| | | | | This is how bad it is: A Fox News correspondent who used to speak with Ailes regularly told me that Ailes was ordered not to communicate with any staffers. And two executives confirmed this. When I asked his attorney Susan Estrich for comment, she sent a statement that read in part, "Roger is committed to defending himself against the campaign that is being waged to destroy his reputation including the vigorous refutation of demonstrably false and incredible charges." Read more... | | An excerpt from Dylan Byers' must-read:
"Its core audience is old, white conservatives. It is accused of broadcasting an archaic, Mad Men-era view of the world that alienates women and minorities. Its future leaders know it needs to change, and yet time and again it retreats to the status quo. As Fox News looks to replace Roger Ailes... it faces the same predicament the Grand Old Party has been wrestling with for years: Does it move toward the center, abandon its most extreme voices and seek to broaden its appeal, or does it stick with the core supporters who are responsible for so much of its success?
"No party and no media entity wants to end up being to millennials what the Oldsmobile came to symbolize to Boomers about their parents generation," said political consultant Chris Lehane. And yet, as Jeff Greenfield observed, a dramatic shift "surely runs the risk of alienating the network's base." Read more... | | Bill Clinton's prospective "first gentleman" speech was seen by roughly 24.7 million viewers across 7 broadcast and cable channels, according to Nielsen. The same night of the RNC last week: 19.8 million viewers. Here's my full ratings write-up...
-- CNN was #1 for the second night... Averaging 5.9 million viewers in the 10pm hour...
-- "Way up" is the way CNN's press releases have described the ratings for each of the six days of convention coverage thus far...
-- Cable beating broadcast: The combined audience for 10pm coverage on CNN, Fox and MSNBC out-rated the combined audience for NBC, CBS and ABC. The same thing was true on Monday. This is a change from past Democratic conventions... | | "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens. That'll be next."
And with that, Donald Trump hijacked a news cycle.
John Huey opined on Twitter: "I think what sparked him was losing those Monday night Nielsens. Disgraceful!" He was far from the only Trump critic to suggest that Trump's headline-making comments were the result of ratings-related insecurities. Nate Silver: "I seriously wonder if Trump's going especially nuts because the DNC is getting better TV ratings than the RNC..." | | | Tomorrow's NY Daily News: "Lock HIM Up" | | | About this morning's papers... | | | Frank Pallotta writes: Clinton becoming the Democratic nominee was a historic moment last night, and a page one worthy story this morning, but some papers were missing a key component: a photo of Clinton herself. Papers like the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post ran headlines about Clinton's achievement, but accompanied them with instead a photo of Bill. The omission of Hillary stirred conversation on social media. Was it a matter of selecting the best photo, of deadlines, or, even sexism? Read more... | | | Clinton on Fox this weekend | | | Surprise: Hillary Clinton's first TV inteview is going to Chris Wallace for "Fox News Sunday." It'll be her "first appearance on the weekend show in nearly five years," Politico's Kelsey Sutton notes. "Wallace said Wednesday that it took him about 15 months to nail down the interview..." | | | Clinton press conference watch | | | Trump told NBC's Katy Tur to "be quiet" and accused her of wanting to "save" Clinton when she pressed him during today's press conference. Tur took it in stride, and tweeted afterward, "Trump did have one major valid point today. It has been 235 days (almost a year) since @HillaryClinton faced the press..." | | O'Reilly started talking about slavery...
Now he's talking about his critics | | Bill O'Reilly strangely fact-checked Michelle Obama last night by saying that the slaves who helped build the White House were "well fed and had decent lodgings provided." I almost feel like he was spoiling for a fight. Tonight, O'Reilly responded to his many critics by calling them "smear merchants" (a favorite phrase of the host, Brian Lowry notes) and accusing them of mischaracterizing his comments.
Per Lowry, he suggested that Fox News is under siege, that his "far left" critics "want me dead," and that Fox talent must band together to protect themselves from the forces being marshaled against the network and call them out by name. O'Reilly became most agitated during the discussion that followed his "Talking Points" with Geraldo Rivera and Eric Bolling. "We're going to have to call out the people who are actively trying to destroy this network by using lies, and deception, and propaganda," he said. "That's how bad it's become."
-- Question for O'Reilly: Who's "actively trying to destroy" Fox? His comments sound to me like a thinly-veiled response to perfectly appropriate coverage of Ailes' resignation... | | | Howard Stern, the probing interviewer | | Frank Pallotta emails: Longtime listeners of Howard Stern (like yours truly) know he's one of the best interviewers in the business. But it still comes as a surprise to non-listeners. This NYT story by David Segal (on the Arts & Leisure cover next Sunday) does a great job of explaining in detail how age and the move to satellite radio helped change Stern's interview style...
-- Standout Stern quote: "I couldn't have done the show I'm doing now 20 years ago. I've changed a lot. I'd be sort of pathetic if I'd reached this point in my life and I hadn't. How else do you have longevity? There are so many guys who started out with me in radio, who have disappeared, because they can't broaden their view of what entertainment should be, or get in touch with what they find to be exciting and fun and funny..." | | | "Facebook is unstoppable" | | | CNNMoney's headline tonight: "Facebook is unstoppable." Its quarterly earnings report wowed investors this afternoon. Mobile ads accounted for 84% of the company's $6.2 billion in ad revenue. Mark Zuckerberg's press release quote emphasized... You guessed it... Video: "We're particularly pleased with our progress in video as we move towards a world where video is at the heart of all our services." | | NBCU revenues are up, cable service cancellations are down at Comcast. WSJ: "Comcast lost 4,000 video customers in the seasonally weak second quarter... It was an improvement from the 69,000 subscribers lost in the year-ago period and its best second-quarter performance in a decade..."
-- Also of note: Execs say they have "no plans to roll out a streaming TV service nationwide outside of their cable footprint..." The economic model are "unproven to us," Brian Roberts said on the earnings call... | | | More from the WSJ: "Noting that the company made $120 million in profit from the 2012 London Olympics," Steve Burke said "we are going to make a lot more in Rio..." | | Via Brian Lowry and Sandra Gonzalez, some highlights from the TCA session with Ted Sarandos today:
-- Netflix budgeted $6 billion for production and acquisition this year. Next year, even more, but he wouldn't share the exact $$ figure...
-- "We're competing with Pokemon Go and Star Wars movies and 'Jurassic World.' We're competing for a lot of attention in a really noisy world, so to do that you have to take some big swings..."
-- Nielsen et al's efforts to measure Netflix viewing are inaccurate and irrelevant, he argued...
-- The performance of any individual title "has really no relevance on us..." | | | A parallel between Netflix and Trump! | | Brian Lowry elaborates via email:
While it might sound a bit flippant, there is a kind of interesting parallel between the Trump campaign saying that it won't release his tax returns and Netflix reiterating its commitment not to issue ratings data for its programs — a practice that prompts much of the traditional TV industry to fume. In both cases, the underlying assumption is that it's not in the party's interest to provide any further information, which only makes the press more skeptical that there's something damning hidden in there. Yet amid the face of repeated denials, there's also a tendency to move on. And since both Trump and Netflix are good for traffic, it's not like the media can stop covering either of them, even if the questions won't go away... | | The company has renewed "Chelsea," Maria Bamford's comedy "Lady Dynamite," and "Real Rob," a critically panned comedy starring Rob Schneider... And it announced premiere dates for other series, including:
"Black Mirror" (Oct. 21) (!!!!)
"Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" (Nov. 25)
"One Day at a Time" (Jan. 6) | | | $5 million so far for D'Souza's doc | | THR's Pamela McClintock reports: Dinesh D'Souza's anti-Hillary film "Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party" has "quickly become the top-grossing documentary of the year to date at the U.S. box office, amassing $5.2 million in its first dozen days." Comp: Michael Moore's "Where to Invade Next" made $3.8 million.
McClintock says the big Q is whether "Hillary's America" can match "2016 Obama's America," D'Souza's 2012 film, which made $33.4 million... His 2014 follow-up "America" made $14.4 million... | | | For the record, DNC edition | | | -- Don't miss this Joe and Mika Q&A with TVNewser's Chris Ariens... (TVNewser)
-- All about the robot that's been prowling the DNC floor for the WashPost... (MediaShift)
-- Via Lisa France: This is your "Fight Song" Hillary Clinton. "Pitch Perfect" star Elizabeth Banks got some of her celeb friends together to do an a cappella cover of the hit song in commemoration of Clinton's historic nomination... (CNN)
-- Scott Pelley talks about the difference between the skybox and the convention floor... (Variety)
-- And I saved the most important story for last: "Fusion Staffers Barred From Eating ABC News Snacks At DNC" (Gawker) | | 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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