Hey, happy Sunday. We're delivering a weekend-reads edition with the latest on "60 Minutes," James Austin Johnson, Gayle King, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, "CNN Creators," and more... |
Trump interview tests CBS |
President Trump is about to appear on "60 Minutes" – and it's going to be one of the most-scrutinized TV segments of the year.
Two segments, actually. The interview is "double-length," which is "60 Minutes" parlance for a story that wins two of the three coveted slots on the weekly broadcast. Still unknown: How will it be edited?
Trump taped the sit-down with Norah O'Donnell on Friday, one year to the day after he filed a frivolous lawsuit against the newsmagazine over its pre-election interview with Kamala Harris. The lawsuit shook CBS and turned into a nationally newsworthy scandal when the previous owners of Paramount paid Trump to drop the case.
Now, many Trump critics are skeptical of Paramount's new owners and the new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss. Many CBS staffers are anxious about the news division's future. And many journalists outside the network are curious about how O'Donnell approached the interview.
Personally, I'm most interested in the editing conundrum. Every second counts on a newsmagazine like "60 Minutes." Segments are usually edited and polished to perfection. But editing is what exposed CBS to Trump's wrath last year...
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Minor edits, major headaches |
Trump falsely claimed that CBS grossly mis-edited the Harris interview at the direction of her campaign. He called it "voter interference." He was able to convince supporters that CBS wronged him because the network aired two different parts of a Harris answer about Gaza on two different broadcasts.
The full transcript, released under FCC pressure months later, did not indicate any
fraudulent behavior by CBS. But it did show that, in an atmosphere of low trust in media and even less understanding about newsroom practices, seemingly minor edits can metastasize into major headaches.
I'm bringing all this back up because the Trump/Harris headache started when a preview clip aired on "Face the Nation" – and the same program is running a clip of the Trump interview this morning to promote tonight's "60 Minutes" episode.
CBS recently said "Face" will "only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews," though today's clip is obviously an exception because it's just a preview.
As for tonight's broadcast, a CBS spokesperson had no comment when I asked about how the "60" interview will or won't be edited. Some people are waiting to pounce on any favorable treatment Trump receives, as this tweet from MeidasTouch co-founder Brett Meiselas illustrates: "If I see as much as a single video edit I’m suing for $10 billion. Your move, CBS."
Hopefully everyone who wants to opine on the interview will actually watch it in full, rather than jumping to conclusions based on a stray clip, comment, or tweet...
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WH restricts West Wing access |
Members of the White House press corps are now restricted from press secretary Karoline Leavitt's office, the latest in a series of Trump admin actions to limit media access.
The new rule was announced on Friday evening while trick-or-treating was just beginning. "Upper Press" had been accessible to WH correspondents for decades, supporting a free flow of info between the president and the public. Here's my full story for CNN.com...
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"Not sure if I've seen anything like this before," CNN's Andrew Kaczynski wrote on X yesterday: "Fox fell for an AI video and basically rewrote their whole story when called out."
The video compilation purported to show Black women angrily reacting to potential disruptions with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
The Bulwark's Tim Miller put it this way: "Fox News ran with a totally fake story—racist AI videos pretending to be real 'Black women'—and then quietly changed the headline instead of admitting they make a mistake."
>> Before: "SNAP beneficiaries threaten to ransack stores over government shutdown." After: "AI videos of SNAP beneficiaries complaining about cuts go viral."
It's gobsmacking. So is the editor's note now tacked to the bottom: "This article previously reported on some videos that appear to have been generated by AI without noting that." The story originally quoted conservative YouTuber Brett Cooper, a Fox contributor, calling the videos "insane." I checked Cooper's channel, and she seemed to believe the videos were 1) real and 2) worthy of a long rebuttal.
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Three exclamation points for this |
Trump tuned in to "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and disliked what he heard. Meyers has "NO TALENT, NO RATINGS, 100% ANTI TRUMP, WHICH IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL! ! !" Trump posted to Truth Social last night, prompting commenters to point out that it's definitely not illegal. Over to you, Seth... |
📺 Don't miss these two 'SNL' videos |
A well-positioned celeb photographer talked with Gayle King after Friday's "CBS Mornings," and King said, "What I'm hearing in the building is not what I'm reading in the press." If she is "expected to depart" next spring, as Variety reported, she's not aware or admitting as much. In the clip published by TMZ, King added, "I am not going to negotiate in the media." More to come... |
Standing O for John Dickerson |
John Dickerson received a standing ovation from the CBS newsroom after he anchored the final edition of "CBS Evening News Plus" last night. He concluded the show with an essay on why he chose a career in journalism. Here's the YouTube clip.
Dickerson generously praised the show's producers, some of whom will be out of work now that "Plus" has been cancelled. He will continue anchoring the O.G. "Evening News" until the end of the year, when he'll leave CBS altogether...
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The Guardian's Jeremy Barr points out that picking Dickerson's replacement (presuming Maurice DuBois is not staying put) will be a "telling" moment for Weiss and co. As for external candidates, Weiss has "expressed interest" in Fox's Dana Perino, he says, though Perino is under contract "into the next decade." (Wow!)
>> Personally, I agree with the CBS staffer who said to Barr, "We need to just do a damn newscast. Don't overthink it."
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What's going on with Tucker Carlson? |
6️⃣ excellent weekend reads |
>> The New York Times editorial board "compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion," and said the US "has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12." If a major outlet prints a convincing counterpoint to this, I'd love to read and link to it. (NYT)
>> Susan Glasser asked "a few dozen smart folks" to weigh in on "the Trump outrages that matter most" in his second term. (New Yorker)
>> Jake Lahut looked into Trump's sharing of "AI slop," where it comes from, and how it gets on Trump's social media accounts. (WIRED)
>> Dylan Wells "listened to all the podcasts from 2028 candidates" and found big differences, including in the number of downloads. (WaPo)
>> Natalie Jarvey interviewed CNN International exec Meara Erdozain about "CNN Creators," a multi-platform new show and social media production effort. (Like & Subscribe)
>> Tom Lowry and Michael Calderone ask: "Patrick Soon-Shiong wants to raise $500 million for the LA Times, but who would invest?" (TheWrap)
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Indiana U reverses course |
Remember this dust-up a couple of weeks ago? "Indiana University has reversed course on its decision to stop student journalists from including news coverage in the print version of their college newspaper, after weeks of intense criticism from the community and accusations of censorship," the NYT's Katie Robertson reports. Meantime, the student media adviser who was abruptly fired is now suing the university...
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Court reverses ban on CNS journos |
Earlier this week, I highlighted a Capital News Service story about how its reporters were removed from an immigration court in Hyattsville, Maryland. Here's a positive update: Federal officials have reversed the decision "and welcomed reporters back inside — without need for permission from a public information officer to be there." Here's what led up to the change...
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Hadas Gold writes: Joe Rogan's three-hour podcast with Elon Musk dropped yesterday. Musk made no mention of his previously announced America Party; he praised Trump for "enforcing the border" although he called out some "overzealous" law enforcement actions; and he blamed Democrats for the government shutdown.
>> Musk also remarked, Trump is "not perfect, but he's not evil. Trump is not evil. I spent a lot of time with with him and he's, I mean, he's a product of his time, but he's not evil."
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>> Last night's incredible (and long!) Game 7 reminded me of this John Koblin piece about broadcast TV valuing live sports above all. (NYT)
>> Rolfe Winkler explains "how Tim Cook evaded disaster at Apple this year." (WSJ)
>> Lauren Goode penned a meditation on how "AI is not God," and the fact that it needed to be written speaks volumes. (WIRED)
>> This video piece, "48 Hours Without AI," from A.J. Jacobs, Edward Vega and Melanie Bencosme, shows just how ubiquitous the tech has become. (NYT)
>> Liam Scott says "newspaper archives are at risk around the US," especially photographs that “have never been digitized." (CJR)
>> Bill Chappell assesses "what Wikipedia and Grokipedia are saying about each other." (NPR)
>> Ethan Beck writes about the VistaVision craze that’s captivated some filmmakers. (WaPo)
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👀 on Jimmy Kimmel's contract |
Ever Disney briefly suspended him in September, Jimmy Kimmel "looks increasingly comfortable" on the late night stage, Bill Carter writes for LateNighter. "
There is clearly something about not backing up or backing down that allows you to stand up taller. The territory of late-night comedy on TV may be shrinking. Jimmy Kimmel clearly isn't."
With Kimmel's contract set to expire next spring, "Disney/ABC would seem to have little option but to woo Kimmel ardently to sign on for a longer term," Carter says...
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"South Park" "got meta on its Oct. 31 Halloween episode, as Stan voiced the dissent of some fans by saying, 'South Park sucks now because of all of this political shit,' referring to recent White House storylines," Variety's William Earl and Jack Dunn report. Brendan Carr also showed up in the episode...
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