Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Meet Ben Jacobs, The Reporter Who Got Body-Slammed By Montana House Candidate

Ben Jacobs earned a strange distinction on Wednesday night as he became the first reporter in recent memory to be physically assaulted by a candidate for Congress. Working for the United States edition of The Guardian, Jacobs was body-slammed by Montana House hopeful Greg Gianforte, who erupted in rage after Jacobs asked him a question about health policy. Here’s what we know about the the reporter himself.

1. Trained As An Attorney

Jacobs attended Grinnell College in Iowa and then received a law degree from Duke University. Jacobs has been active in covering political developments on the ground in Iowa – and his alma mater featured a retrospective article he wrote about the state’s famous caucus.

2. Based In Washington, D.C.

After the incident, which has led to misdemeanor assault charges against Gianforte, radio host Laura Ingraham insinuated on Twitter that a “real Montana man” would have fought back. But Jacobs isn’t from Montana. He works out of Washington, D.C. and was in the state to cover the closer-than-usual special election, widely seen as a gauge of President Trump’s popularity.

3. Wide Repertoire

Before his stint with The Guardian, Jacobs worked for The Daily Beast, and has freelanced for a number of publications including New Republic, Atlantic, Salon and the Boston Globe.

4. Just The Facts

After his assault, Jacobs reported the incident on Twitter with a “just the facts” tone. It was a serious enough injury that he was hospitalized and X-rayed for bone damage.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [[email protected]}(mailto:[email protected]] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.