| | | | Margaret Sullivan has landed the first interview with Gretchen Carlson since Roger Ailes resigned this time last week. How did she feel when he stepped down? "At first, satisfaction — or no, I think validation..." Then anger because "it look so long..."
-- About Megyn Kelly reportedly telling investigators of being harassed by Ailes ten years ago: "I appreciated that she told the truth, and I know it was risky."
-- About the Fox hosts who defended Ailes after she sued: "Some of them were lawyers. They should have known better, so I was surprised. It was like, 'Wow, you have no idea what you're talking about. But I was at Fox a long time. I know how it works. You could sense that it all was orchestrated."
BTW, Sullivan will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | | Greta Van Susteren blogs... | | | Most of those aforementioned hosts have not spoken publicly about Ailes' exit. But today Greta Van Susteren spoke out, writing, "I did not defend Roger Ailes nor did I condemn him. I just stated what I knew or did not know," which is that Van Susteren had never been harassed by him... | | | Dylan Byers' exclusive report: Ailes called Media Matters founder David Brock a "faggot" in a meeting with Politico's Fred Ryan several years ago. Ailes "regularly makes coarse and derogatory statements about women, homosexuals, Jews and racial minorities, several sources who have met with him" told Byers, noting that "many believe Ailes' derogatory language played a role in his departure from NBC in 1996." Michael Wolff told Byers that Ailes is "the Toscanini of inappropriateness..." | | | Gingrich returning to Fox | | | Well that was quick. Joe Concha's scoop: "Newt Gingrich will be returning to Fox News as a contributor." He'll become exclusive to Fox again on August 1, three weeks after splitting with Fox amid VP speculation... | | | Sometimes a party is just a party | | Megyn Kelly and Fox colleague Dana Perino spent Wednesday night at the CNN Grill, thanks to an invite from Don Lemon. Kelly hadn't been spotted outside Fox's skybox and compound all week. And, as the NYT reported this morning, things continue to be very tense between Kelly and some of her Fox colleagues.
So her presence at the party "caught even the most jaded journalists off-guard," NYT's Michael Grynbaum wrote tonight. "The conspicuous sight of Ms. Kelly hobnobbing with CNN honchos like Anderson Cooper and Jeff Zucker, the network's president, seemed calculated to set a certain class of tongues wagging..." | | | Trump tells supporters: Don't watch tonight! | | Do you think these two facts are related?
1. About 24.4 million viewers watched last night's DNC coverage... A million more than last Wednesday's RNC coverage. This is the third win in a row for the Democrats.
2. Trump campaign is exhorting supporters not to watch Clinton's speech tonight.
That's right -- This morning, Trump's campaign sent a fund-raising email that said, "Unless you want to be lied to, belittled, and attacked for your beliefs, don't watch Hillary's DNC speech." A sign of some ratings-related anxiety? I wrote about it here... | | | Can you imagine Clinton's campaign imploring supporters not to watch Trump's acceptance speech? | | | CNN remains in first place; MSNBC in second | | | Wednesday, for the third night in a row, CNN was #1 overall, with 6.17 million viewers between 10 and 11:45 p.m. MSNBC was #2 with 4.92 million. NBC was #3 with 4.17 million. Fox News was far behind with 2.39 million... Which has been true at past DNCs as well... | | On this afternoon's CBS earnings call, Les Moonves said that CBSN "reached a new record high" of 7.6 million streams last week during the RNC. The # sounds impressive at first glance -- Politico highlighted it this morning -- but what does it really mean? I would argue... Not much. Since CBSN emphasizes live streaming, I asked CBS for TV-style peak concurrent stream #'s... To see where CBSN is topping out... But the network isn't sharing the data. Nor is it sharing #'s for the RNC/DNC integration with Twitter.
-- Related: USA Today: CBS' Q2 earnings rise on higher licensing, distribution revenues | | | Check back later tonight... | | | For Brian Lowry's assessment of how Clinton's speech played on TV... | | | The CNN staff after-party, wrapping up two weeks of convention work, promises to be very entertaining later tonight... Alas, I have to head home for Friday's "New Day..." | | The NYT says it's seeing an ad market "turnaround" this month. But the second quarter was ugly. Total revenues for Q2 "declined around 3 percent to $372.6 million, missing analysts' estimates. The decline was mostly driven by a nearly 12% drop in total advertising revenues," Kelsey Sutton reports.
Print ad $$s were down 14% while digital ad $$s were down 7%. This is the second straight quarter of digital declines. Circulation $$s were up 3% "due to an increase in home-delivery prices that 'more than offset a decline in print copies sold.'" Read more... | | | Online protest against IBT Media | | | "Fired IBT Media workers are rallying against the company, saying recent layoffs came without notice and many fired employees received no severance," Jackie Wattles and Tom Kludt report. Read all about the protest here... | | | Sunday on "Reliable Sources:" Julian Assange | | | We have a must-see hour of TV in the works for Sunday morning... Check back tomorrow for the full lineup... But I can tell you that one of our newsmakers will be Julian Assange... | | -- Jason Lynch tweets: "Moonves won't comment about CBS possibly recombining with Viacom. 'We feel very complete …We have everything that we want.'" (Twitter)
-- "Philippe Dauman scored an early victory with a Massachusetts judge scheduling a trial for October to determine whether Sumner Redstone wrongfully ousted Dauman from a trust that will control the company..." (Bloomberg)
-- Spotted visiting News Corp. HQ today: Nick Denton... (Twitter)
-- I missed this Michael Calderone story earlier in the week: "Clinton's Campaign Is Trying A Lot Harder With Hispanic Media Than Trump's Is" (HuffPost)
-- HBO has ordered a third "Ballers" season... (Deadline) | | | Steve Burke extends contract with NBCU | | | Variety's Brent Lang writes: "Steve Burke has extended his contract and will remain in place as NBCUniversal CEO for another four years, according to regulatory filings." His prior deal was set to expire in 2018. The new one "takes Burke through August of 2020..." | | | Why an Apple television bundle hasn't happened yet | | This is a must-read in the WSJ -- worth sneaking around the pay wall for -- all about Apple's attempts to launch a cable-like bundle of TV channels. "Some of the same tactics previously used by Apple to such success have hurt its efforts to revolutionize the TV-watching experience, raising pointed questions about how it can revive its growth," they write...
-- Key quote: Apple's Eddy Cue "has said the TV industry overly complicated talks. 'Time is on my side,' he has told some media executives..." | | | Eisner's advice for Disney's board | | | Who should succeed Bob Iger at Disney? Iger's predecessor Michael Eisner says he's a fan of Tom Staggs, but now that Staggs is out, Eisner offers, "It would be better if they found it from inside — it's always better from inside; the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know — but they may not." More in THR here... | | By Lisa France:
-- This story is brought to you by the letter "F" -- for "fired." One of the veteran actors of "Sesame Street" says he and two others have gotten the boot as the series transitions to HBO. The long-running show says the trio are "a beloved part of the Sesame family and continue to represent us at public events." We want to know what Big Bird thinks of all of this...
-- Keshia Knight Pulliam was a fan favorite as Rudy on "The Cosby Show," but now she is all grown up, pregnant and embroiled in a messy marital split...
-- From a series about hip hop brought to us by the director of "Moulin Rouge!" to a Trump satire, here's some of what will be streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu in August... | | Let us know what you think... | | | What do you like about today's newsletter -- and what do you think we should improve? Email your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We'll be back tomorrow... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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