| | | | T-minus seven days. Every night between now until election day, we'll be taking a close look at campaign coverage... Beginning with Dylan Byers' deep dive into how Trump changed political journalism.
Spurred by Donald Trump's unconventional style, controversial statements and tenuous relationship with the truth, many journalists and news organizations became more emboldened in contextualizing, fact-checking and, in some cases, editorializing on developments in the campaign. Dylan writes: "The traditional model of 'he said, she said' journalism, in which news reports simply put both sides of a story against one another, was thrown out the window in favor of a more aggressive journalism that sought to prioritize accuracy over balance."
Familiar voices in the piece (to name a few): Vivian Schiller, David Fahrenthold, Margaret Sullivan, Robert Costa... and Brendan Nyhan, who calls it "the most consequential election for political journalism in my lifetime." Read Dylan's story here... | | Dylan emails: Here's the key question: Will this more aggressive journalistic approach continue if Trump loses and Clinton wins?
Jay Rosen says NO: If Hillary Clinton is in the White House and Republicans are in control of Congress, "the stage is set for a return to the 'partisan warfare' plot line of years past, in which journalists stand in the middle between warring parties and prove their independence by siding with neither. In other words, symmetry will be restored, and the status quo ante will come roaring back."
Vivian Schiller says YES: "This is going to be bad news for Hillary Clinton as well. There's a newfound toughness, a pugilist form that reporters have been embracing. Trump was the catalyst for it, but that's going to be on Hillary as well if she's president." Read more... | | | I'm filing this newsletter during the fop of the fourth inning... Who knows what'll happen in Cleveland... But ABC's Rick Klein tweets: "Game Seven is what the country needs. Could use a Game Eight, Nine, Ten..." | | | Hannity duped by a fake news story | | Sean Hannity was ensnared by a piece of fake news on Tuesday. And he used the made-up news to tell his millions of radio listeners that President Obama's legacy might be "jail."
How it happened: A web site specializing in fake news said that Michelle Obama had deleted her Hillary Clinton endorsements from Twitter. Now, this B.S. could have been disproven by a quick Twitter search. But a bunch of far-right-wing blogs picked up on it and added to it. By the time the story got to Hannity, even the fake facts were wrong. Here's the full chronology... I wrote it up as a classic example of how "fake news" goes viral...
-- Credit where it's due: Hannity responded to my request for comment... And even incorporated an anti-CNN message... Here's his response... | | Dave Weigel writes: "I'm starting to view the steady churn of fake/misleading news as a DOS attack on election coverage... Voters SAY they want coverage of issues. But every popular story right now is either scandal, or bogus news from http://RealTrueInfo.biz etc..." | | Margaret Sullivan is spot on about the overwhelming # of pre-election scoops -- some of them very significant, others downright flimsy -- in recent days. How's a reader supposed to keep up? She writes:
"Since Friday's development — that the FBI would look into more Hillary Clinton-related emails — we've been told: That the FBI has been investigating links between Donald Trump's former campaign manager and the Russian government. (Seems true.) That FBI Director James Comey refused to go public with this investigation because he was worried about affecting the election. (Could be true.) That there are ties between a Trump computer server and a Russian bank. (Clouded by reasonable doubts.) That Trump used an obscure loophole to avoid paying tens of millions in taxes. (Apparently true.)" | | | Brazile/CNN, one day later | | Following up on Monday's revelations about Donna Brazile aiding the Clinton campaign while working as a CNN commentator and DNC official: "CNN president Jeff Zucker described former network commentator Donna Brazile's interactions with the Clinton campaign as 'unethical' and 'disgusting' during a Tuesday editorial meeting, according to a source with knowledge of the matter," HuffPost's Michael Calderone reports.
Brazile resigned from CNN in October 14. (Her contract had been suspended back in July when she became the interim chair of the DNC.)
-- More: "What's known to date is that the leaks of the debate questions did not appear to come from within the cable network," WashPost's Paul Farhi wrote on Tuesday...
-- Farhi's colleague Erik Wemple has this list of questions for CNN, including: "What steps are you taking to ensure that other politically connected CNN contributors aren't corrupting CNN's journalism?"
-- Tuesday morning: Brazile shared a "New Day" link and said "I still watch CNN..." | | | Variety editor Claudia Ellers emails: "We are breaking with tradition by endorsing a presidential candidate for the first time in the publication's 111-year history." Here's the editorial... | | | Who's going to be up early? | | | Hey John Berman and Christine Romans, I'm bringing a jug of coffee! I'll be joining the "Early Start" duo at 3am Wednesday... Join us, 3-5am ET... | | | Gannett gives up on Tronc | | On Tuesday morning Gannett walked away from its much-ballyhooed negotiations to buy Tronc. Here's my story about it. In a statement, Tronc blamed Gannett's lenders, saying they "made their decision to terminate their role in the transaction without the benefit of Tronc's third quarter financials or any future projections." More...
-- What now? WashPost's Drew Harwell quotes analyst Michael Kupinski: "Gannett has been viewed as the consolidator in the industry … and if there is an opportunity to get back to look at (Tronc) again, I think they will..." | | | Wednesday at the Newseum... | | -- TCM's movie streaming service FilmStruck officially launched Tuesday... NYT's Mike Hale took a look... (NYT)
-- "Tim Carry, the executive who has for years helped 21st Century Fox wring millions of dollars from deals that made its Fox News available via cable and satellite, is stepping down after two decades..." (Variety)
-- ESPN's Darren Rovell tweets: "Good thing the NFL only did a two-year deal with CBS & NBC for Thursday Night Football. Time to kill it after next season..."
-- "How we grade the major networks:" USA Today has published a "report card" about TV diversity... (USA Today) | | | Cable news #'s up, up, up | | Off-the-charts interest in election coverage meant CNN, Fox News and MSNBC were all celebrating on Thursday. October #'s showed CNN beating Fox for the full month in the key 25-54 demo... showed Fox scoring enough total viewers to rank as "cable's most-watched network..." and showed MSNBC enjoying its "biggest audiences ever" among total viewers in total day and weekday prime time.
"CNN was in for a real October surprise," Variety's Oriana Schwindt writes. TVNewser's A.J. Katz explains the significance of the #'s this way: "Perhaps the cable news ratings story of the month is CNN's victory in the key news demo across multiple dayparts. The network won the prime time demo in February, April and July this year, but it hasn't won a month in the demo in both the prime time and total day dayparts since 2001. That drought came to an end in October 2016."
-- Horn-tooting: "Reliable Sources" was #1 on Sundays at 11am ET in the demo... | | | Fox Biz tops CNBC for the month in total viewers | | | Volpe in talks to join Politico | | Dylan Byers emails: Politico is in late-stage talks with Paul Volpe, the NYT's deputy Washington bureau chief, to join the company as executive editor -- which would make him the number-two to editor-in-chief Carrie Budoff Brown.
How to read it:
1. It would be a good get for Politico... Volpe's young and forward-looking, and this helps advance their digital ambitions...
2. It's a blow to Politico's Kristin Roberts, who was in line for the #2 spot, and Peter Canellos, who is currently in the #2 spot...
3. Many Times folk would be sad to see Volpe go, but it doesn't radically upset their bureau... | | | Devastating documentary about Newtown | | Brian Lowry emails: CNN's Chris Cuomo will host a "Town Hall" event/discussion in theaters Wednesday for "Newtown," Kim A. Snyder's devastating documentary on the Sandy Hook school shooting. Having watched a screener at home, I can only imagine what sort of impact it will have in that setting.
Here's Brian's full assessment of the film... | | | Quote of the day, election edition | | | Working class whites "feel that the press is either indifferent or, when it does deign to look at the problems of white America, it does so in a pretty condescending and judgmental way. So the gist of what you hear in a lot of these communities is that it's not just that the media doesn't care, it's that the media thinks we're all a bunch of dumb rednecks."
--"Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance in conversation with Vox's Sean Illing... | | | Tenth annual "Stand up for Heroes" | | | Frank Pallotta emails: I am heading to the 10th annual "Stand Up For Heroes" at MSG tonight. The evening, which benefits injured service members and is presented by the New York Comedy Festival and the Bob Woodruff Foundation, has an enviable lineup: Jon Stewart, Louis C.K., Jerry Seinfeld, and Bruce Springsteen will all perform. With the election less than a week away, there's bound to be some talk of Trump and Clinton... | | | Jake Tapper tweeted this picture and asked: "Kids are upstairs... Should I...?" | | | Animated "Caped Crusaders" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Adam West and Burt Ward are reunited — at the ages of 88 and 71 — in a new "Batman" movie. Thanks to Warner Bros. Animation, they don't even have to squeeze into the old uniforms. But the producers did have to engage in a bit of fancy footwork, given that the studio doesn't own the original TV series. Read more here... | | -- Adele opens up about her postpartum depression, CNN's Susan Scutti writes...
-- Chloe Melas emails: Former One Direction star Zayn Malik admits he battled a severe eating disorder while in the band. He details his struggles in his autobiography that's out now...
-- By Lisa France: Beyonce as black Barbie and Jay Z as Ken? These are the celebs who totally did Halloween better than you...
-- More from Lisa: Corey Feldman knows he's freaking us out lately, but he says he's just trying to spread a message... Here's what it is...
-- Big Sean's most famous song is "I Don't F*** With You." Now the rapper has used another tune to confirm the jam was about his ex, "Glee" star Naya Rivera... | | | 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 tomorrow night... | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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