FBI PUBLIC AFFAIRS - DIRECTOR'S AM NEWS BRIEFING

FBI PUBLIC AFFAIRS - DIRECTOR'S AM NEWS BRIEFING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2019 5:00 AM EST EFTA00161061 EFTA00161062 EFTA00161063 EFTA00161064 ABC Anchor Caught On Tape Complaining Her Epstein, Clinton Reporting Was Quashed. The AP (1115, Bauder) reports that ABC News is "fac[ing] questions...about its reluctance to air a sensitive story of alleged sexual misconduct after a leaked video emerged of reporter Amy Robach complaining about how her bosses handled an interview with a Jeffrey Epstein accuser: The AP adds "the conservative web site Project Veritas released video of Robach venting that 'every day I get more and more pried' that her 2015 interview with Virginia Giuffre never made the air." On Tuesday, ABC News maintained that "the interview didn't meet its standards because it lacked sufficient corroborating evidence: The Washington Times (11/5, Richardson, 492K) also reports "ABC News admitted Tuesday sitting on an explosive interview implicating...Epstein." Said ABC, "At the time, not all of our reporting met our standards to air, but we have never stopped investigating the story. ... Ever since we've had a team on this investigation and substantial resources dedicated to it. That work has led to a two-hour documentary and 6-part podcast that will air in the new year.' The Federalist (11/5, Clark, 126K) reports that in the leaked video, Robach "claimed the Royal Family threatened ABC, and Epstein's defense attorney, Alan Dershowitz, made a phone call to the network to squash the story." Robach 'also noted that three years ago she 'had Clinton' as part of her story. Said Robach, "Um, it was unbelievable what we EFTA00161065 had, Clinton, we had everything. I tried for three years to get it on to no avail. And now it's all coming out and it's like these new revelations and I freaking had all of it. I, I'm so pried right now. Like everyday I get more and more pried cause I'm just like, oh my God, we, it was what, what we had was unreal. Other women backing it up." Page Six (11/5, Nathan, 1.6M) points out "both Dershowitz — Epstein's lawyer — and Clinton were passengers on Epstein's private jet, logs show: The Washington Examiner (11/5, Gage, 448K), the Daily Caller (11/5, Kerr, 716K) and Townhall (11/5, Meads, 177K), among other news outlets, also report the story. Axios (11/5, Basu, 521K) quotes Robach in the aftermath of the Project Veritas video as saying, "As a journalist, as the Epstein story continued to unfold last summer, I was caught in a private moment of frustration. I was upset that an important interview I had conducted with Virginia Roberts didn't air because we could not obtain sufficient corroborating evidence to meet ABC's editorial standards about her allegations. My comments about Prince Andrew and her allegation that she had seen Bill Clinton on Epstein's private island were in reference to what Virginia Roberts said in that interview in 2015. I was referencing her allegations — not what ABC News had verified through our reporting. The interview itself, while I was disappointed that it didn't air, didn't meet our standards." Sullivan Calls For Outside Investigation Of NBC Handling Of Weinstein Story. Media columnist Margaret Sullivan writes in the Washington Post (11/5, 14.2M) that "the top guns at" NBC -and its news division (news division chairman Andy Lack, president Noah Oppenheim and corporate CEO Steve Burke) have decided, by all accounts, to ride out the storm over the NBC's botched handling of Ronan Farrow's reporting about movie producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017." Sullivan adds that "NBC's brass has no intention of hiring an outside firm to lead a new investigation of what happened, relying instead on an internally led investigation that concluded last year and found little cause for concern about management's role. ... It's a dangerous approach," and 'at a time when the credibility of American mainstream media is under constant attack from President Trump and his cynical allies, the right response becomes more vital than ever." EFTA00161066 EFTA00161067 EFTA00161068 EFTA00161069