Wednesday, September 28, 2022

You're halfway through the week. Scroll down to read about the latest on Hurricane Ian and how news networks keep their crews safe. Plus, the latest on Fast Company's hack, Twitter's advertiser backlash, and Katie Couric's Cancer fight. But first, the A1.

THE A1

CNN Illustration/Penguin Press

Maggie Haberman's highly anticipated magnum opus on Donald Trump is less than a week away -- and the book is already making waves. Several news stories based on reporting from the book were published Wednesday in advance of its release. (See here, here, and here.) While the book contains a mountain of explosive political reporting, it is also packed with several media-related stories. Here are four previously-unreported excerpts I obtained:

► Trump Berates Stephanopoulos: Haberman offers a behind-the-scenes look into a stunning episode that took place after George Stephanopoulos interviewed then-candidate Trump in 2016 and asked about Russia and his relationship with Vladimir Putin. "Once the cameras turned off, storm clouds came over Trump's face," Haberman writes.

"Trump summoned an ABC producer into a small area away from the cameras, where Trump was surrounded by Secret Service agents, and snarled, 'That was bullshit,'" Haberman reports. "The producer, John Santucci, asked which part of the interview he meant. 'Russia,' Trump replied. 'Eight fucking follow-ups—are you fucking kidding me?' he thundered. 'It's like asking me if I beat my wife. You ask me once, I say 'Fuck no,' and we move on. You don't then ask if I hit her with a fucking baseball bat or a fucking golf club! That was bullshit and you better fucking fix it in the edit.'"

"Then Trump called for Stephanopoulos to join them," Haberman continues. "When Trump mentioned Russia, Stephanopoulos chuckled, saying, 'I know, my team says I didn't ask you enough about it.' Trump exploded. 'Are you fucking kidding me! Eighteen fucking follow-ups—how many different ways do I have to say I don't know the guy?' he said, before eventually stalking off." ABC News declined to comment to me on the matter.

► Trump, the New York Post, and Melania's Nudes: Haberman reports that the day after Trump taped the Stephanopoulos interview, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post published decades-old nude photos of Melania Trump. But Trump's reaction wasn't what one might expect. "Trump, asked about the photos for the Post story accompanying them, had none of his typical bluster," Haberman writes. "'This was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and common,' he said. Inside the tabloid's newsroom, the understanding was the photos had been obtained directly from the photographer."

The next day, Jason Miller appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources." "Trump called Miller early that day, asking if he had gotten many inquiries about the pictures," Haberman reports. "'Not really,' Miller said. Most reporters would ignore them, he told Trump, treating them as tabloid material unfit for serious coverage. 'Well, if you get asked about the photos, I want you to say this,' Trump said, beginning to dictate a statement. 'Say, 'It was a different time, sensibilities in Europe are different, they're artistic.'' Trump also directed Miller to call the shots 'tasteful' and to point out that they were taken before the candidate had met his wife." Miller did just that on "Reliable." A spokesperson for the New York Post declined to comment.

► Murdoch Reveals Succession Plan: Haberman reports that, in 2017, while Trump was searching for a new chief of staff, Rupert Murdoch met with Trump to talk about a potential candidate. But Trump's mind was elsewhere. Haberman reports he spent 30 minutes "hectoring Murdoch about the supposed leftward drift of Fox News." "'It's going to become too liberal when James [Murdoch] takes over,' Trump said, referring to the Murdoch son expected to follow his father as the parent company's chairman," Haberman writes. "'No,' Murdoch interrupted. 'It's going to be Lachlan [Murdoch].' That was one of the first times the succession plan ... had ever been made public, and Trump only managed to elicit it because he was so uninterested in dealing with his own staffing issues." A spokesperson for Murdoch did not respond to a request for comment.

► Hannity's Influence Underscored: Haberman reports on incidents in her book that highlight the tremendous influence Sean Hannity had over Trump. In one case, Haberman reports, Hannity called Trump "to share a rumor spreading online, initially promoted by the far-right media personality Mike Cernovich," about who had leaked a story to The Washington Post. Trump ordered then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to find the leaker. Haberman explains in the book why the person blamed for the leak, Fernando Cutz, could not have been The Post's source. But Trump didn't seem to care. "You've got three hours to find the leaker," Trump told him, according to Haberman. She writes, "McMaster later returned to Trump to say he would be unable to identify the person responsible in that time frame. 'The leaker is Fernando Cutz,' Trump said. 'I have a very trusted source telling me that.'" Spokespeople for Hannity did not respond to requests for comment.

I asked Trump's spokesperson, Taylor Budowich, about each of these excerpts. Budowich replied with a predictable statement, saying "coastal elites" are obsessed with "boring books" from "unreliable sources." Of course, it goes without saying that Haberman has arguably been the most reliable source of information on Trump for many years.

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Illustration/Marco Bello/Reuters

Keeping Crews Safe: Hundreds of media personnel are deployed to cover Hurricane Ian's wrath -- and keeping them safe is a full time job. I spoke with CNN's senior director of coverage, Vivian Kuo, to learn more about how networks balance safety precautions with covering an unpredictable and dangerous storm. Here's a Q&A with her, condensed for this newsletter.

► What basic measures are taken to ensure crew safety? "There are pre-deployment conversations on what people are comfortable with. We do our best to pair newbies with veterans so we can bring the best combination of intelligence and experience to bear. Each reporter on the air also has a field producer and a two-person crew. Internal CNN departments then work together to be the field teams' support systems."

► How do you track crew movements? "We use an app to triangulate teams' movements and see where they are even when comms are down. It's not only useful for hurricanes, but other natural disasters as well – and international uses it frequently in war zones."

► How do you maintain a TV signal? "Before field teams even head out the door, they're armed with a multitude of redundant broadcast options including bonded cellular gear, BGAN equipment, and satellite phones. CNN's national desk also deployed state-of-the art multi-path satellite trucks, which come equipped with mast cams, drones, production switchers, TelePrompter, return monitors, and WiFi bubbles."

► How does CNN balance the need to bring viewers the story, with the necessity to keep staff out of harm's way? "Putting even the most seasoned of teams out in these kinds of storms is often what keeps me awake at night. ... It's a dance between the whole storytelling aspect of demonstrating a clear and present threat to the public and listening to the field teams on their personal wherewithal even in the midst of deteriorating conditions."

OFF THE WIRE

The top story on CNN.com Wednesday evening puts the storm into perspective: "Ian is tied as the strongest storm to strike Florida's West Coast." (CNN)
Norah O'Donnell and Lester Holt both anchored their respective broadcast evening news programs on-scene in Florida.
As prime time kicked off, CNN and MSNBC offered non-stop coverage of Ian. Fox News, however, intermixed coverage of the hurricane with its usual right-wing talk programming.
Fort Myers' News-Press is posting dispatches from its reporters embedded in their homes as the storm batters the area. (News-Press)
Mike Seidel, reporting live from Fort Myers, told viewers he's covered 91 named tropical systems in his three decades at The Weather Channel. "This is the worst by far," he said.
Jim Cantore, donning a helmet, was struck by a flying tree branch and nearly knocked off his feet in Punta Gorda before his live-report was stopped. (Deadline)

THE BUSINESS

Fast Company Still Offline: The Fast Company site is still unavailable, an entire day after the outlet said it was hacked, resulting in two racist push notifications being sent to its Apple News subscribers. For much of Wednesday, those who tried to access the site were greeted by an error page. Later in the day, a splash page with the company's statement was posted.

Fast Company says that the Tuesday hack was "apparently related" to another intrusion that it suffered on Sunday afternoon. The company said it has "retained a leading global incident response and cybersecurity firm and together are investigating the situation." Its website, Fast Company added, will remain offline "until the situation is resolved." Meanwhile, users can access its work on its social media pages.

IN THE MARKET

CNN laid off roughly 20 former CNN+ staffers, including those on its Interview Club project, Justin Baragona reports. (Daily Beast)
David Zaslav assured Warner Bros. Discovery staffers at an employee town hall meeting that the company is "not for sale." (Variety)
Lionsgate is "leaning toward spinning off its studio division rather than its Starz cable and streaming unit," Alex Sherman reports. (CNBC)
AMC chief Dan McDermott says the company intends to grow to 20-25 million subscribers by 2025. (THR)
Epix will rebrand as MGM+ by January 2023. (Deadline)

THE CLOSE-UP

CNN Illustration/Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

Couric's Cancer Fight: Katie Couric on Wednesday revealed in a blog post that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in late-June. Couric wrote in the blog post, titled "Why Not Me," that she had surgery in July to remove a tumor that was roughly 2.5 centimeters in size. Couric said she underwent radiation as well, which ended just this week. She explained she went public with the news to encourage others to get their annual mammograms. "I was six months late this time," Couric wrote. "I shudder to think what might have happened if I had put it off longer." CNN's Lisa Respers France has more.

STAFF REPORT

Andrew Cuomo says he will launch a "frank and candid" podcast. (THR)
"Sex, Revenge Porn and Webcams": Liam Stack has a deep dive into the firing of NY1 meteorologist Erick Adame. (NYT)
Kara Swisher called out The NYT for what she described as a "dirty" tactic that recycled her "Sway" feed to promote another show. (Mediaite)
Charlie Gasparino "proved the AMC Ape-Investor army wrong," Joe Bel Bruno writes. (The Wrap)
After shutting down MEL, layoffs hit Recurrent Ventures, the owner of Popular Science, Saveur, and The Drive. (Insider)
Longtime CBS News correspondent Bill Plante dies at 84. (WaPo)

MEDIA MOVES

First in Reliable: Mark Yarm has been named BuzzFeed News' new tech editor. He joins from Input where he served as features editor.
First in Reliable: Beth Kowitt is joining Bloomberg Opinion as a senior columnist covering cooperate finance.
Tara Copp is joining the AP as Pentagon correspondent. (Twitter)
Allan Haldeman has been named head of UTA's NY office. (Variety)
Warner Bros. Discovery has announced its leadership team for France, Benelux, and Africa. (Deadline)

THE VALLEY

CNN Illustration/Glenn Chapman/AFP/Getty Images

Reuters' Review Rattles Twitter Advertisers: Major advertisers are suspending or altogether ditching Twitter after a Reuters review found their ads "have appeared on the profile pages of Twitter accounts that peddle links to the exploitative material," Reuters' Sheila Dang and Katie Paul reported Wednesday. The duo said the advertisers included big names such as Dyson and Mazda. Cole Haan brand head David Maddocks said his company was "horrified" by what Reuters uncovered.

► A Twitter spokesperson told Reuters the company has "zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation" and is working with advertisers to prevent the incident from happening again.

🔎 Zooming in: This is yet another example of a news organization doing the work that a billion-dollar tech company should be doing: policing its platform for brazen policy violations and taking action.

TOO MANY TABS

Apple has removed Russian social media giant VK from the App Store to comply with UK sanctions. (CNN)
Pornhub is irate at Instagram for banning its accounts, claiming the social platform has a double standard on nudity. (Variety)
David Pierce argues that Google "is trying to reinvent search — by being more than a search engine." (The Verge)
Tim Peterson writes about how publishers are feeling "the crunch of cookieless browsers like Apple's Safari."(Digiday)
"Is This the Beginning of the End of the Internet?" Charlie Warzel looks at a recent Texas social media ruling. (The Atlantic)

CURTAIN CALL

Strong Speaks: Doing press for "Armageddon Time," actor Jeremy Strong spoke about a wide-range of subjects, including how he prepares for different roles. Strong, whose acting process has been the subject of much intrigue after a 2021 New Yorker story, commented, "There's a lot of mythologizing about my process. But it's very unremarkable and is really just about concentration." Here's the full THR cover story.

OFF STAGE

Lin-Manuel Miranda blasts racist "Little Mermaid" trolls and says that Halle Bailey is "perfect for the part." (Variety)
Netflix has scrubbed the LGBTQ tag from "Dahmer" after facing backlash. (Variety)
Bill Cosby has been denied a retrial in a sexual assault lawsuit. (Rolling Stone)
Tom Hanks is getting set to release his debut novel. (CNN)
Bassam Tariq is no longer directing Marvel's "Blade," which is due out in fall of 2023. (EW)