memeorandum: Pentagon punishes reporters over tough coverage (Jason Schwartz/Politico)

10:25 AM ET, August 16, 2018

Top Items:

John O. Brennan / New York Times:

John Brennan: President Trump's Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash — That's why the president revoked my security clearance: to try to silence anyone who would dare challenge him. — Mr. Brennan was director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2017.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNN, Politico, Power Line, Associated Press, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, HuffPost, KTLA, Washington Times, POLITICUSUSA, Balloon Juice, Axios, Althouse, The Week, Raw Story, Mediaite, TheBlaze, The Guardian, CNBC and WTKR-TV

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Trump blurts out another Lester Holt moment — It really was the Russia investigation all along. — In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted late Wednesday, President Trump once again gave away the ballgame when it comes to his efforts to impact the probe and tear down its leaders (both current and former).

Discussion: MSNBC, The Week, Axios and Politico

Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Revokes Ex-CIA Director John Brennan's Security Clearance — Brennan has been a vocal critic of President Trump — WASHINGTON—President Trump revoked the security clearance of former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan, a prominent critic of the president, the White House said Wednesday.

Sara Carter / Sara A. Carter:

Intel Official: “Brennan's Actions are Unconscionable...Trump Did The Right Thing” — Numerous intelligence officials say Brennan's behavior is damaging to national security — Former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance was revoked by President Trump Wednesday …

Discussion: ABC News, Fox News Insider, HuffPost, Hot Air and The Daily Beast

Elizabeth Zwirz / Fox News:
John Brennan's nasty history with Trump preceded national security clearance revocation

Discussion: CNN, Sara A. Carter and The Daily Banter

ACLU:
ACLU Comment on Revocation of John Brennan's Security Clearance

Discussion: Common Dreams and Washington Post

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Trump Revokes Ex-C.I.A. Director John Brennan's Security Clearance

Discussion: CNN, Outside the Beltway, Just Security, Liberty Unyielding, MSNBC, Hot Air, Axios, Vox, Washington Post, Mediaite, Power Line, The Western Journal, CBS Philly, TheBlaze, HuffPost, LifeZette, Fox News Insider, twitchy.com, Shareblue Media, TVNewser, Law & Crime and Daily Wire

Ben Terris / Washington Post:

She works for Trump. He can't stand him. This is life with Kellyanne and George Conway. — Kellyanne Conway is in her living room, showing me an enormous painting of Audrey Hepburn wearing a peacock on her head, but her husband, George, really wants us to come into his office and look …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Conservative News Today, HuffPost, Hot Air, The Week, Law & Crime, TheBlaze, AOL and Mediaite

Christopher Cadelago / Politico:

‘If they take the House, he wins big’: Trump loyalists see upside in impeachment — Why some Trump allies think his path to reelection runs through an effort to kick him out of the Oval Office. — There's a new way of demonstrating loyalty to Donald Trump and his Republican Party …

Discussion: The Week and Raw Story

New York Times:

Pelosi Talks of ‘Bridge’ to New Leader as Democrats Test Her Strength — Nancy Pelosi is confronting rising threats from different corners of the Democratic Party, and is girding for a mortal challenge to her leadership after the November midterm elections or even sooner.

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:

Trump, Seeking to Relax Rules on U.S. Cyberattacks, Reverses Obama Directive — It isn't clear what rules the president is adopting to replace the existing ones — President Trump has reversed an Obama-era memorandum governing how and when the U.S. government can deploy cyberweapons …

Discussion: Associated Press and middleeastmonitor.com, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:

Jack Dorsey says he's rethinking the core of how Twitter works — Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said he is rethinking core parts of the social media platform so that it doesn't enable the spread of hate speech, harassment and false news, including conspiracy theories shared by prominent users like Alex Jones and Infowars.

Discussion: NBC News, The Verge, Gizmodo, Poynter, Engadget, Mediaite and BuzzFeed News, more at Mediagazer »

Harper Neidig / The Hill: The Hill Interview: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explains what got Alex Jones suspended

Erin Durkin / The Guardian:

Almost 350 news outlets to publish editorials denouncing Trump's ‘dirty war’ on press — Participation comes after a push organized by the Boston Globe to run coordinated editorials against Trump's attacks on the media — Nearly 350 news organizations are set to publish editorials …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, Daily Kos, Tablet Magazine and The Moderate Voice

David Bauder / Associated Press:
US newsrooms to Trump: We're not enemies of the people

Discussion: Politico, WCCO | CBS Minnesota, New York Times and CNNMoney, more at Mediagazer »

Kevin D. Williamson / National Review:

Elizabeth Warren's Batty Plan to Nationalize . . . Everything — Wholesale seizure and control of private property? With 2020 in her sights, Warren woos the hard Left. — Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has one-upped socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez …

BostonGlobe.com:
Journalists are not the enemy

Discussion: CNBC, Mercury News, Baltimore Sun, France 24, CBS Boston, NPR, RAPPLER and The Guardian

Adia Robinson / ABC News:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo: 'We're not going to make America great again; it was never that great' — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday ratcheted up his verbal feud with President Donald Trump saying “we're not going to make America great again, it was never that great.”

Discussion: Associated Press, Power Line, Front Page Magazine, Breitbart and Political Wire

Charles C. W. Cooke / National Review: Andrew Cuomo Was Never That Great

Shane Goldmacher / New York Times:
Cuomo Says ‘America Was Never That Great’ in Jab at Trump Slogan

Discussion: Fox News, Rochester Democrat …, RightWire, Splinter, The Federalist, Axios and Instapundit

Zach Dorfman / Foreign Policy:

Botched CIA Communications System Helped Blow Cover of Chinese Agents — The number of informants executed in the debacle is higher than initially thought. — It was considered one of the CIA's worst failures in decades: Over a two-year period starting in late 2010, Chinese authorities …

Betsy Woodruff / amp.thedailybeast.com:

Trump Staffer Says He Recruited Lobbyists for Russian Mogul — In the time since the election, a little-known Trump campaign staffer named Daniel Gelbinovich reached out to a number of Washington lobbyists with an eyebrow-raising ask: to shield a Putin ally from U.S. sanctions.

Peter Nicholas / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Says His Tariffs Will Rescue U.S. Steel Industry — President says U.S. steelmakers were in danger of closing; others take issue with the tariffs' impact — WASHINGTON—President Trump said that his steel tariffs on China and other countries are rescuing an iconic U.S. industry …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, MSNBC, CNBC, Political Wire, The Week, CBS Baltimore and Mediaite

Toluse Olorunnipa / Bloomberg:

Trump's Speeches Feature Mystery Men the White House Won't Name — The president leans on unidentified allies to back policies — White House won't identify people Trump describes in remarks — One of the biggest supporters of President Donald Trump's trade policies …

Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:

Papadopoulos's Wife Says He Should Scrap His Plea Deal With Mueller — The wife of Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos is making the bombshell suggestion that her husband drop a plea deal he has with special counsel Robert Mueller. — Papadopoulos is scheduled to be sentenced …

Discussion: Law & Crime

Julia Davis / The Daily Beast:

‘Trump Is Ours’: Kremlin Media Fear Democratic Victory in November Midterm Elections … During any other presidency, it would be highly unusual for the Russian media to be preoccupied with the American midterm elections, but in the time of Donald Trump, Russian politicians and pundits …

Discussion: Raw Story

Emily Zauzmer / People.com:

Omarosa Claims Ivanka Trump ‘Would Not Stop’ Complaining About SNL's ‘Complicit’ Perfume Ad — Omarosa Manigault Newman's tell-all Unhinged claims that Ivanka Trump hated the Saturday Night Live sketch that labeled her “complicit” in March 2017. — “At the senior staff meeting …

Discussion: RightWire

Washington Post:

CEO pay jumps to $19 million annually, as fears mount over the wealthy pocketing gains — Top executives of America's biggest companies saw their average annual pay surge to $18.9 million in 2017, according to a report released Thursday, fueling concerns about the gulf between the nation's richest and everyone else.

Discussion: The Guardian

Rafael Olmeda / Sun-Sentinel:

Judge blasts Sun Sentinel for publishing confidential information in Parkland school shooting case — A Broward judge criticized the South Florida Sun Sentinel for publishing legally obtained information about the Parkland school shooter. (WPEC-CBS12) — South Florida Sun Sentinel — Privacy Policy

Discussion: Politico, TheBlaze and Orlando Sentinel, more at Mediagazer »

Jason Schwartz / Politico:

Pentagon punishes reporters over tough coverage — Coupled with eroding access to top Defense Department officials, Pentagon reporters say it's becoming increasingly difficult to provide critical information to Americans. — The Pentagon's top spokesperson was ostensibly seeking to make peace …

YouTube:

Personal — Because over half of people in Congress are millionaires. — Because Peter King refuses to listen. — Because our kids deserve better. — Why do I fight? — Because it's personal.

Discussion: New York Times

Hannah Sparks / New York Post:

My trust fund made me miserable — Over the past six years, Lane Fury has collected more than $185,000 in family money. Eventually, Fury stands to inherit roughly $6 million, but the 27-year-old doesn't see this good fortune as a positive thing. — “I don't actually want it,” says Fury.

Julie Kelly / American Greatness:

The Weekly Standard's Ties to Fusion GPS — In his online appeal for money after being fired this week, disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok credited an unlikely source to vouch for his victim status: The Weekly Standard. — At one time a leading conservative magazine …

Discussion: New York Times, The Gateway Pundit, Liberty Unyielding, Washington Times, Breitbart, 100PercentFedUp.com and National Review

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

Trump's lawyers prepare to fight subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court — Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's lead lawyer for the ongoing Russia probe, said Wednesday that he is still awaiting a response from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to the Trump team's latest terms …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill and The Week

Conor Finnegan / ABC News:

US concerned by Russian satellite's ‘very abnormal behavior’ — When Vice President Mike Pence laid out the Trump administration's plan to establish a Space Force as a new branch of the military last Thursday, critics said it was a wasteful and unnecessary step that added bureaucracy for something that didn't present a threat.

Devin Scillian / WDIV-TV:

Aretha Franklin, ‘The Queen of Soul,’ dies at age 76 — Aretha Franklin, known famously as “The Queen of Soul,” has died at age 76. — Simply put, Franklin was arguably the greatest woman singer of the modern music era. With a voice that moved easily between thunderous power and wondrous finesse …

Roll Call:

Espy Poll of Mississippi Senate Race Shows Path to Victory for Democrats — A Democratic poll of the Mississippi Senate special election shows former Rep. Mike Espy having a path to finishing first in a runoff this fall. — Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was appointed earlier …

Discussion: Political Wire

David Remnick / New Yorker:

Trump and the Enemies of the People — Nikita Khrushchev, in his memoirs, observed that Joseph Stalin, his despotic and bloody-minded predecessor, referred to “everyone who didn't agree with him as an ‘enemy of the people.’ ” — “As a result, several hundred thousand honest people perished …

Michael Tackett / New York Times:

In Kentucky House Race, a Battle of Ideology vs. Résumé — LEXINGTON, Ky. — One morning last week, Representative Andy Barr stood on a podium to celebrate the renaming of Veterans Affairs facilities here for two local World War II heroes, the result of legislation the congressman had sponsored.

Nicholas Goldberg / Los Angeles Times:

The Los Angeles Times is not participating in today's nationwide editorial page protest against Trump's attacks on the press. Here's why — More than 300 newspapers around the country will participate today in a group protest of President Trump's frequent attacks on the news media.

Discussion: CNN, The Week and LGBTQ Nation, more at Mediagazer »

InStyle.com:

Why 95.8% of Female Newscasters Have the Same Hair — Splitting Hairs is our monthlong exploration of hair based on a survey of women across America. It's like you brought a photo to the salon — we're giving you exactly what you want. — TOREY VAN OOT