Brian Stelter here with our week ahead calendar, plus the latest on Amy Coney Barrett, LeBron James, Jim Roberts, Savannah Guthrie, James Murdoch, Taz and Lulu Tapper, and more...
Dangerous, democracy-eroding lies
East Coast news companies and West Coast technology companies are increasingly being put in the position of protecting the public from the American president's dangerous, democracy-eroding lies.
Two main categories of presidential disinfo come to mind: Lies about the coronavirus and lies about the election.
I admit, "protecting the public" feels like a very strange thing to write in this letter. News outlets and tech firms are not in the "protection" business – to the contrary, viewers and users typically benefit from being introduced to diverse and different points of view.
But news segments and social media discussions can cause harm. Sometimes do cause harm. The president's bogus words – specifically about imaginary election "rigging" and Covid-19 "cures" – are clearly, measurably harmful. They are in a different category than, let's say, Trump's smears about Joe Biden and distortions about Hillary Clinton and attacks against the media. His lies about the election and the pandemic are are tests. Some outlets are passing these tests and others are failing. All of us are watching it happen in real time...
Trump lies. And Facebook lets it lie
When Trump claimed, without evidence, he is "immune" to coronavirus after his physician cleared him to resume public activities, Twitter placed a warning label on the tweet and said it violated the site's rules "about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to Covid-19." Facebook did not take any action, even though the exact same message was shared on Trump's Facebook account. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan repeatedly asked FB for comment but was met with silence. What's the purpose of having rules if there is inconsistent enforcement?
>> The facts: According to the CDC, there is no evidence that people are immune to coronavirus if they have been infected once.The CDC specifically cautions people not to assume they are immune. Paging Dr. Robert Redfield...
>> Trump also repeated his immunity claims on Fox, and there's no such thing as a warning label for his lies on Fox...
>> As Donie wrote earlier this month, Trump's downplaying of the virus has put FB and Twitter in the WH's crosshairs...
Friedman calls out Trump's 'voter suppression enterprise'
Tom Friedman says THIS should be the lead story in tonight's newsletter and every newsletter: "I think there's only one story in the country right now. We are seeing something we have never seen before in American history: A massive voter suppression effort, an effort to steal the election even beforehand, before our eyes."
On Sunday's "Reliable," he accused Trump of the "greatest voter suppression enterprise" in American history and said "the only thing that can stop him is the American people. Our job is to inform them. Their job is to vote." Watch or read here...
>> Plus: Dan Rather talked about the importance of covering both the physical and mental health of the president...
>> And I thanked DC beat reporters for showing us how Trump is yanking on every lever of state power in an attempt to prop up his flailing campaign...
>> David Sanger's latest for the NYT is headlined "Taking Page From Authoritarians, Trump Turns Power of State Against Political Rivals..."
What a sad reflection...
Donie O'Sullivan emailed me to make this key point: "The fact that Twitter and Facebook have now rolled out rules against posts about militaristic language being used in relation to the election and transfer of power is such a sad reflection of where we are as a country. That these platforms have to roll these rules out in the context of an American election is surreal, extraordinary and bleak."
My interview with Twitter's top spokesman
Donie is right. I interviewed Twitter's VP of communications Brandon Borrman on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," and we talked about the platform's plans for dealing with election-related disinformation. He said Twitter intends to "protect the conversation around this election" but pointed out that many other stakeholders have similar responsibilities to do so. Among Twitter's policies: "Regardless of who you are, you cannot use Twitter to declare victory if the race has not been called." Watch...
>> Related: Last Friday, CNN's Poppy Harlow pressed YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki on how the platform handles misinformation around the election and Covid-19 as well as conspiracy theories like QAnon. Watch...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- The virus is "going to disappear. It is disappearing," Trump said Saturday while speaking to supporters from his White House balcony. "In reality," WaPo noted, "the coronavirus appears to be resurgent in much of the country, with an average of almost 50,000 cases each day over the past week..." (WaPo)
-- Politico publisher Robert Allbritton: "Historically, speeches from balconies rarely end well." (Twitter)
-- WaPo's latest: "Trump taps U.S. Marine Band for White House event and raises questions about employing the military for political purposes..." (WaPo)
-- Monday will "mark one week since President Trump's physician, Dr. Sean Conley, has answered reporters' questions," Wolf Blitzer said Sunday. "Instead, he has been releasing short written statements. That's not good enough. The American people still have lots of questions and they deserve answers..." (Twitter)
-- "IOWA MOURNS:" Nine Iowa newspapers owned by two companies, Gannett and Lee Enterprises, are working together to profile Iowans who lost their lives to the virus... (DM Register)
-- Jake Tapper on Trump resuming "reckless" rallies: "is seemingly indulging ego at the risk of prolonging the pandemic and at the expense of human lives. American lives. The citizens he swore an oath to protect. It needs to stop. History is not going to be kind to the people around the president who are enabling any of this. It is, frankly, immoral." (CNN)
Trump's conquering-Covid message
He's practically making his Covid diagnosis sound like a good thing. "I'm in great shape... I feel fantastically... I'm immune," he told Fox's Maria Bartiromo on Sunday morning. As Jordan Valinsky wrote here, Trump has nabbed hours of free airtime on Fox for a campaign "comeback tour" of sorts.
The tour's cynical message is that Trump contracted Covid and fought and won, ergo America has won. He is strong, ergo the country is strong. Texas A&M professor Jennifer Mercieca, author of "Demagogue for President," linked this to Trump's performative expression of American exceptionalism: She said Trump sees himself as "the greatest example of America winning."
>> Related: WaPo's David Nakamura quoted me in this WaPo story: "Analysts who study authoritarian regimes said critics are right to posit that Trump has borrowed from the playbooks of strongman leaders in his messaging..."
The only reason why Trump has media 'safe spaces'
"At the most politically and physically vulnerable point of his presidency, Mr. Trump has retreated to his safe space: conservative media programs," the NYT's Jeremy W. Peters and Michael M. Grynbaum wrote over the weekend. True, but let's all recognize that these spaces are only "safe" because the interviewers are so willing to surrender to Trump. If they or their bosses showed some spine, the public would be better informed...
NOW TO A RELATED STORY...
How Team Trump is using Fox News as a laundromat for unverified Russian info
Oliver Darcy writes: "While most of the nation was largely fixated over the past week on Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, the President and his allies in right-wing media have been engrossed with something else entirely. Trump, with the help of outlets like Fox News, has been pushing a dishonest narrative in touting intelligence documents that his administration has declassified in the weeks leading up to Election Day. They portrayed the info was a smoking gun supposedly proving that Hillary Clinton and the Obama admin sought to frame Trump with a Russian collusion scandal."
>> Darcy adds: "When examined closely the documents indicate no such thing. In fact, by the Trump admin's own admission, they're based on unverified Russian intel that could be totally bogus. Which is to say that the President and Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are hyping and disseminating sketchy info that originates from a foreign adversary to bludgeon top Democrats. Here's the full story from Marshall Cohen, Zachary Cohen, and me..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- A tragic story for so many reasons: Matthew Dolloff, a private security guard who was contracted by 9NEWS, the NBC affiliate in Denver, "is being held as a suspect in a deadly shooting near the Denver Art Museum..." (9NEWS)
-- The TV station's story noted that "it has been the practice of 9NEWS for a number of months to contract private security to accompany staff at protests." This is a common practice...
-- In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, viral tweets linked the alleged shooter to Antifa, but the police said Dolloff has "no affiliation with Antifa..." (CNN)
Monday calendar
Monday is Columbus Day...
9am ET: The Senate Judiciary Committee begins its hearing on Amy Coney Barrett's SCOTUS nomination. Via Jeremy Herb, here's what to watch for...
12pm: The 50th Annual Matrix Awards, virtually...
Biden holds two events in Ohio in the afternoon...
Trump returns to the campaign trail for a 7pm rally in Sanford, Florida...
Later this week
Tuesday 1pm ET: Apple will announce new iPhones...
Tuesday: New books include Mark Salter's "The Luckiest Man," about his life with John McCain, and Andrew Cuomo's "American Crisis," a pandemic memoir in the middle of the pandemic...
Tuesday: "Totally Under Control," Alex Gibney's documentary on America's botched coronavirus response, lands on VOD...
Tuesday and Wednesday: Amazon Prime Days...
Thursday: "The West Wing" special premieres on HBO Max. Scroll down for details from Brian Lowry...
Town hall debate may be replaced by dueling town halls
Since Thursday's town hall-style debate has been scrapped, Biden is all set to hold a town hall on ABC Thursday at 8pm ET. Trump might be doing the same thing, at the same time, on NBC. As with almost everything involving Trump, though, his plans are subject to change. His team is in talks with NBC about a town hall, with Savannah Guthrie as the moderator, but the event is conditioned on the president testing negative for the coronavirus. Here's the full story by Oliver Darcy and yours truly...
Trump's debate messaging is all over the map
Some Trump allies are trashing the debate commission. Ronna McDaniel called the bipartisan group "corrupt" on Sunday. But a few hours later the WH's deputy comms director Brian Morgenstern said the commission should reschedule the debate that was slated for this Thursday, before Trump objected to the "virtual" format and very loudly decided to withdraw. "It would be nice if the commission would get the debate back on the schedule," Morgenstern said...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- JUST NOW: The Lakers won a record-tying 17th NBA title, giving LeBron James his 4th championship... (CNN)
-- The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor wrote, "Bravo to the NBA, the teams, and all the players for pulling off The Bubble. It took buy-in from everyone involved for 172 NBA games to be played over three months and have ZERO positive coronavirus tests. What a remarkable achievement." (Twitter)
-- Ben Smith's Monday NYT column is an unflinching look at a controversy within the NYT: "A top editor is now reviewing Rukmini Callimachi's reporting on terrorism, which turned distant conflicts into accessible stories but drew criticism from colleagues..." (NYT)
-- Speaking of the paper, Bret Stephens wrote a lengthy column challenging the Nikole Hannah-Jones and other colleagues: "Through its overreach," he wrote, "the 1619 Project has given critics of The Times a gift..." (NYT)
Fauci: Trump campaign took me 'out of context'
Oliver Darcy writes: "Dr. Anthony Fauci called out the Trump campaign on Sunday, telling Kaitlan Collins in a statement that an ad it is running was ripped from context. 'In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,' Fauci said. 'The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials.'"
Karl posts receipts after WH accuses him of lying
Darcy adds: "Jon Karl said Sunday that the WH 'wouldn't allow' Fauci or anyone else on the coronavirus task force to appear on 'This Week.' WH comms director Alyssa Farah hit back on Twitter, saying Fauci had 'been doing media all week' and that Karl 'didn't request any other member of the task force.' But Karl replied with the receipts, posting an email he sent Farrah requesting Fauci or other task force members. 'The truth matters,' Karl wrote in his tweet..."
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, TIMES TWO:
The 74's new publisher
Kerry Flynn writes: "Veteran journalist Jim Roberts is joining nonprofit education news site The 74 as publisher and chief strategy officer. The site will make the announcement on Monday. He was most recently EIC of Cheddar."
Two new hires at Forbes
More from Kerry: "Joyce Bautista Ferrari and Ali Jackson-Jolley are joining Forbes as managing editor and assistant managing editor, respectively. Bautista Ferrari will report to Forbes chief content officer Randall Lane. Jackson-Jolley will report to Bautista Ferrari and focus on diversifying Forbes' recruiting and hiring. The appointments come on the heels of last week's decision to ban the word 'minority' from Forbes style guide..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- The RTDNA's National Edward R. Murrow Award winners were announced Saturday, and you can check out the full list here. In network TV, ABC News won for overall excellence, NBC News for breaking news coverage, CNN Digital for multimedia, and the "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell" for newscast... (RTDNA)
-- The Marshall Project won the Murrow for overall excellence among small digital news orgs; WaPo won the same award in the large digital news org category; and CBS News won among radio networks...
-- Republic TV, "which some refer to as the Fox News of India," is now under criminal investigation, accused of ratings fraud... (NYT)
"Joe Biden's polling better than any challenger since 1936"
That's the headline on Harry Enten's latest for CNN. Data is consistently pointing to a likely Biden victory, but "people don't want to say it out loud," Ryan Lizza said on "Reliable Sources" Sunday morning. "People do have this emotional reticence to accept polls because of that 2016 hangover," Clare Malone added. She said the national polls are generally trustworthy, but people should "also keep an eye on state polls, especially key swing state polls." Here's our conversation about the gap between private "Biden landslide" whispers and public coverage of the horse race...
>> ICYMI: ABC and WaPo showed Biden with a double-digit advantage in a big poll released on Sunday morning. "Ordinarily," Nate Silver tweeted, "a major national poll showing a candidate 12 points ahead would be huge news, but it's just sort of par for the course these days..."
Biden's other big advantage
Enten flagged this point on Twitter, and I picked it up for Sunday's show. In 2016, Trump had the edge over Hillary Clinton on the "which candidate is more honest/trustworthy" question. This year, Biden has a huge "honesty" advantage:
"Facebook moderators speak of Covid risk in Dublin office"
Donie O'Sullivan writes: "Facebook's treatment of the most important people that work for the company speaks volumes. Mark Tighe in The Sunday Times of Ireland broke a story that details how its low-paid moderators (who are employed as contractors) in Dublin 'have complained about being required to be present in the office; about the difficulties of social distancing with so many co-workers; and about the office staying open after two people tested positive for Covid.' This as FB allows its own employees to work from home and gives them plum perks. Read the full story here..."
'I THOUGHT IT WAS AN OVERBLOWN MEDIA HOAX...'
That's what Texas resident Tony Green told Eli Saslow for the latest edition of WaPo's Voices from the Pandemic feature. Here's how the oral history begins:
"When President Trump got sick, I had this moment of deja vu back to when I first woke up in the hospital. I know what it’s like to be humiliated by this virus. I used to call it the 'scamdemic.' I thought it was an overblown media hoax." Read on...
James Murdoch talks disinfo
Oliver Darcy writes: "Maureen Dowd spoke with 'rebellious scion' James Murdoch for a profile published of him over the weekend. Murdoch elaborated further on why he has distanced himself from Rupert's media empire, telling Dowd, 'I reached the conclusion that you can venerate a contest of ideas, if you will, and we all do and that’s important. But it shouldn’t be in a way that hides agendas. A contest of ideas shouldn't be used to legitimize disinformation.'"
>> Darcy adds: "It's a great point from Murdoch, but I wish he would still speak in no uncertain terms about the media empire he had a role in. Fox News, for instance, produces propaganda that has poisoned the public conversation — and he helped run it for many years! If he wants forgiveness from the public, the least he can do is clearly explain the reality of the network and his father's larger business...
A looming battle for control of Fox Corp
James Murdoch went *on the record* with Dowd for multiple interviews...but he isn't quoted talking about the takeover theory that I wrote about in "HOAX." It goes like this: Rupert's four adult children all hold power through their shares in the Murdoch Family Trust. In the event of Rupert's death, James could partner with his sisters to wrest control of Fox Corp from brother Lachlan, who currently runs the company. The theory is that James, a Biden supporter, could wrest control of Fox News by installing a new CEO, thereby putting an end to the propaganda programming that disgusts him.
Dowd's story had new reporting about this – making a Fox power play sound like a matter of WHEN, not IF. She wrote: "Murdoch watchers across media say James is aligned with his sister Elisabeth and his half sister, Prudence, even as he is estranged from his father and brother."
My takeaway: There WILL be tug of war for Fox Corp, including Fox News. No one knows when. But it will happen. The question: Would Fox stars like Sean Hannity fit into a version of Fox News controlled by James, who assails right-wing extremism and disinfo?
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Emma Goldberg profiled the Babylon Bee, "a conservative answer to The Onion," which exemplifies the fact that, for many conservatives, "frustration with liberal culture is a more powerful unifying force than any problems with Mr. Trump..." (NYT)
-- "Google plans to make YouTube a major shopping destination," Mark Bergen and Lucas Shaw report... (Bloomberg)
'SNL' rolls on
Brian Lowry writes: "'Saturday Night Live' averaged a 4.7 rating in the metered markets, which would have topped every episode last season except Eddie Murphy's hosting return in December. The franchise is one of the few defying ratings gravity this fall, despite the fact that the latest edition was even more mediocre than the first. The robust numbers suggest an election boost, beyond the what-does-Covid-era-SNL-look-like curiosity."
The fly!
There were multiple layers to the "SNL" cold open on Saturday, featuring Jim Carrey impersonating Jeff Goldblum as a fly atop the head of Beck Bennett, who was playing Mike Pence. Frank Pallotta has the download here...
Streaming Sorkin
Brian Lowry writes: "Aaron Sorkin has two big streaming titles this week: 'The West Wing' special, premiering Thursday on HBO Max, and 'The Trial of the Chicago 7,' making its Netflix debut Friday after a few weeks in theaters..."
THE PETS OF THE DAY...
Taz and Lulu Tapper!
Jake Tapper emails: "Meet Taz and Lulu Tapper, the kittens I got for my mom after the loss of her sweet kitty Rumi, who died a few days ago at the age of 19. Taz and Lulu come courtesy of the amazing Morris Animal Refuge in Philadelphia, and my mom is very excited to have them!"
You are receiving this message because you subscribed to CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter.
® © 2020 Cable News Network, Inc.
A WarnerMedia Company. All Rights Reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Cable News Network, Inc.
Attention: Privacy Policy Coordinator
One CNN Center, 13 North
Atlanta, GA 30303