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USA Today, Gannett Media Won't Endorse in 2024 Presidential Race; Bezos Denies Trump Influence as Washington Post Loses Subscribers; The Influencer Effect and the 2024 Campaign; New Rule Requires Automatic Refunds for Canceled Flights. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 29, 2024 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're following more breaking news this afternoon on high-profile newspapers refusing to endorse a presidential candidate before next week's election. Gannett, the owner of the nation's largest newspaper chain, which includes USA Today, announced that its 200-plus publications will not endorse a candidate for president.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Gannett's decision follows similar announcements from the LA Times and the Washington Post. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos penned an op-ed defending his position after internal backlash, severe backlash, led to multiple staff resignations and the cancellation of thousands of subscriptions. The paper's social media team also posted a TikTok video mocking their boss's decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't publish it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So as you may know, I'm a billionaire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

[15:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And many of us billionaires own multiple companies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we know. You own the Washington Post --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Blue Origin, which happens to have billions of dollars in cloud computing contracts with the federal government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're worried about retribution if Trump wins?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't say that, but many experts have pointed to that. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN media correspondent Hadas Gold is here with more on the fallout. Hadass, what more can you tell us?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I mean, kudos to the Washington Post's Dave Jorgensen and their social media team for being willing to put that out there. And The Washington Post, I should say, has been doing some really good reporting on itself, on what's happening here and what's happening with their owner, Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos' op-ed that was published last night is still one of the most read pieces on The Washington Post website, which goes to show you the interest level that people have in what happened behind this endorsement.

What I've been hearing from people at The Washington Post and what's been also published publicly, including by their media critic Eric Wemple, there are people who are calling it cowardly, calling it unprincipled. Saying, hey, if they had just gone forward with their planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, no one would really have paid attention. Or, of course, if they had announced this non-endorsement strategy months ago, when Jeff Bezos first apparently expressed doubt about this, again, it would have been a story briefly, but nobody would have been talking about it. And they're talking about the timing here.

Others are claiming that this op-ed is some sort of distraction tactic, a way to get us to talk about the journalism, state of journalism, and distract from other questions that, like that video showed about questions about potential business interests.

But Jeff Bezos, in his op-ed, made the case that not endorsing contributes to perceptions of bias in the media, that the trust in the media by the public is at all times low, and that The Post, he says, is increasingly talking to just a group of certain elites. He says, what presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias, a perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it's the right one.

He did address the timing. He said this was inadequate planning, and he wished it had been made earlier.

And I have reporting, because according to a meeting that the opinions editor held yesterday, Jeff Bezos first expressed skepticism about the endorsement back in September. And David Shipley, the opinions editor, spent those remaining weeks trying to convince him to move forward with the endorsement until last week, when Jeff Bezos blocked the endorsement.

David Shipley told his staff, I failed. He said he failed in trying to convince him to continue with the tradition of endorsement. As a result, we now have three members of The Washington Post editorial board who have stepped down from the editorial board. That's nearly one-third of the 10-member board.

Now, they're all keeping their jobs with The Washington Post, but they've stepped down as a form of protest to this decision. And as you noted, we are hearing, this is according to NPR, that something of upwards of 200,000 subscribers have canceled their subscription to The Washington Post after this announcement was made. The Washington Post has so far not commented on these numbers, but it is notable that they are not denying them -- guys.

SANCHEZ: Pivoting, Hadas, to the subject of intense speculation over the last few weeks, whether Vice President Harris would appear on Joe Rogan's podcast the way that former President Trump did last week. Joe Rogan has spoken out about why it hasn't happened yet, right?

GOLD: Yes, Joe Rogan is one of the most popular podcasters currently around right now, and so doing a show on his podcast would be very important, especially because his audience skews very much young and very much male. And he finally posted saying, for the record, the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast. He said they offered a date for Tuesday, and I would have had to travel to see her, and they only wanted to do it an hour, and he felt the best way was to do it in Austin.

I should note, though, that he says this is not necessarily means that they won't do one. His interview with former President Donald Trump has 35 million views on YouTube. It makes it Rogan's most watched episode of the year to date. That's according to YouTube, so it could be very valuable for the vice president to sit down with Joe Rogan -- guys.

KEILAR: Yes, that's a lot of views. Hadas Gold, thank you so much.

Coming up, social media's effect on the presidential election. Millions, of course, getting their news from influencers, but there's a big mystery surrounding some of these posts.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Your social media feeds are probably flooded with political ads right now. And part of it is due to new partnerships with influencers as the campaigns shift their strategies to reach more voters. Among those influencers is YouTuber Jake Paul who posted a video pretending to square up with former President Trump.

The post got more than 1.5 million likes. But did you know content creators aren't required to disclose if they've been paid for political endorsements.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Clare Duffy is following this trend. Claire, how do we know if these posts are true expressions of support or rather paid endorsements?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Boris, that's the big question because there is no law requiring that content creators disclose if they've been paid for a political post. That's different from most branded content on social media. The Federal Trade Commission requires that influencers disclose if they've been paid to promote a brand or a product.

The Federal Election Commission also requires that for political TV ads you see that paid for by disclosure. But there's this sort of regulatory gap where influencers are not required to disclose if they've been paid for political posts. And this comes at a time when we know, as you said, the campaigns are increasingly relying on influencers to help spread their message.

The campaigns have not said if they themselves are paying influencers. And I say I should say that Jake Paul's team told me that he was not paid for that post. Although it's hard to tell because no labels are required.

[15:45:00]

But we know that there are political action committees, other groups that are shelling out millions of dollars to work with influencers. As just one example, the Democratic PAC Priorities USA and the voter advocacy group Somos Votantes recently announced a nearly three million dollar campaign where they're paying influencers to help get out the vote.

And, you know, it's interesting and sort of tricky for social media users who are having to navigate this because it is hard to tell. Is this influencer endorsement that I'm seeing in my feed somebody's genuine expression of support or have they been paid to promote that point of view? And it's hard to tell because these labels are not required.

Some of the social media platforms have tried instituting their own rules around this, asking folks to disclose these things. But there is still a lack of transparency.

SANCHEZ: Clare Duffy, thank you so much for breaking that down for us.

Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Rescue teams are searching for survivors after a 10 story hotel collapsed in Argentina this morning. At least one person was killed, up to nine others are unaccounted for. Officials say the hotel had been undergoing renovations, which was paused in August over permit issues.

Also, back in the U.S., Michigan quarterback Jack Tuttle is retiring from football after suffering a fifth concussion. Tuttle says after deep reflection and conversations with family, doctors and loved ones, he's decided to prioritize his health. The 25 year old says he now hopes to pursue a career in coaching. Tuttle joins North Carolina State quarterback Grayson McCall, who announced last week he was stepping away from the game after suffering a concussion that he, quote, cannot come back from.

KEILAR: And the L.A. Dodgers could sweep the World Series in game four tonight. The Dodgers leading the Yankees three games to zip. Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman tying a World Series record after homering in his fifth consecutive fall classic game Monday night. The Dodgers just one win away from the franchise's eighth World Series championship.

SANCHEZ: Freddie Freeman comes alive in October.

KEILAR: Yep. All right. Coming up next time you experience flight troubles, you could get an automatic refund. We'll have a look at the new rules that U.S. Airlines must follow if a trip is delayed or canceled.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Some welcome news, a heads-up for air travelers starting this week. New rules are in effect that force airlines to refund you automatically if your flight is canceled or significantly delayed.

KEILAR: CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is with us. Tell us about this, Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It feels so good to be at the desk talking about saving people money and not some awful incident for a change. You know, this is really huge for travelers because we have all been there. Your flight gets canceled, but the airline gives you a travel credit or a voucher, not exactly what you want, but those days are officially over.

This is known as the automatic refund provision, and the Department of Transportation says it fully went into effect yesterday, forcing airlines to give you your money back without you having to ask. Here are the conditions. Not only does this apply if your flight is canceled, it also applies to delays.

Refunds are triggered automatically when a domestic flight is more than three hours late. You get a refund for an international flight if it's more than six hours late. There is one little catch here, though. This is the fine print. If an airline rebooks you on a different flight or offers you some other compensation, you must walk. You cannot double dip here.

Now, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg first announced this back in April. Airlines initially fought back against this, calling this much too complicated for them to implement, but now the industry's top lobby tells me it supports this. Even President Joe Biden posted about this on X.

Who is that handsome reporter that he retweeted?

KEILAR: Oh, I know that guy. He's great.

MUNTEAN: I've got that dog in me and he's addicted to the lights. Biden calls it a big deal for folks who will be flying to visit loved ones this holiday season. You can almost hear him saying that.

Hard to believe that we're only 30 days until Thanksgiving Day. Also, the start of the challenges of airlines operating in the wintertime. That's when cancellations really begin to creep on up.

But the good news is the problems that led to mass cancellations in 2021 and 2022 are now in the rearview and the cancellation rate for flights now down to about 1.6 percent of all flights this year.

But never say never. You've got to remember the crowd strike outage caused Delta to cancel about 7,000 flights back in July. That affected about a million passengers. So it can really change on a dime. Never say never that cancellations will be coming.

SANCHEZ: How fast can folks get their money back?

MUNTEAN: This is really interesting. You know, if you pay with a credit card, you can get your money back within about seven business days, according to this new rule.

If you pay through some other way, I can't really think of another way to be honest, but if you pay with another form of payment, you get your money back within 20 calendar days. The whole thing here is that this is automatically triggered. You get your money back right away. It's essentially a cash refund, which is huge for travelers, huge for consumer advocates.

SANCHEZ: You ever pay for a flight with a sock full of pennies. We fact checked.

MUNTEAN: You could go, right.

SANCHEZ: We on the fly fact checked something that Pete said. He does, in fact, have that dog in him. Thank you so much.

KEILAR: My day is complete. All right.

It has been a long year, but we can finally say that we're in the final stretch for Halloween. Next, we're going to show you the most popular costumes this year.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We've checked the calendar again and again. There are still seven days until Election Day. But more importantly, or as importantly, for those that are too young to vote, there are two days until Halloween.

And we're wondering if you've got your costume yet. Because if you need ideas, how about characters from the movie Beetlejuice? Or an Olympic breakdancer?

Or pop star Sabrina Carpenter? They all made Google's list of top trending Halloween costumes for 2024. And coming in at number one, the Shrunken Head Bob from Beetlejuice.

KEILAR: Second is Raygun, the viral Australian breakdancer. And also in the top ten, Catnap from the popular video game series Poppy Playtime. Deadpool's female counterpart Lady Deadpool.

Another popular costume, Chipotle Burritos match. And characters from the movie Inside Out 2.

[16:00:00]

Plus the Minions, which are a Halloween staple.

And I'll give you this hint about what mine is.

SANCHEZ: Uh-oh.

KEILAR: Here we go.

SANCHEZ: Uh-oh, every time her pictures come up, I'm just inspired. I'm just full of inspiration.

KEILAR: It's really because you just do this and everyone is going to know.

SANCHEZ: They know immediately.

KEILAR: I got to go home though and make a Skibidi Toilet costume --

SANCHEZ: Ah, Skibidi Toilet.

KEILAR: -- for a little one. What are you going to be?

SANCHEZ: Can I borrow that Skibidi Toilet costume?

KEILAR: No, you know what?

SANCHEZ: We've got to go.

KEILAR: Pitbull, Pitbull.

SANCHEZ: Oh, you spoiled it. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now

END