Good morning.
- Stuart Stevens explains why
Stuart Stevens could be cast in a political consultant’s version of a Dos Equis commercial since he’s one of the more interesting folks in his universe: a very successful GOP operative, chief strategist for Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, extreme sports enthusiast, serial tweeter and accomplished author and writer of Hollywood screenplays and magazine pieces. I tracked him down to get his take on the GOP field but also discussed the media and campaigns. “I think that the way campaigns have become a huge funding mechanism for media is inherently corrupt. You have all this consternation about money in politics. But money in politics’ primary beneficiary is the media. So I would try to look at FCC regulations for licensing (broadcast stations). You have to carry debates free. No other developed countries have media charging to carry the debates. You don’t have commercials in debates or an increase from ($50,000) to $250,000 for commercials. It is corrupt…More regulation? Yes, in this case, my answer is: Damn straight, it’s more regulation. It would be better.” (U.S. News & World Report)
“There are a lot of crocodile tears about the corruption of money in politics,” he notes correctly, “but the vast majority goes for advertising. Talk about the military-industrial complex, the media-political complex is vastly profitable. Where does most of the super PAC money go? Goes to the media. And super PACs pay higher rates than the candidates. Who is benefiting the most from all this? It’s the media. That’s a factual, accurate statement. It’s not the pharmaceutical companies or arms dealers, not the defense industry or automobile industry. It’s the media industry. And nobody else (no other country) does it like this.”
- Hannity to Juan Williams: Obama is “your president”
Juan Williams, the most prominent token left-of-center fixture on Fox News, offered ample resistance to Sean Hannity’s argument last night that we shouldn’t let Syrian refugees into the country. ISIS will infiltrate that refugee population, he said. Williams demurred, Hannity attacked again and climaxed a compelling exchange by asking, “Why is your president willing to gamble with the lives of American citizens in light of the fact that they were able to infiltrate in France”? Ah, “YOUR president?” Williams was stout in responding, “Sean Hannity, you are inspiring fear and discrimination against people” and mirroring anti-Jewish refugee sentiment of the 1930s.
- Maddow, O’Donnell vent on MSNBC
Rachel Maddow ended her show last night to great effect as she noted ISIS’ reliance on Telegram, a messaging app that aims to avoid law enforcement detection. ISIS had used it to show photos of two hostages whom, it was disclosed Wednesday, they’ve now executed. She excoriated the firm for only then announcing it was blocking 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages. (MSNBC) But everything that goes up most come down, as one was quickly reminded when a dour Lawrence O’Donnell started his show. He began with a righteously indignant excoriation of all the media that calls terrorist Abdelhamid Abboud the “mastermind” of the Paris attacks. “You are taking dictation from terrorists when you call him a ‘mastermind,'” he said of someone he termed a “homicidal maniac.” (MSNBC) Well, let’s hope O’Donnell’s colleagues, whom he did not mention, take note of this rhetorical jihad and change their errant rhetorical ways. They’ve routinely use the term. That includes amiable show host Thomas Roberts (@RobertsMSNBC) and NBC News’ own stories on the attacks. (NBC). Oh, this morning’s MSNBC website includes “Paris Prosecutor: Alleged Mastermind Not in Custody.” (MSNBC) O’Donnell could exhibit a bit of spine by noting the supposedly errant ways of those at his workplace engaged in terrorist dictation.
- Blame Facebook for lack of Beirut terrorism coverage
Here’s an interesting if unconvincing theory on why far more attention was devote to Paris than Beirut. It involves the algorithm Facebook uses to show us certain things and not others. The thesis is that it show show us “news that is socially important or valuable, even if it might not get clicks. And it means being a lot more transparent about why you remove certain kinds of content, especially when asked to do so by governments or police forces not just in other countries but in the U.S. as well. If Facebook wants to be a platform for news distribution, then it needs to start acting like one.” (Fortune) This implies that news decision-makers are potted plants who, whether you agree with them or not, simply found Paris a more compelling and significant tragedy.
- The media “jumps the shark” on political polls
Political polling is abysmal for many reasons, including lousy response rates. Harvard’s Jill Lepore detailed the mess in last week’s New Yorker, calling the media’s polling penchant “frantic, sales-driven and anti-democratic.” (Poynter) So it’s worth noting both the praise given Ann Selzer, director of The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll, by the likes of data zealot Nate Silver and also her take on the media and polling. “We’ve jumped the shark, really, on the press being very discerning about which polls they’re going to cover and which polls they’re not going to cover.” (CJR)
“You don’t really have many reporters, in my experience, who are doing the work of looking at the methodology. This is how I spend a lot of my time, is reporters calling to say, ‘Well, what do you think of this poll?’ And I look at the methodology and say, ‘Well, here’s what they did; here’s how that would skew things one way or another.’ So they rely more and more on pollsters to explain things to them that—in theory, that would be their job, wouldn’t you think?”
- David Nakamura’s historical reminder
Nakamura, White House reporter for The Washington Post, was moved to offer this family history: “My father and grandmother, both U.S. citizens from birth, spent four years in Topaz, Utah, internment camps.” (@DavidNakamura)
- Why are fewer TV shows dumped?
It wasn’t too long ago that if a show didn’t draw a pretty decent audience rather quickly, it was a goner. But last Friday ABC ditched “Wicked City,” a drama. It was the season’s first show to die. Already nine weeks into the season, that’s very unusual. “This is not because of the strength of the freshman class from the four major networks, which includes heavily marketed shows that have failed to draw big audiences, including ABC’s ‘The Muppets’ and Fox’s ‘Scream Queens.’ Instead, it speaks to a gripping anxiety that has spread throughout an industry where hits are in short supply and networks are becoming extra cautious about dropping something too soon.” (The New York Times)
- What may kill a TV “golden goose”
“The future growth of television advertising could be hobbled by a crackdown on one of its big contributors: daily fantasy sports sites.” (Bloomberg) Get this: “Almost 60 percent of the increase in ad sales last quarter — or $134 million of total growth of $227 million — came from daily fantasy sports companies, Todd Juenger, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote in a research note Wednesday. He called that amount both ‘startling’ and ‘unsustainable.'” He posits the prospect of fantasy sports sites not even existing next year. Well, maybe the TV guys will just have to jack up rates for all those presidential campaign ads.
- Trump on reporters
“I think 30 percent of them are good. 25. Maybe 20.” If Trump is even still around for the Iowa caucuses, he’ll be dreaming of a number as high as 20. 15. Maybe 10.
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Joe Bel Bruno is now news director for The Hollywood Reporter. Previously, he was deputy entertainment editor at the Los Angeles Times. (Email) | Hector Fabregas is now vice president and director of sales for Univision Chicago. Previously, he was director of local sales at Univision Chicago. (Email) | Rajiv Pant is now chief product, technology and user experience officer at Tribune Publishing. Previously, he oversaw technology at Some Spider. Mohit Pandey is now senior vice president of engineering and mobile for Tribune Publishing. Previously, he led mobile engineering for The New York Times. (Poynter) | Job of the day: amNewYork is looking for an editor in chief. Get your resumes in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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