| | | | | 260 days without a Clinton press conference | | Donald Trump's campaign and political reporters DO have something in common, both groups want Hillary Clinton to have a press conference.
Yes, it's logical -- from a political POV -- for Clinton to sit on her lead. "I mean, why would she give a press conference, from a purely strategic standpoint?" Tamara Keith, who covers the Clinton campaign for NPR, said on today's "Reliable Sources."
But it's equally logical for journalists to agitate for a presser. Or two or three! "The public would benefit from us being to ask more sustained questions on policy." As for the Trump campaign, it sent out a "Clinton in hiding" press release yesterday... | | Via press secretary Brian Fallon:
-- She does take questions from journalists... In 375 interviews "with all kinds of press" so far this year... Campaign interns recently counted up the # of total questions she has been asked, and it's "in the thousands..."
-- The recent NABJ/NAHJ event, where Clinton took Q's from reporters, was basically a press conference. (Some journos who were in attendance disagree...) | | | "Why not have a press conference?" | | | "Face the Nation" also covered this subject today. John Dickerson asked Robby Mook: "Why not have a press conference?" As the Free Beacon notes, Mook didn't answer directly... | | | Rudy tells viewers to Google "Hillary Clinton illness" | | A press conference would be an opportune forum for Clinton to rebut the conspiratorial claims about her health -- both through the words she says and how she says them.
These outrageous suggestions that she's covering up a "secret illness" continue to be promoted by Trump surrogates. It's not going away. This morning Rudy Giuliani told "Fox News Sunday" viewers to look up videos of Clinton on the Internet.
-- Stuart Stevens responds: "What's particularly regrettable about Mayor Giuliani pushing 'it's on internet' conspiracy is that this is mantra of 9-11 truthers..."
-- Keith's response when I asked her about these theories: Clinton campaigns so hard that "MY health is suffering..."
-- More tonight: "Poppy Harlow Grills Trump Supporter For Connecting Hillary's Health to NFL Concussions" | | Kurt Bardella and Ken Stern made for an excellent "A block" this morning, talking about the significance of Breitbart boss Steve Bannon taking over the Trump campaign. (Bannon is not doing any interviews right now, BTW. Wonder who will snag his first sit-down?)
The ever-quotable Bardella called the site "the de facto super PAC" for Trump and the "rapid response arm of the Trump campaign." He said "they make FOX News look like MSNBC." You can watch the full segment here. Bardella and I will be on "New Day" Monday around 8:30am... | | | A few more highlights from today's show | | "We have to begin dealing with consumers on a one-to-one level. It's the next evolution of the business."
--New Viacom interim CEO Tom Dooley quoted in Monday's WSJ. Scroll down for more Viacomdrama... | | | Monday is Gawker.com's last day | | Margaret Sullivan says Gawker Media's sites "seem to be in good hands" with Univision. She interviewed Isaac Lee for her Monday column, which coincides with Gawker.com's last day of operation.
Key graf: "As for the rest of the Gawker sites, many of which share the edgy tone of Gawker.com, Lee told me he has no intention of making them bland. 'I do expect them to keep their voice and their authenticity,' he said. But, he said, all will be held to standards shared by Univision properties generally. It seems highly unlikely that the airing of a sex tape would clear the bar..." | | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday: "Today" show cast is back in NYC after two weeks in Rio
-- Monday: Univision co-owner Haim Saban holding a fund-raiser for Clinton...
-- Tuesday: The Washington Post's Trump biography comes out
-- Thursday: Britney Spears has her "Carpool Karaoke" turn...
-- Sunday: 9pm: MTV's VMAs are live from MSG | | -- Liz Spayd's best public editor column yet? She has an important critique of the NYT's Facebook Live strategy... (NYT)
-- I can't think of a better reason to leave a network. Weekend co-host Anna Kooiman is leaving because her family is moving to Australia... Her husband got a new job in Sydney... (Deadline)
-- How Joy Reid ended an interview on Saturday: "You're not going to come on my show and make things up..." (Crooks & Liars)
-- Don Banks is leaving SI in two weeks; he says "I'm a bit of a salary cap cut..." (Twitter)
-- The Wrap has a detailed look at the Buzzfeed v. CNN fight. Try to look past the photo illustration of Ben Smith and Jeff Zucker in a boxing ring... (The Wrap) | | | Nate Silver's reality check about the polls | | This weekend some Trump aides, along with The Drudge Report, promoted the LAT/USC tracking poll that shows Trump in a much stronger position than most other national polls. However, there are several reasons why CNN and other major news outlets don't typically cite the LAT poll, including the way the questions are worded.
With Drudge touting this "shock poll," I talked with Nate Silver about the science of polling on this morning's "Reliable." He believes "the race has tightened by a point or two... But there's a lot of work the Trump campaign still has to do." In the meantime, he says, voters and journalists should rely on polling averages rather than cherry-picking individual poll results. Watch our back-and-forth here...
-- Matthew Dowd tweets: "Before the conventions Trump was behind on avg. 4 points; today after conventions & all the back & forth Trump is down 5 points. Steady race..." | | What exactly is Roger Ailes' role with Trump's run for president? "He obviously has no formal or informal role with the campaign, but Mr. Trump speaks to many different people," Kellyanne Conway told Dana Bash this morning.
By saying Ailes has no role with the campaign, Conway was threading a needle. Ailes is giving advice to Trump directly, but not giving advice to the campaign per se. Here's my full story about it...
-- An example of Ailes' involvement: NYT reported on Saturday that Ailes "reviewed some of the initial TV commercials [Paul] Manafort had overseen and told Mr. Trump in blunt terms that they were lackluster." I would've loved to hear THAT conversation... | | Trump's latest finance report shows a $20,000 payment to Corey Lewandowski's consulting firm on July 6 -- two weeks after his firing from the campaign. This Saturday night disclosure stirred a new round of questions about the appropriateness of his CNN commentator role. TPM's Josh Marshall's question to CNN: "Did you know Lewandowski remained on Trump campaign payroll while providing commentary for CNN?"
The answer, according to CNN PR, is that CNN knows he's still receiving severance. This has been disclosed on the air since July. A spokeswoman told me tonight that the July 6 payment "is part of his severance..." | | | Spicer working part-time from Trump HQ | | | The GOP's DC-based top communicator and chief strategist Sean Spicer will "spend more time" with the Trump operation in NYC, Conway said on ABC this morning... | | | "The dates are the dates" | | Try to say this three times fast! "The dates are the dates, the debates are the debates." That was Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook's message for the Trump campaign on ABC's "This Week." The Clinton campaign is keeping the pressure on Trump to commit to this fall's three debates. "Let's just get on with it. Nobody's ever argued over the rules," Mook said...
-- BTW: Last night Jeanine Pirro asked Trump who's going to play Clinton in debate prep, and he said he hasn't "given it too much thought" yet... | | | Jackie Wattles reports: "George Curry, a journalist and columnist known for being a powerful voice on issues confronting black Americans, died on Saturday. He was 69. For decades, Curry had written columns that appeared in papers across the country. He was also the founding editor of the award-winning Emerge magazine." Read more... | | | Lowest-rated Olympic night yet | | NBC isn't exactly racing across the finish line in Rio. The Olympics ratings have been particularly weak in the final few days of competition... Saturday was the lowest-rated night of the games yet... And NBC's #'s are underperforming the 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012 games in the 18- to 49-year-old demo. Here's my full story...
-- Data point: NBC had a 3.5 rating in the 18-to-49 demo on Saturday, far lower than the 6.2 rating the same night of the London games had in 2012...
-- Big picture Q: How will NBC's long-term investment in the Olympics be re-evaluated in light of this summer's ratings? Remember, it bought the rights through 2032... At a cost of $7.65 billion... | | | The closing ceremonies are tonight. Paul Farhi tweets: "Sad to see the #Olympics2016 closing. Nice respite from the political deluge that will follow from now until November..." | | | Lochte tapes 2 interviews for 2 different audiences | | Two must reads if you've been following the Ryan Lochte saga: SI's Richard Deitsch details how "the world found out about Lochte's story...by a fluke."
And the NYT's Richard Sandomir notes that NBC News didn't display much skepticism about the robbery claims.
When it came time for Lochte's apology tour this weekend, his PR reps -- led by Matthew Hiltzik -- did something unusual: They set up two interviews, back to back, one in English for NBC in the U.S. and one that was translated into Portugese for Globo in Brazil. I wrote about the P.R. technique here... | | The Viacom board voted to approve the Redstone-Dauman settlement deal on Thursday, but it was not publicly announced until Saturday night. Philippe Dauman "will resign immediately," the press release said. Viacom COO Tom Dooley is now CEO, but only til September 30. After that point, the newly expanded Viacom board -- with five new members selected by the Redstones -- "will make a decision on succession plans..."
-- Look who's quoted in Joe Flint's story: New board member Ken Lerer. And look what he's quoted saying: Dooley is "a terrifically talented executive. He'll take out any uncertainty that exists..." | | Here's what stood out to me: Sumner Redstone was not quoted in the announcement. Shari Redstone has taken the lead on public statements and positioning. When I inquired about this, Sumner's reps said that he is happy with the settlement's outcome. He "approved the release," external National Amusements spox Sara Evans said. But the reality is that we just have no way to verify this.
An external spokesman for Sumner, Mike Lawrence, said that "Sumner fully supports the settlement terms, which honor the changes he made to the trustees of his trust and to the boards of National Amusements and Viacom." I asked how he knows this. Lawrence's answer: "His legal counsel told me. And they are communicating with Sumner daily." | | Variety's Brent Lang reports: "'Ben-Hur' derailed spectacularly at the multiplexes this weekend, as the latest attempt to revive the chariot racing epic opened to an anemic $11.4 million. That's a disastrous result for the $100 million production, putting 'Ben-Hur' in the ranks of the summer's biggest flops. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount co-produced the remake..."
-- Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock tells Lang: "This is the bomb of the summer..." | | | 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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