| | | | | There's lots of political media news to tell you about tonight, but let's begin with a scoop about the 11pm hour... | | | MSNBC eyeing 11 p.m. time slot for Brian Williams | | Exclusive: Brian Williams is expected to get his own time slot on MSNBC between Labor Day and Election Day, according to sources with knowledge of the plan.
According to the plan, Williams will anchor a special 11pm program wrapping up the day's campaign news. One of the sources said it will be a half hour show, with MSNBC's usual replays of prime time programming picking up at 11:30pm.
Of course, all of this is subject to change until the scheduling move is officially announced. But it sounds like a done deal. An MSNBC spokesman declined to comment. I just published this story all about it... | | A nightly time slot for Williams will be a significant milestone. He became MSNBC's breaking news anchor last September after a six month suspension from "NBC Nightly News." By giving this 11pm show a two-month time span, signaling that it will end after Nov. 8, MSNBC is giving him a predictable time slot for the first time while limiting the potential downsides...
-- Prime time ratings race: MSNBC and CNN have been locked in a night-to-night 25-54 battle... Details in my story here... | | Frank Pallotta emails: The last episode of "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" will air this Thursday. Comedy Central cancelled the show this morning -- just 12 weeks until Election Day -- citing relatively low ratings and a lack of social media buzz. ("Nightly" drew 695,000 viewers on average, which is less than Fox, CNN and MSNBC in the 11pm hour.)
Wilmore's contract was up, so the channel had to make a decision. In a statement today, he said he was saddened and surprised that his show "won't be covering this crazy election or 'The Unblackening' as we've coined it."
"And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn't counted on 'The Unblackening' happening to my time slot as well," he added... | | | "A show that gave a voice to minorities" | | | E.P. Rory Albanese wrote on Instagram: "As sad as this news is, I must say that I've never been more proud to be a part of a television show... We made a very special show together, a show that gave a voice to minorities in late night and I'm very sad to see it go. I hope other networks will give people of color a chance to be heard. We need more diversity in all of our media and to me this cancellation is a setback in that regard..." | | | Comedy Central's mismanagement | | Brian Lowry emails a footnote on the Wilmore cancellation:
It's another reminder on how much Comedy Central mismanaged its late-night lineup. Stephen Colbert's exit for CBS was understandable, and probably unavoidable. Ditto for Jon Stewart's decision to hang up his spurs. But look around at the "Daily Show" talent that the network had in its stable -- alums John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones -- currently doing topflight work on other networks. Nor should it really have been a surprise that when ratings dropped for "The Daily Show" with Stewart's departure, that would depress tune-in the program that followed it. Wilmore is a talented, funny guy, and it wasn't a bad bet putting him at 11:30, although the show struggled with its format and never really figured out its panel/interview approach.
Still, it's TV, best-laid plans go awry all the time. But the situation looks a whole lot worse when you consider the ones that got away... | | | By the end of this week, Nick Denton will no longer be the owner of Gawker Media, the company he founded 14 years ago. Bids for Gawker were due at 5pm Monday... and a court-supervised auction will take place on Tuesday... Tom Kludt has a briefing here... | | Tom emails: Univision might be regarded as the favorite to win the Gawker auction, but a senior source there tells me the Spanish language giant is "not willing to pay a crazy price." So, what would constitute a "crazy price?" The source, who is familiar with Univision's bid, replied wryly: "$200 million."
I couldn't get much more than that, but suffice to say: $200 million would be crazy. As Peter Kafka wrote this morning, "Denton would have argued that Gawker Media was worth at least $250 million" before Hulk Hogan scored an astronomical judgment from a Florida jury. "If he can get half of that tomorrow," Kafka wrote of Denton, "he would be happy..." | | This afternoon Gawker's tormentor, Peter Thiel, weighed in via a New York Times op-ed. Key quotes:
-- "A free press is vital for public debate. Since sensitive information can sometimes be publicly relevant, exercising judgment is always part of the journalist's profession. It's not for me to draw the line, but journalists should condemn those who willfully cross it."
-- "It is ridiculous to claim that journalism requires indiscriminate access to private people's sex lives."
-- About Hulk Hogan's lawsuit: "I will support him until his final victory — Gawker said it intends to appeal — and I would gladly support someone else in the same position."
Sara Ashley O'Brien has the highlights here...
-- Oliver Burkeman tweets that the "very existence of this op-ed shows Thiel's worried he overreached & needs to justify himself – ironically, that's good..." | | -- ESPN college football analyst Rod Gilmore says he has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer... (ESPN)
-- "Execs at Fox Searchlight are scrambling to deal with the aftermath of a series of interviews last week in which the star and director of 'The Birth of a Nation,' Nate Parker, addressed a rape trial from his past..." (Variety)
-- "The WSJ is changing up its paywall, offering guest passes and expanded link-sharing on social," Shan Wang reports... (NiemanLab)
-- Michael Grynbaum profiles new Fox News co-prez Bill Shine, who declined to be interviewed for the story... (NYT)
-- Adding to the Wolfpack: Wolf Blitzer is now a grandfather! His daughter Ilana gave birth to Ruben Daniel Snider on Friday. Best wishes to the whole family. | | This afternoon Donald Trump said he doubts Hillary Clinton's "mental and physical stamina." Clearly he's been reading The Drudge Report and watching Sean Hannity's show. Conservative media circles have been abuzz about Clinton health conspiracy theories -- with scant evidence to support any of it. I challenged Hannity on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." Watch here...
-- Related: Kurt Eichenwald's column about Hannity is a must read: "Apologize To Those With Epilepsy, or Burn in Hell"
-- Mediaite's Josh Feldman tweets about tonight's show: Hannity "is simultaneously going 'Never Trump people will be to blame' and 'Trump really needs to focus.' He's so in denial." | | | "We now have TWO opponents" | | Trump's anti-media rhetoric continued today. The campaign's latest fund-raising letter, released this morning, was titled "We now have TWO opponents."
"We cannot let the media get away with it. We MUST fight back," the letter told supporters. It linked to the "Mainstream Media Accountability Survey" we mentioned last week. "Once completed, the survey directs supporters to a campaign donation page," Dylan Byers notes here... | | Legendary First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams to Ashleigh Banfield on CNN's "Legal View:"
"He should be especially, especially protective of the First Amendment. He could be in jail in Europe for some of the things he's said about Muslims..."
Abrams also said: "The very notion that the press can't say what it wants or what it thinks is right about a candidate for president is at war with the First Amendment..." | | Remember this quote the next time Bill O'Reilly is furious about a politician dodging his interview requests: He says he has no problem with Trump's "blacklist" of news outlets like the WashPost and BuzzFeed.
"If somebody is really being dishonest, I'd strip them too," he said on tonight's "Factor..." | | | Debate commission shares criteria details | | Attention, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein: Today the Commission on Presidential Debates revealed exactly how it will determine who gets to be on stage this fall. The 15% threshold will be applied using these five polls: ABC-Washington Post; CBS-New York Times; CNN-Opinion Research Corporation; Fox News; and NBC-Wall Street Journal. The polls were chosen with "the professional advice" of Gallup EIC Frank Newport, the commission said. Here's my full story...
-- Noted: The criteria "will be applied in mid-September," the commission said, not naming an exact date...
-- What if Johnson has, say, 14.6% support? No comment from the commission about whether it will "round up..."
-- Bill Scher tweets: "Johnson was not quite cracking 15% in 3-way polls (Fox has 12%, CBS 10%). But the inclusion of Stein makes his job harder..." | | CNN polling director Jennifer Agiesta added up the results of the most recent ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC polls to assess where the four candidates stand today with the commission's criteria in mind. The results cover a period from July 29 to August 4. Clinton has 44% support, Trump has 36%, Johnson has 10%, and Stein has 5%.
-- Noted: The most recent CBS and Fox polls did not include Stein. A Fox spokeswoman told me hat Stein would be included in its polling going forward... | | | "It's time to fact-check ALL the news" | | Via Poynter, an excellent essay by PolitiFact founder Bill Adair:
"All news organizations should call out falsehoods in everyday coverage of speeches, campaign commercials and political debates. Noting the accuracy of a political claim should be as standard as including someone's hometown or party affiliation. Editors and news directors have traditionally taken a cautious approach when covering political news and left the verification to the fact-checkers." He says that has to change... | | | "What am I supposed to say? I don't think we're the lowest form of humanity." | | | --AP reporter Jill Colvin, reacting to Donald Trump's depiction of journalists as the "lowest form of humanity," on Sunday's "Reliable Sources." Watch her describe what it's like inside the "press pen" here... | | Anthony Crupi has some intel on what advertisers were promised for Rio:
"Even when digital & cable deliveries are blended w/ NBC's primetime broadcast ratings, Olympics are still under-delivering by 9% or 1.6 pts… Through the 1st 10 nights of Rio, NBC has hit its ratings guarantee 3 times (Mon 18.1, Tues 20.5; Thurs 18.9). Topped London once, by 0.1 pt."
NBC execs addressed questions about make-goods last week...
-- More: "Fewer people are watching sports this summer." An interesting take by Ty Duffy at The Big Lead...
-- At The Information: "Proving millennials can't be satisfied, Sam Lessin argues in favor of edited, highly produced #Olympics coverage..." | | | Sharri Berg promoted at Fox | | The post-Ailes restructuring continues: Longtime Fox News exec Sharri Berg is now adding COO responsibilities for news and operations at the Fox Television Stations group. This means she'll oversee "initiatives and talent development for news programs" on Fox's local stations, according to a press release. She'll remain in charge of operations at Fox News...
-- A Fox News insider emails: "Sharri has been at Fox for a long time and everyone respects her. Rupert has come in fast... and moved people up that Roger did not [promote] for years and years and years..." | | | Watch/read/listen to Sunday's show | | | 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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