| | | | BREAKING NEWS: Ganntronc? | | Gannett-Tronc news is imminent | | Ken Doctor, writing for Politico, just published this Sunday night scoop: "Gannett's long quest to buy the newspaper company known as Tronc is nearing the finish line." The deal will bring USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, and other papers under one roof. The deal announcement could come "as early as Monday morning... Of course, given the many twists and turns in this process so far, further delays are certainly possible..."
Gannett started at $12.25 a share in April. The most recent offer was $18. Doctor says the likely price now is "$18.50 to $19." Read more... | | What's next from the NYT? | | On September 23, there was a surprise in Susanne Craig's NYT mailbox: an envelope containing three pages from Donald Trump's 1995 tax returns. By now you know ALL about the revelations. So here's the backstory:
-- Why Craig? Why did the source choose her? Craig's editors think it's because of her deeply reported August story, "Trump's Empire: A Maze of Debts and Opaque Ties"
-- At first, she was concerned that the docs weren't real. "We got a group of people together," she told me on "Reliable Sources..." Watch the interview here...
-- Will Trump's lawyers follow through on the pre-publication legal threat? NYT bosses don't think so. (Can you imagine the discovery process?)
-- Is the NYT sitting on more documents? "We're doing a lot of reporting around this," Craig told me. Sure sounds like a "yes" to me. She said "no comment..."
-- The return address claimed the file had been sent from Trump Tower. Does Craig know the source? "Again, no comment on that one." Hmmm...
-- Yashar Ali and Olivia Nuzzi are both wondering if Marla Maples leaked the files... | | | NYT economics writer Patricia Cohen tweeted to Craig on Sunday: "After 2 months, I finally checked my mailbox. What did I find? PR pitches, catalogs and Trump for president flyer." Book review editor Jennifer Schuessler replied with an idea: "We should do a newsroom-wide story about contents of our in-boxes." Science desk editor Michael Roston is surveying journos about snail mail... | | | Right wing media thinks THIS is an effective rebuttal... | | Drudge led with this for much of the day: "NYT PAID NO TAXES IN 2014." Breitbart dug up a Forbes story about the news org's tax payments...
-- Next: By Sunday night, Drudge had moved on to "Assange set to unload on Hillary..." | | | Yuuuuge Saturday night #'s | | "SNL" scored its "biggest premiere ratings in eight years," i.e. since the 2008 election season, according to Nielsen's metered market ratings, Variety's Alex Stedman reports.
We'll get more detailed #'s later this week. But in the overnights, the show "averaged a strong overnight rating of 5.8, and jumped 29% from its season opener a year ago... | | | Zurawik's take on "SNL," 2008 vs 2016 | | On "Reliable," David Zurawik said he thought the "SNL" debate sketch was "fine," "good," but not revelatory. "I started thinking, what changed?" Here's what he said:
"In 2008, late-night comedy and particularly 'SNL' was saying the things mainstream journalism could not say -- that Sarah Palin was one of the dopiest, goofiest-looking [VP] candidates we ever had. And, oh, by the way, she will probably be dangerous and a disgrace to us if she's elected. We could not say that. They could. It was liberating." But THIS year, "everybody, from editorial writers to people on the campaign trail, are saying all the things about Trump that were sort of revealed in Baldwin's satirical take on him. And that's a big change in the media..." | | Alec Baldwin-as-Donald Trump: "My microphone is broke. She broke it with Obama. She and Obama stole my microphone."
Michael Che-as-Lester Holt: "Secretary Clinton, what do you think about that?"
Kate McKinnon-as-Hillary Clinton: "I think I'm going to be president."
Check out Frank Pallotta's full recap of the show's return here...
-- Didja notice? Trump didn't tweet about Baldwin on Sunday... | | | More highlights from Sunday's "Reliable" | | -- Tim Graham, executive editor of NewsBusters, said the NYT is trying to intimidate Trump into releasing his taxes. "This paper has all the restraint of a pack of flesh-eating zombies..."
-- When Graham said everybody in the media is "out to destroy Trump," Daily Beast EIC John Avlon reacted: "When did the conservative movement start loving to play victim so much? When did that start happening?"
-- WashPost media columnist Margaret Sullivan's more nuanced view of Trump v. the media: "I don't think that 'SNL' or 'the media' writ large is trying to take down Trump." But there is a "way of thinking that many members of the media share," and it sometimes creeps into news stories...
-- Plus: Kristen Soltis Anderson and Margie Omero on Trump's promotion of unscientific web surveys... | | -- Jim Rutenberg's Monday column: "On Twitter, Hate Speech Bounded Only by a Character Limit." Twitter continues to swear that it's working on the problem... (NYT)
-- Margaret Sullivan's Monday column is about Trump and the head of CNN: "Twice, Zucker made Trump a winner. And twice, Trump made Zucker a winner..." (WashPost)
-- Over the weekend Jay Rosen compiled a long list: "What journalists say back when they are criticized for mishandling coverage of Trump..." (PressThink)
-- I missed this Jeremy Barr piece the other day: "Why Don't More Women Run Media Companies?" (AdAge) | | | "I have said enough for a lifetime" | | | The AP: "Vin Scully has signed off for the last time, ending 67 years behind the mic for the Dodgers... Scully closed his broadcast by telling viewers, 'I have said enough for a lifetime and for the last time I wish you a very pleasant good afternoon.'" Watch his sign-off here... | | -- LATimes editorial: "He has been the city's poet-philosopher..."
-- ESPN's Doug Padilla recalls "one of his go-to statements as his career winded down:" "I've always needed you more than you have needed me..."
-- FoxSports.com: "There will never be another Vin Scully, the last link to baseball's glorious past..." | | | Hey, Moonves, you're a hashtag now | | | BTIG Research analyst Rich Greenfield, who's been calling for a Viacom-CBS merger since June, just coined a new pro-merger hashtag: #LesIsMore. Greenfield wants more Les Moonves... He was linking to this WSJ story about why ad buyers are bullish on a possible reunion... | | | NYMag's special Obama issue | | | A powerful cover of this week's NYMag: | | | Jonathan Chait interviewed President Obama for this special issue, "Eight Years in America." Fox, Rush and the "balkanization of the media" came up a few times. Here's the interview.. And here's the special section... | | | Something I said on Sunday's show: Trump says so much that he overwhelms normal news cycles. We really cannot keep up. It's as if he goes on media benders with rallies and Fox interviews and tweets -- and WE'RE the ones who can barely stand up straight at the end of the day. Case in point: Trump's Saturday night rally. Trump pretended to be a sick Hillary Clinton, he questioned her fidelity, he attacked the debate commission, and that was just the start. Some 24 hours later, this Jenna Johnson story is the #1 most-read story on the WashPost web site... And for good reason... | | | No Ailes at debate prep now? | | | That's what Robert Costa tweeted: Trump "returned to Bedminster Sunday. Christie, town-hall guru, played central role. Priebus too. NO AILES... While Ingraham and Ailes participated in Bedminster meetings weeks ago, they are no longer involved in prep, per several sources..." | | | "What the news needs to do now" | | That's the title of John Avlon's must read column on CNNMoney -- a perfect companion to his comments on Sunday's "Reliable." He writes: After months of struggling with false equivalencies, news organizations are getting off the bench, belatedly realizing that this surreal election needs more than the usual amount of genteel refereeing to ensure a fact-based debate."
Read the full column here... | | | This election is "The Howard Stern Show" | | | Only in 2016 would Howard Stern be a central character of the election. Trump's many visits to "The Howard Stern Show" are now fodder for attack ads, BuzzFeed stories and even a Stern name-drop during Monday's debate. In some way it's fitting, right? The shock jock radio host smack dab in the middle of a shocking election year. Here's my piece about Stern's role in this campaign season, from Friday's "CNN Tonight..." | | | Abby Brooks, Logan Whiteside and I made a video looking at what Fox's Trump interviews are really like. What's missing, time and time again, are followup questions. Watch here… | | During the aforementioned interview with Susanne Craig, I showed her how "Fox & Friends" host Abby Huntsman framed her scoop: "A bold move from The New York Times, trying to take down Donald Trump..."
"Take down Trump?" Craig's rejoinder: "I think it's called reporting. I mean, it's simple as that." | | | Interview with WashPost editorial page editor | | | My question to WashPost editorial page editor Fred Hiatt on Sunday morning: "Do you view this year as fundamentally different, for editorial pages like yours and many others that are supporting Clinton, and going a step further and warning against Trump in very explicit ways?" Hiatt: "I think it is fundamentally different, because this election is fundamentally different from anything any of us have ever known." Watch the rest here... | | "Oh, I could be doing the 'Apprentice' right now."
--Trump at his aforementioned Saturday night rally. Jenna Johnson says he was "seeming to harken back to a happier time in his life..." | | | Anderson Cooper interviews Nate Parker | | Chloe Melas emails: Nate Parker sat down with Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" for his first American TV interview about this 1999 rape case. Parker, who at one point became visibly choked up, refused to offer an apology to his accuser's family and said he "doesn't feel guilty." Cooper pointed out that some people are threatening to boycott his film's Oct. 7 release, to which Parker responded, "I do feel that's unfortunate." Read more from Chloe... And watch the "60" interview here... -- Brian Lowry adds: Watching "60," there's an interesting juxtaposition of the talks he had with Cooper before and after the controversy regarding the rape accusation surfaced. In the latter interview, he seemed far more subdued, and sought to make the case that the history of his film, "The Birth of a Nation," is bigger than his role in it... | | -- Jamie and I went to the NYFF premiere of "Hamilton's America" on Saturday night. As Owen Gleiberman writes in this review, the PBS doc "puts you backstage — and center stage — at the moment when" Lin-Manuel Miranda "turned pop culture upside down..." (Variety)
-- "Westworld" premiered Sunday night... Can't wait to catch it on demand... Here's Brian Lowry's full review (CNN)
-- "'Miss Peregrine' and 'Deepwater Horizon' topped the weekend box office..." (Box Office Mojo) | | 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... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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