| | | | | Billy Bush likely to leave NBC by the end of this week | | "Billy understands he's a news guy who's become the news, and that's never a tenable situation."
That's what a source who spoke with Billy Bush Tuesday told me at the end of the day. Bush is definitely on the way out at NBC. Exit negotiations are ongoing, and his deal could be wrapped up by the end of the week.
"This is the unsurvivable perfect storm — a tape that could take down a presidential candidate, and he's a part of it," the source close to him said. Bush has learned from this terrible 96-hour period, the source added. But there's also a part of Bush that is frustrated... I'll write more about this on Wednesday...
-- A text from inside 30 Rock: "It's crazy how fast it went from 'he's fine' to 'he's gone...'" | | | Page Six is right, according to this source: Bush did talk about the "Trump tape" while covering the Olympics in Rio back in August. The conversations were with NBC colleagues; I'm trying to find out who. The plot thickens… | | | Many staffers at the "Today" show are relieved that Bush is on the way out. But Bush also has his defenders. "The women at 'Access Hollywood' love Billy Bush," a female staffer told me today. "He's generous. He's kind. An incredible collaborator." This person is deeply sad that Bush is "being portrayed like an absolute ogre. It's ridiculous..." | | | The thinking inside "Today" | | I wrote this story about the NBC News "internal review" of Bush, which is ongoing. "Everyone's just shaking their head," a "Today" staffer said.
Another high-level staffer made this important point: What's clearing the way for Bush's removal is that he is new to the show — "he isn't really a part of the 'Today' show family yet." This "family" concept, while easy to mock from the outside, is genuinely important on the inside. Read more...
-- BTW: Some of Bush's colleagues were scheduled to attend a surprise party for him on Saturday night. It was going to be held at El Toro Blanco (one of my favorite restaurants in the city) starting at 7pm. Now the party is off. (I checked with the restaurant -- the private room is now available if anyone wants to rent it this weekend...) | | | Brian Lowry emails: Given the bad PR and the demographic makeup of the program's audience, it's not surprising NBC would come around to this calculation. But it's worth noting that a big part of Bush's shtick was showing off how cozy he was with celebrities, which is what Trump was in 2005. And that says something about "Today's" priorities. When he got the "Today" show job, the selling point was that he knew "literally everyone in Hollywood," as this Variety column notes... | | CNN and TV One co-hosted a town hall with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders back in March. CNN's Jake Tapper and TV One's Roland Martin moderated. How did Martin's question about the death penalty end up in the hands of the Clinton campaign ahead of time?
That's the key question due to this email published by Wikileaks -- one of many emails stolen from John Podesta's personal account. Donna Brazile, who was both a DNC official and a CNN commentator at the time, told Clinton comms director Jennifer Palmieri that "from time to time I get the questions in advance," and then shared the text of a potential town hall Q, one day before the event. Martin read a similarly-worded question on the stage.
This revelation is disturbing for all the obvious reasons. As I wrote in this story, CNN flatly denied any coordination: "We have never, ever given a town hall question to anyone beforehand." Martin didn't issue any such denial. Instead, he told me that his Q's "were shared with my executive producer and several members of my TV One team." I followed up several times, and he never explicitly denied sharing information with Brazile... | | | -- More: When I reached Brazile, she told me that she was not choosing not to view any of the stolen emails. "This is exactly what the Russians intended to do. And they're doing it," she said... | | | Here's what I know from first hand experience: CNNers typically prepare for debates/town halls in what is informally known as the "cone of silence." Secrecy is prioritized and access is restricted during the prep sessions. What Fox's Megyn Kelly said Tuesday night was right: "I cannot imagine anyone at CNN ever leaking a question to anyone. It would be the height of unethical. I can't imagine it." | | | Highlighting the curious role of "commentator" | | | Media critics like Erik Wemple immediately raised questions about Brazile's complicated relationships. NYT reporter Nick Confessore tweeted that the email exchange is a "good argument against having campaign surrogates on staff at your network..." | | | Geraldo apologizes to Trump... | | Sunday afternoon on "The Five," Geraldo Rivera said "I have interviewed Donald Trump many times and been with him many times, and I have tapes. My brother and I have been starting to go through the tapes now and there are statements that, in the context of the current climate, would be embarrassing..."
Early Wednesday morning, Geraldo tweeted: "Contrary to my on-air remarks -- a search of my files found No Relevant #TrumpTapes. There is 1 re: ugly feud w Rosie O'Donnell, an old story... I apologize to @realDonaldTrump for piling on & adding fuel to #TrumpTapes scandal. You always treated me and mine w respect & friendship." | | | On Tuesday night Bill O'Reilly landed Donald Trump's first TV interview since the "Access Hollywood" tape came out... | | -- On Paul Ryan: "I don't want his support. I don't care about his support. What I want to do is I want to win for the people."
-- On Clinton: "If she didn't have the press on her side… She'd be at 10% right now."
-- On friendly media: "Sean Hannity is a great, great person." | | | Actual thing O'Reilly said | | | "I'm asking you the hardest questions I can ask you." | | | Sarah Ellison's latest must-read about Fox | | | Every graf of this VF story is worth reading, so go ahead and click here... Some of it is about the past (July's chain of events) and some of it is about the future (Megyn Kelly's contract). Check out the parts about Roger Ailes' wife Beth Ailes reaching out to "The Five" co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle for helping creating "public support for Roger among Fox News's personalities." This happened the morning after Gretchen Carlson sued. "Even Guilfoyle felt uncomfortable supporting Ailes to the extent that his wife requested." What an awful position to be placed in -- knowing Ailes was still the boss at the time -- she feared saying no to Ailes/his wife's requests... | | -- Speaking of Kelly: Success mag just profiled her... She declines to comment about Ailes... Remember, her book comes out in a month... (Success)
-- "Discovery Communications veteran Marjorie Kaplan is leaving her role as president of content for Discovery Networks International in London… Part of a broader reshuffle of the international organization… (THR)
-- Vox is launching a "travel content site" fully funded by Chase... (WSJ)
-- "The latest example of popup media:" Spy mag is coming back for a month... (NiemanLab) | | | LinkedIn's "Next Wave" list | | | LinkedIn's "Next Wave" list -- of top pros 35 and under -- is out, and it includes these ten media makers: Snapchat's Nick Bell, Vice's Nellie Bowles, Odyssey's B. Evan Burns, Blavity's Morgan DeBaun, Lenny's Jessica Grose, Politico's Daniel Lippman, Reddit's Mark Luckie, NYT's Jenna Pirog, BuzzFeed's Nabiha Syed, and Bloomberg's Monique White. Check it out here... | | | Liz Heron leaving HuffPost | | | Liz Heron, exec editor of The Huffington Post, "is leaving that organization about a year after being appointed the newsroom's second-in-command," Poynter's Ben Mullin reports. "Heron was viewed as a possible successor" to Arianna Huffington... Still no word on who will be the new EIC... | | | Jeffrey Goldberg is The Atlantic's new EIC | | | News from early this morning: Jeffrey Goldberg is The Atlantic's new editor-in-chief, replacing James Bennet, who moved to the NYT. Here's Dylan's story about the hire... | | | -- Erik Wemple says one thing on Goldberg's plate is: "What to do about news?" | | | Nick Denton's last shot at radical transparency? | | | WSJ's Lukas Alpert reports: "Gawker Media has asked the judge overseeing the company's bankruptcy to authorize a probe into the relationship" between Peter Thiel and Charles Harder... "Gawker's lawyers said they believed that Mr. Thiel may have been involved in financing as many as eight separate lawsuits that the bankruptcy process is seeking to settle..." | | | 27 days till Election Day | | | -- The Hill's Joe Concha says "The Daily Caller owes CNN an apology" for falsely claiming that Pamela Brown coached a focus group panelist...
-- There were several eye-popping stories about Steve Bannon on Tuesday, including this one by The Daily Beast's Asawin Suebaeng: Bannon bragging in 2015 that "I'm Trump's campaign manager..."
-- A very smart piece by Politico's Todd Purdum: "Here's why Mark Burnett won't release the 'Apprentice' footage..."
-- And Mark Leibovich's latest for NYT Mag, in print this weekend, is revealing about Clinton's approach toward new and old media... | | | "Unique access to the truth" | | This graf in Julia Ioffe's Politico Mag piece about lonely Alabama Democrats stood out to me:
"In a country cleft by bitter political divisions, people on both sides, it seems, feel like they, and perhaps a few people around them, have unique access to the truth, a truth everyone else seems to willingly, infuriatingly ignore. And trying to get through to others, even to just have a discussion, is an exercise in futility..." | | | Ripped from this week's headlines... | | Sandra Gonzalez writes:
Here's a story that might sound familiar: A politician's election campaign goes off the rails after the candidate's troublesome treatment of women in the past comes to light. Draw your own conclusions. But for the purposes of fiction, it's a story that will soon be told on NBC's long-running procedural "Law & Order: SVU." The show, a drama known for borrowing from headlines for its stories, is taking on the election with an episode called "Unstoppable." Gary Cole ("Veep") will play the fictional politician in question -- one NBC won't outright say was inspired by any particular political figure. Per a logline, Cole's character find himself on the defense after "several women go public with damaging accusations" that cause his campaign to go "haywire." The episode airs October 26... | | | -- More: Variety's Cynthia Littleton reports that the episode "has been highly scrutinized internally at Wolf Entertainment, home of 'SVU,' and by NBC brass. Sources said the episode was envisioned by the writing team as airing as the second installment of the 'SVU's' 18th season, which opened Sept. 21," i.e. before the "Trump tape" surfaced... | | | Ken Bone knows the media is about to stop calling... | | Here's what Ken Bone has learned in the last 48 hours, via THR:
-- "I think the most fun thing I have done was Jimmy Kimmel..."
-- "Anderson Cooper is probably the favorite person I have talked to so far. He really deserves his reputation as the nicest guy in national media..."
-- Wise: "I really don't think it's a long-term thing. When the media stops calling me in a few days, it's over. And when it's over, it's over..."
-- "Broadcast is a very difficult industry... I am going back to work at my power plant tomorrow..." | | | Breitbart seizing on its election season opportunity here? Earlier this week the site announced the opening of an online merch store that "reflects the same attitude with which we cover the news: bold, ironic and with some humor thrown in..." | | -- By Lisa France: The Country Music Association Awards are celebrating their 50th this year in a big way. They just announced the first performers for the show...
-- Khloe Kardashian is breaking her silence about Kim's robbery, Chloe Melas reports...
-- More from Chloe: Drake is canceling the rest of his tour due to an ankle injury...
-- Friendly reminder: Golden Globes credential requests are due by the end of this week... | | 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... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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