| | | | | Good evening from the Paley Center in NYC... I just moderated a panel about the state of press freedom... Scroll down for the highlights, but first, some news from VF's New Establishment Summit on the other coast... after this breaking news... | | Some of the Russian-linked Facebook ads targeted Michigan and Wisconsin | | Manu Raju, Dylan Byers and Dana Bash report: "A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump's victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal, two of the sources said. The ads employed a series of divisive messages aimed at breaking through the clutter of campaign ads online, including promoting anti-Muslim messages, sources said..."
-- Context: "While one source said that a large number of ads appeared in areas of the country that were not heavily contested in the elections, some clearly were geared at swaying public opinion in the most heavily contested battlegrounds..."
-- Much more to come: "Lawmakers have only started to assess the scope of the data..." | | | I've heard Democrats in Congress say we've only seen the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to social media and Russian interference, but here's a top Republican saying it, Sen. John Cornyn: "It's consistent with everything else we've seen in terms of Russian active measures -- a combination of cyber, of propaganda and paid and social media," he told Manu Raju. "So, we're just looking at the tip of the iceberg." | | Iger says "this time I mean it" | | Bob Iger is really, really stepping down in mid-2019. "This time I mean it," he told Nick Bilton while being interviewed on stage at VF's summit. When Bilton asked attendees to cheer if they wanted Iger to run for president in 2020, Iger said, "My wife is out there somewhere and she is not cheering," per VF's Rebecca Keegan.
Iger made lots and lots of other news... | | Iger: "We should be demanding" action against massacres | | Carrie Barnette, a Disney employee, was one of the dead in Las Vegas. Iger confronted the subject of the mass shooting head-on. "This is a huge tragedy of huge proportions, and we should be outraged by it," he said. "And in this day and age, we get outraged when an athlete doesn't stand for the national anthem, where's the outrage here?" Here's Sandra Gonzalez's full story about his remarks...
-- More from Iger: "I don't think this is politics. We should be demanding a dialogue about this from our politicians and demanding some productive action..." | | | "We've got to take into account what we're seeing societally and what people are feeling," Iger said, confirming that he was involved in ESPN's decision not to fire Jemele Hill, and explaining the company's thought process... Details here from VF... | | On the streaming biz front... | | | Sandra Gonzalez emails from the summit in L.A.: Iger also previewed what fans will see from the standalone Disney streaming service in 2019, which will include "thousands of hours" of Disney, Pixar and Marvel content, as well as about five original films and some original TV projects that "will be made specifically for the platform." My question: Will these original movies be direct-to-video-quality films (think animated sequels without big-name stars) or will Disney produce theater-quality projects exclusively for the service in a Netflix-like move? | | What ESPN's streaming app may become | | | Sandra adds: This stood out to me when Iger was talking about his plans for the ESPN direct-to-consumer internet service. Emphasis mine. "It will be very mobile friendly so it will stream under very stable circumstances on mobile devices no matter what mobile device it is pretty much no matter where you are in the world. Eventually, that app can possibly become or may possibly become the only way you watch ESPN, but for the time being, the linear channels of ESPN will continue to be distributed by the partners we have in the distribution space because they still deliver a lot of revenue to us." Imagine that… | | Netflix's content spend was $6 billion this year, and next year it will be "closer to $7 billion," Ted Sarandos said during his session at the summit. "I don't know what the limit is, but I don't think we see it yet," he said. "We're not bumping up against it yet."
Sarandos also called "peak TV" a "backwards idea." He and Ava DurVernay spoke about storytelling in a new media age. Highlights here via Deadline... | | "The state of press freedom" | | | At the Paley Center event, CPJ chief Joel Simon and RCFP chief Bruce Brown discussed challenges to journalists and promoted the new U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. It counts 77 cases in 2017, including 41 incidents at protests -- 18 physical assaults of journalists covering protests, 21 arrests. Simon said the law enforcement treatment of journalists at protests is particularly concerning. And Brown said he was shocked by the "hostility toward reporters" from members of the general public (at Trump rallies for instance)... | | About Monday's meeting at the DOJ... | | Of all the threats to press freedom in the U.S., nothing has been more chilling than Jeff Sessions' "threat to prosecute journalists for doing their jobs," Simon said. Brown briefly talked about Monday's meeting with deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and a group of journalists. They were there to "advocate for keeping those rules," i.e. the Obama-era guidelines about pursuing journalists amid leak investigations. "We believe those revisions really do strike the right balance," Brown said. The Trump admin is reviewing the 2013 guidelines with an eye toward targeting journos.
Monday's meeting included WashPost EIC Marty Baron, NYT DC bureau chief Elisabeth Bumiller, and AP general counsel Karen Kaiser... Bumiller was on my panel, so I asked her about the meeting, and she said "we pushed very hard" in favor of keeping the 2013 guidelines in place. The live stream of the full event is archived here... | | What will Jimmy Kimmel say tonight?
...Is not something anyone asked this time last year. But times have changed, and Kimmel is being described as the nation's "moral conscience" by TV critics. Some conservative media types say Kimmel is just a Dem propagandist, while some liberal columnists want him to go even further. Most viewers, I suspect, just want to watch him be thought-provoking and entertaining.
Kimmel was "until recently the third person mentioned in any conversation about the crowded field of late-night talk show hosts," but he has "nevertheless found and tentatively occupied the space that remains stubbornly vacant since the back-to-back retirements of David Letterman and Jon Stewart in 2015," the WashPost's Hank Stuever wrote Tuesday. Here's why he says that Kimmel is saying everything right "without saying anything new..."
-- Read Bill Carter's latest for CNN about Kimmel... He notes that Monday's monologue about guns "soared well past 3 million YouTube videos..."
-- 🔌: Bill Carter and I will be talking about this on CNN's "New Day," Wednesday at 7:50am ET... | | | Heartwarming? Awkward? Presidential? Embarrassing? President Trump's day trip to Puerto Rico could be perceived any number of ways. CNN's Chris Cillizza says the day was a "massive fail" -- he describes why in Tuesday's The Point newsletter... | | | There's been a made-up story about a Puerto Rico truck drivers strike circulating in right-wing media for a couple of days. That's why I was intrigued when POTUS said this to the press corps on the flight down to the island: "We need their truck drivers to start driving trucks." Was he alluding to this debunked story? | | | Geraldo Rivera is, by his own account, friends with President Trump. They spoke on the phone last week while Rivera was reporting from P.R. On Tuesday afternoon Rivera interviewed Trump during the visit... The highlights aired on "Hannity..." "We're very proud of the job we've done," Trump said... | | When Trump got home, he retweeted this... | | | A Sean Hannity promo promising "the truth about how despicable the media and the left are in America today." Isn't this like McDonalds advertising Big Macs? It's the same ad every single day... for the same exact meal... | | -- Laurene Powell Jobs "has agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in Ted Leonsis' Monumental Sports & Entertainment..." (AP)
-- A new profile of Preet Bharara: He's now "in the Trump-opposition business," working with his brother Vinit... (NYMag)
-- It's official: Claire Wardle's First Draft is joining the Shorenstein Center. Details here... (Shorenstein)
-- On Tuesday the Toronto Star's Daniel Dale said @realDonaldTrump blocked him on Twitter. Maybe that means Trump won't see Dale's latest fact-check. He found "40 false claims last week," a "new dishonesty record" for POTUS... (Toronto Star)
-- This is the profile you didn't know you wanted of Fox's Jesse Watters, the "'golden boy' of Trump's favorite network..." (HuffPost)
-- Correction: In last night's newsletter I said NBC's Cal Perry is based in NYC, but he actually moved to London earlier this year. Sorry about that... | | "Las Vegas conspiracies are still spreading on Facebook" | | | We highlighted this last night, but it's still going on. "Viral fake news stories about the Las Vegas shooting" are getting tons of attention on social media, Vice reports... | | Heartbreaking accounts from survivors | | | This was an extraordinary segment on John Berman and Poppy Harlow's Tuesday morning newscast: Heather Gooze, who held a shooting victim's hand as he died and stayed with him until help arrived, described what those hours were like... She spoke for 13 minutes, recounting the night, and I was heartbroken by the account. It's recapped here... | | Showtime scraps repeat of "Active Shooter" doc | | | Brian Lowry emails: Sensitive to the timing, Showtime pulled a repeat of its eight-episode docu-series "Active Shooter: America Under Fire" on Monday, although it remained available on its streaming and on-demand platforms. The second hour, on the San Bernardino shootings, will air as scheduled this Friday... | | Aldean cancels tour dates | | | Lisa Respers France reports: On Tuesday afternoon, Jason Aldean announced his performances scheduled in Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim, California this weekend would be canceled and tickets refunded. "I feel like out of respect for the victims, their families and our fans, it is the right thing to do. It has been an emotional time for everyone involved this week, so we plan to take some time to mourn the ones we have lost and be close with our family and friends," Aldean said in a statement. He plans to resume his tour in Tulsa, Oklahoma on October 12... | | -- Steve Bannon and Breitbart sent a warning to Trump about gun control, Tom Kludt reports... (CNNMoney)
-- The WashPost's Eli Rosenberg wrote a story about The Onion headline I highlighted yesterday... The one that says "'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens..." I told him it resonates because it conveys hopelessness... (WashPost)
-- "I do feel helpless in these times. Do you?" Megyn Kelly said on her show Tuesday morning. Members of her studio audience said "Yes..." (Mediaite) | | John Cook leaving Gizmodo | | | An Phung emails: John Cook, the exec editor at Gizmodo Media Group on the company's special projects desk, is leaving... Cook is one of the last people on the management team to leave after Hulk Hogan successfully sued Gawker... "I could still use some head-clearing," so "that's what I'm going to do, at least for a while," he said in an internal memo... | | Two new hires at The New Yorker | | | David Remnick email to staff: "We're adding two wonderful writers to NewYorker.com... Masha Gessen, who is hardly unknown to readers of The New Yorker, will be joining our lineup of web columnists, contributing twice a week" about "a range of political subjects, foreign and domestic." And: Troy Patterson, formerly of Bloomberg, Slate and the NYT Mag, "is joining us as a cultural critic online, writing primarily about television," also twice a week... | | | CNNMoney's Elana Zak emails: Every photo taken, every assignment created, every eyelash curled was done by a woman in Glamour's November issue... The mag is using the hashtag #PoweredByWomen to promote it... | | "We've all grown up with this idea that content is king. And I realized, it actually isn't. Content is the king maker, it's not the king. The king is the platform. HBO is the king. Netflix is the king. Spotify is the king."
--Jeffrey Katzenberg, talking about his new venture, in this column by the NYT's Andrew Ross Sorkin... | | Lowry's look at this fall's "Frontline" slate | | Brian Lowry emails: "Frontline" presents a deep dive into the North Korean regime and the bizarre assassination of Kim Jong Un's half-brother at a Malaysian Airport in "North Korea's Deadly Dictator," which premieres on Wednesday.
As is so often true, the film reinforces "Frontline's" value as a venue that impassively lays out a framework for such discussions. Other hot-button topics on the docket for this month include "War on the EPA" (Oct. 11) and the two-part "Putin's Revenge," beginning Oct. 25... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Kristen Hare spoke to journalists who covered the Pulse club shooting in Orlando, to collect advice for reporters covering the Las Vegas shooting... (Poynter)
-- Kurt Wagner profiles Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer, who is in charge of figuring out exactly how Russian operatives utilized the platform for malicious purposes. Good luck Alex... (Recode)
-- Amanda Hess writes about how podcasts are replacing bedtime stories for the youngest listeners... (NYT)
-- The Verge and Polygon are debuting new live shows on Twitter. The Verge's Circuit Breaker will talk all things gadgets, while Polygon will bring its flagship podcast, The Polygon Show, to Twitter. The shows will be weekly... (Vox Media) | | Beloved rocker Tom Petty died Monday. He was 66. "With his nasally voice and chiming guitar, Petty and his longtime band, the Heartbreakers, churned out an instantly recognizable brand of sturdy, heartland rock that made them a classic-radio staple for decades..."
-- Bob Dylan to Rolling Stone: "It's shocking, crushing news. I thought the world of Tom. He was a great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I'll never forget him." | | | What went wrong?! Lisa Respers France writes: Tom Petty died on Monday night, but inaccurate news of his death made its way around the internet much earlier in the day. One of Petty's daughters vented her anger about the error-filled reports... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I 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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