EXEC SUMMARY: David Barstow is leaving the NYT, Quibi is inking deals with NBC and the BBC, Apple is thinking about funding exclusive podcasts, HBO is celebrating its Emmy nomination record, and more...
Questions about race and power
This was Breakfast Media W.H. correspondent Andrew Feinberg's question to Kellyanne Conway: "If the President was not telling these four congresswomen to return to their supposed countries of origin, to which countries was he referring?"
And this was Conway's shocking retort to him: "What's your ethnicity?"
Chris Cillizza's question in response to Conway: "What possible relevance does Feinberg's ethnicity have to do with the question he asked?" | | There were other noteworthy inquiries on Tuesday. Like CNN correspondent Manu Raju's question to Mitch McConnell: "You're married to an immigrant who's a naturalized US citizen. If someone was to tell her she should go back to her country because of her criticism of federal policies, wouldn't you consider that a racist attack?" McConnell did not answer directly.
And there were NPR host Noel King's questions for W.H. aide Adam Kennedy, such as: "Did the president know the history of this specific racist language when he decided to use it?" Kennedy responded with deflections, distortions and outright lies.
"Even condemning racism is a partisan issue these days."
That's how Chris Cuomo opened his CNN program on Tuesday night. "Even condemning racism is a partisan issue these days," he said. "Only four Republicans agreed with what Democrats and common sense made clear: that Trump's words about the lawmakers he targeted were racist and wrong. Only four out of 197 Republicans..."
>> MSNBC's Chris Hayes tweeted: "The gaslighting is always so exhausting. We all know what the President did and who he is. Everyone. On all sides. We all get it. Just a question of whether you find it acceptable or not."
Covering hate
When news outlets are covering the scourge of racism, should the coverage incorporate interviews with racists? The question is back on the front burner because white nationalist leader Richard Spencer was interviewed by CNN, and two short clips aired in this report on Tuesday. Screen grabs of Spencer's appearance circulated on social media and sparked criticism from both the left and right. Conservative pollster Frank Luntz tweeted: "Why is CNN having Richard Spencer on?" Liberal columnist Dean Obeidallah: "WTF?!" Researcher Becca Lewis: "Richard Spencer's relevance lives and dies by the mainstream media. He's only as relevant as they decide he is. CNN made their choice today."
Spencer was interviewed on tape for a report by Sara Sidner about white supremacists cheering for Trump's racist tweets. (Sidner has carved out a really important beat at CNN: hate in America. She's been covering hate groups and racists for years.)
For her segment on "The Lead with Jake Tapper," she also taped an interview with an expert from the Anti-Defamation League who talked about the dangers of Trump's tweets. Sidner reported that some racist internet personalities have been raving about Trump's attacks, then described Spencer as an exception, someone who is "turning on Trump."
Spencer was quoted twice -- first saying "many white nationalists will eat up this red meat that Donald Trump is throwing out there" but "I recognize the con game that is going on," then complaining that Trump "gives us nothing outside of racist tweets. And by racist tweets I mean tweets that are meaningless and cheap and express the kind of sentiments that you might hear from your drunk uncle while he's watching Hannity."
The arguments for and against
Whether to quote racists is basically an argument about platforming. Scholars, media critics and others say news outlets should not grant attention or credibility to neo-Nazis or other brands of racists. They say that's exactly what the hate mongers want. As The Daily Beast put it on Tuesday, "academics have cautioned against normalizing white supremacists by offering them on-air interviews in slick studios."
The counterargument is about news judgment and the ugly reality of the country's racial divides. Some journalists say you can't cover hate without talking to haters. "I think it's important for us to cover race and racism, and quite frankly, if you're going to do that, you have to talk to racists," NPR deputy managing editor Terence Samuel said last year after NPR was lambasted for interviewing white supremacist Jason Kessler, organizer of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville at which a counter-protester was killed. NPR's Elizabeth Jensen wrote about that controversy here.
I generally think these conversations should be about "how," not "whether," and that there should be more specialists like Sidner on this beat in newsrooms across the country. Does a figure like Spencer disappear into the darkness when news outlets pretend he's not there? I respect that argument, but don't think so. To say that figures like Spencer should never ever be interviewed on air seems like a black and white answer in a world of gray. Instead, it should be about "how" they are incorporated into the coverage. And that's an important conversation to keep having...
Tucker's newest smears
Every day, Tucker Carlson comes up with a new way to demonize Ilhan Omar. On Tuesday he said Omar "despises the United States. We don't have to guess about it -- she says so -- often." Then he played a clip of Omar in 2013 that said nothing to that effect. (It was the clip of Omar describing her professor talking about al Qaeda.) "Not only does she hate America," he added, "she's pompous."
Cuomo's closing argument
Demagogues like Trump "have to meet their match," Cuomo said on CNN an hour later. "Not someone who is tougher or more violent. But who overwhelms by being the demagogue's positive opposite." He invoked Joe Welsh saying to Joseph McCarthy: "Have you no stance of decency, sir?"
Cuomo said "that message needs to be delivered. Today. Trump has made his play. He's a demagogue. And he's supported by scared Republicans and those who seek advantage from affiliation in congress and on TV. Who will step up and be the voice of reason and righteous indignation?" Who will be the voice that "reminds the masses -- not just the mob -- of who we are and what we are at our best? That's the question that we need to answer, together."
Key notes and quotes
-- The Atlantic's Adam Serwer: "This is not, fundamentally, a battle over facts, but a clash of values."
-- Anderson Cooper's comment: "I just find this so depressing, that we're sitting here politely discussing the President of the United States telling Americans, naturalized or, in the majority of the case of these four, native-born... to go home."
-- Stephen Colbert to Trump: "Racism is your brand!"
-- Trump made 13 false claims at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, and Daniel Dale kept count...
WEDNESDAY PLANNER
Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly presser at 1pm ET...
Netflix earnings hit after the bell... Here are Q2 previews from Deadline, Yahoo, and MarketWatch...
The Aspen Security Forum gets underway in the afternoon...
Trump will hold a re-election rally in Greenville, North Carolina, at 7pm...
John Paul Stevens, 1920-2019
Linda Greenhouse's obituary is on the front page of Wednesday's NYT: "John Paul Stevens, whose 35 years on the United States Supreme Court transformed him, improbably, from a Republican antitrust lawyer to the outspoken leader of the court's liberal wing, died Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 99." | | Stevens retired in 2010 at age 90, "clearing the way for President Barack Obama to nominate Justice Elena Kagan, then 50, to take his place," CNN's Ariane de Vogue noted.
He was "a throwback to a less rancorous era, when, as one writer put it, law and politics were a noble pursuit, not a blood sport," NPR's Nina Totenberg wrote...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Could be a big story on Wednesday: "Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas on Tuesday introduced his articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, which will force the House to take up the measure later this week..." (CNN)
-- Former Fox contributor Monica Crowley, a documented plagiarist, has been formally nominated "to be the next spokeswoman for the Treasury Department..." (The Hill)
-- Media Matters' senior fellow Matthew Gertz: "Remember that time the president of the United States called for a 'treason' investigation based on a Fox & Friends news brief he had seen on the TV? That was this morning." (Twitter)
-- "Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Tuesday barred Roger Stone from posting on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter after finding he purposely tried to gain media attention while under a court-imposed gag order," Katelyn Polantz reports... (CNN)
THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC
A victory for two newspapers -- and for millions of readers
This WaPo story is a big deal. "America's largest drug companies saturated the country with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills from 2006 through 2012 as the nation's deadliest drug epidemic spun out of control, according to previously undisclosed company data released as part of the largest civil action in U.S. history," Scott Higham, Sari Horwitz and Steven Rich wrote Tuesday.
The data wasn't just "released." The Post has been fighting for access to this database since 2016. The Charleston Gazette-Mail joined the fight in 2018. The papers "waged a year-long legal battle for access to documents and data from the case." And they prevailed on Monday, leading to Tuesday's story. All the details are here...
Norah O'Donnell at Cape Canaveral
Norah O'Donnell anchored her second night of the "CBS Evening News" from the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. | | "We are coming to you from the very spot where -- 50 years ago today -- Walter Cronkite brought America the launch of Apollo 11, the mission that put men on the moon," she said, gesturing to the launch pad in the distance. "If the sky is clear where you are tonight, you will see a full moon, shining brightly, as if the heavens had planned this fitting tribute to the greatest scientific achievement of all time, one that stands as inspiration to every other seemingly-impossible challenge: If they can put a man on the moon -- people say -- what can't they do?"
Look out for special coverage of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing on Saturday... CNN will be rebroadcasting its "Apollo 11" documentary on Saturday evening..
Tuesday's Google hearing... And the false equivalency between liberal and conservative news orgs
Oliver Darcy emails: Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday held a hearing about Google and its "censorship through search engines." Throughout the hearing, Republicans grilled Google VP Karan Bhatia -- who served in the George W. Bush administration, previously did work for the conservative Heritage Foundation, and edited his college conservative newspaper -- about alleged anti-conservative bias at the search giant. None of the questions were all that surprising. You can read Bhatia's testimony here.
But I think it's worth noting one particular line of questioning from Sen. Marsha Blackburn. She questioned Bhatia about whether Google ranks Breitbart the same as it does HuffPost. The suggestion was that the two organizations are equals, just on opposite ends of the political spectrum. But to suggest they are comparable is absurd. HuffPost has a history of solid reporting, and has won a Pulitzer, among other awards. Breitbart? Not so much.
It's not political bias to rank HuffPost higher than Breitbart in Google search. It is bias in favor of authoritative, reliable information. And isn't that Google's job? To provide users with the most relevant, reliable information available on the Internet?
Assessing Kamala Harris' claims of Russian social media attacks
Donie O'Sullivan emails: In the years since America learned Russia had run a vast cyber and social media offensive targeting the 2016 US presidential election, politicians, media outlets, researchers and academics have sometimes incorrectly attributed nefarious online activity to Russia. Disinformation campaigns run by domestic actors, Iran and other nation-states can sometimes be overshadowed by the propensity to falsely attribute activity to Russia. Last week, Sen. Kamala Harris claimed her campaign had been the target of Russian bots, I took a look at the senator's claim…
David Barstow leaving NYT
The Beast's Maxwell Tani and Lachlan Cartwright report: "One of the reporters on the New York Times' Pulitzer-winning exposé of President Donald Trump's finances is leaving the publication following a falling out with the paper's investigative team." David Barstow "is leaving the paper at the end of the month to lead the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism's investigative reporting program." Details here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- "Andreessen Horowitz is betting that there's still a big opportunity in newsletters — the venture capital firm is leading a $15.3 million Series A in Substack..." (TechCrunch)
-- AND the membership services startup Patreon "announced Tuesday that it has raised a $60 million Series D round of funding led by Glade Brook Capital..." (Variety)
-- Pearson, the world's largest education publisher, "has taken the first step towards phasing out print books by making all its learning resources 'digital first...'" (BBC)
"Apple Plans to Bankroll Original Podcasts to Fend Off Rivals"
That's the headline on Lucas Shaw and Mark Gurman's scoop for Bloomberg... They say Apple wants to fund shows that "would be exclusive to its audio service... increasing its investment in the industry to keep competitors Spotify and Stitcher at bay..."
--> The news: "Executives at the company have reached out to media companies and their representatives to discuss buying exclusive rights to podcasts... Apple has yet to outline a clear strategy, but has said it plans to pursue the kind of deals it didn't make before..."
Quibi's news deals
The day began with Ben Mullin's story for the WSJ: "Quibi will launch a twice-daily news show in partnership with NBC News, part of a strategy to lure viewers to its short-form streaming service every day. The show, which is still unnamed, will appear on Quibi's streaming service in two separate editions running less than six minutes every morning and evening." Mullin said it's a "multiyear, eight-figure deal."
Quibi won't launch til next April. The NBC content will be for a section of the streaming service called "Daily Essentials," which "will be populated with of-the-moment programming on topics such as news, sports and weather," Mullin wrote.
Later in the day, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman announced another partner for the "Daily" section: the BBC. They said BBC News will provide international news...
Learning how to "operate the levers of the attention economy"
The NYT's Kevin Roose is back from VidCon, after "hanging out with a few thousand current and future internet celebrities," and he has a prediction: "The teenagers and 20-somethings who have mastered these platforms — and who are often dismissed as shallow, preening narcissists by adults who don't know any better — are going to dominate not just internet culture or the entertainment industry but society as a whole."
Here's his point: "Not all of the young people I met at VidCon will spend their whole lives pursuing internet fame. Some of them will grow up, go off to college and wind up becoming doctors, lawyers or accountants. Some will fizzle out and be replaced by a younger generation of internet stars. But the lessons they learned from performing on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok will stick with them, regardless of where they end up. Just as the 20th century groomed a generation of children steeped in the ethos of TV culture, the 21st century will produce a generation of business moguls, politicians and media figures who grew up chasing clout online and understand how to operate the levers of the attention economy." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Which celebs are donating to which 2020 candidates? David Wright has a brand new look... (CNN)
-- Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is co-hosting a fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg next week, Teddy Schleifer notes... (Twitter)
-- The LA Times website now has a cleaner look... Laura J. Nelson says the revamp "frees us from all the stuff imposed by" former parent company Tronc, now Tribune... (LAT)
-- TIME mag is out with its list of "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet..." (TIME) | | HBO wins the Emmy nomination race
Brian Lowry emails: The nominations are in, and "Game of Thrones" led the charge in helping HBO reclaim the overall Emmy throne, amassing 32 noms — the most for any series — and neutralizing Netflix's volume advantage that helped it unseat the network last year.
The nominations, meanwhile, featured a broad mix of old and new, and a pretty triumphant showing for actor-writer-producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge, whose "Fleabag" and "Killing Eve" earned comedy and drama series nods, respectively.
Among other networks, Amazon more than doubled its nomination total, while the broadcasters continue to recede from contention, with NBC bucking that trend thanks to "This is Us" and "SNL."
One footnote, too, should HBO convert a lot of those nominations into wins: With the management turnover at the network, honorees will be somewhat awkwardly thanking a lot of executives who have already left...
Top Emmys takeaways
-- Sandra Gonzalez wrote about the record number of nominations for "Thrones..."
-- Whitney Friedlander wrote about HBO reclaiming the crown for most-nominated network... HBO's press release headline said "HBO receives more Emmy nominations than any other network ever..."
-- Gonzalez explained how Julia Louis-Dreyfus could make MORE Emmy history...
-- And Friedlander and Gonzalez dove into the story of "Schitt's Creek" and its underdog fight for Emmy love...
-- Via Kendall Trammell, "here's a look at the performers who were nominated for their first Emmy this year..."
-- Via Lisa Respers France, "When They See Us" racked up an impressive 16 Emmy noms...
-- Here are all the nominees in the major categories...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Linda Hamilton only took 28 years to return to the "Terminator" franchise...
-- Learn what you need to know about "The Bachelorette" sex argument that everyone has been talking about...
"King" of visual effects
Brian Lowry emails: As the hoofbeat grows for "The Lion King," this is a good look by CNN's Scott Huver at how the technical wizardry allowed the film to approximate the look of nature documentaries... | | | Thank you for reading! Send me your feedback anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
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