EXEC SUMMARY: Stelter here, back in the chair, combing through all the new stories about this whistleblower mystery. Here's the very latest, plus a preview of Friday's biggest media and tech stories...
Trump, Ukraine, meddling, and leaking
The Washington Post's editorial board posed a question on September 5: "Is Trump strong-arming Volodymyr Zelensky for political gain?" That was the first time I heard about the Ukraine issue that's now front and center in the news -- the allegation that Trump was trying to "force Ukraine to meddle in the 2020 election."
First, let me resurface what the Post wrote two weeks ago. The editorial board said Trump had "suspended the delivery of $250 million in U.S. military aid to a country still fighting Russian aggression in its eastern provinces," leading some to suspect that he was "once again catering" to Vladimir Putin. "But we're reliably told that the president has a second and more venal agenda: He is attempting to force Mr. Zelensky to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by launching an investigation of the leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden," the editorial said. "Mr. Trump is not just soliciting Ukraine's help with his presidential campaign; he is using U.S. military aid the country desperately needs in an attempt to extort it."
This was an extraordinary charge -- and it was being leveled by one of the country's most-read editorial boards. The wording, "we're reliably told," suggested the paper had a pivotal source in a position to know what was going on...
Who blew the whistle and why?
More than a week after the WaPo editorial, on September 13, we all found out that House Intelligence Committee chair Adam B. Schiff had issued a subpoena to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, demanding that Maguire produce all the relevant details about an urgent whistleblower complaint that was being withheld.
To date, Maguire hasn't done that. CNN's team reported on Thursday that the White House and the DOJ "have advised the nation's top intelligence agency" that the employee's complaint "isn't governed by laws covering intelligence whistleblowers."
>> This standoff, CNN's Jim Acosta said, "amounts to taking the whistle from the whistleblower."
Now back to Ukraine: | | On Thursday evening, within minutes of each other, the NYT and WaPo both reported that the whistleblower complaint had something to do with Ukraine. That's how these storylines merged all of a sudden. "Though it is not clear how Ukraine fits into the allegation, questions have already emerged about Mr. Trump's dealings with its government," the NYT's team wrote in Friday's front page story.
CNN's Chris Cuomo interviewed Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani about all of this on Thursday night. Giuliani dissembled. Early on in the interview, Cuomo asked, "Did you ask the Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?" Giuliani said "no, actually I didn't." But when Cuomo pressed him and said "so do you DID ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden," he said, "of course I did." Cuomo exclaimed: "You just said you didn't!" The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona says Rudy was clearly "performing for an audience of one..."
>> NYT's James Poniewozik tweeted: "One of many insane things about this Rudy appearance is how it's the quintessence of Trump administration defenses: 'OK, what you're saying I did is TRUE. But it's Fake News because you're saying it like it's a BAD THING.'" | | Fox's coverage
Fox was slow to take this whistleblower scandal seriously. Hosts like Steve Doocy were mostly comfortable making it a story about the media. Seriously -- the only time "Fox & Friends" covered the whistleblower bombshell on Thursday, Doocy asked, "How'd that wind up on the front page of The Washington Post?" Later in the day, the coverage increased, but there's been a pro-Trump slant most of the time...
From the left and right...
A view from the right: Former Acting A.G. Matthew Whitaker went on Martha MacCallum's Fox show and said "this is a clear example of someone from the Deep State... from the intelligence community." Without knowing what the complaint actually says, Whitaker claimed "it was completely overblown."
A view from the left: Former Obama aide Ben Rhodes tweeted, "If Trump was trying to abuse his power of the presidency to solicit foreign help for his campaign, it's hard to imagine a more impeachable offense."
The timeline is critically important in this case
WaPo's Aaron Blake produced a detailed timeline around Trump and the whistleblower complaint here...
"Stonewalling or defiance"
"What's clear," CNN's Jim Sciutto wrote Thursday night, "is that on a broad range of oversight & disclosure -- now including 'urgent' whistleblower complaints, congressional subpoenas, Trump's tax and financial records, and even readouts of calls with foreign leaders -- the Trump White House defaults to stonewalling or defiance..."
Late night punch-lines
Stephen Colbert on Thursday's "Late Show" broadcast: "Remember a couple of ago, when Trump first got into office? We were all so nervous that Donald Trump was some sort of sleeper agent who was going to sell America out to a foreign power behind our backs? Well, throwback Thursday..."
FRIDAY PLANNER
"Global climate strikes" are happening in numerous countries, and the actions will continue in the days ahead...
Apple's Fifth Avenue store is reopening on the same day the new iPhones are going on sale...
Trump is holding a joint presser with the Australian prime minister around 11:45am ET...
GLAAD, One Iowa, The Gazette and The Advocate are hosting an LGBTQ Presidential Forum... NBC News NOW is live streaming the event...
"Downton Abbey," "Rambo: Last Blood" and "Ad Astra" are opening nationwide...
Funeral services for Cokie Roberts
A reception in memory of Cokie Roberts will be held Friday from 6 to 8pm at the National Press Club in DC. A funeral mass will take place Saturday at 10am at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle. Per ABC and Roberts' family, "in lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution in memory of Cokie Roberts to the Children's Inn at NIH."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The Big Three nightly newscasts all led with the severe flooding in Texas...
-- Staffers at KBMT, the ABC/NBC affiliate in Beaumont, were forced to evacuate when floodwaters spilled into the station... Fellow TEGNA station KHOU helped keep the station on the air... (Houston Chronicle)
-- Savannah Guthrie landed the first extensive TV interview with Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre. When she found out he was dead, she mourned her "ability to hold this man accountable..." (Post)
-- The Giuffre interview is part of a "Dateline" special airing on Friday night. In all, "six of Epstein's accusers are speaking out, some for the first time publicly..." (NBC) | |
Samantha Henig joins BuzzFeed News
"BuzzFeed, which is eyeing profitability for the second half of the year, has hired a new exec to get its news business sustainable," BI's Lucia Moses reported Thursday. "Samantha Henig, who until May was executive producer of audio for The New York Times, will be executive editor of strategy for BuzzFeed News," a new title. "She's charged with building out new revenue streams through initiatives like events, podcasts, and membership." And she will report to EIC Ben Smith.
More from the story: "BuzzFeed News also is looking for its first dedicated ad sales person. The digital publisher said it's on track to be profitable this year but that the news division still isn't profitable..."
🎙️ On this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast...
More than 100 newsrooms are using the Washington Post's massive database to cover the opioid crisis in a new way | | The Washington Post has opened up an enormous DEA database that charts the course of every pain pill in the country through 2012. The Post's investigations editor Jeff Leen sat down with me on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast to discuss the findings from the database and the cooperative nature of this project. Since July, more than 100 local news outlets have tapped into the database to better cover the opioid crisis and its impact on communities.
🎧 Listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your pod player of choice. Leen and I also discussed the Post's decision to make the data publicly available, even to rival newsrooms; what the data reveals; and what stories still need to be told about the opioid epidemic...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- "The Democratic Debates Aren't Pleasing Anyone," Edward-Isaac Dovere writes. Except, perhaps, the general public... Viewers are watching in huge #'s! But Dovere makes many legit points here... (The Atlantic)
-- Erik Wemple's latest: "Did Brett Kavanaugh ask New York Times reporters to lie in their book? Yeah, pretty much..." (WaPo)
-- The two NYT reporters, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast...
-- WaPo's Thursday scoop that's at risk of being overshadowed by the whistleblower mess: "HUD Secretary Ben Carson makes dismissive comments about transgender people, angering agency staff" (WaPo)
-- "The scene played out like a segment on the QVC shopping channel." That's Philip Rucker describing Trump's sales pitch for the border wall... (WaPo)
-- CNN's Alisyn Camerota: "If I were still at Fox, I would be Secretary of State..." (THR)
| | Zuck at the White House
"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with President Trump while he was in the nation's capital" on Thursday, Brian Fung and the CNN team reported here.
It was "the most important meeting of Zuckerberg's rare visit to the nation's capital this week to meet with some of his biggest skeptics." There's more to come: "Zuckerberg will meet members of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday," including committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, and Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicilline...
Trump says congrats to Bartiromo
"Great news. @MariaBartiromo just renewed her deal with Fox," Trump tweeted Thursday night, 33 hours after the contract renewal was announced. "I don't care how much they paid her," Trump wrote, "they got a beautiful bargain. Congratulations to both!"
Does anyone disbelieve this?
The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney tweeted, "Donald Trump would get fired from any other job for his despicable Twitter behavior." He linked to the Examiner's story about Trump's false and outrageous claim about Ilhan Omar...
Trump aides can't or won't justify his "Obama Netflix" gripes
Trump makes so many comments that his own aides can't even explain. Here's an example via Thursday's Politico Playbook: "What law does he think Obama violated by getting a Netflix deal? We asked the White House a few days ago and did not receive a response."
"Where's My Roy Cohn?" profiles notorious lawyer with Trump ties
Brian Lowry emails: Roy Cohn has long been a source of fascination, but his story -- and win-at-all-costs approach -- takes on a new light given the lessons he taught Donald Trump, which the president appears to have taken to heart. "Where's My Roy Cohn?" derives its title from Trump's reported desire to find a lawyer to fill that role today, while going back to the McCarthy hearings, which Cohn -- in interview clips -- is shown saying will always be the top line of his legacy. As it stands, maybe not. Read on...
Michael Pack glides through nomination hearing
Hadas Gold writes: Michael Pack, the Trump admin's nominee to lead the US Agency for Global Media, finally got a nomination hearing on Thursday, more than a year since his name was first put forward by the White House. (John Lansing, the most recent head of the agency, was just named CEO of NPR.)
Ever since his name was floated, Pack has raised some eyebrows inside and out of the agency, formerly known as the BBG, which runs government funded-media around the world like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Pack is a former president of the Claremont Institute think tank and a conservative documentarian who has worked closely with Steve Bannon. Our sources inside the agency were concerned that Pack would try to change the tone of the USGM, something that other Bannon allies have said they're trying to do.
-- Key quote: Pack started his testimony by saying, "American adversaries have stepped up their propaganda and disinformation efforts" as a reason why he feels called into government and said later that "I think the whole agency rests on the belief that the reporters are independent, that no political influence is telling them how to report the news and what to say."
-- The takeaway: Pack seemed to glide through this nomination hearing, partly because he was up alongside three others, including Marshall Billingslea, who was grilled on his "involvement in Bush-era torture..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- NBC News taking a victory lap: "I am pleased to let you all know that NBC News is once again #1. TODAY, Nightly News with Lester Holt and Meet the Press with Chuck Todd have all won the 2018-19 season, our fourth straight winning season for all three shows," news division prez Noah Oppenheim told staffers in a Thursday memo...
-- "GMA" celebrated 20 years of the show's Times Square studio on Thursday... (ABC)
-- Joe Pompeo's latest is about CBS and Viacom and whether the combined company will be "big enough." The "one anxiety that's top of mind, according to my sources, is the inevitable specter of layoffs..." (VF)
-- Twitter's head of global public policy, Colin Crowell, is stepping down... (AdWeek)
Is this DirecTV's biggest 'regulatory' obstacle?
"AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson seems to be coming around to the right idea that the wireless carrier would be better off without its shrinking DirecTV business," Bloomberg's Tara Lachapelle wrote on Thursday.
With regards to a DirecTV-Dish combo, the "wild card" is Trump, she wrote. "It's been reported that he tried meddling in AT&T's takeover of Time Warner, a unit now called WarnerMedia, because of personal grievances with the news network CNN, one of the assets AT&T inherited in the deal. As for DirecTV and Dish, 'the biggest 'regulatory' obstacle may be the president and his undying desire to punish CNN,' analysts for New Street Research wrote in a report Thursday..."
Check your op-ed writers...
Hadas Gold writes: The UK's The Daily Telegraph published – and then deleted -- an op-ed by an Estonian member of the European Parliament Jaak Madison, about how the EU was "keeping the UK hostage" as the countries attempt to fulfill the 2016 Brexit referendum. But as Jewish News points out, Madison had written a publicized 2015 blog post praising Nazi economics and dismissing their use of concentration camps and gas chambers. And, as the Telegraph itself reported last month that Madison was criticized for demanding a "final solution" for migrants who break the law in Europe. Check your op-ed writers!
Bill Gates, Decoded
Brian Lowry emails: Documentarian Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") enjoyed what's described as "unprecedented" access to his subject in "Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates," a three-part look at the Microsoft founder turned philanthropist, premiering Sept. 20 on Netflix. Yet its a somewhat scattered production, pinging back and forth between Gates' biography (at times awkwardly illustrated using animation), his relationship and partnership with wife Melinda, and his current endeavors by his foundation, of which Gates says, "Any problem, I will look at how technical innovation can help solve that problem." Flawed, but nevertheless worth watching...
"YouTube Is About to Demote a Wide Swath of Its Creators"
That's the headline on Taylor Lorenz's first story for the NYT. "YouTube announced sweeping changes to its verification system on Thursday, notifying a slew of high profile YouTubers that they'd soon lose their checkmarks," she explains. "The platform sent out emails to some account holders, saying that the changes would take place by the end of October." Creators "made their disappointment public..."
Facebook's interactive ads
Kerry Flynn writes: Facebook has three new interactive ad options: polls in mobile news feed, mini games and augmented reality. At an event on the CitizenM Bowery rooftop on Wednesday, Facebook's chief creative officer Mark D'Arcy said these products helped marketers make advertising more "rewarding" and "something we want to spend our time with." The general concepts aren't new -- in fact, games and AR ads have been on Snapchat for years -- but Facebook touts its scale and simplicity...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Kerry Flynn emails: Morning Brew held a launch party for its new podcast "Business Casual" on Thursday. Morning Brew is best known for the business newsletter, but it's expanded to new verticals like emerging tech and retail and now new mediums like podcasting... (Talking Biz News)
-- "Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson are keeping their Color Force production banner at FX Productions, with the producers signing a new four-year overall deal with the company..." (Variety)
-- "'Schitt's Creek' co-creator, showrunner and star Dan Levy is joining the Disney family. Levy has signed a three-year overall deal with Disney's ABC Studios, which won out after multiple outlets bidding for his services..." (THR)
| | Weekend box office preview...
"This weekend could see a serious battle for #1 as three brand new releases hit theaters, all of which could deliver as much as $20 million if not more," Box Office Mojo's Brad Brevet writes. "Among those films is Lionsgate's 'Rambo: Last Blood,' Focus's 'Downton Abbey' and Fox's 'Ad Astra,' all set to target three different audiences and all but Rambo receiving a strong critical response. Which title will have the legs to cross the finish line first?"
Lowry's "Ad Astra" review
Brian Lowry writes: "Ad Astra" braves the realm of cerebral science fiction, along the lines of movies like "Contact," "Interstellar" and even "2001: A Space Odyssey." Here, it's Brad Pitt trying to save the world by journeying to the outer reaches of space, in a vaguely dystopian near future. There's also been some intrigue surrounding Fox's delayed release of the film, prompting director James Gray's comment — referring to the Disney-Fox acquisition — that his movie is "a pimple on the ass of a $71-billion deal between two behemoths." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Frank Pallotta:
-- Looking ahead to early October, tracking numbers say that "Joker" could be on its way to a record debut... (THR)
-- Fox Searchlight "has acquired worldwide rights" to Wes Anderson's film "The French Dispatch..." (Variety)
-- Steven Zeitchik says streaming has a big problem: Nobody really knows how to value old TV hits... (Washington Post)
Theatre Owners discuss the "symbiotic relationship" with streaming
Frank Pallotta writes: I went down to the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference on Thursday to hear from NATO, or the National Association of Theatre Owners. Phil Contrino, director of media and research at NATO, and Pat Corcoran, NATO's VP and chief comms officer, discussed the changing world of the theater business and, of course, streaming. Contrino said there's actually a "symbiotic relationship" between streaming and the theater industry: "This notion that streaming and theatrical are in a war, and that this is a zero sum game where one side wins and the other has to lose, we just don't see that playing out," he said. "Theatrical is a great launching point for valuable content that generates real value for streaming platforms, and also streaming platforms create a desire for content in theatrical."
Contrino also pointed out that documentaries like "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and "Free Solo" have had a boost at the box office lately, which could have been due to people watching more documentaries on streaming platforms. He also used the example that "Stranger Things 3" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home" both found big success on the Fourth of July..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Cher killed it on the finals of "America's Got Talent."
-- Speaking of "Talent," the winner of Season 14 was a heartwarming performer favored from the beginning...
-- And "AGT" judge Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul have been having "American Idol" reunions all over...
"What happened to Jesse?"
"That's the question that 'Breaking Bad' creator Vince Gilligan told THR put him on the path to his latest project," Lisa Respers France writes. "'El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie' is set to premiere October 11 on Netflix and in theaters in 68 cities before it airs on the original show's home network of AMC early next year." More via THR here...
| | Thanks for reading! See you tomorrow...
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