Hadas Gold

AT&T urges appeals court to let Time Warner merger stand; mentions Trump

AT&T asked an appeals court to reject the Justice Department’s challenge of a federal judge’s decision approving its $85 billion merger with Time Warner. The telecom company, which closed the merger in June, responded to the Justice Department’s appeal, arguing that prosecutors failed to prove during trial that the deal would hurt competition and raise prices for consumers.

What's the government's next move in the AT&T case

Judge Richard Leon issued a stinging rebuke to the Justice Department's attempt to block AT&T's $85 billion bid to acquire Time Warner. But that doesn't mean the case is over. The Justice Department can appeal the ruling, and the department's antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, is considering that option.  "I think the constitution and the statues allow for due process for all litigants and we will take a look at what the next steps are," Delrahim said.

Government's star witness takes the stand in marathon day of AT&T trial

Economist Carl Shapiro said his analysis of AT&T's purchase of Time Warner shows that US consumers could together pay an additional $571 million in the year 2021 if the deal is approved.

"The merger will in fact harm consumers and the harm is significant in terms of the dollar amount," Shapiro testified.

Judge rules for AT&T on key part of Time Warner deal defense

US District Judge Richard Leon has rejected a Justice Department motion to limit evidence AT&T can present in its defense of its proposed purchase of Time Warner. As a result of the ruling, AT&T gets to keep one key element of its argument for the deal, after previously losing another significant fight over its planned defense. The government had asked the court to exclude evidence of a November 2017 offer from Turner (a division of Time Warner that includes CNN, TBS, and TNT) to distributors including cable and satellite companies.

News outlets shut out of Trump meeting with Russians

On the morning of May 10 as controversy swirled over the president abruptly firing his FBI chief amid an investigation of possible ties between Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia, the president met in the Oval Office with none other than Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. But the meeting was closed press, meaning the rotating pool of photographers, reporters and camera operators who follow the president weren't allowed in. Yet photos of the three laughing and smiling were soon published by the Russian state news agency TASS. The Russian foreign ministry also tweeted photos of the meeting.

Asked by the print pooler why members of the Russian media were allowed into the meeting but no U.S. press was permitted, a White House official said, "Our official photographer and their official photographer were present, that's it," meaning TASS was considered the Russians' "official photographer."

Could Sinclair launch a Fox News rival?

The Sinclair-Tribune deal has set tongues wagging in Washington (DC) as to whether Sinclair, a Maryland-based television station owner that has often pushed right-leaning programming, will try to position itself as a rival to Fox News.

The Washington Post reported in December that during the 2016 campaign, news stories and features favorable to then-candidate Donald Trump or challenging Democrat Hillary Clinton were distributed to Sinclair stations on a “must-run” basis. Earlier that month, POLITICO reported that the president's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, told business executives the campaign had struck a deal with Sinclair for better media coverage, a characterization Sinclair disputed. The group also recently hired Boris Epshteyn, a White House aide who oversaw Trump's television surrogate operation, as chief political analyst. Given those recent decisions, many in Washington wonder if Sinclair has its sights set on Fox News.

President Trump’s Fake War on the Fake News

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump called the press “dishonest” and “scum.” He defended Russian strongman Vladimir Putin against charges of murdering journalists and vowed to somehow “open up our libel laws” to weaken the First Amendment. Since taking office, he has dismissed unfavorable coverage as “fake news” and described the mainstream media as “the enemy of the American people.” But behind that theatrical assault, the Trump White House has turned into a kind of playground for the press.

We interviewed more than three dozen members of the White House press corps, along with White House staff and outside allies, about the first whirlwind weeks of Trump’s presidency. Rather than a historically toxic relationship, they described a historic gap between the public perception and the private reality. “He built his career by being media-friendly. The last 18 months have been something of an aberration in his approach,” said Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, a Trump confidant who has known the president for 20 years. “I’ve always said he’s just creating a negotiating position by calling the press the enemy of the people. I don’t think he believes that deep down.”

President Trump gives cable news a ratings boost in 2017

Despite prognostications that cable news would suffer a ratings dip after the 2016 election, the ratings from the first quarter of 2017 are proving that Washington DC under President Donald Trump is now a must-see spectacle across the country. Fox News had the best quarter in cable news history for 24 hour viewership, topping even the final quarter of 2016, which included election night. Each hour "broke a network record" for ratings among 18-34 year old viewers, Fox News said in a news release. Fox was the number one channel on cable overall, beating the likes of ESPN, HGTV, Nickelodeon and USA network for overall viewers in both primetime and total day.

Sen Shaheen introduces bill to investigate Russian news outlet RT

Sen Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is introducing a bill that would give the Justice Department additional authority to investigate Russia's English-language news outlet RT America for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The bill, called the Foreign Agents Registration Modernization and Enforcement Act, would increase the Department of Justice’s power to compel organizations to produce information about their foreign connections and the sources of their funding.

Sen Shaheen said the bill comes in response to a report from the director of national intelligence about Russian influence in the 2016 election, part of which examined RT America. That report stated that RT News was skirting disclosure requirements by using a nonprofit structure and that RT's programming intended to advance stories that benefited Russian interests. “We have good reason to believe that RT News is coordinating with the Russian government to spread misinformation and undermine our democratic process,” Shaheen said in a statement. “The American public has a right to know if this is the case.”

Trump transition team asks CNN to retract story about Tom Price

President-elect Donald Trump's transition is formally asking CNN to retract an article about Rep Tom Price (R-GA), Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary. In the story, CNN Senior Political Reporter Manu Raju reports that in 2016 Rep Price purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would delay regulations that would have directly benefited the company. After being published on Jan 16, the story quickly became another piece of ammunition for Democrats who have questioned Rep Price's financial transactions while in office, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calling for an ethics investigation into rep Price.

In a statement, the Presidential Transition Team said the story "omitted facts and drew conclusions in an effort to attack" Rep Price, before laying out a series of what it says are facts that "were available to CNN." "The Presidential Transition Team requests that CNN retract this blatantly false story," the statement concludes.

Former Obama staffers launching media company

White House alumni Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Dan Pfeiffer are further investing themselves into their popular podcast "Keeping it 1600" by launching a new media company, called "Crooked Media." To begin with, "Crooked Media" won't be much more than the new incarnation of "Keeping it 1600" called "Pod Save America," which will still be available on iTunes and other podcasting platforms, but soon Vietor, who was formerly President Barack Obama's national security spokesman said the website (which will live at GetCrookedMedia.com) will become a multimedia platform for political analysis and activism.

Vietor said that had Hillary Clinton won, it's likely they would've kept the podcast as what it was - a side hobby. But with the outcome of the election, Vietor said he and his co-founders said they felt a renewed mission. "I think the lesson from (President-elect Donald) Trump is if you're filtering every message and idea you have through traditional media, he will swamp you with a Tweet," he said. "So we need to build up infrastructure that allows people to communicate directly with young people across the country."

Conway: Trump White House will engage with press on 'daily basis'

Newly appointed counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said that the incoming White House will have a more or less traditional relationship with the media. "This will be a traditional White House in the sense that you will have a great deal of press availability on a daily basis and you'll have a president who continues to be engaged with the press," Conway said.

The assurance from one of President-elect Donald Trump's most senior advisers comes as other members of Trump's senior staff have said that there might be changes coming to how the White House interacts with the media, from doing away with the daily briefing to rearranging the seating in the briefing room. Conway also said that they will soon announce who will fill the positions of press secretary, communications director and other senior members of the communications team. Republican National Committee chief strategist Sean Spicer is the heavy favorite for the press secretary post, though Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle is also likely to be offered a position on the team in an ancillary role, apparently.

Kushner: We struck deal with Sinclair for straighter coverage

Donald Trump's campaign struck a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group during the campaign to try and secure better media coverage, his son-in-law Jared Kushner told business executives.

Kushner said the agreement with Sinclair, which owns television stations across the country in many swing states and often packages news for their affiliates to run, gave them more access to Trump and the campaign. In exchange, Sinclair would broadcast their Trump interviews across the country without commentary, Kushner said. Kushner highlighted that Sinclair, in states like Ohio, reaches a much wider audience — around 250,000 listeners — than networks like CNN, which reach somewhere around 30,000. Kushner told the business executives that the campaign was upset with CNN because they considered its on-air panels stacked against Trump. He added that he personally talked with Jeff Zucker about changing the composition of the panels but Zucker refused. He repeatedly said in the panel that CNN wasn't "moving the needle" and wasn't important as it once was. The campaign then decided not to work as closely with CNN, and Trump ramped up his bashing of the cable network. He also told the crowd that Google and Facebook are now more powerful, and that The New York Times and CNN aren't as powerful.

Reince Priebus signals changes ahead for White House press corps

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus suggested that major changes are coming to the White House press corps. Priebus said "many things have to change" in the White House's relationship and daily traditions with the media, including the daily briefing with the White House Press Secretary and the seating chart. "I think that it’s important that we look at all of those traditions that are great, but quite frankly, as you know, don’t really make news and they're just sort of mundane, boring episodes," Priebus said.

"The point of all of this conversation is that the traditions, while some of them are great, I think it’s time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House, and I can assure you that change is going to happen, even on things that might seem boring like this topic, but also change as far as how we’re going to approach tax reform, the American worker, how we protect them and business all at the same time why skyrocketing our economy," Priebus said. Priebus said the White House team is currently discussing how to change things up, including where the press sits in the White House briefing room.

Media Matters to pivot away from focus on Fox News, as it names new president

Liberal media-watchdog organization Media Matters is naming a new president and taking its coverage in a new direction, with less emphasis on cable news and more focus on fake news and other "bad actors." Angelo Carusone, currently the organization's executive vice president, will take over as president. The group, known for taking on what they argue is misinformation in conservative media, particularly on Fox News, will enter a “new era,” focusing on the likes of Breitbart, the “alt-right”, conspiracy theories and fake news.

"There was a period of time which we were, rightfully so, described as the ‘Fox antagonist's,” said Carusone, who also acted as Deputy CEO of the Democratic National Convention. “Now, our mission is to be principally focused on the value of journalism.” Carusone, who in the past has led efforts against the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, said Fox is no longer the “gate keeper” it used to be. "It used to be simple, Fox News was the gate keeper… but now there are so many potential bad actors,” Carusone said. "Now there are places like Facebook who aren’t bad actors but can be enablers of misinformation.”

President-elect Trump calls New York Times treatment of him 'very rough'

President-elect Donald Trump continued his media grievances tour on Nov 22, visiting The New York Times for both an off-the-record chat with its publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, and an on-the-record conversation with reporters and columnists. The meeting was the latest example of President-elect Trump trying to reconnect with a media outlet that he has mostly left out in the cold since becoming president-elect, and which he made a major target during his presidential campaign.

Upon arriving, Trump had a 15-minute one on one with Sulzberger in the Churchill Room on the 16th floor of the Times building. A Times spokeswoman said it was “short and cordial” but declined to say anything about the tete-a-tete since it was off the record. “I have great respect for the New York Times. I have tremendous respect,” President-elect Trump said, according to a stream of live tweets from Times reporter Michael Grynbaum. “I think I've been treated very rough." But President-elect Trump said he wanted to turn a new leaf with the paper he so famously tangled with throughout the campaign, frequently calling the newspaper "the lying New York Times" or "the failing New York Times," and at one point even threatening to sue it.

Breitbart may need to reveal business structure to secure Capitol Hill press credentials

Breitbart News appeared before the Standing Committee of the Senate Press Gallery in order to secure permanent Capitol Hill credentials. Within the rules of admission to the gallery, there is a clause that states the person and organization holding the pass "must not be engaged in any lobbying or paid advocacy, advertising, publicity or promotion work for any individual, political party, corporation, organization, or agency of the U.S. government." In order to prove that they are not engaged in any of the above and are an editorially independent institution, the Standing Committee can ask for information or proof on how the business is structured.

Breitbart has publicly said in the past that they do not discuss their investors. The Mercer family, who backed both Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, are known to be major backers of the site. There have been rumors that Trump himself was financially involved, but that’s been denied by both parties. Matt Daly, a reporter for the Associated Press and chairman of the Standing Committee said Breitbart is going through the same routine process as all news outlets that wish to secure credentials. "The decision is in the information gathering phase, more about their operation and how it works," Daly said. "We are interested in what the role is of Mr Bannon going forward and their funding. We have a six rules and standards we apply to everyone and we are trying to be consistent in all of that."

Donald Trump leaves the press behind, again

Once again, Donald Trump left his traveling press pool behind while on the campaign trail. Trump, who regularly chastises the press and calls out specific reporters, claiming they don't cover him fairly and don't show the crowds in attendance, showed up 10 minutes early to his rally in Concord (NC). But while Trump gets the benefit of a motorcade that can skip traffic, his accompanying press pool, whose travel is organized by the campaign but paid for by the individual media companies, do not. So, they were at least 15 minutes late to the rally.

For media with cameras, that means there's almost no time to set up (local media, and those who arranged their own travel, were likely already on site, which means the GOP nominee still got some coverage). Unlike all other modern-day candidates, Trump does not allow the press pool to travel with him on his plane. As a result, the press are not necessarily always within the Secret Service "bubble" and do not get the benefit of the motorcade. Though Clinton does travel with her press pool, they are not considered a full "protective pool" and are therefore not with her at all times.

Breitbart coordinated with liberal activist and organizer who disrupted GOP primary campaign events

Apparently, Aaron Black, an associate with Democracy Partners and a former Occupy Wall Street organizer, coordinated with reporters from the conservative news site Breitbart during the primaries to cover his disruptions of events for candidates such as Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL). Black worked with the pro-Trump site Breitbart, tipping it off about his stunts, exchanging raw video and coordinating coverage, according to an unnamed source. Black coordinated with Breitbart via email, phone and in person, including when he dressed up as a robot and trolled Marco Rubio’s events. The relationship was described as very friendly. An article subsequently published on Breitbart featured video footage of a physical confrontation between Black and Rubio's New Hampshire campaign chairman.

Network pools refuse to cover Trump hotel tour

In a show of joint defiance, the major television networks collectively voted to pull a camera and erase video of Donald Trump giving a tour of his hotel, a protest of the campaign preventing any editorial presence on the tour. According to members of the traveling press pool, after it was made clear that only still photographers and video cameras would be allowed on the pool, the Washington bureau chiefs of the various television networks convened an emergency conference call and agreed to pull the network camera and erase the footage of the tour. "The pool rules state any event that is pooled with cameras, there has to be a pool producer. Due to the fact we were not granted editorial access, as is customary, that decision was made and the footage was erased," a member of the Trump traveling press said.

The tour of the hotel was to take place after Trump made remarks finally admitting that President Barack Obama was, in fact, born in the United States. Though the event was billed as a news conference to set the record straight on President Obama's birthplace, Trump ignored reporters standing on their chairs, shouting questions. He also made only a brief statement of a few sentences on the controversy, spending much of the time being boosted by campaign surrogates and touting his hotel. And then, when Trump was supposed to take the press on a tour of his new hotel, the editorial producer for the network pool was physically detained. "As the designated pool producer; attempted to go on pooled tour, as is customary. Was physically restrained from accompanying the camera," tweeted ABC producer Candace Smith.

Donald Trump takes credit for public distrust of the media

Donald Trump took credit for the public's lack of trust in the media, and called out a New York Times reporter, saying he should have been fired. Speaking to New York Post columnist Fred Dicker on his WGDJ-AM radio show on Sept 15, Trump said of a recent Gallup poll showing public confidence in the media at an all-time low: “I think I had a lot to do with that poll … because I’ve exposed the media. If you look at The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and if you look at others: the level of dishonesty is enormous. It’s so dishonest. I can do something that’s wonderful and they make it sound terrible," Trump said. But just a moment later, Trump said he doesn't know if the distrust in the media helps him because "I respect The New York Times. I respect The Washington Post.” “Everybody is talking about the dishonesty — the total dishonesty — of some of the papers and the media generally. CNN is unbelievably dishonest. They call it the Clinton News Network," Trump said. “I am very proud to say that I think I had a lot to do with that poll number.” Trump also said Times reporter Jonathan Martin "would have been fired" by the late Abe Rosenthal, who was executive editor of the Times in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Trump campaign ends media blacklist

Donald Trump's presidential campaign is ending its blacklist of news outlets, the campaign has confirmed. The blacklist has been in effect at the Trump campaign for nearly a year, with media outlets left out of official events for perceived slights in how they reported on his campaign. The banned outlets at times included Politico, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and the Des Moines Register. Sometimes journalists for the outlets would be able to attend campaign events as members of the general public, but in several cases they were still removed from the venue when security realized they were press. A Washington Post reporter was once patted down at a Mike Pence event to make sure he did not have a cell phone or laptop on him at an event.

Commission names moderators for presidential debates

NBC's Lester Holt, ABC's Martha Raddatz, CNN's Anderson Cooper, Fox News' Chris Wallace and CBS' Elaine Quijano will moderate presidential and vice presidential debates this fall, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced.

Holt, anchor of NBC's "Nightly News,” will moderate the first debate at Hofstra University in New York on Sept. 26, which will be a traditional debate divided into six segments of 15 minutes each on major topics to be determined by Holt. Quijano, an anchor on CBS' live streaming service CBSN, will moderate the vice presidential debate on Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Virginia, which will be a traditional debate as well — divided into nine timed segments of 10 minutes each. Raddatz, ABC's Chief Global Correspondent and co-anchor of "This Week,” along with CNN anchor Cooper, will moderate a town-meeting style debate on Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis. There, the questions will be posed directly by citizen participants made up of uncommitted voters based on topics "of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources." Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday,” will become the first Fox News host to moderate a general election debate since the network's founding. He will host the final presidential debate on Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The format of the final debate will be the same as the first.

Tim Kaine says protective pool coming 'in about a week'

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen Tim Kaine (D-VA) confirmed that the Clinton campaign will establish a "protective pool," at least for his own campaign travel.

The Clinton campaign has been using Donald Trump's total lack of a normal press pool to delay ramping up their coverage to a full protective pool--the group of reporters that travel with the candidate on the same plane. The campaign has indicated to some reporters it would not establish the protective pool before Labor Day. "We are not on the plane together," Sen Kaine said about his traveling press corps. "But that is going to change in about a week. And I think that is fairly common during campaigns that you often fly in small planes and that you get to the end, you start flying in larger planes. I think that is something, yeah, as we get into the thick of the campaign in Labor Day, that is going to change. I don't even think Donald Trump allowed the American press to go with him yesterday when he went to Mexico. Which was highly unusual."