Trump-appointed judge Jeffrey T Kuntz partially denies British broadcaster’s motion to dismiss over edit

Federal judge Jeffrey T Kuntz ruled on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC can proceed, denying in part the British broadcaster’s motion to dismiss the case. The president’s $10bn defamation lawsuit stems from the BBC’s splicing together of disparate comments he made before the 6 January US Capitol insurrection, as rendered in a Panorama documentary called Trump: A Second Chance.

“Accepting the allegations in the complaint as true, the Court finds Trump plausibly pled damages where Trump alleges a defamatory documentary released toward the election caused reputational harm,” the Trump-appointed Florida district court judge wrote. “It would be difficult for the Court to accept a different framing without completely negating the significance and fragility of political elections.”

Senators pressured Danielle Thumann, senior counsel to FCC chair Brendan Carr, to speak about agency’s actions toward ABC and Jimmy Kimmel

During a contentious Tuesday hearing on her nomination by Donald Trump to serve as a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner, Senate Democrats hammered Danielle Thumann about recent actions taken by the Brendan Carr-led regulator that have been criticized as hostile to press freedom.

Thumann, who serves as senior counsel to Carr, is expected to be approved as commissioner, with Republicans in charge of the US Senate and House. But Ben Ray Luján, a senator of New Mexico, assured her that the commission’s actions will be under close scrutiny when Democrats take charge of the chamber in January.

Fred Wellman, host of the progressive podcast On Democracy, defeated longtime incumbent Republican Ann Wagner

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Fred Wellman’s victory in Missouri’s second congressional district on Tuesday was such a surprise that NBC News’s star data analyst Steve Kornacki didn’t even have a graphic prepared, he told supporters on election night.

Longtime Republican incumbent Ann Wagner, who had been widely expected to hold her seat, was swept aside as part of a broader wave of Democratic victories across the country.

Fox News pundits hardly criticized the US president in midterms coverage but Trump was still quick to cast blame

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In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s midterm elections, Donald Trump made clear that he would place some blame on his favorite cable channel, Fox News, if his party did poorly.

On election day, he didn’t disappoint.

Journalists such as Jim Acosta and Scott MacFarlane are now competing against their former employers for eyeballs

On Tuesday, for the first time in more than 20 years, Jim Acosta, a former CNN stalwart, will not be working for a mainstream television network on election night.

Acosta, who left CNN last year after nearly 18 years at the network, is putting on his own live broadcast at the University of Virginia that will air on YouTube and his Substack platform.