| | | | | What do you say? At the end of a day like this, what is there to say? | | A little earlier this evening, the banner on the bottom of CNN's screen said "WHITE HOUSE MISLEADS ON MISLEADING TRUMP JR. STATEMENT."
Now, at the time I'm writing this, the banner says "LAWSUIT: FOX NEWS, WHITE HOUSE COORDINATED FAKE SETH RICH STORY." Scroll down for full coverage of the explosive suit... but first... | | At least five of today's big stories involve LEAKS | | | Erin Burnett said it best on CNN Tuesday night: "For those out there who are frustrated by leaks, I understand that, because that can be an issue. But if it weren't for these leaks, we wouldn't know how many lies there are. Because what these leaks are repeatedly exposing is that this White House has lied again and again." I'm noticing an increase in the use of the word "lie..." | | Sanders essentially confirms WashPost's scoop | | | The WashPost's Monday night story about President Trump writing Donald Trump Jr.'s original, and misleading, statement about the Russian lawyer meeting dominated much of Tuesday's news... Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted that POTUS "weighed in," contradicting what Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a whole bunch of TV interviews. Chris Cillizza and Saba Hamedy's The Point newsletter has all the details here... | | | >> Jake Tapper: "You, as a citizen, you have every right to wonder: Why would the president hide the truth and be inaccurate about this? Why would he want to hide from you the facts of this meeting, which they insist was innocent?" | | BTW, CNN's newest analyst is... | | | ...President Obama's director of national intelligence James Clapper. On "AC360," Clapper said there's a "chilling, Orwellian aspect" to Trumpworld's untruthful statements... | | 😲 Politico gets ahold of WSJ's Trump interview | | Politico was the recipient of an unusual leak from inside the Wall Street Journal: a complete transcript of WSJ EIC Gerard Baker's recent interview with POTUS. The transcript had been circulating internally, but hadn't been published by the paper. So Politico went ahead and printed it all. Transcripts of POTUS interviews are automatic must-reads...
-- Deputy EIC Matt Murray had warned the staff against leaking the transcript, something he referred to as "a breach of trust." Speaking of that... | | Another 😲: Wired gets ahold of Jared Kushner audio | | | On Monday Jared Kushner spoke at an off-the-record gathering of congressional interns. An aide told the interns "to record today's session would be such a breach of trust, from my opinion." But somebody did record it, and Wired mag obtained the audio, which formed the basis of this story... | | Then there was this Sports Illustrated story about Trump's "relationship with golf." It quoted multiple golf buddies, sometimes anonymously, and one of the derogatory quotes is getting a ton of attention on social media. Is it newsworthy? I think so, but news outlets are wise to tread carefully with secondhand quotes attributed to the president provided by anonymous sources...
If blind quotes are at one end of the leak spectrum, then memos from government officials are at the other end. The Journal scored one of those scoops on Tuesday morning -- the acting DEA chief "repudiating" the president's remarks about police brutality in a memo to staffers obtained by the WSJ. On Tuesday night, it was the NYT's turn -- "Trump Looks at Discrimination Against Whites in Universities" was based on a document obtained by the Times... | | Sessions holding event about leak crackdown on Friday | | | This was a big story on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to announce a major crackdown on leakers this week." This has been expected for a while. Now it's actually scheduled: he'll have a presser on Friday, according to an (unnamed!) DOJ official... | | Dylan's latest: the short list to replace Scaramucci | | Dylan Byers emails: New chief of staff John Kelly is eyeing his Homeland Security spokesperson David Lapan for the communications director role, two high-level admin sources told me.
--> Why Lapan? Kelly has known Lapan for over a decade and he wants someone he can trust. Lapan is steeped in years of military experience. Before DHS, he led press operations at the Defense Department and the Marine Corps.
--> What does Lapan say? He told me tonight that he had not spoken to Kelly or anyone else at the White House about the position, but said he would consider it. "Obviously I've known [Kelly] for a long time. I would take seriously anything he asked. But I would also have to understand more about what it would be and all of those things. So I couldn't say today what my answer would be." Read more... | | Also on the list: Laura Ingraham | | | From Dylan: The White House has been courting the Fox News personality for several months, and she's still on the list. But sources familiar with the discussions have previously told me she would only be interested if she had assurances she could run the show... | | Not on the list: Bill Shine | | Dylan adds: The NYT reported at lunchtime that former Fox News exec Bill Shine was under consideration for a role with the communications shop -- but that was in the Scaramucci era. W.H. sources told me today that since Kelly came on board, Shine is no longer under consideration...
-- Why it matters: The Trump administration has been lacking message discipline since its inception, and Kelly is likely as eager to impose discipline on the White House messaging strategy as he is to impose order on the chaotic and fractious West Wing... | | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails: TMZ caught up with the Mooch on Tuesday. No word on what his next job might be. But he said he's focusing on "being the best person I can be." When asked about a "Dancing with the Stars" role, he said "I don't know how to dance." | | | -- ICYMI: "Scaramucci's last name is longer than his tenure!" Here's what Seth Meyers and other late-night comics said on Monday night, via Frank Pallotta... | | Sean Spicer is "sticking to his plan to leave at the end of August," a source told Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs on Tuesday...
-- Dylan emails: This matches everything I've been hearing... He's done his time and he's ready to go make some money. But it's worth remembering that everything is subject to change with this administration... | | -- What a read: the WashPost's "oral history of the Scaramucci era..." (WashPost)
-- Happy anniversary, NBC's Andrea Mitchell! She joined the network 39 years ago Tuesday... (Twitter)
-- Via An Phung: More media companies are flocking to lower Manhattan. Of the approximately 739 companies that have moved downtown since 2005, 59% are in the tech, ad, media and information sector... (NYPost)
-- More from An: THR is gaining clout in DC after a series of scoops and exclusives about POTUS... (Washingtonian)
-- In this feature, Fox's Ainsley Earhardt shares her "journey to becoming a mother," which began with a miscarriage... (Women's Health) | | Lawsuit against Fox alleges troubling ties to Trump | | "Lawsuit Alleges Fox News And Trump Supporter Created Fake News Story." David Folkenflik broke the news on NPR's "Morning Edition" and set the table for a full day of news coverage. News junkies like yours truly instantly remembered the story Folkenflik was talking about -- Fox's discredited mid-May report that propped up a pro-Trump conspiracy theory involving slain DNC staffer Seth Rich. Fox was criticized by Rich's family and shamed by many critics for promoting the idea that Rich had a hand in providing stolen DNC emails to Wikileaks. A week after the original report, Fox retracted the story.
But now it's back in the news thanks to Rod Wheeler's lawsuit against Fox. The suit claims he was misquoted and thus defamed... and then it goes much, much further, alleging that the mid-May story was the result of secret coordination with the White House and wealthy GOP donor Ed Butowsky. It even asserts the president was involved...
-- Late-breaking: Butowsky denied the allegations in an interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN Tuesday night... The interview was a jaw-dropper... We'll have a full story about it on CNN.com overnight... | | Here's how to get caught up | | This is an exceedingly complicated story. I recommend reading our three stories to digest it:
-- Oliver Darcy's mainbar about the allegations and the responses from Butowsky, Fox and the administration...
-- Tom Kludt's profile of Butowsky...
-- My analysis: how the Seth Rich conspiracy theory made it inside the gates of an already conspiratorial-minded White House... | | This story is partly about Trump... | | | The suit contains shocking allegations, but when viewed in the context of Trump's conspiratorial thinking, it is not entirely surprising. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Tuesday's briefing that she is "not sure" whether Trump believes the Rich-helped-Wikileaks conspiracy theory. | | And this story is partly about Fox... | | | Specifically, about its journalistic ethics. The evidence presented by Wheeler is embarrassing for Fox, as I said on "AC360." (Mediaite wrote it up.) | | -- Oliver Darcy emails: Jay Wallace, Fox's president of news, pushed back against the lawsuit in a statement, calling the claim the story was published to detract from Russia coverage "completely erroneous." He said -- two months after Fox News deleted its story from its website -- that "the retraction of this story is still being investigated internally." He also said "we have no evidence" that Wheeler was misquoted by Fox reporter Malia Zimmerman. Question for Fox News: Exactly how long is this probe going to take?
-- Margaret Sullivan's bottom line: "You don't have to believe everything in that Seth Rich lawsuit. What's been confirmed is bad enough." | | Plaintiff's dream: deposing the president | | | Doug Wigdor, who has several discrimination suits against Fox pending, is representing Wheeler as well. On Tuesday night he said "we'll want to depose anyone who has information," including the president... | | Don't forget Seth Rich's family | | | "While we can't speak to the evidence that you now have, we are hopeful this brings an end to what has been the most emotionally difficult time in our lives, and an end to conspiracy theories surrounding our beloved Seth," the family said in a statement on Tuesday. The family's spokesman Brad Bauman will be on CNN's "New Day" Wednesday AM... | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Axios makes the case that alt-right media personalities, with increased access to the W.H. and some scoops under their belt, are becoming harder to ignore... (Axios)
-- Gizmodo has filed suit against the FBI for access to the file they hold on Roger Ailes, after a FOIA request was submitted to no avail... (Gizmodo)
-- YouTube says better AI, more experts, and tougher standards are all helping to eliminate terror-related videos from the site... (YouTube)
-- Longtime newsman Mark Silva has died. He was 63... (Tampa Bay Times) | | Counting down to the next iPhone... | | "Apple said Tuesday it expects sales for its fourth quarter, which ends in September, to come in as high as $52 billion, more than analysts had expected. That estimate suggests Apple is likely to launch its newest iPhone model -- expected to be called the iPhone 8 -- in September, despite earlier rumors of a possible delay," CNN Tech's Seth Fiegerman writes. Apple stock popped 6% in after hours trading...
-- More from Seth: "There are reports Apple could launch three iPhone models, one of which is expected to have a four-digit price tag. Some of the rumored features include no physical home button, a bezel-less screen design and a facial recognition system..." | | "Reminder: Twitter overuse is for desperately lonely people and you should moderate your time on this website."
--Breitbart News, in a tweet, naturally... | | Sandra's dispatches from TCA Press Tour | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: Another year, another awkward panel at which CBS gets grilled about its lack of diversity. This year, CBS execs Thom Sherman and Kelly Kahl faced a flurry of questions about the departure of the two "Hawaii Five-0" stars (Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim) who quit after a pay equity battle, the lack of new shows led by females, and the slow pace at which the network has become more inclusive.
Kahl took particular issue with the latter, saying, "there is change happening on CBS." He pointed to the two new shows they have led by actors of color and their midseason series centered on a lead character who is gay. Kahl also said the number of diverse series regulars on the network is up almost 60 percent. "So we are absolutely moving in the right direction," he said.
They pretty much walked this line the entire panel. From my view, the only crack in their armor came when one journalist pointed out that CBS's casting department on both coasts is staffed entirely by white employees, which might be lending to the problem. (The question led to some uncomfortable shifting from the back of the room, where CBS staffers were situated.) Kahl at first defended it, saying the team had been together "a long time" and had contributed to the progress the network has seen thus far. Later, when questioned again, he relented: "We are cognizant of the issue, and we hear you, and we will be looking to expand the casting department."
It was all kind of heavy for a panel that started off with a joke about "The Mooch..." | | Bobby Moynihan is having trouble turning off his "SNL" brain | | | Sandra adds: The bright spot in my TCA day was hearing Bobby Moynihan talk with such affection about his time on "SNL." He was there promoting his new CBS sitcom, "Me, Myself and I." After the panel -- during which he talked about how the usual "SNL" grind became even more difficult after Trump was elected -- I asked him if it's hard going from the intensity of Studio 8H to the sitcom world. He admitted, "It doesn't feel like it's ended yet. Does that make sense? I often wake up on Monday mornings in a panic because I'm like, 'I need to pitch!'" More on that here... | | "Confederate" v. "Black America," HBO v. Amazon? | | | Did you know Amazon has an alt-history series in the works called "Black America?" It's getting a lot of attention all of a sudden because of the controversy over HBO's "Confederate." Via USA Today, here's the concept for "Black America:" It's set in a universe where freed slaves were paid reparations and were able a new country, New Colonia, which has "emerged as a new global power player as America slides into decline." The series has been in development for a while, but now it's being positioned in the press as the anti-"Confederate..." | | Lowry reviews "The Lowe Files" | | | Brian Lowry emails: With so many shows devoted to ghost hunting and the paranormal, producers have to look for a gimmick. Case in point: Rob Lowe and his sons exploring haunted houses and the like in A&E's goofy "The Lowe Files." Read Lowry's review here... | | Hannity is an exec producer on this film | | | One more from Lowry: Flagging an item easily overlooked in the explosion of news Monday -- namely, this Variety story about Sean Hannity not only signing on as executive producer of a new faith-based movie, "Let There Be Light," but using his Fox program to promote it. In that, he's taking a page from former host Bill O'Reilly, who was equally aggressive in using his platform to promote his ancillary projects, including the National Geographic movie adaptations of his "Killing" books... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Lisa France:
-- Actress Billie Lourd is trying to uphold the legacy of her mother, Carrie Fisher. Here's what she said in a new interview...
-- "Bachelorette: The Men Tell All" reunion special got racial with contestant Lee Garrett on the hot seat for some racist and misogynistic tweets. It raised the question of why he would want to compete for the heart of the first African-American bachelorette...
-- And here's why Kathy Griffin is suddenly bald... | | | Email us at reliablesources@cnn.com... we appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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