--- title: Greg Gianforte Clash With Reporter Shows Worrying Trend description: Growing dangers on the campaign trail canonical: https://time.com/4793656/montana-greg-gianforte-reporter-attack/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-25T14:43:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:04:13.366Z article:section: Politics og:title: Greg Gianforte Clash With Reporter Shows Worrying Trend og:description: Growing dangers on the campaign trail og:url: https://time.com/4793656/montana-greg-gianforte-reporter-attack/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefbcca7ef3f1f38f/6988cedda988ca8a576bc64a/170525_greg-gianforte.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 170525_Greg Gianforte og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Greg Gianforte Clash With Reporter Shows Worrying Trend twitter:description: Growing dangers on the campaign trail twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefbcca7ef3f1f38f/6988cedda988ca8a576bc64a/170525_greg-gianforte.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Attacks on the Political Press Are Becoming All Too Literal > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7053931f-55d3-4819-8fdd-c5f457ad6af6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Reporter Claims Montana GOP House Candidate Greg Gianforte 'Body Slammed' Him [Watch (HLS stream): Reporter Claims Montana GOP House Candidate Greg Gianforte 'Body Slammed' Him](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NWlgjERG.m3u8) (1:56)  _Published 2017-05-25. Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs claimed Wednesday night that Montana Republican Greg Gianforte "body slammed" him, breaking his glasses in the process, after Jacobs asked him a question about health care_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent May 25, 2017 2:43 PM UTC  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent May 25, 2017 2:43 PM UTC Members of the press are used to the occasional rhetorical attack. The candidate who criticizes a lousy story on stage. The campaign manager who shouts on the phone. The volunteer who tosses off a casual insult about the media. The relationship between the press and politicians is supposed to be adversarial. But Wednesday night brought something else entirely. An American reporter for _The Guardian_, a British-based news outlet that has invested heavily in covering U.S. politics, was aggressively manhandled by Greg Gianforte, a Republican congressional candidate in Montana, for asking a question out of turn, according to witnesses. “Following multiple interviews and an investigation by the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office it was determined there was probable cause to issue a citation to Greg Gianforte for misdemeanor assault,” Sheriff Brian Gootkin said in a statement Wednesday night. “The nature of the injuries did not meet the statutory elements of felony assault.” Ben Jacobs, the reporter, says he was [“body-slammed”](https://twitter.com/Bencjacobs/status/867517225820966912) by Gianforte after asking about the [Congressional Budget Office report](http://time.com/4793159/health-care-bill-cbo-score-republicans/) on the Republican health care bill released earlier today. In[ audio of the incident](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhoH4v8xYlU) posted by _The Guardian_, Gianforte can be heard yelling “I’m sick and tired of you guys!” as something happens. Fox News reporters who were at the scene described a violent attack: “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the man.” The Gianforte campaign [blamed Jacobs](http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/greg-gianforte-montana-ben-jacobs/) “aggressive behavior” for the incident, saying he “aggressively shoved a recorder” in Gianforte’s face and refused to leave. “Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground,” said Gianforte spokesman Shane Scanlon. Three Montana newspapers, which had previously endorsed Gianforte’s campaign, withdrew their backing the night before Election Day. Many political reporters worry that this is not an isolated incident. For years, the level of official hostility at the political press has been steadily growing. Last week, security officials at the Federal Communications Commission [pinned a veteran reporter against a wall](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/us/politics/fcc-security-reporter.html) after he tried to ask a commissioner a question. (The FCC later [apologized](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/19/fcc-apologizes-manhandles-cq-reporter-238606).) Earlier this month, another veteran reporter was [arrested by West Virginia police](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/10/527754346/west-virginia-reporter-arrested-for-yelling-question-at-hhs-secretary) after he repeatedly attempted to question Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. (Price later [praised the police](http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/10/media/tom-price-reporter-arrested/).) Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign manager was video taped grabbing the arm a female journalist and pulling her away from the candidate, although prosecutors declined to prosecute charges of assault. This is not how political reporting has worked in the U.S. in the past. As a veteran campaign chronicler, I have encountered nothing worse than John McCain accidentally knocking a cup of Dunkin Donuts out of my hand early one morning in 2007, or a Democratic House campaign in 2010 flooding my tote bag with bar-b-q at a Big 10 tailgate, or a 2013 candidate for Virginia Governor burning my fingers when handing me a grilled oyster. (Disclosure: Jacobs and I have worked alongside each other in the far-flung corners of America, though I don’t think that we’ve ever spent time socially in a non-campaign environment.) Veteran politicians have a healthy respect for the press, even when they’re annoyed with us. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, will give reporters his cell phone number the second time he meets them. And you’re more likely to face danger from Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who leads the minority in the upper chamber, because he is barreling over you to get to the microphone. Politicians as different as Sen. John McCain, former President Obama and Speaker Paul Ryan have even taken time out to [chat with my parents](https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-01-01-1868961944%5Fx.htm). But in recent years, some politicians have begun to view reporters not just as adversaries, but as the enemy. The trend is worrying. During the 2008 election, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin used to rile up crowds about the media, though McCain helped calm the waters. In 2016, Donald Trump again pushed the envelope with daily taunts about the media, leading members of the crowd to chuck the occasional water bottle and shout insults at reporters. “Their priorities are not my priorities, and not your priorities,” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania to mark his 100th day as President. “If the media’s job is to be honest and tell the truth, the media deserves a very, very big fat failing grade.” And there is broad public skepticism of the press. Recent polls by Gallup [show](http://www.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx) that only about one in five Americans say they have confidence in the newspaper and television press, which is still better than the one in ten who say they have confidence in Congress. Such skepticism is not new. Nor is the tension between press and politicians. The relationship is supposed to be tense. But it should also be civil. On the truly worst days of any campaign that I’ve covered, I’ve never feared anything more than a stink eye from a candidate or a tsk-tsk from a wife or child. Now I wonder if that will hold true in the next time I pack a bag to watch democracy in the wild. ## Transcript Into the CBO score, cuz you know you've been waiting to make your decision about health care until you saw the bill, and it just came out, and what- yeah, we'll talk to you about that later. Yeah, but there's not gonna be time. I'm just curious if you could- Okay, speak with Shane, please. [ SOUND ] I'm sick and tired of you guys. The last guys that came in here, you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. You Get the hell out of here. [ SOUND ] The last guy did the same thing. Are you with the Guardian? Yes. And you just broke my glasses. The last guy did the same damn thing. You just body slammed me and broke my glasses. Get the hell out of here. You'd like me to get the hell out of here? I'd also like to call the police Can I get you guys' names? Hey you got to leave. He just body slammed me. You got to leave. Everyone was in sort of this long room and there were little office smaller rooms off the side. There was a camera crew set up in one of those rooms. Gianforte walked in there, Ben sort of Walked in to listen in. And then all of a sudden, there was a huge crash, very audible. Everyone heard it. And saw Ben's feet kind of come up the way someone does when they're getting knocked over. And then, we all heard, I believe it sounded a lot like John Forte, it sounded him when I've heard him before, yelling. You can hear it on Ben's audio, but basically, get the hell out Ben walked out. He looked at me and said, he was carrying his broken glasses, you know, the ear piece had come off on one of them and he said he just body slammed me. And then a campaign aide came over and said you need to leave. I've spent a lot of time reporting on Capitol Hill, a lot of time asking politicians questions about health care. And it's never ended in any sort of altercation. I've been covering politics for better half of a decade, covering the presidential campaign. 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