brian!) Scroll down for weekend reads, a flurry of headlines in the media/tech space, this Sunday's "Reliable" guest list, and more...

What trade war with China?

Friday's cable news leads spoke volumes. CNN led at 7 p.m. ET with President Trump raising tariffs on China amid an escalating trade war. MSNBC also focused on the tariffs and health of the economy. It was, by most accounts, a disturbing day.

Even some of Trump's own "aides and allies were alarmed by his behavior," the NYT's Peter Baker wrote, "seeing it as the flailing of a president increasingly anxious over the dark clouds some have detected hovering over an economy that until now has been the strongest selling point for his administration. They privately expressed concern that he was hurting the economy and was doing lasting damage to his own prospects for re-election."

But on Trump's favorite network...

And yet, over at Fox, things were different. Martha MacCallum did not lead her broadcast with news that the Dow had plunged more than 600 points. She did not lead with news that Trump had slapped additional tariffs on China. In fact, MacCallum didn't even lead with a story from Friday. No, instead, she led her show with a recap and analysis segment centered on her Thursday interview with the former Overstock CEO who made a slew of wild claims.

It wasn't just MacCallum on Fox. As Jim Sciutto led CNN's 8pm hour with the economic turmoil, Fox's Tucker Carlson focused on the Dems. The banner said, "DEMS 2020: BEING MODERATE IS THE KISS OF DEATH." And Dan Bongino, filling in for Sean Hannity, focused on the so-called "deep state" and the ex-Overstock CEO's claims.

Now, that's not to say the news was entirely ignored. Fox's hosts did cover the trade war sporadically on Friday night. But the emphasis one would expect for a major economic story like Friday's wasn't there. As the economy flashes indicators of a possible slowdown, and the president's behavior becomes ever more alarming, Fox still seems willing to look the other way...

What if?

I really hate to ask you to think, "What if?" I know it's a tired exercise in the Trump era. But I think it's worth considering: What if Obama had, in one week, declared himself the "chosen one" as he launched a trade war with China, and then issued orders via Twitter to private American businesses? How would that be covered on Fox? 🤔

How the major papers covered it

>> WSJ: "President Trump said he 'hereby ordered' U.S. companies doing business in China to explore relocating their operations and stiffened tariffs on Chinese imports after Beijing unveiled its own new levies on American goods, the latest twists in a trade war rattling investors and confounding central bankers..."

>> NYT: "It was not yet clear on Friday how Mr. Trump planned to carry out his demands, including ordering companies to begin seeking alternatives to producing in China..."

>> WaPo: "The combination of events nearly eclipsed a twitter tirade in which Trump questioned whether the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome H. Powell was an 'enemy' of the U.S. The dizzying series of events Friday pushed the trade war between the world's economic superpowers into a dangerous new phase..."

New York Post's Saturday front page

Drudge remains the outlier

The Drudge Report continues to be an outlier in the conservative media space. On Friday night, the page spotlighted the escalating trade war, and how stocks were down. It's the third consecutive day Matt Drudge's page has highlighted the economic news...

Baldwin: "I'm glad this is all funny to the president"

Amid the Dow plunging on Friday, Trump joked that it was perhaps a result of Seth Moulton dropping his 2020 presidential bid. Brooke Baldwin was not amused. "I'm glad this is all funny to the president," she said, after reading the tweet on-air. "Whether it's farmers losing their livelihoods or workers losing part of their hard-earned 401(k)s. It's Hilarious, Mr. President."

Heilemann: Trump "like a drunken traveler" now heads to G7 after "sowing global chaos"

On MSNBC's "Deadline White House," guest host John Heilemann previewed the G7 summit like this: "Trump, like a drunken traveler in the departure lounge, about to take a trip he dreads, already sowing global chaos, as his days-long public meltdown has finally moved from words to actions."

This Sunday on "Reliable Sources"

Brian Stelter will be back in the anchor chair... He will be joined by April Ryan, who will address the alleged assault by her bodyguard, along with Daniel Dale, Ken Ward Jr., Irin Carmon, Diane Foley, Art Sotloff, and more to come...

WEEKEND PLANNER

G7 weekend will surely generate lots and lots of news...

The college football season begins Saturday...

Cindy McCain will be on "SOTU" on Sunday, on the one-year anniversary of John McCain's death...

CNN will air two 2020 town halls on Sunday: Steve Bullock at 6pm ET and Bill de Blasio at 7pm...

The CNN Films premiere of "Halston" is Sunday at 9pm...

Also on Monday MSNBC will premiere a new episode of "Breaking Hate" at 9pm. The episode features a former leader of a neo-Nazi organization "disengage from an identity, and a livelihood, based on hate..."

Looking ahead to Monday, the MTV Video Music Awards are live at 8pm...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- A Mississippi professor has filed a defamation lawsuit against HuffPost and its former reporter Ashley Feinberg over a September 2018 story on Brett Kavanaugh... (Clarion Ledger)

-- Erik Wemple gets into the details of the complaint against Feinberg and HuffPost... (WaPo)

-- "An arm of the Justice Department regularly sent summaries and links to articles from an online white nationalist publication over the last year, a BuzzFeed News investigation has found..." (BuzzFeed)

-- Speaking of which: Justice Department employees were informed Friday the agency had ended an internal news briefing after a link to a white nationalist website was sent to immigration judges... (BuzzFeed)

Court date set in Karem's case against White House

Brian Karem, the Playboy White House columnist and CNN political analyst, will get his day in court early next week. US District Judge Rudolph Contreras has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET. Karem has requested an injunction that could restore his hard pass, which is suspended until September 14...

Justice Department responds

Katelyn Polantz reports: On Friday DOJ lawyers responded to Karem's suit with harsh criticism of how he behaved in the Rose Garden before and during his altercation with Sebastian Gorka. They argue they're on firm legal ground to suspend Karem's pass for 30 days.

The DOJ lawyers say Karem's suit "advances the astonishing argument that he has a First Amendment right to come onto the White House campus, loudly insult the President's invited guests, disrupt official events, and even instigate physical confrontations so long as he does not use 'fighting words.'" DOJ lawyers also argued Karem had received due process, contending that the White House had "satisfied even the most demanding interpretation."

Sinclair completes RSN deal with Disney

It's official. Sinclair on Friday closed its $10.6 billion deal to purchase 21 regional sports networks from Disney. The move bolsters Sinclair, which operates one of the largest networks of local television stations in the country. Now it will be a big player in sports programming.

Of course, Sinclair previously tried to acquire Tribune Media, but the deal was ultimately called off after it was scrutinized by regulators. Disney had to sell the regional sports networks under an agreement it struck with the DOJ that allowed it to proceed with its purchase of 21st Century Fox.

Deadspin's outgoing EIC roasts G/O Media

Outgoing Deadspin EIC Megan Greenwell's last day was full of clickworthy stories -- something that, as Greenwell and her colleagues have claimed, is the only thing their owners Great Hill Partners are after.

Greenwell penned a lengthy blog called "The Adults In The Room," in which she used HBO "Succession" references to criticize the management. There were many scathing and brilliantly written paragraphs, but here's one section that stood out to me: "A metastasizing swath of media is controlled by private-equity vultures and capricious billionaires and other people who genuinely believe that they are rich because they are smart and that they are smart because they are rich, and that anyone less rich is by definition less smart. They know what they know, and they don't need to know anything else."

>> Staying silent: I reached out to the "private-equity vultures" Greenwell was referring to at Great Hill Partners but haven't heard back.

>> Also of note: Deputy editor Barry Petchesky also criticized management in a blog published on Friday...

McCabe joins CNN as contributor

CNN announced on Friday morning that Andrew McCabe, the former acting director of the FBI, had joined the network as a contributor. McCabe made his first appearance on "New Day," where news of him joining the network was first announced. Alisyn Camerota introduced McCabe for a discussion on the recent spate of mass shootings. Before doing so, she noted that McCabe is suing the FBI over his firing which came just says before he could earn a full pension. McCabe, who spent 21 years at the FBI, will be based out of DC...

Trump allies attack

"Allies of Trump seized on McCabe's hiring Friday to take aim at CNN," John Wagner and Paul Farhi wrote for their WaPo story. Among those who lobbed attacks at CNN over the hire were Donald Trump Jr., Sen. Josh Hawley, and a representative of Trump's 2020 campaign...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Friday hosted the first of three summer shows before a live studio audience. The next will occur August 30 and the final will happen on September 6... (Twitter)

-- Al Franken is working with United Talent Agency and seeking paid speaking gigs, Lucas Shaw reports... (Bloomberg)

-- "Gerard M. O'Neill, an investigative reporter and editor for The Boston Globe whose exposés included the revelation that James (Whitey) Bulger, Boston's notorious crime boss, was an informant for the F.B.I., died on Thursday at his home in Boston. He was 76..." (NYT)

There was a lot of news in the tech/media space today, so I've compiled it in one spot here...

WSJ investigates Amazon, finds thousands of unsafe or "deceptively labeled" items for sale

This was an outstanding piece of reporting published Friday by the WSJ. Reporters Alexandra Berzon, Shane Shifflett, and Justin Scheck conducted an investigation that found "4,152 items for sale" on Amazon "that have been declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled or are banned by federal regulators." The piece noted that such items would be banned from large retailers.

WSJ reported that when it showed Amazon the listings it had found, 57% of them "had their wording altered or were taken down" by the online retailer. An Amazon spokesperson told WSJ, "When a concern arises, we move quickly to protect customers and work directly with sellers, brands, and government agencies."

>> Good point from NBC's Ben Collins: "This is where disinformation can get super dangerous—once it reaches the physical product space, unchecked by a company that doesn't even care what's on its shelves..."

>> Stelter adds: I threw away one of two-year-old Sunny's toys on Friday after seeing the toy in the WSJ's documentary. Thank you, WSJ...

Major publishers sue Amazon's Audible

Katie Pellico writes: Hachette, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House are three of seven major American publishers suing Amazon's Audible for copyright infringement, Reuters reports. The suit, filed Friday in the SDNY, aims "to block a planned rollout of a feature called 'Audible Captions' that shows the text on screen as a book is narrated."

The Association of American Publishers said in a statement, "Essentially Audible wants to provide the text as well as the sound of books without the authorization of copyright holders, despite only having the right to sell audiobooks."

Facebook staff had concerns about 'sketchy' Cambridge Analytica year before 2016 election

"Internal emails released by Facebook on Friday show employees of the company expressed concerns about Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook user data as early as September 2015," Donie O'Sullivan reported for CNN Business.

"The communications," O'Sullivan reported, "show that in the fall of 2015, Facebook employees began raising questions about potential unauthorized mass collection of public Facebook data -- an activity known as 'scraping' -- by various companies, including Cambridge Analytica."

BI: Marketing partners under view for Instagram scraping issues

Business Insider reported Friday that Facebook will conduct a review of its more than 600 marketing partners "amid indications of widespread misuse of Instagram user data and other rule violations by third-party services." The violations, according to reporter Rob Price, include data scraping...

Twitter's Trust and Safety Council worries it is being ignored

Trouble in the Twitterverse. Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, a group comprised of more than 40 outside groups, wrote Twitter's leadership earlier this week expressing concerns of being ignored, Wired's Louise Matsakis scooped Friday.

"There have been no advance heads-up of Twitter's policy or product changes to the council, leaving many of us to have no prior warning or let alone knowledge when answering press and media inquiries," the letter said. "This is embarrassing." According to Wired, the letter ended by requesting a call with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to discuss the future of the council...

Court hears Nunes' lawsuit against Twitter

Speaking of Twitter... A Virginia judge heard arguments on Friday for the first time in Devin Nunes' lawsuit against Twitter. According to the Fresno Bee, Nunes' hometown newspaper, the hearing "largely centered on motions" to dismiss the case on grounds the California congressman didn't have standing to sue Twitter in Virginia.

>> Stay tuned: A ruling wasn't made after Friday's three-hour hearing, the Fresno Bee reported, but the judge indicated one would be coming in the next week or two...

Recommended listen: this week's "Reliable" pod 🎧

Brian Stelter writes: This is me abruptly ending the taping of a podcast episode on August 7:

It was a special episode because I was chatting with one of my all-time favorite authors, the sociologist Barry Glassner, author of the bestselling book "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things."

The book made a big impact on me almost two decades ago. It was recently reissued with new info about fear-mongering in the Trump age. Glassner heard me praise the book on an episode of Ezra Klein's podcast, so he sent me an email. I invited him to come on the "Reliable" pod. We were halfway through an episode when my wife Jamie called. She knew I was in the middle of a taping, so it had to be important. I answered and she said "I have to go" to the hospital, "we're going to have the baby!" Our baby boy Story decided to come a couple days early. So I apologized to Glassner and ran to the hospital... but brought him back this week for a re-do... it made for quite the "Story..." and you can hear the interview here.

Glassner talked about how news outlets both stoke peoples' fears and "correct exaggerated fears and scares." He said many presidents have preyed on fears, but none to the degree Trump has. Listen via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify or your app of choice...

WNBC mourns intern killed in murder-suicide

Katie Pellico writes: WNBC is mourning the loss of 20-year-old Erin Edwards, a Boston University student who had interned with their digital team this summer. Police say they suspect Edwards and her 24-year-old brother were shot and killed by their mother in their home in an Atlanta suburb Wednesday evening.

Anchors expressed their shock and sympathies on-air Thursday. "Erin was a special person -- exuberant, cheerful, a gifted storyteller who just had a passion for journalism, and it showed. She had an infectious smile and enthusiasm," Stefan Holt said. "Knowing what's happened has been a very deep heartache that all of us are feeling today."

"Some have told me I'm too 'controversial' to have an athleisure line..."

Fox personality Tomi Lahren launched an athleisure line on Friday called "FREEDOM." In an announcement on Instagram, Lahren wrote, "Some have told me I'm too 'controversial' to have an athleisure line, that conservatives should just stick to politics and Trump cheerleading. My response? Watch me." Alright then...

D23 showcases Disney+'s deep library

Frank Pallotta writes: Disney+ got the spotlight during a presentation at the Disney convention, D23, on Friday night, and it was the new streaming service's deep content library that really stood out. Disney rolled out execs and talent in the nearly two-hour long presentation and showed off many, many clips of the service's powerful vault of content. Everything from "The World According to Jeff Goldblum" to Pixar to the return of the Disney Channel's Lizzie Maguire got a moment -- all to entice consumers to sign up come November. Yet, it was two of Disney's most popular franchises that really put on a show...

Disney+'s Star Wars and Marvel shows shine at D23

More from Frank: Disney's biggest movie franchises, "Star Wars" and Marvel, were the biggest draws of the night for the company's new streaming service. Marvel President Kevin Feige was on stage to talk "The Falcon and the Winter Solider," "WandaVision" and "Loki." Feige also announced new shows like "She Hulk" and "Ms. Marvel." Marvel will have eight (eight!) shows on Disney+.

Disney+'s flagship series, "The Mandalorian" will be on the service at launch on November 12. Fans at D23 got a look at the new "Star Wars" series, and let me say, as a fan, it was hard to see any difference in size and scope between the show and the films...

Obi-Wan Kenobi and 'The Mandalorian' bring the Force to Disney+

Brian Lowry writes: Obi-Wan Kenobi will bring the Force to Disney+, which -- along with the first trailer for 'The Mandalorian' -- capped the studio's presentation for its new streaming service at the D23 Expo.

Ewan McGregor -- who played the Jedi Knight in three 'Star Wars' movies -- appeared onstage with Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy to confirm that he will be reprising the role, saying the scripts were written and that production will take place next year.

>> Here's a helpful CNBC feature: "Everything we learned at D23's Disney+ panel..."

>> Plus-sign confetti! The NYT's Brooks Barnes tweeted: "Disney trotted out at least 50+ stars/directors/droids/dogs to tubthump the Disney Plus streaming service — and now it's raining plus-sign confetti"

>> THR's Lesley Goldberg wrote: "With all the news and excitement coming out of #D23 today, Disney is only further solidifying Disney+ as a must-have. Plus the $6.99 price point? Wow..."

Taylor Swift's new 'reputation' with media

Kerry Flynn emails: In the "Reputation" era, Taylor Swift mocked the media. The cover art to her 2017 album, her sixth, featured a series of fake headlines that included her name. The pop star didn't sit down for any interviews ahead of or shortly after the album's release. "There was a lot that happened over a couple of years that made me feel really, really terrible, and I didn't feel like expressing that to them," Swift told Zane Lowe of Apple Music's Beats 1 in May.

With her seventh album "Lover," Swift has opened herself back up. She graced the cover of Vogue's September issue, letting writer Abby Aguirre into her Tribeca loft and on set of the music video for "You Need To Calm Down" and doing an "Ask Anna" video with Anna Wintour. Swift sat down with "CBS Sunday Morning" for an episode that airs Aug. 25, where she shared her plan to re-record her masters.

Swift also spoke with The Guardian about Trump, describing his presidency as an "autocracy." As the headline to the album review by The Guardian's pop critic Alexis Petridis reads, Swift "wears her heart on her sleeve." Similarly, she's revealing more about that heart, and her mind, in the press.

"Lover" closing in on 1 million sales...

Flynn adds: The new album is approaching a million sales, Variety reported. She could beat her own record. As Billboard wrote, "The last time an artist sold 1 million copies of an album in the United States in a single week was in 2017, when Swift's Reputation sold 1.2 million in the period ending Nov. 16."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Queer Eye's Karamo Brown appeared to have deleted his Twitter account Friday morning in the wake of his comments in defense of his future "DWTS" co-star Sean Spicer... (HuffPost)

-- Smash Mouth is out with an EDM remix of "All Star" for its 20-year anniversary... (VICE)

Kirsten Dunst shines in quirky 'On Becoming a God in Central Florida'

Brian Lowry emails: "On Becoming a God in Central Florida" is an unwieldy title for a good show, starring Kirsten Dunst as a woman who -- desperate to avoid the poverty she's known -- gets drawn into what amounts to a pyramid scheme. Set in Florida in the '90s, it's a pretty scalding look at the American dream, counting George Clooney among its producers. Read Lowry's full review here...

Thank you for reading. Email your feedback anytime -- the good, the bad, the ugly, etc. See you on Sunday!