| | | | Trump's press conference drought | | More than two months have passed since Donald Trump last held a full-fledged press conference. Even Fox News has noticed. On Thursday's "On The Record," Brit Hume commented, "he's stopped, essentially stopped, holding news conferences." Byron York said: "He's way less accessible than he used to be, and the reason is, he used to get himself in trouble by ad-libbing in speeches and by doing media interviews. He's really clamped down on his own speeches… and he's doing fewer interviews."
July 27 was the last presser. Since then, he held one short Q&A session with a pool of reporters; took a couple of questions during his visit to Mexico; and took a few laps in the spin room after Monday's debate. Beyond that, he's been turning down almost every non-Fox interview request... With occasional exceptions for local media. On Thursday NH1's Paul Steinhauser asked him some uncomfortable Q's...
-- Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton held another "gaggle" on board her plane on Thursday...
-- Paul Farhi in Friday's Post: "All of a sudden, Donald Trump seems to have become press-shy..."
-- If Trump DID hold a presser, he would be asked about Kurt Eichenwald's reporting on Cuba... And David Fahrenthold's latest scoop about the Trump Foundation... | | | USA Today "disendorsement" | | "The USA Today editorial board for the first time is taking sides in a presidential race -- but it's not asking voters to back a specific candidate, but rather oppose Donald Trump," CNNPolitics' Daniella Diaz reports.
This is a DISENDORSEMENT. We're likely going to be hearing that word a bunch more between now and Election Day...
-- Mike Pence wrote the paper's traditional "opposing view" column...
-- Per Politico, the Arizona Republic is still getting death threats for its endorsement of Hillary Clinton...
-- Sam Bailey tweets: "I wonder if inflight magazines will come out against Trump..." | | | USA Today won't be the last... | | | Dylan Byers texts this tip from 35,000 feet: "Look for another major news outlet to make a historic, once-in-a-lifetime endorsement in the days ahead..." | | The "poll" problem continues | | On Thursday, for a third day in a row, Donald Trump misled people about political polling. His confusing claims are forcing several news outlets to reconsider whether they should post "who won?" online surveys after presidential debates. But Alan Murray, the EIC of Fortune and the chief content officer for Time Inc., told me he has no qualms about conducting the unscientific surveys.
"No one should confuse this with a scientific poll," he said.
Trump, however, IS confusing the two. So are some of his supporters. Trump keeps citing Time mag's "poll" as evidence that he won the debate. But the free-for-all "poll" is really more of a virtual "contest." In a phone interview, Time AME Sam Jacobs defended the usefulness of the tool, saying "we clearly identify the nature of the poll" and "we can't control what candidates do." No, but news outlets like Time could choose not to conduct unscientific web surveys. I wrote about this in detail... Here's the story... | | | Chuck Todd visibly frustrated by Trump aide | | Thursday afternoon on MSNBC, anchor Chuck Todd could barely keep a straight face while interviewing Jason Miller. Todd brought up the "polls," saying, "Jason, you've been doing this a while. You know those are bogus!" He went on: "They're not real, Jason..."
But Miller said the Trump campaign believes the polls are a "much more accurate reflection of what happened on Monday night." Honestly, this may become one of the seminal interviews of the election year. Asking about the Trump camp's insistence that Trump won the debate, Todd said, "I just don't understand why we are creating a reality that does not exist..."
-- Jake Tapper tweets: "Chuck is of course 100% correct, these unscientific internet polls are garbage..." | | | Seeking proof of Trump's preposterous claim about Google | | Todd also asked Miller for evidence to back up Trump's preposterous claim that Google is "suppressing" bad news about Hillary Clinton. Miller cited a story published by Breitbart, which actually just linked to a story by the Kremlin-backed Sputnik News.
So that's where we are, with 40 days to go... | | On Thursday morning CBS and Viacom received National Amusements' letter urging the two companies to consider a merger. CBS said it will "evaluate what is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders."
So -- a reunion with Viacom or a transaction with some other company?
Notice that the letter doubled as a warning from Shari Redstone that National Amusements (which controls 80% of the voting shares in both CBS and Viacom) will not support "any acquisition by a third party of either company or any transaction that would result in National Amusements surrendering its controlling position." Does that put Les Moonves in a bind? Consider:
-- "Moonves has previously raised the idea of a tie-up with Time Warner," the WSJ's Joe Flint notes in his latest must read. Flint says "Moonves isn't opposed to deals. He just sees a better fit with Time Warner..."
-- "Before Shari Redstone made a move for a merger, some CBS executives had been considering looking to sell the network to a big tech company like Google (officially, Alphabet) as a longer-term move," according to Recode's Edmund Lee...
-- THR notes that the "timing of deal talks" isn't clear. "At Viacom, the mid-November departure of interim CEO Tom Dooley could play into the timetable..." | | Brian Lowry emails: The Redstones' decision to try reuniting CBS and Viacom merely underscored how much time and trouble the company would have saved if they had just handed the reins to Moonves in the first place.
Lowry's take in his latest column: Synergy is an overused term in Hollywood, but Sumner Redstone clearly squandered a lot of it with his impulsive action to divide Viacom and CBS into separate entities. Read more... | | -- Speaking of the FCC: "Your smartphone's emergency alerts are getting an upgrade..." (CNN)
-- It's now official: Lady Gaga will be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show... (CNN)
-- Stat of the day: The WashPost now publishes "a new piece of digital content every minute..." (Washingtonian)
-- Facebook "plans a major ad campaign, including TV spots and billboards, to encourage more of its 1.7 billion users to stream live video..." (WSJ) | | CNNMoney's Seth Fiegerman reports: "The plan to do away with cable box rentals has hit a speed bump. On Thursday the FCC delayed a closely watched vote on a proposal that would require large cable and satellite TV companies to make their content available through free apps..."
It's been postponed indefinitely "as the agency works to iron out details amid intense pushback from cable providers, media companies and politicians." But Tom Wheeler says "we are committed to unlocking" the boxes. Read more... | | The Center for Communication held its annual awards luncheon Thursday afternoon at the Pierre, honoring and roasting John Landgraf, and several of FX's biggest stars were there: Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Louis C.K. Also spotted: Josh Sapan, Laura Michalchyshyn, Kevin Beggs, John Solberg, Alan Wurtzel, Jake Goldman, Jim Maiella, Richard Leibner, Peter Newman, Alex Weprin, David Lieberman, and the center's president Max Robins...
-- Deadline notes: While accepting the award, Landgraf seemed to whack Trump, warning against storytellers who offer "reassuringly simple answers to our deepest fears" and a seductive set of lies..." | | | Tough Q's for Obama at CNN town hall | | | Jake Tapper's town hall with President Obama at Virginia's Fort Lee military base was a "sobering reminder that the upcoming election, rather than being merely entertaining, is also a matter of life and death," THR's Frank Scheck writes. Trump and Clinton's names barely came up at all. Instead, "the thoughtful questions posed by military members, veterans and their families prompted equally reflective responses from the president." The town hall was #1 on cable news in the 25-54 demo at 9pm... | | -- The Daily Beast's Asawin Suebsaeng asks: "Who Does Sean Hannity Even Work for Now: Fox News or Donald Trump?"
-- BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski continues to own the "what Trump thought about invading Iraq" beat. Here's his latest find... From the mouth of Howard Stern...
-- Via Billy Penn's Jennifer Lin: A former Philly Inquirer reporter "recalls that time Trump called her the c-word" in 1988...
-- After Gary Johnson's latest "Aleppo moment," WashPost's Callum Borchers says Chris Matthews' "Hardball" is "where presidential nominees go to make gaffes..." | | | CNN's Lewandowski no longer receiving severance from Trump | | When Alisyn Camerota introduced commentator Corey Lewandowski on Thursday's "New Day," she said, "In previous appearances, we have told you that Corey was still receiving severance from the Trump campaign, but that is no longer the case, we are told." That's right -- Hope Hicks confirmed that the campaign has paid the "remainder of its residual contractual obligations to Mr. Lewandowski." In other words, one big final payment instead of monthly payments. So Lewandowski is no longer receiving any severance $$ from Trump.
"This is just a PR stunt," WashPost's Erik Wemple concludes. "No longer will CNN and Lewandowski and the Trump campaign have to answer questions every time a campaign finance report emerges..." | | Bloomberg's Felix Gillette has this must-read about the "shocking love affair" between Trump and the National Enquirer. He interviewed Enquirer EIC Dylan Howard, who says his readers love Trump... "My duty is to my readers..." "We have not been told, at any point, to go easy on Mr. Trump..."
-- More: According to Gillette, "if the Enquirer digs up a titillating scoop on Trump, the paper will publish it, Howard said," but so far none have panned out. (Really?)
-- Wonder what this is about? Howard says he has scoops in the works which will "shake the election to its very core..."
-- On Thursday night the Enquirer had its 90th birthday party at the Trump SoHo hotel... | | | Trump is still complaining about Lester Holt | | | Back on Monday Trump said Lester Holt did a "great job." But now he's done a 180. During the debate "I had to put up with the anchor, and fight the anchor all the time on everything I said," Trump told rallygoers on Thursday, adding, "What a rigged deal." | | | Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson: "Coming to a hard truth as a journalist. Trump is a feeling. If you have that feeling, no facts matter." | | | I'll be on CNN's "Early Start" in the 4 and 5am hours on Friday... | | "By employing the Breitbart publisher Steve Bannon, and by including both Laura Ingraham and Roger Ailes in his debate preparations, Trump has implicitly encouraged the conservative media to consider itself part of the campaign team..."
--An excerpt from Robert Draper's must-read NYT Mag cover story about the conservative media civil war... | | Draper's piece mentions George Will digesting Paul Ryan's June 2 endorsement of Trump "over martinis at home." The next day, he decided to leave the GOP. But what about those martinis? Dylan Byers emailed Will for the recipe:
4 pts. Plymouth Gin
1 pt. dry vermouth
Lemon peel
"Repeat, as necessary." | | | Nate Parker on "60 Minutes" this weekend | | Entertainment editor Megan Thomas emails:
Anderson Cooper and "60 Minutes" scored the first broadcast sit-down with Nate Parker since the rape allegations resurfaced. This preview had people in Hollywood talking on Thursday -- coupled with this Variety opinion piece from the alleged victim's brother -- the controversy doesn't seem to be dying... | | | "Empire" storyline about police brutality | | | Lisa France reports: "Empire" waded into #BlackLivesMatter Wednesday night and the hit Fox series is being hailed for it. Read Lisa's full story (including spoilers) here... | | | Riding along with Jeffrey Katzenberg | | Variety's co-EIC Claudia Eller says Jeffrey Katzenberg "refused to talk to me for a decade because he hated my 'negative' coverage of DreamWorks. He tried to get me fired from my last job at the L.A. Times, and tried to dissuade my boss from hiring me at Variety!" But, Eller says, "we're good now." Proof: this in-depth interview, including a ride along with the newly unemployed exec...
— What's next for Katz: "I'm going to try and build something new, bigger, and better than anything I've ever done before. I want to build a new media-technology company…" Not in the movies/TV space… | | -- Anheuser, which pays CBS a LOT of money for ads, has been getting some freebies lately… Bud Light product placements during Stephen Colbert's show... (Variety)
-- Lisa France emails: Kim Kardashian West says she's tired of talking about Taylor Swift -- but there she is talking about her feud with the singer on the Oct. 8 cover of Billboard magazine. Even more people are talking about why in the world Kim is on the cover of a music magazine. Here's a hint: it's their TV & Music issue... (Billboard)
-- More from Lisa: Speaking of Kim Kardashian West, the celeb prankster who rushed her has explained why he was trying to kiss her famous rear end... (CNN) | | 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. 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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