| | | | | TGIF! Lots of media news as this summer weekend starts... | | Trump's newest contribution to the English language: the phrase "killer networks."
The president's joint presser was carried live by all the networks. First he called on Dave Boyer of The Washington Times... then he said "should I take one of the killer networks that treat me so badly as fake news? Should I do that?" He did... calling on ABC's Jon Karl and telling him to "be fair..." | | "Media raise concerns about Trump retaliation after seating changes" | | ...That's the headline at The Hill. "We were in the equivalent of Siberia, no pun intended, when it comes to where we were seated" for Friday's presser, CNN's Jim Acosta told Wolf Blitzer. "That could be seen as an oversight on the part of the White House staff, but it could also be seen as retaliation over the reporting we're doing over here at CNN."
Quoting Alicia Cohn's story: "CNN reporters are typically seated with other cable news networks at the front of press events so that their cameras have an unobstructed view for stand up live shots."
-- Related? The NYT was placed in the back row... | | BTW: No Trump TV interviews for a month | | | We're coming up on the one-month mark since POTUS had a national TV interview... remember, he taped a sit-down with Fox's Jeanine Pirro four weeks ago... and there's no interview coming up that we know about... | | | A big get for George Stephanopoulos: on Sunday's "This Week," he'll have Preet Bharara's first TV interview since Bharara was fired by Trump. Remember, Bharara was in the room for James Comey's testimony on Thursday... | | Trump backers say it's "over;" experts say it's far from over | | | In this package for Friday night's "Anderson Cooper 360," I focused on the divide between the "pro-Trump media" and the mainstream media. For example: Donald Trump Jr. said on "Hannity" that "this is all passed" and "there's no clouds" hanging over his father anymore. Huh? On "CBS This Morning" Bob Woodward said "I think we now have about 5 to 10% of the answers to the questions we need." On the same program Bob Schieffer said "my general rule is that when things look pretty bad from what we know, it's usually WORSE." Watch the two-minute segment here... | | | Keep scrolling for #ComeyDay ratings data... | | AP says Gianforte will plead guilty | | On Friday evening the AP broke the news that Greg Gianforte will plead guilty to that misdemeanor assault charge stemming from his "body slamming" of The Guardian's Ben Jacobs...
-- BuzzFeed's Adrian Carrasquillo tweets: "Just worth repeating that he and his camp furiously denied this and said Ben Jacobs initiated physical contact before apologizing this week..." | | Bill Maher back on Friday night... | | | I'm sending out the newsletter before HBO's "Real Time" starts, but Frank Pallotta will be watching, and he'll have a full recap on CNN.com after the show... | | CNN cancels Reza Aslan's show "Believer" after profane anti-Trump tweets | | On Friday CNN parted ways with Reza Aslan, the host of the documentary series "Believer," whose profane anti-Trump tweets were widely criticized earlier this week. Season one of "Believer" premiered in March. Season two was announced at an event for advertisers in mid-May. Aslan's production company had already started working on the new episodes. But the network decided to cancel season two after Aslan called President Trump a piece of excrement, using an expletive, last Saturday night. There were other, older vulgar tweets as well.
Both CNN and Aslan took the high road in statements on Friday afternoon. CNN wished him well, and he said he recognized that "CNN needs to protect its brand as an unbiased news outlet."
"Similarly, I need to honor my voice. I am not a journalist. I am a social commentator and scholar. And so I agree with CNN that it is best that part ways," Aslan said. Here's my full story... | | How will the U.K. election result affect Fox's takeover of Sky? | | | In the next ten days Ofcom is scheduled to decide whether to approve 21st Century Fox's takeover of the rest of Sky. "The shock U.K. election result has increased the risk" that the deal "could be scuppered by political opposition," CNNMoney's Alanna Petroff reports from London. "Shares in Sky fell as much as 4% on Friday as investors worried that the strong performance by the left-wing Labour Party could slow -- or even block -- the £18.5 billion ($23 billion) deal championed by Rupert Murdoch. Labour, which has opposed the massive media takeover, gained seats in parliament following Thursday's election." Read her full story here... | | This Sunday on "Reliable Sources..." | | | I'll be joined by Trump biographer Tim O'Brien, who was once sued by the then-businessman, so he has some experience with Trump under oath... plus Clara Jeffery, Jeff Greenfield, Matt Lewis, Adam Goldman, and Andy Borowitz... see you Sunday at 11am ET! | | -- Important new reporting by NPR about the deaths of journalists David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna one year ago: "The two men were not the random victims of bad timing in a dangerous place, as initial reports indicated. Rather, the journalists' convoy was specifically targeted by attackers..." (NPR)
-- Noah Kotch, formerly of the "Today" show and Vocativ and Heat Street, is the next editor in chief and VP of Fox News Digital. He'll start work on Monday... a FoxNews.com redesign is also in the works... (Politico)
-- Speaking of NBC's "Today," longtime producer Jackie Levin will be the executive producer of Megyn Kelly's 9am hour... (Page Six)
-- I missed this earlier in the week: "Breitbart lost 90 percent of its advertisers in two months: Who's still there?" | | White House knocks Brian Williams for "irresponsible" report | | Oliver Darcy emails: The White House skewered MSNBC on Friday for a report which implied Trump may not have known the U.S. has troops stationed in Qatar. During Comey coverage on Thursday, Brian Williams cited a "person familiar with [Trump's] thinking" who said he or she was "not sure" the president was aware Americans were stationed in the Arab country. Williams said Nicolle Wallace had the same source. But the White House noted Friday that Trump was on record in a recent speech acknowledging Qatar "hosts the US Central Command."
On Friday afternoon Williams acknowledged on-air the remarks Trump made about Qatar in his Saudi Arabia speech, but did not retract his report. A network spokesperson told me the MSNBC was standing by it.
That said, the White House is unhappy: "This was irresponsible and lazy 'reporting' that shouldn't have happened given that the actual facts were readily available," White House spokesman Michael Short told me via email... | | | My take on the Nielsen ratings: Comey's testimony was must-see TV for a wide swath of the country, but the ratings weren't off the charts. About 19.5 million people watched at home via traditional TV, according to Nielsen's estimate. We don't know how many people watched out of home or via the web. Read more... | | Did Wednesday's release "rob the event of some of its impact?" | | | Brian Lowry emails: Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has provided some of the most cogent analysis of the Comey hearings, including his conclusion that the advance statement made available Wednesday robbed the event of some of its impact, despite the use of the word "stunning" more than once to describe it on cable Thursday. (Jack Shafer made a similar point, calling the written testimony "a sort of shooting script for the televised hearing.") Marshall also zeroes in, pretty succinctly, on the most significant aspects of Comey's testimony... | | "This is a time for all of us in the 4th estate and indeed all of us in North America to stand up for what we know is right. Objectivity. Truth. Decency. Facts."
--Jake Tapper accepting the Canadian Journalism Foundation's Tribute award in Toronto on Thursday night. Here's the full text of the speech... | | FRIDAY'S MEDIA BIZ HEADLINES... | | | "TV's upfront advertising sales market is starting to move," Variety's Brian Steinberg reports in this Friday afternoon story. "CBS, Turner, Viacom and Discovery have begun to sell advance advertising commitments for their programming schedules, according to media buying executives and other people familiar with the tone and pace of negotiations." It's not looking as rosy as last year... | | SiriusXM's stake in Pandora | | | "SiriusXM is making a big investment in streaming media service Pandora -- but it's not taking over Pandora as many had thought it would," CNNMoney's Paul R. La Monica reports. Sirius is "buying $480 million worth of convertible preferred shares in Pandora," eventually giving it a 16% stake... Shares of Pandora rose nearly 6% on the news... | | Inside Univision's messy Gawker purchase | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: Maxwell Tani at Business Insider has a very interesting read about the messy merger between Gizmodo Media Group, born from the ashes of Gawker, and Univision's Fusion Media Group. The integration "has chipped away the spirit and ethos of Gawker Media," Tani writes. "Every day, morale got worse because it felt like Univision was determined to stamp out all the great things about working at Gawker Media," a former GMG staffer is quoted saying... | | Agree/disagree with this? | | The president's Twitter account is a destabilizing force for our government right now.
-- Politico's Josh Dawsey writes: "It sometimes still amazes me how much President Trump's time in office has been shaped by a social media site with 140-character missives..."
--> ICYMI: "W.H. social media director Dan Scavino warned after tweet..." | | Wishful thinking by NYC mayor... | | CNNMoney's Danielle Wiener-Bronner emails: Speaking with BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith during the Brooklyn-based Northside Festival on Friday, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio declared the death of the tabloid.
"The tabloid style of journalism of yesterday does not make sense anymore, and it will not last," de Blasio said. "It's arcane."
Of course, the comment wasn't a totally objective analysis of the media landscape. It was likely motivated by de Blasio's long-standing feud with the tabloids that cover him. The mayor criticized the amount of coverage local outlets had devoted to controversies surrounding the Puerto Rican day parade and to his workout habits... | | | The telecast starts on CBS at 8pm... Kevin Spacey is the host... Chloe Melas will be on the red carpet for our coverage... | | Taylor Swift is streaming again | | | Lisa Respers France emails: Remember when we thought Taylor Swift and Spotify were never, ever, ever getting back together? Well on Friday she let them know "You Belong With Me." 😉 The singer returned her music catalog to all streaming services after famously pulling her tunes in 2014. And she did it on the same day her former-friend-turned-rival Katy Perry dropped her new album. Talk about "Bad Blood!" | | Lowry's take on "The Mummy" | | | Brian Lowry emails: I'm a little late to "The Mummy" bashing party, but suffice it to say that Universal's plans for a Dark Universe featuring its monsters is off to a bad start, both creatively and, by all projections, at the box office in the U.S... | | Lowry reviews "The Putin Interviews" | | The embargo lifted on reviews of "The Putin Interviews" on Friday. The four-part series starts on Monday. Brian Lowry sent along his review:
Showtime only made two parts of Oliver Stone's four-hour "Putin Interviews" available in advance, but it's enough to offer a reminder of the potential pitfalls when celebrities dabble in journalism (think Sean Penn and El Chapo). The result is a project that frequently says as much about Stone as Vladimir Putin, and where he asks the Russian leader questions such as whether he likes his grandchildren, which is a pretty low bar in terms of establishing his humanity... Read more... | | | Megan Thomas emails: If you don't already follow author R. Eric Thomas on Twitter, you need to. His "Eric Reads the News" column for Elle.com is consistently fresh and funny. Here's my favorite piece from Thomas this week: "Your Ex, Barack Obama, Had and Intimate Dinner with Your Prom Date, Justin Trudeau" | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Chloe Melas emails: I had a chance to chat with "SNL" star Colin Jost about what it's like being on hiatus during so much Trump drama...
-- Lisa Respers France writes: Jerry Seinfeld has set the record straight on that awkward encounter with singer Kesha...
-- More from Lisa: "Game of Thrones" may have a shortened season when it returns in July, but it also reportedly will have its longest episode ever -- almost an hour and a half long... | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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