| | | | Laura Ingraham is in line for a show on Fox | | Is "The Five" moving from 9pm back to 5pm? Is Sean Hannity getting a new time slot? There was uncertainty in the air at Fox News on Monday after Matt Drudge tweeted out something he called a "FALL PREVIEW." He said it's "Laura Ingraham's prime time to shine! After years in the trenches much deserved." Ingraham has been a Fox contributor and fill-in host for a decade.
Is she about to get her own show? Yes. Right now she's on vacation, but on Monday night a source confirmed that she is in line for a show on Fox. My sense is that this is still in the "talks" stage -- nothing official, nothing imminent. But it's a big deal because Fox's prime time schedule has already been shaken up a couple of times this year. Now it might be shaken up again.
As Oliver Darcy observed when Drudge's tweet came out, Fox seems to be exploring programming options should Eric Bolling not return. Earlier this month Bolling was suspended pending a probe into accusations that he sent lewd texts to colleagues, which he has denied.
On Monday, observers bandied about several different possible scenarios. If execs need to replace Bolling's 5pm show "The Specialists," "The Five" could move back to its original time slot. Then Ingraham could take over at 9pm... or Hannity could move to 9 and Ingraham could take over at 10... or maybe Fox execs have something in mind that nobody else has thought of yet...
-- Bottom line: Bolling's suspension has created a big question mark. But it's clear that Fox execs want to beat MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who's #1 at 9pm right now. So they're asking themselves: Would Ingraham be a better match against Maddow than "The Five" currently is? | | Three things to know about Laura | | | She's a vocal supporter of President Trump... she was talked about as a candidate for the Trump press secretary job... and she has a built-in base of fans from her Fox appearances and her morning radio talk show... | | Trump and Murdoch talk "most days" | | What did POTUS and Rupert Murdoch talk about what they dined together at the White House on August 1? That's what my story was missing on Sunday... so leave it to Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush to fill in the blanks. "Murdoch said [Steve] Bannon had to go" and Trump "offered little pushback," the duo reported in this Monday evening must-read. Jared Kushner and John Kelly were at the dinner, too.
Speaking on "AC360" Monday night, Haberman pointed out that the WSJ published an anti-Bannon editorial within days of the dinner. That's when Anderson Cooper interjected: "So the head of Fox News and the head of the WSJ is giving advice to the President of the United States, who he's covering, about who he should fire?"
Yes, and Haberman added a reminder that this has been going on for months. The two men speak "most days," she said... | | | Flashback: Last November Michael Wolff quoted Bannon saying "Rupert is a globalist and never understood Trump. To him, Trump is a radical. Now they'll go centrist and build the network around Megyn Kelly." Well Bannon might've been half right... | | Trump ticked off by "Devil's Bargain" book? | | | Haberman and Thrush also wrote this: One of Bannon's "main sins in the eyes of the president is appearing to revel in the perception that he is the mastermind behind the rise of a pliable Mr. Trump." They cite two examples: a Time mag cover story and the new book "Devil's Bargain" by Bloomberg Businessweek's Joshua Green. "Devil's Bargain" ranked #5 on the most recent NYT best seller list. On Monday CNN announced that Green is joining the network as a political analyst... | | Mooch to Colbert: "If it was up to me, he would be gone." | | | On Monday's "Late Show," Anthony Scaramucci said "if it was up to me," Bannon would be gone, but it's "up to the president..." | | Trump condemns white supremacists, then condemns the news media | | | I probably should have led the newsletter with Monday's developments involving POTUS and Charlottesville, but I just don't know what to say. It's not really news that the president saved some of his harshest words for the "fake news media." It would be "news" if he didn't. I mean, it was inevitable that after he spoke out against the KKK and neo-Nazis, his allies would immediately accuse the media of being overly critical. There's a big chunk of conservative media that would much rather complain about the "media" than talk about racism. Trump was both echoing them and encouraging further criticism by calling members of the media "truly bad people" in a Monday night tweet... | | "CEOs turn against Trump" | | | That's the banner headline on CNN.com right now. This will be a big topic on Tuesday morning, now that Intel's CEO has joined the heads of Merck and Under Armour in quitting Trump's manufacturing council. Bob Iger must be feeling good about his June 1 decision right about now... | | Here's what Fox viewers are hearing | | Fox's opinion shows had a lot to say about left-wing violence. Dana Perino stood out for her honest criticism of the president's poor handling of Charlottesville. As for the other prime time voices...
-- Tucker Carlson's lead at 8pm: "Where were the police?"
-- Jesse Watters on "The Five:" "The media begged Donald Trump to name names. He did, and then they said, 'Oh, well he read it off a TelePrompTer. Oh, he didn't take questions. Oh, he bragged about the economy.' I mean, in a way the guy can't win, he gets blamed for everything."
-- An hour later, Sean Hannity said the media tried to "paint the president, all conservatives, all Republicans as racists and bigots." So he... cued up an old clip of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright...
-- Sheriff David Clarke on "Hannity:" "The liberal media couldn't control themselves." | | -- Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer: "There is absolutely no question Trump holds the media in more contempt than he holds the Nazis that marched in Charlottesville this weekend"
-- CNNPolitics' Juana Summers: "POTUS failed to reject the political support he receives from white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazis."
-- WashPost's Mark Berman: "Would @realDonaldTrump have been critical of white supremacists earlier if one of them criticized him on cable news?" | | POTUS evidently doesn't know the definition of "press conference." Last Friday, he promised to hold a "pretty big press conference" on Monday. But the W.H. didn't set up any press conference. Instead, Trump gave a hastily arranged speech about Charlottesville and avoided answering questions. When he came before the cameras a second time, and CNN's Jim Acosta asked about the lack of a presser, Trump said, "We had a press conference. We just had a press conference." But he had not.
As I wrote here, Trump's comment seemed to confirm what some W.H. correspondents already surmised -- that he is counting any appearance in front of the press corps as a press conference...
--> Dana Perino making sense on Fox: "Perino PR rule, never announce a press conference until the morning of, because you don't know what the questions are going to be [about] the news of the day..." | | A controversial retweet... | | Back at home in Trump Tower, @realDonaldTrump threw a late-night presidential retweet to the pro-Trump/anti-media activist Jack Posobiec. This is bound to get attention on Tuesday morning. As Josh Jordan said: "No better way for Trump to shake the perception that he's sympathetic to the alt-right than to RT a person closely aligned w/ the alt-right." Looking for more info on him? Rosie Gray wrote this profile back in March.
--> On "CNN Tonight," Don Lemon pointed out that Posobiec "indulges in conspiracy theories" and said "that's your president, everybody..." | | "What happened this weekend is a kind of demarcation line that we're going to remember for a long time." Trump is "the president of his base, but there's very little proof now that he's president of all the American people."
--Carl Bernstein on "CNN Tonight" | | GoDaddy and Google ban white supremacist site | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: After GoDaddy kicked out The Daily Stormer on Monday and the site moved its domain to Google, the search giant quickly booted the white supremacist site too. Google's YouTube also shut down the Stormer's channel there... | | Austin Tice has been missing for five years | | | Via An Phung: "Today marks the start of our colleague Austin Tice's sixth year of captivity in Syria." McClatchy CEO Craig Forman penned this column to highlight Tice's absence and remember the journalists "who have risked and sometimes given their lives to bring us stories that would not otherwise be told." | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Jesse Palmer is leaving "GMA" to host the Daily Mail's forthcoming syndicated TV show... (Press Gazette)
-- "How SB Nation Profits Off An Army Of Exploited Workers." A tough story by Deadspin's Laura Wagner... (Deadspin)
-- Facebook's "trending" news section is "now available on mobile..." (The Verge)
-- Also on The Verge, a great social media verification crash course: a useful guide on how to spot a fake viral video... (The Verge) | | "Bachelor in Paradise" plays coy with controversy | | | What happened when "Bachelor in Paradise" premiered on Monday night after a "tantalizing whiff of controversy" earlier in the summer? Brian Lowry has a complete recap here... | | Taylor Swift wins court case | | | "After nearly four hours of deliberation, a jury ruled in favor of pop star Taylor Swift in her countersuit against former radio host David Mueller for alleged assault and battery," CNN's team in Denver and L.A. reports. Here's the latest... | | -- ICYMI: Monday's NYT page one story about Sinclair, focusing on the broadcaster's connections to the Trump administration... (NYT)
-- 21st Century Fox's payouts in Fox News-related settlements have now totaled $50 million, according to a new filing... (Variety)
-- Here's a very interesting, very bullish report by the NYC government about the growth of podcasting as an industry in the city... (PDF on NYC.gov)
-- Vice "is partnering with Airbnb Inc. to offer custom-made travel packages in keeping with the Vice's 'punk''zine' ethos..." (WSJ) | | | Brian Lowry emails: Netflix has been on the kind of spending spree a drunken sailor might envy, including deals with high-profile creative talent -- landing Rhimes and before that Robert Kirkman, right after announcing a new series from David Letterman. PR-wise, it certainly sends a message and turns up the heat on competitors. But these kind of big-ticket deals can be perilous, as underscored by the fact that Rhimes' last two ABC shows, "The Catch" and "Still Star-Crossed," were both canceled; and Kirkman's spinoff "Fear the Walking Dead" and Cinemax drama "Outcast" have been creatively underwhelming. Simply put, the betting-on-talent business remains a risky game, especially when you're carrying billions in debt, as the LAT noted, and banking on writer/producer-types to come up with their second, third or fourth hits... | | Netflix's streaming content obligations | | | A timely reminder from Paul R. La Monica: Netflix "has $15.7 billion (yes billion!) in obligations committed to streaming content deals. CEO Reed Hastings said at a conference earlier this year that $6 billion of that is for this year alone..." | | | FIRST LOOK: Ted Sarandos is on the cover of this week's Variety, coming out Tuesday morning... He revealed to the mag that "he anticipates spending a whopping $7 billion on original content next year -- up from more than $6 billion over the past year and $5 billion in 2016." He says "the more successful we get, the more anxious I get about the willingness of the networks to license their stuff to us." Thus the push for more original shows. But: "The vast majority is still licensed content. We're still a couple years from seeing it go 50-50..." | | "Rhimes didn't just leave ABC. She left network TV..." | | Megan Thomas emails: Check out Joe Adalian's take for Vulture about why network TV isn't worth it for Hollywood veterans like Rhimes anymore:
"For some Hollywood creatives, particularly those at the peak of their careers, offers of big bucks and promises of creative autonomy aren't enough to overcome the view that network television is now the least attractive medium in which to work. Rhimes didn't just leave ABC. She left network TV..."
-- Headline in Tuesday's NYPost: "Shonda Rhimes got too big for network television" | | | For the record, part three | | | By Howard Cohen:
-- ABC's Ginger Zee announced on GMA Monday morning that she's pregnant with baby #2... she's expecting a baby boy this winter... (TVNewser)
-- With Roger Lynch leaving to serve as Pandora's new CEO, Sling TV will now be overseen by Dish COO Erik Carlson... (Variety)
-- A H.S. student has received $10,000 from Google as a reward after he exposed a security vulnerability that hackers could have exploited... (The Telegraph) | | "The hardest part of my job..." | | We asked CNN's Eugene Scott to elaborate on something he said earlier in the day:
I do quite a bit of public speaking and audiences - especially students – often ask me what is the most challenging part about my job as a CNN Politics reporter. Most of the time, I give an answer so generic that I can't even remember in this moment what I usually say. Probably something about accuracy.
But this Monday, I started my day at 5am on CNN's "Early Start" talking about Charlottesville. Literally just the day before, I was at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in New Orleans discussing why newsrooms need more people of color telling America's stories. HLN's Michaela Pereira was at the conference too, and she reminded me of our weekend when she had me on her show midday to discuss the president's widely criticized response to Charlottesville.
So when I walked out of the flash studio to remove make-up -- thankful that I got through another hit discussing this story without tearing up -- I realized that I finally had an answer to all of those college students who wanted to know the most difficult thing about being a national politics reporter. And I tweeted:
"Pretty sure that the hardest part of my job may be repeatedly going on TV to discuss the fact that some people hate me because I am black." | | Stunt person dies on the set of "Deadpool 2" | | Sandra Gonzalez reports: A female stunt person has died while performing a motorcycle stunt on the set of "Deadpool 2," according to a statement from the Vancouver police. The name of the victim has not been released...
-- LAT's Steven Zeitchik tweeted: "Still many unknowns, but one ques to ask of Deadpool 2 tragedy is whether physical stunts' attempts to keep pace w/CG wizardry was a factor." | | Another "Walking Dead" lawsuit | | | Brian Lowry emails: Several producers of "The Walking Dead" -- including comic creator Robert Kirkman, who recently inked a deal with Netflix, and heavyweight film producer Gale Anne Hurd -- have sued AMC, claiming that they haven't received their fair share of profits from the hit zombie series. The suit follows a similar action that's ongoing brought by Frank Darabont, who adapted the show for TV. Variety has details here... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Chris Pratt showed up at the Teen Choice Awards. It was his first public appearance since he and Anna Faris shocked fans by announcing their split...
-- "Bachelor" alum Vienna Girardi lost twin daughters, and in her tragedy is trying to help other parents...
-- Fans are singing the praises of the new "Hamilton" app, which features everything from photo filters to a chance to score tickets to the hot Broadway musical... | | | Highlights from Sunday's "Reliable Sources" | | | Four ways to catch up on Sunday's show | | | 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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