| | | | | By Brian Stelter & the CNNMoney Media team | | | BUSY news day! Scroll down for all of it... | | Will Trump reject his approval ratings? | | "Approval ratings keep the president in check, forcing him to respect public opinion" is one of those Washington assumptions that's about to get tested. Bigly. Today I wrote about Trump's latest flirtation with poll denialism and what it means for the country. Trump tweeted: "The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before."
Who are the "people" he's talking about? Well, CNN/ORC released a poll at 6 a.m. showing a pre-inauguration day approval rating of just 40%. For comparison's sake, President Obama took office in 2009 with an 84% approval rating. President George W. Bush? 61%.
Later in the day, after Trump's tweet, NBC and the WSJ released a poll showing Trump at 44% approval. NBC's press release blast was titled "TRUMP TO ENTER OFFICE WITH THE LOWEST-EVER RATINGS FOR AN INCOMING PRESIDENT." Gallup also had Trump at 44% a few days ago... | | | The polls are not "rigged" | | So I reached out to former presidential pollsters. Three of them expressed concern about Trump's dismissive comment. A fourth former pollster, Fred Steeper, who worked for both Bush and his father, said "I faced plenty of skepticism about poll results over 40 years of polling."
Skepticism is one thing, but Trump seems to be reprising his campaign talk about "crooked polls." I mean, the subject seems to touch a nerve: just how popular is he? By casting doubt on the discouraging data, Trump is giving his supporters license to do the same. Drudge's misleading headline on Tuesday was "BITTER MEDIA PLAYS WITH APPROVAL POLLS."
Not true. The polls are not "rigged..." With the help of CNN polling director Jennifer Agiesta, I tried to explain it all here... | | | Here's what the Clinton, Bush and Obama pollsters said | | -- Clinton pollster Stan Greenberg: Tuesday's Trump tweet "shows how much he can be baited by bad news — and distracted from governing. Welcome to the NFL."
-- George W. Bush pollster Matthew Dowd: Bush "went out of his way post-2000 election to reach out and demonstrate he would be president for all. It is why his poll numbers rose between Election Day and inauguration, which is normal for a president. The opposite has happened for Trump."
-- Obama pollster Cornell Belcher: "The fact that you are asking me a question about polls being rigged is the madness, and big tent carnival foolishness of the game Trump plays so well. I'm not going to dignify the game he's playing by responding to the absurdity..." Read more... | | -- A must-read by NPR news boss Michael Oreskes: "We Cannot Tolerate Legal and Personal Attacks on Journalists For Doing Their Jobs." BTW, Oreskes will be on this Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." (NPR)
-- "Muslim women especially are often misrepresented in the media." Here's a very specific example, from Newsy's Noor Tagouri, who was mistaken for Omar Mateen's wife by the web site Raw Story... (Newsy)
-- Jason Rezaian tweets: "A year ago today I was freed after 544 days as a hostage in #iran. Life is filled w/ milestones but January 17 will always be a special day..." (Twitter)
-- Well that was fun (?) while it lasted... "Facebook looks like it's going to stop paying publishers to make live videos," Kurt Wagner notes... (Recode) | | Have you read the NYT's 2020 report yet? What do you think? From the POV of this former NYT reporter, it makes a lot of sense... Nothing radical...
-- From a longtime editor: "Big double down on subscription model..."
-- From a former rival: "This report? A year and a half by seven people... recommending paper get more visual and diverse and news readers can use? Sooo 2011..."
-- Tom Kludt's takeaway: "Some of the recommendations are familiar to anyone currently working in the news business. The Times has effectively transitioned into the digital age, the report said, and yet, there is more work to be done. It also called for a push to improve diversity, saying the Times staff should 'reflect the audience we seek.' There were also recommendations tied specifically to the next four years; among the group's suggested projects was a $5 million investment toward covering" Trump. "That investment is now in process." Read more...
-- More: Dean Baquet and Joe Kahn wrote in an internal memo: "There will be budget cuts this year. We will lay out the specifics in the coming weeks and months... We will focus cuts on the multilayered editing and production systems..." | | | Chatter about Megyn Kelly's new gig | | VF's Sarah Ellison just published another must-read about Megyn Kelly and NBC News. It reflects what a lot of folks in the TV news biz are saying... Wondering what Kelly's weekday and Sunday shows will be, and whether she's in line for some other chair... Perhaps in Studio 1A.
Quoting Ellison: "Any change to put Kelly into the main chair at the Today show 'has to be done over the long term,' the TV-news-industry insider told me." Read...
-- Brian Lowry emails: If there's one consistent thread regarding news stars through the years, it's that transferring them from one venue where they thrived to another — see Katie Couric's leap from "Today" to "CBS Evening News" — is hardly a slam dunk. That's been especially true, in fact, in moving hard-news talent to softer mediums like daytime syndication or the morning. That's not to say Kelly won't settle in nicely at NBC. But if history's any guide those leaping to these "Will she replace Matt Lauer?" scenarios before she even starts — including, likely, NBC News brass — are getting way ahead of themselves... | | | Josh Earnest's final briefing | | Parts of Josh Earnest's farewell briefing at the White House doubled as an "outgoing message to his successor, Sean Spicer," the WashPost's David Nakumura writes. Earnest said the briefings are "more than just symbolism..."
He said he never considered moving the briefings out of the West Wing... And he said he encouraged Spicer "to engage." Details... | | | Two Trump interviews on Fox | | | "Fox & Friends" co-host Ainsley Earhardt interviewed Trump on Tuesday afternoon... The chat will air on Wednesday morning... Meanwhile, Fox announced that Bill O'Reilly will sit down with Trump on Super Bowl Sunday... Scroll down for details... | | | "I don't like tweeting" (!!!!!!) | | | "I don't like tweeting," Trump told Earhardt. "I have other things I could be doing. But I get very dishonest media, very dishonest press. And it's my only way that I can counteract..." | | "We're all supposed to be in this together... If you're with an organization that's not CNN and you watch them just destroy us or try to destroy us, just because they don't like the story, which, is again, proven to be completely true, then you're next..."
--Jake Tapper to Seth Meyers on Monday's "Late Night..." | | | So much news about TV news commentators! | | | David Fahrenthold, J.D. Vance, other new contributors to CNN | | Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, a breakout star of the 2016 campaign for his coverage of Donald Trump's foundation, is now a CNN contributor. He was introduced with the new title on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" on Monday night, making it official...
Other new contributors named in CNN's press release on Tuesday: Jennifer Granholm, Rick Santorum, J.D. Vance, Charles Ramsey, Wesley Lowery, Salena Zito, Steve Israel, Abby Phillip... | | | Former Baltimore mayor joins ABC | | | "Former Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Tuesday she is joining ABC News as a political contributor. Rawlings-Blake will begin on-air work on Friday, offering analysis of the inauguration," BaltSun's Luke Broadwater reports... | | | Fox commentator Laura Ingraham might run for Senate | | | Laura Ingraham said Tuesday "that she's open to running for the United States Senate in Virginia next year," potentially setting up "a high-profile matchup with Tim Kaine," Tom Kludt reports. So what about her nearly decade-long run as a contributor at Fox News? The network has not commented on her status... If Ingraham forms an exploratory committee, that will probably trigger a termination announcement by Fox... | | | Yesterday I accidentally called Monica Crowley a "Fox News commentator." I meant to write "FORMER Fox News commentator." My educated guess is that she will not be returning to the network... | | "You know their work, now hear their stories." CNN's entertainment team has produced this 👌 series of "CREATORS" videos with artists like Ava DuVernay, Natalie Portman, Dev Patel, and Jon Favreau... Check it out! | | -- Claire Atkinson says Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam "told friends at CES" that "he wants to buy into cable..." Perhaps Comcast or Charter? (NYPost)
-- Big Spanish-language TV news via Meg James: Univision and Televisa are combining their programming divisions and Isaac Lee will run the combined enterprise... (LATimes)
-- What Rich Battista is celebrating today: "For the first time, Time Inc. catapults into the top ten digital audiences of online media properties," per comScore's December report... (Press release)
-- Brian Steinberg talks with Rachel Maddow about her approach to Trump... (Variety) | | | Turkey denies entry to NYT reporter | | Dylan Byers emails: Veteran NYT correspondent Rod Nordland was denied entry into Turkey on Tuesday, calling attention to a crisis in journalistic freedom as Turkey tightens restrictions on both domestic and foreign press. In a statement, Dean Baquet called the Turkish government's action "an affront to freedom of the press and an effort to keep the world from having access to independent reporting from Turkey." Read the Times' full report here... -- Bad and getting worse: The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 81 journalists have been imprisoned in Turkey and that more than 100 news outlets in Turkey have been ordered closed. | | | WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNUAL MEETING | | | Talk about a CNN spin-off "doesn't seem relevant," AT&T CEO says | | Some news from CNBC's interview with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson in Davos: "Speculation that AT&T might need to spin off CNN to get the deal through regulators would not be relevant, Stephenson argued, saying such a move would not serve to reduce competition. 'I don't know why we'd even talk about that,' he said. 'It doesn't seem relevant to approving a deal like this. What would be the competitive issue that you're remedying with spinning off CNN? There are not competitive issues with owning CNN."
True, but the speculation is rooted in the idea that the Trump administration will try to "punish" Time Warner and AT&T... | | | No need to set "hair on fire," Trump advisor says | | Speaking at Davos on Tuesday, Trump confidant Anthony Scaramucci said people "don't need to run around like crazy" because of Trump's controversial comments. Via CNNMoney's Ivana Kottasova: "He is saying things that are... setting off alarm bells and people are setting their hair on fire and running around, and they really don't need to do that," Scaramucci said. He also spoke about this with Christiane Amanpour... Video here...
-- Related: David Martosko tweets that Scaramucci "gave an interview to TASS. Yes, the Russian state-owned newswire..." | | | Super Bowl pre-game show interview | | Trump is going to continue at least one of Obama's traditions: a Super Bowl Sunday interview. On Tuesday Fox News announced that Bill O'Reilly will interview Trump at the White House on game day.
Context for this: The Super Bowl broadcast rotates between Fox, NBC and CBS. George W. Bush participated in the Super Bowl coin toss in 2002 and spoke with CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz before the game in 2004. The Obama administration made the game day interview into a tradition, starting with Matt Lauer on NBC in 2009, then Katie Couric on CBS in 2010, then O'Reilly in 2011.
The Obama interviews were normally live, but Trump-O'Reilly will be taped earlier in the day on Sunday... The portions that aren't shown on the pre-game show will be shown on the Fox News web site and the "Factor." Here's my full story... | | | Woodward says CNN is "clearly right" | | The NYPost might want to take back its "WOODWARD VS BERNSTEIN" headline. Via Melissa Mahtani: Tuesday on CNN's "New Day," Bob Woodward said "that CNN's reporting on a summary of classified information presented to Donald Trump was 'exactly right' and it 'clearly is news' that intelligence chiefs presented the information to the President-elect…" Details here…
-- Context: Over the weekend, Woodward called the dossier published by BuzzFeed a "garbage document," leading Trump to thank Woodward... But contrary to some of the tabloid coverage, Woodward never criticized his famed partner Carl Bernstein... | | | Seinfeld moves from Crackle to Netflix | | | What a world! "Streaming network poaches another streaming network's show" is now a thing. Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," one of the best known web shows on Sony's Crackle site, is "hitting the road and heading to Netflix," Frank Pallotta reports. This is part of a "multi-faceted production deal" between Seinfeld and Netflix... Including two stand-up specials and a comedy programming development deal... | | | Brian Lowry reviews two terrorism-related dramas | | Brian Lowry emails: As it happened, I watched the new History series "Six" and Fox's upcoming "24: Legacy" a day apart, and both are built on a premise of elite military teams that carried out Bin Laden-style missions abroad, and what happens after. There's a lot of everything in the "peak TV" age, but that was a pretty good shorthand sign of the current glut of terrorism-related dramas...
Read Brian's full review here... | | | Lady Gaga told not to mention Trump during the Super Bowl? NFL says "it's false" | | Frank Pallotta and Sandra Gonzalez report: On Tuesday the NFL denied that it gave singer Lady Gaga any instructions to avoid political commentary during her upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. NFL PR SVP Natalie Ravitz was blunt: "It's false. This is unsourced nonsense from people trying to stir up controversy where there is none. The Super Bowl is a time when people really come together. Lady Gaga is focused on putting together an amazing show for fans and we love working with her on it; we aren't going to be distracted by this..."
-- So how did this come up? Entertainment Tonight reported, via sources, that the NFL told the singer that she could not "say anything or bring anything up about the election, or mention Donald Trump..."
Speaking of Gaga... | | | For the record, part three | | | Via Lisa France:
-- Lady Gaga is getting ready for the Super Bowl halftime show by practicing in her backyard...
-- Steve Harvey is in a "Family Feud" with fans after making disparaging comments about Asian men and taking a meeting with Trump. On Tuesday he offered an apology to anyone he has offended...
-- Katherine Heigl and husband Josh Kelley welcomed their third child, a son, before the holidays. We are just now finding out about little Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr. now, however... | | | Highlights from Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | | Catch up on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. See you tomorrow! | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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