| | | | | Hello from the Arizona desert... I'm uninstalling Twitter and going on vacation for a week... but first, a recap of the weekend's media news, with an assist from Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman and Howard Cohen: | | Topping the news on Monday | | | President Trump will deliver a "statement on health care" at 3:15pm ET Monday... Jared Kushner will meet with Senate Intelligence Committee staff in a closed-door interview session... The NYT wants an on-air apology from Fox News for a "malicious and inaccurate" segment... Olivia Nuzzi's brand new NYMag cover story about Joe and Mika: "Donald Trump Is Not Invited to the Wedding." | | Sunday was my first time ever interviewing Kellyanne Conway on television. Lemme share what really stood out to me from the 25-minute interview:
>> She repeatedly said she wants "help" from CNN and other news outlets -- help "connecting America with the information they need" -- which a cynic would interpret as "do our PR for us." She said the president is "making good on those promises with or without the help of a number of cable stations," and later added, "We're here to help everyone and we would like your help..."
>> She did not dismiss the record low POTUS approval #'s as fake polls: She said a portion of the disapproval #'s are "independents who voted for him and want him to ignore all the nonsense and all the noise and all the Russian nonsense." (A subtle critique of her boss, maybe?)
>> When I said "this is a White House in crisis whether you recognize it or not," she said, "I work there. Where do you get that? Where do you get that? It's a White House in crisis?"
>> And when I brought up Team Trump's lack of credibility, citing the president's "lies" about voter fraud and wiretapping as two examples, she said, "He doesn't think he's lying about those issues and you know it." | | After the interview, a viewer tweeted at me and said "this is literally the story of two people living in completely different realities." You can watch the entire interview here and see if you agree.
I think the starkest divide was on the subject of Russian meddling. Conway was the first to bring up the media's Russia coverage, arguing that journalists care about it a whole lot more than the American people do. It's "disproportionate, out of whack, unequal coverage on Russia with nothing there," she said.
When I asserted that "Russia is a big story" she said "Why?"
"America was attacked last year," I said. "And America's probably going to be attacked again next year around the midterms..." | | | I asked if Conway will be "reporting to Anthony Scaramucci now that he is taking more power," and she said, "No, I report directly to the president." Dan Scavino made a point of saying the same thing in a tweet over the weekend... | | Scaramucci vows to plug the leaks | | Is it safe to say we've never seen a White House communications director like Anthony Scaramucci before? On Saturday he gave an interview with Breitbart -- making a point of talking to Matt Boyle first -- and then on Sunday he made the rounds on CNN, Fox and CBS.
Perhaps the clearest message sent by Scaramucci, repeated on all three networks, was this: Zero tolerance for leaks. He told Jake Tapper: "Tomorrow, I'm going to be having a meeting with the communications staff and say, 'Hey, I don't like these leaks. And so we're going to stop the leaks. And, if we don't stop the leaks, I'm going to stop you.'" To John Dickerson: "We are as strong as our weakest leak." To Chris Wallace: "I am a businessperson and so, I will take dramatic action to stop those leaks." | | Scaramucci is channeling Trump, of course... | | | POTUS brought up leaks repeatedly on Twitter over the weekend. He cited the WashPost's damning Friday night story about Jeff Sessions and said "These illegal leaks, like Comey's, must stop!" And he wrote: "While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.FAKE NEWS" | | The president "liked" this | | @realDonaldTrump hasn't clicked the "like" button on a tweet in two months. But he did on Sunday... faving a fan who posted a quote from Saturday night's "Watters World" on Fox: "Scaramucci looks like he's going to punch the press in the face and then help em up off the turf."
Trump also must have caught a Sunday night rerun of Lou Dobbs, because he tweeted a thank you note to the Fox Biz host for saying on Thursday night that Trump's first six months deserved an A+ grade... | | How often will Scaramucci be on TV? | | Are TV interviews part of a comms director's job description? Dan Pfeiffer, who used to have that job in the Obama White House, said on "Reliable Sources" that he thinks Scaramucci may be "the right guy in the wrong job" because the job is not one "you can do sitting in a cable news green room all the time."
Don Baer, who held the same position in the Clinton White House, said the same thing: "He does not need to be a high-profile public figure out there on every television show." (But are they bringing an old-fashioned pre-Trump POV to this?) | | The president's spokespeople may be more accessible to the media -- but that doesn't mean they'll stop attacking the media.
Conway's carrot to me: "We're very happy to come and take questions..."
And then stick: "...from an outlet that's been incredibly unfair and systematically against this president. I guess you made a business decision to do so."
Baby carrot: "...But we're here trying to connect the American people with the president's message and answer your questions as respectfully as we can."
With a caveat: "If you're going to cover Russia, Russia, Russia, while we're talking about America, America, America, we're always going to be like this." | | | During the interview, I commented that when president calls real news outlets "fake," he poisons our public discourse. Referring to "fake news," she said she has "never used those words," but as Isaac Dovere noted on Twitter, she has used the "fake news" argument on several occasions... | | WHAT I HEARD FROM VIEWERS... | | "Why are you giving her airtime?" | | Many hundreds of social media commenters and emailers scolded me for taking the time to interview Conway. Here's what Keith Olbermann said before the show even aired: "You are enabling a congenital liar whose evil threatens democracy - and your employer, yourself, your field. This is asinine collaboration."
So I brought this up on "Reliable" after the interview. I thought Tara Palmeri said it perfectly: Personnel is policy. "I really do think it is important for them to be speaking, for them to be showing America their world view, because they are the people who are affecting the world that we live in." GOP commentator Scott Jennings agreed. The alternative to interviewing Trump's surrogates is "sources say," he said... | | On-cam briefings on the way back? | | | Will Scaramucci and co. allow the daily W.H. briefings to be televised again on a regular basis? On "SOTU," Scaramucci told Tapper that he thinks the cameras should be turned back on -- if the president agrees, that is. Dan Pfeiffer weighed in on "Reliable," predicting that cameras will be allowed again as a sign that Scaramucci is "playing ball" with the media... that is, until the administration curbs access again, using it "as a stick to whack the press..." | | Four ways to catch up on "Reliable" | | "In a way, we have so much more control than you would even think, because when [President Trump] sees something in the media that predicts his next move, it might actually change his next move."
--Politico's Tara Palmeri on Sunday's show... | | Sherman says Hannity is eyeing Sinclair | | Speaking on MSNBC Sunday morning, Gabriel Sherman said his sources "in and around Fox" say that Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly are "potentially in talks to take their shows to Sinclair."
"Sinclair really wants to build the future of a conservative media empire, and poaching Fox's biggest names would help them do that," he said. Maybe the company will reconfigure Tribune's WGN America cable channel as a talk channel?
Sherman added on Twitter later: "Impt to note O'Reilly also considering @newsmax TV as a possibly landing pad... I'm skeptical though of an O'Reilly-Hannity alliance because the two had a lot of bad blood from their time at Fox News." | | NYT asking for an on-air apology from Fox | | Oliver Darcy emails: Over the weekend the NYT sent a letter to the executive producer of "Fox & Friends Weekend" and the network's vice president of programming, requesting an on-air apology for what the newspaper said was a "malicious and inaccurate segment."
In the letter, NYT VP of communications Danielle Rhoades Ha pushed back against Fox's Saturday morning assertion that ISIS leader "al-Baghdadi was able to sneak away under the cover of darkness after a New York Times story" and that the military "would have had al-Baghdadi based on the intelligence that we had except someone leaked information to the failing New York Times." The Times pointed to a statement from the Pentagon announcing the raid, noted its story came more than three weeks later, and said "no senior American official complained publicly about the story until now, more than two years later." The letter ended on a stern note: "With this segment, Fox & Friends demonstrated what little regard it has for reporting facts."
Shortly after the Saturday morning segment, the president tweeted about it, attacking the NYT and its "sick agenda."
A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday afternoon... | | -- Scaramucci cleaned up his Twitter record on Saturday, deleting some of his past criticism of Trump...
-- Maureen Dowd's latest: "The Mooch and the Mogul"
-- Politico's Annie Karni on the "untouchable" Hope Hicks...
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest WashPost column profiles The Atlantic, which is profitable and ambitious right now...
-- Check this out: "The Simpsons Executive Producer Claims 21st Century Fox Asked Them to Stop Mocking Fox News"
-- And in case you missed it on Friday, David Remnick's interview of Maggie Haberman... | | Trailblazing NBC DC anchor Jim Vance passed away Saturday after a brief battle with cancer. He was 75 years old.
Like so many other millions of DC-area viewers, I grew up watching Vance. "Rest in peace, my friend," Tom Brokaw tweeted. "You defined professional cool and accomplishment."
>> The station's obit: "For 48 years at NBC4, Jim Vance's smooth voice and calm presence made viewers feel that, no matter how bad the news was, it would be OK." | | "In the age of Trump, global players — from tech companies to governments — have to shout" | | | Can any other story pierce through in this nonstop Trump-centric news cycle? A team of BuzzFeed reporters around the world asked that question in this piece. "The reality is that everything that is not Donald Trump is simply getting less attention," at least in the U.S. and Europe. A few places have entirely resisted the narrative, the story reads: "Brazil, captivated by its own crisis, and India, focused on its own battles." Read the rest here... | | Darcy and Pallotta on the latest "Reliable" podcast | | | This issue also came up during our weekly podcast. With DC news keeping everybody glued to their phones for alerts, what's being overlooked? Are some people binging on TV news instead of Netflix? The podcast is with CNN Media reporters Oliver Darcy and Frank Pallotta... they discuss all the week's biggest non-Trump media news... plus summer movie season and much more... listen here on iTunes or via other podcast services. | | -- "SNL" fans are speculating as to who might play Scaramucci this fall. Mario Cantone, Chris Kattan, Amy Sedaris, and John Travolta are names that are floating around fan circles... (TV Guide)
-- The Hunt with John Walsh is returning for a new season -- this time on HLN instead of CNN... (TVNewser)
-- Here are the winners of the 69th annual Los Angeles area Emmy Awards... (Variety) | | "Dunkirk" won at the box office... and "Girls Trip" surprised | | Frank Pallotta writes: Christopher Nolan's World War II epic "Dunkirk" beat expectations this weekend, bringing in estimated $50.5 million in North America. Overall, the film brought in $105.9 million worldwide. Box office analysts pegged the Warner Bros. film starring Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance at roughly a $40 million U.S. opening, but a wave of rave reviews appeared to push the film higher.
Nolan's choice to show the film in the high resolution 70mm might have helped build buzz, making it a movie that audiences felt they had to see in theaters. "'Dunkirk' became a must see cinematic event with its epic presentations," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore, told me. "That may have provided a nice tailwind for the film."
>> But Universal's comedy "Girls Trip" is the bigger surprise. this weekend. It came in second place with an estimated $30.4 million domestically... about twice as high as experts expected. The film's budget was a little under $20 million. Read Frank's full story here... | | What Lowry noticed about Comic-Con coverage | | | Brian Lowry emails: Comic-Con wrapped up on Sunday, with a lot of enthusiasm surrounding the upcoming Marvel movies in particular and TV continuing to make its presence felt. But one of the more subtle trends just based on the dispatches from San Diego is more unabashed cheerleading from media outlets, as if they're trying to match the enthusiasm of fans. In a way, the coverage vaguely echoes the partisan nature of many political sources in the sense that it caters to like-minded audiences... | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Email us... we're at 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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