| | | | Good evening on this holiday weekend Sunday. We are at the mid-point of Memorial Day weekend, so if you haven't unplugged, spent some time with family, or gone outside, you have one more day. But most importantly, take a moment on Monday to remember those who have fallen in the line of duty serving our country.
This is Oliver Darcy filling in for Brian Stelter. Quick note: We are taking tomorrow off for the holiday, but we'll be back as usual Tuesday... | | Will Sean Spicer return to the podium? | | President Donald Trump has returned from his first overseas trip and reports suggest one of his first items of business may be an overhaul of his communications strategy. One of the chief questions: Will Sean Spicer return to the podium?
The New York Times reported on Saturday that the Trump administration was working to create a war room aimed at better handling communications. From the report: "Under the evolving scenario, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, would take a diminished public role, with daily on-camera briefings replaced by more limited interactions with journalists, while Mr. Trump would seize more opportunities to communicate directly with his core supporters through campaign rallies, social media appearances such as Facebook Live videos, and interviews with friendly news organizations." Read the full story here...
The Wall Street Journal had a similar report Friday. The newspaper reported Mike Dubke could be removed as communications director and Sarah Huckabee Sanders could be tapped as the White House's main spokesperson.
Politico first reported earlier this month that Trump was weighing downsizing Spicer's public role. At the time, the publication reported Spicer was "no longer expected to do a daily, on-camera briefing after Trump's foreign trip."
(One important caveat: Since the very start of the Trump administration, there have been reports constantly floated suggesting Trump is on the verge of reorganizing his senior staff. Aside from Gen. Michael Flynn's firing, most everyone has stayed in their original places.)
Spicer, for his part, is staying silent on the issue. We reached out to him this afternoon for comment, but did not hear back... | | Trump's Twitter account roars back to life | | Trump refrained from sending out any inflammatory tweets while on his 10-day overseas trip. But he was anything but quiet on his first day back in the federal city.
The tweets started rolling in this morning -- and they took aim at his favorite target: the media.
8:33 a.m. ET: "It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media."
8:34 a.m. ET: "Whenever you see the words 'sources say' in the fake news media, and they don't mention names...."
8:35 a.m. ET: "....it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!"
8:45 a.m. ET: "Does anyone notice how the Montana Congressional race was such a big deal to Dems & Fake News until the Republican won? V was poorly covered"
Twitter reacts...
Glenn Thrush of The New York Times offered three "correctives" on Twitter: "1) @potus created false identities to leak in the 90s 2) he loved anti-Clinton leaks/Wikileaks 3) he's been dodging reporters."
Maggie Haberman added a fourth: "His White House constantly asks to go on background with reporters + complains about leaks. Now leaks are false?"
Politico's Annie Karni provides some relevant info: "I've been told a factor in the lack of tweeting abroad overall was the presence of Melania Trump."
And BuzzFeed's Charlie Warzel, who has been doing a great job keeping tabs on the pro-Trump media, offered a valuable point: "this tactic works bc substantial % of average readers see anonymous sources as purely made up by reporter."
Some context: The morning tweetstorm came after the Times and Journal published reports suggesting Trump was considering being more careful about what he tweets. An adviser told the Journal a new process would hopefully ensure tweets "don't go from the president's mind out to the universe."
CC: @realDonaldTrump... Pope Francis posted this message on Twitter this morning: "I encourage everyone to engage in constructive forms of communication that reject prejudice towards others and foster hope and trust today." | | "Reliable Sources:" Zero press conferences abroad | | Frank Sesno filled in for Brian and anchored live from D.C. ... One of the main topics: Trump's lack of press conferences while overseas.
"It is unheard of to go overseas for nine days with the President of the United States and have the press corps there ... and not take formal questions," said CNN and American Urban Radio Networks' April Ryan.
Michael Oreskes, NPR's head of news, said it represented a "profound and fundamental break" with previous traditions. Watch the segment here... | | -- Phil Griffin has signed a new contract with MSNBC, according to THR...
-- "Homework? First I need to get to the bottom of this Comey story." Gabe Fleisher, the 15-year-old high school freshman who writes the Wake Up to Politics newsletter, scored a well-deserved profile in Sunday's NYT...
-- Five takeaways from Trump's first foreign trip. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has a good breakdown of what you need to know... | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: Mike Huckabee, who the other day empathized with Greg Gianforte's instinct to punch a reporter on Twitter, told Fox News today that the media needs to get over the fact that Trump is president: "You may not like it. You may not agree with his policies. But, suck it up buttercup, because this is what we will experience." Video here... | | Steve Bannon and the Drudge Report | | An interesting item in Friday's Vanity Fair story by Tina Nguyen. A former Breitbart staffer said Steve Bannon used to go around boasting about how he practically controlled Drudge.
"Bannon used to go around bragging that he ran Drudge [and that] he could get a Drudge link anytime he wanted," the former Breitbart staffer said.
Hard not to wonder how Matt Drudge feels about that... | | Sarah Silverman's new Netflix show | | Chloe Melas emails: Sarah Silverman has a new comedy special for Netflix premiering May 30 and she tells me that she takes issue with people who claim to not be political.
"There used to be a time where you could be an American and go 'Oh, I'm really not political. I mean those times are over. If you think you're not political, you're complicit in the insanity that's going on and the injustice." Read Chloe's story here... | | Fox's Howard Kurtz tackles Seth Rich story | | Fox News "Media Buzz" host Howard Kurtz confronted the big controversy that ensnared the network this week.
The self-billed "most powerful name in news" was forced to retract a high-profile and inaccurate story that cited a private investigator and an anonymous federal source to link slain DNC staffer Seth Rich to Wikileaks. The retraction came about a week after CNN debunked the report.
"On this tragic subject with no evidence to contradict the police account that is a very good decision," Kurtz said. "And it would have been better if Fox's website had never published that story."
Watch the "Media Buzz" segment via Mediaite... | | Bizarre reports swirl about Hannity's future at Fox News | | Over the weekend, some odd rumors ricocheted in conservative media about Fox News host Sean Hannity's future at the network.
Hannity, of course, was perhaps the loudest voice peddling the Seth Rich conspiracy theory -- only halting his coverage after the Rich family pleaded with him to do so, Fox News retracted its story, and the network's president of programming encouraged him to stop.
The whole episode seemed to frustrate Hannity. A report in the Independent Journal Review, citing a "source close to Hannity," said the conservative firebrand had gone "underground" as he decides whether to return on Tuesday. "The source...said Hannity feels like the network failed to sufficiently support him after he came under attack." We can only wonder who the source was... 🤔
Then, after the IJR report, various individuals in far-right media -- including InfoWars founder Alex Jones -- tweeted that sources had told them Fox was going to fire Hannity. When contacted by CNN, a Fox News spokesperson threw cold water on the assertion, saying Hannity had full support of the network. | | -- Alex Rodriguez is joining ABC News as a contributor. On Sunday CNN confirmed the NYPost's scoop that A-Rod will make "occasional" appearances on "GMA," "World News Tonight," and "Nightline."
-- Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, died Friday at 89. Condolences from the CNN family to his daughter, "Morning Joe" co-host Mika.
-- Getting granular with the claim that Trump is some media wizard. Jay Rosen writes: "When journalists testify to Trump's genius as a mover of media they are bragging in a way they don't quite realize. For they are implicitly saying: genius is required to manipulate us. Sorry, it's not." | | Sunny Ray Stelter update! | | I asked Brian Stelter for a baby update... he emails: We celebrated Sunny's one week birthday by watching "Reliable Sources" (we appreciated Frank Sesno's shoutout at the end of the show!) and by going on a big shopping trip to Trader Joe's.
The past week has been amazing... Sunny and Jamie are both doing very well, here's an Instagram slideshow of the highlights... I'll be back at work soon, but first I'm taking a few days offline. Deleting Twitter from my phone temporarily! | | Andrew, get off your phone | | CNN's Andrew Kaczynski on Friday married Rachel Louise Ensign, a banking reporter at the Wall Street Journal. A big congrats to the new couple!
Here's a photo of the KFILE team at the wedding... (Pics via Jocelyn Voo of Everly Studios) | | | Email us: reliablesources@cnn.com. Let us know what you like and dislike... what you want more of, what you want less of. We appreciate every email! | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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