For weeks now, the Donald Trump marketing campaign has referred to as out Vice President Kamala Harris for not doing sufficient one-on-one interviews with main information retailers.
However on Tuesday, it was Trump who determined to withdraw from a major interview. CBS announced that after initially agreeing to seem on the community’s iconic “60 Minutes,” Trump is now declining to be interviewed.
The present will interview Vice President Kamala Harris in a particular that can air subsequent Monday, however Trump is not going to take part.
In a press release, “60 Minutes” mentioned, “For over half a century, ’60 Minutes’ has invited the Democratic and Republican tickets to seem on our broadcast as People head to the polls. This yr, each the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to sit down down with ‘60 Minutes.’ Vice President Harris will communicate with correspondent Invoice Whitaker. After initially accepting ‘60 Minutes’ request for an interview with Scott Pelley, former President Trump’s marketing campaign has determined to not take part. Pelley will tackle this Monday night. Our election particular will broadcast the Harris interview on Monday as deliberate. Our unique invitation to former President Donald Trump to be interviewed on ‘60 Minutes’ stands.”
In a post on X, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung wrote, “Pretend Information. 60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they have been caught mendacity about Hunter Biden’s laptop computer again in 2020. There have been preliminary discussions, however nothing was ever scheduled or locked in. In addition they insisted on doing dwell truth checking, which is unprecedented.”
Has Cheung by no means seen “60 Minutes?” I’m undecided that it’s unprecedented for the gold normal of stories reveals to fact-check somebody.
As well as, CBS claimed that Trump was the primary candidate to simply accept the invitation to be interviewed for the one-hour particular. Trump and Harris every would have been given equal time throughout this system.
In the event you bear in mind, “60 Minutes” was the host of one in every of Trump’s most well-known (or notorious) interviews. In 2020, he abruptly walked out of an interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl, claiming that she was detrimental.
Trump gave a rambling reply Tuesday when requested about not showing for the “60 Minutes” interview. At one level, he did reference the interview with Stahl and mentioned he felt “60 Minutes” owed him an apology.
In the long run, it’s attention-grabbing that Trump and Republicans criticize Harris for ducking main appearances when it’s Trump who’s refusing to debate Harris for a second time, and now’s apparently bailing on a “60 Minutes” interview that has change into one thing of a practice in American presidential politics.
Vice presidential candidates JD Vance, left, and Tim Walz shake arms following Tuesday evening’s VP debate. (AP Photograph/Matt Rourke)
Hey, a substantive debate.
Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz debated Tuesday and, dare I say, it was a good debate. They shook arms (twice) earlier than it began and shook arms once more after it was over.
In between, they agreed some, they disagreed lots, they type of stayed on matter, and have been total civil and respectful. Vance landed some good jabs in opposition to Kamala Harris. Walz landed some good jabs in opposition to Donald Trump. Commentators praised Vance’s first half and Walz’s second half. Each side, absolutely, will declare victory.
So let’s reduce to the chase and reply the query that you just need to know: Who gained the talk?
I’d give the slight edge to … moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell of CBS Information.
They did their jobs, so far as the roles they have been assigned.
Now, some individuals may need a legit grievance over the job the moderators have been requested to do. Most notably, there may be truthful criticism that the moderators weren’t going to vigorously fact-check the candidates. As an alternative, they facilitated the talk by asking, and infrequently prodding, the candidates to fact-check each other.
Nonetheless, there have been moments when the moderators did just a little fact-checking. They referred to as out Vance on a local weather change declare after which, in probably the most provocative second of the evening, angered Vance by speaking about how Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, have been within the U.S. legally. That led Vance to enter an evidence of how the legislation labored that didn’t finish till Brennan instructed each candidates, “The viewers can’t hear you as a result of your mics are reduce.”
She was primarily speaking to Vance.
After the talk, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace mentioned, “(The moderators) did an excellent job, and so they additionally used their mic muting energy. And I really assume when you’re a lady that may be the worst second JD Vance had, as a result of he was going to mansplain proper over that mute button.”
However there wasn’t a lot on-air fact-checking past that. (CBS hosted a dwell weblog that included fact-checking.) Once more, you’ll be able to query CBS for that call, however the moderators adopted their task.
As well as, Brennan and O’Donnell hit a lot of the massive speaking factors: immigration, well being care, girls’s rights, baby care, local weather (together with Hurricane Helene), weapons, the economic system and democracy, together with Jan. 6 and the peaceable switch of energy. They talked about Vance’s flip-flopping on previous Trump statements, and Walz’s previous feedback about being within the navy. They requested about Israel, however oddly didn’t ask about Ukraine in maybe the one main omission of the evening.
However, total, it was a great evening for Brennan and O’Donnell. Consider it this manner: When the candidates are the celebrities of the evening, and the dialog is remembered for what the candidates say, and the moderators primarily keep out of the way in which, then the moderators often have given a great efficiency.
After the talk, the networks weighed in, some saying Vance gained, others claiming it was Walz’s evening. And there have been the standard pointless and hard-to-believe, cliched interviews with individuals claiming to be undecided voters. (Actually? There are nonetheless undecided voters who may be swayed by a vice presidential debate?)
Which brings me up to now: As substantive, informative and entertaining because it was, did Tuesday evening’s debate even matter?
In a piece where four New York Times’ opinion columnists weighed in before Tuesday night’s debate, David Brooks wrote, “As for debate performances, I genuinely don’t assume it issues electorally. V.P.s scarcely matter even in probably the most unstable of campaigns. This yr voters are locked in. The election is being formed by fundamental demographic and financial realities, not the day-to-day doings of the candidates. Harris did a complete beat-down on Trump within the debate and it helped her within the nationwide polling a bit, however not by a lot. I’m struck by how few individuals I meet need to speak concerning the marketing campaign.”
Tressie McMillan Cottom added, “I agree that this debate is not going to matter electorally. Nobody chooses a president based mostly on a vice-president debate.”
CNN’s David Axelrod summed up the evening after the talk was over, saying, “I don’t assume it adjustments the race in any respect. It was an attention-grabbing evening, however I don’t assume it adjustments the race in any respect.”
Final week, phrase got here that CNN would experiment with a paywall on its much-read web site.
Nicely, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported the details of that Tuesday, writing that some guests to the CNN web site will probably be requested to pay $3.99 a month for entry.
Those that learn only some tales a month gained’t be requested to pay something at the moment. The paywall is supposed for individuals who learn greater than that.
Alex MacCallum, CNN’s govt vp of digital services and products, wrote to workers in a memo, “Solely after customers devour a sure variety of free articles will they be prompted to subscribe. Along with limitless entry to CNN.com’s articles, subscribers will obtain advantages like unique election options, unique documentaries, a curated every day choice of our most distinctive journalism, and fewer digital advertisements.”
Try Stelter’s story for extra particulars.
Make sure you try this story by my Poynter colleague Angela Fu: “Through widespread outages and collapsed infrastructure, North Carolina journalists hustle to cover Helene’s aftermath.”
Fu writes, “When Helene tore via western North Carolina final week, it triggered floods and mudslides that smashed away neighborhoods and took out very important infrastructure. Already remoted communities grew to become info black holes, reduce off from the world and one another. Native journalists have spent the times since making an attempt to succeed in these communities and fill in info gaps — all of the whereas coping with storm-wrought injury in their very own lives.”
Fu spoke with Blue Ridge Public Radio senior regional reporter Lilly Knoepp, Asheville Watchdog managing editor Keith Campbell and Poynter school member Tony Elkins, who lives in Asheville.
Elkins mentioned due to the circumstances, together with energy outages, radio has change into a key supply of knowledge. He added, “We’re within the mountains, we’re distant. And radio has simply come via. I can’t describe it. It feels so good to listen to one other human’s voice.”
New York journal’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi on the annual White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation Dinner in Washington, in April 2023. (AP Photograph/Jose Luis Magana)
The massive gossipy scandal in journalism nowadays is New York journal putting star political journalist Olivia Nuzzi on depart whereas they examine her private, though apparently not bodily, relationship with an individual she lined: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The story took one other twist Tuesday when Nuzzi accused her former fiance, Politico journalist Ryan Lizza, of harassment and blackmail, in line with court docket filings.
In her grievance, which was filed within the Superior Court docket of the District of Columbia, Nuzzi accused Lizza of hacking her gadgets and mentioned that he “explicitly threatened to make public private details about me to destroy my life, profession, and fame—a risk he has since carried out.”
That will counsel that it was Lizza who leaked the Nuzzi-RFK story, which was damaged by media reporter Oliver Darcy.
Lizza denied the allegations, saying, “I’m saddened that my ex-fiancée would resort to creating a sequence of false accusations in opposition to me as a option to divert consideration from her personal private {and professional} failings. I emphatically deny these allegations, and I’ll defend myself in opposition to them vigorously and efficiently.”
So now Lizza is on depart from Politico. A spokesperson for Politico mentioned, “Politico and Ryan Lizza have mutually agreed that it’s in everybody’s greatest curiosity for him to step again and take a depart of absence whereas an investigation is performed.”
A listening to has been set for Oct. 15, the place Lizza can reply to the choose within the case.
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz has more on this story.
Tech tradition columnist Taylor Lorenz is leaving The Washington Publish to begin her personal publication on Substack. Her new enterprise, referred to as User Magazine, will “cowl know-how from the person facet. It’s about who has energy on the web and the way that energy is being wielded.”
Lorenz joined the Publish in 2022 after working at The New York Instances and, earlier than that, The Day by day Beast.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin, Lorenz mentioned, “I simply needed to get out of legacy media. I really feel prefer it’s simply actually, actually troublesome to do the type of reporting that I need to do on the web inside these type of older establishments as a major job. I prefer to have a extremely interactive relationship with my viewers. I prefer to be very vocal on-line, clearly. And I simply assume all of that’s actually arduous to do within the roles which might be out there at these legacy establishments.”
Lorenz added, “I feel additionally legacy establishments usually have simply actually struggled to cowl the web in any significant approach, I feel that they usually type of draw back from the web. I write concerning the consideration economic system, and I write concerning the content material creator business, and I simply need full autonomy to write down and do and say no matter I would like, and have interaction just a little bit extra straight with my readers, with the general public, in terms of my work.”
For now, Consumer Journal will simply be Lorenz, however she hopes so as to add contributors and increase to different mediums.
In her introductory submit for Consumer Journal, Lorenz wrote, “I will probably be reporting on the individuals and actions which might be steering tech and web tradition, from bizarre on-line phenomena, to under-the-radar tendencies, to content material creators, platform developments, coverage initiatives, and the highly effective forces that form our on-line world. It’s about who has energy on the web and the way that energy is being wielded.”
She added, “Consumer Magazine will arrive by way of electronic mail 1-3 instances every week, and paid subscribers could have commenting privileges, entry to subscriber-only chats, and can obtain unique, deep-dive evaluation items amongst different advantages. It’s going to embody a mixture of initially reported articles, interviews, and hyperlinks to what I’m studying and watching on-line.”
Have suggestions or a tip? E mail Poynter senior media author Tom Jones at [email protected].
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