| | | | | FRIDAY MORNING SHAKEUP... | | With Sean Spicer out as press secretary and Anthony Scaramucci in as communications director, what will change at the White House? Will President Trump give more interviews and hold more press conferences? Will he try to persuade his skeptics or keep playing to his base? Will Scaramucci and Sarah Huckabee Sanders try to improve relations with the press corps or ramp up the attacks? Will they just spin more slickly or actually strive for more accuracy? Will Team Trump try to repair its credibility?
Here's a different question: Will anything change at all?
There was lots of talk about Scaramucci's affability. But let's be clear: a smooth talker can't solve this White House's crisis... | | | FRIDAY EVENING SURPRISES... | | CNN's Manu Raju tweets: "Talk about a Friday night news dump: Sessions, Kushner, Don Trump Jr, Manafort, new health care bill problems ... what else?"
-- WashPost: "Sessions discussed Trump-campaign-related matters with Russian ambassador, U.S. intelligence intercepts show."
-- CNN: Updated financial docs from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump include lots of "previously undisclosed holdings..."
-- Politico: In another setback for the GOP, the Senate parliamentarian has ruled "against key provisions in Obamacare repeal bill..." | | Carl Bernstein with the bottom line | | | "Let's not get too caught up in atmospherics," Carl Bernstein said on "AC360." Friday's shakeup is about "who the president wants to be in the bunker with." But the bigger story, he said, is "the conduct of the president of the United States." That conduct "is aimed at undermining the judicial system and the integrity of the United States..." | | Trump: "We need new faces" | | After Mike Dubke resigned in May, Spicer doubled as both comms director and press secretary. Sanders handled many of the daily briefings. Team Trump sought a new comms director, but several of the people who were approached about the job turned it down.
"We need new faces," Trump told one adviser, according to Politico's Josh Dawsey: "The president had watched Scaramucci act as a surrogate for him on TV and lavishly heaped praise on him to advisers. Two people who spoke to Trump said he particularly relished that Scaramucci forced CNN to issue a retraction on a story about the businessman's Russian ties — and considered him almost a 'white knight' for it, one of these people said."
According to the reconstructions by Dawsey and other reporters, Trump wanted to bring Scaramucci into the fold as a TV surrogate with a big title, but didn't want to lose Spicer... | | On Thursday night, when Jonathan Swan of Axios broke the news that Scaramucci was in line for the comms director job, several news outlets said that Spicer was expected to stay in the W.H. in some role. So much for that. CNN's Michael Smerconish happened to be meeting with Spicer on Friday morning... they spent 45 minutes together... and Smerconish told me that "there was nothing about his mannerisms that would have told you, 'This is a guy who's about to quit his job.'" But Spicer apparently made the decision right after Trump offered Scaramucci the job at a 10am meeting...
Just before noon, the NYT's Glenn Thrush broke the resignation news. Special reports and news alerts ensued... | | "Scaramucci likes the press and the press likes him" | | | Speaking on CNN, I said this was yet another sign of dysfunction within the West Wing. Press secretaries normally last for at least a year. President Obama's first press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was in the job for over two years. A West Wing source who was watching pushed back on the "dysfunction" notion with this text -- this source spoke with the president directly about Scaramucci's appointment -- and told me: "This change is a sign that the president is making changes to eliminate dysfunction. Scaramucci likes the press and the press likes him. Hopefully this will take the temperature down, which will help our real message break through more consistently." Take that spin for what it's worth... I'm skeptical about it... | | "He will report directly to the president" | | | A key line in Friday night's W.H. press release: "Scaramucci will oversee the entire communications operation, including message development and strategy. He will report directly to the president." Hope Hicks and Dan Scavino will be staying on, he said... | | Ultimately, this is all about the "client" | | | Brian Lowry emails a thought about the White House press shop: Having spent most of my adult life dealing with PR pros, it really shouldn't be this hard, unless you have a completely unmanageable client... | | Trump just tweeted this... | | | 9:46pm: "Sean Spicer is a wonderful person who took tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media - but his future is bright!" | | Hannity interview intrigue | | | Soon after the resignation news hit, Fox staffers said Spicer was booked for an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity on Friday night. Then Fox said Spicer, Scaramucci and Priebus would ALL be on Hannity -- a high-profile way to refute the reports from multiple news outlets about animosity between Priebus and Scaramucci. A few hours later, there was an update -- Scaramucci would not be appearing on "Hannity," after all. So it's just Priebus and Spicer... but CBS says Scaramucci will be on "Face the Nation" this Sunday... | | | 🔌: I'll be talking about all of this on "CNN Tonight" around 10:15pm ET... | | | Jesse Watters on Fox's "The Five:" "Scaramucci is going to breathe a whole new life into the W.H. comms department. And from what we're hearing from our sources in Washington, too, we're going to go back to Trump the campaigner... That's when Trump is most successful." Juan Williams's reaction: "Scaramucci is coming in to fight" the Mueller probe. Chris Stirewalt, who was guesting, agreed: "This is a war footing... They're going to go against Mueller hard. They're going to bring a lot of heat..." | | "The base supports Mooch" | | Oliver Darcy emails: Normally, the discovery of past tweets in support of gun control and taking action to curb the effects of climate change would earn one scorn on the front page of Breitbart. Not with Scaramucci. Top editors at Breitbart, along with the heavyweights in the pro-Trump media universe, applauded his appointment. They want a fighter loyal to the president and his cause, and believe they got it on Friday.
Far-right writer Mike Cernovich put it to me like this: "The base supports Mooch because he doesn't view himself as being better than the base. Spicer and Reince are snobs. They used the base and then wanted to pretend like we didn't even exist. That's the establishment GOP model -- use the base before returning to business as usual." Read Oliver's full story here... | | Blunt headline on Ryan Lizza's New Yorker piece: "Sean Spicer will be remembered for his lies."
-- CJR's Pete Vernon said reporters should resist the urge to make Spicer a martyr: "Spicer proved on his first full day in office that he had no qualms about defending an ultimately meaningless falsehood. For six months, he presided over a communications team that actively undermined the work of the press..."
-- WashPost's Margaret Sullivan didn't mince words, either: "Don't cry for Spicer. His tenure was a disaster from Day One and he should have quit immediately..." | | Hat tip to Hadas Gold on this: Sanders is the third woman to be named W.H. press secretary, after Dee Dee Myers and Dana Perino.
The Obama administration's final comms director Jen Psaki tweeted: "Congratulations to @SarahHuckabee. We may disagree on policy, but always great to see a hard working woman rise to be public WH face." | | Briefings back on camera? | | | There has been a severe rollback in the American public's access to the White House's daily press briefings. Friday was the first time since June 29 that the W.H. allowed TV cameras at the briefing. Will Scaramucci and Sanders open it back up? Scaramucci was non-committal on Friday, and my educated guess is no... | | Spicer says he'll be back Monday... | | | That's what he told reporters who watched him leave the W.H. complex on Friday evening... He says he's staying til August... | | Will Spicer join one of the networks? | | Via BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg: "When asked whether Fox News will seek to hire Sean Spicer, a network spokesperson said: 'We talk to all major players.'" CNN had a different answer: "CNN spokesperson says that the network will not seek to hire Sean Spicer as a contributor, unlike other past Trump officials." Don't count out the broadcast networks in this conversation...
-- Spicer to the WashPost: "I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: The fact that the conversation almost immediately turned to how Spicer could cash in on his six-month tenure -- A book? Cable news contributor role? -- is basically a textbook definition of "the swamp" that the Trump admin promised to drain... | | "Look, we're used to a team of rivals. We are not used to a team of the Bloods and the Crips. Which is essentially what this is in the White House. I mean, these are rival gangs."
--Maggie Haberman talking with David Remnick... | | | In the wake of Friday's shakeup, we added several guests to Sunday's lineup. On the list: W.H. correspondents Tara Palmeri and April Ryan... former W.H. communications directors Don Baer and Dan Pfeiffer... former Bush 43 special assistant Scott Jennings... HuffPost editor Lydia Polgreen... Trump biographer Tim O'Brien... The New Yorker Review of Books contributor Elizabeth Drew... and "New Day" co-host Alisyn Camerota. See you Sunday at 11am ET on CNN... | | By Howard Cohen:
-- O.J. Simpson's parole hearing was "a ratings dud," with 13.5 million viewers across broadcast and cable... (LA Times)
-- Google has quietly been running tests with media companies, including CBS, to assess the scope of fraudulent digital ads... (Business Insider)
-- A patent application published by Facebook details a "modular electromechanical device" that can incorporate a speaker, microphone, touch display, GPS, and even function as a phone... (Business Insider) | | | Tragic news: "Joseph Rago, a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer at The Wall Street Journal who was known for his richly reported pieces and influence on policy makers, was found dead Thursday evening at his home in Manhattan. He was 34 years old." | | One year after Ailes' departure, Fox thrives as an unabashed Trump booster | | Roger Ailes left Fox News one year ago this week. His channel "remains the most-watched network on cable news and one of the most powerful forces in American politics," Dylan Byers writes in this in-depth look at what's transpired since then.
With Rupert Murdoch now firmly in charge of the channel, pro-Trump boosterism from the likes of Sean Hannity "has at times made Fox News seem like a government mouthpiece, more wedded to a presidential administration than perhaps any major media organization in modern American history," Dylan writes. "Murdoch and Trump talk several times a week, several White House and Fox News sources told CNNMoney, and it is not uncommon for Trump to be heard saying 'get me Rupert' when he has something he wants to discuss with the media mogul. Murdoch enjoys the proximity to power..." You've gotta click here to read the rest... | | Another great weekend read: | | Felix Gillette goes inside Sinclair | | | "Small-time management is getting in the way of big ideas at the conservative broadcaster," Bloomberg's Felix Gillette writes. His full piece is well worth the read... | | Hannity no longer receiving the Buckley award -- here's why | | Jake Tapper's Friday morning scoop: "Sean Hannity will no longer receive the conservative Media Research Center's William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence at its September 21 gala, sources familiar with the situation tell CNN."
Hannity claims there's a scheduling conflict. But Tapper's story says that's just an excuse. The planned award presentation "caused distress among Buckley's family -- in particular his only child, best-selling author Christopher Buckley. A source familiar with the situation tells CNN that Christopher Buckley 'expressed great dismay' at the announcement that the award would go to Hannity, who has spent a great deal of time insulting conservative intellectuals on Twitter, particularly since he became a strong supporter of Donald Trump." Read more... | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman: | | -- Vice Media has laid off 2% of its staff (about 60 staffers) in sales, branded content, editorial and corporate... (Variety)
-- Ari Melber's new 6pm MSNBC show "The Beat" will debut on Monday... (Politico)
-- The Guardian is using a survey tool at the bottom of article pages "so readers can vote for topics they want more detail on..." (Digiday)
-- McClatchy's quarterly results show encouraging gains on the digital front, but declining revenues with a $37.4 million loss... (Poynter) | | John Bernecker was "beloved in the stunt community" | | | Sandra Gonzalez reports from Comic-Con: The producers of "The Walking Dead" began their panel on a somber note on Friday by paying tribute to the stuntman who died last week on the show's set. John Bernecker died July 14 after injuring himself while performing a stunt fall on the show's Georgia set. "John passed away this week after he was injured doing something he loved... helping tell stories that excite, entertain and give people escape," executive producer Scott Gimple said at the start of the show's panel. "He helped make movies and shows for people like everybody in this room. John was someone beloved in the stunt community, someone who trained other people and helped them break into the business. He was living his dream, and he helped other people do the same thing..." | | Why you should see "Dunkirk" in 70mm | | Frank Pallotta emails: Christopher Nolan's acclaimed "Dunkirk" opens this weekend, and it's the latest film to use an old piece of Hollywood technology: 70 millimeter film.
There's been fanfare around Nolan's decision to film the World War II drama in 70mm, and for good reason. "Dunkirk" will be the widest release for the format in 25 years at a time where nearly all theaters have moved to digital projection instead of film.
So just what's the big deal about 70mm film? "You get a much bigger image, you get more detail… You basically get a much brighter, more vivid image," David Schwartz, the curator at New York's Museum of the Moving Image told me. "It just makes you feel like you're in the world of the film." | | Lowry reviews "Descendants 2" | | | Brian Lowry emails his latest review: It would be easy to dismiss "Descendants 2" as a teen-oriented movie on the Disney Channel, but to Disney, it's a big deal, which is why it's being simulcast on a half-dozen networks, including ABC and Lifetime. Yet while there were charming aspects to the original, the sequel feels like a phoned-in, Mickey Mouse effort... Read the rest here... | | "Confederate" producers speak | | | Sandra Gonzalez writes: The creative team behind HBO's "Confederate" responded to the intense backlash to their alternate-history drama in an interview with Vulture's Joe Adalian on Thursday. "We don't have an outline yet. We don't even have character names. So everything is brand new and nothing's been written," David Benioff said. "You know, we might f*** it up. But we haven't yet." Read Sandra's recap here... And here's the full interview... | | | For the record, part three | | | -- By Lisa Respers France: Will Smith really loved "Star Wars" the first time he saw it when he was a child. He told an audience at Comic-Con that it was better than sex...
-- Via Howard Cohen: The Big Bang Theory' stars discussed the Sheldon-Amy finale proposal today at Comic-Con (Variety)
-- One more from Lisa: Kevin Hart has denied reports he stepped out on his pregnant wife... | | | Have a great weekend! I'm heading out west for a week on a ranch... | | | 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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