The weekend is here! Oliver Darcy here at 8:08pm ET on Friday, August 12th. Here's the latest on Brian Kilmeade, Salman Rushdie, Jeffrey Toobin, Sumi Aggarwal, Lil Nas X, and more. But first... Weekend reads 😎 |
>> "August, despite its reputation, has never been a slow month for news": Read The New Yorker's Susan Glasser on Trump's "hell week" of news and Biden's "best week yet..." >> Jason Zengerle asks in The New York Times Magazine: "Why isn't Biden ever on TV?" Zengerle notes, "Americans are seeing a lot less of the president than they did of his predecessor. That's partly by design..." >> Politico's Jack Shafer looks at Alex Jones and the "lie economy," arguing that "the incentive to churn out fantasy is more powerful than any defamation suit..." >> NYT's Farhad Manjoo calls it the "wellness-conspiracy industrial complex." Manjoo points out that "the coziness between wellness ideas and conspiracy theories sounds odd, but when you dig into these movements, you find considerable overlap..." >> "Where does Alex Jones go from here?" Charlie Warzel speaks to ex-Infowars employee Josh Owens... >> NYT's Jack Healy has a deep-dive on "Aspen's tangled summer": "Summers in Aspen are usually a breezy idyll of sunny hikes and ice-cream socials....But, lately, a tangled saga of wealth and the free press has become Aspen's summer obsession..." >> The Atlantic's Kaitlyn Tiffany takes a look at the pro-abortion rights group Jane's Revenge, which has become "a prominent bogeyman" in right-wing media... |
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President Biden remains on vacation... "The Princess," a stark documentary about Princess Diana in advance of the 25th anniversary of her death, plays Saturday at 8pm on HBO... The National Press Club holds an event on Sunday marking the 10th anniversary of Austin Tice's abduction in Syria... The season four finale of "Westworld" airs Sunday at 9pm on HBO... The premiere of "Tales of the Walking Dead" airs 9pm on AMC... |
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Weekend reads, part two >> Don't miss NY Mag's series on Elon Musk, including Devin Gordon's piece in which he read every single tweet the billionaire has ever sent to better understand him... >> Wired's Steven Levy writes about how "Silicon Valley conservatives are stepping out of the shadows..." >> WSJ reporters Sam Schechner, Miles Kruppa and Evan Gershkovich examine "how YouTube keeps broadcasting inside Russia's digital Iron Curtain..." >> CJR's Mathew Ingram tackles "the future of data privacy" after a week dominated by headlines about Facebook and abortion... >> The Cut's Allison P. Davis looks at Tinder as the app prepares to turn 10-years-old: "It's now clear Tinder has become the dating air, or maybe the pollution, we all breathe..." >> Jennifer Miller argues in The Atlantic that "close friends" is the "last good thing" on Instagram... | |
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This Sunday on "Reliable Sources" BY BRIAN STELTER: "Reliable" was the most-watched program on CNN last Sunday, topping Fox and MSNBC in the 25-54 demo. That was all thanks to you! Join us this Sunday to hear from GOP pollster Neil Newhouse; Jezebel editor in chief Laura Bassett; CNN contributor John Dean; National Press Club executive director Bill McCarren; media mogul Byron Allen; and more great guests TBA. 11am ET on CNN... |
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-- Details revealed from the Mar-a-Lago search warrant documents are leading virtually every major news site, heading into the weekend. CNN's banner homepage headline reads, "DOJ took 11 sets of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago..." (CNN) -- It did not go unnoticed that the first outlets to obtain the docs were Breitbart and Murdoch's Fox News and Wall Street Journal. MSNBC producer Sam Henneberry put it like this: "Really scratching my head wondering how Fox, Breitbart, and the Wall Street Journal all got the Mar-a-lago raid warrant at the same time..." (Twitter) -- Law & Crime editor Adam Klasfeld on Breitbart's story: "This [is the] biggest buried lede in history. Breitbart runs an 'Exclusive'—with a headline everyone learned yesterday. Then, in an update some 15 paragraphs in, indicates one of the statutes on an attachment of the Mar-a-Lago warrant was the Espionage Act..." (Twitter) |
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ON A RELATED NOTE... Breitbart publishes names of FBI agents involved in search Breitbart tried covering for Trump in its story, but it gave no cover to the FBI agents involved in the search of Mar-a-Lago. The right-wing outlet, which has had close ties to Trump since he ran for office in 2016, published the names of two FBI agents whose names were on the search warrant. The version of the warrant released by the court redacted the identifies of the agents, but the version that outlets like Breitbart obtained did not. Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow did not respond when I asked him about the decision. But the move comes as the FBI faces an "unprecedented" number of threats, as CNN's Josh Campbell, Jessica Schneider, and Donie O'Sullivan report here... |
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Right-wing media is framing him as a liberal, but... The judge presiding over the case pertaining to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago, Bruce Reinhart, has been portrayed by some in right-wing media as a far-left activist who donated to former President Barack Obama. But, as CNN's Andrew Kaczynski pointed out, Reinhart also previously donated to Republican Jeb Bush. And, perhaps more interestingly, Reinhart contributed analysis to the right-wing channel Newsmax, which is now busy characterizing him as a liberal. Kaczynski did a quick search and discovered 12 appearances the judge made on NewsMax, including one in which he discussed the issue of classified info on Hillary Clinton's email server. In fact, in his appearance commenting on Clinton, Reinhart said she'd be in trouble for having classified info... >> Of note, some outlets previously refrained from naming Reinhart, but are doing so now. CNN's reporting included this explanation: "CNN previously did not name Reinhart because of the security concerns, but is doing so now because his name is now part of the public court record..." |
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National Archives pours cold water on Fox narrative Over the last few days on Fox News, you may have heard the network's personalities suggest Trump taking documents to Mar-a-Lago wasn't that big of a deal because Obama did it too. "Obama took 30 million documents back to Chicago for his library," host Jesse Watters said earlier this week. On Friday, host Brian Kilmeade wondered, "Where's the 30 million documents with Obama admin – Obama has 30 million documents!" This, of course, was the same narrative Trump advanced as well. On Friday afternoon, the National Archives responded with a statement pouring cold water on the narrative. It said that it "assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act." The National Archives added that it "maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility" and that Obama "has no control over where and how NARA stores" the records... |
Kilmeade: Photoshopped image of judge only shown "in jest"! BY ALEX KOPPELMAN: News outlets get a lot of things wrong. We screw up, we run dumb stories, we make silly mistakes. That doesn't happen because we don't care about getting it right, or try to -- we care, deeply, and we work really hard at it through complicated and time-consuming processes most of the public doesn't even know about. It happens because news outlets are staffed by people, and people on the whole -- even the smartest, most competent people -- screw up and do dumb stuff and make silly mistakes.
And then on the other hand, there's Fox News, which on a regular basis goes out and reminds everyone of how little it seems to care about getting things right.
The latest example: While subbing for Tucker Carlson Thursday night, and amid all the hatred already being directed at the magistrate judge who signed the warrant allowing the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago, Brian Kilmeade showed what he called an "embarrassing" picture of the judge "getting cozy" with Ghislaine Maxwell. Except it was, pretty obviously, a photo of Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein, with the judge's face photoshopped in over Epstein's. (To his credit, as Kilmeade tossed to him, Sean Hannity pointed out what the picture actually showed, though he didn't outright say Kilmeade was wrong.)
On Friday, Kilmeade tweeted out a non-apology: "Last night while subbing for Tucker Carlson, we showed you an image of Judge Bruce Reinhart w/ Ghislaine Maxwell that was sourced on screen to a meme pulled from Twitter & wasn't real. This depiction never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest." |
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-- "With its audience of as many as 3 million viewers a weeknight for some of its prime-time programs, Fox also essentially handed the platform over to voices from MAGA world to stoke the anger against the FBI, Justice Department and White House," David Zurawik writes... (CNN)
-- BlazeTV host: "People are realizing what I've been noticing all along. The line between BlazeTV, between Fox News and Infowars, is getting blurred in the most healthy way possible..." (MMFA)
-- Meanwhile: Alex Jones' Infowars "has seen its sales soar since his Sandy Hook defamation trial," Rachel Sharp reports... (Independent)
-- While visiting family this week in Omaha, Jones was confronted by a woman who spoke to him under the guise of pretending to be a journalist... (Lincoln Journal Star) |
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WaPo Sunday print issue to spotlight Tice case WaPo's Sunday print issue will feature a special cover wrap, marking 10 years since Austin Tice was taken into captivity in Syria. In addition, the paper will, for the first time, launch a side-wide messaging campaign designed to rally readers to "Ask About Austin" and keep attention on his case. It's all part of the #BringAustinHome campaign the outlet has promoted all week... >> On Friday evening, Deborah and Marc Tice published this op-ed in WaPo: "Biden wants our son freed. How long will it take for his administration to act?" |
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Rushdie in surgery Famed author Salman Rushdie was in surgery on Friday evening after being attacked and stabbed onstage at an event in western New York. Rushdie was airlifted from the scene and taken to a hospital. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul credited a state trooper for having saved his life." CNN has the latest here... Attacker ID'd Police have ID'd a 24-year-old from nearby New Jersey as the suspect in the attack. They're working with federal authorities to try to determine a motive and are in progress of obtaining search warrants for electronics found at the scene... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE |
-- Gannett "executed a round of layoffs Friday, a week after the company announced its second quarter results: a loss of $54 million on revenues of $749 million," Angela Fu reports... (Poynter)
-- Center for Investigative Reporting COO Annie Chabel and EIC Sumi Aggarwal have resigned, "one month after the news organization's new CEO implemented a round of layoffs," Steven Perlberg reports... (Insider) -- "Former Virginia Lt. Governor Justin E. Fairfax has filed a $35 million lawsuit against New York Public Radio ... for comments made during an August 2021 episode of its syndicated public radio show 'The Takeaway...'" (Inside Radio) |
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Toobin to depart CNN after 20 years as legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin announced Friday that he will depart CNN, putting an end to a two-decade run in which he earned passionate fans and passionate critics for his no-holds-barred commentary, most recently as chief legal analyst. "Friends, I've decided that, after 20 years, I'm leaving [CNN] after my vacation," Toobin wrote on Twitter. "Was great to spend my last day on air with pals Wolf [Blitzer], Anderson [Cooper] and Don [Lemon]." Toobin, who returned to CNN after briefly being sidelined for inadvertently exposing himself on Zoom, added, "Love all my former colleagues." He did not respond to a request seeking further detail on his decision to exit the network. But, in his tweet, Toobin teased his next nonfiction work about the Oklahoma City bombing, which is due out in 2023. Here's my full story... >> A CNN spokesperson said: "We are grateful for Jeffrey's contributions to the network over the years and wish him all the best in his future endeavors..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR |
-- Longtime SCOTUS reporter Lawrence Hurley is leaving Reuters... (Twitter)
-- Louis Pierre Anderson-Morshead has joined NYT in "a newly created role of SVP of workplace experience..." (NYT) |
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Anne Heche "brain dead"
BY SANDRA GONZALEZ AND CHLOE MELAS:
One week after a fiery car crash, Anne Heche is "brain dead" but remains on life support, according to a statement from her family and friends. "We have lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend," the statement read. Heche has not been taken off life support, according to the representative, so they have time to determine if she is a match for organ donation. "It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable," the family said. Here's our full story... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE |
-- "Dr. Phil" has laid off 25 staffers ahead of season 21's return, Michael Schneider reports... (Variety) -- Helen Hoehne has been re-elected as president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association... (THR) |
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Some movies stream for a reason BY BRIAN LOWRY: While the decision to shift movies from theatrical premieres straight to streaming is sometimes puzzling, there's little mystery around "Secret Headquarters," a Paramount movie about teen superheroes that feels a lot more like Disney Channel fare than Marvel. One suspects that it was the involvement of producer Jerry Bruckheimer that spurred theatrical plans, before cooler heads shifted the project to Paramount+. Here's my full review... >> Elsewhere in streaming, Jamie Foxx plays a vampire-hunting dad in Netflix's action-comedy "Day Shift," which barely deserves to see the light of day... |
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-- The music video for Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" has surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube... (Variety)
-- Sienna Miller and Sam Worthington will join Kevin Costner in "Horizon..." (Deadline)
-- Netflix has renewed "Love, Death and Robots" for a fourth season... (THR)
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"I don't feel rivalry" The "Lord of the Rings" TV writers spoke eat the Television Critic Association's summer press tour on Friday -- and were inevitably asked about comparisons people will make between their forthcoming series and the "Game of Thrones" prequel being released by HBO. Showrunner Patrick McKay said that while they "talked about this a lot," they "don't think of the show in terms of what genre or other shows might be out there." And Actor Robert Aramayo added, "I don't feel rivalry .. the materials are so different." THR's James Hibberd has more here... |
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LAST BUT NOT LEAST... Pet of the day! Reader Grace emails: "Sister & brother, Prue & Groucho chill-axing from a jam packed day full of love, play, & togetherness. The abandoned kittens were found by my daughter, Chloe, huddled together in a California culvert over July Fourth weekend near a campsite. Chloe, along with help from a park ranger & a local animal rescuer, was able to bring these 2 delightful kittens back home into our lives & for the last 3 weeks both they & we have been thriving!"
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Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback. We'll be back on Sunday... |
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