Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: Hey there, this is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter. Scroll down to find out what Shep Smith was up to one week after his shock resignation, why whistleblower lawyer Mark Zaid is calling out Laura Ingraham, and this Sunday's "Reliable Sources" guest list. But first...

What a wild week

Yes, every week in the Trump-era is crazy and unpredictable. But this week in particular felt even more over the top than usual. As it comes to an end, it seemed worth revisiting some of the headlines from the past five days...

-- Rudy Giuliani pushed the Trump administration to grant a visa to a Ukrainian official promising dirt on Democrats...

-- Mick Mulvaney admitted a quid pro quo, before attempting to walk it back...

-- Rick Perry announced his resignation...

-- Elijah Cummings passed away at 68...

-- Gordon Sondland testified that Trump directed diplomats to work with Giuliani on Ukraine...

-- The White House announced the 2020 G7 Summit will take place at Trump's resort in Doral, Florida...

-- Mark Zuckerberg delivered a major speech on free expression...

-- Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats walked out of a meeting with Trump. Pelosi accused Trump of a "meltdown" and a photo from the meeting showing her standing up to Trump went viral...

-- Trump privately mocked James Mattis as an overrated general, and Mattis responded: "He called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals..."

-- Megyn Kelly returned to Fox for an interview with Tucker Carlson, earning monster ratings with 4 million viewers...

-- Trump's extraordinary letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was made public. It ended with Trump saying, "Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool! I will call you later." Some people thought it was a joke until the White House confirmed it...

-- The White House announced a Syria ceasefire that appeared to give Turkey everything it wants. Hours later, the Kurds said Turkey violated it...

-- Democrats debated for three hours at the CNN / New York Times debate...

-- The White House faced backlash for a vile video that aired at a pro-Trump conference at the President's Florida resort...

Friday night news dump?

This headline over at WaPo flies in the face of years of right-wing media hysteria: "State Department probe of Clinton emails finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information."

That is according to a "report submitted to Congress this month," Greg Miller reported. "The report appears to represent a final and anticlimactic chapter in a controversy that overshadowed the 2016 presidential campaign and exposed Clinton to fierce criticism that she later cited as a major factor in her loss to President Trump..."

Clinton's shock claim on Gabbard

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton made an explosive claim while speaking on a podcast with former Obama adviser David Plouffe. Clinton said that the Russians are "grooming" a Democrat to run as a third-party candidate -- and while she didn't name the candidate it appeared she was referring to Tulsi Gabbard.

"Clinton did not provide proof about how Russia is 'grooming' Gabbard," CNN's Dan Merica reported. "She and her team pointed to allegations that Russian news and propaganda sites often report on Gabbard's campaign and that moments in Gabbard's campaign have been reportedly amplified by trolls and bots on Twitter with ties to Russia. Gabbard has denied those allegations."

Gabbard later fired back at Clinton, calling her the "queen of warmongers" and the "embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long." Read more here...

"If you're concerned about disinformation … that is what just happened"

Clinton drew criticism for the allegations. "If you're concerned about disinformation … that is what just happened," Van Jones said on CNN. "Just throw out some information, disinformation, smear somebody ... She's a former nominee of our party, and she just came out against a sitting U.S. congresswoman, a decorated war veteran, and somebody who's running for the nomination of our party with a complete smear and no facts."

FT reports Verizon is looking to sell HuffPost

The Financial Times on Friday night reported that Verizon Media was "sounding out" potential buyers for HuffPost. Citing two sources, FT reported that Verizon had raised a HuffPost sale with potential buyers. The publication said no formal sale process had started.

>> A Verizon Media spokesperson told me, "We don't comment on rumors."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Dana Milbank says the White House has moved from "no quid pro quo" to "quid pro quo — so?" (WaPo)

-- Anderson Cooper skewers Stephanie Grisham, wondering if everyone at the White House has to "debase themselves and lie..." (Mediaite)

-- Peggy Noonan writes that "an acquittal is likely" for Trump "but not fated, because we live in the age of the unexpected." Noonan adds, "Serious and dramatic hearings would move the needle on public opinion....And if the needle moves, the Senate will move in the same direction..." (WSJ)

-- Peter Nicholas: "The country is entering a new and precarious phase, in which the central question about President Donald Trump is not whether he is coming unstrung, but rather just how unstrung he is going to get..." (The Atlantic)

John Stanton on this week's "Reliable" podcast

Brian Stelter emails: After BuzzFeed's DC bureau chief John Stanton was laid off in January, he co-founded the Save Journalism Project to "stand up" for journalists and "educate the public" about "the dangers facing us." Those dangers are primarily from the Big Tech players, he says. On this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast, we dissected Mark Zuckerberg's Thursday talk about Facebook's values and "free expression," which Stanton attended in person at Georgetown U. Needless to say, he wasn't impressed! We also talked about what FB is doing/not doing about "toxic" content and disinformation. As I mentioned on the pod, I've been asking FB reps for interviews, and if any say yes, I'll share it here.

Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your preferred app...

This Sunday on "Reliable"

Stelter adds: I'll be live in DC on Sunday, joined by Ronan Farrow, Katie Rogers, Olivia Nuzzi, Elaina Plott, Matt Lewis, Krystal Ball, Daniel Dale, Erik Wemple, and maybe a surprise or two... See you Sunday at 11am ET...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- NEW: Peter Baker's W.H. memo in Saturday's paper: "On Day 1,001, Trump Made It Clear: Being 'Presidential' Is Boring" (NYT)

-- Something NPR's Scott Horsley discovered: "Peter Navarro, White House director of trade and manufacturing policy, made up one of the people he repeatedly quotes in several of his nonfiction books. He defended the fabrication as a 'whimsical device.' His publisher isn't amused." (NPR)

-- Chris Wallace seems poised to take Shep Smith's role as Trump's main "punching bag" at Fox, Gerry Smith reports... (Bloomberg)

-- Maxwell Tani reports that Rolling Stone's sister company, Robb Report, threw a luxury Saudi yacht party near the one-year anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi's murder... (Daily Beast)

-- Megyn Kelly's next move: A video podcast? Bill O'Reilly style? Page Six says so... (Page Six)

-- Michael Calderone's latest: "GOP debate co-chair rejects claim of bias against Trump..." (Politico)

Inside the whistleblower lawyer's fight against attempts to smear him and his client

For a story published Friday, I spoke with Mark Zaid, the lawyer whose firm is representing the anonymous whistleblower, about his fight against attempted smears against both him and his client. Zaid, who frequently rebuts critics on Twitter, told me that correcting the record has been his style since the dawn of the internet.

Zaid explained that he found it important to do so because misinformation -- even in small doses -- can influence public perception. "What's the saying?" Zaid asked rhetorically when we talked. "That a little knowledge goes a long way? That can easily be applied in reverse. A little disinformation goes a long way."

Calls out Laura Ingraham for "distorted" and "incomplete" correction

Earlier this month, Fox host Laura Ingraham incorrectly stated that Zaid had previously "represented" Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. That was not true, and Zaid pointed it out on Twitter, noting Ingraham was likely referring to his co-counsel, Andrew Bakaj, who interned for the two Democrats in college almost 20 years ago.

Ingraham issued a half-hearted correction. She said she had mistaken Zaid for Bakaj. But Ingraham characterized Bakaj as having worked for Clinton and Schumer without telling her audience the work she was referring to was his college internships.

Zaid told me it was a "distorted" and "incomplete correction by omission." He noted, "What they never do is actually put things in context and context matters. OK, Andrew did intern for Clinton and Schumer. As a college intern...When you add that information into the equation, anyone who understands how internships in college works knows that it is inconsequential and irrelevant."

>> I checked in with a Fox spokesperson before this story published, but did not hear back...

...and says current media environment "has created a much more volatile and dangerous society"

Zaid also spoke candidly about his views on the news environment and how he thinks it is contributing to a more dangerous society. Zaid noted that people are getting their news from "ideological corner[s]." He said, "Anyone can be a journalist by the claim that they blog. No standards are applied. There is no oversight for accountability for what they write. It has created a much more volatile and dangerous society than we have seen for decades."

Zaid pointed to a debunked theory stemming from a Federalist story which took hold in right-wing media a few weeks ago. "It was a distortion," he said. "But even once it's corrected by those of us in the know on both sides, including the government, saying it's not true, nothing happens. They don't care about the facts."

WEEKEND PLANNER

-- "Modern Love" is now streaming on Amazon...

-- "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" and "Zombieland: Double Tap" are new in theaters...

-- Fox's Bret Baier will host a special on Sunday night called "Three Days at the Brink." The special is based on Baier's new book, out Tuesday, and details the Tehran Conference of 1943...

Megyn, Gretchen, Greta and others write Comcast asking for independent NBC probe

In a letter sent to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and the cable giant's board, a group of prominent women in TV news urged the company to allow for an independent investigation into sexual misconduct at NBC News. The letter -- written by Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, Eleanor McManus, Greta Van Susteren, Linda Vester, and Addie Zinone -- cited revelations from Ronan Farrow's new book as reason a third-party probe is needed. NBC has pushed back against claims made in Farrow's book.

>> Comcast is staying silent. I pinged a spokesperson twice, and did not hear back...

Shep Smith visits journalism students at Ole Miss

One week after his shock resignation from Fox, Shep Smith visited with students at the University of Mississippi, where he studied journalism years ago. Journalism Dean Will Norton told me that Smith talked with students about "getting the facts, taking care of assignments and details everyday and going for your goals every moment." Norton added, "Basically, have a dream and work every moment to make it happen." Smith did not address his exit from Fox, Norton said.

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Donald Trump Jr. and Kim Guilfoyle will appear on "The View" in November, Yashar Ali reported, citing two sources... (Yashar.Substack)

-- Erik Wemple writes about how "Sean Hannity's world" showed some "cracks" this week... (WaPo)

-- The Drudge Report released a refreshed app this week. It's since risen to No. 5 on the app store... (App Store)

Trump threatens CNN with bizarre lawsuit

An attorney for Trump threatened CNN on Friday with a lawsuit – the idea of which was quickly dismissed by legal experts -- claiming that the network has falsely advertised itself as a news organization. The letter, written by Trump attorney Charles Harder, erroneously alleged CNN is in fact "highly biased" against the President. Trump had made a similar threat against CNN in a tweet earlier in the week. In a statement, a CNN spokesperson said, "This is nothing more than a desperate PR stunt and doesn't merit a response."

Harder partially based his claim of bias on a series of videos released this week by a right-wing outfit. The videos were secretly recorded by a contractor for a company that provides satellite trucks to CNN. The videos included snippets of CNN's morning editorial calls in which executives and others plan news coverage. The videos also showed unsuspecting non-editorial employees commenting on CNN coverage.

"This is an absolutely ridiculous letter"

The letter from Harder was immediately mocked by high-profile attorneys. Ted Boutrous, a renowned First Amendment lawyer who has represented CNN in the past, tweeted, "This is an absolutely ridiculous letter. No serious lawyer would ever think of sending such a frivolous letter making such a baseless threat."

Others joined in. Famed attorney Floyd Abrams told Mediaite that the threat seemed like a "non-starter" and that CNN's coverage was "fully protected by the First Amendment." And Rebecca Tushnet, a professor of false advertising law at Harvard Law School, told Reuters there was "no merit" to Harder's legal arguments.

PEN America: It's "a disgrace" for Trump to attempt to "silence a free press"

PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossell responded to the lawsuit threat in a statement which said, "It is a disgrace to see the President of the United States attempt to exploit the rule of law to silence a free press."

Nossell added, that "time and again" Trump has "sought to exert his power over the news industry to control news coverage of the administration." She added, "The President should be upholding the First Amendment, not flouting it at every turn."

>> Of note: Harder and Trump have a history of threatening lawsuits against news organizations and not following through – a tactic which appears to be aimed at generating media attention and inspiring fear in journalists…

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- WaPo extended its paid parental leave to 20 weeks this week. NiemanLab put together a list showing how much time other news organizations offer their employees off... (NiemanLab)

-- "Press organisations have demanded an investigation after claims 12 journalists were targeted by police in demonstrations in Catalonia..." (PressGazette)

-- CNN announced two hires on Friday: Evan McMorris-Santoro from Vice and Darryl Forges from WTVJ-TV... (Twitter)

-- "The Duchess of Cambridge has given her first ever television news interview," to CNN's Max Foster, during a royal tour of Pakistan with Prince William... (CNN)

A reminder of how the rest of the world views Washington

Hadas Gold emails: A few weeks ago I turned off Twitter alerts for Trump. I was in the middle of working on a story and Trump was in one of his 30 retweets in 20 minutes moods. I never turned them back on. I realized then that, even as an active Twitter user who follows the president, I feel like I've barely seen everything he's tweeted in the past few weeks

So imagine what an everyday voter sees and understands. A commonly used statistic is that only around 20% of U.S. adults are on Twitter. Of those, how many have alerts turned on for the president? Twitter won't tell us, though we ask. But this is just a useful illustration of how something that seems to consume journalists in the US isn't what the rest of the world is necessarily seeing. (Though I would love to see a list of WHO has Twitter alerts turned on for Trump.)

When a cigar is an "ax to grind..."

Brian Lowry writes: The trifecta of James Poniewozik, Jay Rosen and Erik Wemple weigh in on an interesting, easily overlooked point regarding Trump coverage: That simply describing the president's behavior accurately can sound like "an attack," as Wemple puts it, creating "the appearance of an ax to grind."

Promotions, changes and cuts at McClatchy

In a long memo on Friday afternoon, McClatchy CEO Craig Forman announced retirements, restructurings, and cuts... He said the changes "will impact approximately one percent of our 3,000-person workforce," and "no reporting positions will be impacted." But the way reporters are edited will change: "We will lift print design and production out of the newsroom workflow so that we can move faster in a digital news environment," which means "shared edited teams" that work outside local markets.

"While we move to more shared editing in our regions and along topic areas," Forman wrote, "every newsroom no matter the size will continue to be led by a strong assignment editor..."

Long reads for your weekend... 👓

By Katie Pellico:

-- "Readers Beware: AI Has Learned to Create Fake News Stories," the WSJ's Asa Fitch warns...

-- Joel Christopher, the executive director for the Knoxville News Sentinel, a Gannett-owned daily newspaper out of Kentucky, discusses "the challenges of covering extremism" and the choices his newsroom has made to omit extreme videos or quotes. "Even with context you're still amplifying it," he says...

-- WaPo writer Molly Roberts shows how the Nancy Pelosi photo is a "Rorschach test for an America cleaved into two..."

-- Read about why The Guardian is "rethinking" the imagery it uses for climate journalism, to include "fewer polar bears and more people..."

-- This week marked two years since the murder of renowned Italian investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia, and her death remains a mystery. Revisit Rachel Donadio's reporting for The Atlantic...

Lowry's weekend movie roundup

Brian Lowry writes: A pair of long-delayed sequels that weren't necessarily needed hit theaters this weekend, "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" and "Zombieland: Double Tap," both of which are pretty good if you grade on a curve. (Read Lowry's review of "Maleficent" and "Zombieland...")

On the art-house circuit, "Jojo Rabbit" is described "anti-hate satire,' but director Taika Waititi can't thread the needle in telling the story of a German boy whose imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler (played by Waititi); and "The Lighthouse" (not fully reviewed) is an esoteric black-and-white project, starring Robert Pattinson -- before he suits up for the next Batman -- and Willem Dafoe.

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Frank Pallotta:

-- TIME's Eliana Dockterman lists "Everything You Need To Know" about Marvel's "Watchmen" graphic novel ahead of the Sunday premiere on HBO. Dockterman says the show is "not a straight adaptation" and will address "modern problems, particularly the rise of white nationalism..." (TIME)

-- Quentin Tarantino won't recut "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" for China... (THR)

-- "'South Park' is the latest beneficiary of Hollywood's rerun mania," Lucas Shaw reports: "The show's creators and media giant Viacom expect to share between $450 million and $500 million by selling the streaming rights to the animated comedy..." (Bloomberg)

-- There's a Barney the Dinosaur movie in the works from "Get Out" star Daniel Kaluuya... (Variety)

"Laundromat" starts streaming despite lawsuit

Katie Pellico emails: "A judge has refused to block the release of 'The Laundromat,' a Netflix film based on the Panama Papers scandal," Variety's Gene Maddaus reported. "Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca -- the attorneys at the center of the scandal -- filed suit in federal court in Connecticut on Tuesday, claiming they were defamed by the film."

The attorneys wanted an injunction, but a judge on Thursday night "instead transferred the case to California," finding that "the Connecticut court has no jurisdiction over the issue." The film started streaming on Netflix Friday morning.

NBC's "Bluff City Law" goes the way of "Sunnyside"

Brian Lowry writes: As much as things change, a few stay the same, which includes new TV shows in September, followed by cancellations. The fall TV season has claimed its second early casualty at NBC, which is ceasing production on "Bluff City Law" after pulling the comedy "Sunnyside." Fox, meanwhile, announced a second season of its animated comedy "Bless the Harts."

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...

The pressures of being a mom in the spotlight

"Harry & Meghan: An African Journey" will air Sunday on ITV in the UK and Wednesday on ABC in the US.

In the interview with ITV's Tom Bradby, "Meghan, Duchess of Sussex gave a rare glimpse into her personal life when she admitted that she has struggled to deal with the repercussions of being a new mother in the spotlight," CNN's Alaa Elassar writes.

When Bradby brought the subject up, Meghan held back tears... and said "Thank you for asking. Not many people have asked if I'm OK, but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes." The hashtag #WeLoveYouMeghan trended on Twitter after the clip was released on Friday... Watch/read more here...

Thanks for reading! I love your feedback (and your tips), so do get in touch. Shoot me an email or find me on Twitter. Brian will be back Sunday!