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Stormy Daniels Interview a Ratings Winner for ’60 Minutes’ — But It Also Generates Pushback

Mar 26, 2018  •  Post A Comment

CBS’s “60 Minutes” interview with Stormy Daniels delivered the venerable newsmagazine’s highest ratings in a decade, the AP reports, adding: “But the story wasn’t a slam dunk, either in the reaction it produced or getting on the air in the first place.”

“An estimated 22 million viewers tuned in Sunday to see the adult film star tell ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Anderson Cooper about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump and the aftermath, which she said included efforts to silence her,” the story reports. “Daniels also said she swatted Trump’s behind with a magazine bearing his photo to take his boasting down a peg.”

The report quotes Whoopi Goldberg asking Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, on ABC’s “The View” this morning: “I think people thought there was going to be a smoking gun here. Did we miss something?”

“Avenatti responded that Daniels’ account of being threatened to keep quiet about the affair represents a ‘big, big accusation’ and a ‘critical’ fact. In other TV interviews, Avenatti said he was holding back certain details of the alleged affair, including the contents of a CD or DVD he tweeted a picture of last week, for strategic reasons,” the AP reports.

The story adds: “Jeff Fager, executive producer of ’60 Minutes,’ said the report included meaningful aspects of Daniels’ story, including what the $130,000 payment to her by Trump attorney Michael Cohen might mean in the context of federal campaign rules.”

Fager also told the AP: “If people were expecting more sensationalism, they probably were a little disappointed. … but 22 million people stayed with us, so I don’t think they were.”

3 Comments

  1. So the gay guy and the porn star get together and produce the best ratings the gay guy has had in years. Just because the audience stuck around until the end doesn’t mean they thought it was a good show. We stayed around expecting a bombshell– and got a dud. Basically, they recycled old news. A waste of my time. Jeff Fager, executive producer of ’60 Minutes, also told the AP: “If people were expecting more sensationalism, they probably were a little disappointed. … but 22 million people stayed with us, so I don’t think they were.” Jeff, your ads hyped “sensationalism”, but you lied.

    • How does Anderson Cooper’s sexual orientation have any relevance in this story?

  2. Why is he “withholding details for strategic reasons”? Isn’t it the job of journalists to report the news, and not hold it as some kind of October Surprise for his Democratic masters??

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