| | | | | Clinton calls out Breitbart, Enquirer, Alex Jones | | Dylan Byers and I agree: "Reno" will soon be shorthand for the speech Hillary Clinton gave in Reno, NV today. Dylan emails:
Seeking to forever tie Donald Trump to the "alt-right" and its media icons, Clinton today delivered a stemwinding indictment of Trump and his embrace of extreme conservative media, rhetoric and conspiracy theories. The speech used Trump's connections to outlets like Breitbart, InfoWars and the National Enquirer to portray him as a dangerous man living in a "paranoid fever dream."
"This is what happens when you treat the National Enquirer like Gospel," Clinton said of Trump's promotion of various conspiracy theories. "It's what happens when you listen to the radio host Alex Jones..."
Clinton reserved her most damning critique for Steve Bannon, the Breitbart News chairman turned Trump campaign CEO. At one point, she simply listed off a number of Breitbart headlines that championed the Confederate flag, criticized women and feminism, and referred to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the victim of a mass shooting, as a "human shield."
Clinton described the "de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign" as a "landmark achievement for the alt right." Read more from Dylan here... | | | How they're responding... | | Jones said on his afternoon program that Clinton was peddling "lies and twisted disinformation." After reiterating some conspiracy theories, Jones said, "we're covering real things, and she wants to illustrate this and act like none of its happening..."
Meantime, Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos responded to the speech this way: "Hillary is using the same old failed leftist tactics of name-calling, vague allegations and guilt-by-association, but hoping for a different result this time..."
I interpreted this tweet from Breitbart WH correspondent Charlie Spiering as celebratory: "In the 90's Hillary Clinton's biggest enemy was Rush Limbaugh. In 2016 it's @BreitbartNews..." | | | WDBJ shooting, one year later | | On Friday morning, at 6:43am, WDBJ will mark the one year anniversary of Alison Parker and Adam Ward's deaths with a moment of silence on the air. There will be off-air tributes at the station as well.
The televised ambush represented the first deaths of journalists on assignment in the U.S. in almost a decade. WDBJ is a changed newsroom, as I tried to explain in this story, which we just published.
The station is under new management... The news director and general manager who steered the newsroom through the crisis now have new jobs... There is increasing pressure to produce "one man band" reports... And some staffers are eyeing the exit...
-- Related: From last year: My in-depth look at "the day that changed WDBJ..." | | | Celebrating Alison Parker's life | | Parker's boyfriend Chris Hurst remains at the anchor desk. He anchors the 6 and 11 p.m. news. But this week he is off work because he and some of Parker's family members and close friends are on a week-long rafting and hiking trip in North Carolina. "This is where she came every year for her birthday," Hurst told me by phone today. Now the trip is becoming a new tradition. Read more...
-- More: Hurst said broadcasters have a duty to "ensure the safety of their staffs out in the field..."
-- Ward's fiancé Melissa Ott continues to decline interview requests. She is working at a station in Charlotte, NC now... | | | Ed Henry returning to Fox | | Joe Concha had the scoop this afternoon: Ed Henry will be back on the air next week after a four-month break following affair revelations.
The network confirmed to CNNMoney that the former WH correspondent will have a new title, chief national correspondent, clearly a less prestigious role. Read more from Jackie Wattles here... | | | A sneak peek at Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | The lineup is still coming together, but I'll be joined by AP exec editor Kathleen Carroll, MTV's Jamil Smith, and Romney campaign boss Stuart Stevens, among others... | | | "There's not a different message. He's using different words to give the message, because everyone on the news is saying that he's a bigot and that he's a racist because of the words he uses."
--Trump national spokeswoman Katrina Pierson on CNN this morning, addressing Trump's changing positions on immigration...
| | | What will Conde Nast cut? | | "With September fashion issues closed, nerves are jangled that a significant cut could be in the offing at Condé Nast that would further consolidate the media giant's corporate structure, notably its publishing side," Alexandra Steigrad reported this morning.
"Insiders told WWD that management is toying with the idea of either grouping publishers by category or reducing its roster of 13 or so publishers down to about six." Conde's rivals have made similar moves. "Sources targeted October as a time when the cut could come, while others mused that it may come sooner, around Labor Day... Although there is much speculation on how Condé may reduce costs, there isn't much argument that it will happen..." | | | Dr. Drew's HLN show is ending | | | It's a wrap for Dr. Drew Pinsky's show on HLN, Lisa France reports. "Dr. Drew and I have mutually agreed to air the final episode of his show on September 22," the channel's boss Ken Jautz said in an internal memo today. "Dr. Drew and his team have delivered more than five years of creative shows and I want to thank them for their hard work and distinctive programming." Pinsky says "I am very excited to stay within the CNN Worldwide family as a contributor..." | | | For the time being, HLN says it will schedule reruns of "Forensic Files" and episodes of CNN original series in the 7pm ET time slot... Remember, 8pm host Nancy Grace signs off in October and Ashleigh Banfield takes her place... | | | You have to experience VR to believe it. Here's POTUS trying it out, via a photo from the WH's Instagram page, posted earlier today. It's a promo for this National Geographic VR feature all about the president's recent trip to Yosemite, all of it meant to mark the 100 year anniversary of the National Park Service... | | | Via NBC's Bradd Jaffy: "Clinton has been running for president (2nd time around) for 501 days. Trump's been running for 436 days. This campaign is endless..." | | | Things that make you go "hmm" | | | Dylan Byers emails: Speaking of the alt-right media, neither Breitbart nor Drudge Report covered Trump's so-called "pivot" on immigration today. Never mind that both have made immigration a central issue in their coverage for years, and celebrated Trump's original hardline stance. The irony was not lost on journalists and political observers: "I'm old enough to remember when certain conservative outlets would go into a frenzy over GOP'ers wanting 'amnesty' for illegal immigrants," wrote Oliver Darcy, the BI politics editor who previously worked at Glenn Beck's The Blaze... | | NYT's Maggie Haberman tweets: "Clinton is setting risky precedent w no press conferences for 260+ days and giving Trump, who bans news outlets, a talking point..."
-- Related video: On CNN this morning, Dana Bash called the lack of pressers "crazy" and "just wrong..."
-- Clinton will be on "Morning Joe" Friday AM... MSNBC says it's an exclusive... | | | "He trades in racism, doesn't he?" | | | Right after Clinton's anti-alt-right speech ended, Fox's Shep Smith brought in WSJ investigative reporter James Grimaldi for some post-game analysis. When Grimaldi said Trump trades in "hyperbole," Smith interjected, "He trades in racism, doesn't he?" Kudos to Smith for saying what some viewers at home were wondering... | | Brian Lowry emails: People pass on questions during interviews with reporters all the time. But it's a very different thing to do that during a live conversation on TV. So hats off to Grimaldi for essentially saying that he wasn't comfortable responding.
As Grimaldi noted (after a bit of hemming and hawing), that calls for an opinion that he shouldn't be delivering. And it's a good reminder that just because journalists have agreed to appear on live TV or radio doesn't obligate them to answer every question thrown at them... | | | Wednesday's 9pm hour had Clinton with Cooper on CNN, Kellyanne Conway with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, and Julian Assange with Megyn Kelly on Fox. So how'd the three shows perform? Kelly was unsurprisingly #1 in the 25-54 demo, Cooper was #2 and Maddow was #3. TVNewser has the quarter-hour #'s, which show that Maddow/Conway was ahead of CNN for much of the hour. Once the Conway interview ended, and Cooper/Clinton began, the ratings momentum shifted in CNN's favor... | | | Weisman does not miss Twitter | | On Katie Couric's latest podcast, the NYT's Jonathan Weisman talks about his well-publicized decision to quit Twitter due to pervasive harassment. "I've been expecting to hear from someone (from Twitter) but I haven't. They've really been remarkably quiescent," Weisman told her...
-- More: "Part of the solution is to not care so much about social media; since writing off Twitter, I've spent a lot more time reading whole articles… I actually feel it's been good to pull back from that world..." | | +100 to Meg James' lede: "For Thomas Dooley, securing the job as CEO of Viacom might be the easy part. Fixing the struggling media company will take more work." More: "Company insiders privately say that" Philippe Dauman and Dooley "were not in lock-step. The 59-year-old Brooklyn native is considered more approachable and hands-on than Dauman..." And "many expect Dooley to make changes, including possibly retooling Viacom's television networks group..." | | | One more week til "Narcos" returns; here come the reviews | | Brian Lowry emails: "Narcos" doesn't return to Netflix until Sept. 2, but with the company having made all 10 episodes of the second season available for review, the bottom line is this: It's every bit as addictive as the first time around. (Having the new season land when it does also reinforces the minor crime committed in overlooking star Wagner Moura in the Emmy nominations, albeit in a very competitive lead actor field.) Read Brian's full review here... And look forward to a Labor Day weekend binge... | | | Tika Sumpter talks about portraying Michelle Obama | | "Southside With You" comes out on Friday. Chloe Melas emails:
I spoke with Tika Sumpter last night at the NY premiere, and she told me how she prepared for the role. "I read a bunch of books that had personal accounts of people who knew her," Sumpter said. "And also her brother's book, 'Game of Character,' it really informed me about who she was during that time and what she was about."
Sumpter is also a producer on the film. One of the most difficult things was getting FLOTUS's speech pattern down. "I had a dialect coach ... [Michelle] is very on top of her words. She enunciates everything. She means every word. She stares at people in the face and she means what she means and she talks with passion..." | | -- Sarah Paulson is in talks to join the cast of "Oceans Eight..." (Variety)
-- Yesterday Madonna surprised 400 fans who were attending the 25th anniversary screening of her 1991 documentary, "Madonna: Truth or Dare..." (CNN)
-- Via Chloe Melas: Usher hopes the new movie "Hands of Stone" will lead to more films featuring African Americans... (CNN)
-- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has topped Forbes' list of male moneymaking actors with a cool $64.5 million... (CNN)
-- By Lisa France: It's been 15 years since Aaliyah died tragically in a plane crash at the age of 22. Her stylist Derek Lee was supposed to be on that plane... Read his reflections here... | | | 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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