memeorandum: Everything that's been reported about deaths in Puerto Rico is at odds with the official count (Eliza Barclay/Vox)

8:35 AM ET, October 12, 2017

Top Items:

How Top NBC Executives Quashed The Bombshell Harvey Weinstein Story — Reporter Ronan Farrow ultimately took the piece to The New Yorker after facing months of opposition at his home network. — In mid-August, Ronan Farrow, an NBC News contributor, had secured an interview with a woman …

Erica Werner / Associated Press:

APNewsBreak: Steve Bannon had ties to Harvey Weinstein — https://www.apnews.com/8633ead481194326 8ad652d762dcd5e9 — Link copied! — WASHINGTON (AP) — The multiplying tentacles of the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal have touched a former president, a former presidential candidate and now a former presidential adviser.

Discussion: Splinter and Mashable

Bret Stephens / New York Times:

Weinstein and Our Culture of Enablers — Of all of the dismaying and disgusting details of the Harvey Weinstein saga, none is more depressing than this: It has so few heroes. — There is a storybook villain, Mr. Weinstein, whose repulsive face turns out to be the spitting image of his putrescent soul.

Megan Twohey / New York Times:

Weinstein Company Was Aware of Payoffs in 2015 — With Harvey Weinstein fired amid escalating allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, the business he helped create is consumed not just with what he is accused of doing, but with what other company leaders knew and how they responded.

Discussion: Washington Post and Dame Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Léa Seydoux / The Guardian:
‘I had to defend myself’: the night Harvey Weinstein jumped on me

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Da Tech Guy Blog, PerezHilton, IndieWire, The Daily Caller, Deadline, NBC News and The Ringer - All, more at Mediagazer »

Emily Smith / Page Six:
Shell-shocked Harvey Weinstein breaks silence after wife leaves him

Discussion: Deadline, Washington Post, Starr Fm, New York Times, AmmoLand.com Shooting …, CNN, The Guardian, Mashable and PerezHilton, more at Mediagazer »

Piers Morgan / Daily Mail:
PIERS MORGAN: Spare me Hollywood's hypocritical horror over Harvey Weinstein …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Fox News Insider

Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: Trump's Justice Department moves on Harvey Weinstein and orders FBI to open probe …

Discussion: PerezHilton, Raw Story, Vox Popoli, New York Times, twitchy.com, Daily Wire, The Guardian, Fox News and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

TMZ.com:
Harvey Weinstein Suicide Threat Prompts Police Response (VIDEO)

Discussion: Daily Wire, Mediaite and PerezHilton

Dan Merica / CNN:
Exclusive: Clinton ‘sick,’ ‘shocked’ and ‘appalled’ by Weinstein allegations

TMZ.com:
Jay-Z Talking About Buying Harvey Weinstein's Interest in The Weinstein Company

Discussion: The Root and The Daily Caller

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:
Why Ronan Farrow's Harvey Weinstein Bombshell Did Not Run on NBC

Discussion: Mediaite, PerezHilton, thecut, Fox News and Talking Points Memo

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“I Hate Everyone in the White House!”: Trump Seethes as Advisers Fear the President Is “Unraveling” — In recent days, I've spoken with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president that seems …

Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times:

Trump unleashes himself from would-be handlers, lashing out mornings, nights and weekends — President Donald Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly at a briefing with senior military leaders at the White House on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017. (Andrew Harrer / Getty Images)

Discussion: Media Matters for America, IJR, Joe.My.God., The Atlantic and Political Wire

Daniel Lippman / Politico:
Trump to nominate Kelly's White House deputy as DHS secretary

Discussion: NBC News, Reuters, KTLA, The Daily Signal, Washington Post, Nextgov, Axios, AOL, Daily Kos, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, ABC News, Mediaite, RedState, Mother Jones and IJR

Eliza Barclay / Vox:

Everything that's been reported about deaths in Puerto Rico is at odds with the official count — We took a look at the numbers, and they didn't add up. — Death tolls are the primary way we understand the impact of a disaster. And for nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico …

Discussion: Splinter

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Trump warns Puerto Rico: ‘We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders . . . forever!’ — President Trump served notice Thursday that he may pull back federal relief workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid …

Discussion: Political Wire, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, ThinkProgress and Gothamist

Washington Post:
Three weeks since Hurricane Maria, much of Puerto Rico still dark, thirsty and frustrated

Discussion: The Stranger …

Ray Sanchez / CNN:
Puerto Rico's hurricane death toll rises to 45

Discussion: USA Today, NBC News, ThinkProgress, Washington Post, The Guardian, Joe.My.God. and Politico

Adam Cancryn / Politico:

Fed up with Congress, Trump whacks Obamacare with his pen — President Donald Trump is trying to do with the stroke of a pen what Republicans in Congress could not — bring about the end of the Obamacare markets. — Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday directing …

Discussion: Washington Post and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

New York Times:
Foiled in Congress, Trump Moves on His Own to Undermine Obamacare

Discussion: New York Magazine, Jamie Dupree - PBP and Vox

Louise Radnofsky / Wall Street Journal:
In Start to Unwinding the Health Law, Trump to Ease Insurance Rules

Discussion: CNBC

Chad Terhune / Los Angeles Times:
Covered California slaps a surcharge on health plans as Trump remains coy on subsidies

Discussion: CNBC, ACA Signups and Mother Jones

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:

‘He threw a fit’: Trump's anger over Iran deal forced aides to scramble for a compromise — President Trump was livid. Why, he asked his advisers in mid-July, should he go along with what he considered the failed Obama-era policy toward Iran and prop up an international nuclear deal he sees as disastrous?

Discussion: NBC News, Foreign Policy, VICE News, Raw Story and War on the Rocks

Chris Cillizza / CNN:

Donald Trump just issued a direct threat to the free and independent media — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has said a lot of bad things about the media since he started running for president two-plus years ago. He's suggested that the press doesn't really like America.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Reason, Washington Post, Breitbart Unmasked, ThinkProgress, CNBC, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones and The Stranger …, more at Mediagazer »

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Trump pushes to challenge media network licenses

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ABC News, Slate, TheBlaze, Fox News Insider, Mediaite, NBC News, RedState, Deadline, Raw Story, Politicus USA, Joe.My.God., New York Times and The Daily Caller

The Daily Beast:

Russia Probe Now Investigating Cambridge Analytica, Trump's ‘Psychographic’ Data Gurus … A data firm backed by some of Donald Trump's closest allies is now facing scrutiny as part of an investigation into possible collusion between the president's team and Russian operatives, The Daily Beast has learned.

Discussion: Just Security, Financial Times, Shareblue Media, Politico, Axios, Washington Post and Raw Story

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

President's lawyers may offer Mueller a meeting with Trump — Donald Trump's lawyers are open to having the president sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller, according to a senior White House official, as part of a wider posture of cooperation with the special counsel's Russia probe.

Discussion: ABC News and Political Wire

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Feds won't confirm Comey assurances to Trump on Russia probe

Discussion: Daily Kos

Washington Post:

Undisclosed deal guaranteed Roy Moore $180,000 a year for part-time work at charity — Former Alabama judge Roy Moore, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, once said publicly that he did not take a “regular salary” from the small charity he founded to promote Christian values because he did not want to be a financial burden.

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, National Review, Talking Points Memo, Joe.My.God. and Balloon Juice

Julia Manchester / The Hill:

Limbaugh: Trump's comments on NFL ‘starting to make me nervous’ — Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday voiced concerns about President Trump's comments on NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, saying Trump should not have the power …

Discussion: USA Today, FOX6Now.com, NPR, Q13 FOX News, 2ndvote, IJR, Fox News Insider, Conservative News Today, Washington Free Beacon, Raw Story, ProFootballTalk, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Daily Wire, CBS Dallas, Joe.My.God., CBS Philly and AOL

George Prayias / The Rush Limbaugh Show:
It's NFL Owners' Job — Not the President's — to Control Their Employees

Discussion: USA Today

Tim Bontemps / Washington Post:

Pro sports teams were once reliable patrons of Trump's hotels. Not anymore. — Until recently, the Trump SoHo hotel served as a kind of luxe clubhouse for NBA teams visiting New York. — At least 12 teams — more than a third of the league — had stayed there since it opened in 2010.

Nicholas Pugliese / NorthJersey.com:

Menendez trial: Judge raises serious doubts about government's case — The judge overseeing U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's federal corruption trial raised serious doubts Wednesday whether a legal theory that prosecutors have relied on to prove their case is still allowed in the wake …