One giant ego trip
Before you do anything else today, you should read the transcript of TIME’s brand-new interview with President Trump.
The interview begins and ends with Trump’s complaints about the media. Even when asked about Iran or the Senate, he circles back around to his feelings about how his presidency is covered.
“You haven’t asked me one fucking positive question,” Trump said toward the end.
The entire interview is highly emotional like that. “Well, I hope I get a decent story,” he concluded. “I don’t think—you know, it’s hard to get a good story. Every question’s a hit. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong.”
Detailed, transcribed interviews with Trump are a rarity. I suspect I know why he agreed to this one. The cover – featuring a photo of Trump standing on the new White House helipad – “marks a milestone,” the magazine said: “With 56 appearances, Donald Trump has now appeared on TIME’s cover more often than any other individual, surpassing President Richard Nixon, who held the record for more than half a century.”
The transcript is a giant ego trip. Trump showed off pictures of his White House renovations, fretted that someone will try to rip the gold out of the Oval Office, and refused to rule out demolishing the Kennedy Center.
TIME’s Eric Cortellessa ended the cover story this way: “Toward the end of our interview, I ask what he will miss most when his presidency is over. This time there is no digression, no grievance, no story. Trump does not need a moment to think: ‘This beautiful room.’”
Cortellessa and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs admirably began the interview on Monday by signaling support for recently banned news outlets. They asked: “Why should Americans believe that you respect the free press when you’re restricting access to the White House to some of our colleagues?”
Trump tried his usual answer, differentiating between real and “fake” news. When the reporters asked if Trump is ignoring last week’s court order — today CNN is once again banned from Air Force One — Trump said, “I’m not ignoring his order,” then feigned ignorance.
Communications director Steven Cheung piped in: “The judge basically ordered them to renew their access back to the White House, but that’s different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.”
So, as suspected, the White House is justifying its ongoing actions against CNN by saying access to the White House complex is different than access to tight spaces like Air Force One. (The Associated Press has ongoing litigation over this distinction.)
The reporters also probed further about the ban, asking, “Why now?” Trump didn’t really answer. But later on, he complained about The New York Times and said “maybe they’ll be next,” indicating the ban concept is still front and center in his mind.
As for today, the White House left CNN off the pool schedule, even though CNN was listed earlier in the week. The other major networks are declining to fill in — part of an ongoing show of solidarity with CNN. As a result, “no pool camera will travel with the president during his scheduled trip to Texas and Oklahoma,” The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo noted.
The small pro-Trump streamer Real America’s Voice is continuing to proclaim that it is providing a pool feed to any and all outlets, but it’s not getting many takers…
Overnight the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed another amicus brief in the CNN/MS NOW/Politico lawsuit over White House access. Last week’s brief was joined by 49 media organizations. This week’s brief was joined by 77 media organizations.
The Reporters Committee is urging Judge Timothy Kelly to grant the CNN/MS/Politico request for a preliminary injunction. The brief says the expulsions are “part of a broad series of actions the administration has taken in an effort to bend reporting to the will of the President.” Here’s the PDF…
>> WaPo’s Scott Nover pointed out yesterday that the Trump administration is buying pro-Trump ad airtime on CNN and MS NOW despite Trump’s attacks…
Let me just return to the TIME cover for one more minute. The interview transcript is also worth reading for exchanges like this one:
TIME: “Mr. President, your polls have never been lower.”
TRUMP: “They’re fake numbers. I would beat anybody running today by 20 points. Your numbers that you have are fake. The pollsters are corrupt. They’re almost as corrupt as the writers.”
Someone might want to bookmark that quote and revisit it after the midterm elections in November.
Yesterday afternoon, minutes after Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved Paramount’s settlement with the state AGs, the company made two big announcements.
First, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz is joining the combined company as co-CEO. Second, the deal will “close” next Tuesday.
As Liam Reilly and I wrote here, the announcements offered some clarity on how David Ellison will lead one of the largest entertainment companies on the planet.
Ellison will be chairman and CEO, while Kreiz will be co-CEO and join the new company’s board of directors. CNN’s Ramishah Maruf wrote about Kreiz’s history here.
Kreiz “will focus on the company’s day-to-day management and integration of the combined businesses,” according to Paramount’s press release, while Ellison said he will focus on “long-term strategy, the company’s overall creative direction, talent relationships, strategic partnerships, technology and capital allocation.”
As Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw noted, that means “Kreiz will cut costs, restructure and serve a similar role to Jeff Shell at Paramount with a key difference — all the major stakeholders report into him (and Ellison).”
Ellison mostly stayed out of public view during the protracted fight for WBD, but yesterday he gave an interview to the WSJ’s Joe Flint following the news of Kreiz’s appointment. “Ynon’s capability and operational expertise inside of the company will ensure we can execute this integration at the absolute highest level to unlock value for shareholders and the creative community alike,” Ellison said.
The other key quote: “We recognize the controversy and turbulence that has existed to get us to this point. I hope we prove them wrong through action,” Ellison said. In a year, he said, he wants people to say “this is the best place to work where we encourage artists and creators to aim high.” Here’s a gift link to the piece…
>> Mark Ruffalo, one of the merger’s most outspoken critics, lamented the judge’s approval of the settlement, writing that the merger “will stifle creativity, weaken free speech, and cost people their jobs — it is a bad deal for this country and should never have been approved.” (X)
>> Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim appeared at TheWrap’s TheGrill conference and said “he is confident CNN will maintain its editorial independence under the Ellison family… dismissing concerns about the network’s future under its incoming owner.” (TheWrap)
>> CNN’s Clarissa Ward sat down with THR’s Steven Zeitchick and shared why she signed a one-year contract rather than a longer-term one ahead of the merger’s consummation. “There are so many things going on and you don’t want to rush into anything without a clear-eyed view in terms of how much is changing,” Ward said. (THR)
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos took the stage at Bloomberg Screentime last night and said his streamer is “not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster.” Sohee Kim has a full recap here.
This morning veteran TV blogger Rick Ellis, who has well-placed sources at Netflix, tweeted, “I am hearing a lot of talk that a round of layoffs are coming at Netflix. Ranging from 5-10% of the total workforce, which would be a major disruption.”
Not surprising, but… the FCC’s Trump-aligned chairman Brendan Carr said yesterday that he doesn’t think “there’s anything unique or different about” Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads “other than being one normal PSA of the types of PSAs that the government naturally and normally runs.”
“There’s nothing in it that strikes me that merit any sort of FCC review or any liability for any broadcaster for running a regular, normal PSA ad,” Carr said shortly afterward.
When a reporter noted that a complaint argued one of the three spots was originally a Trump campaign ad, Carr attempted to discredit their organization. Reuters’ David Shepardson has more on Carr’s comments here…
>> The BBC is holding “final interviews” for its next BBC News chief, Jake Kanter reports. (Deadline)
>> “CNN is expanding its streaming lineup with ‘Body Language by CNN,’ a new original series hosted by ‘The Situation Room’ co-anchor Pamela Brown. Focused on women’s health, the eight-episode series will premiere Thursday, Oct. 8…” (TheWrap)
>> There’s been “another big AI ruling,” Eriq Gardner reports: “A federal judge has dismissed the antitrust complaint brought by publishers including Penske against Google over search engine snippets that have undercut readers clicking through to Rolling Stone, Variety, and other publications.” (X)
>> The FTC “is investigating Anthropic and OpenAI to determine whether they deceived consumers about the potential harms of their artificial intelligence.” (WSJ)
>> Reddit “is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots.” (TechCrunch)
>> Garbo… lives? One of the relatives managing the late actress Greta Garbo’s legacy told Robert Booth he “won’t say no” to an AI version of her being cast in roles. “It’s pretty incredible and lifelike. So what’s to say that you can’t bring Greta Garbo back in some kind of fashion in a film role?” (The Guardian)
After a good deal of negative press around “Digger,” the movie is pushing back with an ad literally telling viewers to “decide for yourself.”
“It’s a pretty bold ad for a rather bold film,” THR’s James Hibberd writes, explaining it’s “essentially telling moviegoers: ‘Some people really dislike this movie, so go buy a ticket to find out why and, hey, maybe you’ll agree — or not.’” Watch the ad here.
The film is “tracking a hugely disappointing launch of $12 million to $15 million in North America,” Variety’s Rebecca Rubin reports. Analysts say the movie “could be bigger overseas, where [Tom] Cruise’s movies tend to make the bulk of their money,” she writes…
This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.