Update from the New York Post:
“Trump started with Jeff Zucker and said I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed….
“The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,” the source added.
A second source confirmed the encounter.
“The meeting took place in a big board room and there were about 30 or 40 people, including the big news anchors from all the networks…,” the source said.
“Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong. He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was network of liars... (continued)
Update from Deadline Hollywood:
UPDATE, 11 22 AM: The campaign manager of Donald Trump’s winning Presidential run says that the off-the-record meeting today between the President-elect and top brass from ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN and Fox News was “excellent.”
Calling the now over gathering “unprecedented,” Kellyanne Conway also said in the lobby of Trump Tower on Monday that the bigwig talk was “very candid and honest.” Noting that, even after a campaign where the media was often the focus of Trump’s distain, there was “no need to mend fences,” Conway added that it was still “great to set the reset button” in Monday’s media sit-down. “Thanks for sharing your bosses with us today,” Conway told reporters with a laugh.
Executives from The New York Times are set to drop by tomorrow with other media chiefs in the upcoming days too.
Original, from The Daily Mail:
By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com
(Daily Mail) Donald Trump met with executives and on-air anchors from the largest television networks in the United States on Monday afternoon at Trump Tower.
The surprise get-together came as a shock given some of the comments Trump made during his campaign about the 'dishonest media,' and was not mentioned in a mid-morning conference call that his transition team held with reporters.
Itw as organized by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who was also in attendance on Monday and demanded that the discussions that took place be off the record.
Representatives from CNN, Fox News, NBC, ABC and CBS will file in to Trump Tower for the sit-down with Trump and Conway.
The entire meeting will be conducted 'off the record,' meaning attendees must promise not to report on what is said or who is in the room.
Past presidents and presidents-elect have held similar meetings, but they were easier to keep secret since attendees didn't have to tromp through a landmark gold-encrusted marble office lobby in full view of TV cameras managed by the same media companies that took part.
ABC News was represented by president James Goldston and anchors George Stephanopoulos, David Muir, and Martha Raddatz.
Nightly News host Lester Holt and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd were on hand for NBC News, along with president Deborah Turness.
And rounding out the broadcast network presence at the meeting was Face the Nation host John Dickerson and the entire CBS This Morning team of Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell.
CNN president Jeff Zucker attended with on-air talent Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett.
Fox News had a handful of executives present at the meeting, including co-presidents Bill Shine and Jack Abernathy, vice president of news and editorial Jay Wallace and Suzanne Scott, the vice president of programming and development at the network.
MSNBC president Phil Griffin was there for his network.
Tight-lipped transition officials wouldn't discuss the purpose for the meeting on Monday afternoon.
But it's expected that the Trump team would make a cease-fire overture to end his campaign's war on the press.
Trump referred to America's political press corps as 'the dishonest media, 'the most dishonest people' and 'unbelievable liars' while he ran for president, often drawing sternum-rattling boos and storms of shouted insults from his rally crowds.
He also referred to specific reporters as 'sleaze' and 'slime' when he thought their pro-Hillary Clinton biases were showing, and sometimes named them from the podium while thousands jeered.
The president-elect hasn't held a press conference since late July.
Questions are also swirling about what his administration might do to redefine the White House's relationship with the media.
Print, wire and broadcast reporters currently get the benefit of a lengthy on-camera briefing from a spokesperson every day, along with the chance to send a representative to follow the president everywhere in a 'protective pool.'
The pool makes note of everything from presidential small-talk to the exact time, down to the minute, he leaves and enters the White House or individual rooms inside.
Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton, told National Journal last week that both institutions should be re-thought.
He explained that it was a mistake for him to implement the televised briefings without any restrictions.
McCurry also said that '[t]he idea of nonstop body-watch pool coverage is a bit ridiculous.'
Trump has yet to take questions from the assembled press corps in a formal news-conference setting since his Election Day triumph.
He did, however, take a handful of questions from pool reporters over the weekend in between meetings with potential cabinet appointees.
And the CBS '60 Minutes' program aired an hour-long broadcast last Sunday that included lengthy interview segments.
Links:
Future attorneys are taught in law school to never ask a witness a question they don't already know the answer to. On Saturday, CNN's Don Lemon learned this lesson the hard way.