| | | | | Hey there -- This is Oliver Darcy, your media sherpa for the day. I'm continuing to fill in for that person who used to write this newsletter. (Anyone remember his name?) Anyway, as always, I love to hear from you. Send me an email or find me on Twitter... | | Trump continues war on Big Tech | | | Trump is once again lashing out at Big Tech. This time, he spent Tuesday with Google in his sights. The President baselessly accused the search-engine giant of rigging its results to show "bad" stories when users search for "Trump news." He added that "Google & others are suppressing conservative voices" and suggested what the company was doing could be "illegal." Trump said the situation would be addressed, and Larry Kudlow said the administration would be "taking a look" at Google search results. Hadas Gold has the full story here... | | | Google responded in a statement Tuesday noting that its goal is always to ensure that the search engine returns the most relevant results for its users. Specifically, a Google spokesperson said, "Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology. We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment." | | Remember, it's all about that base | | Of course, Trump's accusation was nonsense -- but that nonsense thrives in the right-wing media universe of Fox News and the Drudge Report, where Big Tech is portrayed as waging a war on individuals and organizations with conservative views.
As I wrote in my CNN.com story on Friday, Trump has signaled that he and his Republican allies will continue to paint tech giants as villains in a longstanding culture war used to excite the conservative base. Like the press, big tech can be characterized as a powerful opponent unfairly pushing a supposed liberal bias on consumers. This plays very well with Trump supporters.
>> Stelter put it well: "He's not just running against the media now, he's running against Silicon Valley..." | | Has Shep Smith watched his own channel? | | Following Trump's pool spray in which he attacked Google and other Big Tech companies for supposed bias and censorship, Fox News anchor Shep Smith -- seemingly stunned -- asked, "What is [Trump] talking about?" It was almost as if Smith was perplexed as to where Trump would get such information. Which is interesting, considering Smith's place of employment. Given his statement, I have to wonder if Smith ever bothers to watch the other programming on his network?
Because if he did, he would see countless examples of Fox News pushing this narrative that Big Tech censors and has bias against conservatives. Remember the Diamond & Silk fiasco? In fact, just hours after Smith's statement, on Bret Baier's "Special Report," Fox News gave a platform to right-wing blogger Mollie Hemingway who asserted that Google has an "extreme left-wing bias." Hemingway suggested Google was even down-ranking Fox News links. After a long list of assertions, she faced almost no pushback from Baier, who only said Google had pushed back against such claims before moving on to another guest. | | | The most ironic part about Smith's shock is that it was perhaps a segment from Fox Business Network host -- and big pro-Trumper -- Lou Dobbs who catapulted a bogus study from the fringes of the Internet into the White House. BuzzFeed has a great explainer showing how a PJ Media post traveled from the Drudge Report to Dobbs' program to Trump's Twitter feed... | | The irony of Trump's tweet | | CNN national security analyst Sam Vinograd emails: The unfortunate irony in Trump's tweet against tech is that he's right - someone is trying to "rig" the internet -- and that's Vladimir Putin. The president's intelligence team has consistently raised Russia's ongoing information warfare attack on the US, and tech CEOs have shared the ways that the Russians (among other state actors) have manipulated content on the internet to affect how users are exposed to content.
Putin has directed his team to use every rigging tool in their toolkit - ads, bots, trolls, and more. Trump's Helsinki shuffle on Russian election interference aside, he's mum on what he's doing to address the real rigger -- Putin... | | The right-wing war on tech is here to stay | | | This narrative is unlikely to go away anytime soon. The politicians and media outlets on the right that push it do not seem persuaded by the facts. The facts don't move the needle. Instead, they seem more interested in a narrative that resonates with and whips up the conservative base. Prepare yourself to see a lot more of this in the weeks and months ahead... | | -- Bob Costas and NBC are apparently ready to cut ties after nearly four decades... (Page Six)
-- BuzzFeed has launched a website for product reviews... (WSJ)
-- A coalition of human rights groups have urged Google to "refrain from offering censored speech services in China..." (The Intercept)
-- USA Today has tripled its investigation unit... (Poynter)
-- Take a minute to read this Q&A with NBC's Ben Collins in which he talks about the "dystopia beat..." (Hell World) | | CNN faces criticism for Trump Tower story | | CNN's critics continued to lampoon the network on Tuesday over its July story about the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting. The story, written by Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein, and Marshall Cohen, cited sources who said Michael Cohen was prepared to tell Robert Mueller that Trump knew in advance of the meeting that the Russians were expected to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Over the past week, Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis has publicly said he was one of the sources who confirmed the news to CNN and other media organizations. Davis now says he cannot confirm the news. Davis' walk back has prompted critics -- a good chunk of whom belong to the right-wing media universe -- to unleash a torrent of criticism on CNN. Trump allies have also fanned the flames. Throughout the day, Donald Trump Jr. and others tweeted about the issue. | | Davis walking back his claims doesn't necessarily debunk CNN's story | | As CNN spokeswoman Allison Gollust pointed out to The Washington Post's Paul Farhi, CNN had "more than one source" in its July story. While Davis may no longer be able to confirm CNN's reporting, the network continues to rely on other sourcing to support the article.
>> CNN spokesperson: "We stand by our story, which had more than one source, and are confident in our reporting of it." | | Why might have Davis changed his tune? | | Sciutto and Bernstein reported Tuesday that Davis has been all over the map and has "repeatedly changed his account of what Cohen knew" about the meeting. Why might that be?
The Post reported that people at CNN have speculated Davis changed his story because publicly confirming it would put his client in legal jeopardy. Recall that Cohen did not testify to Congress that Trump had advanced knowledge. If Davis were to publicly confirm CNN's story, it could put Cohen in legal jeopardy, people at CNN told The Post. Business Insider's Allan Smith made a similar point, writing, "If Davis, speaking on behalf of his client, stood by his original comments to CNN, Cohen could be opened up to a perjury charge." | | Far-right media misidentify Jacksonville shooter | | Color me shocked. NBC's Ben Collins reported on Tuesday that far-right media entities like the Gateway Pundit and InfoWars incorrectly reported the identity of the Jacksonville shooter. These fringe sites said they had found a Reddit account used by the shooter, and went through the account's posts to show the shooter was supposedly an anti-Trump liberal. The problem? The owner of the account wasn't the shooter. Oops!
>> As Collins points out, this is not the first time that the Gateway Pundit has misidentified the culprit of an attack. Earlier this year, Jim Hoft, the operator of the site, was sued for misidentifying the Charlottesville attacker... | | -- Wired magazine examines "why Google is the perfect target for Trump..." (Wired)
-- Yahoo has pitched a service to advertisers where the tech giant scans the inboxes of its users to learn more about what they might buy... (WSJ)
-- 18 newsrooms will receive more than $100,000 in grants for engagement work... (Poynter)
-- Facebook has removed all tweets cross-posted to its platform... (TechCrunch)
-- Two Bloomberg reporters have left the news organization... (Talking Biz News) | | CBS subpoenas PR firm's contacts with journalists | | This is a move sure to raise eyebrows. CBS News reported on Tuesday that lawyers for CBS Corporation have subpoenaed a PR firm for communications it has had with journalists related to a legal dispute with Sumner Redstone's National Amusements Inc. Law professor Clay Calvert told CBS News that the subpoena was a "workaround" shield laws that protect journalists from revealing their sources...
>> BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg: "It's a little unsettling that lawyers for a company that produces news would subpoena communication with reporters..." | | Tariffs are slamming newspapers with higher costs. Publishers want a reprieve
| | | The newspaper industry is trying to stave off more bad news. A vote this week will determine whether tariffs on Canadian newsprint -- the paper used to print most newspapers -- will remain locked into place. The tariffs were first implemented earlier this year by the Commerce Department. Opponents of the tariffs told CNNMoney earlier this year that the tariffs resulted in the cost of newsprint increasing by approximately 30% at one point. CNNMoney's Jill Disis has more in her story here... | | | For the record, part three | | | By An Phung:
-- Quartz is launching Quartz Private Key, a paid cryptocurrency newsletter. It's the first paid product from Quartz since it was acquired in July by Uzabase... (WSJ)
-- Speaking of crypto: Civil Media Company, the startup that's supporting journalism with cryptocurrency, announced a two-part deal with the Associated Press... (Digiday) | | Stelter's vacation diaries | | | Stelter emails: Wish you were here! | | -- Taylor Swift's deal with Big Machine Records expires in November. It's the first time she will be free to ink a new deal since she was 15... (Variety)
-- Amazon is "on the prowl" for movies from at least two Hollywood studios... (Bloomberg) | | Aretha Franklin fans gather for public viewing in Detroit
| | | Lisa Respers France emails: LaTonya McIntyre told me Tuesday she had been waiting in line since 4 p.m. Monday to make sure she was first in line outside the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit to say goodbye to Aretha Franklin. She was one of many fans who gathered to stream past Franklin's open casket to pay their respects. She's lying in repose Tuesday and Wednesday at the museum and Thursday at the church her father pastored. Read France's full story here... | | A special hearse transported Franklin | | | France emails one more: A special hearse transported Franklin. The ivory, two-door 1940 Cadillac LaSalle also transported the body of Franklin's beloved father, the legendary pastor and civil rights figure Rev. C.L. Franklin, decades ago. | | HBO exits adult entertainment business | | | Brian Lowry emails: HBO has quietly dropped erotic late-night fare from its lineup. The network cited waning demand for such material — which is "readily available" elsewhere — and said that the decision, which includes edited adult movies and unscripted series, had been made before its acquisition by AT&T. | | Rotten Tomatoes pushes for diversity | | | Lowry emails another one: The movie-review site Rotten Tomatoes has revised its criteria in an effort to incorporate a greater diversity of voices, including more representation from women and people of color. The revamped approach will put greater emphasis on "the critic's individual qualifications and body of work, rather than basing Tomatometer approval primarily on their publication or employer." Film festivals, including Toronto and Sundance, have already announced initiatives designed to enable more journalists from underrepresented groups to cover those events. | | |
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