Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Scroll down for the latest about Kamala Harris, Tim Cook, Mercedes Schlapp, Joe Crain, Kaley Cuoco, Taylor Swift, ThinkProgress, The Vindicator, The Nib, Sophia Amorusa, Lil Nas X, and many more...

"Madam President?"

"They have smashed our stubborn assumptions about powerful women and permanently changed our notion of what a presidential election looks like."

That's what the six women running for president have already accomplished, Amy Chozick writes.

For this big new feature for Vogue, she spoke with five of the six, Marianne Williamson being the odd one out. And Annie Leibovitz photographed the five in a photo shoot that's for the history books:

"These are gorgeous pictures but I can't help but think it's a bit much all these women had to share a photo spread while Beto got his own," Amanda Carpenter commented, referring to O'Rourke's VF cover...

Down with the "electability" debate

Media double standards are a theme of Chozick's story, although she notes the candidates are reticent to talk about the subject.

Chozick, who covered Hillary Clinton in 2016, knows of what she writes: The 2020 candidates, she says, have "reminded us of the hurdles, bordering on bulwarks, that women at the highest level of American politics still face. To many of us, watching the 2020 race unfold has felt less like a celebration of rah-rah feminism and more like a daily, live-tweeted, televised pelting by the patriarchy. Indeed, we cannot assess any of these candidates without also assessing our own biases. Debates about who is 'electable' (or not) have become a smokescreen for lingering discomfort with what we have still, after 243 years as a republic, never seen: the election of a woman president."

Something liberating...

This paragraph in Chozick's story stood out to me: "One of the upsides to running in 2020 is that nothing much is a shocker anymore. Porn stars and Russian hackers? The president of the United States, in a span of a couple of days, picking fights with Meghan Markle and Bette Midler? Maybe I am being overly optimistic, but I see something liberating—particularly for female candidates—in Trump's subverting of traditional political norms... because women presidents aren't the norm either. Thanks to Trump and a news cycle that is suffering from acute attention-deficit disorder (Avenatti who?), women candidates, perhaps, don't have to worry so much about being perfect, about biting their tongue and saying what they think voters want to hear." Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- The headlines from CNN's post-debate polling: Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren rise while Joe Biden slides... (CNN)

-- SHOT: NBC's headline about a new study by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville: "Study shows Russian propaganda may really have helped Trump..." (NBC)

-- CHASER: "No, Russian Twitter trolls didn't demonstrably push Trump's poll numbers higher," Philip Bump writes, rightly casting doubt on the study... (WaPo)

This is how it works...

Don't miss Donie O'Sullivan's deep dive for CNN Business: "How Kamala Harris conspiracies festered online before making it to Trump Jr."

He says "some of the same people" involved in spreading the anti-Obama birthrer conspiracy "are involved in circulating the false claims about Harris..."

TUESDAY PLANNER

E. Jean Carroll's book is officially out...

"Spider-Man: Far From Home" lands in theaters...

The World Conference of Science Journalists continues in Lausanne, Switzerland...

3 p.m. ET: England v. United States in the Women's World Cup semi-final on Fox...

Between 4:38 p.m. and 4:44 p.m. ET: A total eclipse over portions of South America. Here's how to watch from anywhere...

Tim Cook slams WSJ

Oliver Darcy emails: Apple CEO Tim Cook did not mince words when responding to a WSJ report that said Jony Ive had been "growing more distant" from company leadership and had grown "frustrated." In an email to NBC's Dylan Byers, Cook called the story "absurd" and said the reporting didn't "match with reality." Cook added, "At a base level, it shows a lack of understanding about how the design team works and how Apple works."

>> That said, WSJ is standing by its report, which cited people close to the company…

"Journalism Job Cuts Haven't Been This Bad Since the Recession"

Bloomberg's Gerry Smith wrote one of the bleakest stories of the day, and one of the most important. "The news business is on pace for its worst job losses in a decade," he reported Monday, "as about 3,000 people have been laid off or been offered buyouts in the first five months of this year."

He cited data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas and quoted the firm's VP Andrew Challenger: "In most industries, employers can't find enough people to fill the jobs they have open. In news, it has been the opposite story. And it seems to have been accelerating..."

--> And/but: "Journalism schools say enrollment is up," Smith notes...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- ProPublica's shocking report about cruel and lewd Facebook posts from Customs and Border Protection agents has sparked an investigation and widespread media coverage... (CNN)

-- Wesley Lowery tweeted: "ProPublica consistently does such great work. Feels like every other week they're dropping an investigation that makes the ground shake..." (Twitter)

-- Charlie Warzel's reminder: "Obviously the issue here is the racism/ bigotry/ depravity of these agents. But as Facebook aims to pivot inward (away from feeds and toward groups) we all should ask what it plans to do (if anything) to keep from incubating hate behind closed doors like this..." (Twitter)

-- "Hazardous material teams are investigating the possible presence of the nerve agent sarin at a Facebook mailing facility in Menlo Park, California, authorities said Monday..." (CNN)

-- This problem keeps cropping up: "More than half a dozen police officers showed up at the home of Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. in Maryland early Sunday after a hoax call to 911 reporting that someone had been murdered inside the home..." (Herald)

ThinkProgress is up for sale

Oliver Darcy emails: ThinkProgress is up for sale. The Center for American Progress, which publishes the progressive news website, announced the news on Monday. CAP Action Fund exec director Navin Nayak called it a "tough decision" and cited a "significant drop in revenue in recent years" and "divergent missions" between the organizations as cause for searching for a new publisher.

Indeed, The Daily Beast – which first broke the news -- reported that ThinkProgress has never been profitable. This year, it faced a $3 million shortfall, according to The Beast, which reported $350,000 was due to a drop off in ad revenue…

Is The Vindicator a turning point?

Joshua Benton summing up his latest for NiemanLab: "I'm worried that the closing of Youngstown's daily The Vindicator could actually be a turning point for local newspapers. Not because they were in financial trouble (that's old news) but because no chain was willing to sweep in and buy it on the cheap." More...

>> That's Will Bunch's take on the demise of The Vindicator: "Bad news for America's newspapers is good news for Donald Trump. I pray the 2020 election won't be a vindicator of that, but it may be..."

>> ICYMI: On Sunday's "Reliable," the congressman who represents Youngstown, Rep. Tim Ryan, told me papers like the Vindy build culture. "And that's what you lose when you lose the local newspaper. You lose that culture that pulls you together." Here's my full story...

Lamenting First Look Media's cutbacks

Word about First Look Media's cutbacks was sort-of buried on Friday afternoon.... but the affected sites deserve more attention. The company is de-funding Topic and The Nib, according to staffers at both online publications. "It's a strange day today," Topic editorial director Anna Holmes tweeted Monday. "The editorial team of @topicstories is at their desks and hard at work at our next issue, launching tomorrow," even though the shut-down is imminent. Holmes said six staffers will be leaving, herself included, while three who "focus solely on film/videos" will stay with the company.

Over at The Nib, Matt Bors explained his plan here and here... He is going to keep the site going on his own, and said that "direct reader support is now crucial..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Digiday's Sahil Patel is jumping to the WSJ, where he'll cover platforms and marketers on the CMO Today team...

-- Daniel Funke, formerly of Poynter, is joining PolitiFact and "covering online misinformation and the 2020 election," a new beat for the site... (Twitter)

-- NYT deputy business editor Adrienne Carter is becoming senior editor in Hong Kong, a/k/a the paper's top editor for Asia... (Twitter)

-- The NBC News Now streaming service now has a dedicated anchor, Alison Morris... (Variety)

-- ALM/National Law Journal's Tony Mauro, "who has chronicled the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly 40 years, is retiring from ALM daily news coverage." The news outlet is establishing an award in his honor for lawyers who have defended freedom of the press... (ALM)

-- Correction: Last night I linked to a Daily Beast story about the National Enquirer, thinking it was new, when it was actually from last from last year. D'oh.

"Why isn't the truth enough?"

CNN's Chris Cuomo asked a very simple question on Monday: "Why isn't the truth enough?"

He shared a link to this fact-check by Daniel Dale: "Trump told the troops he gave them their first raise in years. He didn't."

Here's another baffling example. Trump, speaking Monday about his Fourth of July celebrations in DC, said there will be fighter jets and tanks: "We have the brand new Sherman tanks and we have the brand new Abrams tanks." The truth: "The US military has not used World War II-era M4 Sherman tanks since the 1950s," Ryan Browne noted. The Abrams tanks will be there... So why isn't the truth enough?

Lockhart's wisdom

Clinton W.H. press secretary and CNN contributor Joe Lockhart had a great line on Monday's "New Day." It's still bouncing around my brain twelve hours later. Talking about Trump's 20 steps into North Korea, he said "the media often – and the president certainly does – mistakes MOTION and activity for PROGRESS. You know, if you read The New York Times this morning, we've not only NOT made progress, we've actually taken a step BACK as far as our negotiating position." He was referring to this story, which dominated much of the day, saying the United States may settle for a nuclear freeze by NK...

>> The NYT story prompted an angry tweet from John Bolton. Here is the paper's followup: "Trump Officials Are Split Over Approach to North Korea Talks"

>> The NYT's David Sanger is on Tuesday episode of "The Daily..."

Schlapp leaving W.H.

White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp is joining the Trump 2020 campaign in a to-be-determined role.

When the DC Examiner published a story linking her exit to Stephanie Grisham's entrance, Schlapp called it "fake news" and said "I was ready to transition from the administration. Had been in discussions for several weeks about my next step."

Here's how the NYT's Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni framed it: Schlapp's departure "had been widely expected since Stephanie Grisham was appointed" last week, "according to multiple people familiar with the discussions..."

Changes coming to the W.H. press shop...

Grisham "is likely to make a number of changes in a press operation that has consistently stymied" Trump, Haberman and Karni wrote. "The president has often complained to people that despite the large number of employees in his press and communications office, he continues to generate what he views as terrible coverage..."

BTW...

It's reasonable to raise an eyebrow whenever staffers shift over to the 2020 campaign. "In some cases, those leaving the White House have taken on specific roles in the campaign," the NYT story noted. "In others, they appear to be generalists advising Mr. Trump's operation. Bill Shine, the former communications director, left his job in March. At the time, the White House indicated he was joining the campaign, but he has only rarely been consulted by the full-time campaign operation."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- "Sarah Sanders is likely to hit the speaking circuit and write a book," Mike Allen reports... "The book will be billed as an account of her life in politics and experience inside the Trump admin..." (Axios)

-- Barbara Starr tweeted this look at a "new Pentagon briefing room designed for better TV," even though the "cameras have been dark for 13 months for press briefings by a spox taking questions and providing answers..." (Twitter)

-- National media outlets, including CNN, published interviews with a man named David Briscoe who said he survived the Santa Fe school shooting. But "it appears his entire story was an elaborate hoax," Alex Samuels reports... (Texas Tribune)

QUOTE OF THE DAY

David Remnick, speaking with David Axelrod on this week's episode of "The Axe Files," which is now a Luminary podcast:

"We're sitting here and in one week the President of the United States has had a credible rape charge against him and that didn't make the front page of The New York Times when it first came out. In a typical week five or six things like that happen. Offenses to democracy, offenses to the truth and it's all done cynically. Remember that word we all used to use at the beginning? 'We have to be very careful of normalizing Donald Trump?' Well, mission accomplished."

Sounds like Joe Crain and Sinclair have settled...

"Joe Crain and WICS wish to announce that they have resolved their differences in a private agreement and will be moving on from the dispute," according to a statement published on Crain's FB page on Monday.

Crain was the beloved local meteorologist who called out management at Sinclair-owned WICS for mandating over-the-top "Code Red" weather alert days. His lawyers got involved after his rant went viral and he was sidelined by the station. Now he's looking for a new job...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- Digiday's Kerry Flynn reports: "HQ (the company behind @HQTrivia) laid off 7 employees today, leaving the company at under 30 employees now, per a source..." (Twitter)

-- Sophia Amorusa has a pretty cult following. Her Girlboss media brand just launched a LinkedIn-like Girlboss professional network, Sara Ashley O'Brien reports... (CNN Business)

-- "Bain Capital is in exclusive talks to buy a majority stake in WPP Plc's Kantar unit in a deal valuing the market-research business at about $4 billion including debt..." (Bloomberg)

-- "Facebook quietly elevated its top advertising exec to chief revenue officer, and it shows how rapidly the company is trying to diversify its revenue," Lauren Johnson reports... (BI)

Taylor Swift v. Scooter Braun

It's hard to keep track of all the latest twists and turns! Here is CNN's latest story about the dispute.

For further help, this Twitterer is producing a regularly updated flow chart tracking who's on Team Taylor and who's on Team Scooter...

Spotify will no longer let artists upload their own music

"After a brief experiment, Spotify will no longer let artists upload their music directly to its platform," CNN's Ahiza Garcia writes.

>> When this beta program was announced last September, it was "a *big* deal for Spotify," Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw tweeted. "Investors saw it as a way for Spotify to be profitable and reduce its reliance on the record labels."

>> Garcia's story points out the about-face: "In a press release, Spotify said feedback from artists included in the program showed the best way to improve their experience is to support the work Spotify's distribution partners are already doing. While it says it's ending the program due to feedback, the program was initially launched after artists requested it..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

-- "Netflix Plays New Role: Budget-Conscious." Jessica Toonkel, Tom Dotan and Beejoli Shah have the details here... (The Information)

-- Yes, BUT: "Netflix has signed what sources describe as a massive financial deal with Warner Bros. Television" to adapt the "Sandman" comic "into a live-action TV series. Sources familiar with the pact note it is the most expensive TV series that DC Entertainment has ever done. The drama has officially been picked up with an 11-episode order..." (THR)

"Deadass thought I made it obvious"

"Lil Nas X closed out Pride month with some tweets that had people thinking he's made a declaration about his sexuality. And he has," Lisa Respers France reports. "A source close to the musician told CNN that with the posts and reference to his lyrics, Lil Nas X intended to share with his followers that he identifies as gay."

One of his tweets zoomed in on the cover artwork of his debut EP 7, showing a building lit up in rainbow lights, with the caption "Deadass thought I made it obvious..."

Cuoco's new deal with Warner Bros.

"The Big Bang Theory" star Kaley Cuoco has struck a multiyear agreement with Warner Bros. Television, CNN's Whitney Friedlander reports. One of the pieces: Cuoco will star and exec produce "The Flight Attendant," "a thriller based on Chris Bohjalian's best-selling novel about a woman who gets caught in a web of deceit after waking up in a Dubai hotel room next to a dead body -- and not knowing how she got there. The one-hour drama will air on WarnerMedia's upcoming streaming service with playwright and TV writer Steve Yockey (The CW's 'Supernatural') adapting the novel." More...

FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN

By Frank Pallotta:

-- The summer movie season is awfully cold. The 2019 box office is down nearly 10%... (THR)

-- Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina are looking to be heading under the sea. Both are reportedly joining Disney's live-action reboot of "The Little Mermaid..." (Variety)

-- Aziz Ansari is planning his return to Netflix with a surprise special next week... (Vulture)

-- With "Euphoria" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home," Zendaya's having a moment. Here's how... (The Ringer)

Lady Gaga, Sterling K. Brown among new Motion Picture Academy inductees

"The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is adding to its ranks by extending invitations to 842 new members of the film industry," Marianne Friedlander reports... "Half of the invited members for 2019 are women and 29% of them are people of color." Here are all the details...

>> NYT's Brooks Barnes commented on Twitter: "Diversifying the film academy is proving hard without culling. Even if all the 2019 invitees accept, female membership will only rise to 32% from 31%. Minority members flat at 16%." Here's his story...

The truths of "Big Little Lies"

Are you keeping up with "Big Little Lies?" I'm a couple episodes behind! But Megan Thomas flagged this deep recap of Sunday night's episode four, from Hannah Giorgis for The Atlantic, and this passage in particular:

"Big Little Lies has always shined when excavating secrets in the domestic sphere. This season, with Perry Wright's shadowy death serving as a catalyst for the other characters' erratic behavior, the show has smartly dedicated much of its run time to exploring the Monterey Five's strained relationships. Sunday night's episode, in particular, emphasized a salient truth about marriage: Maintaining such a bond is difficult work that stretches beyond the two people at its center. The labor is at once collective and deeply personal." Read on...

FOR THE RECORD, PART EIGHT

-- Marianne Garvey's latest: "Bond 25" is filming across London, and Daniel Craig is everywhere...

-- One more from Garvey: There's a Neil Diamond musical headed to Broadway...

-- Lisa Respers France reports: Parkland survivor Emma González has slammed Madonna's "God Control" video...

-- Allen Kim writes: "Netflix is gearing up for the launch of what it hopes will be their next big fantasy series, and they just released the first photos of the main characters from 'The Witcher.' And to the surprise of many, the photos look ... pretty good?"

LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST...

'Spider-Man' stars are do-gooders in real life, too

Megan Thomas emails: Zendaya, Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal visited patients at Children's Hospital Los Angeles last week to screen "Spider-Man: Far From Home" and today the hospital shared some photos and video of their time with the kids. The movie opens tomorrow. My son was a patient at CHLA earlier this year and the video reminded me how fortunate we are and what extraordinary care they provide.

Whitney Friedlander wrote about the visit here...

Thank you for reading! Email me feedback anytime. See you tomorrow...