Forward

Exec summary: Lots to talk about, from the release of "Halloween" to the end of Lenny Letter, from Apple's next event to Elle's voter-registration stunt... But first...

Be afraid!

"It's gonna be an election of the caravan. You know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about," President Trump said Thursday night. Fox News did not carry his rally live, but Fox viewers definitely would have known what Trump was talking about. Fox and other conservative media outlets have been hyping the latest caravan of migrants that's making its way from Honduras through Guatemala toward Mexico.

The travelers "say they're headed for the United States -- fleeing violence and searching for economic opportunity," CNN.com's latest story says. They haven't even tried to enter Mexico yet.

But Trump and the pro-Trump media are deeply invested in this story... And they're portraying this group as an urgent threat to the United States... Not coincidentally, the midterms are right around the corner...

View a photo gallery on CNN.com here...

How/why this story has been growing

Fox's pro-Trump talk shows started to talk about this caravan on Sunday morning. Remember, the migrants organize in this way specifically because they want attention -- it's a form of protest -- as Vox's Dara Lind noted here, caravans "have become a way for activist groups to call attention to the plight of migrants and to provide strength in numbers."

For TV networks and websites, a caravan means compelling pictures and a clearly defined storyline. There's a beginning, a middle and an end to this human drama. Where are they going? When will they get there? What will happen? I'd argue that this oversimplifies an incredibly complex subject, but hey, I'm not a Fox News producer...

So: On Monday "Fox & Friends First" said the caravan was "exploding," getting bigger. On Tuesday POTUS weighed in. This gave the story even more life. It was covered throughout the day Wednesday on Fox and practically every hour Thursday. The migrants keep walking and Trump keeps talking about it, so you can predict Fox's Friday rundowns...

Fox v. MSNBC

I channel-surfed on Thursday night. Fox's Tucker Carlson led his 8 p.m. hour with an anti-immigration spiel, with banners that read "MASSIVE MIGRANT CARAVAN ON THE WAY," "MIGRANT CARAVAN KEEPS GROWING," and "4,000 CENTRAL AMERICANS MARCH TO US BORDER."

Over on MSNBC, at the exact same time, the banner on Chris Hayes' show said "REPUBLICANS STOKE FEAR AND RESENTMENT AHEAD OF MIDTERMS."

News consumers need less of that, and more of this: The NYT's "Voices From the Caravan" feature is excellent...

Cuomo: These migrants are "desperate," they're not the "Walking Dead"

When CNN's Chris Cuomo covered the caravan story on Thursday, he showed video from Honduras and Guatemala and said, "Please, don't see these people as Trump does, monsters on the march. See them as they are: Desperate, leaving behind whatever they had, and whomever they knew, all for a better chance at life, a real life. Trump seems to see them instead as the Walking Dead, this walking threat, especially to his posture as Mr. Tough Guy on the border..."

Thursday's shouting match

Trump is "incensed about the rising levels of migrants," according to CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Jeff Zeleny. No doubt this has a lot to do with what he's seeing on TV. They report that Thursday's "heated argument in the West Wing" between John Kelly and John Bolton was about how to handle the recent surge in border crossings. Staffers tipped off reporters to the screaming match, and it became a top story...

--> Stephen Colbert's jab on Thursday night: "Fellas, fellas, don't fight: You're BOTH terrible."

This week's "Reliable Sources" podcast might make you more hopeful

Cable news slugfests and social media screaming matches distort the public's perceptions of politics and each other, Tim Dixon says. He's the co-founder of a nonprofit called More in Common and the co-author of a new study called "The Hidden Tribes of America."

The study intrigues me because it reminds everyone that America is not a 50/50 country, not really, not the way it sometimes seems on TV. America has activists on the left, activists on the right, lots of progressives and conservatives who aren't nearly as active, and then a lot of people who ignore the tug of war altogether. Or as the study puts it, two thirds of Americans are in the "exhausted majority." So Dixon and I talked about media business models that worsen polarization, better ways to cover this subject, and much more... Listen to the pod via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or TuneIn, and lemme know what you think of the convo...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- If you missed Beto O'Rourke's town hall with Dana Bash on CNN, here's the live blog full of highlights... Ted Cruz declined invites to appear at a similar televised town hall... (CNN)

-- "Lena Dunham's feminist-leaning site, the Lenny Letter, is shutting down..." (NYPost)

-- Jenn Suozzo is the new exec producer of "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt," succeeding Sam Singal, who stepped down in July after three years on the job... (TVNewser)

-- "Thursday Night Football" just wrapped up, and the Broncos beat the Cardinals 45-10. Frank Pallotta's latest: "Scoring is up in the NFL, and so are its ratings..." (CNN)

WHERE IS JAMAL KHASHOGGI?

CNN's latest reporting

From CNN's Gul Tuysuz, Tim Lister and Isil Sariyuce: "Multiple sources, supported by the findings of a police report, told CNN how Turkish officials responded after Khashoggi's fiancée Hatice Cengiz raised the alarm just before 5pm on October 2 -- three and a half hours after the journalist entered the consulate. At that time she was still waiting outside." Within hours, officials suspected he had been killed. "Intelligence officials raced to the Istanbul airport where a private Saudi plane was waiting to take off -- to try to find out whether Khashoggi had been abducted or whether his body was being taken out of the country."

All of this, of course, makes the US government's sluggish response seem even stranger...

Delaying and denying in DC

In the morning: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed to buy time for Saudi Arabia," urging patience as the Saudis "conduct an investigation" (of themselves) and "leaving open the possibility the White House will do little or nothing in response," CNN's Nicole Gaouette wrote.

In the afternoon: VP Mike Pence said "the world deserves answers," and "those who are responsible, need to be held accountable." A little while later, Trump said the US will "get to the bottom" of it. He vowed "very severe" consequences, "but we'll see what happens."

In the evening: ABC News reported that Pompeo has listened to audio of the apparent murder. A State Department spokeswoman denied it, saying he has "neither heard a tape nor has he seen a transcript related to Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance."

Trump says this crime "caught the imagination"

Trump's midterm media tour continued on Thursday with a brief Oval Office interview with the NYT. He said of the Khashoggi case, "This one has caught the imagination of the world, unfortunately. It's not a positive. Not a positive." He also commented that this has "taken on a bigger life than it would normally take on."

The Times sensed a shift: "After trying to defend the Saudi rulers, Mr. Trump was coming to terms with the far-reaching implications of the Khashoggi case and the likelihood that his closest ally in the Arab world was guilty..."

Why this story broke through

An insightful piece by WaPo's Paul Farhi: Why has there been such a strong reaction to Khashoggi, "a man few people had heard of until his disappearance, when so many other acts of barbarity by the Saudis have been largely overlooked?" Farhi says "the answer may be a combination of the time and place of Khashoggi's disappearance, and the gruesome circumstances of his apparent death, which may have made his story more 'relatable' to American viewers and readers. The accumulation of details has created the kind of sustained news coverage that the faceless victims of war and violence rarely receive, experts on international affairs say." Read on...

Fox finally withdraws

Fox Business, the Future Investment Initiative's last media partner, cancelled its participation on Thursday, a week after most other outlets did. Fox said in a statement that it will "continue to seek an interview with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman" at this year's event...

-- Oliver Darcy emails: Before Fox Biz pulled out of the conference, I was talking to some employees who were disgruntled. One senior employee told me that it was "unreal, but not surprising" because the company "puts ratings and profit above all else." Another Fox employee told me, "They are not going to do anything that puts them at odds with the White House so they can keep getting access. But keeping their heads in the sand just isn't sustainable." That second comment really was prescient as Fox Biz did ultimately pull out – within a few hours of Steve Mnuchin announcing he would not go…

Pro-Trump forces smearing Khashoggi

An important story in Friday's WaPo: Robert Costa and Karoun Demirjian document how "hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators are mounting a dark whisper campaign" against Khashoggi that is designed to protect Trump from criticism and preserve the US-Saudi relationship... More here...

Notes and quotes

-- More from CNN's team in Turkey: Saudi former diplomat called 'pivotal' in Khashoggi's apparent killing...

-- WaPo's David Ignatius asks: "What did U.S. spy agencies know about threats on Khashoggi — and when?"

-- Fareed Zakaria, on Preet Bharara's podcast, drew a comparison between Saudi Arabia and Russia: "The reason you do these assassinations outside of the home country is, you're sending a signal to every dissident anywhere in the world that says, 'You can run, you can't hide... We can get to you anywhere...'"

-- Kathleen Carroll talking with Poynter's David Beard about the targeting of journalists: "Someone feels they have the right to kill someone because they disagree with them..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Penguin Random House "is merging two of its most prestigious publishing lines, Random House and the Crown Publishing Group..." (NYT)

-- Facebook sought to publicize its new "war room" for election safety and security... by inviting lots of journalists to see it... so many, in fact, that Gizmodo mocked the effort... (Gizmodo)

-- But remember FB's partnerships with groups like FactCheck.org? "The fact-checkers hired to be on the front lines haven't received fresh marching orders," the WSJ's Georgia Wells and Lukas I. Alpert report... (WSJ)

-- AND: Ben Mullin's latest: Allegations that FB "misled advertisers about video viewership on its platform have reignited debate among publishing executives about who is to blame for the publishing industry's ill-fated bet on video produced for social-media networks..." (WSJ)

Nevins and Spade promoted at CBS

Brian Lowry emails: It's Showtime at CBS, with Christina Spade elevated from her post at the cable network to chief financial officer at CBS Corp., while Showtime chief David Nevins has earned the expanded role of chief creative officer. It's a huge job for Nevins, including oversight of CBS, the streaming venture CBS All Access, production arm CBS Television Studios and the network's interest in the CW. It also completes a clean sweep of early-season changes at the broadcast networks, including previously announced changes or new bosses impacting NBC, ABC and Fox (the last two a byproduct of the Disney-Fox acquisition)...

Apple's TV app + Sony's Vue

If you haven't opened up the TV app on your iPhone or iPad in a while, check it out... You can really see where Apple's heading with the product, aggregating dozens of TV providers... And this week, Sony's PlayStation Vue became "the first streaming TV provider to be integrated into Apple's TV app." Engadget explains why that's a big deal here...

Speaking of 🍏...

Apple's next mystery event

On Thursday the company sent out invites for an October 30 event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Reporters are expecting "more product updates, including new iPads," timed to the holiday shopping season. Heather Kelly has details here...

BTW, all these logos are from the individualized invites to the event... Seems like each person's invite had a different logo... Kelly did some sleuthing and tweeted about it...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Terrible news about a photojournalist in New Jersey: "Jerry Wolkowitz, a longtime EMT and journalist, has died nearly six months after a brutal, allegedly racially motivated beating left him on life support. He was 56." (Asbury Park Press)

-- "We disagree with the main points of criticism:" The NYT is defending its recent profile of Gavin McInnes... (The Wrap)

-- This is a thought-provoking story about Cleveland.com's choice go to with "fewer mugshots, less naming and shaming" in crime coverage... (NiemanLab)

-- Correction: I misspelled Garry Kasparov's name yesterday. It's Garry with TWO r's...

Peter Meehan joins LA Times

The LAT's Food staff is in a period of rebuilding following Jonathan Gold's death in July. The paper has not named a new restaurant critic, but on Thursday it named Lucky Peach co-founder Peter Meehan, one of Gold's longtime friends, as a contributing editor.

Meehan will work with the section's staffers "while also seeking new restaurant critics and authoritative voices to contribute to the section..."

Clever or completely inappropriate?

This trick has been spreading on social media for days: Users have been posting shocking messages ("you won't believe this!") along with a link to a voter registration site. Elle got in on the action with a tweet on Thursday that read "Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are splitting up 😱💔" plus a link to Elle.com, which turned out to be a voter registration page. As Chloe Melas wrote here, there was quite a backlash...

Trump's next interview?

Up top, I mentioned Trump's interview with the NYT. It sounds like one of his next stops is One America News, otherwise known as OANN, the small conservative cable channel that's trying to challenge Fox News. The channel isn't rated by Nielsen, and it doesn't have a big following, but it does have some devoted fans. OANN CEO Robert Herring tweeted on Thursday that Trump is going to speak with the channel's W.H. correspondent Emerald Robinson on Friday. He added: "Thank you @realDonaldTrump! #Trump #OANN"

Trump jokes about congressman assaulting reporter

Daniel Dale, who fact-checks every word Trump says, called Thursday night's rally in Missoula, Montana, "comprehensively bonkers." He tweeted that "by far the most significant part was his praise for a congressman's assault on a journalist."

Yep, that happened. Trump praised Montana's GOP Rep. Greg Gianforte for body-slamming reporter Ben Jacobs last year. "Any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy," Trump said, and made a gesture mimicking a body slam. Here's CNN's full story. As Jake Tapper said afterward, the "timing for that joke is quite peccable..."

Guardian US: "We hope decent people will denounce these comments..."

Via Oliver Darcy: Jacobs had no immediate comment, but his employer, the Guardian US, did. "To celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it," editor John Mulholland said... "We hope decent people will denounce these comments and that the President will see fit to apologize for them..."

David Muir accepting the New York State Broadcasters Association's 2018 Broadcaster of the Year Award on Thursday:

"If we just remember who this newscast is for -- it's for the people across this country in a polarized time. And we have to find a way every single night to signal to them that we hear you... that we are doing this job for you. We are asking these questions for you. And I think that they sense that in their gut."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

I missed these stories yesterday... maybe you did too!

-- "The iconic MTV reality show The Real World is coming to the Facebook Watch platform with three seasons in three different countries next year..." (Vulture)

-- Tastemade "has raised $35 million in its latest funding round," Ben Mullin reported... (WSJ)

-- Netflix "has quietly bought up prime billboard space along the mile-and-a-half-long section of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood that is among the most coveted advertising properties in the country..." (LAT)

Lowry's "Halloween" review

Brian Lowry emails: The big twist in the new "Halloween" movie is in the concept, ignoring 40 years of history (and all those sequels) and drawing a straight line from the new film to the 1978 original. After that, the movie itself-- starring Jamie Lee Curtis -- is essentially up to the same old tricks.

Speaking of "Halloween..."

Blum's apology

Sandra Gonzalez reports: "Film producer Jason Blum has apologized for claiming in a recent interview that his company, Blumhouse Productions, has never produced a theatrically distributed film by a female director due to a shortage, particularly of those 'inclined to do horror.' His apology came after social media users and media outlets, annoyed by the comment, provided multiple examples of female horror directors with whom Blum and his company could work." Blum called his comments "dumb" and said "I will do better..."

How Netflix outgrew "House" and "Orange"

Brian Lowry emails with his latest column: There's some symmetry in Netflix announcing that it will be saying goodbye to "Orange is the New Black" on the eve of "House of Cards" beginning its final season. These two shows put the service's original programming efforts on the map in 2013. In that rather astonishingly short span of time, what's remarkable is the extent to which Netflix has outgrown its reliance on them -- or indeed, any couple of shows in its quiver...

At the same time, "Daredevil" returns, marking one of the service's most valuable franchises as the first of its gritty lineup of Marvel series. But the ailing execution of the new season, coupled with the recent cancellation of "Iron Fist," suggests that the Netflix-Marvel collaboration might be less invincible, and should offer some cautionary flags to Disney as it preps to leverage Marvel, Lucasfilm and its animated properties to get into the streaming game.

Read Lowry's "Daredevil" review here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Chloe Melas:

-- Cardi B and Fran Drescher teaming up for a reboot of "The Nanny?" Cardi says she wants to do it...

-- "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" the movie is in the works...

That's a wrap on today's newsletter... Let's meet back here this time tomorrow... Email me feedback anytime!