Oliver Darcy here. I told Brian to take the day off, but then he got wrapped up in covering NBC v. ABC! Let's start there... But make sure to scroll down for sneak peeks of "The West Wing" reunion on HBO Max and Dr. Anthony Fauci on a magazine cover. Plus a look at how President Trump is careening from conspiracy to conspiracy with the help of Fox News...
Split-screen moment
Brian Stelter writes: "This town hall mess is so metaphorically 2020. President Trump was sickened by coronavirus, so the debate commission shifted to a virtual format, so Trump refused to show up, so Joe Biden booked a town hall on ABC instead. Then Trump secured his own town hall, on NBC, and now the two men will talk past each other, on competing TV networks, and almost no one is happy about the outcome. 2020!"
>> Here's the latest: Both town halls are slated to start at 8pm ET Thursday. There are no signs that either ABC or NBC will reschedule.
>> How it happened: Stelter wrote a detailed tick-tock for CNN Business here...
>> What's coming up: A split-screen moment for the polarized ages...
Inside NBC
Stelter writes: "Last week, when NBC held a town hall with Biden, the network made clear that Trump was welcome to participate in one. The collapse of the second debate presented a scheduling opportunity. NBC's top priorities were safety and parity with Biden -- which meant holding the Trump event at the same same outdoor venue in Miami, in the same 8pm time slot, in the same 60-minute format. But there was one big difference: ABC had already announced a town hall with Biden! So now NBC is 'giving Trump exactly what he wants,' in the words of one exasperated senior staffer: a made-by-TV rivalry between the president and Biden. There's quite a bit of frustration internally, with some staffers likening this to collusion between the Trump campaign and the network. But as far as I can tell, no one from the news division has publicly criticized the move..."
ABC-NBC backchannel...
More from Stelter: "On Wednesday evening, I'm told, an exec from NBC reached out to their counterpart at ABC to see if ABC would be willing to shift the Biden event to 9pm. Perhaps it would have been a PR coup for ABC – taking the higher ground – but the network declined. ABC was first, after all, and it made a commitment to the Biden campaign. Why change now to help bail out NBC?"
Harris says Biden is 'keeping his promise'
Stelter adds: "Put yourself in the Biden campaign's shoes for a minute: Going 'second,' after Trump's town hall, would give Biden the final word. He could point over at NBC and say 'do you really want four more years of that?' On the other hand, going 'second' would mean caving to Trump -- and having to address whatever unhinged charges Trump leveled one hour earlier. The town halls would be happening on Trump's terms. One of the Biden camp's main messages has been that he's consistent, he keeps his word, so he committed to 8pm and he's sticking with the time slot."
>> Kamala Harris, incidentally, repeated that talking point -- "he's keeping his promise" -- during an appearance with Rachel Maddow Wednesday night. Maddow hinted at the turmoil inside NBC and MSNBC when she asked, "Are you as mad as everybody else is that NBC is doing a town hall with President Trump tomorrow instead of the debate at the same time that VP Biden's going to be on ABC?" Harris deflected: "I'm not touching that!" Maddow tried one other way: "Should the networks refuse to give the president other opportunities for airtime if he's the one who refuses the chance to debate?" Harris: "I'm not going to tell the networks what to do, but I'll tell you, I know who I'm going to be watching."
A big opportunity for Guthrie
George Stephanopoulos will be moderating the town hall with Biden on ABC. No doubt it will be newsy. The NBC town hall will likely be even newsier, for it will be the most substantive interview of Trump since he came down with Covid. He has been calling into pro-Trump shows, but has steered clear of the press corps. Judging by last week's Biden town hall format, the moderator of the Trump event, Savannah Guthrie, will have plenty of time to ask him Q's...
Ok, Oliver, back over to you!
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- WaPo's Thursday A1 focuses on the large turnout for early voting, featuring photos of long lines around the country... (WaPo)
-- The Drudge Report's banner headline underscores that approximately 15 million Americans have already voted... (Drudge)
-- Nate Silver wonders: "Will Georgia turn blue?" (FiveThirtyEight)
-- Philip Bump writes about what has happened "in the last 20 days of the last 13 elections." An alternative headline included in his story, "Why Trump should be nervous..." (WaPo)
-- Leaders from major newsrooms — including CNN's Sam Feist and Jennifer Agiesta, the AP's Sally Buzbee, and Fox's Arnon Mishkin — gathered for a PEN America webinar to talk about election coverage... (PEN America)
THURSDAY PLANNER
8am: Yahoo's Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff will interview Dr. Fauci on a live stream...
9am: Day number four of the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings begins...
1pm: Trump holds a rally in North Carolina... Joe Biden is in Minnesota meeting with members of the Hmong community and student supporters...
The cast of "The West Wing" reunites for a special on HBO Max...
Careening from conspiracy to conspiracy
It's a movie you've seen before. Throughout Trump's admin, you've unfortunately seen it an untold amount of times. Trump and the propagandists on Fox News hype a story as an earth-shattering scandal. They tout the story as the smoking gun that will finally expose former Obama admin officials and other "deep state" members and bring them to justice. And they attack the "liberal media" for not covering the story they are fixated on.
Then, when the story they've relentlessly promoted ultimately falls apart or fails to meet expectations, the president and his supporters largely ignore the revelation. Instead, they move onto another supposed earth-shattering scandal. On and on this goes: From the claim his campaign was improperly "spied on," to the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, to the Devin Nunes memo, to the criminal investigation into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the Trump years have been defined by POTUS and his allies hurtling from one conspiracy to the next, always promising their fans that a political armageddon for their enemies is just around the corner. It is happening again right now:
"Obamagate" falls apart
First, to the conspiracy theory that was blown up in the last 24 hours: "Obamagate." After a document was declassified revealing the names of Obama officials who sought to unmask the name of an unidentified American caught in intelligence reports, who turned out to be Michael Flynn, Trump and Fox went all in on the story. The essence of the narrative they pushed was that Obama and members of his admin, including Biden, participated in a "deep state" plot to improperly use the levers of government to win the 2016 election.
Fox shows portrayed this as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — political scandals in American history. Tucker Carlson called it a "domestic spying operation" that was "hidden under the pretext of national security." Laura Ingraham said top Obama aides had been "exposed." And Sean Hannity flatly declared it to be the "biggest abuse of power, corruption scandal" the country had ever seen. Ever!
Fox was obsessed with the unmasking story. In May, as the coronavirus death toll neared 100,000 people in the US, the network downplayed the virus and focused on "OBAMAGATE." And it wasn't just pro-Trump propagandists on Fox who went all-in. News anchors such as Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, whom the network promotes as covering the news in a no-nonsense "straight news" way, also elevated the story on their programs.
But the conspiracy theory collapsed when WaPo reported Tuesday night that a DOJ investigation into the supposed scandal quietly ended with no charges. The Post reported that the inquiry, commissioned by AG Bill Barr, ended without finding substantive wrongdoing and that the probe's findings would likely disappoint conservatives who believed "unmasking" was tied to a political conspiracy against Trump. Notably, this development landed with a thud on Fox, barely receiving any coverage on-air or online. Perhaps that's because Fox was too busy covering a new "scandal..."
Murdoch mediaworld changes the subject
On Wednesday A.M., mere hours after the WaPo story had shattered one of Trump's favorite conspiracies, the New York Post published a story targeting Hunter Biden. The front page story, written by a former "Hannity" producer, claimed a "smoking-gun email" proved then-VP Biden had met with a Burisma advisor at the urging of his son. Biden's campaign said no such meeting ever took place and that the New York Post "never asked the Biden campaign about the critical elements" of the story.
The story rested on some extremely strange sourcing. According to the New York Post, a laptop was dropped off at a Delaware repair shop in 2019 with water damage and that laptop was never picked up. The owner of the shop, according to the tabloid, could not ID the customer as Hunter Biden, but saw that the laptop had a Beau Biden Foundation sticker on it. The Post said that the shop owner made the bizarre decision to make a copy of the hard drive, before supposedly being seized by the FBI, and then provided it to Rudy Giuliani's lawyer.
As many observers pointed out, key parts of the story simply did not add up. And the shop owner, in a conversation with reporters Wednesday, did not appear to be the most reliable source, invoking the Seth Rich conspiracy theory among other things.
But the pro-Trump media rushed to amplify the story. Trump mentioned it at a rally. Ron Johnson promised a Senate probe. And it was pushed on Fox all day. From "Fox & Friends" to "Special Report," the conservative network committed itself to hyping this new anti-Biden narrative...
Facebook and Twitter's actions fuel the fire
In a rather rare instance, Facebook and Twitter actually moved to get ahead of disinformation before it was widely circulated on their platforms. FB said it reduced the distribution of the NY Post story, pending a fact-check, something which the company said is standard procedure. And, in an unprecedented move, Twitter prohibited users from sharing a link to the article because it included personal contact info.
This, of course, prompted another round of coverage — with outrage being expressed particularly by right-wing media outlets and personalities. When I asked the NY Post about its story, for instance, a spokesperson pointed me to an op-ed from the outlet decrying Big Tech censorship. BuzzFeed's Joe Bernstein put it well, tweeting, "This seems like a case where Twitter and Facebook, through their unfathomable clumsiness, are going to make the story a much bigger deal than it is."
That said, given Twitter's unprecedented move to block an article from a major American media organization, it is certainly fair to question the platform's decision to do so. No, this is not evidence of an anti-conservative Big Tech bias. But it is evidence of Twitter ham-handedly enforcing its rules. Will Twitter be blocking links to media outlets in the future if they run afoul of certain rules? If so, which rules does this apply to? Who is making these decisions? These are questions we deserve answers to...
>> Of note: While Facebook and Twitter took action to limit the story's spread, it still was widely shared. Zignal, a media analytics firm, told me that it was the second-most shared election-related story it has tracked this month, falling behind only NYT's explosive story on Trump's taxes...
"The real scandal"
While it's tempting to brush this all aside, there is a real news story here. Max Boot put it well in his WaPo column: "The real scandal is that Trump and his cult followers hurl so many insane accusations — and never recant or apologize. While claiming to be a victim of McCarthyism, Trump is, in fact, its foremost modern practitioner. His mentor, Joseph McCarthy’s henchman Roy Cohn, would be proud of him."
GOP rep questions membership in Republican Party
Speaking of conspiracy theories, Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman did not mince words on Wednesday when he spoke with Jake Tapper about how they have come to define the GOP. Riggleman and Tapper discussed how Trump and QAnon promoted a conspiracy theory casting doubt on the Bin Laden raid. "Let's use the technical term for what's going on here: It's bats**t crazy," Riggleman said. The GOP rep added that it is "getting really difficult" for him to "find a home in the GOP," saying the party has become a "cult of personality." Riggleman said that he remembered Regan's "Morning in America" defining the GOP, and said that under Trump it's perhaps best described as "QAnon after dark." Watch the interview here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- "A petition calling for a public inquiry into Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Australia ... generated so much interest over the weekend that it overwhelmed the website’s cyberdefenses and shut down access to the document..." (NYT)
-- The Washington Examiner announced it had hired Greg Wilson as its new managing editor. Wilson was the editor at Fox News who published the discredited Seth Rich story that the network was ultimately forced to retract... (WaEx)
-- "A conservative website is using a network of pro-Trump Facebook groups and pages to pump out articles riddled with conspiracy theories and misinformation leading up to the 2020 presidential election..." (Media Matters)
-- Another day, another Fox News personality with an anti-mask message: Rachel Campos Duffy said she worries masks are teaching children "submission and compliance..." (Mediaite)
From 'Mayo Pete' to 'Savage'
Kerry Flynn writes: "Pete Buttigieg was getting dragged on the internet last year. As Mel magazine reported, TikTok teens nicknamed the then-candidate 'Mayo Pete' because he was 'bland and overwhelmingly white' like the condiment. Fast forward to last week: Buttigieg is an internet darling. Clips of his Fox appearances keep going viral. More in my story on how the tables have turned..."
>> Biden campaign national press secretary TJ Ducklo's quote in the story: "We believe there are a number of Fox News viewers who are fed up with Donald Trump's incompetence and his failed leadership to get this virus under control, and Mayor Pete has been an extremely effective messenger at laying out Vice President Biden's vision for those folks in a way that's not necessarily confrontational — given the often hostile environment on Fox — but that is rational and well-reasoned, and that we believe can appeal to a number of undecided voters across the country..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Paul Farhi's latest: "MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle filmed promotional spots for JPMorgan Chase — one of the banks she covers as a journalist..." (WaPo)
-- Michael Cohen "is writing a second book, about the politicization of the Justice Department and his time in Trump world," Daniel Lippman reports... (Politico)
-- Speaking of books... Debuting on the NYT nonfiction best seller list: "Humans" at #1, Jerry Seinfeld's book at #2, "The 99% Invisible City" at #3, plus the new books by John Brennan, Fareed Zakaria, Pete Buttigieg, and Lenny Kravitz... (NYT)
Coronavirus cases surge
"The US is continuing to lose ground in the fight against the coronavirus," Don Lemon pointed out on his Wednesday night show. "We are averaging more than 51,000 new cases per day across the United States. Take a look at our trend map. Not a single state in green. The best we can say is 14 states are holding steady..."
Trump talks with reporters without a mask
On the way back to DC, Trump went to the press cabin on Air Force One to speak with reporters. According to Reuters' Jeff Mason, the discussion was off the record. But Mason could report that Trump did not wear a mask...
YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST...
Fauci on the cover of Washingtonian
"You already know Anthony Fauci as the nation’s most famous doctor," the magazine's editors wrote. "But Washingtonians also know him as our neighbor. So when we made our annual list of the region’s top doctors, there was really only one choice for who should be on the cover." Here it is:
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- This story by CNN's Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, and Jeremey Herb about how the feds chased a suspected foreign link to Trump's 2016 campaign cash for three years came to light through conversations with "more than a dozen sources familiar with the effort, as well as through hints in public records, including newly released court documents and Mueller witness interview summaries, called 302s, that CNN and Buzzfeed obtained through lawsuits..." (CNN)
-- Medhi Hasan brutally grilled John Bolton in an interview for his new Peacock show: "All those innocent Iraqi civilians. All the men and women, children killed by U.S. airstrikes. Some in massacres ... None of those weigh on your conscience? None of those keep you up at night?" (Twitter)
Morning Brew's deal
Kerry Flynn emails: "Business Insider parent Insider Inc. is nearing a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Morning Brew, a news startup known for a popular email newsletter on business and finance,' Ben Mullin scooped. After Peter Kafka confirmed the talks, Blodget told him, 'I can’t confirm anything, but speaking hypothetically, we’d be happy to be in talks with them. Alex and Austin are amazing entrepreneurs, and it’s a terrific company.'"
>> Flynn adds: "The potential deal is a bright spot amid a dark year in media. And unlike most digital media pairings, it doesn't come burdened by investors looking for returns. Morning Brew cofounders Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief only raised $750K, so WSJ's reported $75M valuation would pay off handsomely for them. Why does BI want Morning Brew? My view is they have similar editorial visions: making business and financial news more digestible. But Morning Brew has the advantage of first-party data (millions of email subscribers). That's what BI has been investing more toward with its own subscription business, BI Prime, as the ad-supported media business changes..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Kerry Flynn:
-- Smash Mouth supported BuzzFeed News union fight, tweeting, "Very important for employers to have a documented process for letting an employee go. Ya can't just fire someone for undisclosed reasons especially with today's media climate. Buzzfeed your most valued investments are talking, LISTEN!..." (Twitter)
-- E. Alex Jung talked with Sohla El Waylly about leaving Bon Appétit's Test Kitchen and her new show... (Vulture)
-- Discourse Blog, the media company by former Splinter staffers, launched its new site after choosing to leave Substack... (Discourse Blog)
-- Tanya Dua wrote about the rise of nostalgia marketing, including recent campaigns by AT&T and Chips Ahoy... (Business Insider)
Hannah-Jones accepts 1619 award 'on behalf of the 40 million descendants of American slavery'
NYT's Nikole Hannah-Jones on Wednesday accepted an award from NYU Journalism which named the 1619 Project a top work of journalism over the past decade. Hannah-Jones said in the virtual ceremony that she was accepting the award "on behalf of the 40 million descendants of American slavery." In a tweet she thanked the "passionate and principled team" that produced the project. Hannah-Jones also alluded to recent controversy surrounding the project, writing that "in this week of all weeks" the award was "a reminder of why we did this, who we did this for & that 1619 is now part of the nation’s lexicon."
>> Other journalists honored by NYU for top works in journalism over the past decade: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Isabel Wilkerson, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, Katherine Boo, Michelle Alexander, Julie K Brown, Sheri Fink, and David Fahrenthold. The staff of WaPo was also honored for its police shooting database project...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Joe Flint's Wednesday scoop: Amazon has struck a deal with the NFL to stream "one of the two new 'wildcard' playoff games the NFL added to its postseason schedule..." (WSJ)
-- John Ourand says this news shows that "Amazon will be aggressive in bidding on the next round of NFL rights." Amazon is "auditioning the NFL to see if it's the right fit" and the NFL is auditioning Amazon too... (SBJ)
Box office in shambles
Frank Pallotta emails: "The pandemic has devastated the 2020 North America box office, but just how awful is it? Simply put, it's really, really bad. According to Comscore, the 2020 domestic box office has brought in just $2 billion this year. That may sound like a lot of money considering that the pandemic has kept movie theaters shuttered for months — but it's a 76% drop from the same point last year..."
Lowry reviews 'Blackpink: Light Up the Sky'
Brian Lowry emails: "'Blackpink: Light Up the Sky' is not surprisingly aimed at the K-pop group’s fans (known as Blinks), but this Netflix documentary actually has more substance than anticipated – focusing, as it does, on the tradeoffs and sacrifices associated with the pursuit of stardom, much like young Olympians, as well as the potentially fleeting nature of that hard-earned fame. Here's my full review..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN
By Lisa Respers France:
-- "Jeopardy!" has a rare night that surprised even Alex Trebek...
-- Stevie Nicks appears to have officially won the "Dreams" Tik Tok challenge...
-- James Van Der Beek has explained the "drastic changes" that led his family to pull up stakes in Los Angeles and relocate to Texas...
-- Dennis Quaid's son Jack didn't want help from his famous parents...
'West Wing' special debuts Thursday
Brian Lowry emails: "HBO Max’s 'The West Wing' special wasn’t available in advance of its Thursday debut – a bit of a surprise, because the reason behind the stunt is to draw attention to Michelle Obama’s get-out-the-vote organization. Perhaps the re-staging of the episode has generated enough publicity already – see this piece in USA Today – but reducing the number of reviews doesn’t advance the cause."
Billboard Music Awards goes on, sans audience
Chloe Melas emails: "The Billboard Music Awards took place Wednesday with Kelly Clarkson as the host. Despite not having an audience inside the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, Clarkson still brought down the house with a fiery rendition of 'Higher Love' featuring Sheila E. and Pentatonix. 'Tonight is about the way music touches us all because music connects with us in so many ways, no matter who you are it moves us sometimes literally,' Clarkson said. Throughout the night numerous artists took the stage to perform including Alicia Keys, John Legend, Brandy and Luke Combs. Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish led with the most nominations. Eilish took home multiple awards including Top Female Artist..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART EIGHT
-- Showtime is reviving "Dexter" for a limited series... (Deadline)
-- "The 16th season of The Bachelorette premiered to better ratings than its previous cycle, a rather rare occurrence in the early part of the 2020-21 TV season..." (THR)
-- Chloe Melas emails her latest: Demi Lovato spoke to me about her new song "Commander in Chief" which takes aim at President Trump for what she says is his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustices and more... (CNN)
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day!
Retired TV critic Greg Joseph emails: "This is Elliott, who belongs to our daughters Jacqueline and Caroline -- he's named after the dragon in 'Pete's Dragon.' (Okay, he relies on closed-captioning. And yes, we watch CNN too.). Proving once again that TV critics are born, not made."
Journalists and media industry professionals, we want pictures of your furry pals! Submit your pet for Reliable Pet of the Day by emailing us here. Send me your newsletter feedback here. Brian will be back on duty tomorrow...
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