memeorandum: Montana TV Station Won't Air Recording Of GOP Candidate's Attack On Journalist (Michael Calderone/HuffPost)

12:20 AM ET, May 26, 2017

Top Items:

Jared Kushner Now Under FBI Scrutiny in Russia Probe, Say Officials — Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and one of his senior advisers, has come under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News. — Investigators believe Kushner …

Washington Post:

Jared Kushner now a focus in Russia investigation — Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Discussion: Breitbart, Little Green Footballs, The Guardian, France 24, Daily Mail and Mediaite

Andrew Rafferty / NBC News:
Joe Lieberman: FBI Appointment Would Have Looked ‘Terrible’

Discussion: Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, Axios and Mediaite

Austin Wright / Politico:
FBI won't provide Comey memos to Congress yet

Discussion: ABC News, Above the Law, Hot Air, Morning Consult, Talking Points Memo, Media Matters for America and Raw Story

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Jared Kushner under FBI scrutiny in Russia probe: reports

Discussion: Washington Post, ABC News, RedState, Raw Story and Mediaite

Michael Calderone / HuffPost:

Montana TV Station Won't Air Recording Of GOP Candidate's Attack On Journalist — Right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group recently purchased the local NBC affiliate, but the general manager says the company didn't interfere. — If Montana residents tuned into the local news Wednesday night …

Christina Manduley / CNN:

Tapper: If you can't condemn an assault on a reporter, reexamine your love for Constitution — Tapper: If you can't condemn an assault... (CNN)On Wednesday, the Republican candidate in Montana's special congressional election, Greg Gianforte, was charged with misdemeanor assault …

Discussion: Associated Press, CANNONFIRE, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, The Times of Israel, The Guardian, Media Matters for America, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Booman Tribune, New York Times, CNNMoney and IJR, more at Mediagazer »

Yashar Ali / New York Magazine:

Montana NBC Affiliate Refused to Cover Gianforte ‘Body Slam’ — Last night, Montana residents who tuned into their NBC affiliate, KECI, would not have heard the now infamous audio of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs being roughed up by GOP congressional candidate Greg Gianforte.

Discussion: New York Times, Hullabaloo and Talking Points Memo

Edmund Kozak / LifeZette:
Montana Assault Witness Changes Story, Says No Neck Grab

Discussion: New York Times, Daily Wire, RedState, Washington Post, Weekly Standard, CNN, Balkinization, Politico, AOL, Fox News, Fox News Insider, The Right Scoop, The Hill, Fusion, Hit & Run, neo-neocon, theGrio, vice, IJR, Media Matters for America and Business Insider

Matthew Balan / Mediaite:
‘You Are Sadly Mistaken’: Don Lemon Rips CNN Guest Who Won't Blame Trump For Alleged Assault On Reporter

Discussion: Breitbart, twitchy.com and theGrio

Felix Biederman / Washington Post:
Face it: The body-slammed reporter did just what you would have done

New York Times:

Live Election Results: Montana's At-Large Congressional District — Greg Gianforte, a Republican technology executive who was charged with assault on Wednesday night, faces Rob Quist, the Democratic candidate and folk singer, in a special election for Montana's at-large House seat on Thursday.

Discussion: Power Line, FiveThirtyEight, vice, ThinkProgress, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Media Matters for America, Townhall.com, Helena Independent Record, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo and Missoulian

New York Times:

Assault Charge for Gianforte Lifts Democrats' Montana Election Hopes — BOZEMAN, Mont. — Democrats scrambled on Thursday to snatch a last-minute upset in the closely watched House contest in Montana, airing radio and digital ads featuring audio of the election-eve assault on a reporter by the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte.

Discussion: Esquire, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Heat Street, ThinkProgress, Refinery29, Daily Wire and Outside the Beltway

David Weigel / Washington Post:
Polls close in Montana, with both sides seeing possible roads to victory

Discussion: The Resurgent

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Montana's wild special election: 6 things to watch

Discussion: The Atlantic, Politicus USA, Daily Wire and FiveThirtyEight

Karen Attiah / Washington Post:

Trump's behavior at NATO is a national embarrassment — Poor NATO. After all of the hoops summit organizers reportedly jumped through to accommodate President Trump and his anemic attention span, he definitely was not on his best behavior. Trump was the party guest whom no one really wants …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and The Mahablog

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Trump chastises fellow NATO members, demands they meet payment obligations

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Weasel Zippers, Daily Kos, RedState, CNN, Political Wire, Mother Jones and vice, more at Mediagazer »

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:

The conservative mind has become diseased — To many observers on the left, the initial embrace of Seth Rich conspiracy theories by conservative media figures was merely a confirmation of the right's deformed soul. But for those of us who remember that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity …

Discussion: The Federalist and Balloon Juice

Rob Tornoe / Philly.com:
Fox News host Sean Hannity takes a vacation after losing more advertisers

Discussion: The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The Resurgent, Conservative News Today, HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill and Fast Company

Brad Reed / Raw Story:
Sean Hannity takes abrupt vacation as advertisers continue to flee his Fox News show

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Magazine, twitchy.com and Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »

Wall Street Journal:

How Alleged Russian Hacker Teamed Up With Florida GOP Operative — Political consultant Aaron Nevins asked for and received documents from hacker ‘Guccifer 2.0’ and posted some on his blog, after which the hacker called the blog to the attention of Trump adviser Roger Stone.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Fast Company, Mediaite, Gizmodo, ThinkProgress, Politicus USA, Raw Story and Balloon Juice

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Russian Hackers Are Using ‘Tainted’ Leaks to Sow Disinformation — Over the past year, the Kremlin's strategy of weaponizing leaks to meddle with democracies around the world has become increasingly clear, first in the US and more recently in France. But a new report by a group …

David Filipov / Washington Post:
Researchers say they've uncovered a disinformation campaign with apparent Russian link

Discussion: and that's the way it was

John Scott Railton / The Citizen Lab:
Tainted Leaks: Disinformation and Phishing With a Russian Nexus

Discussion: Political Wire, The Hill, Gizmodo and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

artnet News:

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Failed to Disclose Their Multimillion-Dollar Art Collection — The couple has a taste for the works of market-friendly art stars, but lawyers say it's just for decoration. — Since their wedding in 2009, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have amassed a formidable collection of contemporary art.

Discussion: The Week, Raw Story and Political Wire

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Appeals Court Will Not Reinstate Trump's Revised Travel Ban — WASHINGTON — The federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., on Thursday refused to reinstate President Trump's revised travel ban, saying it discriminated on the basis of religion. The decision was a fresh setback …

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Liberal Values, Outside the Beltway, Weasel Zippers, Fusion, Above the Law and Daily Kos

Jessica Gresko / Associated Press:
TRUMP TRAVEL BAN BLOCKED; FIGHT HEADED FOR SUPREME COURT

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Appeals court keeps block on revised Trump travel ban; administration vows SCOTUS appeal

Discussion: ABC News, Hot Air and Axios

Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:

Carrier Sends Jobs to Mexico, Workers Say Trump ‘Misled’ Them … Donald Trump stood outside a Carrier manufacturing plant in Indianapolis, Indiana weeks before taking office and boasted he just saved 1,100 jobs from being shipped to Mexico. — Inside the plant, some workers were skeptical.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Daily Mail:

Obama receives rock star welcome in Germany as he appears alongside Merkel and says 'we can't hide behind a wall' — Former President Obama appeared alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday in front of Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate — Obama used the opportunity …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Daily Wire

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
How Obama not so subtly undercuts Trump

Discussion: NBC News, Daily Kos, Mother Jones and ABC News

Brad Reed / Raw Story:

‘Close to a disaster’: Foreign policy scholar explains massive damage done by Trump's NATO speech — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — President Donald Trump on Thursday delivered a speech at NATO headquarters in which he did not explicitly endorse Article 5 …

Discussion: BBC and Shakesville

Henry J. Gomez / BuzzFeed:

Key Republicans Are Encouraging Hillbilly Elegy Author J.D. Vance To Run For Senate In Ohio — Some Republican activists and donors worried about the prospects of their party's Senate candidate in Ohio are kicking around an outside-the-box alternative: Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance.

Discussion: Political Wire

Manu Raju / CNN:

Hill demands answers on Robert Mueller probe — (CNN)A growing number of key lawmakers in both parties are calling on Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller to detail what specifically his Russia investigation is targeting, with one Democratic senator warning bluntly that failing …

Discussion: emptywheel

Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:

Harvard's Student Paper Is Drunk and Taking Potshots at Mark Zuckerberg — The Harvard Crimson has either become the victim of an incredibly funny prank, or Facebook is beta-testing its silent speech brain interface on college students. — Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned …

Discussion: CNBC, BuzzFeed, Washington Post, New York Times, IJR, Fusion and AOL

Daniel Gross / Slate:

Trump Reportedly Wants to Stop Germans From Selling So Many Cars Here, Where They're Made — Donald Trump had some tough words for the Germans at the NATO summit in Belgium on Thursday. “The Germans are bad, very bad,” he reportedly told Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Union.

Discussion: Politicus USA, The Week, Raw Story, Mediaite, Shareblue, Mother Jones, Business Insider and New York Magazine

Dr. David A. Bray / Fight for the Future:

Letter to the FCC from people whose names and addresses were used to submit fake comments against net neutrality — 445 12th Street, S.W. — Washington, D.C. 20554 — Chief Information Officer — Federal Communications Commission — 445 12th Street, S.W. — Washington, D.C. 20554

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos, Common Dreams, Motherboard and The Verge

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

GOP Lawmaker: No One Can Truly Know Whether My Bill Will Kill People — Earlier this year, the House GOP wrote a bill that would have thrown 14 million people off of their health insurance next year, and increased the ranks of the uninsured by 24 million within a decade.

Discussion: Business Insider, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic, Raw Story, Reuters, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, Vox, AOL and Fusion

Linda Yang / broadly:

‘Mattress Girl’ Emma Sulkowicz Is Back—And Channeling Her Rage Through BDSM — Two years after “Mattress Performance,” Emma Sulkowicz continues to provoke. Her most recent piece, in which she was bound, berated, and hung from the ceiling, tackles the question of the value of art under the Trump administration.

Discussion: Power Line, The Daily Caller and Heat Street