| | | | Pneumonia. That's what Hillary Clinton's campaign says she has.
Does this count as a "September surprise?"
That's one of the questions on my mind. (Scroll down for the full list.) This health scare is set to drive the news cycle for days. Tonight a Fox News graphic asked: "COULD CLINTON HEALTH CAUSE HER TO DROP OUT?" Drudge's banner was "HILLARY'S 911." Breitbart went with "CLINTON COLLAPSE."
"The alt right was pushing these conspiracy theories" about Clinton's health, "but tonight we're into a situation where it IS a legitimate campaign issue," David Gergen said on CNN a few minutes ago... | | -- Is Clinton feeling better?
-- Why did campaign staff withhold information about her whereabouts on Sunday morning and withhold Friday's pneumonia diagnosis until Sunday early evening?
-- Why the relative silence on social media?
-- How would today have played out if there hadn't been eyewitness video of her near-collapse?
-- What if, as Glenn Thrush proposed, a Clinton staffer had told reporters at 8am that she was sick and might have to leave the 9/11 ceremony early?
-- Clinton has cancelled her Monday and Tuesday travels. Will she be seen at all? Will her doctor speak?
-- Will Donald Trump really resist tweeting or saying anything about this?
-- In what ways are the interpretations of this health scare different because Clinton is a woman -- and the first female nominee of a major party in U.S. history?
-- How will Trump and Clinton respond as journalists renew their calls for health records? Here's a Jake Tapper tweet: "Voters have every right to see, ASAP, the presidential nominees' health records and tax returns as previous nominees have provided..." | | | Fox's Rick Leventhal had a law enforcement source who witnessed Clinton's near-collapse. At 9:37am he tweeted, "Clinton just left 9/11 ceremony w/medical episode, appeared to faint on way into van, helped by security." He followed up by quoting the source saying Clinton had a "medical episode." Leventhal relied on a single source -- but it was a solid source. He went on Fox with the news at 10:10am -- before obtaining any comment from the Clinton campaign. Nick Merrill issued a statement shortly after 11am.
Leventhal's tweets sent other newsrooms scrambling... Here's why... | | | Clinton departed 9/11 ceremony without journos | | Dylan Byers explains: Neither Clinton or Trump have allowed a "protective pool" of reporters to travel with them at all times. That's why "Clinton was able to leave the memorial site without reporters, travel to her daughter Chelsea Clinton's apartment without reporters, and leave New York City for her home in Chappaqua, New York, without reporters."
WashPost's Anne Gearan, current chair of the Clinton press pool, says this chain of events demonstrates "the importance of having a group of reporters on standby, and close at hand, to cover the potential next POTUS." Read more... | | | Why the coverage of #HillarysHealth will be magnified | | Media editor Alex Koppelman emails: In this election, at least, the "vast right-wing conspiracy" is real, and the media gives it more influence than it should. But the Clintons and their insistence on pointlessly stonewalling reporters make it worse. Two points on this:
1. The coverage of this episode will be magnified and extended because the people who've been pushing conspiracy theories about Clinton's health for some time understand well one of the less appealing qualities of the political press: say something long enough and loud enough and it becomes a controversy, part of the narrative, and gets covered regardless of its actual importance or basis in fact. Then, when there's an event like this that fits that narrative, it's a bigger and more damaging story than it might otherwise have been.
2. Coverage of this will also be extended and magnified, though, because of the Clinton campaign's own actions. Act like you've got something to hide — refuse to have a protective pool; ditch reporters at the memorial and go radio silent; put on a brief show for the cameras and then ditch reporters again — and you'll get covered like you've got something to hide. And you'll deserve it. | | | Distinguishing between "wishful thinking" and "real concern" | | | Speaking of those conspiracy theories... Dave Weigel noted that some of the people "who shared fake seizure stories and forged medical records" are saying they are "vindicated" by today's stumble. Let's be clear about this. The right wing web sites and supermarket tabloids that have been insinuating, for years, that Clinton is on death's door were irresponsible then and they're irresponsible now. Same goes for the radio hosts who have been reckless speculating about possible cover-ups. Those entertainers are not in the same category (or shall we say "basket") as the journalists and commentators who have been raising red flags about Clinton's health... | | -- Weekly Standard's John McCormack: "Just imagine how media would cover if this were a video of John McCain in September 2008..."
-- The Week columnist Emily Hauser: "So what I'm hearing is that Clinton got really sick and soldiered on anyway, and most people didn't even notice because that's what women do..."
-- Carl Bernstein on CNN: "It's clear that she tried to hide this, and this is going to hurt her, certainly in the short term, in that regard..."
-- AP's Bill Barrow calls what we saw today "the noxious sum of social media + secretive campaign + competitive media + hyper-partisan atmosphere..." | | | Arrest warrant for Amy Goodman | | | "An arrest warrant has been issued in North Dakota for Democracy Now! host and executive producer Amy Goodman," the newscast's web site reported Saturday. Goodman was in the state covering protests against the Dakota Access pipeline earlier this month. Now she has been charged with criminal trespassing. She says "this is an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press..." | | -- Robert Feder has been "troncked" by Tronc. Here's what that means... (Chicago Reader)
-- Liz Spayd's latest NYT column is "The Truth about 'False Balance.'" Check out the comments, there's a whole lot of disagreement... (NYT)
-- CBSN is starting to stream a new show, "After 60," right after "60 Minutes" wraps up on the East Coast... Reena Ninan hosted on Sunday night...
-- And speaking of CBS, "CBS This Morning" is broadcasting live from National Museum of African American History and Culture Monday AM. The museum opens later this month... (CBS) | | | ESPN's fantasy football site crashes | | For ESPN, a rough start to the virtual football season. Jackie Wattles reports: "Players were enraged when ESPN's fantasy sports platform crashed" around 1pm today... The app and web site were at least partially online by 4pm, but problems continued to pop up until 6:30, when the network said service was fully restored. "The issue did not impact data for teams, leagues or rosters. We sincerely apologize..."
Wattles notes that fantasy sports is big business for ESPN... Details here... | | | NFL Sunday Ticket streaming trouble? | | | LostRemote's Steve Safran says some users of NFL Sunday Ticket "noticed buffering and quality issues" today, "with some not being able to access a stream at all." DirecTV's customer service left a lot to be desired, he says. FWIW, after a few hiccups in the first quarter, our live stream of the Eagles-Browns game worked really well... | | | SoxProspects editor Chris Hatfield: Say what you want about Kaepernick, but they're discussing race right now on NFL Countdown because of him. That's something. | | | Univision deletes six Gawker posts | | | Gizmodo EIC Katie Drummond tweeted on Saturday: "I plan to keep running a Gizmodo that calls BS, and sometimes pisses people off. I truly hope Univision does too." This comment was spurred by Univision's decision on Friday night to "remove six posts published by former Gawker Media properties that are involved in ongoing litigation." J.K. Trotter, who would have written about the decision on Gawker.com, wrote about it on Gizmodo instead... Read more here... | | | At TIFF: Nate Parker answers Q's from reporters | | Frank Pallotta reports from the Toronto International Film Festival: At a Sunday press conference, "The Birth of a Nation" director/star Nate Parker "tried to put the focus on the film and its impact -- not the controversy" about a 1999 rape case involving Parker.
Here's what Parker said: "I've addressed it, but the reality is that no one person makes a film. No person works alone to create something that is as special as I believe this project is." And what his co-star Penelope Ann Miller said: "This isn't the Nate Parker story, this is the Nat Turner story." Read Frank's full report from Toronto here... | | | Media week ahead calendar | | -- Monday: TechCrunch Disrupt gets underway in SF
-- Monday night: "Dancing With the Stars" premieres
-- Tuesday night: NYC premiere of "Snowden"
-- Tuesday night: Politico 50 celebration in DC
-- Tuesday night: Intelligence Squared's next debate... It's about Trump and media elites...
-- Thursday: Trump on "Dr. Oz"
-- Sunday night: The Emmys! | | | From Sunday's show: reactions to NBC's forum | | The "B block" of today's "Reliable Sources" was about the fallout from NBC's forum and what it means for this fall's debate moderators. David Zurawik and I got into it a bit... Mediaite has a recap here...
-- Katrina Vanden Heuvel during the segment: Matt Lauer led "a master class on how not to hold candidates accountable..." | | | Ellison and Hall talk Fox | | | Our "Reliable" segment about the week full of Fox News news was cut short by the Clinton news. So we post-taped the conversation for CNN.com. Watch Sarah Ellison and Jane Hall discuss the week's developments here... | | | Clinton scrapping CA trip means... | | | ...No visit to the "Ellen" show this week. Keep in mind, Trump is still set to appear on "Dr. Oz" on Thursday... | | | Clinton surrogates working the refs over "deplorables" coverage | | Notice how these "deplorables" talking points sent to Clinton surrogates on Saturday night urged them to turn the controversy around, sorta blaming the media, Trump style. These talking points were obtained by CNN's Dan Merica:
"I think we can all agree that if Donald Trump said something controversial about Clinton supporters, it wouldn't have been in his top ten list of offensive statements in a day. It's well past time the press stopped grading Trump on a curve. So is the press going to cover this story in the right context, or are they going to hold Hillary to a different standard again? Are they going to make more out of this story than they made out of the racist, misogynistic Trump comments that got us here in the first place?" | | -- Frederic Filloux's latest Monday Note: "The Trouble With Facebook's Insular Culture" (Monday Note)
-- "These students didn't know Bin Laden was dead. How did we get so clueless about news?" Margaret Sullivan's column on news literacy... (WashPost)
-- ICYMI, an important pact between Slate and VoteCastr: "Real-Time Election Day Projections May Upend News Tradition" (NYT)
-- "Making a Murderer" "rolled through the nonfiction categories" at the Creative Arts Emmys tonight... "Game of Thrones" was the overall top winner... (Deadline) | | | Aaron Brown on what it was like to anchor on 9/11 | | | I was honored to interview Aaron Brown about his experiences anchoring CNN's coverage of 9/11. You can watch and read the interview here... | | Finally today, here's a piece of the interview that didn't make the TV cut: When I asked Brown how journalism has changed since 9/11, he said he believes there's more pressure "to react to the instant, to the moment," with less time for big picture context:
"My view of 9/11, if I can just this once take a step back and give you a longer view, is that it required that we not get caught up in the moment -- that we, if anything, try and understand the implications of an attack on the United States of America.
"When I got off the air that night, or early morning, I kept thinking, 'Well, what was my daughter's day like?' Was it like my day, when Kennedy was assassinated and I was crying? And I thought, 'Her life is never going to be the same.'
"And that's a longer view of this. For my taste, too often, the lower third is dominated by some sort of instant thing or another that doesn't really help people understand the broader implications of the story, of any story. And I think, honestly, Brian, that is particularly true of this election story. That it gets way too caught up in kind of an instant check and we're not really focused enough on the broader implications of what's going on." | | Tell us what you think... | | | Agree with Brown? Disagree? Email your feedback about his comments... and the rest of this newsletter... 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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