| | | | | This newsletter is all about two big stories -- Sunday night's game and a weekend full of Trump news. Scroll down to get caught up... | | Illegal voting back in the headlines | | Bill O'Reilly's taped sit-down with President Trump aired in the 4 p.m. ET hour on Fox. O'Reilly rather gently asked about the criticism of Trump's nonsensical claim that 3+ million people cast illegal votes last November. POTUS fell back on his "many people are saying" defense twice:
-- "Many people have come out and said I am right, you know that..."
-- "I think I already have" been proven correct, "a lot of people have come out and said that I am..."
At one point O'Reilly said Trump needed "data to back that up." Trump eventually said "forget that, forget that," meaning forget about the claim about 3+ million illegal votes -- he pivoted to fraudulent registrations, which is a different subject, and said VP Mike Pence will head up a commission to look into that... | | "A lot of killers around" | | Fox released this teaser on Saturday, showing Trump and O'Reilly talking about Putin...
O'REILLY: He's a killer though. Putin's a killer.
TRUMP: Lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. Boy you think our country's so innocent?
---This is where Fox ended the teaser. On Sunday, the rest of the exchange was shown---
TRUMP: You think our country's so innocent?
O'REILLY: I don't know of any government leaders that are killers.
TRUMP: Well – take a look at what we've done too. We've made a lot of mistakes. I've been against the war in Iraq from the beginning.
O'REILLY: Mistakes are different than--
TRUMP: A lot of mistakes – okay – but a lot of people were killed. So a lot of killers around, believe me.
-- Noah Shachtman tweets: "Give @oreillyfactor some credit. This is a truly revealing exchange..."
-- Bill Kristol poses an "obvious follow up:" "Could you give an example of a US government official who's a 'killer?' Whom do you have in mind?" | | | Did anyone else think this was a subdued version of O'Reilly? His pre-game interviews with President Obama in 2011 and 2014 were more fiery... | | | Ten minutes aired on Sunday. The full interview was about 40 minutes long, according to O'Reilly... And at one point, Trump went after the press. Fresh parts of the interview will air on Monday and Tuesday's "O'Reilly Factor..." And then Fox will post the entire interview online... | | POTUS predicts Patriots will win | | | "I don't even know the odds," Trump told O'Reilly before predicting a Patriots victory. "By how many points?" "By eight points..." | | What time is the Super Bowl? | | | The official kickoff time is 6:30 p.m. ET according to Fox... | | | Frank Pallotta emails: Much of this NFL season was defined by how many viewers were or more importantly were NOT tuning in, so let's end it with a guess about how many will tune in tonight. Last year's game had 111.9 million viewers, ranking #3 in U.S. TV history. So where will this year's game fall? If I were a betting man (and I am), I'd take the over, but just barely: 112.4 million. Tom Brady and the either beloved or despised Patriots, a fun and high scoring Falcons offense, Lady Gaga being Lady Gaga, and a country that's definitely ready for some football should help the game top last year's number. Now, would the number have been much bigger if, say, my Green Bay Packers were in it? Well, let's just save that question for next season... | | So who's taking the under with me? | | | What's your guesstimate? I think Frank is overly optimistic... I know I'm generalizing here, but the country just doesn't seem to be buzzing about the big game as much as in prior years... Maybe Trump is right that "politics has become a much bigger subject than the Super Bowl." I'm guessing 110 million viewers... | | | Chloe Melas emails: I'm gearing up to watch the Super Bowl for two reasons: the Falcons (my hometown team) and Lady Gaga. Don't take a bathroom break during halftime -- you won't want to miss her halftime performance, which is being hyped to go down as one of the best... | | | Dylan Byers scoops: Gaga's halftime show will feature hundreds -- yes, hundreds -- of lit-up drones, a source with knowledge of the show's production says... It required clearance from the FAA... It'll be the first time the Super Bowl halftime show has incorporated drones... | | | Here's the USA Today ad meter with all the ads. Voting ends at 1 a.m. Monday... Bill Carter and I will be on "New Day" a couple times Monday A.M. talking about the ads and all the rest... | | Are the ad slots all sold out? Fox won't say | | | The other day Brian Lowry wrote about how more and more advertisers are making their spots available in advance, trying to make the most of their $5 million buy. But are there any last-minute buyers out there? Any surprises? Fox pointedly has not said whether the game is sold out. According to Variety's Brian Steinberg, who filed this story at 4:08 p.m. ET, a spokesman "declined to comment on whether Super Bowl ad inventory is sold out..." | | What's your meal plan? Six-months-pregnant Jamie is cooking up wings for us at home, and she's stocked the kitchen with dips, chips and guac. I've got New England beer (Mayflower Brewing Co. and Sam Adams) in the fridge, but that's not a reflection of which team we're rooting for...
-- If you need last-minute recipe ideas, CNNMoney's David Goldman sent over these "five essential rules of nachos..." | | Behind the scenes of the "Puppy Bowl" | | | Animal Planet is airing its annual "Puppy Bowl" opposite the game all evening long. Lisa France went behind the scenes! Check it out... (p.s. there's also a "Kitten Bowl" on Hallmark and a "Fish Bowl" on NatGeo this year) | | One of the most coveted spots on TV... | | | "24: Legacy" has the prime post-game spot on Fox. Lisa France recently went on set to talk with the cast members... Read all about it here... | | | According to the overnight Nielsen #'s, "SNL" with Kristen Stewart and Melissa McCarthy was a big ratings draw... Scroll down for more... | | Rethinking how Trump aides are interviewed | | I want to say thank you for the overwhelming # of emails on Friday and Saturday -- I asked whether TV networks should think twice about interviewing Trump aides like Kellyanne Conway and heard from hundreds of you. It informed the "A block" of Sunday's show.
Tara Dowdell said the networks should rethink their approach, saying there's been a "pattern" of lying by Trump reps, but Errol Louis disagreed, saying "we're not here to pick and choose who is worthy of being heard." Watch the discussion here…
-- Related: Part two of the segment: "Does the White House have a credibility problem?" | | Hey journalist, are you having a "nervous breakdown?" | | | CNNMoney's Jill Disis writes: Media columnist Michael Wolff says journalists are "having a nervous breakdown" as they attempt to cover President Trump... On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," he said press goes into a "fit of apoplexy" after every move from the W.H. -- an overreaction he said damages the media's credibility. "As we try to go after his credibility, our credibility becomes equally a problem..." | | Wolff calls me "ridiculous" | | If any show on television should be open to criticism, it's "Reliable Sources," a show all about how the media works and doesn't work. So it was in that spirit that I asked Wolff about his recent Newsweek column, in which he criticized me for turning "to the camera every Sunday morning" and delivering "a pious sermon about Trump's perfidiousness."
Wolff told me I'm borderline "ridiculous" sometimes: "The media should not be the story. Every week, in this religious sense, you make it the story. We are not the story."
My response: There's room for one hour a week of media analysis on CNN. "The media doesn't need defending at this moment?" I asked. "The media does not need defending by the media, certainly," Wolff said. Watch the entire exchange here... | | | Brian Lowry emails: While it's easy to appreciate Wolff's desire to be a provocateur, he has to be feigning ignorance about the nature of modern media to deliver the critique that he did. The truth now is that there's more time/space to analyze everything -- heck, there's a talk show devoted to "The Walking Dead" -- including the media's societal role in general and its relationship to politics in particular.
As evidence of how the process works, you'll only need to watch "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday, which will be an extended airing -- with analysis -- of his Trump interview. Nor is it going out on a limb to say, in advance, that most of the guests will likely spend part of their time discussing the mechanics of the interview itself and assuring the host that he did a terrific job... | | | As Wolff said: "We spend time on this story because it's so interesting... It's a kind of golden media age right now." | | You either believe this is a relatively "normal" presidency, or you believe it's not. I tend to side more with retiring Politico columnist Roger Simon, who said later on in the program, "Are we supposed to pretend this is an ordinary president and the times are ordinary? They're not."
Simon said journalists need to "defend the truth... We're not here to give politicians a break..." Journalists should be "checking the truth, dividing truth from fiction, pointing out how ridiculous some of his, in fact, almost all of his statements are..." | | -- "It's time to stick a silver-plated fork in it." Margaret Sullivan says the W.H. Correspondents' Dinner should be cancelled... (WashPost)
-- A fascinating public editor column by Sullivan's successor Liz Spayd, all about the NYT editing processes... (NYT)
-- No new updates in this lawsuit against BuzzFeed over the weekend... (LawNewz) | | USA divided about Trump -- and about the coverage of him | | Via CNN's polling director Jennifer Agiesta: New CNN/ORC polling data, released on Sunday morning, finds that "42% of Americans feel the media is being too critical of President Trump, 36% that the media are providing fair treatment to the president and 22% that the media aren't being critical enough."
-- My take: This data overlaps almost exactly with Trump's approval/disapproval figures. Only 3% of Trump supporters say the press hasn't been critical enough. On the flip side, among those who disapprove of Trump, only 7% say the coverage has been too critical...
-- For comparison's sake: At the start of President Obama's first term, "55% felt the media was giving the new president a fair shake, 18% that media were too critical and 26% not critical enough," Agiesta says... | | "Leakiest White House" in decades | | On Sunday's show, I asked Errol Louis and Carolyn Ryan about all the leaks emanating from the W.H., even leaks ABOUT leaks. Ryan said a "very leaky campaign around Trump" has followed him "into the White House."
Key quote: "I think we're going to have the leakiest White House that we have seen in decades, partly because of colliding agendas among the Trump factions, partly because now they are also colliding with a permanent government..."
-- Panelist (and former "Apprentice" contestant) Tara Dowdell tweeted after the show: "I am convinced that some of the many leaks coming out of the White House are not just coming from aides but from Trump himself..." | | Melissa McCarthy became Sean Spicer on "SNL." It was a "sketch for the ages," Bill Carter tweeted. "Matches best show has ever done."
"I'd like to begin today by apologizing on behalf of you to me for how you have treated me these last two weeks. And that apology is not accepted," McCarthy-as-Spicer said. And then she was off... If you somehow haven't seen it yet, click here... | | No on-camera briefing on Monday... | | | Spicer tweeted Sunday afternoon: "POTUS visiting CENTCOM & SOCOM Monday. Next press briefing on Tuesday." | | Don't overlook the cold open | | Spicer was the most-buzzed-about sketch on Sunday morning, but the cold open was also harshly critical, with "Steve Bannon" goading the president into making angry phone calls to other world leaders.
This tweetstorm by entertainment writer Mark Harris stood out to me: "I can't remember a sketch so directly meant for one person -- its subject. We're in an odd place for satire in that SNL knows how deeply and personally Trump takes it. And instead of choosing what's funniest... SNL chose what would enrage him most: A picture of Trump as a tiny man at a baby desk playing with toys while Bannon pulls the strings. So whether it works for you or not depends on whether you think its function was to make us laugh or to tell him the worst thing possible." | | On Thursday, Trump's Facebook account shared a story titled "Kuwait Issues Its Own Trump-esque Visa Ban for Muslim-Majority Countries." Trump (or one of his aides) added the word "Smart!"
But the anonymously-sourced story is unproven. Multiple governments have denied it. If a news outlet did this, Trump would call it "fake news." This is one example of West Wing sloppiness -- one of many examples from the past week. I showed some of them on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" to make the case that sloppiness DOES matter... Watch the essay on Twitter or on CNN.com... | | Multiple corrections to Rogin's column | | Reporters covering the White House cannot afford to be sloppy either. On Saturday WashPost columnist and CNN analyst Josh Rogin published a column about an apparent battle between Steve Bannon and DHS Secretary John Kelly. It said Steve Bannon traveled in person to confront Kelly over a key aspect of the travel ban. But Rogin didn't call the White House for comment before publishing. Afterward, Sean Spicer denied that Bannon traveled to Kelly's office. The Post published multiple corrections.
Here's what Spicer told me in a text message Sunday morning: "The Post printed a false story, didn't follow basic standards, and then covered it up."
But as Spicer is fond of saying, this is a two-way street. Conway's errors about the "Bowling Green Massacre" and the press office's typos and Trump's fake news on Facebook all shows sloppiness coming straight from the White House. I think the public should hold both the president and the press to the highest of standards...
-- Related: HuffPost's Michael Calderone has more info on the Rogin column here... | | Watch/read/listen to Sunday's show | | | 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. | | | | | |
Post a Comment