EXEC SUMMARY: Scroll down for our week ahead calendar, NBC News uncertainty, "A Warning" updates, "SNL" critiques, and much more...
Highs and lows
The US military's successful overnight raid in Syria, resulting in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, showcases the highs and lows of the Trump presidency. It's no wonder why viewers and readers oftentimes have whiplash.
This was the week when Trump's impeachment in the House began to appear truly inevitable. Many reporters and commentators came to this conclusion after a round of damning depositions by Bill Taylor and other public servants.
Yet the week ended with an extraordinary national security development — a daring and dangerous raid approved by Trump and carried out by teams of elite US troops. Here's the banner headline in Monday's NYT: | |
"It was the most significant announcement of the death of a terror leader since President Barack Obama revealed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed by US Navy Seals in a dramatic late night address in May 2011," CNN's Zachary Cohen wrote.
And Trump claimed al-Baghdadi's death was a bigger deal than bin Laden's assassination, though most experts disagreed. He clearly wanted to make the most of the military's accomplishment -- by addressing the nation on Sunday morning and then taking questions from reporters.
But impeachment still looms. All of the alleged abuses of power that were filling up TV screens on Saturday are still relevant on Sunday and Monday. This moment is an extreme example of the roller coaster-like highs and lows that have dominated the Trump years...
Did the president tell the truth?
Were his graphic descriptions of the raid accurate? Unfortunately this is an open question right now. This NYT story casts some doubt on Trump's assertions about al-Baghdadi "whimpering" and "crying" before blowing himself up. And fact-checkers like Daniel Dale have already debunked Trump's assertions about how he uniquely foresaw the pre-9/11 threat...
Overcompensating?
The president's detailed depictions of the raid and graphic comments about the violence made me think that he was trying to build up the significance of al-Baghdadi's death compared to bin Laden's. Of course, bin Laden was always far more familiar and fearsome in the minds of Americans. As CNBC's John Harwood tweeted, "in the American psyche, Baghdadi was to bin Laden as an ant is to an elephant..."
Monday's news cycle?
Trump wanted Saturday's raid and Sunday's announcement to be "a legacy-defining moment," the NYT reported.
But is that how it's going to be framed? Or is TPM boss Josh Marshall right? Marshall said the raid "will be a big thing for about a day and then will devolve into a grievance about how Trump wasn't feted like Obama with Osama bin Laden," and why the Democrats "don't agree to end impeachment inquiry because this guy got killed." I can almost hear those talking points coming out of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity's mouths...
"Lock him up"
To my point about the highs and lows: As expected, the president was loudly booed when he was introduced at Nationals Park during Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday night. "The crowd responded with loud, sustained boos for several seconds," WaPo's Josh Dawsey reports.
Perhaps unexpectedly, there were also some "lock him up" chants heard around the ballpark. This ignited a debate on social media about whether it's ever appropriate for any crowd — at a game or a rally — to call for the jailing of a political leader...
>> Lisa Tozzi tweeted: "I am looking forward to the rage tweet about how he was not booed..."
>> Some further color from CNN's Noah Gray: "Later Trump was seen watching intensely during a traditional race of four characters dressed as former Presidents. He did not applaud when the character dressed up as Teddy Roosevelt won."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Chris Cillizza has "the 41 most shocking lines" from Trump's announcement. The mere existence of this list speaks volumes about what today was like... (CNN)
-- Aides convinced Trump "that waiting until Sunday morning to announce" the raid "would dominate the talk shows," Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman report... (NYT)
-- Trump "had a 900-word statement but ended up saying about 8,000," Josh Dawsey writes, calling it "a made for TV Trump morning..." (WaPo)
-- "Two photos capture vastly different presidents," the AP's Aamer Madhani writes... (AP) | |
Journalists are patriots too
In this era of reckless "enemy of the people" attacks, it is especially important to point out how journalists serve as friends of the people. For example: Some journalists knew about the raid targeting al-Baghdadi as it was happening, but chose not to report the information until U.S. forces were out of harms' way.
One of those reporters was James LaPorta, a staff writer for Newsweek, who was later credited with breaking the al-Baghdadi news. He sat on the news for hours. "I'm a former Marine infantryman. Didn't want to cause any potential harm," he told me.
Paul Rieckhoff tweeted a "shout out" to the Newsweek team "and all the other reporters that held their stories on this news for as long as possible in order to protect our troops on the ground. For anyone who calls the press the 'enemy of the state,' remember times like this."
WaPo's regret
The Post has been delivering stellar coverage of the stealth raid all day long... But on the social media the newspaper has been blasted for a terrible web headline on its obit of al-Baghdadi. The headline briefly called him the "austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State" as opposed to, you know, a murderer. It was adjusted, so the headline now calls him the "extremist leader of Islamic State," but the Post admitted that "the headline should never have read that way."
I asked the paper for further comment, and spokeswoman Kris Coratti responded, "Post correspondents have spent years in Iraq and Syria documenting ISIS savagery, often at great personal risk. Unfortunately, a headline written in haste to portray the origins of al-Baghdadi and ISIS didn't communicate that brutality. The headline was promptly changed."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- The biggest DC story until Saturday night's raid: John Kelly speaking at a Washington Examiner event and basically saying Trump is unfit. "Kelly is saying here that Trump isn't up to the job, without actually saying those words," Maggie Haberman observed... (Examiner)
-- Democratic Rep. Katie Hill of California released a statement on Sunday night announcing her resignation from Congress amid allegations of improper relationships with staffers... (CNN)
-- BuzzFeed's Molly Hensley-Clancy tweeted: "Hill is resigning amid allegations of inappropriate relationships with staffers *and* after a campaign of harassment, including revenge porn, allegedly from an ex-husband who she calls "abusive." Reporters should mention both those things!" (Twitter)
Biden on "60"
Norah O'Donnell's story on Sunday's "60 Minutes" was Joe Biden's "first major network sit-down since President Trump's attacks on his family," the NYT notes. This exchange stood out to me:
O'DONNELL: "President Trump has said publicly, 'Joe Biden and his son are stone cold corrupt.' And chances are, he's watching this interview. Anything you want to say to him?"
BIDEN: "Yeah. Mr. President, release your tax returns. Let's see how straight you are, okay old buddy? I put out 21 years of mine. So show us your tax returns, bud-- wh-- what are you hidin'? You want to deal with corruption? Start to act like it. Release your tax returns or shut up."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- ICYMI over the weekend, an important story: "Trump ordered Mattis to 'screw Amazon' on Pentagon contract, according to new book..." (CNN)
-- Marc Fisher and Jonathan O'Connell just published a big new piece about Mohammed bin Salman and the Post's owner Jeff Bezos: "The prince, the billionaire and the Amazon project that got frozen in the desert..." (WaPo)
-- NYMag's newest cover story, by Olivia Nuzzi, is a must-read titled "Joe Biden's Zombie Campaign." Kate Bedingfield and other Biden aides are criticizing the piece: "If New York Magazine thinks we are doing it wrong, we are definitely doing it right." Read it for yourself... (NYMag)
-- From Business Insider's team: "We easily ran blatantly misleading ads about hot-button political topics like immigration and gun control, and Facebook failed to catch them..." (BI)
False Facebook ad targets Lindsey Graham
Donie O'Sullivan emails: A false Facebook ad makes it appear that Sen. Lindsey Graham backs the Green New Deal. The ad was run by a left-leaning PAC as a test of Facebook's policies on lies in political ad. "The whole thing here is that Facebook doesn't know what it is doing, and neither does Congress," Adriel Hampton, treasurer of "The Really Online Left League," the PAC that ran the false ad, told me.
Facebook took down the ad on Saturday, but it was back up on another page Sunday night. Expect to hear more about this one during throughout the week...
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE MEDIA + POLITICS NEWS. BUT FIRST...
Week ahead calendar
Early Monday morning: Earnings for AT&T, which owns CNN...
Monday after the bell: Alphabet earnings...
Tuesday: Prince's autobiography "The Beautiful Ones" hits bookshelves...
Tuesday: WarnerMedia's investor day showcasing HBO Max...
Wednesday after the bell: Apple and Facebook earnings...
Thursday: Halloween! Do you have your costume picked out?
Friday: Apple TV+ starts streaming...
Friday: Trump holds a rally in Tupelo, Mississippi...
Eye on AT&T earnings
"AT&T's quarterly earnings reports are always a significant date on the business world calendar, but Monday's edition brings an extra element of intrigue thanks to hedge fund Elliott Management," Deadline's Dade Hayes noted over the weekend. The activist investor released a letter to the AT&T board last month noting it had accumulated a roughly 1% stake in the telecom giant and making its case for how to unlock value." Per the WSJ, AT&T and the hedge fund have been in talks about a potential resolution...
Friday is a big day in the content game
Brian Lowry writes: Even in this age of abundance, Friday is a big day in the content game, with Apple TV+ launching and "Terminator: Dark Fate" and "The Irishman" both hitting U.S. theaters. ("Terminator" has already premiered in some international territories.) My review of the latter is still to come, but Martin Scorsese's mob epic represents Netflix's great Oscar hope, with the movie slated to land on the service Nov. 27.
Netflix doesn't divulge box-office data, but notably, the Eddie Murphy vehicle "Dolemite is My Name" seemed to receive a second wave of press and social media appreciation as it hit streaming a few weeks after its debut, suggesting that's where most people will see these movies. That's perhaps especially true when faced with Scorsese's 3 1/2-hour running time — a length that surely would have produced pushback from most conventional studio distributors...
Quick disclaimer about 'The Morning Show'
Monday night is the NYC premiere of Apple TV+'s "The Morning Show," and the show debuts on Friday. I'm a consulting producer on the project, which means I worked with the writers and producers to make sure the fictional story is as authentic as possible. The production also used my book "Top of the Morning" as background material. The book will be released with a new afterword next week.
So I want to tell you how we'll be handling the show in this newsletter. In short: Any news items about the show are being written by other CNN staffers. The same rule applies to any reviews. I'm also keeping my distance from any CNN Digital coverage of the Apple TV+ streaming service. In the event Apple TV+ comes up when I'm on air, I'm disclosing my relationship with "The Morning Show." Transparency and an arms-length arrangement are the two principles in play here.
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- ICYMI: Helen Coster and Kenneth Li's report: "Behind AT&T's plan to take on Netflix, Apple and Disney with HBO Max..." (Reuters)
-- Comedian Kelly Bachman, who called out accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein at an emerging artist party in NYC, spoke with Ana Cabrera... (CNN)
-- 🔌 I'll be on "The Takeaway" with Tanzina Vega on Monday...
Maddow gives voice to lingering concerns inside NBC News
Rachel Maddow is far from the only one. Her extraordinary MSNBC segment on Friday — covering the allegations in Ronan Farrow's "Catch and Kill" that are roiling NBC News — gave voice to other staffers who have concerns about management. Maddow also interviewed Farrow on Friday night, ending a two-year period during which he wasn't booked on any NBC-owned channels. So Q's about NBC are coming back to the forefront. Chiefly: Why won't the network open itself up to an external investigation or, as Maddow called it, an "external journalistic review?"
Here's my new story about the matter. Some staffers at NBC say "people just want to move on from this" month full of controversy. But others say the scrutiny is a good thing. "This is a growth moment, not a burn-it-down moment," a senior NBC staffer told me, expressing hope that the newfound attention will redound to the network's benefit.
Within the news division, some have been bothered by management's fierce criticism of Farrow. "This has taken a serious toll on morale," said a veteran staffer, disagreeing with the sentiment that people want to "move on." More... | | Key notes and quotes
-- Maddow, who booked Farrow personally, felt no corporate pressure to avoid covering "Catch and Kill," two sources told me...
-- Notably, NBC issued a new statement to Maddow's team that said "we very much wanted to break this story" about Weinstein in 2017, and "we are profoundly disappointed that we weren't able to do so." That's a serious shift in tone...
-- WaPo's Sarah Ellison and Paul Farhi published a new story about NBC News turmoil on Sunday afternoon... They say the network's journalists "have been watching the drama surrounding Farrow's book with a mixture of bafflement, resignation and some anger..."
-- And THR's Marisa Guthrie has more from inside the network in her new story...
Google is funding these 34 news projects
I missed this on Friday: On the same day that Facebook announced its new News tab, Google announced its Google News Initiative North American Innovation Challenge grantees. "Thirty-four projects and newsrooms will receive funding from the largest digital advertising revenue earner as part of this challenge, out of a total of $5.8 million this round," NiemanLab's Christine Schmidt reported.
Schmidt said "this is the first time that the initiative is putting significant money directly into North American publishers' projects" — from audio archiving to public meeting tracking to neighborhood social networking. Read all about the $$$ here...
OK, NOW BACK TO THE WEEKEND'S BIGGEST STORY...
This is the network Trump was praising
During Trump's Q&A session with reporters, he singled out one reporter for praise after she asked a Q about his strategy.
"You're doing a great job, by the way," Trump said. "Your network is fantastic. They're really doing a great job. Please let them know." Which network was he promoting? Fox wannabe One America News, which remains very low-rated but which keeps getting presidential shout-outs...
Press secretary or propaganda minister?
On Sunday's "Reliable," I said W.H. press secretary Stephanie Grisham is acting more like a propaganda minister. It's sad but true — look no further than her Saturday statement attacking John Kelly for being "totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president" — and her assertion on "Watters World" that "this farce" of impeachment is "a mob lynching type of situation."
>> Sarah Ellison's insight: "I've talked to former comms directors from that White House, and they say that" Trump "needs that kind of adulation, and in order for her to survive, she needs to provide that." | |
My Q for Grisham
Every week, the "Reliable Sources" team invites Grisham on the program for an interview. Every week, she declines.
My Q for her: If you are so proud and so confident in the "genius" of "our great president," why don't you restore the daily press briefings, tout his accomplishments and take questions?
Oliver Darcy's point
He brought this up on "CNN Newsroom" on Saturday: "We might have someone occupying the office of the W.H. press secretary. We might have someone who has the title of W.H. press secretary. But we don't have someone fulfilling the traditional duties of the W.H. press secretary..."
"Specific and shocking" scenes
"A Warning" remained No. 1 on Amazon all weekend long. Here's what I reported on Sunday's "Reliable Sources:" The book is finished, it's been printed, and it's likely to leak sooner rather than later. A publishing source tells me that the book's accounts of Trump's misconduct are "specific and shocking." Readers will feel like they're in the room with the president. The author knows that their identity may be unmasked... But "felt that they had a duty to write the book."
I spoke with Joe Klein, of "Primary Colors" fame, who acknowledged the senior official may have good reasons for staying anonymous, but the truly "courageous" individuals are the ones who are speaking on the record. "Now is the time for people of good faith to stand up, identify themselves and tell the story," he said. The Guardian recapped the interview here...
Covering GOP House hijinks vs. Senate silence
As House Republicans generate media coverage through theatrical stunts, Republican Senators have mostly remained quiet about the Ukraine scandal that has sparked an impeachment inquiry. So how should the press corps make their silence into a story?
"The only way that you can report on silence is to keep asking the question and saying who is willing to answer," Ellison said on Sunday's show...
How to catch up on this Sunday's "Reliable"
Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Catch the full episode via CNNgo or VOD... Or listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- "Houston Astros owner Jim Crane sent Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein a letter formally retracting a since-debunked statement the team put out after she reported an ugly incident involving a now-fired team executive..." (WaPo)
-- "Netflix has been testing variable playback speeds in its Android app, Android Police was first to report Friday. The new feature allows users to play movies and TV shows at a variety of speeds, ranging from 0.5x (half as fast) all the way to 1.5x. The feature is apparently being tested with a small subset of Android users..." (Variety)
"They Know What You Watched Last Night"
A+ headline on this NYT story by Tiffany Hsu. She reports that "recent deals involving the media conglomerate AT&T, the streaming device seller Roku, the advertising giant Publicis and other companies have expanded the surveillance infrastructure that operates in the background of streaming services. While viewers focus on the action onscreen, tracking technology quietly sops up information about their habits and uses it to target them with more relevant, traceable ads." Read all about it...
Monday is "blitz day" for Disney+
Brooks Barnes' Monday NYT story is a look at the Disney+ marketing machine. Here's some of what's in the works for the start of the new workweek: "Weather forecasters at Disney-owned ABC stations in cities like Houston and Chicago will be chit-chatting about Disney Plus. It is expected to come up on 'Live With Kelly and Ryan' and 'The View.' Guests at Disney World will see it everywhere — on billboards, on parking lot trams, on the info-channel in more than 22,000 Disney-owned hotel rooms. Disney will also push out information about Disney Plus on almost all of the company's social media accounts..."
>> Key quote: "Think of Disney like a giant pinball machine, with content and initiatives pinging between divisions in an effort to drive up the ultimate score," marketing professor Gene Del Vecchio says...
| | What "SNL" got wrong this week
Dean Obeidallah, who worked for "SNL" way back when, was disappointed by Saturday's cold open: "First, 'SNL' slammed Trump supporters — painting them, collectively speaking, as complete buffoons. That depiction furthers the right's long-standing claim that the entertainment industry has contempt for conservatives. Second, 'SNL' positioned Trump as the responsible person, who was a voice of reason, trying to rein in his supporters' worst instincts. Nothing could be further from the truth." Here's his CNN.com op-ed...
Darrell Hammond returns
The cold open also featured alum Darrell Hammond reprising his President Bill Clinton impression as he stopped by a Trump rally... Video here... | |
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Chance the Rapper, Saturday's host and musical guest, "seemed to have infected the cast with an off-kilter, wholesome goofiness," Shirley Li writes... (The Atlantic)
-- "Elton John announced Saturday 'with the heaviest heart' that he would have to cancel a show scheduled for Saturday night in Indianapolis due to being 'extremely unwell...'" (Variety)
-- Dave Chappelle received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday... (CNN)
"Joker" back at No. 1
"It's a narrow race at the top of the box office, but based on estimates WB's Joker was able to return to the weekend #1 spot" in North America "after a brief respite last weekend as Disney's Maleficent: Mistress of Evil falls to second in its sophomore frame," Box Office Mojo's Brad Brevet reports. Details here...
However: "Mistress of Evil" "remained victorious at the international box office," Variety's Rebecca Rubin notes...
Why was "Gemini Man" a bust?
"Not even an Oscar-winning director and one of the world's most popular actors could save Gemini Man from getting bumped off at the box office," THR's Pamela McClintock reports. "Ang Lee's VFX-heavy film, starring Will Smith, faces losses of $75 million or more after opening to $20.5 million domestically over the Oct. 11-13 frame and finishing Sunday with an anemic worldwide total of $118.7 million, according to sources and box office analysts." She says the producers and distributors "knew they were in trouble in late September when reviews started pouring in and prerelease tracking stalled..."
'The Casagrandes' wants to show kids what a Latinx family really looks like
Nicole Chavez's latest for CNN is about "The Casagrandes," a new animated series by Nickelodeon, "one of the first cartoons in the US to focus on a Mexican-American family." Read all about it... | | Thanks for reading! Send me your feedback via email... Oliver Darcy will be in charge on Monday, and I'll be back on Tuesday...
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