TGIT. Here's the latest on "60 Minutes," Univision, Shari Redstone, Sean Combs, OpenAI, Derek Jeter, and much more... |
Television correspondents covering hurricanes are often guilty of saying "evacuate!" while standing right in harms' way. But last night's coverage of Hurricane Milton's landfall showed why the wind-blown field reports are so valuable. Milton made landfall in "prime time," so to speak, and viewers were able to witness the powerful effects of storm surge inundation in real time. Reporters like CNN's Carlos Suarez in Fort Myers, NBC's Jesse Kirsch in Sarasota, and The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore in Charlotte Harbor showed the surge on camera with the help of ace photojournalists and engineers.
>> On CNN, Anderson Cooper anchored for much of the night from Bradenton – and sparked worried messages from viewers on the occasions his live shot signal was interrupted.
>> Drones are changing the way we bear witness to natural disasters. After the Tropicana Field roof was torn to shreds, drone operators were able to record amazing aerial views of the damage.
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This morning Tampa Bay Times reporters are standing outside their office building in St. Petersburg, where a crane collapsed last night, leaving a "gaping hole" in the building. Thankfully none of the Times staffers were there when it happened.
It's too early to have a full view of the damage done by Milton, and cautious anchors and editors have made that clear. The all-caps headline on the Sarasota Herald-Tribune website this morning was "EARLY IMPACT," reflecting the uncertainty of the moment. As the day goes on, we'll learn more about the impacts of the storm surge and flooding, as well as yesterday's tornado outbreak.
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Fox Weather's winning strategy |
Something I'm keeping an eye on: Fox Weather is emerging as a serious rival to The Weather Channel. Fox is building out its weather programming, simulcasting the coverage on Fox News at times, and hiring Weather Channel veterans. Mike Seidel, a 30-year veteran of The Weather Channel, joined the network in August. Other key hires have included Bob Van Dillen, a 20-year veteran of HLN, and Bryan Norcross, one of the foremost hurricane specialists in the business. The investments are evident on the air; last night, for example, the three-year-old network was just as compelling as The Weather Channel, if not more so.
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Hadas Gold writes: Univision moderator Enrique Acevedo will not fact check Kamala Harris or Donald Trump on stage during their upcoming town halls with the Spanish-language network. Acevedo "will be a guardian of time, keep the rhythms, and highlight the questioners," Univision said in a statement. Instead, the network plans to fact check the candidates after the broadcasts and during an October 17 special on the town halls called “Después de las respuestas,” or "After the answers.” A network spokesperson told CNN the fact checking decision was not a condition for any candidate's participation. The Harris event is tonight; the Trump event was postponed until October 16 due to Milton...
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Trump rules out debate rematch |
With CNN's October 23 debate offer already on the table, Fox News wrote to both campaigns on Wednesday and offered to host one in Pennsylvania on the 24th or the 27th. The Harris campaign confirmed receiving the invite, and I believe Harris would have accepted Fox's offer if CNN's 12 p.m. Thursday deadline came and went without Trump's agreement to participate.
In other words, Harris would have said, "OK, meet me on Fox." Whether that's a sign of confidence or desperation on her part can be debated. But it appears to be a moot point because Trump very bluntly said "THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH" on Wednesday night. A Trump campaign aide then confirmed to me that his message was meant to rule out a Fox debate.
So... that's it. Trump and Harris have so much more to debate, but Trump won't do it. Is he making a savvy campaign calculation? We can all debate that in a month.
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Political media notes and quotes |
>> Trump "aggressively lashed out at CBS News on Wednesday, alleging the network's '60 Minutes' favorably edited its televised interview with VP Kamala Harris to make her sound better," Sean Craig reports. (Daily Beast)
>> A few minutes ago Trump wrote on Truth Social: "TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE. Election Interference." CBS is declining to comment on the matter. (X)
>> Nicholas Quah writes that "it makes strategic sense for both campaigns to turn to podcasts" since "they are merely meeting persuadable voters where they actually are.” (Vulture)
>> Seema Mehta says "the heightened focus on nontraditional media is the latest iteration of microtargeting, efforts by campaigns to reach specific blocs of voters.” (LAT)
>> Speaking of... Last night a Tim Walz rally was live-streamed on Twitch. An influencer simultaneously played "World of Warcraft" and commented on Walz's speech. Mediaite says the stream didn't generate many viewers, however. (WIRED)
>> Trump's appearance on the comedy podcast "FLAGRANT" is worth watching. You see a different side of the former president, so to speak. The host laughed when Trump called himself "basically a truthful person." (The Hill)
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Liam Reilly writes: Right now Shari Redstone is saying one thing and the executives in charge of her network are saying another. On Wednesday afternoon, CBS president and CEO George Cheeks backed the CBS News C-suite's handling of the fallout around Tony Dokoupil's controversial Ta-Nehisi Coates interview. Cheeks called his news chief Wendy McMahon "an outstanding, accomplished leader."
Cheeks' statement was necessary because Redstone publicly criticized McMahon (though not by name) a few hours earlier. In an on-stage interview with Sara Fischer, Redstone said she believed Dokoupil did a "great job" and the executives made a "bad mistake" by saying the interview didn't meet CBS standards.
"I think we all agree that this was not handled correctly, and we all agree that something needs to be done," the Paramount heiress said, adding that she'd "been working with the CEOs." So what will "be done?" "Many within the media ruling class acknowledged that McMahon probably could not have handled this any worse," Puck's Dylan Byers writes. Cheeks' statement notwithstanding, it remains to be seen whether CBS News leadership will escape unscathed amid this public debacle.
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>> From Al Jazeera: “Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi has been injured by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza, becoming the second Al Jazeera cameraman to be injured in an Israeli attack this week.”
>> "In a surprise move, Apple and Amazon have cut a deal that will bring the Apple TV+ streaming service to Amazon's Prime Video channels," Alex Weprin writes. (THR)
>> "Ken Jautz, a key senior CNN executive who played a critical role in both making the news giant run properly and developing some of its best known personalities, will leave" in the coming months, Brian Steinberg reports. Thank you for everything, Ken! (Variety)
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SDNY denies Sean Combs' leak claim |
Last night, attorneys for Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a motion accusing the government of leaking a video of the hip-hop mogul beating his former girlfriend to CNN. They did not provide evidence for their claims. Hours later, Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York wrote to the judge that "the government was not in possession of the video before its publication by CNN," so there is no "factual basis" for Combs' assertion. Kara Scannell has more here.
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>> A new report from OpenAI shows that “propagandists seeking to influence elections around the globe have tried to use ChatGPT in their operations,” Kevin Collier writes. (NBC News)
>> The Authors Guild "is teaming with a new start-up, Created by Humans, to help writers license rights to their books to artificial intelligence companies," Alexandra Alter writes. (NYT)
>> Discord with Discord: “Russia has moved to ban Discord, a popular platform for real-time communication, drawing ire from the Russian military that has extensively used the app to coordinate units on the battlefield in Ukraine," Mary Ilyushina reports. (Wash Post)
>> “A group of Wikipedia editors have formed WikiProject AI Cleanup, ‘a collaboration to combat the increasing problem of unsourced, poorly-written AI-generated content on Wikipedia,’” Emanuel Maiberg reports. (404 Media)
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“Since last year, X has shared ad revenue with creators based on how many verified users see ads in replies to their posts, The Verge's Jay Peters writes. Going forward, the company says it will pay creators based on "engagement with your content from Premium users."
"If I had to guess, what will really happen is that Premium users will show up in replies even more than they already are," Peters writes...
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Weekend box office projections |
“In what's expected to be a David vs. Goliath situation at the weekend box office between indies and a major Hollywood studio, Cineverse's unrated slasher gory horror movie 'Terrifier 3' is looking to gross $11M+ this weekend — if not more, completely pushing Warner Bros' bomb 'Joker: Folie à Deux' out of the top spot," Anthony D’Alessandro writes.
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>> Derek Jeter has launched a production company "which he hopes will take full advantage of the burgeoning interest in sports-related content from TV channels and streaming services." (THR)
>> THR asks: "Did Zachary Levi Just Commit 'Career Suicide'? Or Was Endorsing Trump a Lifeline?"
>> A Broadway Rallies fundraiser for Harris next week will feature an A-List cast, including Whoopi Goldberg, Anne Hathaway, Kelli O’Hara, and. Kristin Chenoweth, Marc Malkin writes. (Variety)
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