| | | | | Less than 100 hours til ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA... | | | Scooplet: President Obama's get-out-the-vote effort for Hillary Clinton (subtitle: "Do not let me down, America") extends to Mitú, an online video network for Latino youth. Maybe you haven't heard of it, but the VC-backed Mitú calls itself "the leading Latino digital media company in the world," reaching "over 15 million young Latinos every day." So POTUS taped a conversation with "Jane the Virgin" star Gina Rodriguez for the web site while he was campaigning in Raleigh, NC on Wednesday. it is expected to come online on Friday... Another illustration of the big differences between HRC's outreach to Latinos and the Trump campaign's outreach. Scroll down for more on Clinton and Donald Trump's media strategies... | | | Fox's "indictment" talk knocked down by other news outlets | | Quoting Evan Perez on CNN Thursday evening: "There's been some reports out there today that an indictment is in the offing in the Clinton Foundation investigation. Everything we've known about this investigation -- that's been going on well over a year -- is that that's not true."
Where did those reports come from? Fox News. Anchor Bret Baier admitted on Thursday that he overstepped on Wednesday night when he said that an indictment is a "likely" outcome. He said he spoke "inartfully." Just Google the words Clinton and indictment to see how many conservative web sites published hopeful stories about his original claim. Meanwhile, Fox is sticking with the rest of its reporting about an "avalanche of evidence" in the case, relying on anonymous sources.
So what is this really about? Check out WashPost's Friday A1 about the FBI's divisions: "Internal dissension has exploded into public view recently with a series of leaks to reporters about a feud over the Clinton Foundation, an extraordinary airing of the agency's infighting..."
NBC, ABC and other news organizations have knocked down the Fox talk of a likely "indictment." So on Thursday evening, Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon said the FBI should make a statement "to put a stop to these baseless Fox News reports." TVNewser has a full explainer here... | | | Trump's script hasn't really changed | | We're rolling out big new features about 2016 campaign coverage every day on CNNMoney.com/Media/.
My latest story is a look back in time... to June 2015... when Donald Trump was still learning how to campaign. I drove up to N.H. to see Trump in action at a house party two weeks after he entered the race. Re-reading my notes now, I'm struck by how LITTLE has changed. Every media theme of Trump's mind-bending campaign was foreshadowed that day!
He attacked the media, calling out NBC's Katy Tur by name. He picked fights. He made big boasts and even bigger promises. He surprised and thrilled the voters. He even crowed about the crowd size. This is a "record setting crowd for a house," he said, while pointing to the media and saying, "They're not going to report that." He still complains about this almost every day... | | | Media/voter disconnect from day one | | Looking back, here's what stands out to me about that June 2015 event: Some of the journos in attendance (not Tur, but others) underestimated Trump that day... Dismissing him as a novelty act that would soon wear off... For example, some of the cameramen traded quips during Trump's speech, basically mocking his bogus claims. But the local voters watched with rapt attention.
Afterward, I interviewed an attendee, Sharon Gannon, who loved Trump's anti-media applause lines. "Oh, my gosh. I have been saying this for years," Gannon said. "I have been saying this for years. I don't believe the stuff the media says." Trump both tapped into his audience's existing distrust of the press -- and deepened it -- by saying "you can't believe the press." He essentially challenged voters to choose between the prevailing media narrative or his own narrative. Read my full first-person story here... | | | Megyn Kelly says Roger Ailes repeatedly tried to kiss her | | One of the most newsworthy parts of Megyn Kelly's memoir leaked out on Thursday -- almost two weeks before the book is being released. Radar Online somehow got ahold of a copy of the book and published excerpts of Kelly's comments about Roger Ailes. In a chapter of the book that Kelly added after Ailes resigned in July, she alleges that Ailes sexually harassed her and describes why she spoke with internal investigators about it.
Dylan Byers emails: Kelly writes that Ailes offered to advance her career "in exchange for sexual favors" and made "physical advances," which she rejected. In January 2006, she writes, Ailes "crossed a new line -- trying to grab me repeatedly and kiss me on the lips." When she shoved him away, she alleges, "he asked me an ominous question: 'When is your contract up?' And then, for the third time, he tried to kiss me." Read more... | | Ailes denies the allegations. "This is what Ms. Kelly had to say about Roger Ailes only one year ago on the Charlie Rose program: 'I really care about Roger. And he has been nothing but good to me. And he's been very loyal. And he's had my back. And he's looked out for me,'" his lawyer Susan Estrich wrote in a statement. "Mr. Ailes denies her allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct of any kind."
-- ThinkProgress editor Bryce Covert tweets: "FYI, you can both publicly praise and be harassed by the same man at the same time." Gretchen Carlson would second that... | | | Tucker Carlson wins Fox's 7 p.m. time slot | | Dylan Byers emails: So much for Fox News tacking to the center.... On Thursday afternoon the network announced that Tucker Carlson, the conservative pundit and founder of right wing news site The Daily Caller, will replace Greta Van Susteren in the 7 p.m. hour. (Brit Hume only agreed to fill in through the election.)
What it means: The move suggests that Fox News intends to broaden its commitment to right-wing opinion programming, despite the fact that 21st Century Fox has signaled an intention to become more news-focused after the election. While Van Susteren was seen as right of center, she at least had the resume and veneer of a newscaster... Carlson is decidedly conservative. He has defended Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigrants as "totally reasonable and rational" and accused President Obama of engaging in "Nazi" racial politics. Carlson starts on November 14. Read Dylan's full story here... | | | What about The Daily Caller? | | | More from Dylan: Carlson will no longer run editorial operations at Daily Caller, though he will continue to own it... | | "In a divided but social-media-saturated America, people on either side of the divide communicate over each other, rather than with each other. They regard news stories not as new information to be ingested and considered but as potential ammo to hurl at the other side."
--The New Yorker's John Cassidy on media in the "Two Americas..." This is a must-read... | | BuzzFeed's Craig Silverman has another must-read about fake news -- this time from Macedonia, a "global hub for pro-Trump misinformation" -- made by young people who don't care about Trump, but do care about making $$$ from all the clicks. Click here to read all about it... and cringe...
-- Related? Maybe? This latest "you can vote via text message" meme is a scam. Brooke Baldwin and I talked about electoral dirty tricks on CNN Thursday afternoon... Watch the minute long clip here... | | | Biggest baseball audience in 25 years! | | | Frank Pallotta reports: Holy cow, the Cubs did it and so did Fox. Game 7 of the World Series brought in the biggest audience for a baseball game in 25 years. The game averaged just over 40 million viewers, the best for any baseball telecast since 1991's game 7, when the Minnesota Twins beat the Atlanta Braves. That game brought in 50.3 million viewers -- in an era when the broadcasters had much less competition. | | Viewership peaked with a giant audience of 49.9 million between 11:30 p.m. ET and 11:45 p.m. ET as the game headed into the ninth inning. Some viewers gave up and went to bed during the after-midnight rain delay... I feel sorry for them...
-- More stats via Frank: Wednesday night was bigger than game 7 of June's NBA Finals; the Academy Awards in February; every night of August's Rio Olympics; and more than double the viewership for this week's "Sunday Night Football..."
-- The seven game series averaged roughly 23.4 million viewers, making it the most watched World Series since 2004... | | Chris Isidore reports: The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times printed about a million extra copies of the Thursday editions that heralded the win late Wednesday night. That's triple their normal output. And the copies were selling quickly. "This is by far the most copies we've ever added," said Stew Erskine, the product supervisor in the Chicago pressroom that prints both papers. More...
(Now, if only this happened more than once every 108 years!) | | | CBS earnings beat the street | | "CBS said Thursday that it earned an adjusted $1.05 per share in the most recent quarter, up from 88 cents a year ago and seven cents more per share than Wall Street had anticipated, and some of the credit goes to political advertising," THR's Paul Bond reports.
-- Important: "On a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Les Moonves said negotiations with Viacom are in the 'very early stages' and added, 'We will only do a deal if it is in the best interest of CBS and its shareholders...'" | | | "Scandal" will return one day before the real-life inauguration | | Lisa France reports: "Season 6 of 'Scandal' starts Thursday, January 19 on ABC and there's a mad dash for the White House..." Here's the trailer... | | | Final countdown to Election Day | | | | Clinton and Trump share a media strategy right now... | | Clinton and Trump are talking to voters in the final days of the race -- but not to reporters. Trump hasn't held a formal press conference since July. Clinton hasn't given a national TV news interview since September. Each campaign argues that their candidate is more accessible than the other side. But the bottom line is that journalists have many Q's for Trump and Clinton that aren't getting answered. Trump hasn't even appeared on Fox this week. Here's my full story...
-- David Axelrod's take: "In Trump's case, it is entirely understandable. His team wants him to stick to the script, which he can never do in interviews." As for Clinton, her aides "may fear getting dragged into an endless series of email questions that would obscure her imperative to put the focus back on Trump's character and temperament..." | | | Wait, does this mean no more Trump-Hannity chats? | | Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told me that Trump's on-message, off-the-TV-circuit approach will continue through Election Day, with no TV news interviews planned. She even rebuffed speculation about one last Trump sit-down with Sean Hannity... Though I wouldn't be surprised if he joins Hannity next Monday night, for old times' sake... | | Millennial/social news source NowThisNews scored this interview with POTUS earlier in the week, and now the startup is rolling out clips from the conversation. Managing editor Versha Sharma says the Obama interview "was the result of a year-plus of hard work from our Election team, growing the NowThis audience to 20 million followers and cultivating a highly engaged, overwhelmingly young audience that's interested in issues coverage (something they're not getting from a lot of other places)..."
-- More: NowThisNews also taped clips of Obama speaking straight to cam, urging young people to vote... Here's an example... | | | Politico's Ben White: "Do the youngs covering the campaign have strong memories of the 2000 Florida recount? I mean I'm not THAT old am I?" | | | >> I'll be joining John Berman and Christine Romans bright and early... 3am ET... so if you're reading this newsletter in the pre-dawn hours, turn on the TV and join us... | | | A cover that was made to go viral... | | | Time magazine's latest... A double entendre: | | GLAAD's latest report on LGBTQ representation | | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: GLAAD says in a new report that LGBTQ representation on broadcast TV is at a record high. But the news isn't all good... Get the details here... | | -- Wanda is finalizing its deal to acquire Dick Clark Productions for $1 billion, per Deadline...
-- And if you haven't read THR's profile of Wang Jianlin yet, click here... (THR)
-- By Lisa France: The stars of "Loving" talked to us about the timeless message of their film...
-- This year's list of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade performers is out... | | | 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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