| | | | | Exec summary: Hearst is acquiring Rodale... Facebook is adapting "Skam..." Chelsea Handler's Netflix show is ending... the TV Academy is discussing the Harvey Weinstein scandal.... | | Media attention. Media pressure. Time and time again, that's what it takes for President Trump and his admin to take action. Whether it's Trump receiving "briefings" from "Fox & Friends" or reporters provoking the White House to mail a check, the president-press dynamics are complicated and often uncomfortable. Should we cheer the fact that the president finally called the families of fallen soldiers amid media pressure? Or should we cite this as another example of Trump trouble?
-- NYMag's Olivia Nuzzi tweeted: "Trump's behavior when it comes to charity has been consistent: he often doesn't follow through on promises to give until pressured by media..." | | How'd we get here? A timeline | | -- Oct. 4: Four soldiers were killed in Niger.
-- Oct. 5: Sarah Sanders conveyed "thoughts and prayers" for the fallen service members.
-- Oct. 6: Fox News Radio's Jon Decker asked about Niger at the W.H. briefing, noting that "there's been no response to this by the president, no tweet from the president, no statement."
-- Oct. 7: This is when the news coverage really tapers off. Very few mentions across the national news media...
-- Oct. 10: On "The Lead," Jake Tapper points out that "while President Trump has tweeted dozens of times since last Wednesday," he "has not tweeted a single thing, nor spoken publicly about the four U.S. soldiers who were killed..."
-- Oct. 12: Chris Cuomo on "New Day:" "Please look at the service members on your screen. They all gave their lives in Niger for this country." He said Trump has not mentioned them, and "it's something that needs to be called out."
-- Oct. 12: Joe Johns told Cuomo: "I have actually reached out to the press office here at the White House to ask why the president has said not anything at all..." No response... | | Then Sara Murray asked Trump this question... | | Flash forward to Monday, Oct. 15. In the Rose Garden, CNN's Sara Murray asked: "Why haven't we heard anything from you so far about the Soldiers that were killed in Niger? And what do you have to say about that?" Trump's response has been dissected at length. He said his personal letters to the families have "been sent, or they're going out tonight," and at some point he'll "call the parents." Then he brought up Barack Obama and other past presidents -- "most of them didn't make calls, a lot of them didn't make calls."
There's been intensive news coverage ever since... With many fact-checks of Trump... And Q's about how he honors fallen service members. Wednesday's briefing was dominated by this subject... | | -- On Wednesday afternoon, CNN's Gregory Krieg wrote: "Trump and co. somehow managed to make the phone call controversy worse..."
-- Then came the WashPost's scoop: "Trump promised $25,000 to a grieving military father in a phone call. The check hasn't arrived." Initially the W.H. declined to comment... But once the story came out...
-- ...The W.H. responded by saying that it was "disgusting" that "the media" was bringing this up. But it seems the check was only sent on Wednesday because the Post inquired. Seriously. CNN's Dan Merica and Kaitlin Collins have details here...
-- Flashback: June 1, 2016: "Big Trump checks to vets groups sent on day of media report"
-- Rachel Maddow's Wednesday night monologue: "Trump not wanting to talk about what happened in Niger makes me really want to know what happened in Niger..."
-- S.E. Cupp on HLN: "If you wanted answers about Benghazi, you should want answers about Niger..."
-- Jay Rosen tweeted: "Example of how the baseline expectation for the press should be: if this president said it, it's probably untrue..."
-- Thursday's W.H. briefing: 2pm ET... | | "Hearst has agreed to purchase Rodale Inc., the family-owned publisher of magazines including Women's Health, Men's Health and Prevention, in a move that will give it a major presence in the health and wellness arena," the WSJ's Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg reports. "Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. A person familiar with the matter said the price was under $225 million." That's roughly equal to Rodale's annual revenues, he says, so there's "no real growth premium," another sign of tough times for the mag industry...
-- NYT's Sydney Ember: "Rodale's sale is the latest indication that the magazine industry's financial downturn has hit small and midsize publishers particularly hard..." | | Michael Duffy leaving Time | | | Joe Pompeo's latest scoop: "Michael Duffy, deputy managing editor of Time and editorial director of parent company Time Inc., has decided to leave the company after more than 32 years." EIC Nancy Gibbs's departure "seemed to signal the end of that era -- but Duffy's exit is REALLY the end; it means the last of Time's old guard" from the 1980s "is leaving the building," Pompeo writes... | | | "Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Wednesday that he reserves the right to jail journalists, 'if we have to,'" WashPost's Callum Borchers writes. He "appeared to be reiterating a warning he issued in August..." Read more... | | -- #CNNDebateNight was Twitter's #1 trending topic in the U.S. on Wednesday night... As Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders debated in DC... (CNN)
-- "With consent from Brazil, AT&T has only one regulatory hurdle left before it can gobble Time Warner." Yep, the USA... (LATimes)
-- Who are the buyers?! LA Weekly is being sold to Semanal Media, "a mysterious new company..." (LATimes)
-- Todd Gitlin's latest on Trump coverage: "The News Media's Challenge in Our Constant State of Emergency" (Moyers) | | NFL #'s down 6% year-over-year | | Frank Pallotta emails: The NFL is still contending with sluggish ratings -- down 6% year-over-year in overall viewership as we're nearing the halfway point of the 2017 season.
There have been some bright spots for the league's viewership so far this season, however. ESPN's "Monday Night Football" is up 6% from last year and "Thursday Night Football" on CBS and the NFL Network is up 14%. Read more... | | POTUS prefers culture battles over legislative battles | | Brian Lowry emails: There's been a lot of talk about the exhausting nature of covering the Trump admin, and one can argue a lot of that has to do with ginning up controversy in areas that were generally non-controversial in the past, from calling grieving military families to a politician making an appearance at a football game to championship teams visiting the W.H. Wednesday sort of felt like the perfect storm of those kind of events crashing together, including the NFL being forced to address the national anthem debate that the president helped stoke...
-- Related: Politico's Eliana Johnson nailed it: She says "these seeming distractions ARE the president's substance..." | | TNT touting big #'s for NBA season opener | | | More from Frank: The NBA returned in a big way. The Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers brought in 5.6 million viewers on opening night – up 95% (!!!) over last year, according to TNT. The network says this was the second most watched opening night telecast of all time... | | | (THE BEST P.R. MONEY CAN BUY?) | | | So this Joe Hagan biography of Jann Wenner must be really good, right? "Wenner and his biographer are no longer on speaking terms," the NYT's Joe Coscarelli and Sydney Ember report in Thursday's paper. Why? Because Wenner "doesn't like the book." Read the remarkable full story here... The bio comes out in November... | | | "If we make this just about Harvey Weinstein, then we will have lost this moment." That's what Oprah Winfrey said on Wednesday's "CBS This Morning..." | | | Thursday is the two-week mark of the NYT's Weinstein investigation. The aftershocks are being felt not just in Hollywood, but in the fashion industry, politics, and other sectors. The #MeToo movement continues to spread. The Weinstein Co. remains in limbo. The staff is in the dark. There's a sense that the board is figuring out a sale to Colony Capital and other buyers -- so stay tuned on that front... | | TV Academy will meet on Thursday | | | The TV Academy will be the next Hollywood org to weigh in. The group's Board of Directors will discuss the Weinstein scandal at a previously scheduled meeting on Thursday night... It's still not officially confirmed that Weinstein is a member of the TV Academy... But the TV Academy would like to be on the record at this historic moment in time. "I will vote to expel him," an Academy source said. But "what do we do about Bill Cosby? What do we do about Donald Trump? We need to have a larger discussion of what you tolerate, and when you get kicked out..." | | Gretchen Carlson says she's "disappointed" in Lisa Bloom | | Gretchen Carlson repeatedly quotes Lisa Bloom in her new book "Be Fierce." On page 97, Bloom describes retaliation: "Powerful people say, 'If you go against me, I'll destroy you.' This is who they are -- a person with no boundaries. It's a part of their personality because no one ever held them to account before."
Sounds like Weinstein, doesn't it? I brought this up when I interviewed Carlson on Wednesday. She said she's "disappointed" by Bloom's decision to represent Weinstein... As you'll recall, Bloom quit the legal team a few days after the NYT story hit, and she now says she "was wrong..." | | | "It started with Ashley Judd," Sandra Gonzalez wrote in this recap of the past two weeks. Her story noted that "Judd will be honored by the Women's Media Center later this month for kicking off a domino effect that collapsed decades of silence. In a release, Gloria Steinem, co-founder of the Women's Media Center, said the organization chose to honor Judd, a longtime humanitarian and political activist, for leading 'global truth-telling in the most powerful way — by example...'" | | The dominos keep falling... | | | Julia Waldow emails: Stories of sexual abuse in entertainment continue to surface in light of the Weinstein scandal, and Nickelodeon is no exception. The creator of its animated show "The Loud House" was suspended by the network last week following multiple allegations of sexual harassment against employees. Cartoon Brew, the first to break the story, reports that "as many as a dozen women" have accused Chris Savino of inappropriate conduct, "ranging from unwanted sexual advances to threats of industry blacklisting after the end of consensual relationships with co-workers..." Rumors of his behavior date back at least 10 years, the site says... | | By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman:
-- Jezebel asked TV anchors to anonymously weigh in on "Megyn Kelly Today," and they didn't hold back... (Jezebel)
-- Facebook Messenger was also used by Russian propagandists, says Messenger exec David Marcus... (Recode)
-- The Shorenstein Center has released new research and tools for publishers to better understand their email audiences... (Shorenstein Center)
-- A defamation suit brought by a Russian billionaire with ties to Putin against the AP has been dismissed... (AP) | | Pew: Trump's tweets lead to bad news coverage | | Tom Kludt emails his latest: Trump likes to say that Twitter allows him to eschew a press corps he routinely maligns as "fake." But it turns out those tweets are often the driving force behind negative media coverage. Pew offered some fascinating research on Wednesday. The big takeaway: 54% of news stories involving Trump's tweets had a "negative assessment." Only 7% of those same stories had a "positive assessment," while 39% had neither.
Now, at first blush, these toplines might appear to offer credence to the relentless media credence from Trump and his supporters. As evidence of what they say is an unfair and hostile press, the president's defenders frequently point to studies showing that a majority of Trump's media coverage has been negative. But Trump's presidency has been typified by invective and outright falsehoods. And his Twitter feed is a reliable supplier of both. Maybe that has something to do with the tenor of the ensuing coverage... Read more... | | --> In an attempt to sow fear... | | Donie O'Sullivan emails: This is a bizarre story. Russian trolls paid martial arts instructors across the US to run self-defense classes for African Americans. This all took place in 2017 --- well after the election. The events were promoted on Eventbrite and MeetUp and instructors were paid using PayPal and Google Wallet.
So, the list of confirmed platforms used by Russian trolls to meddle in US affairs:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Tumblr
MeetUp
Eventbrite
PayPal
Google Wallet
... and they encouraged Americans to use Pokemon Go.
Read O'Sullivan, Drew Griffin and Curt Devine's full story here... | | | Senators Mark Warner and Amy Klobuchar will officially propose a bill to require disclosures for online political ads... and the Dems have found a GOP co-sponsor... John McCain. Here are my TV interviews about the bill with Warner and Klobuchar... | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- Great scoop from Bloomberg's Benjamin Elgin and Vernon Silver: "Facebook and Google helped anti-refugee campaign in swing states..." (Bloomberg)
-- In a fascinating read for CJR, Jeremy Borden breaks down the complicated, tension-filled relationship between members of the press and members of the police force. "Reporters rely on police to serve as sources on crime and other public safety issues, even as they function as a check on police power..." (CJR)
-- Morgan Freeman is on board to portray Colin Powell in an upcoming biopic of the former U.S. Secretary of State... (THR) | | Chelsea Handler is "saying farewell to her self-titled talk show on Netflix to dive deeper into what she feels is her next chapter -- activism," Sandra Gonzalez writes. "The talk show host announced on Twitter she will not be doing a third season of 'Chelsea,' saying the presidential election and 'the countless events that have unfolded since have galvanized me.'"
Handler's weekly talk show will continue til the end of the year... and she'll produce a documentary in partnership with Netflix... but it's hard not to read this decision as a disappointing end to "Chelsea..." | | When I interviewed Handler at her studio last month, she said her talk show had changed "a lot" as a result of the Trump presidency. There were no hints that the show was ending, but she definitely seemed more invested in serious segments, like conversations with Democratic politicians and activists, than in humorous sketches and chats with celebrities.
"It's important to use my platform for good," she said. "A lot of people say, 'Oh, I don't do politics.' It's like you don't have a choice now, okay? This is, like -- this is serious stuff. So we don't have a choice to opt out." | | | Facebook "will stream an English-language adaptation of the Norwegian teen hit 'Skam' on its fledgling original content video service, called Watch," Jordan Valinsky writes. The series debuted in 2015 on Norway's NRK... The "gripping narratives revolving around rowdy teens in Norway helped it attract a global following..." | | Brian Lowry emails: Nielsen has taken a step toward cracking the mystery of what sort of audience Netflix actually attracts, issuing preliminary ratings for the service, which has guarded those numbers like state secrets. And the results are actually pretty impressive, with audiences equivalent to a modest broadcast network hit for some of its more popular shows, like Marvel's "The Defenders" and "House of Cards." But Netflix disputes the figures. USA Today's Gary Levin has more of the details here...
Separately, Variety's Brian Steinberg has an interesting piece on advertisers wanting to follow the eyeballs, essentially, by finding a way to integrate their products onto the streaming services, which, like premium cable, have made being ad-free a selling point... | | | Chloe Melas (back from maternity leave!) emails: Billy Joel is expecting baby number 3! The 68-year-old "Piano Man" and his wife, Alexis, are due next month with their second kid. He also has a daughter with his second wife Christie Brinkley... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Harvey Weinstein gave Kevin Smith his big break and the director is no longer happy about that fact. Smith has vowed to donate Weinstein project residuals to a women's nonprofit in Hollywood...
-- Gord Downie of the famed Canadian rock group Tragically Hip has died at the age of 53. The lead singer was such an inspiration that Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an emotional statement hailing his accomplishments...
-- Fans were devastated to learn that former "Project Runway" contestant Mychael Knight has died at the age of 39. Friends, fans and celebs including Andy Cohen and singer Ciara paid tribute to the talented fashion designer...
-- How do you follow up a Kiss Cam proposal at an Atlanta Hawks game with a 25 carat diamond engagement ring? If you are rapper Gucci Mane and his love of seven years, Keyshia Ka'oir, you tie the knot in an all white, $1.7 million, diamond-studded, live televised wedding on BET... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I 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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