NEWS AND OPINION:
He is an author and journalist who has been around for a while. He has a new book simply titled “War” arriving Oct. 15, weighing in at 448 pages.
“Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars — Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American Presidency. ’War’ is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history,” advises publisher Simon & Schuster in advance notes for the book.
“We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power,” the publisher said.
“The raw cage-fight of politics accelerates as Americans prepare to vote in 2024, starting between President Biden and Trump, and ending with the unexpected elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president. War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate,” Simon & Schuster advised.
Mr. Woodward has authored 22 best-selling books, according to the publisher.
TRUMP’S LATEST
“Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!” former President Donald Trump advised in a statement posted on X, released at noon on Monday.
Keep in mind that Mr. Trump has 88 million followers on X alone, which can certainly yield a mighty public outreach.
Here are the numbers for this single, simple post: In the first four hours, it was seen by 15.2 million viewers, liked by 312,000, shared by 69,000 and generated 35,000 mostly positive comments — though his critics also had a few things to say as well.
FOX NEWS AND THE DEMOCRATS
Fox News Media has revealed its plans for some very thorough coverage of the upcoming Democratic National Convention, which opens in Chicago on Monday.
Fox will get its coverage underway the day before with “Fox News Sunday” anchored by Shannon Bream. followed by Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino anchoring “America’s Newsroom” (10 a.m.). The rest of the special Sunday lineup will be “Outnumbered” (noon), “America Reports” (1 p.m.), “The Story with Martha MacCallum” (3 p.m.) and “Bret Baier’s Special Report” (6 p.m.). “The Ingraham Angle,” “Jesse Watters Primetime” and “Hannity” will broadcast live in the prime-time hours — at 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. respectively.
Fox News will also present a nightly hour-long special titled “Fox News Democracy 2024: The Democratic National Convention” from Monday to Thursday at 10 p.m. The program will be co-anchored by Mr. Baier and Ms. MacCallum.
“Baier and MacCallum will be joined by a rotating team of commentators and hosts, including chief political analyst Brit Hume, senior political analyst Juan Williams, ’Sunday Night in America’ host Trey Gowdy, Fox News Radio’s Guy Benson and ’Outnumbered’s Kayleigh McEnany,” Fox News said in a statement.
Pivotal daily developments will be covered by Jessica Tarlov and Harold Ford Jr. from “The Five” plus such Fox contributors as Kellyanne Conway, Karl Rove, Charlie Hurt (opinion editor of The Washington Times), Katie Pavlich, Marie Harf, Marc Thiessen, Mary Katharine Ham and Robert Wolf.
And let’s not forget late-night host Greg Gutfeld. His show “Gutfeld!” will air live each weeknight at 11 p.m. in front of an audience at Fox News headquarters in New York City.
Meanwhile, “Fox News @ Night” will wrap up the day’s headlines with anchor Trace Gallagher at midnight.
Additional reporting will be contributed by Fox News senior White House correspondents Jacqui Heinrich and Peter Doocy, plus correspondents Bryan Llenas and Rich Edson plus Fox Business Network correspondent Madison Alworth.
Steve Harrigan and Mike Tobin also will report news from a unique location — the convention’s designated “protest zone” in Chicago.
WHAT THEY WATCHED
While we’re on the subject of broadcasting, here’s one more phenomenon to consider. These impressive numbers reflect U.S. coverage alone.
“The U.S. Men’s Basketball Team’s 98-87 victory over France averaged 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. That ranks as the most-watched gold medal game since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, based on fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics,” reports Deadline.com, an industry source.
“The game peaked at 22.7 million viewers from 5-5:15 p.m. ET, as Team USA pulled away for the win. Led by Peacock, the game ranked as the most-streamed event of the Paris Olympics across NBCU digital platforms, with an average minute audience of 2.7 million viewers,” Deadline noted.
NBCUniversal’s presentation of the final Saturday of competition on NBC, Peacock, and across key online platforms was seen by 30.7 million viewers, according to national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
“That nearly triples the audience for the comparable Saturday of competition for the Tokyo Olympics of 11.7 million across all platforms,” the publication also said.
POLL DU JOUR
59% of registered voters in several key swing states say they are “almost certain” to vote in the 2024 presidential election; 64% of Democrats, 61% of Republicans and 54% of independents agree.
30% overall say they are “very likely” to vote in the election; 29% of Democrats, 32% of Republicans and 31% of independents agree.
4% say they are “somewhat likely to vote”; 3% of Democrats, 4% of Republicans and 6% of independents agree.
4% say they are “not at all likely” to vote; 3% of Democrats, 1% of Republicans and 5% of independents agree.
1% “don’t know” whether they will vote or not; 0% of Democrats, 2% of Republicans and 1% of independents agree.
SOURCE: New York Times/Siena College polls of 1,973 registered voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin conducted by telephone Aug. 5-9.
• Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin, on Facebook @HarperUniverse.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.