| | | | "I don't know if Trump is colluding with Russia, but he's definitely colluding with 'Dancing With the Stars,'" Colin Jost quipped on Thursday night. Of course the White House turmoil was mined for material on "Weekend Update," the first of four summertime specials on NBC. Jost: "How did we at 'SNL' miss Anthony Scaramucci? He was like Christmas in July!"
Brian Lowry emails: The highlight was probably Bill Hader as Scaramucci, who delivered a foul-mouthed rant and insisted he had "no regrets, baby" about serving in the W.H.: "All I did was sell my company, miss the birth of my child and ruin my entire reputation, all to be king of Idiot Mountain for 11 days."
-- More: Jost joked that Trump shouldn't have delivered his "fire and fury" comment while sitting, saying, "Even FDR stood up when he was talking tough." Only about a third of the half-hour was political... | | Friday's front page in Guam... | | | This is Friday's edition of the Pacific Daily News, billed as "Guam's complete source," based in Hagatna, Guam: | | | Many of the day's biggest media stories were about conservative media voices... | | CNN severs ties with Jeffrey Lord | | Jeffrey Lord was CNN's first "Trump supporter" commentator. Two years later, he's one of the network's best-known voices -- reviled by some viewers, appreciated by others. His contract was coming up for renewal at the end of this year... but on Thursday his time at CNN came to an abrupt end.
On Thursday morning Lord ignited controversy by tweeting the words "Sieg Heil!" at Angelo Carusone, the president of the liberal group Media Matters for America. Lord has been battling Carusone and MMFA for a long time. He called the group "Media Matters Fascists" in a recent American Spectator column, decrying the group for promoting an ad boycott of Sean Hannity's show.
Arguments against the (failing) boycott attempt are understandable... but "Sieg Heil!" crossed a line. Lord was blasted by countless Twitter commenters, but he defended the tweet throughout the day by saying he was intentionally mocking fascists.
CNN management decided to sever ties with him. "Nazi salutes are indefensible," a CNN spokesperson said in a Thursday afternoon statement. "Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network." Lord found out while a CNN-provided car service was taking him from his PA home to NYC for Thursday night's "AC360." The car turned around... | | When I reached Lord by phone, he was still in the car. "I love CNN, but I feel they are caving to bullies here," he said, arguing that his tweet was misunderstood.
With the tweet, "I'm mocking people who are posing a serious threat to the American free press. That's what I'm mocking." Those "people" are the activists at Media Matters, he said, who "run around bullying people, bullying advertisers to take people off the air. This has got to stop. This has got to stop."
Lord was his usual jovial self -- he said he has a "great deal of respect" for CNN prez Jeff Zucker and anchors like Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper. Here's my full story... | | -- Lord told Washingtonian's Elaina Plott that "suffice it to say, people are already calling." Comms director? No, he said he's not interested in joining the admin...
-- Via NPR's David Folkenflik: "Fox News tells me it will not be hiring Jeffrey Lord in the wake of his dismissal by CNN..."
-- NYT's Michael Grynbaum tweeted this nugget: "White House liked Jeffrey Lord, but was eager to see scrappier, more combative pundits on CNN who would 'fight' for Trump, per sources..." | | That "menace" Sebastian Gorka | | "Menace" is Chuck Todd's word. He went there on Thursday's "MTP Daily..." raising the question about what Sebastian Gorka does all day long... is he just "this pugilist that goes on TV every now and then?"
To be fair, Gorka, whose title is deputy assistant to President Trump, goes on the radio a lot too.
He was on BBC Radio when he remarked that "the idea that Secretary Tillerson is going to discuss military matters is simply nonsensical." Later, Gorka said this dust-up was "fake news 101." But it wasn't. "I don't know why anybody at the W.H. would be trying to undermine or undercut the secretary of state. It's just a bizarre turn of events," Jake Tapper said on "The Lead."
On Todd's show, Eliana Johnson compared Gorka to Kellyanne Conway, someone "who defends him on TV." But aren't those people advising the president through those TV hits? Todd ended the segment by saying, "it just strikes me that he's nothing but a menace to the rest of the staff..." | | O'Reilly's book tour set to include a stop on CNN | | Tom Kludt emails: During his 21-year reign at Fox News, Bill O'Reilly wasn't a stranger to other networks. He's appeared on CBS, NBC and ABC to promote his books and other projects, paying visit to those networks' morning programs and late night talk shows. But he never ventured onto cable news networks like CNN -- until now. In the latest sign of just how different things are for him these days, O'Reilly is set to appear on CNN next month when he appears on Michael Smerconish's Saturday morning program.
Smerconish, who used to serve as a fill-in host on O'Reilly's now-defunct syndicated radio show, landed the interview on Wednesday during his own interview on O'Reilly's web program. No date has been set for the interview, which will be a part of O'Reilly's promotional effort for his forthcoming book, "Killing England..."
-- Tom adds: The book will serve as a good test for O'Reilly's post-Fox reach. O'Reilly used his top-rated cable news show to hype the "killing" books, turning the series into a commercial juggernaut in the process. Without that platform, how will the latest installment fare? | | Trump talks to the press -- and talks and talks! | | What a pleasant surprise for the poolers who have been holed up in Bedminster... President Trump held forth on two separate occasions on Thursday afternoon, taking a couple dozen questions from reporters, continuing even as Sarah Huckabee Sanders looked for a way to wrap it up. "The president made a week's worth of headlines," Anderson Cooper said.
-- Politico's Josh Dawsey tweeted: "The issue with a Trump news conference is there are legitimately 15 stories that could come out of it."
-- It wasn't a "press conference" per se since it was basically spontaneous. But there was tons of news. Chris Cillizza has 39 of the "most eyebrow-raising quotes" here...
-- Smart perspective from the AP: "The presidential megaphone amplified the McConnell-bashing that's been snaking through conservative media: Breitbart News, Fox News' Sean Hannity and radio host Rush Limbaugh are among those who have vilified the leader..." | | "Part of his joy is engaging with the fourth estate" | | | WashPost's Philip Rucker, who peppered Trump with Q's, wrote afterward that "this was Trump in his element..." And he quoted Kellyanne Conway agreeing: "The president proved again that he is the best messenger and communicator in his White House. The rest of us are serviceable understudies... He gets joy on the job, and part of his joy is engaging with the fourth estate." | | -- James Bennet, the NYT's editorial page editor, will "testify under oath in a defamation lawsuit filed by the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin..." (NYT)
-- John Kelly on the cover of Time got tongues wagging on Thursday... (The Hill)
-- Adam Ostrow, "who was the second employee at Mashable, hired a decade ago," is Tegna's new chief digital officer... (Variety) | | "The chaos behind the scenes of Fox's now-retracted Seth Rich story" | | | Today's must-read: "For more than two months, Fox News has declined to explain the story behind one of its most high-profile journalistic disasters -- the publication of an article that aimed to tie slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich to Wikileaks." So Oliver Darcy dug into it, and here's what he found... Some questionable decisions and missteps along the way... Read all about it here... | | Google was supposed to hold a Thursday afternoon all-hands staff meeting to address concerns over the controversial essay published by former employee James Damore. But it was cancelled at the last minute -- due to leaks.
Laurie Segall emails: "A source tells me this is unprecedented at Google. Employees are worried about free speech. After my piece revealing some of the planned questions for town hall came out (and Wired mag had some too), Google canceled. Leaks are hitting tech. Leaky White House... now leaky tech. People have something to say. Employees are being threatened. Apparently some sites named them..." | | "Our dancing hot dog is most likely the world's first augmented reality superstar."
--Evan Spiegel on Snap's earnings call... GIF via Gizmodo... | | While its user growth slows | | The Wrap mocked up a tearful hot dog to illustrate this story. Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: Snap reported Q2 earnings on Thursday afternoon, and things are looking bleak: The company didn't meet analyst expectations for revenue. User growth is slowing down. Competition from Facebook is getting more intense...
"Its losses for the quarter ballooned to $443 million, a nearly fourfold increase from the same period a year earlier and worse than investors had expected," CNN Tech's Seth Fiegerman reports...
-- Recommended: Recode's Kurt Wagner asks: "Is Snap having its Facebook stock moment? Or are things really as bad as they seem?" | | Melissah Yang emails: Taylor Swift took the stand on Thursday to testify against former radio host David Mueller, who she claims intentionally groped her in 2013. The singer confidently dished out choice quotes like:
-- "I'm not going to allow you or your client to make me feel in anyway that this is my fault because it isn't."
-- "I am being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are a product of his decisions and not mine."
Strong support for Swift's testimony was, well, swift... Here's our story about the reactions... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Roy Peter Clark writes that, in the age of hyperbole, understatement is a good antidote for writers to employ, and one that POTUS should consider using too... (Poynter)
-- Matt Drudge told Mike Allen about The Drudge Report's new black-and-white look: "We have clearly entered a historic era. It's feeling like The Roaring 20's... So, black and white and read all over!" (Axios)
-- Pew just published a report on "The Fate of Online Trust in the Next Decade..." (Pew)
-- Digiday analyzed some of the most expensive content subscriptions to see what they offer for the $$$... (Digiday)
-- Chartbeat competitor Parse.ly just raised $6.8 million... and says it has reached profitability... (Poynter)
-- On Medium, Chris Moran from the Guardian wrote an interesting counterpoint to Franklin Foer's piece "When Silicon Valley Took Over Journalism," written from the perspective of a former audience editor... (Medium) | | Colbert -- no, Stephanopoulos! -- scores first TV sit-down with Scaramucci | | | Update to last night's newsletter item: Stephen Colbert thought he had snagged Anthony Scaramucci's first sit-down interview since the Mooch's July 31 resignation. But no -- George Stephanopoulos is ahead of him. Stephanopoulos announced Thursday morning that Scaramucci will be on Sunday's "This Week," one day before Scaramucci's sit-down on Colbert's "Late Show." I suspect Colbert will bring this up during the interview... | | Murray Energy has "home field advantage" in fight with HBO | | | "HBO has lost the first round in its fight with Murray Energy over a June 18 broadcast of 'Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,' which covered President Donald Trump's generous treatment of the coal industry," THR's Eriq Gardner reports. "The network wanted a federal court rather than a West Virginia state judge to take up the quarrel over whether the show defamed Robert Murray, Murray Energy and other associated coal companies... But in a ruling on Thursday, the federal judge has remanded the case back to a state court where it originated..." | | Yashar Ali on "Reliable Sources" this Sunday | | | Speaking of lawsuits: Yashar Ali, who's being sued by suspended Fox host Eric Bolling, will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Rising numbers of lawsuits against elected officials who block critics on Twitter are bringing forth questions of violations of free speech... (WaPo)
-- Earnings are up but circulation and subscription revenues are down at News Corp... (CNBC)
-- Ryan Seacrest Productions has finalized a scripted development deal with ABC Studios after its partnership with CBS ended earlier this month... (Variety)
-- The Munsters are getting a makeover. Seth Meyers is pairing up with "Odd Mom Out" creator Jill Kargman to bring the freaky family back to TV -- this time in Brooklyn... (Deadline)
-- After Amazon Fresh and Amazon Books may come Amazon Tickets. The company is considering expanding its brand to include event sales... (TechCrunch) | | TV marking 20th anniversary of Diana's death | | | Brian Lowry emails: The 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's death is the latest milestone to receive blanket treatment across TV, including specials on HBO, ABC, NBC, PBS, TLC, National Geographic Channel and Smithsonian Channel. ABC's "The Story of Diana" drew 6.1 million viewers Wednesday, a respectable but unspectacular number. The official anniversary is Aug. 31... | | "The Millennial aesthetic of Viceland" | | | Megan Thomas emails: The New Yorker took a humorous look at Viceland's first scripted series "What Would Diplo Do?," which stars James Van Der Beek as a satirical version of the actual DJ Diplo. "Though the show is a spoof in the enduring spirit of 'This is Spinal Tap,' it still takes its cues from reality: Diplo can be smug and belligerent, particularly on social media (in the pilot, he is referred to as 'a righteous dick'), and electronic dance music, as a genre, contains a confounding mix of bro culture and quasi-Eastern enlightenment..." | | Netflix's "Atypical" -- dealing with an 18 year old with autism and his family -- is elevated by Keir Gilchrist's performance in the central role, but otherwise feels like a pretty typical series, Brian Lowry writes.
Read his full review here... | | Update on Jimmy Kimmel's son | | | Melissah Yang emails: Kimmel has no regrets about crying on national TV. In April, the late-night host spurred a national conversation on health care after revealing on his show that son Billy had undergone heart surgery. These days, Billy is "doing great," and Kimmel said in a new interview with THR that Trump is welcome on his show to discuss health care policy... | | | 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. | | | | | |
Post a Comment