| | | | | Turning an anti-media campaign into a media brand | | "The media rigged the election against us. That's why we need our own channel, our own web site, our own megaphone."
That would be the obvious pitch for TRUMP TV if Donald Trump loses the election in November.
It's a tantalizing idea. But it could be even harder to pull off than a presidential campaign. Here's my weekend read all about it, considering the pros and the cons... | | | "Trump has all the necessary ingredients" | | Trump could bypass cable and go the Netflix route. But Sarah Palin might be a cautionary tale -- her streaming service only lasted a year.
Nevertheless, former CNN prez Jonathan Klein, the CEO of Tapp, which powered Palin's web channel, told me he believes Trump would be "hugely successful" launching something similar. Here's why: "Trump has all of the necessary ingredients. He's got something to say; he enjoys saying it and repeating it; he lives an authentic social media life, he's a natural born tweeter; and he seems to have a very tribal audience."
Klein, a former president of CNN, pointed out that Trump's supporters will want "a way to stay in touch with him, his message and each other. He can provide the vehicle to do that... He could be up and running in a matter of weeks" after the election "if he starts thinking about this now." Read more... | | | Tom Dooley tells staff he's the CEO now | | The Viacom settlement is STILL being lawyered... As of 7pm, there was still no official announcement from the company... But Tom Dooley did send a note to staffers this afternoon confirming what sources told us last night, that he's becoming the interim president and CEO. He's going to have an intense six weeks. His interim status ends on Sept. 30, "by which time the board, working with me, will make a decision on succession plans," his memo says...
-- More: Philippe Dauman will leave the board effective Sept. 13... | | | Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw tweets: "Family ties prevailed. Sumner and his once-estranged daughter battled 3 old friends + business partners. Though Sumner is still owner, Shari was running the show. Many sources describe the board appointees as HER appointees." | | | Sunday's "Reliable Sources" lineup | | We're still tinkering with Sunday's guest list, but here's an early look:
-- FiveThirtyEight EIC Nate Silver
-- Tamara Keith, who covers the Clinton campaign for NPR
-- Ken Stern, who wrote this must-read profile of Steve Bannon
-- Kurt Bardella, a former spokesman for Breitbart, who announced today that he's going to vote for Hillary Clinton | | | 11 of the week's top media stories | | -- John McLaughlin passed away at age 89... The final edition of the show he created and ran for almost 35 years will air this Sunday...
-- Univision won Gawker at auction...
-- Viacom resolved the battle between Redstone and Dauman...
-- Trump's war with the media went nuclear...
-- His campaign started buying TV ads...
-- "The Nightly Show" was cancelled...
-- Media coverage of a rape case in Nate Parker's past raised questions about the fate of his movie "The Birth of a Nation..."
-- The Fox News housecleaning continued, with the departures of two SVPs and the exit of contributor Bo Dietl...
-- Brian Williams was given a regular MSNBC time slot, 11pm, effective after Labor Day...
-- The NYT decided to stop operating the NYT Now app...
-- And "says who?" became a meme... | | | The Syrian survivor seen 'round the world | | The instantly iconic photo of Omran, an injured boy in Aleppo, Syria, was on front pages around the world this morning, including the fronts of both the NYT and WSJ.
Per the NYT's Anne Barnard, the photographer, Mahmoud Raslan, "was surprised that the images of this one boy drew so much news coverage when, he said, he photographs similar events every day."
-- Jason Farkas emails: The video of Kate Bolduan tearing up during a Thursday morning report about Omran has broken some records on CNN's Facebook accounts. 19 million views -- currently #4 all-time for CNN and #2 for CNN International. I imagine many people watched it more than once. Beyond the harrowing footage, the part that gets me is her final line: "This is Omran. He's alive. We wanted you to know." Chills. | | | IAVA forum on NBC and MSNBC | | | I meant to include this news in last night's letter: NBC and MSNBC are teaming up with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to televise a "Commander-in-Chief Forum" on Sept. 7. Trump and Clinton will field Q's from voters back-to-back during the one-hour broadcast... Details here... | | | Two smart takes on Trump and Bannon | | | Where Gawker.com's writers and editors are going | | Tom Kludt emails: Gawker.com's staffers were understandably bummed by the news that Univision is pulling the plug on their site. But they can take heart in the knowledge that they all still have jobs (at least for now).
As I reported earlier today, the writers and editors at Gawker Media's flagship site will begin work next week at a trio of the company's other sites: Deadspin, Jezebel and Gizmodo. Here's the list of who's going where.
In characteristic Gawker fashion, employees and their bosses have been candid about the purpose of these new roles. Exec editor John Cook was upfront about it, telling the site's displaced staffers that their jobs "may just be a place to park while you figure out what's next." Isaac Lee visited Gawker's offices in the Flatiron district for what I was told was a fairly unremarkable 45-minute meeting. He fielded questions, and staffers were generally impressed. Jorge Ramos also spoke to the employees. Lee told them that Gawker.com's fate was sealed months ago, when a Florida jury awarded Hulk Hogan a $140.1 million judgment... | | "Local news is losing one of its greatest champions," NYDN's Don Kaplan reports. "Steve Paulus, one of the founders and longtime chief at NY1, is stepping down from the channel at the end of the month." Paulus's deputy Bernie Han will take his place as Group VP of News in Charter's northern markets.
My "special correspondent" Jamie Stelter, better known as NY1's morning traffic reporter, tweeted a fond memory of Paulus: "This is a guy who, when I got to work at 1am during Hurricane Sandy, had a bucket in his hand to flush toilets. And he ran the channel!" | | | Bissonnette forfeitting his book earnings | | | Wild story by Kimberly Dozier: "Four years after a former Navy SEAL was threatened with prison for writing about the Osama bin Laden raid, the Pentagon has dropped its claim that Matt Bissonnette revealed secrets harmful to national security. Bissonnette, who wrote No Easy Day under the pen name 'Mark Owen,' will have to forfeit more than $6.7 million in book earnings for writing the tell-all, first-person story of the 2011 mission without the Pentagon's pre-publication review—a violation of military nondisclosure agreements, according to a settlement finalized Friday. He'll also have to pay the U.S. government back $1.3 million for his legal fees, which he'd paid out of his book earnings." Read more... | | | Five takeaways from NBC's coverage | | "The Rio Olympics, and NBC's coverage of them, have been neither the utter disaster that many feared, nor completely flawless. But until conditions force the network to reconsider its formula, there's little incentive to change its routine," Brian Lowry writes. Here, he offers five takeaways that will likely inform NBC's game plan going forward:
-- Saturation Has Its Drawbacks: By any measure, the Olympics remain a dominating franchise. Last week, the Games averaged 28.2 million viewers in primetime on NBC, almost four times the combined audience for fellow broadcasters ABC, CBS, Fox and CW. That said, NBC's numbers are down compared to London in 2012 -- a sign not only of ratings being weighed down by sheer gravity amid an expanded roster of options, but also the tradeoff associated with scattering content across multiple networks and the web...
-- Sorry, But "Live" Doesn't Matter That Much: Delays aren't a huge drag on ratings -- and in some instances, probably even help in framing the "stories" and letting those who care about seeing Michael Phelps win another gold know that they need to tune in...
-- America Likes Watching America Winning: This might sound like a big "Duh," but it's worth remembering that U.S. Olympic ratings reliably spike when homegrown stars do well...
-- Acknowledging Other Countries Helps: Despite the gold in mining those "USA! USA!" chants, the Olympics become a richer viewing experience when NBC recognizes and embraces achievements by other athletes, especially underdogs...
-- Why Mess With (Even Diminished) Success? NBC will obviously take inventory after the Olympics, and begin contemplating what can be done better in 2018, 2020 and beyond. Nevertheless, even a diminished Olympics remains a huge attraction, one NBC has every reason to cultivate... | | Chloe Melas emails: Michael Phelps finally broke his silence on the Ryan Lochte scandal scandal today. The Olympian was leaving a Starbucks in Scottsdale, Arizona when paparazzi stopped Phelps to ask him about Lochte-gate. E! News has obtained the footage where he weighs in on whether his fellow teammate will be able to put this controversy behind him: "We have good people taking care of it, so hopefully," he said. The clip will air tonight on E! News, and they claim to have more than just that bite... | | Brian Lowry emails: In case you missed it, Jon Stewart dropped by Larry Wilmore's finale show last night to reassure "The Nightly Show" host that his program had, indeed, "resonated," despite statements to the contrary by Comedy Central's new president Kent Alterman.
As an aside, the gifts of booze Wilmore received throughout the week — from Samantha Bee, John Oliver and Stephen Colbert — highlighted the talent drain the channel has suffered...
-- Plus: Don't miss Lacey Rose's exit interview with Wilmore... He talks in detail about what's next for him... | | | "War Dogs" out this weekend | | Frank Pallotta writes: There are true stories, and then there's "War Dogs." The movie, which stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller and opens this weekend, tells the real life story of two arms dealers who won a $300 million government contract to arm U.S. troops during the Iraq War. It's based on the Rolling Stone article "Arms and the Dudes" by Guy Lawson. Check out Frank's interview with Hill here... | | -- Yesterday I said that "Inside Politics," hosted by John King, will expand to CNN's noon weekday time slot after Ashleigh Banfield moves to HLN. Supervising producer Tasha Diakides and the IP team, based out of Washington DC, will work in conjunction with Christina Ginn and Banfield's Atlanta-based show team to produce it...
-- And I also pointed out the very tight ratings race between Megyn Kelly and Rachel Maddow at 9pm. Only one problem: Kelly has been on vacation for the past two weeks. So headlines like this one are misleading... | | | 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 Sunday... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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