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The struggle
Peter Beinart on "CNN Tonight" on Thursday: "This is a struggle about the identity of the United States."
"So apparently," David Brooks writes in Friday's NYT, "Donald Trump wants to make this an election about what it means to be American. He's got his vision of what it means to be American, and he's challenging the rest of us to come up with a better one." This is the big story, but it's incredibly hard to tell in day-of news stories and 90-second-long TV packages...
"Tell them to leave"
On Thursday Trump tried to convince everyone that he didn't like it when his fans chanted "send her back" against Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Did anyone believe him? Anyone?
This is one of those times when there are multiple ways to dispute the president's claim...
1: TV news anchors played the tape from Wednesday's rally to show just how long he soaked up the chants. (Thirteen seconds.) So did late-night comics. NBC's Seth Meyers called Trump's disavowal "an obvious lie."
2: Friday's front page of the NYT shows what Trump tweeted when he arrived back in DC after the rally. "What a crowd, and what great people," he wrote. "The enthusiasm blows away our rivals on the Radical Left."
3: I think there's another moment from the rally, twelve minutes after the chant, that speaks volumes. "If they don't like it, let them leave. Let them leave," he told the crowd. "They are always telling us how to run it, how to do this. You know what? If they don't love it, TELL THEM to leave it." He heard the crowd say "send her back," and then he endorsed the chant...
4: The bottom line, as written by WaPo's Ashley Parker: "Trump may have aimed for deniability — but his supporters seemed to know what he meant..."
Sean Hannity's spin
He actually said this on Thursday night: "I don't think they were saying 'send her back" as much as they're saying, 'these views are repugnant.'"
2020 frame is not 'racists vs. socialists,' but 'democracy vs. anti-democracy'
CNN's Eve Bower writes: In his newsletter "The Editorial Board" on Thursday, John Stoehr responded to Lisa Mascaro's analysis in the AP of an emerging editorial frame for the 2020 campaign. Stoehr wrote that Trump's tweets imagine an "in-group" status for Trump and his supporters, and an "out-group" status for the four congresswomen Trump depicts as being "foreign" and having "vicious" motives in their policymaking and speech. But "when you believe the out-group always has malign intent, no disagreement can be tolerated. If there is no disagreement, it's a democracy in name only. So if you chant send her back!, you aren't just being horribly racist. You're saying democracy is dead to you," Stoehr wrote.
For these reasons, one colleague told me, it is not enough for journalists to "fact-check" Trump's tweets by noting that all four of the congresswomen are citizens, and three were born in this country. What does that have to do with this situation? As journalists who fear that norms of free speech are being eroded, shouldn't we be the most eager to say there is no reason people who criticize a policy, a president, or an entire country, should be made to feel unwelcome in a democracy? So why does Trump want to imply otherwise?
| | "This is not about Omar anymore"
"Democrats now hold the House, and they are not holding Trump back," Adam Serwer writes in his latest must-read for The Atlantic.
He says Ilhan Omar "must be defended," regardless of any of her views, "because the nature of the president's attack on her is a threat to all Americans — black or white, Jew or Gentile — whose citizenship, whose belonging, might similarly be questioned. This is not about Omar anymore, or the other women of color who have been told by this president to 'go back' to their supposed countries of origin. It is about defending the idea that America should be a country for all its people. If multiracial democracy cannot be defended in America, it will not be defended elsewhere. What Americans do now, in the face of this, will define us forever."
🔌: Serwer will join me on Sunday's "Reliable Sources" telecast...
Omar's message
Here's what she told her constituents on Thursday night: "I know there are a lot of people that are trying to distract us now, but I want you all to know that we are not going to lie down..."
"How do you write about a week like this in America?"
That's what Susan Glasser asks in her latest column for The New Yorker. "Half of the country is appalled but not really sure how to combat him; the other half is cheering, or at least averting its gaze," she writes... "This is what a political civil war looks like, with words, for now, as weapons..."
Notes and quotes
-- Peter Nicholas: "Talking with the rallygoers, I couldn't find one who faulted Trump for demonizing the freshman representatives..."
-- Michael Kruse, who was also there, said "the speech was a sine wave of energy peaks and troughs..."
-- SE Cupp: "'Send her back' will be the Trump era's defining slogan..."
-- Jelani Cobb tweeted from down under: "It's really striking how many people in Sydney have asked me about 45's latest bigotry spree. Driver at the airport asked me 'Why did he attack the Squad?' As bad as he looks domestically this is a reminder that the entire world is an audience for this abject racist stupidity..."
What did Hope Hicks know and when?
| | SHOT: "Federal search warrants released Thursday detail how Donald Trump and his allies," including Hope Hicks, "scrambled in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign to arrange a hush-money deal to hide his alleged affair and contain the fallout from related stories in the press."
CHASER: "The House Judiciary Committee is examining the truthfulness" of Hicks' statements "in the aftermath of new documents released on Thursday, asking her to clarify her testimony to the committee last month..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Have you heard about the "ladder escalation" at the White House? Erik Wemple tells the story here... (WaPo)
-- Fox News EVP Jason Ehrich is moving into a new position at the network, "audience development and strategic partnerships," overseeing "FNC's digital partnership strategy..." (TVNewser)
-- Is this what "peak podcast" sounds like? (NYT)
The draw
CNN's live draw for the end-of-the-month Democratic debates was both a television spectacle and a unique display of transparency. The candidates and viewers were all able to witness the draw in real time on Thursday night. Here are the results via Dan Merica's story: "CNN's two-night Democratic primary debate will offer a rematch of former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris" on night two, July 31. "The debates will also, for the first time, offer a match-up between Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders," on July 30...
EXCLUSIVE
ShareBlue's new CEO
Shareblue Media, a progressive news site funded by David Brock, has a new CEO.
Allison Girvin, most recently the head of the NBC News Business, Tech & Media Unit, is taking over the website, replacing Katie Paris. Girvin previously held key positions at Bloomberg, HuffPost, and ABC News. "With a long and distinguished career in journalism, Allison is the ideal leader to bring our vision of Shareblue to fruition," Brock, the chairman of Shareblue, said in a statement.
Shareblue is one of a constellation of websites backed by Brock and the American Bridge 21st Century Foundation super PAC. Brock wants to increase the site's impact heading into 2020...
Crooked Media hires Netflix exec
The liberal media company behind "Pod Save America" is hiring Sarah Geismer, "a former Netflix and Fox TV exec, as head of creative development and production," Variety's Todd Spangler reports. "In the newly created role, Geismer will lead development for all of active and upcoming podcast, TV and film projects for Crooked Media... The company wants to continue to expand beyond podcasts..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- "A federal judge on Thursday" ordered Jeffrey Epstein "to remain in jail pending trial..." (CNN)
-- Nick Bryant tells Joe Pompeo that Epstein's "black book" is "a mosaic of Epstein's social contacts..." (VF)
"Andy Ngo Has The Newest New Media Career..."
BuzzFeed News reporter Joseph Bernstein was with Andy Ngo when Ngo was assaulted by Antifa protesters in Portland late last month. Bernstein's new story is about Ngo and a "new kind of media career." No summary can do the story justice -- you should read it here. Stay for the final paragraphs...
Newspaper chain megamerger in the works
Cara Lombardo and Dana Cimilluca's Thursday scoop for the WSJ: "USA Today publisher Gannett Co. is nearing a deal to combine with rival GateHouse Media, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would join the nation's two largest newspaper groups by circulation at a time local media is in a battle for survival."
--> The details: "GateHouse and Gannett are discussing a cash-and-stock deal in which GateHouse's parent would likely buy Gannett and GateHouse Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Reed would assume the same roles at the enlarged entity." No word on the price of the deal...
--> Gannett stock popped almost 10% in after hours trading after the WSJ story hit...
--> Context via the NYPost's Josh Kosman and Keith J. Kelly: "The two parties had been previously reported to be in talks, but it was unclear until now that the deal was for the smaller Gatehouse to buy Gannett..."
--> Initial reactions from journalists? Decidedly negative. Here's a sampling via Twitter...
--> Check out Ken Doctor's analysis here...
McClatchy and Google working to fill the news void in Youngstown
Laney Pope writes: The Compass Experiment, the McClatchy-Google partnership aiming to "build up local news sites," announced they will be launching a new site in Youngstown, Ohio —which will be left without a daily paper when The Vindicator closes in August. To combat the loss of local journalism, the McClatchy-Google team plans "to hire four locally-based journalists and one business staffer — and yes, it's important that they come from Youngstown," NiemanLab Christine Schmidt reports...
The DEA's pain pill database
As I mentioned earlier this week, The Washington Post and the Charleston Gazette-Mail went to court to gain access to a database that "tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States."
Now the Post has published the data at the "county and state levels in order to help the public understand the impact of years of prescription pill shipments on their communities."
"The Post has invested tremendous legal and journalistic resources in obtaining, analyzing and presenting this database," WaPo executive editor Marty Baron said Thursday. "But there is more work to be done – by us, by other journalists and by individuals seeking to learn what has transpired in their own communities. With this database on our site, many others can now contribute to a full understanding of the causes and impact of a devastating opioid epidemic." Here's the data...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
By Laney Pope:
-- Sky News has hired Hannah Thomas-Peter as the network's first correspondent dedicated to the climate change beat... (Press Gazette)
-- Spotify plans to "devote a prominent spot in its music streaming app to Walt Disney Co's extensive music library" in a new feature called The Disney Hub... (Reuters)
-- Instagram is now "running a test" in seven countries, hiding the "like" count on each photo, in an effort "to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes get..." (BI)
-- Why it matters: "What would Instagram be like if people couldn't see how many likes fellow users' posts receive? Less competitive, less pressurized and more personal, Instagram surmises..." (NYT)
Dozens dead in suspected arson attack at anime studio
Absolutely devastating news out of Kyoto: "At least 33 people have died and 35 injured in a suspected arson attack at a renowned animation studio," CNN's team reports from Japan.
Kyoto Animation -- known as KyoAni -- has been publishing anime novels, comics and books since 1981. A "standout studio with international appeal," KyoAni "has long been a fixture in the anime world, known for its 'slice of life' stories and detailed scenery that entices fans to visit the actual locations depicted onscreen," the NYT's Julia Jacobs reports.
| | Netflix's miss: A blip or sign of things to come?
Frank Pallotta emails: Wall Street has no chill for Netflix after a big subscriber miss prompted an 11% drop in its stock on Thursday. But was the miss a blip or the end of the booming era of Netflix? It depends on who you ask. Loup Ventures founding partner Gene Munster told CNBC Wednesday that Netflix's best days "are in fact behind it" but BTIG media analyst Rich Greenfield, a Netflix bull, has a more positive outlook.
"There's this view that Netflix is collapsing, but it raised prices by about 20% and its subscriber count was basically unchanged," Greenfield told me. "How many companies can raise price by 20% and keep growing?" Read more here...
Speaking of Rich...
Greenfield's new venture
"The high-profile technology-media-telecom (TMT) analyst is leaving equity research company BTIG Research, along with fellow analysts Walter Piecyk and Brandon Ross to form a new, unnamed TMT venture," Multichannel News' Daniel Frankel wrote Thursday. BTIG says it will partner with the new company, details to come...
The Kennedy Center Honorees are...
This year the Kennedy Center Honors will recognize a television program for the first time. And that program is... drumroll please... "Sesame Street!"
"The co-founders of 'Sesame Street,' Joan Ganz Cooney and Dr. Lloyd Morrisett, will accept the Kennedy Center Honors on behalf of themselves, Muppets creator Jim Henson, Muppets artists Caroll Spinney and Frank Oz, and the thousands of creatives who have built the program's 50-year legacy," CBS said in a press release on Thursday.
The other honorees are Earth, Wind & Fire, Sally Field, Linda Ronstadt, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
The 42nd annual honors will be held on December 8 and will be shown one week later on CBS... For the past two years, Trump has opted not to attend, breaking with tradition...
| | "The Lion King" roars to life
Brian Lowry emails: As "The Lion King" hopes to roar into a big weekend -- with estimates the movie will top $150 million in North America, and roughly triple that worldwide -- it's also a reminder that even in this golden age for nature documentaries, anthropomorphic animals that behave a lot like us tend to trump the real thing, commercially speaking. And notably, it was Walt Disney, with his early nature works, who helped to establish that formula.
Comic-Con is here
Brian Lowry emails: Comic-Con has begun, and as media outlets race to keep up with the drop of promotional material -- like trailers for the upcoming movies "It" and "Top Gun: Maverick" -- it's perhaps the best demonstration of the extent to which journalists become de facto arms of PR and marketing departments, in exchange for the easy traffic those video blasts provide. It's such an accepted practice, at this point, that there's little discussion anymore of when serving the interests of fans risks spilling over into shilling for studios...
--> Stelter's counterargument: Millions of fans think the trailer videos and teaser quotes are very newsworthy!
The first trailer for "Cats"
The first trailer for the movie "Cats" has social media buzzing... or should I say purring.
Sorry. Couldn't resist! Whitney Friedlander has details here... Tom Hooper's film will be released on December 20... | |
"It Chapter Two" trailer stirs excitement
"The sequel to the hit 2017 horror film isn't out until September 6, but the release of a new poster and a new trailer has folks in a frenzy," Lisa Respers France writes.
Here's the trailer...
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