| | | | | Exec summary: Tim Cook says "this is a day to remember..." Jimmy Kimmel is going after Bill Cassidy... Sean Spicer has been snubbed by the major TV news divisions... HBO has renewed "The Deuce..." "SNL" will be staying live coast to coast... | | "Ratings man" says he was "saddened" by Emmys ratings | | Just as I was about to send out this newsletter, President Trump tweeted this: "I was saddened to see how bad the ratings were on the Emmys last night - the worst ever. Smartest people of them all are the 'DEPLORABLES.'"
A couple quick notes. First, the Emmys were "two nights ago," not "last night." Second, Trump is embracing a talking point from Kellyanne Conway, "Fox & Friends" and some of his other media allies. "Americans are turning off the Emmys because Hollywood is too liberal" was a big talking point on Monday.
It wasn't really backed up by the #'s, however. Ratings for the awards telecast were on par with 2016... yes, 2016 was a record low... but CBS execs were pleased that the #'s didn't crater. This Fox News headline, "Emmys ratings crater; Trump-bashing to blame?" is just plain inaccurate... | | BIG NIGHT IN THE LATE SHOW WARS... | | Frank Pallotta emails: On Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert returns to the Ed Sullivan Theater following his bit with Sean Spicer at the Emmys on Sunday. Will Colbert address the criticisms that some had with his joking around with Spicer? We'll see. Hillary Clinton is also a guest on the show...
-- Re: Spicer's Emmys appearance: TheWrap reports that "in 2013, the show skirted politics by cutting at the last minute a sketch that would have included President Obama..."
-- Via Megan Thomas: VF's Laura Bradley has a good breakdown of James Corden's "half-apology" for kissing Spicer... | | Kimmel says Bill Cassidy failed | | A media exec texts: "You will NOT want to miss Kimmel tonight." Here's why, via Frank: On "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Kimmel has some things to say about the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill. Remember, Senator Bill Cassidy coined the term the "Jimmy Kimmel test" on CNN back in May. Kimmel thinks the new bill flunks that test. "Bill Cassidy just lied right to my face," he says. Here's a preview clip...
Earlier in the day, Kimmel tweeted, "Billy's helping me write tonight's monologue," sharing a photo of his son Billy... | | More on Spicer and his TV future (?) | | In last night's newsletter I pointed out that Sean Spicer still hasn't signed up with a TV network. I asked: Have they passed on him?
NBC's Claire Atkinson says yes: "The big five news organizations have passed" on making Spicer "an exclusive paid contributor," she reported Tuesday night, citing "network sources." Why? "Lack of credibility." The networks all declined to comment, and so did Spicer's agent Bob Barnett... | | Thanks to Apple, AR is now everywhere | | With Tuesday's iPhone and iPad software update, Apple brought augmented reality to hundreds of millions of devices. There's a lot of buzz in media/tech circles about how to harness AR. What can newsrooms do to apply this technology to storytelling?
--> Tim Cook, speaking on Tuesday's "GMA," promoting iOS11's AR functionality: This is a "profound day..." Because so many people "will be able to use AR for the first time..." "This is a day to remember..." | | | -- Related: "So far, there has been minimal usage of augmented reality by news organizations," CJR notes. Check out this analysis of "what iOS 11 means for news publishers and readers..." I learned a lot from it... | | | -- Did you know? Apple used "machine learning" to give Siri a makeover for iOS 11... (TechCrunch) | | The Republican Governors Association created a "news" web site... | | | Julia Waldow emails: "The Free Telegraph," an online publication launched by the Republican Governors Association, "looks like a media outlet" and is described as a media company on social media, but is really the political creation of a committee working to get more Republicans elected. This was a great scoop by the AP's Bill Barrow. He writes that the site, which "blares headlines about the virtues of GOP governors, while framing Democrats negatively," and even offers "breaking news alerts," had no disclosure about its source until he inquired about it... | | President Trump threatened "Rocket Man" with annihilation on Tuesday. Journalists and commentators had to convey just how unusual Trump's UN General Assembly address was... Not surprisingly, some right-wing media watchdogs thought the coverage was too negative... Personally I liked the lead of Stephen Collinson's piece for CNN.com: "No American President has ever spoken to the world like this." Negative? Positive? The reader can decide...
-- As for "Rocket Man," a name Trump first employed for Kim Jong Un on Sunday, a senior Trump aide told NBC News that the phrase was "all him." Meaning all Trump. "He doesn't need help in the branding department," the aide said... | | | The Economist called this more than a decade ago -- this is a 2006 cover of the magazine -- featuring Kim Jong Un's father... | | -- Margaret Sullivan's latest: "The fight over Jemele Hill's tweets won't go away. It's about truth and race in the Trump era..." (WashPost)
-- "Jann Wenner really blew it with Rolling Stone," the NYPost's Keith Kelly writes. He wonders if a tech billionaire will buy the mag since the big publishers apparently aren't interested... (NYPost)
-- Happy pub day to David Litt, whose book "Thanks Obama" came out Tuesday... He had a party at Comet Ping Pong in DC Monday night... The Point newsletter has details... (CNN)
-- Clever headline on Joe Adalian's item about Rachel's Maddow's interview with Hillary Clinton being the most-watched cable news program of the workweek: "Hillary Clinton Just Notched Another Popular Vote Win" (Vulture) | | Exclusive: Bannon orders Breitbart to step up negative coverage of Trump-backed candidate | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Steve Bannon is going toe-to-toe with Trump. A source told me that on Tuesday morning Bannon ordered top editors at Breitbart to step up the site's overwhelmingly negative coverage of Luther Strange, the Alabama Senate candidate backed by Trump. Shortly after Bannon issued his instructions, Matthew Boyle told staff in an internal Slack message I obtained that "the only story that matters until next week is Alabama." Boyle added in Slack, "As of now, everyone is working on the Alabama race." Read more... | | "Pentagon reporters frustrated by Mattis" | | | Important story by Politico's Jason Schwartz: Pentagon reporters are lamenting lack of access and transparency from the Defense Department. There's been a "reduction in journalists allowed to travel on official trips..." | | After Russian Facebook ads, Democrats seek new FEC rules on social media politics | | Dylan Byers writes: House and Senate Democrats plan to send a letter to the Federal Election Commission this week asking them to consider new rules that would prevent foreigners from using online advertising platforms like Facebook and Twitter to influence voters. The letter will likely be sent and made public on Wednesday...
-- More: Sen. Mark Warner's office is also looking at crafting legislation that would require disclaimers on who paid for advertisements... | | Spotted at Katy Tur's book party... | | I'm sure I missed some folks... but here's who I spotted at Tuesday's party for Katy Tur's "Unbelievable:" Tony Doukoupil, Lester Holt, Craig Melvin, Andrea Mitchell, Savannah Guthrie, Mike Feldman, Hilary Rosen, Carl Bernstein (above with Tur), Peter Alexander, Kristen Welker, Ari Melber, Ali Velshi, Stephanie Ruhle, Harry Smith, Noah Oppenheim, Don Nash, Dafna Linzer, Ali Vitali, Sopan Deb, Bradd Jaffy, Jesse Rodriguez, Bill Bratton, John Huey, Rick Stengel, Gabe Sherman, Elise Jordan, Steve Burke, Adam Miller, Amy Chozick, Pat Kiernan, Brian Steinberg, Nick Confessore, Jim Rutenberg, Stu Loese, Stephen Battaglio, Michael Calderone, Kara Smoke, Chris Ariens, Alan Berger...
-- Andy Lack, inspired by a passage in Tur's book, read a verse written for the party: "This is a time to offer a rhyme for 2016, to keep in mind. To alas with sass, a reporters reporter. When the news cycles got shorter and shorter. On the trail with Trump, he railed from the stump, taunting the Little Katy. No matter, smart, blunt, fierce with her questions she did pierce the bully and all his might. And one thing became especially clear to all of us who gathered here. We're crazy in love with Lady Tur and there's there's just nothing fake about her. So raise a glass to the best of class, the unbelievable Katy Tur." | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Joe Flint's latest: "NBC News Chief Presides Over Ratings Gains, Uneasy Talent..." (WSJ)
-- Twitter is releasing a Nuzzel-like feature showing "Popular Articles" shared by people in a user's network... (BuzzFeed)
-- On NiemanLab, a deep dive on media consumption habits in the Middle East... (NiemanLab)
-- Sara Fischer reports that Google is launching new features for publishers within its free Cloud Natural Languages API... allowing newsrooms to classify content automatically by topic and do sentiment analysis... (Axios) | | Fox News asks court to dismiss lawsuit filed over Seth Rich story | | | Oliver Darcy emails: Fox News has filed a motion in federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the network over a now-retracted story on the death of former DNC staffer Seth Rich. The network argued that Rod Wheeler, who filed the suit, had made comments to other outlets that "mirror" what he told Fox News reporter Malia Zimmerman. Fox News also argued that Wheeler was contractually obligated to have his complaints heard by a private arbiter, not in court… | | "Yes, Tucker Carlson Really Interviewed a Witch Tonight" | | | ...That's the headline over at Mediaite. Justin Baragona asked: "Has Fox News' Tucker Carlson completely run out of topics to talk about on his show?" | | Tom Kludt emails: With a book to sell and payback on the mind, Bill O'Reilly is going on the offensive. It started Monday, when he questioned the credibility of one of the women who came forward with allegations against him last spring. And it continued Tuesday morning, when O'Reilly's book/revenge tour made a stop on the "Today" show for a tense interview with Matt Lauer. O'Reilly, as he has in the past, asserted his innocence and promised "more things to come" about the people and entities that contributed to his ouster. "My conscience is clear," O'Reilly said...
Standout exchange from the interview:
O'REILLY: Look, anything is possible, alright, but it goes to credibility, doesn't it? Alright. If you look at -- in totality, this was a hit job. A political and financial hit job.
LAUER: Is this a vast left-wing conspiracy?
O'REILLY: Not vast, and don't be sarcastic. | | Oh yeah, about that book... | | | Tom adds: Lauer eventually dutifully brought the discussion to "Killing England," the latest installment in O'Reilly's wildly successful history series. The "Killing" books have been fixtures on bestseller lists since the series began in 2011, but "Killing England" will be a major test of O'Reilly's post-Fox reach. On Monday, the eve of the new book's release, it ranked only around #90 on Amazon's best seller list, suggesting that O'Reilly was missing the type of promotional vehicle most authors can only dream of: a nightly audience of 3-4 million people. But on Tuesday, with O'Reilly's PR blitz in full swing, "Killing England" shot up to #4 on the Amazon list, trailing only the new titles by Hillary Clinton, Tom Brady and Ray Dalio... | | Lauer made a good point... | | | Brian Lowry adds this: Beyond why the women involved would lie, Lauer asked O'Reilly another key question for which he had no good answer -- namely, why would Fox want to get rid of its top-rated host, even in the face of an advertiser boycott? What Lauer didn't say was that the network had even more reason to hang onto O'Reilly as the linchpin of its primetime lineup, having already lost Megyn Kelly to NBC... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Amazon has signed a deal with "Stranger Things" writer-producer Justin Doble to develop genre projects... (Deadline)
-- YouTube is ending its paid channels initiative (first introduced in 2013), and expanding its $4.99/month sponsorship model... (Variety)
-- The screenwriter-director of the Mel Gibson movie "The Professor and the Madman," Farhad Safinia, is suing Voltage Pictures over a response the company gave to the Los Angeles Times, saying the statement was "false" and "defamatory..." (THR) | | "SNL" staying live coast to coast | | | Frank Pallotta emails: The 43rd season of "SNL" will be broadcast live coast-to-coast, which means viewers on the west coast will be watching "SNL" as the same time as those watching on the east coast. (Just like the final episodes last year.) It's a no-brainer move in the social media age, especially since the episodes still re-air at 11:30pm out west. The show has arguably never been more relevant... | | Oprah's first "60 Minutes" piece airs this weekend | | | My wife flagged this Instagram from Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday: "It's official. Got my CBS id card today. First story on the air this Sunday..." | | | Brian Lowry emails: HBO has renewed "The Deuce," the 1970s porn industry drama from producer David Simon, for a second season. After the premiere amassed a decent 2.2 million viewers, Simon -- known for quality but low-rated fare -- tweeted, "Clearly, we've erred in some fashion here..." | | Lady Gaga's documentary premieres Friday on Netflix | | | One more from Brian Lowry: "Gaga: Five Foot Two" is timely, with Lady Gaga having postponed her European tour due to health issues. Yet this year-in-the-life documentary, premiering Friday on Netflix, mostly underscores how carefully the star shapes her own image, to the point of seeming constantly mindful that the cameras are rolling. Read the full review here... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Linkin Park is paying tribute to lead singer Chester Bennington with an emotional music video and a planned tribute concert. Bennington committed suicide in July...
-- McAfee has rated singer Avril Lavigne as the "most dangerous celebrity" online. Searching for Lavigne and her music might leave you vulnerable to malware, according to the company's annual study. Singer Bruno Mars came in second on their list...
-- Kim Kardashian West believes there is an age limit to posing nude. She just doesn't sound like she's sure of when it is... | | | Email 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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