| | | | In a sudden reversal tonight, NBC News said Billy Bush is suspended, effective immediately. Right now it is unclear if he will EVER be back on the broadcast. The best source I have inside the "Today" show predicts NO.
For the 48 hours after the tape was revealed, NBC sources indicated that Bush would still be in his 9am co-host chair on Monday, despite the chorus of calls for disciplinary action against him. As late as Sunday morning, the plan called for Bush to use Monday's broadcast to reiterate the apology he made Friday. But on Sunday afternoon, senior NBC executives made the decision to bench Bush, effectively reprimanding him. And a few hours later, this memo came out... | | | "There is simply no excuse for Billy's language and behavior" | | From "Today" exec in charge Noah Oppenheim:
Dear TODAY Family -- I know we've all been deeply troubled by the revelations of the past 48 hours.
Let me be clear -- there is simply no excuse for Billy's language and behavior on that tape. NBC has decided to suspend Billy, pending further review of this matter.
If any of you have any questions or concerns please reach out to me directly, anytime day or night.
Best, Noah | | | According to the WSJ's Joe Flint, decisions about releasing the "Access Hollywood" tape reached to the highest level of NBCUniversal, to the office of CEO Steve Burke. It's safe to say Burke is also involved now, in Bush's future... | | | Staffers were in the dark -- and frustrated | | | Compounding the problem and adding to the chaos at "Today," staffers didn't know what was going on this weekend. A frustrated on-air source told me tonight that staffers were refreshing Twitter to find out Bush's status. Until Oppenheim's memo came out, there was no official communication. Here's my full story... | | | Earlier on Sunday, the NYT reported that the outgoing voicemail message on Bush's extension at NBC says, "You've reached Billy Bush's office, he's busy making America great again, please leave a message." The voice is apparently not his... | | On Friday, when I asked a senior NBC source if "Access Hollywood" has more damaging video of Trump, the person said, "Not that I know of. Ask Mark Burnett." Meaning: Burnett produced "The Apprentice," so what does his production company have in the archives?
Many of us HAVE been asking Burnett's production company, now owned by MGM, and the company is staying silent... I'll have much more about this in tomorrow morning's newsletter... | | | What's your ratings prediction for tonight? | | | Before the #TrumpTape, my prediction was 74 million. Now? I have no idea. What do you think? Remember: "Sunday Night Football" is on NBC, which means one of the big broadcast networks is not carrying the debate... | | | ...If Trump had followed through with this? On Saturday there was talk inside Trump Tower about "a joint television interview" that Donald and Melania "would give to a major network," Maggie Haberman reports. "The deliberations over a possible interview were moving ahead despite Ms. Trump's lack of interest in appearing on camera." Haberman says Nancy O'Dell's mid-afternoon statement slamming Trump and CNN's KFile report about Trump on Stern caused the plan to be scuttled… | | | Trump told a couple of reporters on Saturday that he wasn't hearing from any GOP officials saying he should drop out. I tried to point out on CNN that this was unbelievable. Surely, he was watching cable news and hearing statement after statement. Sure enough, according to Haberman's Saturday tick-tock story, Trump kept "watching coverage on CNN, the cable outlet he derides as biased against him but still tunes in to most often, and becoming more upset as he saw Republican officials condemn him one by one…" | | | Two potential narratives tonight | | On this morning's "Reliable Sources," Matt Lewis told me he sees two potential narratives shaping up tonight:
"#1: Donald Trump is done… It's over… Republicans should save the Senate, but write off Trump…"
"#2: The other narrative is the Trump comeback story. Interestingly, I think the media is rooting for the comeback."
"Because it's more interesting," Hilary Rosen said.
But Angela Rye disagreed: "I don't think the media is rooting for a comeback story. I think that some of us in the media are just eager to finally hear the truth, and for the truth to set us free. And by that, I mean free from Trump…" | | 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 Monday MORNING with another special post-debate edition of the letter... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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