To:
Jackson, Ryan[jackson.ryan@epa.gov]
From: Hadas Gold - POLITICO Media
Sent: Wed 7/26/2017 9:41:25 AM
Subject: Morning Media: Conservative media breaks with Trump over Sessions - I JR splits from IMGE -
N.Y. Times departure lounge
By Hadas Gold | 07/26/2017 05:39 AM EDT
With Alex Weprin and Cristiano Lima
FOR KEEN OBSERVERS OF THE RIGHT WING/CONSERVATIVE MEDIA LANDSCAPE the past couple of days have been notable. Notable, because many on the right are unhappy with President Donald Trump's latest attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In his most recent interview with The Wall Street Journal (where editor-in-chief Gerard Baker is the lead byline), Trump declined to offer a vote of confidence in Sessions, who was the first Senator to endorse Trump during the campaign. He even said Sessions probably only endorsed him because of his big rally crowds, "So it's not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement."
-- The likes of Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh, among others, did not take well to such criticisms. Sessions, with his tough talk on sanctuary cities, the border wall and immigration has been a favorite of the right leaning media for a long time. It was jarring in a way to see several stories on Breitbart blasting Trump for attacking sessions, with one article saying the "Attack on Sessions over Clinton Prosecution Highlights [Trump's] Own 'Weak' Stance," another article noting that "[Pat] Buchanan, [Ann] Coulter, Other Voices of the Right Cry Out in Dismay as Trump Steps Up Attacks on Sessions." Another piece by Washington editor Matt Boyle called Sessions "A Man Who Embodies the Movement That Elected Donald Trump President," noted that Sessions "burned his own bridges" to help Trump's campaign and that Sessions "stood by Trump through it all."
"Losing Sessions could endanger the administration and the split the critical coalition that helped Trump to the presidency," Boyle warned.
Now we're also learning from the New York. Times that Coulter stopped by the Oval office and railed to Trump that he needed to focus more on his supporters. And Sessions is due to announce "a number of criminal leak investigations based on news accounts of sensitive intelligence information," the Washington Post reports.
THERE'S ALREADY ONE CASUALTY OF THE ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI ERA at the White House: Assistant Press Secretary Marc Short. My colleague Tara Paimeri scooped on Tuesday morning that Scaramucci planned to fire Short at the morning meeting. But the move was delayed and Scaramucci confusingly told reporters he was "upset" that Short would find out about any changes to his employment through the media (though Scaramucci himself told POLITICO that was the plan). Short resigned by Tuesday afternoon. Scaramucci told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday evening that he'll spend next few weeks reviewing and possibly restructuring the White House press office, adding "if the leaks continue then I've got to let everybody go."
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Good morning and welcome to Morning Media! I always want to hear from you -- hgold@politico.com / @Hadas Gold. Morning Media is edited by Alex Weprin (@alexweprin / aweprin@politico.com) and produced with writing/reporting help from Cristiano Lima, (clima@politico.com / @Iudacristiano). Archives. Subscribe.
INDEPENDENT JOURNAL REVIEW'S PARENT COMPANY MEDIA GROUP OF AMERICA HAS OFFICIALLY SPLIT FROM IMGE, the Republican digital media and ad firm. The relationship between the two has always put a damper on IJR's ideals that it was editorially independent, especially when people who are so closely aligned to Republican politics and the Trump administration were investors and directly involved in IMGE. But now the site says they're free and completely divested, with IJR founder Alex Skatell staying with Media Group of America, which will focus only on media companies, most notably IJR. Meanwhile Axios notes that IMGE has now hired Bryan Sanders, husband of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
COMEDY CENTRAL SHOW TO TAKE ON THE 'ALT-RIGHT,' by Alex Weprin: Comedy Central has announced details about its new 11:30 p.m. program, which will follow "The Daily Show." While "The Colbert Report" parodied cable news pundits like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, the new program hosted by Jordan Klepper, "The Opposition," will mock altright figures such as Alex Jones. "I think we were inspired by those points of view. I'm a midwestemer. I would like to see my [character] as an Alex Jones meets Garrison Keillor," Klepper told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Los Angeles. His show will follow "The Daily Show" starting Sept. 25.
-In other Comedy Central news, the channel has ordered more episodes of "The President Show," which currently airs once per week at 11:30 p.m. The show, hosted by comedian Anthony Atamanuik as "Donald Trump," will move to midnight once Klepper's show starts.
SOUNDBITE: "Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and the Internet. To hell with them." [John McCain]
AT&T-TIME WARNER TIE UP ON TRACK, by Alex Weprin: Despite concern that President Trump might try to torpedo the deal, AT&T told its shareholders on Tuesday that it is on track to close its acquisition of CNN and HBO parent company Time Warner by the end of this year. The company added that the "merger planning process [is] approaching completion," meaning that the company now has a good idea of how it will be organized and what staffing changes would need to occur once the deal is approved.
NEW YORK TIMES DEPARTURE LOUNGE: A slew of Times stalwarts have taken buyouts. Among them: Bruce Headlam, an editor in the opinion section (Headlam was also featured in the documentary film "Page One" when he was media editor), Charles Duhigg, who's been in charge or live events, former Jerusalem bureau chief Ian Fisher and defense reporter Chris Drew.
-- Headlam told me after he leaves he'll be working on a new project with Malcolm Gladwell, a company that will be "doing digital journalism in a lot of different forms," "an
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empty vessel for interesting things" including some writing, visual and audio journalism. There's no name just yet.
REVOLVING DOOR:
-- After just three months as Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Post, Gabby Morronogiello is returning to the Washington Examiner as a White House reporter. Steve Nelson is also joining the Examiner's White House team, he comes from U.S. News & World Report. More here.
TIL: You will soon be able to seamlessly incorporate a Taco Bell run into your Lyft ride via their app and this is genius because I am obsessed with Taco Bell. [The Verge]
CORRECTION: In yesterday's edition I wrote that Jason Leopold is with Vice. He's been with BuzzFeed now for months. Apologies!
EXTRAS:
-- ABC News and digital media company ATTN are partnering up to co-produce original social media video content. [ATTN]
-- MSNBC had its first weekday primetime ratings victory, but Fox News still won the total week. [The Wrap]
-- Ok, who wants to buy Gawker.com? The domain and all the old articles from the defunct website are going up for sale. [WSJ]
- - Time Inc. is putting three of its magazines up for sale: Golf, Coastal Living and Sunset. [Bloomberg]
- - Nielsen is adding data from Hulu and Youtube TV into its TV ratings measurement system. [Variety]
- - Fox was hit with another big lawsuit, this time by one of the execs accused of harassment. [The Hollywood Reporter]
- - People are mad that Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps didn't actually race a great white shark during Discovery Channel's Shark Week. [Variety]
-- Twitter faces congressional backlash after reportedly blocking users from posting an article critical of U.S. net neutrality laws -- they say it was a tlich [Recode]
- - "Guardian and News Corp to press ahead with ad alliance talks" [Financial Times]
--Viacom is said to be offering an all cash bid to acquire Scripps Networks, the owner of Food Network and HGTV. [Reuters]
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