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Donald Trump print pool rotation includes blacklisted outlets

The print pool rotation for covering Donald Trump will include outlets that his campaign has blacklisted. BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, Politico and The Washington Post are among the blacklisted outlets that will be part of the pool rotation, which begins the week of Aug 29. BuzzFeed is the first outlet to act as official print pooler, through which reporters send out shared reports about Trump’s activities to the rest of the outlets on the pool rotation. "We just wanted to thank you for your patience over the past few weeks,” reads an e-mail sent to the Trump pool list, which will be managed by reporters from The New York Times and Time magazine. “But we are pleased to announce that after some start-and-stop negotiations with the Trump campaign, we are debuting our full print pool this week, starting with BuzzFeed today in Washington.”

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, which have been ongoing for months, those representing the pool demanded that only the pool could determine its membership and not the campaign. What’s not clear though is whether the banned outlets will be allowed to attend Trump campaign events as media when they are not on pool rotation.

Hillary Clinton to address Hispanic and Black journalists convention

Hillary Clinton will address the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention on Aug 5 in Washington (DC). "It is notable that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has recognized the 2016 NABJ-NAHJ Convention as a vital gathering to discuss her platform and the issues impacting black and Latino communities," said NABJ President Sarah Glover. "Presidential nominees and US presidents from both parties have attended NABJ annual conventions, including President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush, and presidential nominees Barack Obama, Bob Dole and Al Gore. We're ecstatic to add the first woman nominee to our list." The groups also extended an invitation to Donald Trump to speak as well, but that his campaign has not yet responded.

Debate commission to Donald Trump: The dates are set

The Commission on Presidential Debates responded to Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee's complaints about the debate schedule with a message on July 31: The schedule is set. "The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) started working more than 18 months ago to identify religious and federal holidays, baseball league playoff games, NFL games, and other events in order to select the best nights for the 2016 debates," the commission said. "It is impossible to avoid all sporting events, and there have been nights on which debates and games occurred in most election cycles. A debate has never been rescheduled as a result."

Donald Trump and RNC officials have complained that two of the three scheduled presidential and one vice-presidential debates overlap with NFL games. The presidential debates are slated for Sept 26 at New York’s Hofstra University, Oct 9 at Washington University in St. Louis and Oct 19 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The vice-presidential debate is set for Oct 4 at Longwood University in Virginia.

Gov Mike Pence: Trump campaign to discuss lifting media blacklist; RNC stays out of it

Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence (R-IN) said the Trump campaign is having conversations about lifting the blacklist it has applied to certain media outlets.

Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, Gov Pence defended his own history of dealing with the news media, saying he authored legislation while in Congress to help protect journalists’ confidential sources. “We’re going to have those conversations internally and I fully expect in the next 100 days we’re going to continue to be available to the media, whether they’re fair or unfair," Gov Pence said. The Trump campaign has blacklisted certain outlets, including Politico, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and others, from attending his events because of what he considers unfair coverage. CNN’s Chris Cuomo said he is blacklisted from the Trump campaign “because of how we conduct our interviews.”

Trump may be the Republican nominee, but the Republican National Committee refuses to get involved or even comment on Trump’s treatment of the news media, instead diverting all questions to the campaign.

Attack in France upends pre-convention media plans

The attack in Nice, France has upended the pre-convention media plans for both presidential candidates. Donald Trump announced that he was postponing his vice presidential announcement, originally scheduled for July 15. Additionally, Trump told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly he was likely also postponing a planned joint interview with his vice presidential nominee on the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes." "Well, in light of what's happened tonight, in light of this, you know, absolutely horrific attack, you know, I'm not sure that I'm feeling good about doing 60 Minutes and I'm not sure that 60 Minutes is going to want to do anything other than this attack," Trump said in his second phone-in interview on Fox on July 14.

Sen Ted Cruz is still blaming Fox News

It’s been more than two months since Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) pulled out of the presidential race. But he’s still bitter at Fox News. On a radio program, Sen Cruz responded to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who questioned why Sen Cruz was meeting with Donald Trump and had agreed to speak at the GOP convention when he had previously excoriated the presumptive Republican nominee.

"I didn’t watch what she said and If I got dismayed every time somebody on Fox News attacked me, you know what, life is too short to worry about, that is an institution that can express its own corporate opinions, and it has done so at great volume during the course of the primaries. And I’m not going to worry about their attacks. Our country is in an extremely challenging position right now, and there are a lot of people who played an active role in putting us in this position,” Sen Cruz said.

Donald Trump cutting back on TV interviews

Donald Trump has slashed his regular cable television appearances and is largely restricting himself to "friendlier terrain" on Fox News, according to Howard Kurtz, the channel's media analyst and host of "Mediabuzz." According to Kurtz's report, Trump's staff is not notifying him of every interview request. It's part of an effort to tamp down on the "risk of the candidate making mistakes or fanning minor controversies."

"Several weeks ago, high-level staffers concluded at a meeting that the boss should be limited to no more than three interviews a week, print reporters included. He wound up meeting that quota in just half a day. But aides now vet whether certain reporters can ride on his plane, which used to be a snap decision by Trump," Kurtz reports. Trump's last interview with CNN was June 13. =The presumptive Republican nominee's last interview with MSNBC was in May with "Morning Joe".

Ferguson media get into the story

The line between news reporting and opinion is blurring in Ferguson (MO) as some national journalists inject their perspective and even themselves into the story.

The conduct of a few prominent members of the press on the ground has drawn the attention of media observers and prompted the wrath of conservatives who see an anti-law enforcement bias in the Fourth Estate.

Can Dean Baquet save Times Digital?

[Commentary] As Dean Baquet takes over as executive editor of the New York Times, a looming question hovers beyond the scandal surrounding Jill Abramson’s bloody ousting: How will Baquet handle the necessary digital transformation facing “All the news that’s fit to print”?

Baquet sent a memo to staff ensuring them that he will "move with urgency" on the recommendations of a recent internal "innovation" report, which was submitted in late March and warned that the Times' "journalism advantage is shrinking" as it is surpassed by new digital competitors.

But Baquet, while widely admired throughout the newsroom, is not known for his digital savvy. He's described as "print-forward," "page-one obsessed." Younger staff members note that he's never even written a tweet.

So the most important indication of Baquet's commitment to digital will be who he selects as his number-two, staffers said. If he taps a digital-forward managing editor, it will signal that he is serious about the need to grow in the online and mobile spaces, which will be essential to the Times' future success.

“If he hires the right deputy maybe it will work. But the signals he is sending are so much business as usual it’s very hard for me to imagine he’s capable of leading that type of change," a former staffer said.

Survey: 7 percent of reporters identify as Republican

The number of journalists identifying themselves as Republican has experienced a significant drop since 2003, a new survey found.

The percentage of full-time US journalists who claim to be Republican dropped from 18 percent in 2002 to 7.1 percent in 2013, according to a study by Indiana University professors Lars Willnat and David H. Weaver.

Michael Hayden joins Washington Times

Former CIA and NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden will write a bimonthly column called "Inside Intelligence" for the Washington Times.

“Gen Hayden is known as a broad-minded and independent thinker on military and intelligence matters. His columns will be must-reads inside and outside the Beltway,” Washington Times Editor John Solomon said. “We’re thrilled to have him as part of our growing team of columnists. His topics go to the heart of our mission as a newspaper.”

Clapper signs strict new media directive

A new directive issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper prohibits employees of certain government agencies from discussing any intelligence-related matter with the media, classified or not.

“[Intelligence Community] employees … must obtain authorization for contacts with the media” on intelligence-related matters, and “must also report… unplanned or unintentional contact with the media on covered matters,” the directive says.

DNI spokesperson Shawn Turner said that after the "damaging leaks in 2012," Clapper ordered a review to determine if there were a "consistent baseline requirement" for the intelligence community for engaging the media.

"The review demonstrated that baseline requirements were not consistent across the IC, but that there were best practices within the Community that could inform a consistent approach. That approach took shape as IC Directive 119," Turner wrote in an email. "This policy is being issued together with IC Directive 120 to ensure that members of the Intelligence Community are made aware of the protections provided them as whistleblowers who make protected disclosures. As with ICD 119, ICD 120 was initiated before Edward Snowden stole NSA property and leaked it to the media.”

Report: Univision, Telemundo skew liberal

The main US Spanish-language nightly news programs skew liberal on domestic issues and spent most of their air times in the last few months covering the new health care law, immigration reform, and immigration law enforcement, the conservative-leaning media watchdog group Media Research Center found in a new study.

Ken Oliver-Méndez, Director of MRC’s new Spanish-language watchdog group MRC Latino, said in an interview that of the newscasts of Noticiero Univision and Noticiero Telemundo from November through February, 45 percent of stories on US domestic policy issues tilted liberal, 49 percent were balanced or neutral and 6 percent skewed conservative.

According to the study, Univision’s stories tilted left 50 percent of the time, were balanced 43 percent and were perceived as conservative 7 percent of the time, while Telemundo’s stories tilted left 54 percent of the time, were balanced 40 percent of the time and tilted conservative 5 percent of the time. The study also found that Democratic surrogates and liberal-leaning groups were featured on both networks more frequently than Republicans or conservative groups, but the group also faulted conservatives for not reaching out more to Latino media.