| | | | | This feels like a quiet summer Friday... a typically sleepy August afternoon... except for the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and North Korea... | | Where has this President Trump been for the past few months? Trump has held four press availabilities in the past two days. And on Friday evening he announced that "we're going to have a pretty big press conference on Monday."
W.H. correspondents are pointing out that this is a sudden change in the president's press strategy. He hasn't held a solo news conference since February 16. And he usually passes on opportunities to answer Q's from the press. But not anymore. He answered Q's from pool reporters twice on Thursday and again on Friday, at various locations at his Bedminster resort.
I texted a W.H. aide and asked: Is this a "new Trump?" No, the aide said, this is "vintage Trump..." He's found a comfortable working relationship with chief of staff John Kelly, he's escaped DC for a while, and he's doing what worked for him during the campaign... | | | CNN's Dan Merica emails: Trump has taken over 50 questions from reporters in the last 48 hours... This is, by far, the most available Trump has been during his administration... | | POTUS can talk all day and all night, but does being more accessible make him more trustworthy in the eyes of the American people?
Chuck Todd cut to the chase on Friday's "MTP Daily:" "We have a president right now who is asking the public and the world to trust what he says. But frankly, he does keep giving us plenty of reasons not to. You ask ten different people if they're seriously worried about what's happening, and you'll get ten different answers. That's because: what do you believe?"
Todd continued: "Now, it might help if the president would actually explain what his threats mean. But when asked, he doesn't..." | | "How Guam's biggest daily newspaper is covering the standoff" | | | This is a good read by Poynter's Ben Mullin about the Pacific Daily News: "Every time they publish a new story about North Korea, concurrent visitors to the website double...." | | What do you think of this? | | | Justin Miller of The Daily Beast tweeted Friday evening: "Reality check: new North Korea 'crisis' started when Trump overreacted to a news story." He's referring to the WashPost story that came out a few hours before Trump spoke of "fire and fury." Miller linked to this article by David B. Larter of DefenseNews, titled "If the US is going to war in North Korea, nobody told the US military..." | | Lowry's free advice for the WSJ | | | Brian Lowry emails: People rightfully derided the WSJ for its "Analysts are trying to work out what happens to markets in the event of an all-out nuclear war" tweet, but the headline on the article -- "How Do You Price a Problem Like Korea?," a play off "The Sound of Music" -- was equally obtuse. There are times to be cute and clever, and discussing the prospect of nuclear war pretty clearly isn't one of them... | | -- Is Mark Steyn in line for a contributor role... or more... at Fox News? He's been filling in for Sean Hannity for years, and he guest-hosted "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Thursday, even though he has no official role at Fox. He was also on the "Specialists" on Friday...
-- Speaking of fill-in hosts: Katy Tur subbed for the always-opinionated host Chris Matthews on Friday. How is this any different from Fox newsman Ed Henry filling in for an opinion host like Carlson?
-- Alex Jones has launched a web site called "NewsWars" that looks a LOT like the home pages of the NYT and WashPost... (HuffPost)
-- "The Chew" co-host Daphne Oz "is leaving the ABC daytime talk show after six seasons..." (THR)
-- A loving story by Sopan Deb about Broadway star Barbara Cook's final days... Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis and others came to sing at Cook's bedside as she lay dying.. (NYT) | | Oliver Darcy emails: On Friday evening Yashar Ali's attorney sent a sternly worded letter to the lawyer representing Eric Bolling, arguing the Fox host's lawsuit against Ali is "utterly devoid of merit" and demanding that it be dismissed immediately.
Bolling filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Ali earlier this week over a HuffPost article Ali wrote which said Bolling had sent lewd text messages to female colleagues years ago. Dianne Brandi, Fox News' EVP of Legal and Business Affairs, was also copied on the letter.
Ali's attorney said "continuing litigation will only reveal that Mr. Bolling's lawsuit was filed for public relations purposes and to retaliate against Mr. Ali for uncovering the truth." Ali's attorney also said in the letter that Bolling's lawsuit had "tarnished Mr. Ali's reputation and incited Mr. Bolling's supporters to post racist tirades against Mr. Ali on his Facebook page."
The letter ended warning that if the lawsuit is not dropped, Ali has authorized his legal team to "pursue all claims in law and in equity against you and your client, including malicious prosecution..." | | BTW, Bolling has been off for a full week now... | | | Pete Hegseth filled in on Friday afternoon... | | On Sunday's "Reliable Sources..." | | | I'll be joined by Yashar Ali along with David Folkenflik, Ann Compton, Glenn Kessler, Angie Drobnic Holan, Will Ripley, and John Kirby... Join us Sunday at 11am ET... | | A preview of what Kessler might say... | | | Here's what WashPost fact-checker Glenn Kessler told me for this story a few days ago: "For decades, Donald Trump got away with blatant falsehoods because no one was keeping track. If you mislead people about an apartment sale, or mislead your bankers, no one puts out a news release or calls attention to the falsehoods. But now that he's president, Trump is discovering there are consequences. Every word is quoted and analyzed, and is compared to what was said before or how it conforms with reality." | | By Julia Waldow:
-- The NRA has been attacking the NYT and other media outlets... Michael Luo explains why the group may have chosen to do that... (The New Yorker)
-- Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros is being sued by her "Tied Up In Knots" ghostwriter for what is allegedly failure to deliver proper payment. Also at stake in the lawsuit: the copyright to the book... (Variety)
-- Netflix's female wrestling comedy "Glow" has been renewed for a second, 10-episode season... (The Verge)
-- Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will create original TV content for Amazon... (TechCrunch)
-- A completely blank, 10-minute song is quickly climbing the iTunes charts. Here's why this "sound of silence" is generating so much buzz... (Wired) | | Jeffrey Lord out at CNN, one day later | | -- Margaret Sullivan says Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany's exits from CNN are "good news," but says they "should have been gone a long time ago..."
-- The WashPost also ran a "look back at Jeffrey Lord's most confusing and controversial CNN statements..."
-- Lord told interviewers on Friday that he greatly respects CNN but simply disagrees with the decision to sever ties with him. Apparently Steve Bannon called him while he was on the phone with his hometown paper... | | "There's no Pepsi to FNC's Coke yet, even though their Coke hasn't been at its best lately."
--Jonathan Schreiber, president of Glenn Beck's Mercury Radio Arts, in this Paul Bond story about Fox News wannabes... | | "Discussions" between Netflix and Disney | | | Megan Thomas emails: Netflix and Disney remain in "discussions" about a deal for Lucasfilm and Marvel titles after the companies' current deal expires in 2019, Netflix's Ted Sarandos said in an interview with Reuters... | | | Howard Cohen emails: Want to know what you can learn from speaking to 150 newsrooms about building better communities? That's what the Coral Project did, and here's what they learned... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Super interesting from Digiday: How people around the world spend time on social platforms. Facebook dominates across the board and reaches the most 18- to 29-year-olds... Germans go to Amazon to consume content... Brits prefer Google... and YouTube is growing faster than Facebook-owned apps... (Digiday)
-- Scribd is partnering with Zinio to add 30 new magazine titles to its portfolio, more than doubling their magazine offering. Priced at $8.99 a month, Scribd reached 500,000 subscribers in May... (Poynter)
-- Robert Feder reports that Jim Kirk, the publisher and EIC of the Chicago Sun-Times, has resigned to join the Chicago Tribune's parent company Tronc... (Robert Feder)
-- In this Q&A with CJR, Terry Gross distinguishes between two kinds of journalism: reporting and interviewing... (CJR)
-- Emily Smith says that nobody wants to replace "Mooch" in the White House communications director role. Pull quote from the story: "Everybody they want isn't interested..." (Page Six) | | Tom Kludt reports: When the 2020 presidential race commences, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker may find themselves locked in a battle for the Democratic' party's nomination. For now, however, the competition is limited to book sales, and the upper hand clearly belongs to Franken. Franken's memoir has sold 167,046 copies, according to NPD, while Warren's call to action has sold 73,168, and Booker's book has sold only 13,607 copies...
>> More from Tom's story: Jeff Flake's book "Conscience of a Conservative" has made headlines for its pointed critiques of President Trump, and the publicity has helped Flake sell 7,388 copies, according to NPD, putting Flake within shouting distance of Mitch McConnell, whose 2016 memoir, "The Long Game," has sold a little under 12,000 copies... | | Today's Taylor Swift update | | The latest from Denver: "Taylor Swift's attorneys declined to call any witnesses on Friday in her civil lawsuit against a former radio DJ who allegedly groped her at a meet-and-greet in June 2013. The jury was sent home for the weekend, and closing arguments are expected on Monday morning..."
-- Advocates say the trial is sending a powerful message to young fans, Sandra Gonzalez reports...
-- By Lisa France: Swift fans are not loving those courtroom sketches of the star... | | A feast and famine summer for blockbusters | | | Brian Lowry emails: "Spider-Man: Homecoming" cracked the $300-million domestic boxoffice plateau on Thursday, joining "Wonder Woman" (which hit $400 million this week) among the clear winners in what's been a feast and mostly famine summer for blockbusters. Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" and "Girls Trip" also continue to exceed expectations as the summer winds down... | | | 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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