A look at the Alabama AG’s race in the wake of the CBS News investigation
In a Tuesday night report, CBS News revealed Republican attorneys general on a retreat hosted by the Republican Attorney General Association (RAGA) in April on Kiawah Island, S.C… with lobbyists representing groups like Koch Industries, Reynolds America, Select Management Resources and the National Rifle Association to name a few. Among those attendance was Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Alabama’s top law enforcement official. To some, that fact means nothing. But to many, lobbyists represent all that is bad in politics. Over the years, lobbyists gotten a bad reputation and have been credited with having created a “culture of corruption” and are associated with words like “manipulation,” “corruption,” and “bribery.” The question for some, like Marshall’s primary runoff opponent — former Alabama Attorney General Troy King — is whether or not lobbyists, at retreats like the one in S.C., are influencing how Marshall runs the AG office. Just last week, King called out Marshall for attending another weekend getaway in N.C. with lobbyists. “He’s at an exclusive golf club in North Carolina… he is standing there with fat cat donors and lobbyists who spent $25,000 to spend the weekend with him. And $5,000 a person to come to a political fundraiser,” King said during a press conference in Montgomery. Marshall fights back But Marshall says he’s done nothing wrong and will not apologize for working with other AGs. “He will not apologize for working with other AG’s around the country,” Marshall’s campaign told CBS 42. The campaign went on to say, “Troy King attended several of these RAGA meetings during his time as attorney general, so these attacks are just dripping in hypocrisy.” Our check of Alabama’s campaign finance reports shows RAGA contributed 435,000 dollars to Marshall’s 2018 campaign for Alabama Attorney General. Political impact? CBS 42 askedAlabama’s leading political columnist Steve Flowers about how RAGA might play into the upcoming runoff. “For those people who are prosecutors to be wined and dined and given very large contributions through a nebulous organization, it looks a little like play for pay. I think Marshall is looking bad with a black eye cause he’s taken a lot of money from those people… and they are really people that he should be investigating.”
Jeb Bush: Donald Trump “scary,” too “uninformed” to be president
Jeb Bush once again criticized rival presidential candidate Donald Trump, calling the Republican front-runner “scary” and suggested was too “uninformed” to lead the nation. Louis Nelson of POLITICO reports that Bush, in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” blasted the billionaire real estate tycoon for changing positions on Syrian refugees and how to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. “The simple fact is that he’s been wrong on Syria and on the refugees pretty consistently,” Bush said. “And no one’s holding him to account. He first said we had no interest in being involved in Syria. And then he said let the Russians take out ISIS. And then he said let ISIS take out [Syrian President Bashar] Assad.” “Back and forth it goes,” Bush continued. “And the net effect of this is in these really serious times he’s not a serious leader.” Bush did offer words of praise for Trump’s media strategy, which he said plays reporters “like a fiddle,” with outrageous statements engineered to gain attention. Although Bush said he would support the eventual GOP nominee, the former governor did insist that Trump’s attraction will begin to fade. “Anybody is better than Hillary Clinton,” Bush said. “Let me just be clear about that … But I have great doubts about Donald Trump’s ability to be commander in chief. I really do.” Bush added that he will give Trump “the benefit of the doubt” to see how his campaign progresses. “But if you listen to him talk,” he said, “it’s kind of scary to be honest with you because he’s not a serious candidate.” Trump is “all over the map,” at best misinformed, and at worst playing on people’s fears. Eventually, it will be the voters who decide about Trump, Bush noted. “I’m pretty confident that the more they hear of him, the less likely he’s going to get the Republican nomination.”
CBS hopes debate coverage will boost streaming service
CBS News sees its coverage of Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate as a key moment in helping to establish CBSN, the streaming service that just celebrated its first birthday. Political reporter Major Garrett will host a preview of the debate an hour before it begins on CBSN. The free service will stream the debate live, accompanied by data and tweets provided by Twitter, with Garrett stepping in with reactions during commercial breaks of the televised contest. It is also being shown on the broadcast television network. CBSN, which launched Nov. 6, 2014, provides a continuous newscast and also allows users to click on streams of individual stories. It is available on the CBS News website, on the network’s mobile apps and through services like Apple TV, Roku and Android TV. Starting this week, it can also be seen on Xbox One. “What this has to be to be a success if to be completely ubiquitous, that everybody who is delivering live news content has to be distributing us,” said CBS News President David Rhodes. CBS views it as the future of video news, a generation removed from cable news networks. The average age of a CBSN viewer is just under 40, considerably younger than the traditional television news demographic, the Nielsen company said. It is younger by three years for people watching on Internet-connected televisions. For now, the service is unique to CBS. Rhodes said he believes competitors like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are reluctant to try something similar because potential users would be put off by having to go through cable companies to use the service. “If we make a go of this and it becomes a commercial success, I think you will see others try to get into it,” he said. “I think we would welcome that because it’s a validation of our strategy.” While the network does not say how many people use CBSN, Rhodes said he expected it will get more views Saturday night than ever before. Usage tends to spike around major news events, he said. Oddly, the service has done well before, during and after previous presidential debates, which Rhodes found surprising considering CBSN did not stream them. The service has offered ongoing discussions about the debates while they were happening with occasional highlights, and Rhodes speculated it appeals to cord-cutters who have no traditional TV service. This Saturday, network executives anticipate CBSN will be used as a second screen for many people already watching the debate on the broadcast network. Garrett said he’ll be helping to curate the Twitter feed that will appear on the CBSN screen. “That’s part of the experiment,” he said. “Everyone associated with social media is trying to figure out — how do you make it meaningful and not just noisy?” Because of social media, the “spin room” that existed after debates is now in operation while the event is still going on. Garrett will use the broadcast commercial breaks to show how campaign aides are trying to shape the stories. Garrett, who worked at both CNN and Fox News Channel, had anticipated a more structured environment at CBS with newscasts in the morning and evening broadcasts. CBSN takes him back to his cable days where there is much more time to fill; fewer commercials mean discussions can go even longer at CBSN. His children — ages 20, 19 and 15 — provide him with a daily reminder of the importance of CBSN. Their dad works in TV but they rarely see him there. They catch him in clips that are linked on social media. “The digital platform is essential for the fate of broadcast network news,” he said. “We have to be in that space.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
CBS News to overhaul 2016 convention coverage
CBS News will overhaul its coverage of the 2016 Democratic and Republican conventions to emphasize participants “on the ground” rather than chatter in the network’s skybox, CBS News President David Rhodes said. Dismissing any predictions of a candidate’s selection coming down to the convention wire — “It’s not going to happen,” he said — Rhodes said there is news being made by decision-makers and others at the convention. He said his bias is toward coverage of what they are doing and saying as opposed to putting resources into the “air-conditioned skyboxes” above the convention floor that typically showcase network reporters and analysts. Traditional keynote speeches and other major scheduled events will be aired, he said. But there is an ongoing “dance” between the political parties and networks over coverage, with all involved spending “a lot of money” on the conventions, Rhodes told a TV critics’ meeting Monday. CBS is on to tap to air primary election debates for the Democratic and Republican presidential contenders, with the network airing the Nov. 14 Democratic debate and the GOP one set for Feb. 13. Both are Saturday nights, which typically attract smaller TV audiences. The moderator for each will be John Dickerson, CBS News’ political director and anchor of “Face the Nation,” Rhodes said. He was asked if CBS would limit the number of candidates, as Fox News Channel did — using poll numbers — for the first Republican candidate debate last week. The first Democratic debate is set for Oct. 13 in Nevada. In a “perfect world,” every candidate would be able to participate, he said, but a line has to be drawn given large candidate fields. He said the formula for the CBS-aired debates would be made closer to the dates. Dickerson, who recently succeeded the retired Bob Schieffer as host of “Face the Nation,” spoke with relish about covering the ’16 election, and not just because of GOP contender Donald Trump or the unexpected candidacy of Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders. “This was going to be an exciting election before it became the Summer of Trump,” because both parties will be picking candidates in the absence of an incumbent president running, Dickerson said. Add to that the feeling of many Americans that politics is “rigged” against them and their worries about major issues including terrorism and it makes for an energized political climate, he said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
