| | | | | This is an abbreviated Friday edition because, let's be honest, TGIF... | | Since the WashPost published the "Access Hollywood" tape. Just one week. Feels like it's been longer, doesn't it? Every day seems to bring new accusers, new denials, and new cringe-inducing moments. Tonight, in response to alleged sexual assault by an ex-"Apprentice" contestant, Donald Trump announced that "in the coming days I plan on addressing our nation in a more personal way to present my vision... I will take my message directly to the American people and bypass the unethical press that wants to see their candidate elected."
What's strange about this is that Trump repeatedly "bypassed" the media by holding rallies today that were shown live on cable news and the Internet... | | | Billy Bush-gate: almost over? | | | According to TMZ, "Billy Bush showed up to a law office Friday morning... to hash out a settlement with the NBC execs who want to give him the ax..." and Bush's lawyer Marshall Grossman says, "I anticipate a favorable resolution in the near future..." | | | Zucker speaks about Bush, Trump, cable news, more | | At a Harvard forum this afternoon, CNN president Jeff Zucker was asked about Bush, and he said "I don't know that it's so clear-cut that he should lose his job." He was also asked about NBC's delay in broadcasting the tape. "I can't speak to the process that went on at NBC News," he said, "but my gut would have been to publish that story and put it on the air as soon as we came into contact with it" and verified it...
Zucker was asked about several other subjects, including Trump coverage... CNN's business strategy... Megyn Kelly... and more. He reflected on CNN's treatment of Trump, acknowledging that "in hindsight" maybe fewer of Trump's primary season rallies should have been shown live in full. (Then again, Trump did make news at practically every rally.) THR has a full write-up here. So does Politico...
-- On the prospect of a Trump TV network: "It's harder to do than people think it is. I think it's possible, but I'd be surprised if that happened. But I don't know..." | | | Trump and Pence's poll doubts | | My latest: Donald Trump has been deriding "crooked polls" all week, and his running mate Mike Pence has some doubts about the data too. "I honestly think that there's something missing in the polling these days," Pence said this morning on Fox News.
The Trump campaign is toying with what might be called "poll denialism," giving his supporters license to dismiss the discouraging data. At the same time, Trump is continuing to tout unscientific online surveys that say he prevailed at last Sunday's town hall debate.
On Friday afternoon he said he "absolutely destroyed" Clinton, citing "every online poll, even Time magazine," a news outlet that is "not exactly in love with me." A Time magazine spokeswoman confirmed that Time's web site did not conduct a "who won?" survey after the debate. Here's my full story... | | | Just published: Andrew Kaczynski reports: "In a previously unreported 1998 interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump compared sex to going to battle in Vietnam and joked he should be getting the Congressional Medal of Honor..." | | | MediaTakeOut founder says his story went too far | | Chloe Melas emails about her exclusive interview: I sat down with MediaTakeOut founder Fred Mwangaguhunga to discuss the libel lawsuit Kim Kardashian West filed against his celebrity gossip site. Mwangaguhunga acknowledges the site's reporting, which speculated that Kardashian staged her Paris robbery, went too far.
"Our #1 goal is to produce the most accurate information as quickly as possible and we did that," he said. "But now, looking back at it, you have a chance often times to look back and reflect on what it is that happened. It's now clear that she was robbed. It's clear that the reporting that we did hurt her, and we certainly don't want that to be what we do." He said he hopes the matter will be "resolved very soon..." | | Two headlines today -- out of Kansas and Wisconsin respectively -- which one will get more attention?"
"Three militia members arrested in alleged mosque attack plot"
and
"Two Milwaukee men charged with helping ISIS" | | | Guest list for Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | We're convening a Trump biographers' roundtable with Tim O'Brien, Michael D'Antonio and Brad Thomas... Talking about the "Breitbart election" with Margaret Sullivan and David Frum... And discussing Wikileaks coverage with Glenn Greenwald... Join us, 11am ET, CNN... | | | 24 days till Election Day | | | | Still no Trump lawsuits against NYT or other news outlets | | | Will Trump reschedule with Hannity? | | | Remember, he cancelled on Sean Hannity yesterday... There's no word on a new interview date yet... | | Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon posed this (obviously self-serving) Q on Twitter today: "Has @KellyannePolls done TV or tweeted to defend Trump since Wednesday's avalanche of allegations? Has she finally had enough too?"
Fox News promoted a Sunday interview with Kellyanne Conway... But now she has been replaced by Mike Pence, according to the network... | | | Hillary Clinton has no public events and no interviews scheduled between now and the next debate... | | | "Disregarding basic truths" | | Dylan Byers asks this question: "Why, in 2016, are so many Trump supporters disregarding basic truths in favor of an alternate narrative?"
His story about Breitbart News and Steve Bannon contains some of the answers. ICYMI yesterday, here it is. On a related note... | | "One of the ironies, I think, of the Internet has been the degree to which it's bringing us unprecedented knowledge, but everything on the Internet looks like it might be true. And so in this political season, we've seen just -- you just say stuff. And so everything suddenly becomes contested. That I do not think is good for our democracy..."
--President Obama speaking at the White House Frontiers Conference yesterday... | | | Echoes of Ailes scandal in Fox's coverage this week | | Tom Kludt emails: Last night on Fox News, Kimberly Guilfoyle offered some advice to victims of sexual abuse amid the cascading allegations against Donald Trump. "We can learn from all of this," she said, "that as soon as something happens to you, you come out, be empowered and say something."
Guilfoyle was immediately admonished by her co-host on "The Five," Greg Gutfeld, who pointed out that victims "don't always come out immediately."
For me, the exchange highlighted a tension that has loomed over Fox since this summer, when the channel's founder and chief executive Roger Ailes was ousted over his own sex abuse scandal. Guilfoyle sounded a similar note at that time, questioning why former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson didn't bring forth her lawsuit against Ailes sooner. (Guilfoyle was, according to Vanity Fair, pushed by Ailes' wife Beth to defend him publicly.)
This week, with woman after woman levying explosive charges against Trump, there have been inescapable echoes at Fox News. Read Tom's full story here... | | -- Tablet mag's Chris Pomorski asks: "What will become of Jared Kushner?" (Tablet)
-- "Sources say NBA insider Chris Broussard is leaving ESPN to go to FS1..." (Sporting News)
-- Erica Hill talks with TheWrap's Brian Flood at the end of her first week anchoring on HLN... (TheWrap) | | | What CBS is doing as it explores a potential merger | | Bloomberg's Alex Sherman scoops: "CBS is close to hiring Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase to advise CEO Les Moonves and the management team as it explores a potential merger with Viacom, people with knowledge of the matter said... The banks have begun talks with executives about a possible transaction... CBS may hire other banks as well..."
More: "While Moonves has the support of Shari and Sumner Redstone to run a combined CBS-Viacom, they have said publicly that they won't support a deal that requires them to give up control of either business. They aren't willing to offer him a stake or voting control of their family's holding company, people familiar with the matter said Friday..." | | | Why Nov. 15 is a big day in the book world | | | WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg notes that Bernie Sanders' memoir, "Our Revolution," and Megyn Kelly's memoir, "Settle for More," both come out on Nov. 15. And "both books are embargoed, meaning their publishers aren't releasing early copies..." | | | Reality check about Twitter's NFL live streams | | | Ratings guru Anthony Crupi tweets: "Twitter's Thursday Night Football live-stream #s are negligible. Through 4 games, average-minute audience is 276,500, or 1.9% CBS/NFL Network's 14.9 million..." | | -- Emma Stone is Vogue's November cover girl -- and she's the latest actress to take on equal pay for women in Hollywood, Chloe Melas reports... (CNN)
-- Leonardo DiCaprio is getting some heat from some fellow environmentalists over his ties to the 1MDB case, Sandra Gonzalez reports... (CNN)
-- Sandra emails: On Sunday "The Simpsons" will air its 600th (!!!) episode. We'll have an interview with the executive producers publishing this weekend... | | 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... And we'll be back on Sunday... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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