EXEC SUMMARY: Brian Stelter here. Welcome to September! On this Labor Day Weekend, here's a special look at the fall 2019 season ahead in media, tech and entertainment. I've always loved this back-to-school time of year. Maybe because my birthday is on Tuesday 😉 So here's a preview of all the news to come...
Tracking Dorian
The northern Bahamas are suffering through a cataclysmic hurricane as we speak. And because Hurricane Dorian is slowing down, the worst is far from over. | | "On this track, the core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian will continue to pound Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands overnight and through much of Monday," the National Hurricane Center said overnight. "The hurricane will move dangerously close to the Florida east coast late Monday through Tuesday night."
As CNN's Patrick Oppmann said in a live shot from Freeport on Sunday, "this is just the beginning." On MSNBC, Bill Karins predicted "more destruction on top of more destruction." All the cable newsers are adding hours of live coverage to keep up. Fox says Shep Smith will anchor extra hours at 2 and 5pm ET on Monday, with additional live coverage into Tuesday morning...
"Pure hell"
ABC News correspondent Marcus Moore is one of a small # of journalists in Marsh Harbour, near where Dorian made landfall on Sunday. "I have seen utter devastation here in Marsh Harbour. We are surrounded by water with no way out," Moore said, per ABC. "Absolution devastation, there really are no words -- it is pure hell here."
Click here for CNN's live updates on the track, reports from the Bahamas, preparations in Florida, and more...
IN OTHER NEWS...
Tuesday: Several big books
The new book by James Mattis, "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead," comes out Tuesday... It hit No. 1 on Amazon's best seller list on Sunday, thanks in part to a "CBS Sunday Morning" segment. The book is holding steady at No. 2 right now...
>> Mike Isaac's "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber," Pamela Paul's "How to Raise a Reader" and the NYT's first published collection of Bill Cunningham photographs also come out on Tuesday...
Wednesday: CNN's climate crisis town halls
CNN is billing this as an "unprecedented prime-time event focused on the climate crisis." The ten candidates who have topped 2% in four recent DNC-approved polls will all be on stage, back to back, "taking audience questions about their climate plans as scientists sound the alarm about global warming." Here's the schedule for all the candidates between 5 p.m. and midnight ET...
Thursday: NFL 100 begins
Via the Sporting News: "The league's 100th season kicks off Thursday, Sept. 5 with a game between the Packers and Bears. While the defending Super Bowl champion is usually featured in the first game of the season, the NFL opted to pit two of its oldest franchises and one of the league's most historic rivalries against one another to celebrate the centennial season."
LOOKING FURTHER AHEAD...
This season's biggest storylines
President Trump arguably wasted the summer. What will he do with the fall? Will Democrats increase their pressure? Will support for impeachment proceedings rise or fall? Will "Trump fatigue" get worse? Will the Dem debates change the race in any meaningful way? Will the Congress accomplish anything? Or will we remain on our present course -- with diminishing confidence in institutions and increasing fears of recession?
Political debates, forums and more
Tuesday 9/10: Special election in North Carolina... Thursday 9/12: A one-night Dem debate on ABC and Univision... Thursday 9/19: GU Politics is working with MSNBC and Our Daily Planet on a two-day climate forum... Tuesday 10/15: A Dem debate, host TBA... Tuesday 11/5: Roger Stone's trial is slated to begin... TBD in November: Another Dem debate...
>> TIME mag's table-setter: "Fall campaign season begins with Biden teetering atop Democratic field..."
The top media biz stories will be...
Which subscription models are working? Which are not? And which new competitors are joining the fray? These questions affect everyone from Disney to The Atlantic. Every month more and more news and entertainment brands are asking people to pay for digital subscriptions. The Apple TV+ and Disney+ streaming services will get a lot of attention this fall. Distinguished news brands will be rolling out and refining paywalls as well. Whether selling entertainment or news, some of the challenges are the same...
Digital media storylines
Kerry Flynn writes: Numerous new publications will be launching, like The Markup investigating technology; Input at Bustle Media Group; and a business-focused publication from Medium. Meanwhile, the Gannett-GateHouse merger is expected to close by the end of the year. The deal will surely mean changes at local papers -- with some wanting to unionize ahead of time. Speaking of unions, BuzzFeed and The Ringer have had their unions recognized but the contracts are still to come.
>> And: Facebook is expected to introduce a News tab in October -- it'll be interesting to watch yet another attempt at the tech giant curating news and improving relationships with publishers...
Mark your calendar
9/10: Apple's next product launch event... 9/23: Fall TV premiere week... 9/24: The 40th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards... 9/24: The Atlantic Festival begins... 9/26: The Texas Tribune Festival gets underway... 10/11: The New Yorker Festival starts... 10/15: Ronan Farrow's book... 10/16: IAB's podcast upfront... 10/21: VF New Establishment summit kicks off... 10/22: Game One of the World Series... 10/24: CNN's CITIZEN conference...
What Lowry is watching
Brian Lowry emails: The lions share of new broadcast network shows will land the week of 9/23. The major networks will actually offer fewer new shows at the start of this season, but that doesn't mean there will be any shortage of fresh content or new players.
Disney+ launches on Nov. 12, while Netflix's battle for attention will tilt somewhat toward its movie lineup, with "Marriage Story" and "The Irishman" both hitting the festival circuit in advance of theatrical windows and an eventual showcase on the streaming service...
Key entertainment dates
| | 9/4: Beyoncé's birthday a/k/a #BeyDay... 9/6: "It Chapter Two" hits theaters... 9/9: "Tamron Hall" and "The Kelly Clarkson Show" debut... 9/16: The Sean Spicer-ed season of "Dancing with the Stars" begins and "A Little Late With Lilly Singh" starts on NBC... 9/20: The big-screen edition of "Downton Abbey" premieres... 9/22: the Emmy Awards live on Fox... 9/28: The "SNL" season premiere with Woody Harrelson... 10/4: It's time for "Joker..." 10/18: "Zombieland 2" arrives... 11/10: The E! People's Choice Awards... 11/22: "Frozen 2" hits theaters... 12/20: "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" owns the box office...
Premieres you should know about
10/7: "Retro Report" premieres on PBS... 10/13: Discovery introduces the docuseries "Why We Hate" and AMC debuts "Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America..." 10/17: The new season of "The Crown" starts streaming on Netflix... 10/18: "Modern Love" arrives on Amazon... Sometime in October: "Watchmen" premieres on HBO... 11/24: "Slow Burn" comes to Epix... 12/6: "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" returns on Amazon...
>> For more: Scroll through Rolling Stone's "33 shows to watch..."
>> And Deadline has a full list of fall premiere dates for broadcast, cable and streaming shows...
The One With The Anniversary
9/22 is the 25th anniversary of "Friends." The hot takes have already started. There will be retrospectives and marathons and three nights of "Friends" episodes in theaters courtesy of Fathom Events...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The LA Times made a list of "virtually every film coming out this fall..." (LAT)
-- TheWrap says these are the "36 most anticipated movies" of the season... (TheWrap)
-- "Eight new productions" are "opening on Broadway this fall..." (New York Theatre Guide)
-- And here's the TIME list of the "most anticipated plays and musicals of fall..." (TIME)
Look out for these books
 "The Testaments," Margaret Atwood's sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale," comes out 9/10. "She Said," by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, comes out the same day...
Ronan Farrow's "Catch and Kill" comes out 10/15...
Elton John's first and only autobiography, titled "Me," also comes out 10/15...
In the pro-Trump books section, Gregg Jarrett has "Witch Hunt" coming out on 10/8...
"The Beautiful Ones" -- the memoir Prince began writing before he died in 2016 -- will hit shelves on 10/29...
>> For more, check EW's list of "the 40 biggest titles" of the fall...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Here's the latest on the shooting that killed seven and wounded 22 on Saturday: "Odessa shooter was fired from trucking job hours before rampage, officials say..." (NYT)
-- KOSA-TV anchors had to evacuate live on the air during the shooting... Brooke Baldwin spoke with one of the anchors on Sunday... (CNN)
-- The Vindicator staff said goodbye on Saturday. A new edition of the paper, a shell of its former self, was delivered to subscribers on Sunday... (Vindicator)
-- Leslie Gelb has died. He was 82. Gelb "was an editor, columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The Times and served in a variety of government posts..." (NYT)
-- "Trump's campaign and key allies plan to make allegations of bias by social media platforms a core part of their 2020 strategy..." (Axios)
-- Headline of the day? "Trump doesn't think he's 'ever even heard of a Category 5' hurricane. Four such storms have threatened the US since he took office..." (CNN)
Who was the unnamed official?
"Almost a year later, we still don't know," Paul Farhi notes in his latest for WaPo. "Outside of a tiny circle of insiders, no one knows who wrote the instantly viral op-ed column about President Trump that appeared in the New York Times last Sept. 5. Despite an informal White House investigation, plenty of outside sleuthing and a whole Internet's worth of guessing, his or her identity remains unknown..."
| | "Number one shoe"
My lead story on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast: Trump's twisted relationship with Fox News. I said the president's anti-media attacks reflect his insecurity and his desire to see only sycophants, no reporters, on his favorite network.
Behind the scenes: When he trashes Fox on Twitter, as he did earlier in the week, his Fox friends remind him that all the highest-rated shows on the network are the pro-Trump talk shows. That's what led to his Saturday tweet congratulating Sean Hannity on his ratings. Trump originally said Hannity had the "number one shoe," then later corrected "shoe" to show...
"Fox knows it has the leverage in this relationship"
Elaina Plott, David Zurawik, and Julia Ioffe joined me to discuss Trump's ever-changing feelings about Fox. Ioffe said Trump seems to think the network is "part of the White House and it's just not running the way he wants it to." Plott said "Fox knows it has the leverage in this relationship." And Zurawik commented that despite Trump's recent "Fox isn't working for us anymore" claim, "they're going to keep going steady..."
>> For more, read Clare Duffy's recap on CNN Business...
What was Lawrence O'Donnell thinking? | | That was the "B block" on Sunday's "Reliable," with the panel weighing in. The above banner said two of the most dangerous words in journalism are "if true" -- words that O'Donnell leaned on way too heavily.
Zurawik said O'Donnell's single-sourced claim was "wish fulfillment," not journalism. He said it "really tarnishes all the excellent work good journalists do." Here's the segment...
Brian Karem speaks out
Brian Karem, known for his aggressive questioning at White House events, had his press pass suspended for 30 days after an altercation with Sebastian Gorka. He sued, and now he is waiting to see if a federal judge rules in his favor. The judge is expected to weigh in on Tuesday.
When I pressed Karem -- and said his conduct in the Rose Garden was unprofessional -- he said he thought the W.H. was being unprofessional. "I am provocative, and I am a smart aleck. But I'm not going to apologize for that. That's OK under the First Amendment," he said. His attorney Ted Boutrous argued that the suspension "violates the First Amendment" and due process. Bottom line: "I just want to go back and do my job," Karem said. Here's the interview...
Notes and quotes from Sunday's show
-- Re: Joe Biden being "loose with facts" on the campaign trail: "Telling falsehoods is never benign," David Zurawik said...
-- Jeffrey Goldberg talked about his recent interviews with James Mattis...
-- And Goldberg said journalists should exercise caution when covering Trump's instability. His proposal: "Simply report on what he's doing and saying, and then hold that up against how previous presidents and how other world leaders respond to the same types of issues..."
-- "Trump fatigue" is a hot topic in the political press right now. "We're going numb, and that's the real fear," Slate's Dahlia Lithwick said...
-- Lithwick also spoke with me about her new column arguing that "investigative reporting started #MeToo," but "we're now asking it to do too much..."
How to catch up on Sunday's "Reliable"
Listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your pod player of choice... Or watch the video clips on CNN.com...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- WaPo's big Monday story: "Trump's lost summer: Aides claim victory, but others see incompetence and intolerance..." (WaPo)
-- ICYMI: On the front page of Sunday's NYT: "Seeking the Truth About Atrocities in Gambia, Live on YouTube..." (NYT)
-- "Fake news and social media posts are such a threat to U.S. security that the Defense Department is launching a project to repel 'large-scale, automated disinformation attacks,' as the top Republican in Congress blocks efforts to protect the integrity of elections," Peter Norman reports... (Bloomberg)
-- The last single-screen theater in New York, The Paris, has gone dark... (NYT)
Kevin Hart injured in car crash
"Actor-comedian Kevin Hart and two others were involved in a car crash in Calabasas, California early Sunday," CNN's team reports. "Hart and the driver, Jared Black, sustained 'major back injuries' and were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment, the report states." Read more...
| | Fall film festival season is underway
"With the Venice Film Festival underway, the Toronto Film Festival a week away and more to come, Hollywood is starting its award season engine," Sandra Gonzalez and Whitney Friedlander write.
>> Here are twelve films you'll be hearing a lot about...
>> Brian Lowry adds: The chatter over the weekend included festival bows for "Joker," starring Joaquin Phoenix, and "Judy," a Judy Garland biography featuring Renee Zellweger...
Summer box office post-mortem
Brooks Barnes' big-picture look at the summer box office: "This was supposed to be the summer when Hollywood blew the doors off theaters..." But "the film business finds itself lagging last year's surge and facing questions about why."
Key graf No. 1: "'It is another sign that the broader economy is in a fragile place,' said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, noting that some other leisure businesses — Disney theme parks, Major League Baseball games — also had a soft summer..."
Key graf No. 2: "Box office experts say the theatrical landscape has shifted, possibly permanently." Read on...
| | Thank you for reading. We're taking Labor Day off... We'll be back on Tuesday... Email your feedback anytime!
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