| | | | | "You're not a judge, you're a moderator" | | | What to do when the candidates lie? | | This is a must read for debate junkies... Former presidential debate moderators Jim Lehrer and Bob Schieffer, speaking at Notre Dame tonight, were asked to address the big question about the 9/26 showdown: Should mods fact-check candidates? Dylan Byers transcribed the comments:
SCHIEFFER: "It is the responsibility of the moderator to make sure the truth gets out, but the chief fact-checker should be the candidates themselves..."
LEHRER: "If Matt Lauer had had both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sitting there together, in a debate situation, and asked the question of the Iraq War, and Trump gave his answer, all any moderator would have done is said, 'Senator Clinton?' ... And then she would have called him a liar. It would have been sorted out and then the moderator would have said, 'Ok, let's go to ISIS....' The moderator would never have to intrude..."
SCHIEFFER: "You're not a judge, you're a moderator...."
Read Dylan's full story here... And scroll down for more debate news... | | Are the above story and the below story related?
Today Gallup released new polling showing that "Americans' trust and confidence in the mass media 'to report the news fully, accurately and fairly' has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year." The firm called it a "stunning development."
CNNMoney's graphics department nailed the illustration for this: | | "While Americans' faith in media has been in decline for over a decade, this year's findings represent a sharp drop from the previous eight years, when between 40 and 45% of Americans expressed trust," Dylan reports.
The decline was driven by a steep drop-off in trust levels among Republicans. Last year, 32% of GOPers said they trusted the media. Now? 14%. See the dark green line here: | | The only silver lining I see: If you asked respondents about specific media outlets, like a local paper or TV station, the trust levels would be higher. But the "media," writ large, has lost even more of its fuel, according to this poll. Perhaps Trump's anti-media campaign is taking a toll.
I have lots of opinions about how news outlets should try to regain trust, but I'd rather opine less and listen to you all more. What should be done to nudge these #'s up?
>>> Email reliablesources@cnn.com... We'll collect some of the answers tomorrow... | | | Fox News keeps its co-presidents | | Message received, Rupert!
All of us who thought Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy's promotions were just interim steps -- band-aids that would get Fox News through the election -- now have to think again. This afternoon Murdoch said both men had signed "new multi-year contracts" to remain co-presidents of Fox News. Here's my full story...
-- Unrelated? "Former Murdoch execs misled U.K. parliament over phone hacking" | | | "Sticking with a winning strategy" | | | Okay, Shine and Abernethy are in it for the long haul. Are other changes looming at Fox News? Via John Koblin, here's Lachlan Murdoch speaking at the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch media conference today: "It would be foolish of us if you think about the success of Fox News both in its positioning, and the voice that it has. And then you think about where our competitors sit, whether CNN or MSNBC or others, it would be foolish of us to copy a failed strategy as opposed to sticking with a winning strategy. I don't foresee any changes at all in the positioning of Fox News or the voice it projects." | | | Time Warner guarantees record profits for CNN in 2017 | | | It would be snarky to make a comment here about Lachlan citing CNN's "failed strategy," so I won't do that. But I will note The Wrap's wrap-up of Time Warner CFO Howard Averill's comments at the aforementioned conference: | | | "Averill guaranteed record profits" for CNN "in 2017, even after all this election craziness has come to a close. How could that be possible? Well, next year, the network will see what he called a 'significant' increase in affiliate fees — plus, digital should continue growing even as linear wilts. Finally, all of this election coverage isn't cheap — what Averill referred to as 'news-gathering costs' — and those expenses will be gone soon..." | | -- Even more news from today's conference: Steve Burke said NBCU "made over $250 million in Rio," more than double the profit from London... (AdAge)
-- "Who will buy Twitter? We ranked all the possible buyers..." (Recode)
-- There are so many gems in this Marisa Guthrie Q&A with Ben Sherwood... (THR)
-- I should've mentioned this yesterday: An important expansion of the First Draft Coalition, now including Facebook, Twitter and many others... (First Draft) | | | Widespread layoffs at North Jersey Media Group | | More bloodletting in northern NJ media: "Gannett has announced upcoming layoffs at The Record and North Jersey Media Group's community papers... The fall restructuring was called a 'long-term investment' Wednesday and is expected to affect 426 employees in sales and news..." There will be 100s of new positions, but folks will have to reapply...
-- More: "About 20 of the community newspapers are also expected to be consolidated..." | | BuzzFeed chairman Ken Lerer was interviewed on stage by Ken Auletta at CUNY tonight. Margaret Sullivan and Andrew Heyward sat up front. I tried to slip in unnoticed, but Ben Smith spotted me. Some highlights:
— On Univision's acquisition of Gawker: "I don't get it…"
— On Univision more broadly: "A really good, interesting company. I don't really understand their digital strategy. Seems a little random to me…"
— On Tronc: "I'm really confused about them. I haven't a clue..."
— On Trump: "I think the press" (he singled out CNN) "gave him a pass like I've never seen in politics in my lifetime and probably never will see again..."
— On Facebook's power: It's impossible to launch a new media company today "without launching it on top of Facebook. It's just not possible." There's "no reason to fight it, 'cuz it's there, you might as well just go with it..."
— On the concerns about BuzzFeed backing away from news: "That is utterly absurd and ridiculous." The recent reorg will "allow us to go into news even deeper because it's a special unit…"
— On the recent speculation about a tie-up between BuzzFeed and Viacom, which just added Lerer as a board member: "No." He said this NYPost story was "just made up..."
— BTW, Lerer attended his first Viacom board meeting today. He was the only male board member without a tie on. "I was so embarrassed..." | | During tonight's event at Notre Dame, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced several collaborations with tech and academic partners. Key portion: "Facebook and Google will be providing data to the moderators in the weeks leading up to the debates... For the town hall debate, Facebook will be working with the moderators to help source questions for the candidates..." | | | Union Leader endorses Gary Johnson | | Daniella Diaz and Cassie Spodak report: "The conservative NH Union Leader, the daily newspaper in Manchester, broke with a 100-year tradition of backing Republicans Wednesday by endorsing Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson for president." Publisher Joe McQuaid's assessment of Trump: "The man is a liar, a bully, a buffoon."
p.s.: Trump is visiting NH on Thursday... | | Dr. Oz and Trump...
"A match made on TV" | | 9am: Trump campaign says Trump will not hand over the results of his recent physical to Dr. Mehmet Oz.
10:30am: Trump arrives for taping of "The Dr. Oz Show."
12pm: Campaign says that Trump surprised the studio audience by handing over the physical exam results!
Today wasn't about transparency. It was about the appearance of transparency. It was about receiving the "Dr. Oz seal of approval." The episode will air on local stations across the country on Thursday... Here's our write-up in the meantime... | | Brian Lowry notes: The show's producers doubtless thought they had a coup in booking Trump, and there's nothing new about candidates making pit stops to show off their lighter sides on daytime (or late-night) talk shows. "Dr. Oz" clearly stepped in it, however, in terms of the timing. In hindsight, about the only way this could have avoided being a mess would have been if Oz and Trump spoke strictly about health policy issues...
The other Brian's counterargument: This is the most press Dr. Oz has gotten in years, isn't it? | | | And at the end of the day... | | -- Philip Rucker tweets: "It's amazing that Trump's medical information is according to audience members of a celebrity TV doctor's taping, not real documentation..."
-- Michael Calderone: "Trump giving medical info to TV doctor instead of press is bad. But he's been even less transparent on tax returns..."
-- Rachel Maddow on her show tonight: "It's a con, but it's very compelling..."
-- Oh, and Clinton shared more health info too. In a letter, not on a daytime TV show...
-- Via Dylan: Clinton is featured in the October issue of Women's Health magazine... | | -- FLOTUS is returning to Stephen Colbert's "Late Show..." One year after her first appearance... She'll be on next Tuesday, Sept. 20...
-- And speaking of the late night wars, Trump is on Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight Show" Thursday night... Clinton next Monday night...
-- Related to what's above: I'll be on "New Day" Thursday at 7:30am, talking about Trump and Clinton's TV strategies...
-- The Media Research Center's "Jorge Ramos Must Go!" campaign has gained the support of "over 15 respected Latino community figures in public policy and journalism…" (NewsBusters) | | "How many stories have we had in the past week headlined with something like: 'Democrats scratching heads over why Hillary hasn't already closed this down.' Why hasn't Hillary already locked this up? They don't understand why she's not at 70% and Trump's at 30. They don't understand."
--Rush Limbaugh on the radio today, talking about -- who else? -- the "Drive-By Media..." | | Brian Lowry reviews "Snowden" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is terrific in "Snowden," but this is really one of those cases where drama can't hold a candle to reality. Oliver Stone's movie isn't bad, but it's pretty pale next to "Citizenfour," Laura Poitras' 2014 documentary. Read more from Brian here... | | New campaign for Snowden pardon | | | It's not a coincidence that on the same week when the "Snowden" film is in the news (and in theaters on Friday), several human rights groups are launching a new campaign for a Snowden pardon. Details here via the NYT... | | | -- Chloe Melas emails: Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley & Oliver Stone all shared with me their reasons why Snowden should be pardoned... | | Sandra Gonzalez emails; Could this be the year of "The Americans" at the Emmys? For this story I spoke with the E.P.'s... One thing that really stood out was the genuine praise for network president John Landgraf, who showed confidence in the show early on and followed through on that commitment all the way to these Emmy nominations.
Speaking of Landgraf, the "mayor of TV" comes out looking pretty good in this HitFix story about how FX came to be "TV's most reliable network..." | | "The Google of Hollywood" | | More from Sandra: As we lead up to the Emmys, I'm seeing a lot of great thinkpieces about how networks operate. This is a great THR story about the "backlash" facing Netflix as many fear it's growing to be what the piece calls "the Google of Hollywood." Kim Masters interviewed a lot of people who declined to be identified because "few are willing to risk the wrath of a company that is spending $6 billion a year on programming and scored 54 Emmy nominations this year."
[Brian here. Lemme just underscore what Sandra said. Masters' story is a must-read!]] | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Disney "has cut 250 jobs, or about 5% of its 5,000 employees in its consumer products and digital media staff... About half of the layoffs were among video game workers..." (Variety)
-- Via Lisa France: According to one of his employers, E!, Ryan Seacrest is now dating Adriana Lima... (CNN)
-- Chloe Melas spoke with Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth about "Bridget Jones's Baby," coming to theaters on Friday. Zellweger said she and her character are more alike than you might think... (CNN)
-- More from Lisa: Remember the 80s hit "Mickey?" Singer Toni Basil is still so fine and, at 72, is blowing folks away with her 20-something dance moves... (CNN) | | Tell us what you think... | | | Send us your feedback about this newsletter -- the good/the bad/the ugly -- to reliablesources@cnn.com. We'll be back tomorrow! | | | -- Annie Linskey's "Being white, and a minority, in Georgia," on whites in one Georgia community TK | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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