Forward

Exec summary: Happy Halloween! I still don't have a costume. Have any ideas for me? I have lots of news for you... And at the very end, a really wonderful story about a bookstore... But let's start here...

Radicalization

Both the alleged mail bomber and the alleged synagogue shooter have all the markings of "right-wing terrorists," terror expert Peter Bergen writes in his latest column for CNN.com.

Both men "attached themselves to extremist right wing ideologies that gave meaning to their otherwise dead-end lives," Bergen says.

And I think it's clear that suspects were radicalized, to some degree, on the internet. Now there's this quest to understand what went wrong — and some predictable push-back from right-wing media stars. Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday that the recent scrutiny of hateful right-wing rhetoric is just "an attempt to suppress political speech the left doesn't want to hear."

Rush doesn't value real journalism. But thankfully many others do. It's valuable to find out what these suspects were reading and watching and saying. So, to that point, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and the KFILE team did a really deep dive into bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc's social media accounts. It was published on Tuesday.

The takeaway: Sayoc's posts "read like a blueprint for the radicalization of an alleged domestic terrorist." Sayoc "shared conspiracy theories, false news articles, and graphic memes for years. Some of his tweets appeared to be directly parroting President Trump. He tweeted about a wide array of baseless conspiracy theories, including 'Pizzagate;' 'chemtrails;' birtherism, and a number of posts regarding billionaire and liberal philanthropist George Soros." Read the full report here...

Twitter has a major problem

The reporters found that Sayoc made more than 240 threats directed to at least 50 public officials, news organizations and media personalities via his Twitter accounts. In response, Twitter told CNN that the company only received two user reports about the account before Sayoc was known to be a suspect.

Donie writes: "The lack of reports might be because people don't believe Twitter will do anything about them. CNN anchor Don Lemon and CNN contributor Ana Navarro, both of whom were threatened by Sayoc, both said that Twitter is so bad with dealing with reports of threats made against them, that they rarely go to the trouble of reporting it. And they're not necessarily wrong. When one woman reported Sayoc's threats against her, Twitter did nothing. The company has since apologized."

Twitter's new statement: "We will do better"

"Let us be clear: violent threats, targeted abuse, and hateful conduct are against our rules," Twitter said in its new statement to CNN. "This type of content does not enable or empower speech and has no place on our service. We are moving forward in two ways: 1) significantly improving our appeals process to address errors in our enforcement decisions and 2) using new technology to detect abusive content without requiring someone to report it first. We know we have to take more of the burden off the shoulders of victims of harassment and threats. We must do better and we will do better. As our CEO, Jack Dorsey, stated in front of Congress last month, serving healthy public conversations is our singular mission as a company and overrides all other considerations."

CNN challenging the White House

"CNN's management has taken an aggressive stance against attacks from President Donald Trump after the network was sent explosive devices from a man who allegedly targeted Trump's perceived enemies," the AP's David Bauder wrote Tuesday. He cited two statements from CNN prez Jeff Zucker, one last week and another on Monday, that urged the White House to recognize that their "words matter." Bauder spoke with two former heads of CNN who "applauded the approach..."

P.S. As HuffPost reported, Zucker has also taken issue with Twitter's handling of harassment...

Trump in Pittsburgh

"Despite calls to stay away, Trump to visit Pittsburgh after massacre" read the WaPo homepage on Tuesday morning, setting a tense tone for the day. But the trip to the synagogue site and a local hospital came and went without much controversy. Trump did not give any public remarks. Local protesters were heard loud and clear. Bloomberg's; Jennifer Jacobs noted on Twitter that Trump did not talk to reporters on Tuesday: "He's following the White House plan -- letting this visit, to mourn for those killed at the synagogue, speak for itself."

Tuesday night's Post headline: "Trump's quiet visit to a grieving Pittsburgh met with hostility."

Trump talks to Axios for HBO series

Tuesday's other big Trump story was an Axios production. Jonathan Swan and Jim VandeHei interviewed POTUS on Monday for the site's four-part series "Axios on HBO," which premieres on Sunday. The first big headline from the interview: "Trump to terminate birthright citizenship."

The story hit before dawn, and the coverage lasted all day long. But Trump's pledge deserved a LOT of skepticism. As the hours went on, more and more skepticism was added to stories and TV segments. Just now the banner on "AC360" read, "Trump makes dubious claim just days before midterms that he'll ban birthright citizenship (he can't)."

--> Kellyanne Conway's husband George co-wrote this WaPo op-ed with Neal Katyal: "Trump's proposal to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional."

Trump trying to "seize back" the spotlight

On Page One of Wednesday's NYT: "In the last days before a midterm congressional election that will determine the future of his presidency, Mr. Trump seems to be throwing almost anything he can think of against the wall to see what might stick, no matter how untethered from political or legal reality," Peter Baker writes. "Frustrated that other topics — like last week's spate of mail bombs — came to dominate the news, the president has sought to seize back the national stage in the last stretch of the campaign. Ad hoc though they may be, Mr. Trump's red-meat ideas have come to shape the conversation and, he hopes, may galvanize otherwise complacent conservative voters to turn out on Tuesday..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Donie O'Sullivan emails: This NBC story serves as a good warning to take election rumors and viral videos of "malfunctioning" voting machines with a grain of salt next Tuesday – even if they do have thousands of retweets... (NBC)

-- Clever: CJR and TBWA\Chiat\Day set up a real-life newsstand full of fake headlines to "gauge the responses of New Yorkers" and "draw attention to misinformation..." (CJR)

-- Richard Kim, executive editor of The Nation, is joining HuffPost in early 2019 as director of enterprise... (Twitter)

Fox under pressure

Levitan's message to Lachlan

"'Modern Family' co-creator Steve Levitan has renewed his criticism of Fox News and its parent company amid backlash to the cable channel's coverage following the mass shooting Saturday at a synagogue in Pittsburgh," Variety's Daniel Holloway reported.

Levitan: "By espousing unfounded conspiracy theories and justifying Trump's reprehensible statements and actions, Fox News fuels our country's divisiveness. I sincerely hope Lachlan Murdoch recognizes the damage this is doing and finally brings sound journalistic ethics and standards to his network before more unhinged people are riled up to send bombs and shoot up churches and synagogues."

CONTEXT: Fox produces "Modern Family." Levitan's overall deal with Fox's TV studio expired in July, and he hasn't renewed or signed a deal with another studio yet...

Follow the money, Fox edition

Fox's critics, including some on the right, like Bill Kristol, have been increasingly vocal about calling out the company's management and board.

With that in mind, Forbes reporters Madeline Berg and Lauren Debter made a lot of calls. "Forbes reached out to each of the board members of 21st Century Fox — all except for one are foreign born, immigrants or have immigrant parents — for a comment on the latest controversies, but no one was willing to talk," they say.

A Fox spokesperson did respond by saying, "Many of the FNC and FBN programs regularly push back on the Trump narrative -- and just this morning, the FOX & Friends co-hosts called out Trump for his 'enemy of the people' attacks on the media."

Will advertisers react to this?

As I mentioned last night, the liberal media monitoring group Media Matters has been ratcheting up the pressure on major Fox News advertisers. Here's my full story in case you missed it...

Lowry's take

Brian Lowry emails: I'm coming to this a bit late, but Gabriel Sherman made a really important point about Fox News in his recent VF piece "No One Is In Charge" — namely, that the network's strident tone has a good deal to do with being relatively rudderless since losing Roger Ailes. While Ailes was a committed partisan, he was also a controlling influence who prided himself on being able to wrangle Fox's more eccentric talent. Simply as a practical matter, Ailes would have likely curbed some of the excesses that have taken root, precisely to avoid the PR blowback associated with them...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- A huge new funding round: The Athletic has raised $40 million, Sara Fischer reports... (Axios)

-- A new example of the John Oliver effect: "Last Week Tonight" sparked a 2,000% spike in visits to Vote411.org... (The Wrap)

-- "Meghan Markle's close friend and stylist Jessica Mulroney just landed herself a new role as fashion contributor on 'GMA...'" (Page Six)

Facebook's slow-down

Facebook's quarterly revenue and user growth fell short of expectations on Tuesday, Kaya Yurieff reports: "Monthly active users totaled 2.27 billion as of September 30, an increase of 10% year-over-year. Meanwhile, daily active users for the month averaged 1.49 billion — an increase of 9% year-over-year, according to Facebook. Analysts, however, were expecting 2.29 billion monthly users and 1.51 billion daily users. It also was only an incremental increase over the previous quarter..."

STILL: The WSJ's Deepa Seetharaman notes that "the results, in tandem with the guidance from the company, were largely well received by investors, many of whom feared even worse after the company's earnings report in July resulted in a historic collapse of the stock price." $FB is up 3% in after-hours trading...

FB is pushing Stories and videos

Yurieff says the company is prioritizing new formats, such as its popular Stories feature. "People want to share in ways that don't stick around permanently," Mark Zuckerberg said on the earnings call. But "Zuckerberg acknowledged that ads in Stories don't make Facebook as much money as ads in News Feed, and revenue growth may be 'slower' during the transition period, which he compared to the shift to mobile from desktop..."

--> Zuck also said that video is growing "dramatically across the ecosystem..."

Megyn v. NBC

Kelly's camp says "Andy Lack needs to stop"

Megyn Kelly and NBC still haven't reached a resolution. After multiple leaks on Monday, and then a hard-to-believe story in the Daily Mail on Tuesday, Kelly's lawyer Bryan Freedman challenged NBC in an on-the-record statement.

First, about the leaks: Various stories have said that Kelly and NBC are at odds re: the amount of money she'll be paid on the way out the door, and re: the signing of a non disparagement agreement. NBC is said to be reluctant to pay out the rest of her contract, and Kelly is said to be reluctant to sign the NDA.

After the Mail, citing a source, claimed that Kelly wants an extra $10 million bonus, Freedman fired back: "Out of respect for the discussions, I am not going to share more details but any suggestion that Megyn is asking or looking for more than her contract is untrue."

Freedman said this bonus idea was "clearly planted by NBC News to continue its mission to harm Megyn and gain some sort of leverage. It won't work. Andy Lack needs to stop."

I asked Lack's reps at NBC News if the network had any response. The network declined to comment.

But you might interpret this "insider" quote to Page Six as a response: "These are desperate attempts to distract from the main issue: Her offensive comments on live TV about blackface."

Another C-suite departure at CBS

Brian Lowry emails: The brain drain continues at CBS in the wake of Les Moonves' departure, with several network veterans opting to retire. The latest is CBS research chief David Poltrack, who announced that he'll be leaving next year, marking his 50th (yes, 50th) at the network. Somewhat out of necessity, Poltrack was notable for pushing back against complete reliance on younger demographics, touting the untapped value of the over-50 audience — including their viewing habits and buying power. He follows CBS comms chief Gil Schwartz, who is retiring this week. Separately, CBS confirmed that distribution has been consolidated under international head Armando Nunez, following the recently announced retirement of Paul Franklin in domestic syndication...

Apple goes to Brooklyn

Tuesday's Apple event was a nice 90-minute break from the news cycle. It was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's opera house — Apple's first event in NYC in six years — and highlighted how iPads, Macs and other devices are used to make music, arts, etc. The headlines: A new lineup of iPad Pros and a redesigned MacBook Air. Lots of improvements but nothing necessarily game-changing... Here's Sam Kelly's full story for CNN Business...

Hulu hires Heather Moosnick

Jill Disis emails: Hulu announced a big hire on Tuesday: Heather Moosnick, formerly of Google, is joining the company as SVP for content partnerships. She'll oversee Hulu's content acquisition strategy, including library series, movies, current network TV shows and more, reporting to CEO Randy Freer.

This is just another sign of how competitive the streaming landscape is getting. At Google, Moosnick was heavily involved with YouTube TV...

Kanye quits Trump?

"Just weeks after visiting the White House, Kanye West appears to be a little tired of politics," Sandra Gonzalez writes. "The rapper and designer on Tuesday said on Twitter that he plans on 'distancing' himself from politics, alleging he's being 'used to spread messages I don't believe in.'"

He seems to be talking about conservative activist Candace Owens' #Blexit campaign encouraging black voters to leave the Democratic Party. "I never wanted any association with Blexit. I have nothing to do with it," Kanye tweeted...

Essence and Beto

Lisa Respers France emails: Essence magazine secured an exclusive opinion piece from Ted Cruz's challenger Beto O'Rourke... It was published on Tuesday... O'Rourke wrote about his plan to have his state become a leader for better healthcare for mothers of color — a hot button issue that has been much talked about nationally in recent months.

Yesha Callahan, Essence's editorial director for news, politics and issues, told me: "When I reached out to Beto's camp, I didn't expect such a quick response. But he was enthusiastic about writing for Essence and jumped at the opportunity!"

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Ryan Faughnder's latest: "Small screen gamble pays off for DreamWorks Animation..." (LAT)

-- Anyone with a child who watches TV <raises hand> should check out Gerry Smith's piece: "Paw Patrol and the twilight of the world-conquering kids TV show..." (Bloomberg)

-- This is an important Variety story about TV's highest paid stars, and how a new law in California "has killed the long-enshrined quote system..." (Variety)

The Variety500

This is the second year Variety is coming out with its "annual index of the 500 most important individuals working in global media today."

"There are 168 new faces this year. That means one-third of last year's honorees are not back again, a testament to turbulent times in the entertainment sector," Andrew Wallenstein and Claudia Eller wrote in this editor's note.

-- Harvey Weinstein, Leslie Moonves, Brett Ratner, John Lasseter, Adam Venit, Roy Price and Josh Goldstine were removed from consideration," Variety said, due to sexual misconduct claims. Also off the list this year: James Murdoch, Charlie Ergen, Mark Cuban, Jeff Bewkes, John Skipper....

-- Newsers on the list include Suzanne Scott, Jeff Zucker, Anderson Cooper, Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow...

A scary costume...

NYT's Brooks Barnes tweeted: "If this doesn't sum up the state of entertainment rather succinctly: My niece in Montana has decided to dress up for Halloween as 'Netflix.' Not a Disney character. NETFLIX. (Her friend is going as 'Popcorn.')"

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Mary Lou Retton has revealed that she and her husband of 27 years quietly divorced months ago...

-- Nicki Minaj and Cardi B are apparently over battling... After a full day of lots of back and forth, they have now called a truce...

-- Hilary Duff and boyfriend Matthew Koma have welcomed their first child together! Daughter Banks Violet Bair was introduced to the world on Instagram...

-- Ava DuVernay is "honored" to be making a Prince documentary... And it reportedly has the support of the late singer's family...

-- See some of what's streaming in November...

I saved the best story for last...

These book lovers in Southampton, England, formed a human chain to help move their beloved local bookstore. October Books "is a local institution in Southampton," Gianluca Mezzofiore writes for CNN.com. "A not-for-profit radical bookstore with a 40-year history, it was recently forced to relocate after a rent increase in July."

So "with the help of a fundraising campaign and local donors, the bookshop successfully bought the former premises of a Nat West bank, just 150 meters along Portswood Road, for almost half a million pounds. However, it still faced the daunting prospect of moving some 20,000 books, along with all the furniture, boxing and shelving."

That's when the volunteers arrived. "On Sunday, about 250 people formed a human chain from October Books' old stockroom all the way along 54 doors of high street to the store's new location, passing a total of 2,000 books by hand in just a few hours... Local businesses and groups also lent their support..." Here's the full story...

That's a wrap on today's newsletter... Send me your feedback via email anytime... And see you tomorrow...