| | | | Monday: Donald Trump says Lester Holt "is a Democrat."
Tuesday: Public records show that Holt has been a registered Republican since at least 2003.
Does this matter? Only so far as it shows 1) Trump continuing to get his facts wrong and 2) Trump continuing to "work the refs" ahead of next Monday's debate.
Trump obviously isn't the only one angling for an advantage ahead of the debate. He's just the only one doing it in public. The feathers of some Clinton aides were ruffled by the disclosure of Holt's GOP registration. But no one in the Clinton camp is talking about it on the record.
Neither is Holt. I tried to ask him about his voter registration and debate prep at Tuesday night's "Dateline" 25th anniversary party, and he politely declined to say anything. (Even off the record.) It sounds like Holt is taking the same approach as Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz: letting the moderating speak for itself. No interviews. This is a contrast with Chris Wallace, the moderator of the third debate, who spoke earlier this month... | | | Holt did get loud at the party though -- with his bass -- performing with his band on the Ink48 rooftop. His wife told me the band is a stress reliever for him. Maybe he'll bring the bass to Hofstra ;-) | | | Trump said at a campaign event today that he thinks Holt "will be very fair, but a lot of people will be watching to see if that's true..." | | | Rallies are not the same as interviews | | Maybe Trump will "take a question here and there" while he is on the campaign trail, Kellyanne Conway told Erin Burnett Tuesday night. But if there's a plan in the works for more interviews by the GOP nominee, Conway is not telling. (As I mentioned last night, there's growing frustration with Trump's media inaccessibility.)
Speaking with Burnett, Conway seemed to equate Trump rallies with real interviews. "He gives press availability every day by doing these rallies, in these swing states, where he is every single day," and Trump's traveling press corps "are there with him," Conway said. Huh? Conway knows there's a big difference between covering what Trump says on stage and actually asking him questions. On Tuesday afternoon members of the traveling press tried to ask Trump when he changed his mind about President Obama's citizenship, but he did not respond to the shouted questions. Campaign aides sent slices of cherry cobbler to the reporters who were nearby. They'd prefer answers instead of food. Here's my full story... | | At deadline time, this exchange happened on MSNBC's "11th Hour:"
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Our folks tell me it's been 55 days since Mr. Trump took questions in a press conference format. He still doesn't have traveling press on his plane. When are we going to get a chance to ask him some of these issues?
MIKE PENCE: Well, I-- I think-- I think Donald Trump answers questions with the media just about every day... | | | Trump is saying "yes" to Fox and "no" to almost all other interviews. Details here... | | | "Racial" should not have been put in quotes | | During the CNN interview, Conway objected to the on-screen graphic from Monday that said "TRUMP SAYS 'RACIAL PROFILING' WILL STOP TERROR."
"Your network added in 'racial' to make it look like he had said 'racial profiling' where he never had," Conway said. Burnett responded: "That was a lower third, as we call them, on our screen. I want to make it clear, the word 'racial' should not have been put in quotes."
Meantime, Trump has yet to make it clear what he means by "profiling..." | | | Hannity in a promotional video for Trump | | Dylan Byers emails: Does Fox News have a limit on what it will let Sean Hannity get away with? The unapologetic Trump booster has now participated in a promotional YouTube video for the campaign, touting Trump's pledges to build a wall, eliminate Obamacare, make America energy independent and defend the Second Amendment.
After the video created a stir today, Fox said it was "not aware of Sean Hannity participating in a promotional video and he will not be doing anything along these lines for the remainder of the election season." Thought that raises the question: If Hannity is allowed to use his primetime show as a pro-Trump infomercial, why isn't he allowed to appear in an actual infomercial? Read Dylan's full story here...
-- Reminder: Trump will be interviewed by Hannity at a town hall on Wednesday... | | Angelina Jolie filed for divorce. Her people leaked the news. Brad Pitt's side scrambled to respond. He hasn't hired a divorce attorney yet.
That's where things stand in the Breakup Of The Year, which TMZ was the first to report in the 10am hour on Tuesday. Lisa France and I filed this mainbar. Jim Edwards and others dubbed it "BRAXIT..." | | | "Gossip magazines are claiming victory" | | GossipCop's Shari Weiss notes that Jimmy Fallon nailed it in his monologue: "Of course – all the celebrity gossip magazines are claiming victory. They broke this story. They broke it every week for the last eleven years. Over and over and over again. Until it finally came true."
InTouch had the headline LAST week: "Brad & Angelina: 400 Million Dollar Divorce." But it's worth noting, they've had at least six covers in the past year with Brad and Angelina's alleged marriage troubles on the cover. Frank Pallotta and Chloe Melas wrote about that here...
-- Bummer: People and Us Weekly put their issues to bed Monday night... too late for the Brangelina divorce story to be included. But both outlets covered every morsel of the story on the web today... | | -- Lisa also wrote about Angelina's divorce attorney Laura Wasser...
-- LATimes A1: "Through a careful management of their image and social media footprint, they conjured the glamour of the movie stars of old..."
-- And here's the NY Daily News cover... | | -- It's official: Comcast is launching wireless service next year... Using its Wi-Fi hot spots and its arrangement with Verizon... (WSJ)
-- Liz Spayd's latest: "When to Call a Lie a Lie" (NYT)
-- Vox "is preparing to expand internationally..." Jonathan Hunt is in charge of "sounding out opportunities abroad..." (Bloomberg)
-- This email from a Las Vegas Review-Journal about being fired is the latest sign of tumult behind the scenes at Sheldon Adelson's paper... (Twitter) | | | "The Sunlight Foundation, the DC-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting transparency in government, will lay off five staffers in the coming weeks as it seeks to merge with another organization," Poynter's Ben Mullin reports, citing a source. Mullin's story decodes this euphemistic memo about the murky future of the foundation. He notes that Sunlight's headcount is already been cut in half in the past couple of years… | | | If you're like me and you wanted be in Denver last week for the Online News Association, but couldn't make it, read Nausicaa Renner's "five takeaways" piece for CJR: She says "Facebook was dominant," publishers are "desperate to connect," and "Trump is still the 10,000-pound gorilla in the room..." | | | WSJ acquires a... newsletter! | | This announcement caught my eye: Dow Jones acquiring the Daily Shot newsletter, an early morning newsletter about the markets. Here's the press release.
Founder Lev Bodorovsky will continue to run the letter. On Nov. 1, the product will be exclusive to WSJ subscribers.
This "sharp, mobile-first chart-driven" newsletter "represents a rare acquisition, and we are excited about what this newsletter – and its 35,000 high-quality subscribers – can do for M&I," Dennis Berman wrote in an internal memo today... | | -- Scott Conroy and Peter Hamby's idea for a campaign trail comedy is coming to life... Go90 has ordered six episodes... And Megyn Kelly is aboard as a producer... (Variety)
-- Emily Yahr's latest: "How Anthony Bourdain went from CNN's biggest risk to its most unexpected star..." (WashPost)
-- Happy birthday, Robin Roberts! She is starting a podcast with ABC Radio. Per Brian Steinberg, Sloan Kettering "will be exclusive sponsor of 7-episode first season..." (ABC) | | | "Dateline" party sightings | | | Spotted at the aforementioned "Dateline" party: Bill Bratton, David Corvo, Chuck Todd, Andrea Canning, Dennis Murphy, Keith Morrison, Josh Mankiewicz, Hallie Jackson, Kasie Hunt, Andrea Mitchell, Kate Snow, Andy Lack, Deborah Turness, Neal Shapiro, Michael Calderone, Lloyd Grove, Stephen Battaglio and many more... | | | Here's why NBC News execs were so cheerful | | | Lisa de Moraes explains: "NBC News today celebrated 52-week first-place finishes in the programming genre's key ad sales demo, 25-54, for franchises across the network's landscape including Today, NBC Nightly News, Sunday Beltway show Meet the Press and Dateline..." | | | I highly recommend this Philip Bump piece about what voters are hearing about the candidates. Since July 11, the word "email" has been "the most common response when Gallup asks what people have 'read, seen or heard about Hillary Clinton' over the preceding few days." Here are the details... | | | Trump camp says Fahrenthold is "obsessed" | | The Trump campaign is coming after David Fahrenthold, the WashPost reporter who's been doing prize-worthy work about Trump's foundation. Late Tuesday night, Jason Miller said Fahrenthold's latest story is "peppered with inaccuracies," but did not identify any specifics. Jonathan Lemire asked aloud: Does the statement "now embolden other outlets to write about it when maybe they originally didn't want to follow a rival?"
Three other reactions from reporters:
Sopan Deb tweets while transcribing Conway's interview on CNN: "Sign of a great reporter. Conway says David Fahrenthold is 'obsessed with Donald Trump these days.'"
Katy Tur replies: "That's a new surrogate talking point. Heard 'unhealthy obsession' a few times today."
Maggie Haberman replies: "This predates current management and is a time-worn criticism from both sides whenever a reporter digs in..." | | | "Tonight Show" ratings race | | | Brian Lowry emails: In the battle of Jimmy Fallon appearances, edge, Clinton: A 2.8 overnight rating for Monday's "The Tonight Show," versus a 2.6 last Thursday, featuring Trump... | | | Positive signs during TV's "premiere week" | | Brian Lowry emails: "Premiere week" seems like a rather dated concept, but the major networks still cling to it, and they received some validation for that on Monday. For all the talk about how TV viewing has moved into an a la carte age, the shows that generated solid sampling Monday benefited from lead-ins in which they were following established hits.
CBS' "Kevin Can Wait," for example, averaged 11.2 million viewers coming out of "The Big Bang Theory" (15.4 million), and NBC's "The Good Place" (8.1 million) opened reasonably well with a preview behind "The Voice" (12 million). For all the forces assailing the medium -- DVRs, cord-cutting, etc. -- those numbers suggest there's still some value to be derived from scheduling, and more inertia than one might expect from the existing model... | | | Debut of "Designated Survivor" | | | More from Brian Lowry: There¹s an interesting undercurrent to "Designated Survivor," the ABC series in which Kiefer Sutherland plays a cabinet secretary who becomes President after a terrorist attack. ABC is clearly hoping the show will tap into election coverage (they promoted it heavily around the conventions), and perhaps a hunger to see this sort of principled, ordinary guy thrust into the White House. The somewhat complicating factor is the massive explosion that sets the plot in motion. Read Brian's full review here... | | Tell us what you think... | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback- to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. See you tomorrow! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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