To:
Jackson, Ryan[jackson.ryan@epa.gov]
From: Hadas Gold - POLITICO Media
Sent: Wed 8/16/2017 10:39:15 AM
Subject: Morning Media: Trump's press conference draws outsized coverage - New poll results on trust
in news - AP to avoid using 'alt-right'
By Hadas Gold | 08/16/2017 06:37 AM EDT
With Alex Weprin and Cristiano Lima
WELL, WE HAD BEEN WAITING FOR A PRESS CONFERENCE AND BOY, DID WE GET ONE. President Donald Trump took questions from the media in the lobby of Trump Tower yesterday, a move that several reports suggested was impromptu considering White House officials hadn't said ahead of time that there would be a press conference ("That was all him -- this wasn't our plan," a White House official told CNN's Jeff Zeleny). Trump doubled down on his initial reaction to a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, laying blame on "both sides" and asking why the "alt-left" isn't being held accountable for the violent clashes. Observers from mainstream media outlets and many politicians including Republicans thought the press conference was a mess, and it backtracked on the statement Trump made yesterday directly condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
-- Predictably, the right-wing media loved the press conference though, particularly how Trump bashed the mainstream media and highlighted left-wing violence -- Breitbart's homepage: "Trump on fire: Blast's reporters' handling of Charlottesville violence." Charlie Hurt, opinion editor of The Washington Times, Fox News contributor, Breitbart News contributor, and a Drudge Report editor: "And THIS is why Donald Trump is president." Gateway Pundit: "EPIC! Trump Blasts tiFakeNews Media and Alt-Left Thugs At Trump Tower Presser." Mike Cemovich: " Trump's press conference calls out left wing domestic terrorism." Cassandra Fairbanks: "I have never ever been so pleased with a politician. He just verbally beat their asses while telling the truth."
- - Among mainstream outlets, the presser drew outsized coverage. It dominated coverage all afternoon and evening on cable news and the "CBS Evening News" even dedicated its entire half hour to the presser and the response to it, a move which you almost never see on the usually pressed-for-time network newscasts. All of the networks dedicated extensive time to replaying parts of the presser in full, which is also unusual.
- - Then there was Fox News, the president's favorite cable news channel. Initially the reaction wasn't favorable to Trump. The "Fox News Specialists" hosts, who were on right after the press conference, blasted the presser, with host Kat Timpf even saying she was ready to burst into tears. Laura Ingraham, who is said to be in talks for a program at the channel, even lobbed some criticism at the president. But come primetime, during the host-driven hours, much of the focus was on left-wing violence, the media, and other topics. Sean Hannity seemed to revel in the media reaction: "It was an epic beatdown of the liberal mainstream establishment media they are now in full complete panic meltdown mode,."
BONUS VIDEO - NBC's cameras caught Chief of Staffs John Kelly's reaction during a part of
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the press conference.
HE MAY HAVE DELETED IT BUT THE RETWEET WAS HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR. Just two days after a woman was struck and killed by an alleged white supremacist plowing his car into a group of protestors, Trump retweeted a tweet that appeared to show a cartoon train, labeled "TRUMP" hitting a person with the CNN logo superimposed on their head. The original tweeter of the cartoon said in a tweet that it has no connection to the events in Charlottesville, and that in the cartoon "the reporter is trying to hold the train back. His feet are popping up railroad ties," not being hit by the train. Regardless, a White House official, speaking on background to reporters, said the tweet was "inadvertently posted" and "immediately deleted" when noticed. The first time Trump shared a tweet featuring violence against the CNN logo, (a GIF of himself beating up a person with the CNN logo superimposed on its head), he kept it up and the White House vigorously defended it.
-- But retweets take two clicks, as several people have noted. It's a lot easier to mistakenly hit "like" by accident. When you want to retweet a tweet, on all platforms Twitter pops up a notice giving you the option to "retweet" or to "quote tweet." This isn't the first time Trump has retweeted something and then claimed it was a mistake. In 2015, Trump blamed an intern for manually retweeting a tweet which mocked lowans.
Good morning and welcome to Morning Media! Today is my last day at POLITICO after more than five years. As we announced last week, I'm joining CNN as a correspondent covering European politics, media and global business. I will miss this place, the work and the people here immensely. I want to thank all of you for reading and all for all your tips and comments. I also want to specifically thank Alex Weprin (@alexweprin / alexweprin@gmail.com) for being my guide and editor through my too-short Morning Media tenureship, Cristiano Lima (clima@politico.com / @ludacristiano) for his assistance, Joe Pompeo for showing me the ropes, and all my POLITICO colleagues for their tips and contributions. I hope you'll continue following my work at CNN. My twitter handle will remain the same: @Hadas Gold. Alex Weprin will take the reins from here. Archives. Subscribe.
THE AP IS AVOIDING THE TERM "ALT-RIGHT": "At AP, we have taken the position that the term "alt-right" should be avoided because it is meant as a euphemism to disguise racist aims. So use it only when quoting someone or when describing what the movement says about itself. Enclose the term "alt-right" in quotation marks or use phrasing such as the so-called altright (no quote marks when using the term so-called) or the self-described "alt-right."" More on their explanation here.
NEW POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL: VOTERS TRUST LOCAL NEWS OVER NATIONAL NEWS via POLITICO polling guru Steven Shepard - Voters trust local news over national news and generally perceive their regional media sources as more ideologically balanced, according to a new POLITICO/Moming Consult poll out today. Asked which they trust more to tell them the truth, 41 percent say local news, 27 percent say national news and 32 percent don't have an opinion. Democrats have more faith in national news, saying 39-36 percent they trust it more than their local news. But Republicans (45-21 percent) and independents (41-22 percent) trust local news more by roughly two-to-one margins.
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- - National news outlets are viewed as more liberal: A combined 55 percent say the national news is very or somewhat liberal, compared to only 16 percent who say national news outlets are very or somewhat conservative. Compare that with local news: 40 percent say it's liberal (though only 14 percent say it's very liberal), while 26 percent say they consider local news very or somewhat conservative. Toplines: http://poIiti.co/2uYvRET | Crosstabs:, http://poIiti.co/2uCM7I ,G
THAT NEW YORK TIMES DOCUMENTARY WILL BE ON SHOWTIME: On MondayJL broke in Morning Media that New York Times reporters were being followed around by a documentary crew filming them for a documentary about their reporting on Trump. Now the Hollywood Reporter and CNN are reporting the documentary will air on Showtime, and is being filmed by Liz Garbus for a multipart series.
THE TIMES' JAMES BENNET TO TESTIFY TODAY IN SARAH PALIN DEFAMATION SUIT: At 2 p.m. in New York City the Times' editorial page editor James Bennet will testify regarding an editorial which initially connected the former governor and vice presidential candidate to a shooting which killed six people and severely injured former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. The Times subsequently corrected the editorial.
THE MOOCH DELIVERS FOR COLBERT, via Alex Weprin: Anthony Scaramucci might not have lasted in the White House, but he has a place in late night comedy, if Monday's ratings for CBS' "Late Show" are any indication. Monday's show. Per preliminary Nielsen overnight ratings, Monday's show was the most-watched Monday night ever for the program, and tied an episode from May as the most-watched regular episode of the program since 2015.
- - Speaking of "The Mooch," what does he have planned now? THR's Jeremy Barr suggests that a book or another TV gig could be in his future.
NEW BREITBART NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE FEATURE goes "Down the Breitbart Hole ". The piece takes a sympathetic look at the organization and its editor, Alex Marlow. Written over a lengthy period of time, the author, Wil S. Hylton, notes the divers emakeup of Breitbart's staff, Marlow's own lack of political certitude on many issue Breitbart attaches itself to, and the obsession the rest of the media has with Breitbart, including what he says were incorrect reports that the staff of Breitbart were told to lay off writing about Jared Kushner. Hylton says he sat in on a "dozen" editorial calls during that time period and only heard Marlow asking for "more dirt on Kushner." Also of note: Marlow claims the administration is keeping them at arm's length - he even traveled to Sicily for the G-7 meeting, hoping to interview Trump but the president declined to see him.
REVOLVING DOOR:
-- Adam Bryant, author of The New York Times "Corner Office" column, announced he's leaving the paper after 18 years and over 500 columns penned, our former colleague Joe Pompeo reported.
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- - HuffPost announced that Shelley Venus is taking over its video operations from Charlotte Koh, who's pursuing local media opportunities in Los Angeles.
- - Elle announced a spate of promotions, including columnist R. Eric Thomas moving into a senior writer role and Sally Holmes and Gena Kaufman shifted into roles as executive director of social media and director of special projects, respectively.
- - The Weekly Standard is relaunching NFL writer Gregg Easterbrook's "Tuesday Morning Quarterback," the popular sports column, next Tuesday.
SOUNDBITE: "Honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press would have said what I said was very nice. - excuse me - unlike you and unlike the media, before I make a statement, I like to know the facts." [Donald Trump]
EXTRAS:
-- This week Fox News and The Daily Caller quietly deleted posts from January that appeared to advocate for using cars to run over protesters. [The Daily Beast] The Daily Caller also removed articles and the author page for Jason Kessler, the organizer of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville who had previously written for the site.
-- CNN refused to air a Trump campaign ad that featured an attack on the channel. "CNN would accept the ad if the images of reporters and anchors are removed," a network spokesperson said in a statement. "Anchors and reporters don't have 'enemies,' as the ad states, but they do hold those in power accountable across the political spectrum and aggressively challenge false and misleading statements and investigate wrong-doing." [BuzzFeed News]
-- The Nation is reviewing a story which cast doubt upon the Russian hack of the DNC emails. [Washington Post]
-- Vogue has a big profile on Oprah Winfrey, including details on her new gig as a correspondent for "60 Minutes." [Vogue]
-- According to data from NewsWhip, content from the AP "drove higher total engagement on Facebook than any of the Top 10 individual publishers in June and July." [AP]
-- Marketplace and BBC unveiled a new global business broadcast initiative led by veteran BBC reporter Anu Anand and set to launch Sept. 5 in the U.S. [Current]
-- Have swarming journalists turned the Capitol subway into the epicenter of D.C. politics? [WaPo]
-- "How SB Nation profits off an army of exploited workers." [Deadspin]
-- This tweet by Barack Obama quoting Nelson Mandela became the most liked tweet in Twitter history yesterday. [Twitter]
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