| | | | | On a normal day, a president accusing a former FBI director of "leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media" based on an error-filled Fox News segment would be the top story in this newsletter. Fox belatedly issuing a correction would be a big story too. But other stories have taken over... | | NYT way out front on Trump Jr. story | | "We shouldn't jump to 'collusions.'" That was David Axelrod's joke on Monday night's "AC360" -- both underscoring the gravity of the NYT's latest scoop and urging caution by journalists and commentators.
The Times story hit in the 9pm hour. I'm sure you've read it by now. Headline: "Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign."
The NYT is way out front on this one; I didn't see any other outlets match the story in the first two hours of the news cycle. CNN and MSNBC immediately went into breaking news mode, with attribution to the NYT, with stunned guests reading the story and reacting in real time. | | Former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer's tweet summed up the attitude among Democrats: "Not in the wildest Democratic fantasy did we think there would be an email to a Trump clearly stating a Russian government effort to help..."
Fox News looked the other way. "The Five" didn't break in with the news, and Sean Hannity was on tape. Mediaite has details about Hannity's anti-journalism approach... | | You can't help but wonder... | | Did the NYT reporters have any of this info about the email to Trump Jr., even in an un-reportable fashion from a single source, before publishing Saturday/Sunday's earlier stories about the meeting with the Russian lawyer? I wonder if those reporters were watching when Trump allies said stuff like this...
-- 8am on CNN: Kellyanne Conway told a skeptical Chris Cuomo that the meeting was basically meaningless: Donald Jr. "learned nothing from that meeting..."
-- 2:30pm at the W.H. press briefing: Sarah Huckabee Sanders said "I've been on several campaigns, and people call offering information..."
-- 5pm on Fox: Eric Bolling said the meeting was LESS than a "nothing burger," in fact, "this is an insult to nothing burgers..." | | Top tweets from journos about this latest "burger" | | -- NYT's Adam Goldman, one of four bylines on the story, tweeted at 11:07pm: "Update: I am still reporting."
-- The Atlantic's Yoni Appelbaum: "It has been astonishing, these past few months, to watch The New York Times and Washington Post compete in the Home Run Derby..."
-- Bloomberg's Joshua Green: "Can't help noticing Drudge's lead item right now is damning Don Jr. story....and also that he's been fawning over Kushner for weeks..."
-- NYT's Binyamin Appelbaum: "Trump Jr gets the headlines, but Kushner attended the collusion meeting, failed to disclose it as required by law & is still a WH official..." | | Here's what Tapper said before the newest story hit | | Jake Tapper on Monday's edition of "The Lead:"
"To the best of our knowledge, at least five former or current members of President Trump's team have not only had some contact with the Russians, they have lied, changed their stories or not been forthcoming with information about those contacts with Russians... If these contacts and conversations with Russians were so innocent, as is being claimed, the obvious question, why so many lies about them?" | | Chris Matthews asked this Q at the end of Monday's "Hardball:"
If Trump "has done nothing truly bad to cover up, then why is he attacking -- day and night -- any institution, governmental or media, that is seeking the truth?"
(Then Matthews seemed to compliment himself, commenting, "That's a good question.") | | Note the last graf of the NYT story... | | | It says: "The president was frustrated by the news of the meeting, according to a person close to him -- less over the fact that it had happened, and more because it was yet another story about Russia that had swamped the news cycle." | | Don't expect to see the president on Tuesday... | | | Trump had no public events on Monday. He has no public events scheduled on Tuesday, either. Four weeks ago he said he'd hold a press conference about the fight against ISIS in "two weeks." But right now his only mode of public communication is his Twitter account. | | -- If you're reading this in Sun Valley, send a postcard. Or better yet, some gossip. The annual "meeting of the moguls" officially starts on Tuesday... the NYPost has some deal ideas here... (NYPost)
-- Time Inc. vice chairman Norm Pearlstine is retiring. His last day will be July 17... (AdWeek)
-- Margaret Sullivan says there's a silver lining to the new Pew #'s showing sharply negative views of the national news media: "The negative assessments, bad as they are, are simply holding steady. But among some segments of the public, the media is actually looking better than ever..." (WashPost)
-- CNN has sold the streaming rights to six original series and two films to Hulu... (Variety) | | That time the White House wanted the Correspondents' Association to criticize a correspondent... | | Lots of news from Monday night's meeting of White House Correspondents Association members. WashPost's Erik Wemple says the headline is "Trump White House attempted to draft WHCA prez to backstab peers."
Politico's Hadas Gold explains: "The White House asked the White House Correspondents' Association to single out a reporter and criticize an article, WHCA President Jeff Mason said on Monday evening..." He declined to "elaborate further on when the ask was made or about what article..." | | This rule change could ice out Breitbart | | | At the aforementioned meeting, there was also discussion about a proposed change to the WHCA bylaws that "could keep Breitbart News reporters out of the group's decision-making process." It has to do with the Congressional Standing Committee. Tom Kludt has the full story here... | | White House Wifi concerns? | | | Something else that came up at the meeting: the White House's plans to move reporters onto a Wifi network for press. April Ryan spoke up about the possibility of snooping. Later, she tweeted: "There are very real concerns the press could be monitored via internet with the new mandated wifi system at the White House..." | | | Keep scrolling for more of today's Trump + the media news... | | Newspapers want a "better deal" with Google and FB | | "We need a better deal" with Google and Facebook. That's the message from David Chavern, the head of the newspaper industry's main trade group, which is lobbying for an antitrust exemption that would allow collective negotiations. The lobbying campaign started in earnest on Monday. When Chavern appeared on CNNI's "Quest Means Business," Zain Asher asked, "What are you looking for in terms of concrete, tangible changes?" His answers:
-- "Better sharing of digital ad revenue."
-- "Support for subscription models... so people can subscribe to our publications."
-- "Better sharing of data."
-- "Better brand support and brand equity, so people know that the news is coming from reliable sources and don't say things like, 'I got my news from Facebook.'" | | "We can't solve your business model" | | | There's a whole lot of skepticism about the industry's efforts. These arguments have been going around in circles for a decade, haven't they? The WSJ's latest story recounts a "heated" meeting between publishers and Facebook, with Facebook VP for communication and public policy Elliot Schrage saying at one point, "We can't solve your business model..." | | -- Ari Fleischer has joined Fox News as a contributor... (Newsmax)
-- A PhD candidate conducted a "fake news" study using a sample of undergrads at the University of British Columbia. He says "I thought that they would easily spot fake news websites. I was wrong..." (WashPost)
-- Happy one-year anniversary to the Playbook team. To mark the occasion, Sarah Ellison interviewed Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and Daniel Lippman... (VF)
-- It's been two years since Lester Holt became the permanent anchor of the "NBC Nightly News." In this interview with the AP's David Bauder, he describes what it was like to replace Brian Williams... (AP)
-- "John Oliver has joined the voice cast of Jon Favreau's live-action 'The Lion King,'" voicing the part of red-billed hornbill Zazu... (TheWrap) | | Snap now below its IPO price | | | CNNMoney's Seth Fiegerman reports: "Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, closed below its $17 IPO price on Monday for the first time since its shares went public in early March. The stock had previously flirted with that psychologically important level last month, closing at exactly $17 on June 15. It fell to as low as $16.95 on Monday..." | | Fox got it wrong, so the president got it wrong, too | | Tom Kludt emails: Monday provided perhaps the greatest example of the Trump/"Fox & Friends" feedback loop, demonstrating how narratives get created and how both parties eschew fact-checks. I've created a timeline below to explain each stage of the symbiosis:
6:12am: Fox bungles the story. "Fox & Friends" told viewers about "a brand new bombshell report" that suggested former FBI director James Comey "may have actually broken the rules" and put "our national security at risk" when he shared with a friend a memo he'd written detailing one of his conversations with Trump. The report, published Sunday night by The Hill, actually said no such thing. In fact, it even quoted Comey testifying last month that the memo he shared with his friend, who in turn provided it to the NYT, was deliberately unclassified.
6:32am: Fox bungles the story a second time. The "F&F" Twitter feed tweeted a clip from the aforementioned segment with a caption saying that the report "accuses" of leaking top secret information, which, again, is a mischaracterization of what was published by The Hill.
6:40am: A talking point is born: Trump retweeted the "F&F" tweet before repeating the misinformation himself. "James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media," he tweeted. "That is so illegal!" From there, Kellyanne Conway hyped the report as she made the morning TV rounds.
8:12am: Feedback loop complete: Rather than correct its error, Fox simply shifted the framing of the story. A little after 8am, the network published a web story explaining that Trump "accused former FBI Director James Comey of having illegally leaked classified information." Wonder what gave him that idea!
This continued all day long, with Fox shows quoting Trump's accusation, without explaining the embarrassing backstory... | | Fifteen hours later, a correction by Fox | | | Did the news anchor who read that faulty info at 6:12am, Jillian Mele, write the script herself? If not, who wrote it, and why didn't anyone catch the errors? I asked Fox if a correction was forthcoming, and I didn't hear back for hours. Eventually a spokeswoman said the matter will be "addressed" on Tuesday's show. And shortly after 9pm the "F&F" Twitter feed posted this: "Correction: Comey's memos did not have top secret info. The report says half were classified at secret or confidential level, not top secret." | | | Erik Wemple says the "noxious combination" of Trump and "F&F" contains "the makings of an eventual disaster, the outlines of which we can't begin to fathom. Who, after all, knows how Trump will interpret the next slanted report from the program? How will he further distort its garbage? And what will be the implications?" | | BTW, about that Comey story in The Hill... | | | It was written by John Solomon, who just left Sinclair's Circa to join The Hill as EVP of digital video. While at Circa, he was known for co-bylining stories with Sara Carter that landed the two of them on Sean Hannity's show. Carter tells me she's staying at Circa... | | Remnick's point about patience... | | Megan Thomas emails: David Remnick has a great last line in his latest piece for The New Yorker about the question of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign:
"Part of that process is having the patience to see what the truth, as it emerges over time, turns out to be. For now, we live in a moment when the President of the United States is, without shame, trying to intimidate the people whose business it is to come to an honest reckoning. He tries to intimidate the press. He has fired an F.B.I. director and considered going further. It's reasonable to wonder why. Without assuming too much, too soon." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- The BBC needs to slash its news budget by £80 million (that's about $103 million) and plans to do so partly by reducing pay perks for its journalists, including overtime payments and allowances given to journalists when they work "unpredictable hours..." (The Guardian)
-- CJR asks health reporters how things have changed in their beat. Answer: secrecy, speed and Twitter are the disruptors... (CJR)
-- The WGA's annual report for 2016 is out, showing declining salaries year-over-year for its members in the fields of TV and film. A silver lining for newsies: although less members reported their earnings compared to the previous year, earnings reported were up 5.5%... (Deadline) | | "If I could mint her and get five tomorrow, I would. If I could get her to do five nights a week, I would!"
TNT/TBS chief Kevin Reilly talking with Variety's Ramin Setoodeh about Samantha Bee... here's the video interview... | | | Brian Lowry emails: The murky nature of Shakespeare's early life has been a fertile breeding ground for speculation, and results in a pretty compelling TV drama in "Will." Notably, the series has batted around for a while -- including a stint in development at HBO -- before finding a home on CNN's sister network TNT... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Blac Chyna said she was "devastated" by ex Rob Kardashian posting explicit images of her. On Monday she was granted a temporary restraining order against the man she says has cyber bullied her and been physically abusive. Kardashian wasn't in court Monday but his attorney Robert Shapiro (yes, THAT Robert Shapiro) said his client is sorry and just wants to move on with the with raising of their 8-month-old daughter, Dream...
-- Patton Oswalt, newly engaged to actress Meredith Salenger, has responded to critics who say he moved on too quickly from the death of his wife last year...
-- Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong has issued a statement after the band went on to play a music festival even though an acrobat had plunged to his death on the same stage a short time earlier. Armstrong said the band didn't find out about the tragic death until after their performance... | | | Brian Lowry emails: Critics can sometimes be guilty of living in a bubble when it comes to the distinction between art and commerce, praising the former without considering the latter. So a Variety column about "Twin Peaks" headlined "'Twin Peaks: The Return' Takes on Peak TV -- and Wins" -- devoted to the fact the program's plot, or lack thereof, can't really be spoiled -- proves somewhat misleading. Per Nielsen data, "Peaks'" first six telecasts are averaging 479,000 viewers on a live-plus-seven-day basis, a pretty meager audience by Showtime's standards. Even taking into account other factors like streaming, in TV terms that sort of "win" comes with an asterisk on such a ballyhooed project... | | Drug war fights losing battle in TV dramas | | One more from Lowry: The premiere of FX's "Snowfall" last week offered a reminder that since "The Wire" premiered near the start of this century, some of the most powerful and persuasive arguments against the "war on drugs" as policy have come from TV dramas...
Read Lowry's full column here >>> | | | Highlights from Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | Four ways to catch up on the show | | A "noticeable uptick" in harassment | | | In this segment, Kirsten Powers said there has been a "noticeable uptick in harassment" against journalists "since Donald Trump basically came on the scene." John Avlon and Ben Jacobs joined the conversation... | | Notable quotes from the show | | -- Why no solo presidential press conferences? The Daily Beast EIC John Avlon: "It's clearly a discomfort with transparency, and a constitutional discomfort with what the president might say..."
-- Columbia Journalism Review editor Kyle Pope on the topic of Trump tweet coverage: "I'm saying that every presidential tweet need not be a story with the volume that we're giving it..."
-- Iowa radio news director Robert Leonard: "Fox News is a very powerful force, something conservatives trust..." | | Democratic lawmaker wonders if Trump is trying to "chill" CNN by threatening AT&T-Time Warner deal | | When I asked Rep. Eric Swalwell about national security-related leaks, he pivoted, invoking Michael Grynbaum's recent NYT report that White House advisers "have discussed" the pending AT&T-Time Warner deal as "a potential point of leverage" over CNN, which is owned by Time Warner.
"Some of the leaks have also been coming out of the White House," Swalwell said. "We just saw a leak that I think was intentional, where the White House suggested that they may use its ability to approve the Time Warner-AT&T merger as a way to threaten the media."
His blunt reaction: "That's not how America works. You don't get to threaten the press or bully the press by using your power in office to affect what they do on the business side." He compared it to Trump's tweets about James Comey and "tapes" and said he thought the intent was a "chilling effect." Here's the video clip... | | My essay about "anti-journalism" views | | "The solution to poor journalism is more journalism," I said in an essay on Sunday's show. "But some people want less of it or none of it. They want to stamp out journalism altogether."
I asserted that there's a big difference between well-meaning people who are skeptical of the press -- they're pro-journalism, they want improvements -- and anti-journalism people who promote resentment and hatred. Those anti-J voices are getting louder these days, partly because they are being amplified by some pretty powerful politicians. IMHO, that's all the more reason why newsrooms and media companies need to take media literacy seriously. Here's the video of the full comment... | | | 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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