| | | | | President Trump says he did NOT call the White House a "dump," contrary to Sports Illustrated's reporting. SI insists he did say it. Scroll down for the details... | | Mooch will speak on Friday | | C'mon, on one level, a lot of journalists want an Anthony Scaramucci comeback story, right? The world is a little less interesting with him out of the White House.
Well here goes -- "Scaramucci will be hosting an online event on Friday where he will address the American people directly," CNN's Chris Cuomo and Sophie Tatum reported in this Wednesday night scoop. "Scaramucci said this daytime event -- which will be broadcast on various live platforms with help from former Fox News co-president Bill Shine -- will give him the opportunity to reach and communicate with the President's base."
-- BTW: "Scaramucci told CNN he still considers his short tenure in the White House successful..." | | Earlier on Wednesday: Alt-right Internet personality Michael Cernovich published the memo that Mooch drafted the weekend before John Kelly asked him to step aside. "Scaramucci would have directed the communications team to try to improve relations with the press, the memo shows," according to CNN's Jake Tapper, who also obtained it.
To me, the memo reads like a man's last-ditch effort to keep his job... or to prove that he could have made it work... | | | Programming note: POTUS is holding another rally on Thursday evening. Fox News is running a commercial saying "we're taking his speech live..." | | Fox News is being sued over this story. So how was it published in the first place? | | Oliver Darcy reports: Inside Fox News, it's a "giant mystery" why there has been no disciplinary action or some other conclusion after the organization promoted a bogus story about Seth Rich's death.
That story that was retracted and deleted 2+ months ago -- a high-profile mistake for Fox. Now it's the subject of a lawsuit by Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler, who says he was misquoted and defamed. Fox claims it is still investigating the retraction. Still? | | "They don't want to acknowledge that they f**ked up" | | More from Oliver: This week's suit by Wheeler alleges that the Fox News reporter who wrote the erroneous article, Malia Zimmerman, fabricated the quotes she attributed to him -- a major violation of the most basic journalism principles, if true.
Zimmerman has continued to write for FoxNews.com, including as recently as Tuesday, the day the suit was filed. She declined to comment on Wednesday. But other staffers granted anonymity had a lot to say -- and were particularly perplexed as to why no one has been held accountable yet. "People need to start getting canned over the [Seth Rich] thing," one of them said.
"They don't want to acknowledge that they f**ked up," a senior Fox News employee said... | | | Asked about the current status of the internal probe, a Fox News spokesperson said Wednesday that the network had "retained outside counsel on the matter" and that "given that this is pending litigation, there will be no further comment." | | Other developments today... | | -- Seth Rich family spokesman Brad Bauman gave a heart-wrenching interview to Alisyn Camerota...
-- Alex Pfeiffer's piece for The Daily Caller: "There Are A LOT Of Holes In The Lawsuit Involving Fox News, Seth Rich, And Donald Trump"
-- W.H. correspondent Andrew Feinberg, who left Russia-owned Sputnik News in late May, says his bosses wanted him to "ask about the case" at a press briefing. "It's really telling that the White House is pushing the same narrative as a state run Russian propaganda outlet," he told Yahoo's Hunter Walker... | | ...This is why the briefings should always be televised, right?
The exchange between CNN's Jim Acosta and White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has been all over TV Wednesday evening. If you missed it, here's the video and story.
Some journalists couldn't/didn't hide their astonishment at Miller's answers. "In an exchange that will surely delight Trump's media-hating base, Miller tore into Acosta without really engaging in substance," Callum Borchers wrote afterward. | | -- Acosta on "The Situation Room:" "This White House has an unhealthy fixation with what I call the three Ms: Mexicans, Muslims and the media..."
-- Mediaite: "Twitter appeared to be split on who got the better of the heated skirmish..."
-- Tucker Carlson claimed that Acosta and all CNNers are "utterly ignorant on the subject of immigration..."
-- Some other commentators took exception to Miller saying that Acosta, the son of a Cuban immigrant, displayed a shocking "cosmopolitan bias." "The way Miller leaned into the word 'cosmopolitan' while answering Acosta has a long and ignoble history in 20th century authoritarianism, especially the anti-Semitic variety," Esquire's Charles P. Pierce writes, making the case that this was a "historical signaling device..." | | | 🔌: I'll be on CNN's "New Day" talking about all this... 7:45am Wednesday... | | -- Jim Roberts tweets: "Kudos to CNN for accuracy in headlines: "Trump makes up calls from Mexico, Boy Scouts" (Twitter)
-- John Dawsey's latest: Kelly's first priority as chief of staff is "to gain control over the information that gets to the president..." (Politico)
-- On Wednesday the DOJ pushed back on the NYT's front page story saying "Justice Dept. Will Look for Anti-White Bias in Admissions." NYT's response: "We stand by our reporting..." (CNN)
-- Flatiron Books, a division of Macmillan, won the publisher bidding war for James Comey's book. It will come out next spring... (AP)
-- Thanks to all you readers who are also "Reliable Sources" viewers: The program topped Fox and MSNBC for the month of July in the 25-54 demo... | | Annie Karni's Wednesday evening Politico scoop: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have hired Democratic pollster Joel Benenson, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama and the chief strategist to Hillary Clinton's failed 2016 presidential campaign, as a consultant, according to a person familiar with the hire."
One graf later, she says Benenson "will be conducting research for the Zuckerberg-Chan Initiative, the couple's philanthropy," but Zuckerberg + Benenson in the same sentence will fan the 2020 flames... | | Facebook giving faster-loading stories a boost in news feed | | Another attempt to entice publishers to convert to Instant Articles? Facebook said Wednesday that it will "prioritize stories that load faster on a user's mobile News Feed. Stories that take longer to load could appear less," CNN Tech's Kaya Yurieff reports...
-- Black box: FB "has a threshold for what constitutes a fast/acceptable load time and what doesn't. Because that number will fluctuate, the company isn't sharing it publicly," Recode's Kurt Wagner reports...
-- Also in Facebook's orbit: Instagram says young users now spend 32 minutes each day on the platform... | | The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is live | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker debuted on Wednesday. An initiative of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Committee to Protect Journalists, in collaboration with more than 20 press freedom groups, the tracker will tally all arrests, assaults, threats, surveillance and subpoenas of journalists. Peter Sterne, formerly of Politico, is the managing editor... | | Happy 10th birthday to PolitiFact! | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- VCs are not too hot on investing in podcasting, because it's basically a "no tech" venture. Even so, Gimlet Media, the podcast studio behind "Start Up" and "Reply All," just secured an additional $15 million in funding in a round led by Stripes Group... (Recode)
-- Is social media making us miserable? Time mag takes a stab at answering. The answer, obviously, is yes, very miserable... (Time)
-- Who knew Brad Jaffy and Kyle Griffin's Twitter skills were a source of tension inside NBC News?! (BuzzFeed) | | HBO hack: Worse than originally thought? | | "The HBO hack may have been worse than the initial leaks of a few unaired TV show episodes suggested," Variety's Janko Roettgers reports. "A security company hired by HBO to scrub search results for the hacked files from search engines has told Google that the hackers stole 'thousands of Home Box Office (HBO) internal company documents.'"
-- Here's HBO CEO Richard Plepler's latest internal memo, which was shared with press, not stolen: "There has been and will continue to be an enormous amount of speculation in the media. It is important to understand that, as is often the case, things you read may very well not be true. Many people have expressed particular concern about our e-mail system. At this time, we do not believe that our e-mail system as a whole has been compromised, but the forensic review is ongoing..." | | 21st Century Fox considered a bid for Tribune Media. Sinclair won Tribune instead. Rupert Murdoch remains concerned about Sinclair. And here's the latest proof point:
Fox "is in talks to operate local television stations across the U.S. with Ion Media Networks, potentially paving the way for Fox to dump Sinclair as an affiliate partner," Bloomberg's Anousha Sakoui reports... | | | Sinclair's hometown Baltimore Sun has a recap of its second quarter earnings: The broadcaster "reported a decrease in profit" but "met Wall Street's expectations during what the company called 'a defining year...'" | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Don't miss THR's "Sharknado" feature, including the bit about Donald Trump wanting to play the role of U.S. president in "Sharknado 3" in early 2015... (THR)
-- THR also has an interesting profile of A-Rod, who says "I'm a reporter at heart..." (THR)
-- Gizmodo Media Group has a new editorial director: Susie Banikarim... (Fusion)
-- Jamil Smith has joined The Daily Best as a contributing writer... (Beast)
-- Another story about millennials discovering they can use rabbit ears to watch broadcast TV, this time in the Journal... (WSJ)
-- From Tuesday: As the NYT touted a strong quarter with a net income of $15.6 million, Carlos Slim sold $10 million worth of shares of the paper... (Forbes) | | "Time Warner Quarterly Earnings Get Boost From CNN, 'Wonder Woman'" is the Variety headline...
-- In a note to clients, MoffettNathanson's Michael Nathanson says "it could be only a matter of weeks" until the AT&T deal is completed, "making this earnings release likely the last for Time Warner's life as a public company... The 2Q earnings numbers are a nice parting gift to those who have covered the company through all the ups and downs..."
-- The Information's Martin Peers says the #'s demonstrate why Jeff Bewkes "was keen to sell," with operating income down 8%. "Bewkes did well by his shareholders in selling for a good price. But AT&T shareholders will bear the cost in coming years..." | | "I don't think it's appropriate to lie from the podium or any other place."
--Sarah Huckabee Sanders at Wednesday's briefing... | | I'm sure I'm missing some, but here goes...
-- NBC News: "Trump Says U.S. 'Losing' Afghan War in Tense Meeting With Generals"
-- CBS News: "Congressional investigators set their sights on Donald Trump Jr.'s phone records"
-- The AP (since confirmed by CNN): "Trump's new top aide assures Sessions his job is safe"
-- The Atlantic: "An NSC Staffer Is Forced Out Over a Controversial Memo" | | Why is Attorney General Jeff Sessions promising a new crackdown on leaks? There are hundreds of reasons. Hundreds of leaks, that is... Here's my full story...
-- Chuck Todd on Twitter: "Only in DC do folks who make questionable decisions deflect blame by attacking 'leakers.' Stop doing questionable things and leaks will stop." | | Trump says quote in SI is "totally untrue" | | This 7,424-word Sports Illustrated story about Trump's "relationship with golf" was widely covered on Tuesday/Wednesday because it quoted POTUS telling golfing buddies that he visits his Bedminster resort often because "that White House is a real dump." The problem? The passage lacked specific attribution. On Tuesday evening, W.H. officials denied it, and on Wednesday evening, Trump himself did the same thing:
"I love the White House," he tweeted, "one of the most beautiful buildings (homes) I have ever seen. But Fake News said I called it a dump -- TOTALLY UNTRUE."
-- SI's Alan Shipnuck, who wrote the story in question, on Twitter: "Oh, he most certainly said it."
-- Highly recommended: SI's "story behind our Trump golf story," featuring Hope Hicks... | | This is what Trump thinks "real news" looks like? | | | Dylan Byers reports: President Trump has launched a "real news" video series on his Facebook page, part of his longstanding effort to dismiss the news provided by the mainstream media. The inaugural episode, published Sunday, features Trump's daughter-in-law Lara boasting about the president's accomplishments in front of a background of Trump campaign logos... | | Tomatoes as box office killer? | | Brian Lowry emails: Puny critics? Hulk smash. THR is the latest to point fingers for this summer's disappointing box office results at critics, and specifically, aggregation of their slings and arrows on Rotten Tomatoes. But the claim that a dreaded green splat is responsible for people staying away runs counter to the entire strategy of the movie business in recent years, which is to erect franchises that are essentially review-proof.
So while bad reviews might hurt films at the fringes, it's hard to imagine them diminishing opening-weekend crowds for upcoming commodities like "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," "Justice League" or "Thor: Ragnarok." Indeed, if there's a theme to Disney's entire strategy -- which others are emulating -- it's loading up on titles with the sort of intense fan bases that significantly diminish critics' influence.
This isn't to say that critics don't play any role, and it's been encouraging to see better-reviewed films -- like "Wonder Woman" and "Dunkirk" -- thrive this summer. Theater chains, as CNN's Paul La Monica noted, should be concerned. But the Rotten Tomatoes-as-killer story scores high on the BS meter... | | Angelina Jolie's Netflix film now has a launch date... | | | "First They Killed My Father," directed by Angelina Jolie, "will launch on Friday, September 15 in theaters and globally on Netflix," the company says. Here's the trailer... | | Lowry reviews "Life of Kylie" | | | Another one from Lowry: Kylie Jenner essentially goes into the family biz -- the Kardashian TV-industrial complex -- with "Life of Kylie," a new E! reality show. But like some other reality stars, she tries to have her cake and eat it too, lamenting the challenge of mastering "this fame thing" and missing a "normal life" while simultaneously cashing in and inviting a camera crew to become part of hers. Read the full review here... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Lisa France:
-- Amazon is developing a new series titled "Black America." In this alt-history drama freed slaves have formed their own country on land they received as reparations. Here's what you need to know about the series that's been described as the anti-"Confederate..."
-- The brother of slain Tejano singer Selena is a fugitive on a most wanted list in Texas...
-- Fans around the world have been memorializing Chester Bennington... | | | Email us at reliablesources@cnn.com... we appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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