Hey, it's Brian Stelter here, back from paternity leave for one day only because today is Oliver Darcy's birthday. 🎂 Thank you to Oliver and the crew for keeping the news flowing! Story will turn two weeks old on Wednesday. Life is good.
Now to the news, including President Trump's call with Wayne LaPierre, Cindy McCain's new essay for People magazine, Brian Karem's lawsuit, Lilly Singh's THR cover, Facebook's job posting for curators, and more...
While Greenland melts... | | Past Augusts were known as the "summer of the shark."
This is the summer of Greenland.
Hey, at least the sharks were real.
Every summer comes with a sensational story that feeds off seasonal boredom and the news media's need to hold the audience. You could argue that story right now is Anthony Scaramucci... but I think the better example is Trump's interest in buying Greenland, which isn't for sale. The what-are-we-talking-about smiles on the faces of TV news guests sort of say it all.
What's the most important story on this list?
Don't get me wrong: It's a significant story that Trump has, "on multiple occasions," brought up his interest in buying Greenland from the Danish government. And it's serious that Trump scrapped his visit to the country -- and announced it in a tweet on Tuesday night -- after the Danish Prime Minister called the idea "absurd."
But I submit to you that these five stories are more important:
-- As first reported by The Atlantic's Elaina Plott, Trump talked with NRA boss Wayne LaPierre on Tuesday and said "that universal background checks were off the table," two weeks after the El Paso and Dayton massacres...
-- As first reported by ABC's Anne Flaherty and Katherine Faulders, the admin "is expected to announce, as early as Wednesday, that it's moving ahead with new rules that would allow for the longer term detention of families traveling with children across the U.S.-Mexico border..."
-- As seen on all the major networks, Trump remarked on Tuesday that "I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty..."
-- WaPo's main homepage headline on Tuesday night: "Trump says he is open to payroll tax cut but downplays recession signs." The Post's story noted that "just a few hours before Trump confirmed that he has thought about a payroll tax cut, spokesman Hogan Gidley flatly denied it..."
-- And there's this well-timed new story from CNN's Mary Ilyushina and Frederik Pleitgen: "At the bottom of a glacier in Greenland, climate scientists find troubling signs..."
#WhyGreenland
USA Today commentary editor and columnist Jill Lawrence tweeted Tuesday night, with the hashtag #WhyGreenland, "Things Trump would like us to ignore today: Would like for Putin to rejoin G-7, says Jews show great disloyalty if they vote for Dems, may be backing off comprehensive gun background checks. What else?"
COMING LATER THIS WEEK...
Cindy McCain's essay for People mag
 Cindy McCain has written a first-person essay for People magazine to commemorate the one-year anniversary of her husband John McCain's death. This issue of People will be on newsstands later in the week... Here are a couple key excerpts from her essay that were shared with me in advance:
McCain "wanted us to fight about solutions to our problems and the means to further our ideals. But he wanted us to recognize that however sharp our disagreements, our shared moral heritage was stronger and more enduring. We owe each other the respect of assuming each of us has value to give to our country and its causes. That respect is the essence of civility we see too little of these days."
Her overarching message: "The next time you argue with another American about politics, give as good as you get, then shake hands and call each other, 'my friend.' John McCain would have appreciated that gesture."
Karem sues the White House
As expected, Brian Karem is going to court to fight for the immediate restoration of his press pass. He filed suit in federal court on Tuesday, naming Trump and press secretary Stephanie Grisham as defendants, and alleging that the W.H. has violated his Constitutional right to due process by suspending his pass for 30 days. Karem is a columnist for Playboy and an analyst for CNN. Here's my full story, a co-production with Katelyn Polantz...
White House's explanation
Grisham told me she stands by her decision to suspend Karem's "hard pass" temporarily. "The purpose of a hard pass is to provide access to the White House so members of the press can report and ask questions of officials who are taking questions," she said. "Mr. Karem did not use the access granted to him for journalistic purposes -- in fact, the President had left the event. Instead, he used his press pass to insult invited guests and make comments that threatened to escalate into a physical confrontation to the point that the Secret Service intervened."
What's next
The judge assigned to the case is federal District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee. Karem is seeking a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order, so we may hear more in the next couple of days. But Karem may be facing a steeper set of hurdles than Jim Acosta did last November. And if he fails in court, the result may end up strengthening the admin's hand and hurting the press corps as a whole...
The right's dishonest talking point about reporters and the economy
Oliver Darcy writes: Over the last several days, a popular narrative has developed in the right-wing media universe: That reporters are excited -- even perhaps rooting -- for an economic downturn. On Tuesday Trump boosted this false narrative, retweeting Geraldo Rivera (who made the point) and saying it was "beautiful" to watch the media lose credibility.
This is, of course, a bogus narrative. When Fox anchor Martha MacCallum, for instance, tried to prove her absurd claim that reporters are "giddy" over bad economic numbers, she played a mashup of clips showing journalists simply reporting the news of poor economic indicators. Mediaite at the time noted how "markedly un-giddy" the clips were. It's silly that it needs to be said, but journalists reporting the news does not equal them rooting for a bad economy...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- ABC's "GMA" just snapped the "Today" show's nearly four-year-long winning streak in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic. "Today, which has seen slightly disproportionate demo losses amid an ongoing Nexstar blackout, hopes that Hoda Kotb's upcoming return from maternity leave will get things back on track. She'll be back the day after Labor Day..." (TheWrap)
-- Kerry Flynn writes: This new Bloomberg profile of The Athletic says the sports site just crossed the 600,000 subscriber mark... And is valued at about $500 million... (Bloomberg)
-- Wild stat via Sara Fischer's newsletter: "For the first time last month, a majority of all browser-based Google searches resulted in zero clicks, according to a new study from software company Sparktoro..." (Axios)
FIRST LOOK
Lilly Singh's THR cover
The Hollywood Reporter says this is the first unveiling of Lilly Singh as NBC's new late-late-late night host. As announced earlier this year, Singh will replace Carson Daly in the 1:35 a.m. time slot on September 16.
THR's cover calls her "the freshest face in late night," noting she's the "first openly bisexual woman of color to sit in the host's chair." And the first YouTube star to get a late-night show on broadcast! NBC's George Cheeks told THR that "we will be totally fine if the audience discovers A Little Late on YouTube versus NBC..." | | The cover story by Natalie Jarvey will be up on THR.com Wednesday morning...
Tucker's deepening ad woes
The NYT's Tiffany Hsu has detailed data about Fox's ad troubles. Her lead: "In keeping with a monthslong trend, the exodus of advertisers from Tucker Carlson's prime-time Fox News program continued this month." She cites several new companies that have dropped the show recently...
--> Big picture: "A total of 218 companies had commercials during episodes" of Tucker during last year's second quarter, per Kantar Media. "For the same time period this year, the number of companies whose ads ran during the show was down to 107..."
--> Fox's response, from Jeff Collins, the EVP of ad sales: "FOX News is on track to deliver another record year in advertising revenue. Advertising budgets that were impacted have been re-expressed into other programs across the network." He partly explained the rise in in-house promos by saying "we have devoted promotional time for the launch of their newest platform Fox Nation throughout our key programs."
Epstein-related fallout at the MIT Media Lab
Ethan Zuckerman, the director of the MIT Media Lab's Center for Civic Media, "plans to resign over revelations that the research center and its top leader took money from Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier who was accused of trafficking in underage girls," the Boston Globe reports.
More: "Zuckerman said that Joi Ito, the Media Lab's director, failed to be transparent about Epstein's funding of the lab and the money that Ito took from Epstein for his personal investments in tech startups..."
The truth about "faster" internet
The WSJ finds that faster internet isn't usually worth the cost: "Testing shows typical U.S. households don't use most of their bandwidth while streaming and get marginal gains from upgrading speeds." | | "It was a big undertaking," The Journal's media and marketing bureau chief Amol Sharma told me. "We had to study the internet use of over 50 of our colleagues, using technology developed by our academic research partners. The bottom line: typical households are using only a fraction of the bandwidth they pay for, even if they're streaming 6 or 7 things in their home simultaneously. And there is little benefit to paying for over 100 Mbps."
>> This report is part of a series... Sharma says another report is coming Wednesday that will examine "how providers market fast speeds and nudge consumers onto premium tiers..."
NBC's deep dive into The Epoch Times
Oliver Darcy emails: It is a website that produces pro-Trump content, has a massive social media presence, and pushes dangerous conspiracy theories -- but it's possible you've never heard of it. That is until now. NBC's Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins published a deep dive into The Epoch Times on Tuesday, unraveling the mystery of the little-covered website.
Zadrozny and Collins reviewed financial records, social media data and interviewed former employees to show "how a secretive newspaper has been able to leverage the devoted followers of a reclusive spiritual leader, political vitriol, online conspiracy theories and the rise of Trump to become a digital media powerhouse that now attracts billions of views each month, all while publicly denying or downplaying its association with Falun Gong." It's a story worth spending some time with.
>> Big picture: What this story underscores is how broken our information ecosystem is, in which a website like The Epoch Times can amass a massive social media presence to gain access to a large audience. How is this ever fixed?
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Joshua Benton writes: "So Youngstown will have a daily named The Vindicator after all. But it's a brand surviving, not a newspaper..." (NiemanLab)
-- "To satisfy regulators, YouTube officials are finalizing plans to end 'targeted' advertisements on videos kids are likely to watch," Mark Bergen scoops... (Bloomberg)
-- Reed Albergotti and Craig Timberg went deep on Apple's planned rule changes for kids apps. Some app makers "say it could devastate their businesses..." (WaPo)
-- The WSJ discovered a way that "gun sellers are sneaking onto Facebook's booming secondhand marketplace..." (WSJ)
Three headlines from Facebook
1. Facebook is hiring journalists as "curators"
Kerry Flynn writes: As CNN reported back in April, Facebook has decided to hire journalists to help run its upcoming News Tab. In a new interview with the NYT's Mike Isaac, Facebook's head of news partnerships Campbell Brown said "we're pulling together a small team of journalists to ensure we're highlighting the right stories." A new job posting for the "curator" role says Facebook is looking for people with more than five years of experience in news. If this all sounds familiar, you're not wrong -- Facebook previously had a team of journalists, mostly contractors, that managed its now-defunct Trending Topics section. In 2016, the company fired that team and discontinued the product after reports of conservative bias and the ensuing backlash...
2. Facebook finally rolls out privacy tool for your browsing history
Kaya Yurieff writes: More than a year later, Facebook is finally rolling out a new tool that helps users "clear" their history on the platform. The feature helps you see and manage the data that apps and websites collect on you and share with Facebook. However, some may be disappointed by the limitations of the feature: it doesn't actually delete your data. Instead, you'll have the option to disassociate the information from your account. That means Facebook won't know which websites you visited or what you did there, but the data will still exist on Facebook's servers without your identifying information. Read on...
3. Here's the "audit"
Kerry Flynn adds: FB is out with a summary of a year-long investigation into alleged anti-conservative bias on its platform. This is the initial product of Jon Kyl's independent audit of the accusations hurled by Trump and many others. Kyl and his team interviewed 133 conservative lawmakers and groups and digested their concerns and Facebook's responses in an eight-page report. Along with the report's release, Facebook announced one new policy change: allowing ads with images of people with medical tubes, which will likely benefit pro-life organizations. Here's my full story...
This is what happens when Instagram gets rid of likes ❤️
Kaya Yurieff writes: For this new CNN Business story, I spoke with users in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and other countries where Instagram is testing hiding likes. Users were mostly happy about the change, and said it's a positive step to tackle mental health issues and reduce pressure to rack up a lot of likes on the platform. (The test removes the total number of likes on photos and videos on the main feed, profiles and permalink pages. However, the owner of the account can still see their own likes).
But users said the move doesn't address deeper issues on Instagram, such as bullying or users comparing themselves to other people. Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Stephen Galloway's latest: "As Annapurna teeters, why are so many rooting for Megan Ellison to fail?" (THR)
-- "Netflix has announced a new docuseries about Microsoft founder Bill Gates from Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim." The three-part series premieres September 20... (Deadline)
-- "Hallelujah, HBO execs: The series premiere of Danny McBride's 'The Righteous Gemstones' on Sunday was the pay TV channel's most-watched linear debut of a comedy series in more than three years," since "Vice Principals..." (TheWrap)
-- David Yaffe-Bellany's latest: On corporate podcasts that are "not advertisements, exactly, but subtle brand-building efforts intended to entertain as well as persuade..." (NYT)
| | "Lover" has sold nearly a million copies already
Taylor Swift's new album, her first since signing with Republic Records, comes out on Friday, and pre-sales are "quickly approaching one million copies globally," Republic founder and chairman Monte Lipman tells Variety...
>> Why it matters: "Swift's previous album, 2017's 'Reputation,' was the last album to sell a million copies in the U.S. in its opening week, and all eyes are on 'Lover' ... to reveal whether that's still an attainable goal this late into the streaming era..."
More "Succession" on the way
Note to my wife Jamie, I think we need to make this our next binge:
"HBO has expanded the 'Succession' line, announcing Tuesday that its drama about a feuding media family has been renewed for a third season," Whitney Friedlander writes. The show is on a critical winning streak right now...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Heidi Klum was slammed for posting a topless honeymoon picture. C'mon, she can celebrate any way she wants...
-- The CMAs are replacing host Brad Paisley with Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire...
-- The 25th entry in the James Bond franchise is titled "No Time to Die..."
Many reasons...
Brian Lowry emails: Netflix drops the new season of "13 Reasons Why" this weekend, but there are also plenty of reasons why the streamer could face challenges ahead, as old rivals and new ones — in the form of both studios, with Disney to unveil more Disney+ plans this week; and other deep-pocketed tech players, especially Apple — crowd into its business. Read some of the reasons here...
"The Matrix" reloads again
Brian Lowry writes: This is a coup for Warner Bros., as Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss have agreed to reenter "The Matrix," in a sequel that will be directed by one of the original writer-directors on the 1999 movie, Lana Wachowski. The film is expected to begin production next year...
>> Reminder from Lowry's story: The original "film was a major hit, spawning the sequels 'The Matrix Reloaded' and 'The Matrix Revolutions,' which were shot in tandem and both released in 2003, completing the original story..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Megan Thomas:
-- For "Friends" fans, this is an interesting and deep (very deep) dive into the show's "party and a prison cell" writers' room... (Vulture)
-- Good reporting by Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. on the massive Sony/Disney impasse over Spider-Man's future... (Deadline)
-- This just speaks to our do-it-for-the-gram times so well, and the headline made me laugh… "There are too many damn national 'something' days," James Hamblin writes... (The Atlantic)
| | SAVING THE DAY'S BEST TRAILERS FOR LAST...
"What I Love About Nicole" / "What I Love About Charlie" | | This film looks incredible. Netflix dropped DUELING trailers for Noah Baumbach's "Marriage Story" on Tuesday. The trailers show both sides, with one from the POV of Adam Driver's character and the other from Scarlett Johansson's character.
"The vignettes feel like marriage therapy sessions as you hear the actors as Charlie and Nicole voice their respective opinions about the other character over scenes that suggest their relationship is imploding," Whitney Friedlander writes. The film "will be released on Netflix and in theaters this fall..."
| | | Thank you for reading. Email your feedback anytime -- the good, the bad, the ugly, etc. Oliver will be back tomorrow! | | | |
