| Hey there, and welcome to the Reliable Sources newsletter! This is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter. Send tips/feedback to me via email, or find me on Twitter. Now, let's get to the news... | | Barry threatens New Orleans
The lead story on CNN.com Thursday night: "New Orleans faces a never-before-seen problem with Tropical Storm Barry." The story noted that the Mississippi River "which is usually at 6 to 8 feet in midsummer" is "now at 16 feet." Meanwhile, Barry is "spinning away in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening a storm surge of 2 to 3 feet."
Barry is scheduled to make landfall Friday night or early Saturday as the first tropical system to hit the United States this year. Moving into the weekend, expect to see a lot of coverage. Most major newsrooms have already started making preparations...
>> CNN is updating this page continuously with the latest info...
Hurricane warnings issued for coast
The National Hurricane Center issued hurricane warnings for parts of the Louisiana coast. New Orleans, meanwhile, is under a tropical storm warning, though no mandatory evacuations have been ordered yet. The city's levees are not expected to be overtopped, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers. Some residents, however, are not taking chances, and are choosing to voluntarily evacuate...
"The calm before the storm is so deceiving"
That's what one Louisiana resident told CNN. Indeed, the resident has a point. The storm has yet to make landfall, and meteorologists say it could strengthen into a hurricane as it does. Stay tuned...
HuffPost: Fox Nation host Tyrus sent lewd texts to Britt McHenry
Big Thursday night scoop from Yashar Ali in HuffPost. Citing four sources, Ali reported that Fox Nation host Tyrus "sent lewd and inappropriate text messages" to his former co-host Britt McHenry. Included among them, according to Ali, were, "Just pull your boobs out now why don't you. Just grin and bare it" and "keep being negative and I'll send you another dick pic."
Tyrus did not immediately respond to Ali who sent him a direct message on Twitter. The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani and and Asawin Suebsaeng had previously reported McHenry had received "unwanted and unsolicited text messages with lewd, sexual comments," but it was unclear what they specifically said.
Fox News silent
Fox News also declined to provide a comment on the new revelations to Ali for his story, despite the explosive nature of them...
>> Ali's point: "Fox News said it has conducted an investigation into the allegations, and the matter is resolved. But the messages reveal unquestionable examples of inappropriate workplace behavior."
Miami Herald: More Epstein victims come forward
The Miami Herald's Julie Brown published her latest story with David Smiley on Thursday evening. "At least a dozen new victims have come forward to claim they were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein even as the multimillionaire money manager tries to convince a federal judge to allow him to await a sex trafficking trial from the comfort of the same $77 million Manhattan mansion where he's accused of luring teenage girls into unwanted sex acts," Brown and Smiley reported...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Justin Baragona and Max Tani point out that Fox News "hasn't asked paid contributor Ken Starr" about his former client Jeffrey Epstein... (The Daily Beast)
-- Margaret Sullivan previews Norah O'Donnell's takeover of the "CBS Evening News." Sullivan writes that, "Ratings aside, if O'Donnell manages to return even a smidgen of trust to the beleaguered news media, that would count as a win..." (WaPo)
-- Terrible news: Longtime WSJ reporter Lucette Lagnado has died at 62... (WSJ)
-- Hate speech has spiked 40% on 4Chan since 2015, according to a Vice News analysis. Posts that include both hate speech and violent language are up 25%... (Vice News)
-- "Two days after undergoing liver donation surgery, Fox News' Ed Henry remains in the ICU, but he's on the mend..." (AOL)
-- ICYMI: "New Day" hosted a wild conversation on Thursday morning between a Mississippi gubernatorial candidate and a female reporter. The gubernatorial candidate, a Republican, "stood by his decision to deny a female reporter's request to accompany him on a campaign trip unless she brought along a male colleague..." (CNN)
Hype falls flat at White House
It was supposed to be a day of achievement and triumph at the White House. But, once again, the hype President Trump promised did not translate into action.
Trump backed down on his quest to introduce a question about citizenship on the census. And his so-called "social media summit" did not outline any specific plans of action, only really featuring a meandering speech from him.
As THR's Jeremy Barr asked rhetorically: "Another day in which a lot of things happened at the White House but nothing actually happened?"
News outlets call out Trump on census reversal
WaPo said he "backed down." NYT said he had "abandoned his attempt." And WSJ characterized it as a "major retreat." News outlets did not mince words on Thursday when describing Trump walking back earlier promises to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census form.
That kind of bold language was necessary. As Maggie Haberman pointed out on Twitter, Attorney General Bill Barr claimed that "adding a question on citizenship by 'executive fiat' was never under consideration" when he had, in fact, "said it was, multiple times."
...except Fox
There was one place that ran cover for Trump -- and it is not hard to guess what corner of the media ecosystem it came from. While almost all major news organizations characterized Trump's Thursday announcement as a retreat, Fox did otherwise. Their online headline read: "Trump, 'not backing down' in effort to count citizens amid census fight, announces executive order."
The headline is a real shame, given that Fox's audience -- I'm sure -- would be extremely interested to know that Trump did indeed back down, contrary to his earlier promises...
Trump delivers meandering speech to digital army of supporters at "social media summit"
If attendees of Thursday's "social media summit" at the White House were hoping that Trump would offer something more than lofty rhetoric when it comes to combatting what they perceive as social media bias, they were out of luck. Instead, as one attendee told me, they got a "circus show."
The event, according to people I spoke with, was light on substance. One attendee told me that it, in fact, had "zero substance." What it did feature was Kellyanne Conway interviewing "Diamond & Silk" -- the commentary provided by the duo was described to me as an "unintelligible rant" -- and a meandering speech from Trump.
>> You can read my full story on the event here...
One clear takeaway
Even if the event did not achieve anything substantial, it is worth noting once more that it did help validate some of Trump's fringe political allies. They spent much of the day live-streaming from the White House and posting continuous updates on their social profiles. And Trump, at the so-called "summit," did single some of them out for praise.
The President legitimized these figures while simultaneously working to tear down traditional news organizations, assailing them at the event. As I said early Thursday, boosting extremists while attacking legitimate media outlets is not only irresponsible, but also dangerous...
Trump says he will summon Big Tech for meeting
As he rambled at the podium, Trump did manage to vaguely threaten technology giants once again. He said that the White House would "be calling for a big meeting of the companies" to take place in the near future.
Immediately after he made the comments, I pinged representatives for Twitter, Facebook, and Google. The news seemed to catch them off guard. A Twitter spokesperson told me, "Can't know what we'd do in response to a hypothetical invite to a hypothetical meeting." Facebook and Google declined comment.
Chaos in the Rose Garden
Playboy White House reporter and CNN contributor Brian Karem got into a heated verbal confrontation with Sebastian Gorka in the Rose Garden, following the conclusion of the "social media summit." It appeared from video taken at the scene that Karem was engaged in a back-and-forth with some Trump supporters. Karem said the group appeared "eager for demonic possession," to which Gorka quipped back, "And you're a journalist right?"
Karem told Gorka that they could head outside for a talk. Gorka walked over and shouted, "You are a punk! You are not a journalist, you are a punk!" Then someone shouted at Karem, "Just for the record, he'd kick your punk ass." I emailed Karem for comment and he remarked, "At least they didn't spit on me. Just another day at the White House."
Related stories
-- Ashley Parker wrote about how Trump "offered a rare glimpse into his largely transactional approach to Twitter." She also said his "entire presidency has been something of a social media summit..." (WaPo)
-- Katie Rogers: "Trump Uses Twitter to Govern. I Used It to Cover His Social Media Summit..." (NYT)
-- Daniel Dale and Holmes Lybrand fact-checked the speech Trump gave at the "social media summit..." (CNN)
-- Tony Romm provided color from the scene: "Outside the gathering, Trump's aides appeared to line the hallways with poster boards calling attention to the tech industry's alleged tactics for suppressing conservatives' speech -- along with at least one tweet from Trump himself calling him 'the best' at using the service..." (WaPo)
-- Tess Owen and David Uberti: "There was no constructive conversation around the many and varied problems of social media to be had on Thursday. The public portion of the much-publicized event instead resembled a live reenactment of one of Trump's early-morning tweetstorms." (Vice)
WaPo's curious decision
WaPo earned some criticism on Thursday for publishing an op-ed by Charlie Kirk, the Trump family friend and founder of the right-wing student group Turning Point USA who routinely attacks the newspaper. Kirk's op-ed was filled with innuendo that social media companies harbor a bias against conservatives and unfairly target them. It also linked out to right-wing websites like Breitbart and Newsbusters.
I asked a WaPo spokesperson if the newspaper was comfortable publishing the op-ed which misled its readers, in addition to directing traffic to websites like Breitbart. In response, Michael Duffy, acting deputy editorial page editor, said in a statement to me, "In Post Opinions, we also believe our op-ed section should be a forum for a wide range of views. As in this case, we publish op-eds that are original and newsworthy, providing our readers with the full debate on issues."
>> CJR's Matthew Ingram offered his take on Twitter: "This was a really disappointing decision by the Post, to run something so factually inaccurate from a known bad actor..."
Twitter's outage | | Just as Trump's "social media summit" was getting underway, Twitter suffered an outage. It was one of the longer outages in recent memory -- lasting about an hour. In a statement, Twitter said it occurred "due to an internal configuration change," which it fixed.
>> Speaking of outages, Business Insider published a story on Thursday with data showing "Facebook and Instagram have been crashing far more over the last year..."
Conspiracy talk
Of course, not everyone believed Twitter's explanation for the outage. Some on the right floated a conspiracy theory -- with zero evidence -- suggesting Twitter had nefariously gone down as Trump's summit started.
Joy Villa, who was at the White House event, called into question the "crazy timing." And Jim Hoft, founder of The Gateway Pundit and no stranger to conspiracy theories, published a story calling the outage's timing "convenient."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- BuzzFeed News is launching "The Stakes 2020," an election newsletter "about what really matters in the 2020 presidential race..." (BuzzFeed News)
-- NY Post's Keith J. Kelly scooped: Starbucks will stop selling newspapers come September 1... (NY Post)
-- More details from Tim Alberta's "American Carnage" leaked out on Thursday as Josh Dawsey reviewed the book... (WaPo)
-- From NiemanLab's Christine Schmidt: "Here's how some for-profit local news outlets are building subscriptions..." (NiemanLab)
-- Taylor Lorenz and Joe Pinsker write about the "Slackification of the American Home..." (The Atlantic)
Harris revisits Biden busing debate on "Breakfast Club"
Katie Pellico emails: Kamala Harris stopped by "The Breakfast Club" on Thursday. In a clip obtained by ABC News, Harris revisited Joe Biden's busing remarks on the debate stage, saying, "I'm not going to allow us to engage in revisionist history." The full interview airs 7 a.m. ET on Power 105.1 and all "Breakfast Club" affiliate stations, and the full uncut video will be posted to YouTube the following hour...
>> ICYMI: Don Lemon sat down with Charlemagne tha God on Wednesday's "CNN Tonight," discussing how the radio show has become a "must-stop" for eight and counting 2020 Dems. This is Harris' second time on "The Breakfast Club" since announcing her run.
Amal Clooney indirectly swipes at Trump
Hadas Gold emails: The first global media freedom conference wrapped up today in London. Hosted by the UK and Canada, the conference aims to bring government ministers from around the world to discuss how to better preserve press freedom.
Amal Clooney, the human rights lawyer (who is married to an actor), acted as a sort of co-host since being appointed as special envoy for media freedom by the UK government. Appearing alongside UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Canadian Foreign Minister Christya Freeland, Clooney made some swipes at President Donald Trump, but without using his name.
"The country of James Madison has a leader today who vilifies the media, making honest journalists all over the world more vulnerable to abuse," she said. On Thursday she added, "The global decline in press freedom has been hastened by rhetoric from the leader of the world's most powerful democracy and it will not be reversed without strong leadership from others."
UK forming National Committee for the Safety of Journalists
Katie Pellico writes: British Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright announced the formation of a National Committee for the Safety of Journalists on Thursday, while at the conference. According to a statement from Wright and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, the committee will "examine current protections offered to journalists in the UK, and consider how to work together to build on existing strengths."
>> At the conference on Wednesday, while discussing media abuses in China, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt suggested a "diplomatic price" to be paid by any governments who harm or imprison journalists.
>> Hunt also told TIME's Dan Stewart he felt that Saudi Arabia had "paid" for the killing of WaPo columnist Jamal Khashoggi, explaining, "I think they have paid a big reputational price and there have been profound diplomatic consequences."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- "If you'd like to feel like a slacker": Peter Kafka spoke with Erin Lee Carr on "Recode Media" about the four years she spent making her second documentary out this year, "I Love You, Now Die..." (Twitter / Recode Media)
-- TV Newser's A.J. Katz spoke with Greg Gutfeld and Dana Perino in honor of the eighth anniversary of "The Five." Perino remarks, "For the first time in my professional career, I don't have strong longing to do anything else. I really love what I do..." (TV Newser)
-- "While the QAnon conspiracy often feels like an elaborate troll, an online community of real, actual people has built up around it." Vice News' Mack Lamoureux spoke with some of their loved ones about how "QAnon Destroyed Their Relationships..." (Vice News)
YouTube's No. 2 at VidCon
Kaya Yurieff emails from VidCon: In his keynote speech on Thursday, YouTube's no. 2 exec Neil Mohan nodded to some of YouTube's recent challenges, including abuse on the platform. "Responsibility is our number one priority," he said. "This means protecting YouTube from bad actors seeking to exploit our community while preserving the positive impact of an open platform where anyone can share their voice with the world."
Mohan also said on stage that YouTube is removing more harmful content and reducing recommendations on content it considers "borderline." He said, "Sometimes this work moves more slowly than you would like and, frankly, more slowly than I would like. This work is just as critical to the future of the YouTube community as any product launch."
Worried about YouTube policies, creators look for new ways to bring in money
Yurieff emails another one: I spoke with YouTube personalities about how they diversify their revenue, and how they're increasingly looking beyond YouTube to do that. While many so-called creators with big audiences can make a living just from the ads running on their videos and other YouTube offerings, in recent years they have been looking to other ways to make money and build a brand, including from clothing lines, podcasts, Instagram sponsored content, going on tour to meet fans, and more.
>> One creator told Yurieff: "Never rely on YouTube ad revenue if you want to make a living off of YouTube. The algorithm can change, your channel could get hacked, a million things could happen. You need different ways of monetizing because, that way, if anything happens or changes, then your life [and income] doesn't drastically change."
This week on the "Reliable" pod: How Florida newsrooms are collaborating to cover climate crisis
You may be familiar with the Florida Climate Reporting Network. It's a collaboration among the Tampa Bay Times, Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, and WLRN Public Media. All the newsrooms have joined forces to increase and improve reporting about the climate criss.
Stelter spoke to Tampa Bay Times Executive Editor Mark Katches, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, and Miami Herald climate change reporter Alex Harris about the collaboration. Katches described the network as "a way to harness the power of great reporting firepower in the state to create something special." Harris added, "People say we're ground zero down here. We should kind of act like it right?"
>> Listen to the conversation 🔊: Find it on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, or your preferred app...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- In the wake of the World Cup win, Gabriel Snyder points out the dearth of women reporting for the NYT on women's sports... (CJR)
-- How did Arizona's Antelope Canyon become "the geological Disneyland"? The mayor of the neighboring town of Page explains, "We say it's because of Instagram..." (Vox)
-- Business Insider has a slideshow of tech CEOs and media moguls flocking to Sun Valley for the annual "summer camp for billionaires" retreat... (BI)
NY Post: Plepler starting a consulting firm
Brian Stelter emails: Alexandra Steigrad's latest scoop for the NYPost: "EX-HBO Chief Executive Richard Plepler has his next project in the works. The well-connected exec is starting his own company, dubbed 'RLP & Company,' The Post has learned. Sources suggested that Plepler could consult with brands but there are few details available on the execs new gig. Sources close to the exec said he is bound by a non-compete agreement that prohibits working for any HBO competitors." Steigrad says Plepler was spotted at Sun Valley this week...
| | By Katie Pellico:
-- WaPo TV critic Hank Stuever suggests it's "long past time to move on" from "Friends" and "The Office," diagnosing the sitcom obsession as a symptom of "cultural inertia." In particular, he says, "Friends" offers "a soothing gateway to a time when people aren't constantly looking at their phones..." (WaPo)
-- ABC's "How To Get Away With Murder" will come to an end after its sixth season, set to premiere September 26. Read from Deadline's Denise Petski and Nellie Andreeva about the show's significance... (Deadline)
-- The "Lion King" soundtrack is now streamable ahead of the premiere next weekend... (NPR)
-- Twitter wasn't Thursday's only outage. Xbox Live users also reported issues logging on... (Twitter Moments)
Lowry's review is in: "The Lion King" hits familiar notes in adapting Disney classic
Brian Lowry emails: With no human characters, "The Lion King" feels more animated — even with its realistic depiction of the animals — and like a direct remake than any of Disney's reboots of its animated classics, for better and worse.
Read Lowry's full review here...
What the mixed reaction indicates
Lowry emails: The wildly mixed reaction to the movie, meanwhile, says as much about critics' expectations as the film itself, with the "Why do we need this?" questions ignoring the obvious — and recent history — which indicates that needed or not, a lot of people will likely go see it. This is, essentially, the movie as a consumer product.
| | | Thank you for reading! Stelter will be back on Friday! | | | |
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