A 39-year-old Arkansas man, Benjamin Craig Matthews, was arrested on Wednesday after making 40 calls to CNN between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 allegedly harassing and making death threats against an unidentified reporter, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The details: USA Today identified the journalist who received death threats from Matthews as Don Lemon. Per USA Today, the man also made calls to prominent Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Maxine Waters, as well as to Planned Parenthood and attorney Michael Avenatti. Matthews is facing multiple charges including felony terroristic threatening and "multiple counts of misdemeanor harassing communications," per the Hollywood Reporter. This comes after a pipe bomb was mailed to CNN offices in New York in October and a man was arrested for threatening to shoot Boston Globe employees in August.
Between the lines: It’s possible the White House and Sanders didn’t realize it was doctored footage when sharing the video — and thought it was just edited to show the exchange in slow motion. But it's clear that the edits editorialize the incident to make Acosta look more aggressive.
About 20 protestors from an anti-fascist group gathered outside the Washington, D.C. home of Fox News host Tucker Carlson Wednesday night, pounding on the front door and chanting, "We know where you sleep at night," reports the Washington Post.
Why it matters: Demonstrating outside Carlson's home, where his wife and four children also live, is a noted escalation of the trend of Trump allies being confronted in public spaces like restaurants. Twitter has since suspended the account of Smash Racism DC, the group that organized the protest and shared Carlson's address in a tweet. Per the Post, one of the account's now-deleted tweets read, "Tonight you’re reminded that we have a voice. Tonight, we remind you that you are not safe either."
More than 1 million people ditched their cable and satellite TV packages last quarter, the most ever in a quarterly earnings period, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.
Why it matters: Americans are increasingly giving up on expensive cable and satellite TV packages for more affordable services delivered over a broadband connection.
Sources with direct knowledge say that since the earliest days of his presidency, Trump has mused about revoking press credentials for reporters who infuriate him. But press staff have often successfully counseled him against doing so, telling him it would only elevate the reporter involved and would result in damaging stories about him cracking down on press freedom.
Driving the news: Yesterday, Trump went ahead and did it anyway, with Sarah Sanders announcing that the White House had removed the "hard pass" of CNN’s Jim Acosta, who had tangled with Trump at his midday press conference.
The House flip could be a game-changer for the embattled farm bill, which must be renewed every five years, several policy experts tell Axios.
Why it matters: Major safety nets for farmers are in limbo while smaller agricultural programs have stopped receiving funding altogether, creating extra anxiety for farmers who are already reeling from tariffs and lower crop prices.
Big Tech — Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple — is using data and augmented reality in a push into the $265 billion-a-year beauty retail market.
Why it matters: Tech giants own increasingly granular data about the people who search, socialize and shop on their platforms, giving them a strong start at countering the current dominance of brick-and-mortar stores.
The White House has revoked CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta's "hard pass" press credential until further notice following Wednesday's heated press conference between President Trump and Acosta, among other network reporters.
The details: Trump called Acosta "a rude, terrible person" after Acosta asked about his rhetoric regarding the migrant caravan and the Russia investigation. In a statement, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Acosta placed his hand on a young White House intern trying to take the microphone away from him.
In Tuesday’s midterms, voters set out yet again to tackle major social and economic issues — flat wages, expensive housing, discrimination against released prisoners — that public officials and companies failed to resolve.
Why it matters: In part, the populism that is roiling nations around the world is a reaction to a feeling that the system has failed to respond to large social issues. In these cases, voters said markets and public officials fell short.
President Trump hosted a 1-hour, 27-minute press conference on Wednesday, answering a range of questions about the midterm election results, the Russia investigation, his relationship with the media and more.
The bottom line: It was a typically combative presser in which Trump claimed a tremendous victory in the midterms — and often refused to concede defeat or apologize for his rhetoric.
During a post-midterms press conference, President Trump blasted CNN's chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta as "a rude, terrible person" during a heated line of of questioning that saw a White House staffer attempt to snatch away Acosta's microphone.
