Tag: mainstream media

Writers Guild Calls on Letitia James to Investigate CBS Cancellation of Late Show With Stephen Colbert Over Alleged “Bribe” to “Curry Favor” With Trump

The Writers Guild of America is urging Trump nemesis New York State Attorney General Letitia James to investigate CBS owner Paramount over the cancellation of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The Guild accuses Paramount of bribery by firing Colbert to “curry favor” with the Trump administration as it seeks approval for a merger with Skydance.

CBS announced this week Colbert would not be renewed after next season after a ten year run on the network. Reports state CBS was losing $40 million a year on the show. Estimates of Colbert’s salary put it in the range of $10 to $20 million per year.

Paramount recently agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump over deceptive editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Text of the Guild’s statement:

The following is a statement from the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) and Writers Guild of America West (WGAW):

On July 2nd, Paramount agreed to settle a baseless lawsuit brought against 60 Minutes and CBS News by President Trump for $16 million. On July 15, during a regular show of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert went on-air and called the settlement a “big fat bribe” in exchange for a favorable decision on the proposed merger between Paramount and Skydance, a charge currently under investigation in California.

Less than 48 hours later, on July 17, Paramount cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a show currently performing first in its timeslot, giving vague references to the program’s “financial performance” as the only explanation. For ten years, the show has been one of the most successful, beloved and profitable programs on CBS, entertaining an audience of millions on late night television, on streaming services and across social media.

Given Paramount’s recent capitulation to President Trump in the CBS News lawsuit, the Writers Guild of America has significant concerns that The Late Show’s cancelation is a bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration as the company looks for merger approval.

Cancelations are part of the business, but a corporation terminating a show in bad faith due to explicit or implicit political pressure is dangerous and unacceptable in a democratic society. Paramount’s decision comes against a backdrop of relentless attacks on a free press by President Trump, through lawsuits against CBS and ABC, threatened litigation of media organizations with critical coverage, and the unconscionable defunding of PBS and NPR.

The Writers Guild of America calls on New York State Attorney General Letitia James, no stranger to prosecuting Trump for illegal business practices, to join California and launch an investigation into potential wrongdoing at Paramount. We call on our elected leaders to hold those responsible to account, to demand answers about why this beloved program was canceled and to assure the public that Colbert and his writers were not censored due to their views or the whims of the President.

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Study Claiming No Link Between Aluminum in Vaccines and Autism Riddled with Flaws, Critics Say

Mainstream media widely promoted a new study by Danish researchers that found no link between aluminum in vaccines and 50 negative health outcomes, including autism, asthma and autoimmune disorders.

However, critics told The Defender the study used flawed methodology and “statistical tricks” that muddied the findings.

The authors published their report on July 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. On July 14, even before the study went live, mainstream and health industry media, including NBC News and STAT News, publicly announced the results.

Chris Exley, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading experts on the health effects of aluminum exposure, and Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said that in order to determine if aluminum exposure is linked to health conditions, the researchers should have compared children with no aluminum exposure to children with aluminum exposure.

But that’s not what the Danish scientists did. Instead, they compared children who received vaccines containing aluminum to children who received vaccines with slightly less aluminum.

Not only that, but there was only a one-milligram difference between the amount of aluminum in the vaccine doses received by the children in one of the groups compared to those in another group. Comparing children with similar aluminum levels rather than comparing children with low levels of aluminum to children with high levels of the metal further muddled the findings, Hooker said.

The researchers examined national vaccination records of about 1.2 million children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2018 and tracked the rates of 50 chronic health conditions.

Using statistical analyses, the authors concluded there was no link between aluminum content in vaccines and increased risk of developing autism, autoimmune diseases, asthma or allergic conditions, including food allergies and hay fever.

Anders Hviid, a professor and department head of epidemiology at the Statens Serum Institut and lead study author, told MedPage Today, the results “provide robust evidence supporting the safety of childhood vaccines.”

“This is evidence that parents, clinicians, and public health officials need to make the best choices for the health of our children,” Hviid said.

In a press release, Hviid called the results “reassuring” and said large studies like his are important in “an era marked by widespread misinformation about vaccines.”

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“I Can’t Believe The New York Times Thought It Would Get Away With This…”

The irony is thick enough to choke on…

The New York Times, that bastion of so-called journalistic integrity, churned out yet another hit piece on President Donald Trump, painting him as some vengeful tyrant hell-bent on crushing his political foes. 

According to the paper, Trump supposedly views his opponents as downright evil, promising a campaign of retribution that sends shivers down the spines of the elite media class. 

Last week, he denounced a reporter as a “very evil person” for asking a question he did not like. This week, he declared that Democrats are “an evil group of people.” 

“Evil” is a word getting a lot of airtime in the second Trump term. It is not enough anymore to dislike a journalistic inquiry or disagree with an opposing philosophy. Anyone viewed as critical of the president or insufficiently deferential is wicked. The Trump administration’s efforts to achieve its policy goals are not just an exercise in governance but a holy mission against forces of darkness.

The characterization seeds the ground to justify all sorts of actions that would normally be considered extreme or out of bounds. If Mr. Trump’s adversaries are not just rivals but villains, then he can rationalize going further than any president has in modern times. 

This isn’t journalism; it’s selective outrage at its finest. The Times acts like Trump’s tough talk is some unprecedented assault on democracy, conveniently forgetting or willfully ignoring the years of venomous rhetoric that the left spewed against Trump and conservatives everywhere. It has the gall to portray Trump as the villain while pretending that its side hasn’t been fanning the flames of division for nearly a decade. 

If the Times is so concerned about demonizing political enemies, maybe it should look in the mirror, or better yet, revisit one of the most egregious examples from its own camp: from Barack Obama’s spying on Trump to frame him for colluding with Russia to Joe Biden’s lawfare campaign that literally tried to put Trump in prison.

Actions may speak louder than words, but Joe Biden spoke rather loudly during his infamous speech at Independence Hall back in 2022, where he didn’t even hide the fact that he saw his political allies as evil.

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Congressional Cuts To PBS, NPR Could Unravel Leftist Propaganda Nodes Nationwide 

The Republican-controlled House delivered the final blow with a 216-213 vote on Thursday night to eliminate $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports leftist propaganda networks such as NPR, PBS, and affiliated stations nationwide. Attached to the bill was also an $8 billion cut targeting the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been accused of corruption.

The New York Times penned an article for its readers, offering multiple graphics that paint a grim picture of areas nationwide at risk of losing access to public radio and television. What the NYT fails to acknowledge is that the $1.1 billion in funding cuts to NPR, PBS, and affiliated stations represent a major blow to the leftist propaganda matrix—in other words, the information war of misinformation and disinformation waged by the left is about to crack a whole lot more.

“Failing stations will create a cascade effect in this highly connected and interdependent system, impacting content producers and leading to the potential collapse of additional distressed stations in other areas of the country,” Tim Isgitt, CEO of advisory firm Public Media Company, told the NYT.

Let the dominoes fall—this development could trigger a mass unraveling of the government-funded propaganda nodes nationwide that have brainwashed millions of Americans with toxic wokeism.  

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Former MSNBC Host Touré Says Trump Was ‘Supposedly’ Shot in the Ear During CNN Segment

Former MSNBC host Touré caused an uproar on CNN this week when he said that Trump was ‘supposedly’ shot in the ear during a segment on the CNN News Night panel show.

He was immediately called out by Scott Jennings, the lone conservative voice on the network.

This moment is a reminder that there are people on the left who actually believe the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania last summer was staged. It’s utter insanity.

Mediaite has details:

A CNN panel exploded on Thursday after one guest claimed President Donald Trump “supposedly got shot,” leading to Scott Jennings demanding an immediate correction.

On CNN NewsNight, Abby Phillip had to wrangle control of her panel after podcaster Touré exclaimed that Trump “supposedly” was shot in July 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. The comment came during a discussion about the president’s health…

Elrod also brought up the point that Trump appeared to forget that he appointed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

“He supposedly got shot in the ear. We never heard from his doctors about that,” Touré added, immediately setting off Jennings, a senior CNN correspondent, and conservative pundit Ben Ferguson.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Did you say supposedly?” Jennings asked, then pointing to the podcaster next to him and saying, “Abby, Abby,” to the panel’s anchor.

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Disgraced CNN Claims Egg Prices *Increased* Under Trump

CNN, a far-left propaganda outlet that spreads disinformation and promotes violence against Jews, is spreading Orwellian lies about the cost of eggs under President Donald Trump.

From Orwell’s 1984:

“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday […] it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

Paraphrasing CNN this week:

Egg prices have increased under President Trump from an average of $6.55 a dozen to $2.89 a dozen.

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Low IQ Jasmine Crockett Says USAID Is Vital To Fund Sesame Street In Iraq… Or Something

Idiocracy-a-like Democrat Jasmine Crockett argued during a hearing that USAID, the slush fund decimated by DOGE, is desperately needed in order to fund US propaganda in places like Iraq to ensure Islamists there don’t become radicalised against America.

Yes, really.

Crockett claimed that past programs including a version of Sesame Street that was made for Iraq are vital to national security, suggesting “This is so that there is not this warped thought process about the Western world.”

What in God’s name is she on about?

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Biden Admits He Didn’t Sign Pardons. Emails Show Staff Did It For Him

Former President Joe Biden has admitted that he didn’t manually sign all of the pardons he issued before leaving office in January. 

In a softball interview with The New York Times that ran on Sunday, Biden revealed that his staff used an autopen device to replicate his signature on clemency documents due to the large volume. 

“I made every decision,” Biden told the leftist outlet. Defending the use of the autopen, he added that “we’re talking about a whole lot of people.” 

The one-term president’s admission comes as the Trump-era White House, the DOJ and Congress launch separate investigations into the legitimacy of the pardons. Some experts argue are illegitimate because they were never physically signed by Biden. 

Biden downplayed Trump’s concerns about the potential abuse of the autopen in remarks to The Times: “I understand why Trump would think that, because obviously, I guess, he doesn’t focus much. Anyway, so — yes, I made every decision.” 

Emails turned over by the National Archives show then–Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, not Biden, authorizing the autopen. 

“I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,” Zients wrote in one exchange, according to the outlet. 

Former White House staff secretary Stefanie Feldman managed the process. She reportedly ran the clemency documents through a device and receive “blurbs” claiming Biden had approved them. 

Responding to concerns that he was incapacitated and that aides exploited the autopen, Biden shot back:

“They’re liars. They know it. They know, for certain. I mean, this is — look, what they, they’ve had a pretty good thing going here. They’ve done so badly.” 

Biden defended the pre-emptive pardons for his family when asked, claiming without evidence that Trump would have launched vindictive criminal investigations against them. 

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Frequent Stephen Colbert Guest Elizabeth Warren Pushes Conspiracy Theory About Show’s Cancellation

In case you haven’t heard, the painfully unfunny ‘Late Night With Stephen Colbert’ show has been cancelled by CBS. What a shame.

Colbert has not been funny in years. He took a show that used to be produced for the enjoyment of the whole country and used it as a vehicle for his personal and pathological hatred of Trump.

Colbert made it a habit to invite various Democrats on the show on a regular basis, just for the purpose of bashing Trump. One of those regular guests was Elizabeth Warren. She has appeared on the show numerous times and you could tell that Colbert just loves her.

This is one of the reasons millions of Americans stopped watching, which probably made cancelling the show an easier decision.

Within hours of the announcement, Warren took to Twitter/X and began pushing a conspiracy theory about all of this, suggesting that the decision to pull Colbert is political, and is about the upcoming CBS merger deal. She even calls it a “bribe.”

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WSJ Epstein/Trump Exclusive Is a Big Dud. But Where Did It Come From?

We already knew that Donald Trump was acquainted with Jeffrey Epstein. The two were both young New York City multi-millionaires back in the day and ran with some of the big dogs in a big town. There are photos of Epstein with Trump and his then-girlfriend, Melania. So one wonders why it would be BLOCKBUSTER news on the pages of the Wall Street Journal that Trump received an invitation to Epstein’s 50th birthday before anyone with a badge and gun knew the financier was a sick pervert.

No, really, that’s the big news from the Journal that has been leaking out through social media rumors all day long. 

The Journal reports in an exclusive story that Trump wrote Epstein a bawdy note for his 50th and drew a picture. It was allegedly contained in a 50th birthday album compiled by Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, and shown to the Journal by someone acquainted with this information. 

Trump told the Journal that no, that ain’t me: 

This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.

Now, it’s not as if Donald Trump isn’t capable of trash-talking. You saw what he said about Rosie O’Donnell. And, being a multi-married man who, in his youth, went to Studio 54 with the beautiful people, Trump’s been a loud and proud New Yorker for decades. That he may have attended a big-timer’s 50th isn’t news. 

My colleague at RedState, Joe Cunningham, observes that the note wasn’t even authenticated:

Here’s what the Journal doesn’t tell you: They provide no evidence that this letter was authenticated. No handwriting analysis. No chain of custody documentation. No forensic verification. Just their word that they “reviewed” it among Justice Department documents.

The paper admits they don’t know “how the letter with Trump’s signature was prepared,” yet they’re comfortable plastering it across their front page anyway. If you can’t verify authenticity, why publish it at all?

Cunningham also notes that the Journal failed to consider the context of when this alleged note appeared.

This alleged letter dates to 2003—a full three years before any criminal allegations against Epstein became public. Palm Beach police didn’t begin investigating Epstein until March 2005, and he wasn’t arrested until 2006. In 2003, Epstein was viewed as a successful financier who threw lavish parties attended by politicians, academics, business leaders, and celebrities.

The birthday album reportedly included letters from Leslie Wexner (billionaire retail mogul), Alan Dershowitz (prominent attorney), Harvard economists, and others. 

Of course, the Trump administration promised full transparency on the documents detailing Epstein’s skulduggery and perversions, so it was a shock when reporters were told by the attorney general that there wasn’t much, if anything, to see here. Today, Trump told reporters that he’s told AG Pam Bondi to release everything she can. 

However, it’s what could be behind the Journal story that’s most interesting. 

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