| | | | | First, all of the day's NON-Trump news... but scroll down for Dylan's story about turmoil inside the WSJ and much more... | | ESPN explains the Robert Lee decision | | Frank Pallotta reports: Following a social media backlash over ESPN moving announcer Robert Lee off UVA's home opener football game due to "the coincidence of his name," network president John Skipper explained the decision in a Wednesday night memo.
"There was never any concern - by anyone, at any level -- that Robert Lee's name would offend anyone watching the Charlottesville game," Skipper wrote. "Among our Charlotte production staff there was a question as to whether -- in these divisive times -- Robert's assignment might create a distraction, or even worse, expose him to social hectoring and trolling." Lee did not want any of this attention or controversy...
-- This was a no-win situation for ESPN. But SI's Richard Deitsch says it's still a "self-inflicted wound." Read his column here...
-- Brian Lowry notes: "Feels like this story's getting overplayed because lots of people -- for different reasons, some more legit than others -- don't like ESPN." Indeed, this story is partly about the conservative media echo chamber wanting to slam ESPN for all sorts of perceived offenses... | | | Tucker Carlson led his 8pm show with the Lee mess. He lumped ESPN in with "the left" and said "America got a little less free" as a result of the network's decision. "The Five" also lampooned ESPN at the top of the 9pm hour... and Sean Hannity kept it going at 10pm... | | | Here's what Robert Lee told local TV station WRGB in 2016 about the origin of his name: "My mom actually had no idea who Robert E. Lee was when she immigrated to the United States, I'm actually named after Robert Redford." | | Taylor Swift's new single coming Thursday night | | Taylor Swift is back. "After days of dropping a series of slithering clues, the Taylor Swift surprise machine has struck again," Sandra Gonzalez writes. "The singer has put speculation to rest by announcing she will release a new album called 'Reputation' on November 10, according to social media posts. She is set to unveil a new single from the album Thursday night."
-- Related from Billboard: "Does New Taylor Swift Single Mean 'Despacito' Won't Break Hot 100 No. 1 Record?" Signs point to "probably..." | | Swift's "previous carefree demeanor was nowhere to be found" in Tuesday's announcement, the WashPost's Emily Yahr writes.
Yahr's interpretation: "She might have spent the past year out of the spotlight, but she's not hiding. She knows what people are saying about her. She is noting the media's role. And she's ready -- oh, she's ready -- to respond..." | | WPP CEO Martin Sorrell is calling this a "big wake-up call" | | Shares in the world's largest advertising company, WPP, "dropped by more than 10% on Wednesday after it warned that fierce competition could wipe out revenue growth this year," CNNMoney's Charles Riley reports. This was WPP's worst single-day performance in almost 20 years.
So what does this news tell us about the ad market? That "some of the world's biggest consumer-goods firms are ratcheting down ad spending, starving Madison Avenue of revenue and further threatening ad firms and ad-dependent media companies," WSJ's Nick Kostov and Lara O'Reilly write. Concerns about ineffective, wasteful ad spending are at the forefront. Read more... | | MTV trying to bring transgender military members to VMA's | | This is one of the things I love about CNN. Pentagon reporter Ryan Browne and entertainment reporter Lisa France teamed up for this scoop:
"MTV has reached out to the military in an effort to bring active duty transgender military service members to Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, a US defense official told CNN. It's an invitation that is likely to draw attention to transgender service members..." Read more here...
-- Meanwhile: The WSJ just pubbed this: "White House Sets Rules for Military Transgender Ban" | | Zuck's latest message for media companies | | | This is pretty blunt by Mark Zuckerberg standards, right? "As more people get more of their news from places like Facebook, we have a responsibility to create an informed community and help build common understanding," he wrote in a Wednesday FB post. "We can't do that without journalists, but we also know that new technologies can make it harder for publishers to fund the journalism we all rely on." Then he segued to a promo for the Facebook Journalism Project; outlined the company's subscribe-to-news tests; and plugged the introduction of news outlet logos next to articles on FB. "Eventually," he said, the goal is to put a logo next to every single news article... | | -- Angling for an interview: Bret Baier is reminding the White House that Trump has not yet appeared on his "Special Report" program as president... (Mediaite)
-- Sinclair is responding to the rivals and critics who are trying to block the company's pending merger with Tribune. In a new filing to the FCC, Sinclair argues the deal will benefit the public "by advancing the health and sustainability of free, over-the-air broadcast TV..." (Sinclair)
-- Jay Solomon, recently fired by the WSJ, "has been hired by one of Washington's top think tanks," the Washington Institute for Near East Policy... (JPost)
-- "Are alt-weeklies dying or just moving online?" Kristen Hare explores the Q here... (Poynter) | | WSJ staffers unhappy with overly-cautious treatment of Trump | | Dylan Byers writes: The WSJ's cautious treatment of President Trump has created internal strife at the storied paper and raised questions about its EIC, Gerard Baker, according to several Journal sources. Baker's latest demonstration -- a series of late-night emails urging editors to soften the paper's coverage of Trump's Phoenix speech, even to the point of removing context -- left some Journal staffers frustrated and discouraged...
-- The NYT's Michael Grynbaum broke the news about Baker's emails. "Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as reporting," Baker wrote in response to a draft of an article. The fact that his emails leaked to the WSJ's arch-rival is very, very revealing...
-- Baker and a Journal rep did not respond to requests for comment from CNN... | | #TrumpRally, the day after | | Journalists came up with dozens of ways to describe the differences between Trump's unhinged Tuesday night rally and his scripted Wednesday afternoon event in Arizona. One of the most popular terms was "whiplash." Here's how Anderson Cooper opened Wednesday's "AC360:" "What a difference a day makes. Well, a day, a speechwriter, and a TelePrompTer."
Here are Wednesday's notable reactions to Tuesday's anti-media rally... | | "CNN got the worst of it" | | | "As usual, CNN got the worst of it" during the rally, Jim Rutenberg writes in this Thursday NYT column. He says it's undeniable that "the president is significantly adding to what is, without question, the worst anti-press atmosphere I've seen in 25 years in journalism, and real, chilling consequences have surfaced, not just in the United States, but around the world." Read the rest here... | | Trump's attacks against the media are coming from a position of weakness, not strength. Let's call it what it is: He's trying to inoculate his supporters against bad news and reinforce an "alternate reality." That's what I said on CNN's "At This Hour..." here's the video...
-- I also noted that James Clapper, in questioning Trump's "fitness," is saying publicly what many of his peers are saying privately... and the president's performance in Phoenix just reinforced why so many people are concerned... | | | Conservative media types are criticizing all the recent coverage of Trump's "fitness." Fox's Geraldo Rivera tweeted this on Wednesday: "Listening to @Lawrence & my friend @DonLemon & @BrianStelter & co I wonder what their goal is? Impeachment? For what, not being liberal?" I replied to him: My "goal" is to report. To cover what's going on clearly, carefully, in a way that I'll be proud of later. What's your goal, Geraldo? | | -- The "CBS Evening News" ended with a shot of the First Amendment tablet at the Newseum in DC...
-- Jake Tapper's message to Trump: "Your behavior is causing great concern among the majority of the American people..."
-- David Axelrod on "The Situation Room:" "The worse things go for the president, the worse he seems to get..."
-- A must-read by MSNBC's Steve Kornacki about Trump supporters: "It's not that they like him or even think he'd be a good president. They're voting against the other side of a vast cultural gap..."
-- And another must-read by BuzzFeed's Charlie Warzel... his thoughts about the rally and how it's playing in pro-Trump media circles... | | Tuesday night was "incitement, plain and simple" | | Several prominent members of the media spoke out on Wednesday and said the president's anti-press rhetoric is downright dangerous, because it could lead individuals to try to harm journalists. ABC's Cecilia Vega, who was at the rally, said on "GMA" that "this was incitement, plain and simple." She has covered many of Trump's rallies, but said "this one felt different."
"It really feels like a matter of time, frankly, before someone gets hurt," she told George Stephanopoulos. Here's my full story...
-- More: Jeffrey Toobin on CNN: "Someone is going to do something awful to a journalist... This is very clear incitement. But he's doing it knowingly. He's doing it because his base loves it..." | | "Trump knows what he's saying is false... He does it anyway" | | In a tweetstorm that channeled the views of many Trumpworld correspondents, CNN's Sara Murray said her experience is that "most of the people at these rallies -- even ones booing -- treat it as a joke," but "there are some who treat Trump's 'fake news' diatribes seriously."
"They believe it when Trump lies about the cameras being turned off. They harass reporters and photographers," Murray wrote. "Trump knows what he's saying is false. People close to him know it puts journalists at risk just for doing their jobs. He does it anyway." | | | Katy Tur, filling in for Chuck Todd on "MTP Daily," opened the program this way: "It's not our job in the press to tell the president how to lead the country, but it is our job to ask the painfully obvious question: is this how you do it? By going after who people vote for and how they get their information? By criticizing a war hero battling brain cancer while defending a controversial sheriff battling jail time. By trying to tear down the rules of government that require leadership through compromise, by threatening to shut down the very government that he and his party control if he can't fund a wall along the southern border? Here's another question. After last night's scorched-earth rally, how much credibility does this message have today?" Mediaite has the rest... | | How the AZ Republic covered a raucous day | | | Most front pages on Wednesday led with Trump, but The Arizona Republic took a different approach, as you can see above. An Phung writes: "The Arizona Republic's news director felt it necessary to tell the story on the ground," where anti-Trump protesters clashed with police officers. It was all happening "a block away from the newspaper's headquarters." Read more... | | Brian Kilmeade, voice of reason! | | | Howard Cohen emails: Even Brian Kilmeade seemed uncomfortable with Trump's amped-up anti-media message. When Ainsley Earhardt described how Trump encouraged his fans to boo the press, Kilmeade said "I don't feel comfortable with that, to be honest. I don't feel comfortable with 15,000 people turning around, screaming at me. You could have another leader, another president pointing at you. How would you feel if you had to leave that arena then?" | | "American voters disapprove 55-40% of the way the news media covers Trump, and disapprove 62-35% of the way the president talks about the media. Voters trust the media more than Trump 54-36% 'to tell you the truth about important issues.'"
--A brand-new Quinnipiac poll... | | Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman emails:
-- This is super-relatable: The news is giving us a whole new kind of Fear of Missing Out because we are addicted to breaking news developments... (Wired)
-- Super cool: the Tow Center just released an interactive timeline illustrating platform developments since the year 2000, tracking the evolution of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google, Apple, Amazon and Snapchat... (CJR)
-- Facebook is partnering with sports network Stadium to live-stream 15 college football games exclusively on the platform... (TechCrunch)
-- The Outline's Adrianne Jefferies interviewed 17 current and former Mic staffers about the startup's problems... (The Outline) | | From my vantage point as a viewer, ABC seemed to invest the most in its eclipse coverage on Monday. And the network was rewarded with the biggest total audience, according to Nielsen #'s that came in on Wednesday. ABC's two-hour special anchored by David Muir averaged 7.9 million viewers while CBS's special averaged 6 million. NBC, which did some cut-ins but not a full-blown special, averaged 2.6 million.
Overall, according to TVNewser's A.J. Katz, "nearly 26 million viewers (25.6 million) across 10 broadcast and cable networks tuned into TV coverage" of the eclipse... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- #Happy10thbirthday to the Twitter hashtag! (NYT)
-- Snapchat is planning to premiere scripted shows by the end of the year. Anything from soaps to sitcoms are possibilities... (THR)
-- Roku, not Apple TV or Amazon's Fire TV, is the most-used media streaming device in the U.S., according to a new industry report... (TechCrunch)
-- Original Netflix documentaries on New Journalism pioneers Joan Didion and Gay Talese will premiere at the New York Film Festival this fall... (LA Times) | | Lowry reviews "Death Note" | | Brian Lowry emails: Netflix continues to forge ahead in the movie business, with mostly tepid creative results. The latest: "Death Note," a horror concept based on a popular Japanese manga, represents a potentially fertile genre but limbos below the bar set by "War Machine" and "Okja."
Read Lowry's full review here >>> | | First look at "This is Us" season two | | | Sandra Gonzalez emails: Brian, as a fellow "This Is Us" fan, you'll appreciate this... a first look at Season 2! NBC has now shared with the public a clip that TV critics saw last month at press tour. Spoiler alert: I cried again... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Former Spice Girl Mel B walked off the set of a live telecast of "America's Got Talent" after fellow judge Simon Cowell made a joke about her wedding night. It wasn't funny to the singer who is currently going through a contentious divorce with her husband of 10 years...
-- Shailene Woodley is the latest star who looks to be considering a run for office. The environmental activists says she hasn't ruled out going for a seat in Congress sometime in the future...
-- R. Kelly has denied the latest accusation of sexual impropriety. A now 24-year-old woman is alleging she had a relationship with the singer when she was an underage fan...
-- Mariah Carey may have a reputation for being a diva, but she says she has "always had low self-esteem..." | | | Email 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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