| | | | MEDIA WINNER:
Jonathan Swan Axios’ Jonathan Swan appeared on MSNBC Wednesday night to discuss his new interview with President Donald Trump and the preview already released showing him confronting the president on the alleged Russian bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops. Lawrence O’Donnell played a clip, commending the way Swan grilled Trump on the subject of bounties. In the interview, Trump told Swan he didn’t raise the matter in his recent call with Vladimir Putin.
Swan was also struck by Trump’s reaction to his own former commander of forces in Afghanistan saying Russia is arming the Taliban. “For him to say that he hadn’t heard about it or that he maybe heard about it but it hadn’t reached his desk, I don’t know what it requires to reach his desk, but I would have thought that when the top military officer in that region says something publicly, that that information, by definition, should be on his desk.” "I have so many thing to ask you about, including just basically how did you do it," said O'Donnell to begin the interview. "The way you hung in there on every one of his little moves that he normally gets away with, like the Fake News thing and asking him who says Fake News, and when you do that, it exposes that he doesn't have anything in that card he just tried to play."
That's a very good way to describe what was so very good about Swan's interview. It's what CNN's Jake Tapper pointed out was missing from the much-lauded Chris Wallace interview with Trump. Wallace asked a lot of questions that were overdue to be asked, but although he challenged answers that passed for substantive from Trump, he didn't trip the president over snide comments or attempted sloganeering the way Swan does.
Two very good interviews with Trump in the last few weeks by two very good reporters, but you have to hand it to Swan: he didn't let anything go. 6.5.0 |
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| | MEDIA LOSER:
The House Judiciary Committee "The internet is not a truck. It's a series of tubes," Alaskan Republcian Ted Stevens said before the Senate and the world back in 2006. The actually not entirely inapt analogy became the symbol of politicians' ineptitude on tech issues. But taken in its totality, yesterday's House Judiciary Committee hearing with tech CEOs might be a better symbol of the problems of Big Government vs. Big Tech.
It started with a kerfuffle, as House hearings seem inevitably to do these last few years, as Rep. Jim Jordan and several Democrats fought over whether or not Rep. Mike Johnson could be part of the hearing. That bout of shouting and rancor was, to put it in tech terms, just the beta.
They soon moved on to the tech ineptitude. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, for example, challenged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over "censorship" of Donald Trump Jr. .... On Twitter.
Rep. Greg Steube took time in the hearing to demand that Google's Sundar Pichai explain why his campaign emails would end up in his dad's spam folder. Seriously that is a thing that happened. Rep. Val Demings pointed out that her campaign emails sometimes go to spam, too.
The whole place really exploded when Jim Jordan accused Google of trying to elect Biden, and Democrat Rep. Mary Scanlon called it a conspiracy theory and Jordan interrupted her, prompting yelling and gavel banging and someone telling him to put on a mask and ... well, you'll see.
With all the arguing over "censorship" you might have forgotten the hearing was supposed to be about antitrust. So did they, for the first hour or so.
The last two days of hearings have been circuses really, and have not played well for the American people. Here are the top examples of that madness. 6.5.0 |
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| | RIP Herman Cain Conservative luminary Herman Cain died after contracting Covid-19 last month, it was announced on Thursday. He was 74. Cain, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and previously served as CEO of the Godfather’s Pizza chain, was hospitalized in early July after testing positive for Covid-19. Dan Calabrese, the editor of HermanCain.com, posted a heartfelt remembrance of Cain on the website Thursday morning, writing, “We’re heartbroken, and the world is poorer: Herman Cain has gone to be with the Lord.”
Herman Cain's death as political football
Verified Twitter users blamed President Donald Trump and his Tulsa campaign rally for the death of Herman Cain in the minutes following the announcement of Cain’s death of complications from COVID-19.
On Fox News, John Roberts moved to quash the idea that the rally and Cain's contracting of Coronavirus were related, arguing that since everyone who came near Trump in Tulsa was tested before being given access, he couldn't have already had it that day. Or something.
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer appeared on Fox and said that Cain's death should be a grim reminder that people need to take this illness seriously and take simple steps like wearing masks and remaining socially distant to help control the spread. A sensible reminder, if awkwardly delivered.
ELECTION DELAY
By far the most contentious and biggest political issue to start the day Thursday was President Trump tweeting that maybe the election should be delayed.
It was part of a longer rant about one his frequent recent hobbyhorses, mail-in voting.
The trial balloon was not well-received by the media. Nor even by a large number of conservatives.
There was a good deal of back-and-forth about whether he was trolling to distract, trying to stir up the media, or just being deliberately provocative. But the Daily Beast's Sam Stein may have had the best comment about why such a debate is largely academic.
"Trump floating a delay of the election may be a distraction from the GDP news. But it still is deadly serious," said Stein. Yep.
By the way, Sec. of State Mike Pompeo played coy on whether such an unconstitutional and illegal action would be unconstitutional or illegal, when asked by Tim Kaine. Confidence-inspiring, isn't it?
Also by the way, not all media/conservatives thought it was such a bad thought. Watch Fox Business Channel's Stuart Varney give it serious consideration.
Speaking of the media
A new Axios and Harris Poll survey shows the media has lost the most approval out of any industry during the coronavirus pandemic, second only to airlines. The poll asked, “How has your view of each of the following industries changed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic?”
Respondents dropped their rating of the media down by five percent. And it was already not great.
Fox News Scores BIG with House Hearing Coverage
Fox News scored strong daytime ratings on Tuesday, averaging more than 400,000 viewers in the coveted 25 – 54 age demographic for four straight hours in the afternoon, as the network went all-in covering the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr.
According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News easily won total day in the demo, and handily took primetime, too. CNN was Tuesday's runner-up.
Get the numbers, and the top shows, from Mediaite+ here!
John Lewis
Former congressman John Lewis is being laid to rest today, after a funeral service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The service was carried by multiple outlets, and you watch the full coverage here.
Former President Barack Obama spoke, delivering a stirring eulogy for the civil rights icon.
Obama also delivered a stunning rebuke of President Trump...without saying his name.
Demon Sperm Doc Dumped
Pro-Trump doctor Stella Immanuel who touts unwavering confidence in the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients and believes in alien DNA has been temporarily suspended from Twitter due to violating the tech company’s Covid-19 misinformation policy.
Early Thursday morning, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed to Mediaite that Immanuel’s account “had a Tweet in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.”
So that's a thing. 6.5.0 |
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| "I won't be happy until Kevin Hart is playing Queen Elizabeth in 'The Crown'" Late-night hosts Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Fallon tackled Demon Sperm, Russian Bounties, and the Emmy's last night.
Not to mention the amazingly disastrous tech hearing. No joke spoilers here, though, the videos are all you need. |
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