EXEC SUMMARY: Here's the latest on the Vice-Refinery29 deal, new skirmishes in right-wing media world, and Pew's study of social media and the news diet. Plus, a hat tip to Jeff Mason, a behind the scenes look at "West Side Story," and a very young fan of "The Situation Room..."
The sound of silence
Many right-wing media outlets and talking heads are trying to defend President Trump at all costs right now. But it's important to notice what's not happening -- and that's why I think this story by Dana Bash and Jamie Gangel is so significant.
"What you most hear from congressional Republicans on impeachment this week is the sound of silence," they write. "GOP sources tell CNN they have a good reason for that fear. They have no idea what else House Democrats' investigation will uncover or what comes next. Along with that fear is frustration with President Donald Trump: his ranting in performances full of false claims, like Wednesday in the Oval Office and White House East Room, and stream of consciousness rapid-fire tweets -- curse words and all -- are not exactly an anti-impeachment road map for his fellow Republicans."
Trump's top GOP allies, like Devin Nunes, have been all over TV backing him up with little regard for the truth. "But GOP spin on behalf of Trump is not aging well," Bash and Gangel note. And there's mounting frustration with the White House. Keep an eye on this as we head into week two of the formal impeachment inquiry...
Press corps applauds Jeff Mason
Reuters' W.H. correspondent Jeff Mason showed how it is done. If you haven't seen his exchange with Trump, here's the video.
Trump repeatedly refused to answer this followup Q from Mason: "Mr. President, can you just make clear, right here: What do you or what did you want President Zelensky to do with regard to Joe and Hunter Biden?" Mason stood up for himself while Trump berated him.
Journalists were pretty much unanimous in defending Mason afterward -- notably, several correspondents and commentators on Fox said he asked a valid and important question. "The president dodged it," Fox's Brit Hume said.
"It was a legitimate question and he dodged it," Mason told me matter-of-factly. "It's our job to follow up in cases like that and that's what I did."
More reactions to Wednesday's wild presser
Ali Velshi immediately afterward on MSNBC: Trump was "lying to the American people and the world at a pace perhaps we haven't seen before." Karen Tumulty: "Is this real life?" Chris Cillizza: "This press conference is Trump at his most rage filled, vengeful and victimized." David Martosko: "He is spitting nails." Brian Karem: "That press conference was chaos in a blender set on puree." Shep Smith: "That level, I've never before seen." And John Harwood tweeted just one word: "Alarming."
"Even by his standards..."
CBS News W.H. correspondent Weija Jiang summed up Trump's bad day this way: "He became visibly angrier as the day went on, both inside the Oval Office and at a press conference. He refused to answer questions; spewed falsehoods; and scolded reporters, creating an awkward situation for a visiting head of state."
And WaPo's Aaron Blake nailed it in this piece: "The idea that President Trump has finally gone over the edge is an overwrought journalistic genre. Oftentimes, people simply forget all that has come before when they declare him to be particularly unwieldy or off the rails at a particular moment. And his opponents are far too anxious to find examples of Trump finally reaching a threshold that suggests he has completely thrown caution to the wind and may be just giving up. All of that said, it has been some week for Trump — even by his standards." Read on...
Parental advisory
Jake Tapper on "The Lead" Wednesday afternoon: "A parental advisory for you: In this block, I'm going to be quoting from things that the President of the United States has tweeted, so if you have kids in the room, you might want to mute the television." Then he quoted Trump's "bullshit" tweet.
 CNN accurately quoted Trump's tweet, expletive included, throughout the day. I searched Fox and MSNBC transcripts and didn't see any instances of the expletive being used on those channels.
The broadcast networks, subject to rules enforced by Trump's FCC, said "bull" or "B.S." instead.
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night's "Late Show:" Trump is "the most powerful victim in the world..." (Video via Twitter)
-- James Fallows restating a point he made a while back: "If you saw performance like current one by Trump, by anyone in any other responsible position, starting with 7-11 store manager and going to local-news anchor (or advanced-age relative), you would be talking quietly but urgently with supervisors about getting help..." (Twitter)
-- Joshua Green writes: "The Trump impeachment saga is really a story about the power of right-wing media and its most devoted consumer -- Trump..." (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Why did Trump think "Border Wars" was written by WaPo reporters?
NYT reporters Michael Shear and Julie Davis had the scoop about Trump proposing shooting migrants in the legs and erecting alligator-filled moats to deter illegal crossings. The Times published a preview of their new book "Border Wars" on Tuesday night.
When Trump was asked about the reporting on Wednesday, he said his "comms people" told him the book was by "Washington Post people." Trump: "I said, 'Well obviously it's fake because almost everything The Washington Post does is fake. It's a fake newspaper. It's owned by a rich guy for the purposes of giving him power in Washington. It's really, I mean, it's a lobbyist. I call it the lobbyist Washington Post for Amazon."
>> CNN's fact-check team notes that "The Post had nothing to do with the book or article."
>> Fox's David Asman embarrassed himself when he defended Trump on "Outnumbered," saying, "Focusing on the Washington Post ain't bad because, remember, they've been caught several times with news that didn't turn out to be true." | | Fox's inconvenient bit of reporting
Oliver Darcy emails: While Trump and his allies laced into NYT (and, uh, WaPo) for reporting on Trump's extreme suggestions for slowing down migrants, it's worth noting that Fox itself confirmed a key aspect of NYT's story. "A source who was in the room at the time confirmed the conversation about shooting migrants in the legs to Fox News late Tuesday," Fox reporter Joseph Wulfsohn wrote.
That, however, didn't stop Fox personalties from backing the president. After Trump zinged the reporting, an "Outnumbered" panel questioned whether news organizations have reported on the White House accurately. You'd think the hosts would have used the opportunity to tout its own reporting and forcefully fact-check Trump...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- FiveThirtyEight is now tracking impeachment polls. This is "an updating calculation of support for and opposition to impeachment, accounting for each poll's quality, recency, sample size and partisan lean, since Aug. 1, 2018..." (538)
-- CNN's Zach Wolf: "The scandal is what Trump did on the call he admits is accurately transcribed. Trump wants the scandal to be everything else." (Twitter)
-- Four distinguished historians penned this Opinion column for CNN.com: "We are historians who have researched every president since George Washington, and we've never seen anything like this." Quite a sentence: "In the history of American foreign relations, we are unaware of any prior case — in 230 years — of a president asking a foreign leader to intervene in American domestic politics..." (CNN)
-- Recommended: CNN's newest newsletter, "Meanwhile in America," billed as a daily analysis of US politics for global readers, by Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu. Sign up here... (CNN)
Fox's new election branding: "Democracy 2020" | | "America's Election Headquarters" is out. "Democracy 2020" is in.
AdWeek's Jason Lynch writes: "No Fox News personalities appear in the network's new 'It's In Your Hands' marketing campaign, which instead focuses on Americans and the choice they will be making in next year's election."
Fox News Media marketing EVP Jason Klarman says the ads are about "opening the aperture and welcoming more people in." He adds: "There's 30% of the people who are never going to stop watching us, there are 30% of the people who are never going to watch us, and then there's everybody else in the middle. And I think what Democracy 2020 says is we are open for business on all fronts."
"Why lefties should watch Fox News"
"Forget 'Succession' — as we descend into the hell pit of impeachment and a presidential election, there is no more engaging and consequential family drama on television right now than the one happening every day on Fox News," NYT opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo writes.
While Manjoo is coming at this from a Fox-hating perspective, he hits on several of the reasons why I'm writing a book about Fox in the Trump age. Understanding this relationship is key to understanding America right now...
"Fox News emerges as Trump's firewall"
That's the headline on Michael Calderone's latest for Politico. "As Fox vows to cover impeachment in a rigorous and fair-minded way in its news programming, if not opinion shows, the network is becoming a kind of Rorschach test for cracks in the president's media firewall," he writes. And/but so far, Fox "is hewing closely to the White House line. Pro-Trump voices dominate the conversation, especially in the morning and evening hours, though several of the network's anchors and analysts have scrutinized claims by the president and his allies that would likely go unchecked — or get endorsed by — by supportive hosts and guests..."
Oliver sums up the situation in a single tweet
Darcy tweeted just now: "Fox prime is not only dishonest, it's a mirror image of real world. Biden is guilty of potential crimes, Trump is innocent of all wrongdoing. Democrats are the chief liars, Trump is the truth teller. Mainstream media spreads misinformation, pro-Trump media [tells] the truth. Etc, etc."
This messaging lines up with Trump's naturally. As Chris Cuomo said Wednesday night, "Now we know the defense for this president: It isn't me, it is Biden. It isn't me, it's Schiff. It isn't me, it's the Democrats."
Fact-checking Trump's remarks in real-time | | Oliver Darcy emails: Trump knows that cable news networks air the remarks he makes during pool sprays unfiltered to millions. To that end, he almost always uses the opportunity to spread lies and misinformation. CNN was ready for that on Wednesday. As Trump peddled misinformation about the whistleblower, CNN fact-checked him in real-time with a "Facts First" box on the screen.
But why is CNN the only network doing this? Isn't it time that all cable news networks put up the relevant facts when airing Trump's raw remarks to their audiences? Trump's lies are often predictable, given that he recycles and repeats the same falsehoods over and over again. That should make it quite easy for networks to prepare fact-checks in advance of airing his remarks...
More skirmishes in right-wing media
One more item from Oliver Darcy: Trump's Ukraine scandal has caused a handful of skirmishes to break out in right-wing media. Fox opinion hosts are clashing with its news anchors. The Gateway Pundit is calling out the Drudge Report.
And on Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh joined the fray and ripped into Fox. The king of conservative talk radio blasted the network, claiming that people critical of Trump are "all over" its airwaves. "You know, Fox really ought to change the name of the network from the Fox News Channel to the Fox Never Trumper Network," Limbaugh said. The criticism was similar to the way Trump has gone after the network in the last few months.
Limbaugh is a regular guest on Fox. I checked in with network spokespeople to see if they had any response to his comments. I didn't receive a reply...
Fox drops Todd Starnes
Fox News confirmed this scoop by TheWrap's Lindsey Ellefson on Wednesday: Far-right radio host and commentator Todd Starnes is "no longer working" for the network. A spokeswoman said "his contract was not renewed."
Ellefson noted that Starnes "made headlines as recently as Monday for comments during his radio program that Democrats do not believe in the Christian God and instead may worship Moloch, a pagan god often associated with child sacrifice." That said, "an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap Starnes' departure 'was in the works well before Monday...'"
THURSDAY PLANNER
George Stephanopoulos' interview with House Speaker Pelosi, taped Wednesday morning, airs in full on "GMA..."
Kurt Volker, who recently resigned from his post as US special envoy to Ukraine, testifies in the House's impeachment inquiry...
MLB Division Series officially kicks off...
Lester Holt's exclusive sit-down with Amanda Knox airs on the "NBC Nightly News..."
The next debate stage is set
"In all, 12 Democratic hopefuls will appear on the same stage" at the CNN/NYT debate on October 15, CNN's Mark Preston writes. Here's the podium order.
The super-size lineup is a first: "Never before have so many presidential candidates shared a single stage in a primary debate, according to political historians who keep track of such things," the NYT's Michael Grynbaum writes...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Kareem Fahim reports from Istanbul: "The memorial service for Jamal Khashoggi was held in the shadow of the Saudi Consulate on Wednesday, on the first anniversary of his death, at the minute he walked through the consulate door, the last time that anyone who cared about the journalist saw him alive..." (WaPo)
-- Michael J. Socolow writes: "Perhaps it's time to reconsider the journalistic value of live interviews — and return to a standard that reflects what viewers should expect from news programming." (NiemanLab)
-- Margaret Sullivan's latest column: "With impeachment looming, the news media is growing a spine. It needs stiffening." (WaPo)
-- Another daily paper is closing because it has become unprofitable: The Journal Tribune in Biddeford, Maine, will end its 135-year run on October 12. It is not shifting into online-only mode, it is shutting down altogether... (Journal Tribune)
-- In Youngstown, Ohio, where The Vindicator shut down in August, The Compass Experiment will launch "Mahoning Matters" with three former Vindicator staffers on October 10. Compass will launch in two other locations down the road... (Mahoning Matters)
This headline really says it all...
It's from NiemanLab: "More Americans than ever are getting news from social media, even as they say social media makes news 'worse.'"
Laura Hazard Owen reports: "U.S. adults are getting news from social media increasingly often — but they also think that the big platforms have too much control over the news they see and that this results in a 'worse mix of news' for users, according to a study of 5,107 people out Wednesday from the Pew Research Center." Here's the study...
Here's the % of US adults who say they get news on social media sites, 2016 through 2019: | |
Vice buys Refinery29 for $400 million
Kerry Flynn emails: Just a week after Vox Media and New York Media announced their merger, we have another newly combined media company. Through an exclusive with the FT, Vice Media confirmed that it is acquiring Refinery29 in a "mostly stock transaction" that apparently values the combo at $4 billion.
Per the NYT's Edmund Lee and Marc Tracy, the deal valued Refinery at $400 million, which lines up with Stelter's reporting last night that it was coming in under the $500 million valuation that investors pegged in 2016. "Refinery29's financial backers include WarnerMedia's Turner group and the cable giant Discovery. Both are effectively trading their Refinery29 investments for stock in Vice Media, since the deal includes little cash," the NYT said.
>> Big picture: Vice Media is unprofitable, though it says it has a plan to change that. Refinery29 is also unprofitable. So there's understandable skepticism about this deal...
>> Joshua Benton asks: "So now, who should BuzzFeed buy?"
Vice's internal memo
Kerry continues: CEO Nancy Dubuc spoke of Refinery's strengths, noting its original videos, ad agency and experiential team. She also tried to address potential confusion in brand alignment in her internal memo: "Predictably after we make this announcement, we know some will think of the old VICE stereotypes and ask, how can the 'bros' ever mesh with the feminists of Refinery? There's nothing like pitting women against men to make great headlines these days. But, as we know better than anyone that when it comes to who we are and who we will be together, the facts speak for themselves."
What employees are saying
Kerry adds: Subtweets were endless in the days leading up to and the day of the acquisition. One particular topic Vice employees mentioned: Broadly. Vice had essentially closed the women-focused site in May as part of its decision to fold the separate websites into Vice.com. But Refinery29 isn't the exact same. Even though the outlets both geared its coverage to millennial women, R29 has a broader business in original video, commerce and events, notably with its annual Instagrammable pop-up 29Rooms.
>> Here are the reactions from the Vice and R29 unions...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Donie O'Sullivan writes: Russia used Facebook to attack America ahead of the 2016 election, but now the FBI is using the platform in an attempt to recruit Russian spies in Washington. Here's his full story with David Shortell... (CNN)
-- Michael Slackman is joining the NYT masthead to oversee international coverage as new assistant managing editor for international... (NYT)
-- Leon Neyfakh says these are "the 10 essential news and politics podcasts that shaped the genre..." (Vulture)
-- Casey Newton: "Mark Zuckerberg posted a link to my story to 117 million people yesterday and got 58,000 reactions, an engagement rate of 0.05 percent. A Facebook follower truly ain't what it used to be..." (Twitter)
Drama with One Herald Guild
Kerry Flynn writes: Employees at the Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and Miami.com asked McClatchy to voluntarily recognize their union, One Herald Guild, on Wednesday. Miami New Times reports that Miami Herald's publisher and exec editor Mindy Marqués González emailed employees she would not recognize it and accused the union's mission statement of being inaccurate and misleading.
One Herald Guild tweeted, "Our goal is to have a voice in the newsroom. We were not given that today, but we look forward to an election that will give us that voice in the future."
Guardian CEO steps down
Hadas Gold writes: David Pemsel, who has been CEO of the Guardian for eight years, is stepping down to take on the chief executive role of The Premier League, the top soccer league in the United Kingdom.
The Chairman of the Chelsea team said Pemsel was hired partly because he helped bring Guardian to a profit for the first time "in an ever-changing business landscape." More here...
| | Six-part "Living Undocumented" series on Netflix
Brian Lowry emails: The multipart Netflix documentary "Living Undocumented," out Wednesday, focuses on a number of families caught up in the immigration system, incorporating some deeply emotional material, and one particularly jaw-dropping sequence, in which enforcement agents rough up an attorney trying to enter a facility with her client. Produced by, among others, Selena Gomez, it will touch some hearts, while being unlikely, given the tone of the debate, to change many minds...
| | The making of a monster
Brian Lowry writes: "Joker" is a dark, disturbing movie, one that bears a closer resemblance to "Taxi Driver" than anything else. Overpraised at festivals, the film does feature an electric performance by Joaquin Phoenix, but it's in the service of a story that elevates a brooding loner to center stage to explore his monstrous origins, without Batman's presence to balance him. Historically, that's been problematic, and the movie's nihilism feels particularly questionable in the current climate.
Also, at the risk of stating the obvious, this movie is NOT for kids, which might be lost on some parents because of the comic-book-adjacent subject matter. Hence Alamo Drafthouse's decision to urge parents not to bring children to see it, although I still expect, alas, to see a whole lot of related Halloween costumes.
>> Read Lowry's full review here...
What other critics are saying about the "chilling" film
Frank Pallotta writes: "Joker" has been one of the most talked about films of the year, and a new round of reviews hit on Wednesday. Here's a taste of what some of the other critics are saying:
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun Times: "'Joker' is a chilling character study centered around the series of events in Gotham City that resulted in the transformation of the sad loner Arthur Fleck into one of the most storied (and psychopathic) comic book supervillains of all time."
David Sims, The Atlantic: "In his effort to bring realism to the Joker story, [director Todd] Phillips has lost his grasp on the character's symbolic purpose, treating the audience to something undeniably visceral but also unacceptably shallow."
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "You'd be an idiot to bring kids to this; at the Chicago preview screening, one family, with preteens, bailed an hour and a half too late, right after an eye-stabbing, neck-spurting, skull-crushing doozy, signaling Arthur's descent into righteous madness."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- "One of Netflix's longest-serving and most senior original series executives, VP Original Series Allie Goss, is departing the company after more than 13 years..." (Deadline)
-- Reese Witherspoon will receive the esteemed Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at THR's annual Women in Entertainment gala this winter... (THR)
-- Tom Holland's last-minute appeal may have helped seal the "Spider-Man" deal between Disney and Sony (THR)
-- Phoebe Waller-Bridge may bring back "Fleabag"... when she's 50 years old. (Jezebel)
-- Steven Spielberg wrapped production on "West Side Story" and shared some photos from set... (CNN) | |
Lesser leaving HBO
Brian Lowry writes: Another shoe has dropped at HBO, with Nancy Lesser, a 35-year veteran of the network's PR team, following her New York counterpart Quentin Schaffer out the door. As I said on Twitter, it's easier to overstate the value of relationships and institutional knowledge in Hollywood, but in the case of the veterans that have departed the pay channel since WarnerMedia began putting its stamp on it, those terms can't be used enough. As Variety's Cynthia Littleton elegantly put it, "I've never known HBO without Nancy Lesser. As much as Michael Fuchs, Jeff Bewkes and Richard Plepler, she helped build that brand brick by brick."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- By Lisa Respers France:
-- Stacey Dash has pleaded not guilty to a domestic battery charge...
-- Erica Mena and Safaree from VH1's reality show "Love & Hip Hop" are expecting...
-- Beyoncé's father Mathew Knowles has revealed his fight with breast cancer and says he wants other men to be aware that they might be at risk...
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
"Happening now, breaking news"
Story turned eight weeks old today! So I thought you all might like to see a new photo. My wife Jamie snapped this shot of Story wearing his "Situation Room" onesie. Her caption: "I'm Story Stelter and you're in The Situation Room..." | | | |
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