EXEC SUMMARY: Hey there, Oliver Darcy in the chair for Brian Stelter. Scroll down for Matt Drudge souring on Trump, a sneak peek at Preet Bharara's interview with George Conway, and the latest on the new allegations in Ronan Farrow's book. But first...
FIRST IN RELIABLE:
Biden campaign blasts NYT in letter to Dean Baquet
In a Wednesday evening letter addressed to Dean Baquet, the Biden campaign excoriated The New York Times for its recent coverage of Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and Ukraine. The letter was written by deputy campaign manager and comms director Kate Bedingfield. She expressed extreme displeasure with how The Times has covered the debunked notion Biden abused his office to benefit his son.
Bedingfield wrote that The Times, which published a widely panned story in May by reporter Ken Vogel and then-freelancer Iuliia Mendel, "had an outsized hand in the spread" of the "baseless conspiracy theory."
In Bedingfield's words, "What was especially troubling about the Times's active participation in this smear campaign is that prior to its reporting on the subject by Ken Vogel, this conspiracy had been relegated to the likes of Breitbart, Russian propaganda, and another conspiracy theorist, regular Hannity guest John Solomon."
Infuriated by publication of Schweizer op-ed
The letter came after The Times on Wednesday published an op-ed from Peter Schweizer, who the Biden campaign referred to as a "discredited right-wing polemicist." Schweizer, an author, has been one of the top people pushing the claim that Biden abused his office. Previously, Schweizer pushed the debunked Hillary Clinton / Uranium One scandal, which was given life in a now-infamous 2015 story in The Times.
In Wednesday's op-ed Schweizer, whose representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment, conceded Hunter Biden's business dealings were legal, but suggested they shouldn't have been. The Biden campaign said in its letter that publishing the op-ed shows "how little" The Times "has internalized the sobering lessons of 2016."
"Despite voluminous work done by the independent press and fact-checkers -- including some by The Times -- to refute the heinous conspiracy theory that Donald Trump attempted to bully Ukraine into propping-up for him, the paper ran an op-ed by none other than Peter Schweizer, making more malicious claims about the Biden family," Bedingfield wrote. "This leaves us with a critical question: are you truly blind to what you got wrong in 2016, or are you deliberately continuing policies that distort reality for the sake of controversy and the clicks that accompany it?"
NYT: Our coverage "has been fair and accurate"
In a statement, a spokesperson for The Times pushed back strongly against the Biden campaign's letter. "Our coverage of the Biden campaign and Hunter Biden has been fair and accurate," the spokesperson said, noting that the Biden campaign "obviously disagrees." The spokesperson said The Times "will continue to cover Joe Biden with the same tough and fair standards we apply to every candidate in the race and we're happy to sit down with Biden advisers anytime to discuss news coverage."
In response to the publishing of the Schweizer op-ed, the spokesperson noted it was published by Opinion "where their mission is to invite intelligent discussion on a range of opinions and ideas." The spokesperson added, "The op-ed makes an argument that nonpartisan government watchdogs would make, arguing in favor of a law that would prohibit self-dealing by those with government connections."
Biden camp also sent letters to Facebook and Twitter
The Biden campaign on Wednesday also sent letters to both Facebook and Twitter, imploring the companies not to run an ad that spread the debunked theory about Biden and Ukraine. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. Facebook denied the Biden campaign's request.
In a statement, Biden press secretary TJ Ducklo said the spread of false info "poisons the public discourse." Ducklo added, "Whether it originates from the Kremlin or Trump Tower, these lies and conspiracy theories threaten to undermine the integrity of our elections in America. It is unacceptable for any social media company to knowingly allow deliberately misleading material to corrupt its platform."
>> On a related note: Remember last week when I wrote that MSNBC said the controversial Trump campaign ad was "under review"? I checked in with a spokesperson on Wednesday to see at what conclusion the network ultimately arrived. The MSNBC spokesperson told me that, days later, the Trump ad remains "under review." Hopefully it doesn't take this long for MSNBC's standards department to review stories...
Bottom line
The Biden campaign is making it clear that it will call out tech and media platforms for the spread of misinformation related to Biden. As a campaign source told me, it's "part of a larger strategy not to let the same coverage that corrupted the 2016 election happen this time around."
Drudge sours on Trump as impeachment heats up | | As the impeachment inquiry heats up in the House, it appears Trump has lost a key ally in conservative media: The Drudge Report. As I've written in this letter over the last several weeks, Drudge has recently spotlighted an overwhelming amount of negative news for the Trump White House. A person close to Drudge told me that Drudge had grown exasperated with Trump.
This should worry the President. In the coming weeks and months, right-wing media will be crucial to whether Trump is able to survive the growing scandal. If he loses support in that space, it would offer Republicans wiggle room to turn on him, which could endanger his presidency. "He's one of the dominoes that would have to fall for the right-wing media to allow Trump to be removed from office," noted John Ziegler, a conservative who was an occasional guest host on Drudge's old radio show. Read my full story here...
Why has Drudge changed his tune?
The source I spoke with, who is close to Drudge, told me the media mogul is "reacting to changing circumstances." This person also noted that Drudge rose to notoriety during the impeachment of Bill Clinton. "Impeachment is where Matt Drudge entered," the source told me. "This is a great story. And Drudge is breaking out the popcorn."
Another person close to Drudge argued impeachment is a story consistent with the overarching theme of the website. "It's the swamp," said the person. "The dirty nature of politics. I think it's not inconsistent." Zielger's take? "My basic view on Drudge is that people mistake him as an ideologue," he said. "Matt Drudge loves chaos. And impeachment is chaos."
Will it matter?
Drudge is extremely influential in conservative media, having the ability to shape or even create news cycles. Drudge's website has for years helped set the agenda and worked as a gravitational force that has drawn other media outlets to his preferred narrative. The power he has wielded has led observers to characterize him as the de-facto assignment editor of the conservative media.
THAT SAID, much of right-wing media has sprung to defend Trump's dealings with Ukraine. The battle lines have been drawn, and members of the right-wing media know their audiences clamor for pro-Trump content. If they don't give it to them, they could drift somewhere else. Moreover, Trump himself has used his Twitter feed in a way that mirrors the style of Drudge, tweeting and retweeting positive news and opinions about himself. "I think Twitter has diminished Drudge's power within the right-wing media sphere," said Ziegler. "The retweet has replaced the link as the gold-standard."
>> Brian Lowry emails his view: The suggestion from some of those quoted that Drudge's power — as a source of web traffic — might have been shaken by Twitter (and specifically Trump's feed) is an interesting one, but I think it downplays what a major force Drudge has been, and continues to be, in funneling traffic toward conservative sites. It's hard to imagine anyone who has relied on Drudge amplifying their posts not swallowing hard at the prospect of seeing its links leading elsewhere...
SNEAK PEEK:
George Conway "doesn't mince words" in interview with Preet Bharara
It's been a year since George Conway offered up an interview. On Thursday morning, his silence will be broken. Conway recorded an interview with Preet Bharara for his "Stay Tuned With Preet" podcast. "He doesn't mince words," Bharara told me.
Here's a tease: Conway told Bharara this about Pat Cipollone's letter to Nancy Pelosi: "It was a disgrace to the country, a disgrace to the presidency, and a disgrace to the legal profession." The podcast will be live at this URL at 6am ET...
"A NEW HIGH" | | That was the lead headline on FoxNews.com Wednesday night... The story, by Fox's well-respected polling unit chief Dana Blanton, said that "just over half of voters want President Trump impeached and removed from office, according to a Fox News Poll released Wednesday. A new high of 51 percent wants Trump impeached and removed from office, another 4 percent want him impeached but not removed, and 40 percent oppose impeachment altogether."
Fox's programs covered the new poll at 6 and 7 p.m. "We are seeing movement in the polls," Martha MacCallum said. It'll be interesting to see if "Fox & Friends" acknowledges it in the morning...
How will Trump react?
If history is any guide, he might lash out at Fox's polling unit, as he did in July... But most reasonable observers know that Fox polls are reliable...
>> Semi-related: This new story about Fox by WaPo's Sarah Ellison: "How the impeachment fight is opening fresh divisions in the newsroom..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Quoting from Ashley Parker's look at Trump's "schoolyard taunts" tactics: "The sheer shamelessness" of Trump's approach "leads to a type of asymmetrical warfare that is tough to counterprogram..." (WaPo)
-- NYT's Sydney Ember notes: "Bernie Sanders acknowledged in an interview with NBC News today that he knew he had a heart attack last Tuesday, three days before his campaign revealed the information..." (NYT)
-- Biggest media biz news of the day: "The Gannett–GateHouse merger is really happening, but expect to see more than 10% of jobs cut off the top," Ken Doctor reports... (NiemanLab)
This is a newsletter version of a TV anchor toss! Over to Stelter now for the latest on Ronan Farrow's book...
Caught but not killed
Brian Stelter emails: Ronan Farrow's "Catch & Kill" is currently No. 3 on Amazon's best sellers list, right behind Rachel Maddow's "Blowout." The book is due out next Tuesday, but I obtained a copy on Wednesday, and I believe it lives up to all the hype. I hear that Variety and the Washington Post, among other outlets, are working on further stories about revelations in the book... And Farrow is scheduled to be on ABC's "GMA" on Friday for his first TV interview about it...
Lauer's jaw-dropping letter
Stelter continues: Matt Lauer did something on Wednesday that stunned his former NBC colleagues: He issued a 1,400-word open letter that defended his reputation, categorically denied Brooke Nevils' rape accusation, and indicated that he won't stay silent anymore. Here are some of the reactions I heard on Wednesday: "Wow." "Floored." "Never seen anything like it." "There are two sides to every story."
Lauer has had lots of time to think about what he wanted to say. His firing from "Today" happened nearly two years ago. And he and his legal team at Clare Locke have been girding for Farrow's book for weeks. If you've only read the coverage, and not the actual letter, click here to read it...
Nevils: Lauer "derailed my life"
As you've surely heard by now, Nevils says Lauer raped her during a work trip to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Afterward, she told Farrow in her first on-the-record interview about Lauer, "it hurt so bad. I remember thinking, Is this normal?"
Quoting from the book: "Back in her room, she threw up. She took off her pants, passed out. When she woke up, blood was everywhere, soaked through her underwear, soaked through her sheets."
Lauer concurred that Nevils came to his room that night in Sochi, but said "each act was mutual and completely consensual." They both acknowledge having a consensual sexual relationship back in the States. But the book describes Nevils as profoundly affected by the alleged rape, causing her to abuse alcohol and withdraw from work. "I just get so angry how this one thing derailed my life," she told Farrow. When she went to HR in November 2017, Lauer was fired the next day. She left NBC in 2018 and received a "seven figure" payout, according to Farrow, with a clause that says she cannot disparage the network. | | "We're disturbed to our core"
Variety obtained a copy of Farrow's book and published a story about Nevils' allegations early Wednesday morning. All of the major morning shows covered the news, including "Today."
"We're disturbed to our core," Savannah Guthrie said on the air. Guthrie and Hoda Kotb expressed support for Nevils... and so did Lauer's former co-host Ann Curry, who tweeted later in the day, "I believe she is telling the truth. And that breaks my heart." Curry is cited in "Catch & Kill" as one of the people who tried to alert her superiors about possible sexual misconduct by Lauer. NBC, though, insists that management was not aware of any accusation against the "Today" show star until Nevils met with HR.
–> Farrow's partner Jon Lovett tweeted: "NBC killed the Weinstein story. It was a historic mistake. Over and over and over again, NBC told Ronan to stop reporting. I heard it myself! Phones have speakers!"
–> Liz Plank tweeted: "I want us to focus on Matt Lauer today, but I also want us to focus on the system and culture that allowed him to thrive."
What's next
One more item from Stelter: In "Catch & Kill," Farrow suggests that NBC's secrets -- about Lauer and others -- weighed on the network's judgments about his Harvey Weinstein investigation. I think we'll be hearing more about this part of the book in the days ahead. Some of it was outlined in Wednesday's THR cover story, written by Marisa Guthrie.
NBC News chairman Andy Lack responded to the THR story in a Wednesday afternoon memo to staffers. He said Farrow's book "uses a variety of tactics to paint a fundamentally untrue picture" about NBC's handling of the Weinstein probe.
A representative for Farrow responded, "the claims by NBC's senior management about Ronan Farrow's reporting are simply not true, as his book will methodically demonstrate." More to come...
Alright, Stelter signing off, back to you Oliver...
| | FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- A Fox spokesperson said Wednesday that Trey Gowdy had been "terminated and is no longer a contributor" after the White House retained the former congressman as outside counsel for the impeachment inquiry... (CNN)
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest: "The Elizabeth Warren pregnancy smear shows how poisoned the media world is..." (WaPo)
-- This was quite the moment. Fox's Juan Williams invoked Judge Andrew Napolitano in a debate on "The Five." Williams implored his co-hosts to look at "what people who work at Fox are saying..." (Mediaite)
DOJ charges Defense Intel Agency employee with leaking classified info
"A Defense Intelligence Agency employee with top-secret security clearance was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaking classified information to two reporters," David Shortell reported for CNN. "Henry Kyle Frese, a counterterrorism analyst with the DIA, allegedly shared intelligence related to the capabilities of foreign weapons systems with the unnamed journalists, one of whom he was in a relationship with, according to court documents."
>> Per Shortell: "Frese is charged with two counts of willful transmission of national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it. He was expected to appear in federal court in Virginia on Thursday..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Rachel Maddow debuted at No. 1 on the NYT bestsellers list... Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton at No. 2... (NYT)
-- Veteran Fox reporter Jennifer Griffin said talking with a "distraught" US Special Forces soldier in Syria on Wednesday was "one of the hardest phone calls I have ever taken..." (Twitter)
Another massacre, another livestream
Donie O'Sullivan emails: A gunman who killed two people in the German town of Halle on Wednesday appears to have streamed the attack live on Amazon-owned Twitch. Twitch is a platform best-known for streaming live videogames – today's footage looked eerily like something from a game but it was all too real.
Filmed in a first-person shooter perspective, it bears a striking resemblance to the video streamed of the Christchurch attack in March. Today's suspect launched into a brief anti-Semitic rant at one point in the video.
"We are shocked and saddened"
In a statement, Twitch said, "We are shocked and saddened by the tragedy that took place in Germany today, and our deepest condolences go out to all those affected." The company added, "We are working with urgency to remove this content and permanently suspend any accounts found to be posting or reposting content of this abhorrent act."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Kerry Flynn:
-- WaPo will release Launcher, a new section covering video games and esports, on Oct. 15. The section editor is Mike Hume and staffers include Gene Park, Elisa Favis, Mikhail Klimentov, Jhaan Elker and Joe Moore... (Twitter)
-- Bon Appétit is putting talent behind its YouTube and other streaming channels on the cover of its November issue. Starting next week, viewers can sign up for a print subscription through the YouTube channel... (Digiday)
European Union disinfo task force's discovery
Hadas Gold emails: An EU Task Force for disinformation campaigns has discovered that a magazine selling itself as covering the European Parliament is actually mostly just copying Russia Today. "More than 99 percent of articles" that appear on eptoday.com are word-for-word "copies of articles by RT.com — one of the main Russian disinforming outlets," the task force reported. Also notable: EP today has more than 140,000 Facebook followers.
| | Mindy Kaling to TV Academy: "I *was* singled out"
Katie Pellico writes: In an interview with Elle out Wednesday, Mindy Kaling described her experience being asked by the Television Academy to prove her producing credentials early on in "The Office." She told Elle that in order to secure a spot on the producers list after an Emmy nomination, "they made me, not any of the other producers, fill out a whole form and write an essay about all my contributions as a writer and a producer. I had to get letters from all the other male, white producers saying that I had contributed, when my actual record stood for itself."
The Academy responded in a statement to the LA Times, citing an "increasing concern" at the time over extending producer credits to writers and performers. "No one person was singled out" and all writers and performers "were asked to justify their producer credits," the spokesperson explained.
"Respectfully, the Academy's statement doesn't make any sense," Kaling tweeted soon after. "I *was* singled out. There were other Office writer-performer-producers who were NOT cut from the list. Just me. The most junior person, and woman of color. Easiest to dismiss. Just sayin'." Read the rest of her thread...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Frank Pallotta:
-- Rihanna rejected the Super Bowl 53 halftime show to support for Colin Kaepernick... (Bleacher Report)
-- Brie Larson says the women of Marvel have told Kevin Feige they want an all-female movie... (Variety)
-- How Martin Scorsese paved the way for "Joker..." (THR)
-- The next "Matrix" film has found its lead... (The Wrap)
-- NYT's Nicole Sperling explains Amazon's sudden decision to "favor small-screen viewing" over wide theatrical distribution... (NYT)
For 'Breaking Bad' and 'Downton Abbey,' 'the end' wasn't
| | Brian Lowry emails: "Breaking Bad" and "Downton Abbey" both delivered satisfying series finales. Yet the appetite for proven intellectual property has brought both back from the dead, one in a movie that arrives this weekend, the other in a film that's already earned nearly $140 million worldwide. The bottom line is that there's really no "The end" anymore, just extended rests between revivals...
Will Smith battles himself in one-dimensional thriller 'Gemini Man'
Lowry emails: The big draw for "Gemini Man," other than getting to see Will Smith battle himself, has to do with its technological innovations, including 4K 3D — which is pretty impressive — and shooting at 120 frames per second as opposed to the traditional 24, something director Ang Lee experimented with on his last film. It's too bad that everything else about the movie — starting with the story — is so, well, one-dimensional. Read Lowry's full review here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Drake is "hurt" by his father's allegations he faked family drama to sell records...
-- JT of the female rap duo City Girls celebrated her prison release this week with a new single titled "First Day Out..."
-- Here's who won at the BET Hip Hop Awards..
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Clinton gives Colbert ratings boost
Lowry emails: Stephen Colbert received a sizable ratings boost from Hillary Clinton's appearance last week, but the live-plus-3-day ratings for "Late Show" were still pretty stunning, as its 3.91 million viewers for the week of Sept. 30 doubled the total audience for "The Tonight Show" (1.95 million). Colbert, notably, notches significant gains thanks to delayed viewing — meaning people are recording the show and playing it back — in a way that his late-night rivals don't...
| | | Thanks for reading! Send me your feedback via email, or connect with me on Twitter... Brian will be back tomorrow! | | | |
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