Forward

Exec summary: Scroll down for "Fear" sales, a Comey miniseries idea, a Civil token sale, a resignation from LA Times, and a reality check about the Emmys...

Will Ford testify?

How will this Supreme Court nomination fight end? If you know, do tell. I have no idea.

The right-wing smear machine has been lying about Christine Blasey Ford for the past two days. Other Republicans have been urging restraint and respect. Democrats have been demanding delays to the process. Opinions are all over the place. The public needs a lot of good old-fashioned reporting -- stories that assess Ford's credibility and evaluate Brett Kavanaugh's denials. Scores of journalists are working on this as we speak...

Tuesday night's breaking news

Anderson Cooper had the scoop at 8 p.m. ET: Ford "wants the FBI to investigate her allegations before talking to the Senate Judiciary Committee about it."

All of a sudden, the prospect of a televised hearing on Monday seemed less likely.

Attorney Lisa Banks, representing Ford, told Cooper that "there's no reason that we should have a public hearing on Monday... It's too important to be rushed through."

"This is about the White House, POTUS, the president, they're the sponsor of the nominee," Chris Cuomo said. So will the FBI get involved? Cuomo: "This is the president's call. Will he make it?"

>> THE LATEST: Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley says "there is no reason for further delay" and "the invitation for Monday still stands..."

Anita Hill's oped

An Phung emails: We can't talk about Christine Blasey Ford without invoking Anita Hill's name. We heard from Hill on Tuesday in the form of an NYTimes op-ed, in which she laid out for the Senate Judiciary Committee "basic ground rules" it should follow in order to "do better by the country than it did nearly three decades ago." It's a must read...

>> Megan Thomas adds: This is a worthwhile read from author Caitlan Flanagan for The Atlantic...

How much has America changed, really?

How much has changed since the Clarence Thomas hearings? The NYT's Kate Zernike says "a very different United States is now deep into a debate" over Ford's allegations. Here's her full story...

Views from the right

Erick Erickson, one of Kavanaugh's staunchest defenders, tweeted on Tuesday night that people (Dems) are "willing to destroy an innocent man so they can keep killing kids. And that's exactly what this is about."

And Fox's Laura Ingraham tweeted just before her 10 p.m. show: "Hey @ChuckGrassley, she won't testify. Get your senators together, and call the vote."

Views from the left

Liberal commentators have been highlighting the Ford camp's new letter to Grassley, which said that "her worst fears have materialized." The letter said "she has been the target of vicious harassment and even death threats." The Ford family has had to "relocate..."

Tucker adding fuel to the fire...

Tucker Carlson has been insinuating for months that men are the true victims of the #MeToo movement. He hit this theme again on Tuesday night, saying that Dems have already concluded that Kavanaugh is guilty.

"How do they know for certain what happened 36 years ago? Because Brett Kavanaugh is a man and therefore he is guilty," he said. "All men are guilty. It's the Y chromosome." Does Carlson ever get tired of knocking down strawmen?

Meanwhile, Kavanaugh is prepping...

Via CNN's Jim Acosta: "A source familiar with the matter said Judge Kavanaugh participated in a lengthy prep session today in the event that he does testify in a hearing to respond to the allegations from Dr. Ford. The session involved questions from White House officials peppering Kavanaugh about his personal life. The source acknowledged the preparation may not be necessary as the hearing is now up in the air..."

LA Times reporter resigns

An Phung emails: The Beijing bureau chief of the LA Times, Jonathan Kaiman, was suspended in May amid sexual misconduct allegations. Now the paper says he has resigned, according to the NYT.

Felicia Sonmez, one of Kaiman's accusers, said she was "grateful to The Los Angeles Times for taking her allegations seriously but added that 'several questions remained unanswered' about whether Mr. Kaiman was fired or resigned voluntarily."

Reporter says his career has been "destroyed"

In a statement, Kaiman said everything that happened was consensual, and the allegations "have irrevocably destroyed my reputation, my professional network, my nine year career in journalism, and any hope for a rewarding career in the future; they have branded me with a scarlet letter for life, and driven me to the brink of suicide."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Changes to Fox Biz's schedule: Effective October 15, Trish Regan moves from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., Charles Payne moves from 6 to 2, David Asman moves to 5 and Elizabeth MacDonald moves to 6. Lou Dobbs stays at 7 and Kennedy moves to 9...

-- Annie Karni is jumping from Politico to the NYT...

-- And Matt Viser is jumping from the Boston Globe to WaPo...

-- New York mag is spinning off the Intelligencer into its own "destination..." And adding Josh Barro, Zak Cheney-Rice, and Sarah Jones...

"Fear" has sold 1.1 million copies

"Fear" dropped one week ago. Simon & Schuster marked the occasion with a press release saying that it has sold more than 1.1 million copies so far. This total includes print copies, e-books, audiobooks, and "orders from consumers that are as yet unfulfilled due to extraordinary demand." A publisher's dream/nightmare!

S&S says "these first week sales for 'Fear' were the largest for any title in Simon & Schuster company history." The company has "ordered a 10th printing of the book that when complete will bring the number of hardcover copies in print to more than 1,200,000..."

In the Trump age, book recaps come with warning labels

A couple weeks ago, CNN.com's preview of "Fear" had a "WARNING" at the top: "This story contains graphic language." On Tuesday, another book prompted another warning: CNN's Sara Sidner obtained an advance copy of Stormy Daniels' book and wrote this recap. The preface says "this story contains graphic sexual imagery."

If you read this, you'll never think of Mario Kart the same way again...

What? Rigging "The Apprentice" ?!

Per Sidner's story: "In her book, Daniels says Trump offered to rig an appearance on 'The Apprentice' for her so she could stay on the show longer, saying he would try to get the show's challenges to her ahead of time. She says Trump's continuing promise to get her a spot on that reality show is why she kept taking his calls. When he finally admitted he couldn't get her on the show, she stopped taking his calls..."

Krauthammer's anthology

When Charles Krauthammer's health crisis struck a year ago, he was "in the advanced stages of work on a new book," his son Daniel revealed on Tuesday. "And when his health deteriorated and the end of his life was approaching, he entrusted me to bring it to completion on his behalf." The result is an anthology, "The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors," due out on December 4...

Comey's book may become a TV miniseries

Nellie Andreeva and Mike Fleming Jr.'s scoop for Deadline: "CBS Television Studios has won an auction and is in final negotiations for the rights to former FBI director James Comey's memoir." It will be "adapted into a miniseries that will be written by Oscar-nominated Captain Phillips scribe Billy Ray..."

>> KEY DETAIL: "Word is Comey flew in to Los Angeles for a series of pitch meetings with both film and TV (premium cable and streaming) buyers, which was held at CAA earlier this month..."

>> FLASHBACK: A few months ago, Comey said "I hope to be forgotten..."

Hillary Clinton's paperback...

The paperback edition of "What Happened" came out on Tuesday, and Hillary Clinton appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show" to tout the release. Highlights here...

Even MORE book news

-- Former FBI No. 2 Andrew McCabe is coming out with a book titled "THE THREAT" in December. The threats he ID's in the subtitle are "the age of terror" and President Trump...

-- Rahm Emanuel is writing a book, due out in 2020, titled "The Nation City: Why Mayors Run the World..."

Want to buy into Civil? Now's the time...

Jill Disis emails: The next big experiment in journalism is underway. Civil, the blockchain company that wants to create a new model for journalism, launched its token sale on Tuesday. The cryptocurrency is a key part of the ambitious network of news organizations the company wants to support. Among them: The Colorado Sun, which was founded by a group of former Denver Post staffers earlier this summer.

Civil told me in July that token owners are going to play a big role in keeping a check on newsrooms that are part of the community. All participants will abide by a journalistic code of ethics, and the community can leverage their tokens to challenge any content they believe runs afoul of the code. Tokens can also be used to tip journalists for their work.

>> THE GOAL: The company says it needs to sell at least $8 million worth of tokens to make this plan a success. The website Token Foundry says they've hit about $90,000 as of this afternoon, but Civil co-founder Matthew Iles tells me that doesn't represent what has been committed so far. He says they're confident they'll succeed -- they have until October 15, when the token sale ends...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- An Phung emails: The DOJ has ordered Chinese state-run media outlets in the United States to register as foreign agents, according to sources who spoke to the WSJ. A department spokesperson wouldn't confirm the news, according to Sputnik, which, along with RT was also prompted to comply with a similar order last year... (WSJ)

-- Barrons.com founding editor Howard R. Gold's piece for CJR: "Ten years after the financial crisis, business journalism awaits its reckoning..." (CJR)

-- "Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated's star basketball reporter (he writes LeBron James' cover stories), is joining the front office of the LA Clippers," Peter Kafka tweeted... (Twitter)

-- iPhone Xs Max reviews dropped on Tuesday... Here's a review of the reviews... (QZ)

Emmy ratings: 😆

Frank Pallotta emails: The awards show billed as TV's biggest night ended up with its smallest audience ever.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised, but here's the headline: The Emmy Awards averaged 10.2 million viewers for NBC. That number is not just down 11% from last year, it makes Monday's show the least-watched Emmys on record. Yikes! Awards shows -- like everything on TV -- are struggling to find big audiences, but for the most part the broadcast was panned for being dull. Critics said it wasn't engaging. But, hey, at least someone got engaged!

Lowry's wisdom

Brian Lowry emails: Although I quibbled with some of the choices that Emmy voters made, I saved the last item in my post-game analysis for the telecast itself, which sent a consistent message that the event was a low priority for NBC -- and that the Emmys themselves are sort of a silly, outdated construct. Notably, because ABC has exclusive rights to the Oscars, the network has a vested interest in its success, which explains the effort to overhaul those awards (misguided as it was, in terms of the "popular film" proposal) in response to declining ratings.

Because the Emmys rotate among the four major broadcast networks, it's going to require the Television Academy exhibiting some leadership -- and doing some soul-searching -- if they want to halt, or at least try to slow, the downward ratings spiral that the Emmys (and yes, award shows in general) are experiencing...

>> PLUS: Here's NYT's John Koblin with the scene at the HBO and Netflix after-parties...

Julie Chen's sign-off

Julie Chen has co-hosted "The Talk" since its debut in 2010... But not anymore. As we first reported last night, she has decided to leave the CBS talk show, though she's staying on "Big Brother."

Tom Kludt emails: In a video message that aired at the tail end of Tuesday's show, Chen thanked viewers and co-hosts, at one point fighting back tears. She never mentioned her husband Les Moonves by name. But she gave a nod to the feminine focus of the show, a reference that stood out to me given the context of her departure. "I know this show, and the sisterhood it stands for, will live on for many, many, many more years to come," she said...

Now what about "Big Brother?"

The current season wraps up next week, so Chen will definitely see it through. Sources close to her say she'll remain the host of the reality show for years to come. But CBS declined to comment...

How about some "defensive driving" while covering bad faith actors who are trying to tear down the press? Quoting from Charlie Warzel's latest "Infowarzel" newsletter...

"Though the term 'defensive journalism' sounds ridiculous, I think this a helpful way to think of reporting in the era of the platforms and the information war. Like defensive driving, defensive journalism isn't about aggression, it's about staying vigilant and anticipating how others might ignoring or break the rules. It's a heightened sense of awareness and skepticism..."

What is Roseanne talking about?

On a new podcast, Roseanne Barr claimed she knows that her character is being killed off. "They have her die of an opioid overdose," Barr said.

But how does she know? She's been out of the loop for months. She has no involvement with the new show, "The Conners," which debuts next month. And she's not a reliable narrator. So we'll see... Here's the full story by Lisa Respers France and yours truly...

Does Tom Arnold have the goods?

Brian Lowry emails: Tom Arnold's recent scuffle with Mark Burnett, among other things, served as promotion for "The Hunt for the Trump Tapes," Arnold's new show that premiered Tuesday night. Part performance art, part comedy, part investigative journalism, the half-hour series works off several questionable premises, and one pretty sound one – namely, that anything related to President Trump is apt to generate attention for a small network like Viceland, which most people would struggle to locate on their cable/satellite box.

Arnold, the comic/actor and one-time "Apprentice" contestant, has made ending Trump's presidency his crusade, and seems convinced that finding damaging or embarrassing material on tape, including "Apprentice" outtakes, will hasten his demise. Arnold also presents himself as the person who must undertake this assignment, which – in the episodes previewed — involves using a bullhorn to harangue Burnett outside his offices, sifting through Trump's Howard Stern appearances and interviewing journalists who have spent time delving into Trump's history...

Bert and Ernie are best friends... and that's all

Sunny is almost 16 months old, so I am a daily viewer of "Sesame Street." I hum the songs to myself on the way to work. "Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away..."

So I was VERY interested in Tuesday's Bert and Ernie storyline. Here, Sandra Gonzalez explained what happened and why the muppets were trending on Twitter...

And, via Megan Thomas, don't miss Vulture's take: "Are muppets sexual? A very serious investigation..."

"Captain Marvel" blasts off

Frank Pallotta emails: Marvel's first female-led superhero film has arrived. The teaser for "Captain Marvel" debuted on "GMA" Tuesday morning and gave viewers an action-packed look at Brie Larson in the title role.

While Disney's superhero studio has had many female heroes, "Captain Marvel" is the first solo film from Marvel to be led by a woman. The film debuts March 8, but honestly can't come soon enough. More here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Lisa Respers France:

-- We reportedly won't have Victoria Beckham as part of the planned Spice Girls reunion, but by God her dancing to a Spice Girls song will do for now...

-- "Teddy Perkins" from "Atlanta" at the Emmys confused fans... And there's still no official word about who was behind the mask...

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