Hey there, Oliver Darcy here! I'm continuing to hold the fort down this week. While he's away, you can drop a note in my inbox, or find me on Twitter.
In this edition of the newsletter, the latest on the outrage over Mark Halperin's new book, China's social media campaign to undermine Hong Kong demonstrations, and those Sinclair ~stories~ promoting Trump's campaign hats. But first...
Trump's Fox-fueled Google conspiracy | | You've seen this play before. Trump tuned into Fox. He was fed less-than-reliable information by a less-than-reliable source. And then he tweeted a distorted version of that information out to the world as if it were fact.
It's not new. But when the President of the United States erroneously accuses one of the largest companies in the world of manipulating millions of votes in the general election to help his political opponent, it's worth covering. So let's dive into what happened Monday...
The Genesis: A Fox segment
In the late morning on Monday, Fox Business hosted a segment in which a discredited claim made by a psychologist was discussed. The psychologist, Robert Epstein, had testified last month before the Senate that his research found Google's supposed bias had resulted in millions of votes flowing to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Epstein's testimony was invoked by Fox Business guest Oz Sultan, who WaPo reported had worked with Trump's 2016 campaign.
Trump exaggerates discredited study
Trump must have been watching the Fox segment because soon after he tweeted an exaggerated version of what had actually been discussed. Trump falsely claimed a new report "just out" had found Google "manipulated" 2.6 million to 16 million votes. "My victory was even bigger than thought!" Trump exclaimed. Of course, this is total nonsense.
Dale's fact-check
Fact-checking the claim for CNN was Daniel Dale who had a lot of work to do. Key points from Dale's fact-check:
-- "There is no basis in Epstein's research for Trump's claim that the alleged bias might have affected '16 million' votes. Epstein did testify in July that big tech companies in general could potentially shift 'upwards of 15 million votes' in the 2020 election, but he didn't claim that this happened in 2016..."
-- Epstein told CNN on Monday he doesn't have "any evidence that Google manipulated anything." He just said he had evidence of supposed bias, which he argues affected the vote. Google rejects Epstein's claim on bias...
-- Academics have criticized Epstein's methodology and conclusions on the idea Google is biased. "One issue," Dale noted, "is the quality of news sources." Epstein, for instance, rates a search engine as being biased if it doesn't feature news articles from far-right publications...
Google: This "inaccurate claim has been debunked"
In a statement, Google said, "This researcher's inaccurate claim has been debunked since it was made in 2016. As we stated then, we have never re-ranked or altered search results to manipulate political sentiment. Our goal is to always provide people with access to high quality, relevant information for their queries, without regard to political viewpoint."
Clinton zings
Hillary Clinton weighed in on the issue, knocking Trump for using the discredited study. "The debunked study you're referring to was based on 21 undecided voters," Clinton tweeted. "For context that's about half the number of people associated with your campaign who have been indicted."
Toobin: This "whackadoodle" claim shows Trump is "worried about losing" in 2020
CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin remarked on "The Situation Room" Monday, "In a day of whackadoodle claims this is the most whackadoodle of all because there is not even any claim that Google manipulated votes."
Toobin said he believed Trump's tweet was "part of this incredible nervousness about his political standing." He argued, "Today's spate of craziness tells us he's really worried about losing. That is the real message. Not any of the substance."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Related to our lede tonight: The progressive group Media Matters has published a list of 23 books Trump has promoted after seeing the authors on Fox... (Media Matters)
-- April Ryan's bodyguard is facing criminal charges for harassment, assault, and theft, according to a complaint covered monday by NJ.com. The charges stem from an incident earlier this month in which the bodyguard got into a physical altercation with a local reporter during an event where Ryan, a CNN analyst, spoke... (NJ.com)
-- This CJR piece about "how conservative media has grown under Trump" is interesting. Big takeaway? Fox's digital operation has thrived while traffic to Breitbart has tanked... (CJR)
-- Bret Baier responded to Trump's attack on the network's polling unit. Baier said "Fox has not changed" and challenged Trump to do an interview with a member of its news division... (Mediaite)
-- Tucker Carlson returned on-air Monday. During the toss to Sean Hannity at the end of the hour, Hannity insisted Carlson's vacation was planned. In fact, Hannity said he knew about Carlson's vacation "months and months ago" so he could "confirm" it had been in the works... (Twitter)
-- Chris Cuomo addressed that heated altercation he got into on-air. He thanked Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity for acting "as colleagues, not competitors..." (Mediaite)
Welcome to CNN Business, Kerry Flynn! Monday was her first day on the media team... And she's already getting the hang of things... She sent along this item:
Former Deadspin editor finds new home at Wired.com
Kerry Flynn writes: Last week, Megan Greenwell tweeted she would be leaving Deadspin on August 23 for a "new thing." On Monday, it was announced that "thing" is editing Wired.com. Greenwell had left her previous job on not-the-best terms, stemming from the new leadership at the site's owner G/O Media. "I have been repeatedly undermined, lied to, and gaslit in my job," Greenwell told The Daily Beast last week.
>> Wired EIC Nicholas Thompson: "Megan is one of the most brilliant editors and managers in the business. People have been raving about her to me for years, and I'm thrilled that now she'll be joining Wired."
Who will distribute Halperin's new book? It seems like Simon & Schuster
Since the news broke on Sunday that Mark Halperin has written a book for Regan Arts, it's been unclear exactly how the book -- which has a November release date -- will be distributed to stores. Regan Arts is a small shop, so it doesn't have the resources or infrastructure in place to execute such an operation. But, as it turns out, the company is a distribution client of Simon & Schuster. For small publishers like Regan Arts, S&S will warehouse books, collect the billing, and ultimately take care of the distribution.
Asked if the company was comfortable shipping Halperin's book, given that at least a dozen women have accused him of sexual harassment and assault, a spokesperson for S&S told me, "The publishing decisions of our distribution clients are theirs and theirs alone to make." It is true that a company like Simon typically has no editorial control over distribution clients. That said, this will certainly raise eyebrows...
>> Disclosure: Brian Stelter's forthcoming book about Fox and Trump is being published by an imprint of S&S...
"Redemption sounds nice, but disgraced pundit Mark Halperin doesn't deserve it"
That was the headline on Margaret Sullivan's latest piece for WaPo. Sullivan wrote, "Want to make a comeback? First make amends." She said Halperin "seems to have missed that step along the path to would-be redemption" and that while he has a book deal, "he doesn't seem to have a sense of why he shouldn't have one."
Sullivan is referring to some of Halperin's accusers publicly saying that he never apologized to them. Eleanor McManus, for instance, told me on Sunday that Halperin had not reached out to her. "He has not," she said. "And I'm pretty easy to reach."
Gillibrand: "People make mistakes all the time"
Kirsten Gillibrand was asked during a WaPo event with Robert Costa about whether Halperin deserves a path to redemption. Gillibrand responded that it was "not for me to judge" and said the process "starts with humility and recognition that you acknowledge that you've done something wrong." Gillibrand added, "People make mistakes all the time." She said, "It's not my job to be the purveyor of disapproval or approval."
Did everyone just forget?
Over at National Review, Jim Geraghty wondered how so many top Democrats could be unaware of the allegations against Halperin. He cited Kathleen Sebelius saying she was unaware of the allegations and Jennifer Granholm tweeting she should have "done more research."
"Here's an absolutely fascinating development in #MeToo," Geraghty wrote. "A man accused of some really bad behavior can find himself back in the good graces of much of the political world -- at least among high-profile Democratic campaign consultants -- because everyone simply forgot about it, never heard about it, or didn't think about it too much when he called."
>> Related: Over at Washingtonian magazine, Andrew Beaujon is keeping track of "every response from people who participated" in Halperin's book...
Sinclair stations help Trump sell campaign hats | | At least 20 Sinclair-owned stations over the weekend published ~stories~ promoting Trump's new "Keep America Great" hats for sale on the Trump campaign website, Lachlan Markay reported at The Daily Beast on Monday. According to Markay, all the stories "initially linked directly to the campaign's online store, though that link has since been removed on some of the stories."
One of the stories, published on DC's WJLA station website, read, "Donald Trump's re-election campaign has rolled out new hats as the President aims for another four-year term in 2020." The story linked to the Trump campaign's online store, and noted that the price of the hat was $25.
Sinclair: No "corporate directive"
I reached out to a Sinclair spokesperson for comment. The company representative told me, "This was a story first published by a local journalist at Albany-based WRGB, that was then syndicated to its sister stations. The decision to pick-up a syndicated story is made at the local level and at no point was there any corporate directive made regarding this story."
Bakish's post-merger payday
"Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish, who will become president and CEO of the combined company, ViacomCBS, has signed a new contract ending four years after the deal closes," the WSJ's Ben Mullin reports. "The contract lists salary, bonuses and other incentives worth about $31 million a year, roughly 55% higher than Mr. Bakish's total compensation in the most recent fiscal year, the company said in a securities filing." And as previously known, Joe Ianniello "will receive a payout of about $70 million when the deal closes," resulting "from a provision in his old contract at CBS that entitled him to a lump sum if he wasn't named CEO of the combined company in the event of a merger..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Devin Gordon spent six weeks listening to, and trying to live like, podcast phenom Joe Rogan. "Most of Rogan's critics don't really grasp the breadth and depth of the community he has built..." (The Atlantic)
-- A fascinating read by Han Zhang about "the 'post-truth' publication where Chinese students in America get their news:" The online publication College Daily brings students "news with nationalistic undertones, delivered in a stream of memes and Internet-speak..." (The New Yorker)
Chinese social media accounts tried to undermine Hong Kong demonstrators
"A covert state-backed social media campaign run from China has sought to undermine ongoing demonstrations in Hong Kong, according to information released by Twitter and Facebook on Monday," Donie O'Sullivan reported for CNN Business. "Some accounts called protesters 'cockroaches' or compared them to Islamic State terrorists. All the offending accounts have been taken down from Twitter and Facebook."
>> Important point: "This is the first time tech companies have pointed the finger at Beijing for covert efforts to influence messaging around the Hong Kong protests..."
Some accounts targeted Americans
Donie emails: Among the 900 or so accounts Twitter removed that they said were linked to China, there were also some accounts that targeted Americans. One particularly elaborate account had more than 180,000 followers. It's bio read, "Conservative News from the USA and Abroad. #Catholic Defender of the Constitution of the United States. #Qanon #MAGA #BUILDTHEWALL #TRUMP #2A #1A." Note the inclusion of the Q conspiracy theory.
>> Final point from Donie: We have grown accustom to hearing about elaborate campaigns like this, targeting Americans through conspiracy theories, from Russia -- I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg on what we will see from China ahead of the 2020 election...
Local paper battles with officials in small Oregon county
This is a wild story out of the northwest. Officials in an Oregon county have asked the sheriff to evaluate whether the local newspaper broke the law when its reporters, looking for information, reached out to government officials on their personal email accounts.
Greg Smith, director of Malheur County Economic Development Department, told The Enterprise that it was "not appropriate" for its reporters to be "sending emails to employees using their personal email accounts on the weekends." Of course, reaching out to sources on their non-work devices is a tried-and-true practice used by reporters contacting sources who might be fearful to talk because of possible retribution.
The Enterprise is fighting back. Its editor, Les Zaitz, explained, "Our news staff has sought information from county officials concerning important public business using standard and professional methods." Zaitz added, "Suggesting that professional journalists are behaving as criminals in gathering vital information for the community appears to be an effort to silence and intimidate the Enterprise."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
By An Phung:
-- Lester Holt spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran for a special edition of "NBC Nightly News"... (NBC)
-- Casey Newton on China's cover social media campaign: "The good news is that platforms are getting better at identifying disinformation campaigns. The bad news is that the tactics of these governments keep evolving — and in many cases they have far more resources at their disposal than the companies they're up against..." (The Interface)
-- Wealthy founders and funders are sometimes not enough to keep a publication alive… (NYT)
RCFP launches local legal initiative
Back in February, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press received a $10 million investment from the Knight Foundation to help local journalists fight legal battles. On Monday, RCFP started accepting proposals from local journalism communities that can benefit from legal support.
RCFP said potential partners could include non-profit organizations, universities, local press associations, law firms, and others "committed to helping journalism thrive." Applications can be submitted here...
When right-wing outrage backfires
Right-wing outrage, including from Trump, played a role in getting Universal to cancel its plans to release "The Hunt." The Blumhouse movie was a satirical thriller in which liberal "elites" hunted middle America "deplorables" for sport. At the time, it had been strongly suspected that the "deplorables" were actually the good guys in the film. Now, Variety has confirmed that. Gene Maddus and Brent Lang obtained a draft of the script which, they reported, "makes clear that the original intention was to depict working-class conservatives as the heroes."
"Rush to judgement is one of the most relevant problems of our time"
Variety also spoke with Craig Zobel, who directed the controversial film. He told Variety he hopes the movie is one day seen by audiences. Zobel stressed that if he thought the movie "could incite violence" he "wouldn't have made it."
Instead, Zobel told Variety he "wanted to make a fun, action thriller that satirized this moment in our culture" when "we jump to assume we know someone's beliefs because of which 'team' we think they're on… and then start shouting at them." He added, "This rush to judgment is one of the most relevant problems of our time." | |
Two new reports about Apple+
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Anousha Sakoui, and Lucas Shaw had this on Monday: Apple is targeting a November launch and a $9.99 a month price for the streaming service. "The company will introduce a small selection of shows and then expand its catalog more frequently over several months, people familiar with the matter said. A free trial is likely as Apple builds up its library... The company is considering offering the first three episodes of some programs, followed by weekly installments, the people said." More...
And the FT's Anna Nicolaou and Tim Bradshaw had this: "Apple is spending more than $6 billion on content for its upcoming streaming service (up from an initial $1 billion commitment)," she tweeted. Here is the pair's paywalled full story...
--> The first full trailer for "The Morning Show" dropped on Monday... CNN's Sandra Gonzalez wrote it up...
One day, four streaming stories
Brian Lowry emails: This is shaping up to be a pretty big week for streaming, and it's still only Monday: Apple dropped the trailer for "The Morning Show," HBO Max announced a film project with Meryl Streep, and Netflix put out its trailer for Ryan Murphy's first series under his mega-deal, "The Politician," about a high school student convinced that his class election is the first step toward the Oval Office. Oh, and Disney unveiled its international rollout plans for Disney+. At the end of this week Disney+ will get a showcase at the D23 Expo...
| | Universal avoids comedy drought with "Good Boys"
Frank Pallotta emails: "Good Boys" took the No. 1 spot at the box office this weekend and its opening was a surprising one, both because it exceeded expectations and because comedies have not really been hits lately. It's been a really long summer for comedies with films like "Late Night," "Long Shot" and "Stuber" disappointing at the box office. Yet, Universal has found success during this comedy drought.
According to Universal, "Good Boys" is the highest-grossing comedy opening of 2019, the first R-rated comedy to open No. 1 since "The Boss" in 2016 (which was also a Universal title) and the studio has produced the highest-grossing original comedies of the last two years with 2018's "Night School" and 2017's "Girls Trip."
Billie Eilish ends Lil Nas X's streak on the Billboard charts
Frank also flagged this EW story: "Even Lil Nas X couldn't tame this 'Bad Guy.' The Billie Eilish song, which has lingered at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for nine weeks, has finally claimed the top spot, unseating Lil Nas X's record-breaking 'Old Town Road' after 19 weeks atop the charts. The fifth release from Eilish's album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? bears the distinction of knocking the longest-running song of all time from the No. 1 spot..."
| | ICYMI...
Notes and quotes from Sunday's "Reliable"
-- Jim Rutenberg told guest host John Avlon that the "Trump era forces us to be a little more aggressive" about telling the truth because journalists are met with "so much disinformation"...
-- Adam Serwer thinks that the argument over whether the media should be the resistance is a "straw man distraction" and what's important is that the media is "describing things accurately."
-- Bari Weiss talks about a different and "more subtle" threat facing the media, saying: "where once it was advertisers we feared angering, now it's readers."
-- Clarissa Ward on being targeted by Russian propaganda outfit: "While this [smear campaign] may have been just about intimidation, it certainly also gave us real pause for thought and concern about our safety as well. And it hasn't stopped."
-- Matt Rivitz, the once-anonymous founder of the internet-based activist community Sleeping Giants, on ads appearing on hate/disinfo sites: "Some of it lies within ad tech and some of it lies within the customers that are buying the ads..."
How to catch up on the show...
Watch the video clips via CNN.com... Listen to the podcast version via Apple Podcasts or your favorite app... Or read the transcript here. Stelter will be back in the chair on Sunday...
| | | Thank you for reading. I always enjoy your feedback, so send me a note via email or find me on Twitter. See you tomorrow! | | | |
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