Good morning! Here's the latest on Netflix, Melania Trump, Bret Baier, Press Forward, TMZ, and "Call Her Daddy..." |
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
Donald Trump's TV strategy has been a source of intrigue in recent days. He taped a very friendly town hall on Fox News (scroll down for a scoop about that one) and took some tougher questions at a town hall on Univision. He chatted with his friend Maria Bartiromo and sparred with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. But he also backed out of an interview with "60 Minutes" – passing up a chance to reach millions of viewers on CBS – and cancelled a planned visit to CNBC's "Squawk Box."
Overnight, I learned of another planned Trump interview that was suddenly scrapped. NBC News thought it had secured a sit-down with Trump to discuss the economy and other matters, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. The interview was expected to take place in Philadelphia on Monday and correspondent Christine Romans (a CNN alum) was set to be the interviewer, I'm told. But then it was called off by the Trump team.
The interview was "postponed," one of the sources said, and NBC is in discussions to reschedule it...
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Baier v. Harris, the day after |
>> My two cents about the Fox interview: Kamala Harris essentially walked into a Trump campaign field office and said "ask me anything." Since Trump refused to debate again, Harris did the next best thing for her campaign and debated Bret Baier.
>> Fox's coverage afterward was overwhelmingly negative. "KAMALA JUST IMPLODED," Jesse Watters' show claimed. "Desperate times, they call for desperate measures at the Harris campaign," Sean Hannity said. Numerous shows portrayed Harris as angry and played up the fact that campaign aides gave Baier a wrap signal, which is perfectly common during an interview with a newsmaker.
>> Oliver Darcy says Fox gained more from the interview than Harris because "the network wants nothing more than to present Baier, a conservative broadcaster who has a history of being sympathetic to Trump's lies, as a down-the-middle newsman."
>> But the Harris campaign believes she scored some points. Its rapid response unit pushed out lots of clips on X and Instagram afterward, including this one showing Trump being favorably treated on Fox versus Harris being grilled.
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Going on Fox served "two purposes," Harris spokesman Ian Sams told me on Vanity Fair's "Inside the Hive" podcast. Harris cited Fox's high ratings and asserted "there are a lot of undecided voters who watch;" and he said the Fox audience "frankly often gets fed a bunch of crap," so Harris wanted them to "hear from her directly."
>> Sams, speaking before the interview was taped, said the VP's willingness to go on Fox showed that "she's tough, she's strong, she can go toe-to-toe with adversarial people, and Donald Trump's weak and withdrawn and retreating to his comfort zone." (The full podcast episode will be out later this morning.)
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Fox's town hall of mirrors |
Fox's all-women, pre-taped town hall with Trump was closer to a PR event than a journalistic one. "The right-wing network did not disclose that the female audience it selected for the event was packed with local Republican supporters and it edited its broadcast to remove some of their vocal support," Hadas Gold and Liam Reilly report. This is all the more notable because Fox hyped the fact that its Harris interview was "unedited" and because Trump raged at CBS over its edits of the Harris "60 Minutes" sit-down.
>> 🔌 Gold will be on "CNN Newsroom" in the 10 a.m. ET hour with more info.
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Understanding "the pipeline" |
NBC's Brandy Zadrozny is out with a remarkable "window into the disinformation pipeline: where the most successful false claims originate and how they spread." She shows how Russian disinfo is reaching the U.S. and in some cases finding "enormous American audiences, top political influencers and even members of Congress." Check it out here...
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Melania Trump's memoir was generally panned by critics, but it was purchased by enough book buyers to catapult it up to #1 on the NYT's weekly nonfiction best seller list. The late Lisa Marie Presley's memoir landed at #2, while Chris Wallace's "Countdown 1960" and Jason Schreier's "Play Nice" also debuted on the list...
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First "Price of Power" excerpts |
Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of The Associated Press, is beginning to roll out his book "The Price of Power," a biography on Mitch McConnell based in part on the Senate Republican leader's personal oral histories. The AP published the first excerpts this morning. The headline: "McConnell called Trump 'stupid' and 'despicable' in private after the 2020 election."
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Welcome to Netflix earnings day |
Shares of Netflix are flirting with all-time highs. When the company reports Q3 earnings after the closing bell today, here's what investors and analysts will be asking, according to Business Insider's Lucia Moses: "Where will future revenue come from?" "How is advertising going?" "Are price increases coming?" "What's happening with games?" And "what's next?"
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K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service/Getty Images |
Liam Reilly writes: A judge on Tuesday sentenced Robert Telles to 28 years to life in prison for the 2022 murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German. Here is the paper's full report by Katelyn Newberg.
>> "There is relief in the Las Vegas Review-Journal's offices because Robert Telles finally is headed to prison, hopefully for the rest of his life," Glenn Cook, the Review-Journal's executive editor, told CNN in a statement. "His steadfast refusal to accept responsibility or show a hint of remorse for the barbaric murder of Jeff German should ensure he is never paroled. We'll never forget Jeff. His killing remains an immeasurable loss for his family, friends, colleagues and community, and for journalism itself."
>> The National Press Club called the sentencing "a decisive victory for press freedom" and said "if you try to silence a journalist with violence, you will be arrested, convicted, and sentenced to the full extent of the law."
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>> Let's begin with some good news: "Press Forward, the philanthropic coalition with a mission to inject at least $500 million into local news over five years, announced $20 million in grants to 205 small local newsrooms" across the U.S., Sophie Culpepper reports. (Nieman Lab)
>> CBS News boss Wendy McMahon "will meet with Paramount’s future leaders David Ellison and Jeff Shell" today, Dylan Byers reports. (Puck)
>> "Bankrupt sports broadcaster Diamond Sports Group is seeking court permission to re-brand its network of Bally Sports local channels to FanDuel under a naming rights deal with the betting giant,” Jonathan Randles reports. (Bloomberg)
>> David Buttle writes that Microsoft’s launch of Copilot Daily marks “the first time these capabilities have been deployed in a news context by a major AI developer, with financials attached for the content creators.” (Press Gazette)
>> "The new Unrivaled women's basketball 3-on-3 league will have its games broadcast on TNT and its sports platforms," Doug Feinberg reports. (AP)
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"We are heartbroken by the sad passing of Liam Payne," X Factor UK posted on X. "He was immensely talented and, as part of One Direction, Liam will leave a lasting legacy on the music industry and fans around the world." Here is CNN's latest reporting on the star's tragic death in Buenos Aires.
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Elizabeth Wagmeister writes: In a questionable editorial decision, TMZ published photos of parts of Payne's dead body when the tabloid posted news of the former One Direction star's sudden death. TMZ's original story included cropped photos of Payne's arm and torso seen on the deck at the Buenos Aires hotel where he died.
TMZ later said it used the photos (showing tattoos on his body) to confirm early reports of his death, but at the time TMZ published the story, Argentinian authorities had already announced Payne's death. As outrage mounted, the photos were removed from TMZ's article, without any correction or editor's note.
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>> Elon Musk has poured nearly $75 million into his own super PAC in a big push to help elect Trump. (CNN)
>> The FTC is "taking action against subscriptions that are difficult to get rid of," Emma Roth reports. (The Verge)
>> BookTok update: ByteDance "made an initial move into publishing digital books last year," Alexandra Alter reports, noting that the "company's publishing imprint, 8th Note Press, is planning to significantly expand its retail footprint by publishing print editions and selling them in physical bookstores." (NYT)
>> Amazon has announced "its first color Kindle e-reader following years of effort to bring the more immersive device to market," Greg Bensinger reports. (Reuters)
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Tinseltown's production blues |
"Los Angeles' film permitting office is ringing the alarm about low production levels after shooting in the region saw another decline," THR's Winston Cho reports, noting that "the three-month period from July to September logged the weakest quarter so far this year, slipping five percent to roughly 5,000 shoot days."
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>> I learned a lot from James Hibberd's THR cover story about "Call Her Daddy" star Alex Cooper. (THR)
>> "Cynthia Erivo is speaking out against ‘Wicked’ fans who used photoshop to edit one of the recent posters for the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical," Zack Sharf reports. (Variety)
>> Neon says "audiences will get the chance to relive the horror sensation ‘Longlegs’ in theaters nationwide from Wednesday, October 23rd through Halloween." (BoxOfficePro)
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