| | | | | 9/11 through an anchorman's eyes | | "What channel is CNN on?"
That's how I heard about the World Trade Center attack on the morning of 9/11/2001 -- when someone reached for the TV remote control and asked for CNN's channel number.
For this Sunday's "Reliable Sources," on the fifteenth anniversary of the attacks, I interviewed Aaron Brown, who led CNN's coverage that day from the roof of the old bureau at 34th and 8th. Here's some of what he shared:
-- He felt "profoundly stupid" while narrating the collapse of the first tower. "It just never occurred to me that they'd come down. And I thought, it's the only time I thought, 'Maybe you just don't have what it takes to do a story like this,' because it just had never occurred to me." After that point, there was "a clock ticking in his head, dreading the collapse of the second tower...
-- "We kept saying to people, 'Here is what we know and here is what we don't.' That's what mattered."
-- Brown won awards for his work that day. People like me still come up to him and thank him for his steady anchoring. He said "it's a weird contradiction that journalists live with... The ambivalence of, on the one hand, loving the big story, and, on the other hand, hating the fact that that story is happening." | | | While on the subject of 9/11/01 coverage, you may be interested in this: "Inside the Control Rooms on September 11, 2001." I wrote it a few years ago, relying on interviews with Katie Couric, Jonathan Wald, Phyllis McGrady, Stu Schwartz, Shelley Ross, and Tom Cibrowski. Wald recounts the first minutes of the "Today" show's coverage. Schwartz describes worrying about his daughter Dana Bash, who was on Capitol Hill. Couric recalls calling her parents to say "get in the basement." This is a "deleted chapter" from my book about morning TV... | | | About MSNBC's re-airing... | | | All of the cablers will have special coverage on Sunday morning. MSNBC will rebroadcast the "Today" show's coverage of 9/11/01 starting just before 9am and continuing until noon. This has been an annual tradition for the channel since 2006. I have watched it most of the years since then. Slate's Jeremy Faust, however, says MSNBC should stop: "The MSNBC replay may indeed harm certain vulnerable populations. Others may be able to view it without clinically significant traumatic results. But who, if anyone, does the replay help? No one seems to know for certain..." | | | Trump's "hundreds of friends" | | A powerful piece by Michael Daly: "Six months after Donald Trump claimed to have lost 'hundreds of friends' in the 9/11 attacks, his campaign continues to ignore a request from The Daily Beast that he name even one."
-- For the record: Trump's exact quote at a GOP debate in February was "I lost hundreds of friends. The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe." | | | Larry King contradicts his friend Donald Trump | | | Donald Trump's campaign says Trump's interview with Larry King was recorded for a podcast, not for a TV program that aired on a Russian-owned network. King says that claim "stretches it a little." Tonight King told Erin Burnett, "I don't know what Trump knew. He couldn't have known it was a podcast, because he just did my podcast." Here's my full story about the controversy... | | | Lack says Lauer did a "tremendous job" | | Critics? What critics? Today Andy Lack said Matt Lauer did a "tremendous job" leading the "Commander-in-Chief Forum." Lack thanked NBCers for pulling off the forum and credited Lauer with "driving one of the most serious discussions to date on these topics."
(Discussion point: Would Lack have sent out this internal memo if the reviews hadn't been so bad?)
-- BTW: Donald Trump also spoke kindly of Lauer today -- he said during a speech that "I thought Matt Lauer did a very good job. His questions to me were very tough..." | | | It's not just "Clinton supporters..." | | | Can I rant for a sec? Some GOPers are saying "liberals" are up in arms about the Lauer forum, as if everyone who objected is a Clinton supporter. That's rubbish. I count at least five groups that leveled specific criticisms for different reasons: 1) vets who were in the studio audience 2) political reporters 3) TV critics 4) NBC staffers 5) and, yes, Clinton supporters. Anyway, here's my followup story about Lack's memo... | | | Lack also said: "Against all odds we were able to bring the two presidential nominees together for the first time." True -- it was a difficult event to pull off. The negotiations with Clinton and Trump's campaigns were arduous. Up until the final day, there were concerns that Trump might back out, a source told me today... | | | More proof that Facebook IS a media company | | | Dylan Byers emails: Facebook temporarily censored the iconic Vietnam War photograph of a naked Vietnamese girl screaming in pain and terror after a napalm attack because it included full-frontal nudity. The decision, which Facebook reversed hours later, set off alarm bells for journalism watchdogs and reignited the debate over the social media company's editorial responsibilities. Read Dylan's full story here... | | | Dylan notes: "Even on Friday, as Facebook was dealing with the fallout from the Vietnam War photo, the Trending topics list was promoting an article from the Daily Star, a conspiracy theory tabloid, which claimed to have new footage showing that bombs" had been planted in the WTC towers on 9/11. The "Trending" feature is failing Facebook's users... | | | Greta takes aim at the Murdochs | | | Dylan Byers emails: Greta Van Susteren says she regrets not believing Gretchen Carlson's sexual harassment claims against their boss, Roger Ailes. But Van Susteren, who left the company earlier this week, went one step further: In a Facebook post on Friday, she also took aim at Fox's parent company, 21st Century Fox, and its leadership -- and, by extension, the Murdochs. "Checks written that were suspicious should have been spotted," Van Susteren wrote... | | | Dylan notes that Greta's post came one day after Geraldo Rivera apologized for his own initial reaction to Carlson's suit. Brian Lowry tweeted this reaction: "Good start. But if Geraldo Rivera's serious about apologizing for stuff, I'll wait for Vol. 1 of the books..." | | | Exploring Susan Estrich's role defending Ailes | | | Susan Estrich asks: "What do you do when a close friend needs your help?" Estrich wrote this column about her representation of Ailes ahead of Alessandra Stanley's must-read profile of Estrich that's in Sunday's NYT... | | | Media Matters escalates legal threat against Fox | | HuffPost's Michael Calderone reports: "Media Matters for America took another step toward legal action Friday following a report that Fox News obtained phone records for one of the progressive organization's journalists." The group wants Fox AND Ailes to "retain any information" relevant to the allegations...
Scroll down for more on Media Matters v. Fox... | | -- Here's all the journalistic inspiration you need for this weekend: How WashPost's David Fahrenthold "uses pen and paper to make his tracking of Trump get noticed..." (NiemanLab)
-- Sad sign of the times: "After a decade of documenting job losses for journalists totaling more than 20,000 since 2006, the American Society of News Editors has abandoned the effort," Poynter's Rick Edmonds reports...
-- Here's a more optimistic take about ASNE: "New 2016 data shows a bright spot for newsroom diversity..."
-- "In a series of staffing cuts over the last several months, MSNBC has laid off more than a dozen employees." Chris Ariens reports on the "restructuring" here... (TVNewser) | | | Tronc in "active talks" with Gannett | | It's not "if," it's "when," chapter 57:
"Tronc is in active discussions over Gannett's takeover bid of about $673 million, people familiar with the matter said, indicating it may be willing to drop its fierce resistance to a merger of the two newspaper publishers. The companies are discussing an offer by Gannett in the neighborhood of $18.50 a share," Bloomberg's Alex Sherman reports... | | | Univision streaming news @ noon | | | Jason Farkas emails: Univision, which seems to be doing a little bit of everything these days (Fusion, The Root, The Onion, Gawker Media), is entering the live streaming game in a big way. Starting Monday, a daily noon newscast -- "Noticiero Univision Edición Digital" -- will stream on Univision.com, Facebook Live, YouTube and Periscope... and it will be broadcast on Univision's TV stations. Here's the press release about it... | | | "Reliable Sources" guest list | | | Sunday at 11am ET on CNN: Along with Aaron Brown, I'll be joined by Ezra Klein, MZ Hemingway, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, David Zurawik, Sarah Ellison, and Jane Hall... See you then... | | -- Jay Rosen says this clip of Katy Tur correcting Trump surrogate Jack Kingston is "one of the highlights of the campaign coverage so far." I'd say it doubles as an argument for having more real reporters on the airwaves in these types of segments...
-- Via Politico's Kelsey Sutton: "Trump blasts CNN's Jeff Zucker over biographical documentary..."
-- Trump will be on "Dr. Oz" next Thursday...
-- "We live in a Snapchat-Twitter world," Bill Clinton lamented earlier this week, "embracing his age," the NYT says... | | | Today in "things that will never happen..." | | Politico's Hadas Gold: "David Brock is demanding that the Commission on Presidential Debates remove Fox News anchor Chris Wallace as moderator of the final presidential debate in October," since Wallace has a long relationship with Roger Ailes, who is now advising Donald Trump. But the commission knew that before it selected Wallace.
This controversy was the lead story on Friday's "Kelly File." Megyn Kelly was in rare form. I think this was the first time she's talked about Ailes on the air since July. She praised Wallace ("a journalist with a sterling record"), savaged Brock ("he's made it his mission to destroy Fox News"), and refuted Gold's assertion (attributed to other "media watchers") that Ailes is "intimately familiar with Wallace's preparation and debate style."
That's "nonsense," Kelly said, asserting that Ailes "had nothing to do" with Fox's primary debates. Kelly concluded the segment with two recommendations for Hillary Clinton:
-- Clinton needs to "reign him in," him being Brock...
-- And "she needs to come out" and embrace Wallace as moderator... | | | This quote will be with us til Election Day... | | | Hillary Clinton speaking on-cam at a fundraiser on Friday night: "To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call 'the basket of deplorables.' Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it." Here's the full context, via Dan Merica... Many observers are already objecting to the statement, and Clinton press aides are already defending it... | | -- On Friday night Nate Parker's "The Birth of a Nation" had its TIFF premiere. The Wrap says "the audience at Toronto's Winter Garden theater applauded for nearly a minute after credits started rolling, cheering when Parker's name appeared as director..." (The Wrap)
-- I can't wait to see "Sully" this weekend. Here's Brian Lowry's review... (CNN)
-- Programming note: Chloe Melas will be on HLN Saturday at 10:50am talking about "Sully" and her interviews with the cast AND real life captain...
-- "The Wisconsin Department of Justice is appealing the overturned conviction of Brendan Dassey, who was accused of helping his uncle kill a woman in a case described in the docuseries 'Making a Murderer...'"
-- Sandra Gonzalez's latest: "Hidden in 'Kicks,' a film about stolen sneakers, is an important message..." (CNN)
-- Justin Timberlake is getting a Netflix concert movie... (CNN) | | | 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. | | | | | |
Post a Comment