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5:40 PM ET, May 23, 2017

Top Items:

Statement on coverage of Seth Rich murder investigation — On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting.

Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:

Seth Rich's brother pleads with Hannity to stop spreading conspiracy theory — July 2016: DNC staffer Seth Rich fatally shot — The brother of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich wrote a letter on Tuesday to the executive producer of Sean Hannity's Fox News show pleading with him to find …

Discussion: IJR, KTLA, Media Matters for America, Hot Air and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
The Seth Rich lie, and how the corrosion of reality should worry every American

Discussion: CNNMoney, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:
Fox News removes false story on Seth Rich's murder — six days after it was debunked

Discussion: Mediaite

One America News Network:
The Mysterious Death Of Seth Rich

Discussion: Daily Wire

Martin Evans / Telegraph:

Salman Abedi named as the Manchester suicide bomber - what we know about him — The suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured dozens more at the Manchester Arena has been named as 22-year-old Salman Abedi. — Born in Manchester in 1994, the second youngest of four children his parents …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, American Greatness, Media Matters for America, USA Today, Media Matters for America, The Daily Caller, New York Times and New York Magazine

New York Times:

Britain Raises Terrorism Threat Level, Meaning New Attack May Be Imminent — MANCHESTER, England — Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain said on Tuesday night that the government had raised its terrorism threat level night to critical, — the highest level — meaning that another attack …

Discussion: Telegraph, Daily Mail, ABC News, Media Matters for America, Conservative News Today, Gothamist, Outside the Beltway, The Resurgent, IndieWire, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Business Insider, The National Interest, Why Evolution Is True, Fusion, rubber hose and Patterico's Pontifications

CNBC:

19 dead in possible suicide blast at Ariana Grande UK concert — At least 19 people were killed and about 50 others were injured in a suspected suicide bombing Monday night after an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in England, authorities said. — Greater Manchester Police said the incident was being treated as terrorism.

CBS News:

Latest on investigation into Manchester concert bombing — LONDON — CBS News confirmed Tuesday that the man who blew himself up the previous night at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, was 23-year-old Salman Abedi, who was known to British authorities prior to the attack.

Discussion: The Hill, Friendly Atheist, CBS New York, Daily Wire, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Daily Caller, Geller Report, Sky News and Daily Mail

Morrissey Official:
Celebrating my birthday in Manchester as news of the Manchester Arena bomb broke.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Joshua Taylor / Mirror.co.uk:
VIDEO UNAVAILABLE — A sick video has surfaced online showing …

Discussion: Daily Wire

Washington Post:
Manchester bombing suspect identified; Islamic State claims responsibility

Discussion: IJR, Department of Homeland …, National Review, TheBlaze, Common Dreams, Breaking911, Hit & Run and NPR

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross / The Atlantic:
The Manchester Attack Shows How Terrorists Learn

Discussion: TheBlaze, BBC, Raw Story, New York Times, IndieWire and ThinkProgress

Justin davenport / London Evening Standard:
Manchester suicide attacker ‘was known to security services but not thought to pose immediate threat’

Discussion: Fox News, Fusion, The Daily Signal, Geller Report, Daily Mail, IJR and myfox8.com

Telegraph:
Manchester terror attack: Everything we know so far

CNN:
Manchester Arena attack: ISIS claims blast that killed 22 at Ariana Grande concert

Discussion: Media Matters for America, neo-neocon, Washington Free Beacon, TheBlaze and The Daily Caller

New York Times: In Manchester, a Loud Bang, Silence, Then ‘Loads of Girls Screaming’

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Trump Budget Based on $2 Trillion Math Error [Updated] — One of the ways Donald Trump's budget claims to balance the budget over a decade, without cutting defense or retirement spending, is to assume a $2 trillion increase in revenue through economic growth. This is the magic of the still-to-be-designed Trump tax cuts.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Mother Jones, Vox, Booman Tribune, Raw Story and The Hill

Lawrence H. Summers / Washington Post:

Larry Summers: Trump's budget is simply ludicrous — Details of President Trump's first budget have now been released. Much can and will be said about the dire social consequences of what is in it and the ludicrously optimistic economic assumptions it embodies.

Discussion: Axios, The Guardian, CNBC, Business Insider, Fusion, New York Times, Equitable Growth and bradford-delong.com

Damian Paletta / Washington Post:

Trump's budget proposal slashes spending by $3.6 trillion over 10 years — President Trump on Tuesday will propose cutting federal spending by $3.6 trillion over 10 years, a historic budget contraction that would severely ratchet back spending across dozens of programs and could completely reshape government assistance to the poor.

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
President's Budget Relies on Rosy Assumptions

Discussion: Vox, Business Insider and Washington Post

Sarah Ferris / Politico:
Trump releases budget hitting his own voters hardest

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, The Daily Signal, Common Dreams, Washington Monthly, ED News, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times and Political Wire

Josh Rogin / Washington Post:
Lindsey Graham: Trump's State Department budget could cause ‘a lot of Benghazis’

Discussion: Mediaite

Kelsey Snell / Washington Post:
Even some Republicans balk at Trump's plan for steep budget cuts

Discussion: Business Insider, NPR, ThinkProgress, AOL and New York Times

Katie Jennings / Politico:

MacArthur resigns as co-chairman of ‘clearly divided’ Tuesday Group — Rep. Tom MacArthur resigned Tuesday as co-chairman of the caucus of GOP moderates known as the Tuesday Group in the wake of deep divisions among its members over the House Obamacare replacement bill he helped craft.

Discussion: Vox, Washington Post, Axios, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and The Daily Caller

David Leonhardt / New York Times:
It's Time to Worry about Health Care in the Senate

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Matt Shuham / Talking Points Memo:
Ryan Justifies Waiting For CBO Score To Send Health Bill To The Senate

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Daily Kos

Sharon Begley / STAT:

Trump wasn't always so linguistically challenged. What could explain the change? — t was the kind of utterance that makes professional transcribers question their career choice: — “ ... there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself — and the Russians, zero.”

Discussion: The Week and Unfogged

Susan Page / USA Today:

Al Franken, comedian-turned-senator, takes on Donald Trump, TV-star-turned-president — WASHINGTON — For Al Franken, it's finally safe to be funny again just at a moment all the news around him has taken a decidedly unfunny turn. — The two-term Minnesota senator and one-time Saturday Night Live comedian …

Discussion: Mediaite and The Week

Susan Page / USA Today:
Al Franken likes Elizabeth Warren. Ted Cruz? Not so much

Discussion: Political Wire

patribotics:

EXCLUSIVE: Marshal of the Supreme Court Warned Trump over ‘Muslim Ban’ — Multiple sources confirm that Pamela Talkin, Marshal of the Supreme Court, was dispatched to the White House by Chief Justice Roberts last Friday. The decision to send her was taken, sources say, when White House Counsel …

Austin Wright / Politico:

Brennan: Russia may have successfully recruited Trump campaign aides — Former CIA Director John Brennan said on Tuesday that he had concerns that Russian officials may have successfully recruited aides from Donald Trump's campaign to help in the Kremlin's efforts to influence last year's presidential election.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Daily Kos, Townhall.com, Hot Air, Axios and The Week

David Corn / Mother Jones:
Republicans Focus on Protecting Trump at Russia Hearing

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times and Daily Kos

Alex Koppelman / CNNMoney:

The case for why InfoWars' White House press pass is a good thing — InfoWars is the fringe right-wing outlet best known for spreading 9/11 Truther theories, the scurrilous idea that the massacre at Sandy Hook was a hoax, and a founder who has ranted about malevolent forces conspiring …

Discussion: The Resurgent, Mediaite, Business Insider and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

Sheriff David Clarke says he's unsure if Trump administration will still hire him after plagiarism report — Sheriff Clarke plagiarized parts of thesis — “This is about weakening, like I said, the support that I give and that I have with President Donald Trump and Secretary Kelly …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Townhall.com, Raw Story, Mediaite and Washington Free Beacon

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

While You Were Watching Trump, The Democratic Party Changed — Donald Trump has already changed the Democratic Party more than his own Republican Party. — While the president has merely reduced his own party into a panicked mess, the Democrats' trajectory seems to have moved subtly …

Discussion: Shakesville

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Uber Shortchanged New York City Drivers by Millions of Dollars — The ride-hailing company says it is refunding the money after miscalculating its commissions — Uber Technologies Inc. on Tuesday said it mistakenly underpaid New York City drivers for the past 2½ years …

Discussion: Recode, Gizmodo, Gothamist, Engadget, Mashable and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Rafael Olmeda / Sun-Sentinel:

Margate man acquitted in murder case after oral-sex defense — Richard Henry Patterson, the Margate man accused of choking his girlfriend to death in 2015 and leaving her body to decompose for two days before hiring a defense lawyer instead of calling the police, was found not guilty Monday of murder.

Discussion: IJR, New York Post and The Daily Caller

Ben Collins / The Daily Beast:

Manchester Death Hoax Makes It All the Way to Fox News … Late into Monday night, friends were reaching out to Andrea Noel to see if she was all right. They'd seen her picture in a tweet shared thousands of times saying she was missing after the terror attack in Manchester, England.

Discussion: Raw Story and RedState