Tag: media

How the Public Feels Post-Covid

Some people wonder why I look at the New York Times. It’s because I want to see what narratives the “newspaper of record” is pushing. I read an article about ten years ago by an ex-NYT editor, who said that at the beginning of the year, the editors were given a list of the themes to be followed that year. I think he was making clear that they were told which narratives they were intended to push.

Below, I critique an “Opinion Piece” by a journalist who knows nothing about the subject of pandemic countermeasures, except that it is his job to pan whatever the current administration is doing, especially if it will save taxpayers money and reduce the risks of Gain-of-Function research.

Let’s look at the NYT author first, best known for exaggerating the effects of global warming. No science background. But he did beat up RFK in an August 13 opinion piece—well, that probably trumps a PhD in the subject matter at the NYT.

His book and article on climate change are described as terrifying. And he attempts to terrify us with his straw man argument today. (FYI, a straw man argument misrepresents what the opposer actually said, and argues against the misrepresentation.)

Keep reading

MSNBC Caught Airbrushing Alex Pretti into Male Model to Milk Sympathy: Joe Rogan Calls BS!

Podcast host Joe Rogan and commentator Andrew Wilson criticized what they described as deliberate image manipulation by major media outlets during a recent exchange, accusing networks of altering appearances to shape public perception.

The discussion centered on a comparison between how MSNBC allegedly edited an image of a man involved in a controversial shooting and how CNN portrayed Rogan himself during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Did you see what MSNBC did to his image?” Rogan asked.

“Yeah. Where they gussied it up,” Wilson replied.

Rogan argued that MSNBC’s treatment of the image stood in stark contrast to his own experience with CNN, which he said altered his appearance in an unflattering way during coverage related to COVID.

“Basically they did the opposite of what CNN did to me. You know, CNN during the covid times, turned me green, and they made me ugly and look like I was dying, and they made him handsome. So people would be more sympathetic to him getting shot, which is kind of wild, like, are ugly people less valuable to MSNBC?” Rogan said.

Wilson responded dryly, “Less marketable.”

Keep reading

Former CNN Anchor Don Lemon Arrested

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested, Newsmax’s James Rosen and a Justice Department official familiar with the matter confirmed Friday.

CBS News also reported the arrest, citing sources.

Lemon livestreamed a demonstration that interrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month that protested President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the area.

Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called his arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.”

Lemon said he was at the demonstration as a journalist. He said he was tipped off ahead of time but did not know the activists would disrupt the service.

He can be seen arguing with a parishioner about immigration enforcement. Trump administration officials quickly condemned the demonstration and accused protesters of intimidating Christian worshippers.

It was not immediately clear what charge or charges Lemon was facing in the Jan. 18 protest. The arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the journalist.

Keep reading

Liberal Commentator Who Was Too Crazy for MSNBC Goes on CNN and Claims That ICE is Filled With Members of the Proud Boys

Tiffany Cross was fired by MSNBC a few years back because the insane, racist crap she floated on her show was too crazy even for them.

Now, for some reason, she is showing up on panel shows on CNN and is just as nuts as she was back then.

This week, she went on a little diatribe about ICE, claiming that the reason we don’t hear much about the Proud Boys anymore is because they joined ICE.

There is absolutely no evidence for her claims but even if it was true, so what? Are members of the Proud Boys not allowed to join ICE? And what happened to all of CNN’s talk about trying to fight misinformation? Does that not apply to insane leftists like Cross?

Transcript via Overton News:

CROSS: “Furthermore, there’s a reason why we have not seen a resurgence of the Proud Boys, and that is because I believe a lot of them are likely made ICE officers…”

O’LEARY: “Did you just say ICE officers are militia?!”

CROSS: “Yes. Have you not been paying attention?”

O’LEARY: “Yeah…I think you’re stretching a little bit.”

CROSS: “They certainly mirror the Gestapo.”

O’LEARY: “This is a federal, state mandate, you’re pushing that a little bit there. That’s WAY offside.”

PHILLIP: “But Tiffany, you’re just making a supposition here. There’s no concrete evidence of actual Proud Boy members.”

O’LEARY: “Yeah, you gotta be careful here. That’s WAY offside. These are men and women serving the government, risking their lives, serving the government. You’re calling them Proud Boy militia, did you say that?!”

“You’re way offside, way offside.”

CROSS: “I’m actually not. But I think that there are White supremacist tattoos on their necks.”

O’LEARY: “White supremacist federal officers?!”

CROSS: “Yeah! White supremacist federal officers!”

O’LEARY: “Okay that’s…where are you going with this? Why would you say that?! Men and women working for the federal government, risking their lives, carrying out a mandate and their White supremacists?!”

CROSS: “Yes, and you’re a member of a cult…”

O’LEARY: “WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! WHOA!”

Keep reading

Notice Anything Familiar About These Participants at CNN’s MN Town Hall? The Trump WH Recognized It.

I mean, this is unsurprising, but sort of hilarious that the network tried to cast this as some ordinary citizen town hall event. CNN held one with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and others, during which they took audience questions about the city’s situation regarding the Trump administration’s deportation agenda. Two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have been killed as they recklessly interfered in police actions. 

Good rammed into an ICE agent and got shot on January 7. Pretti tussled with Border Patrol agents on January 24. Both were left-wing activists and agitators whose own actions got them killed. Did they deserve to die for having horrible opinions on the issues? No, but assaulting federal officers can get you killed. I don’t know what else today. There are choices and consequences, and both of these clowns chose poorly.  

So, given that this city is a deep blue cesspool, it’s not shocking that its participants were all on the ActBlue registry. Trump White House Communications Director Steven Cheung was keeping score.

Keep reading

US Media Keen on Iranian Unrest—Less So on US and Israel’s Role in It

When protests against high inflation swept Iran in late December, the usual international suspects wasted little time in endeavoring to hijack the unrest—which prompted a violent government crackdown—for their own purposes.

On January 10, Donald Trump—fresh off his abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—took to his preferred social media platform to showcase his signature manic reliance on random capitalization and exclamation points: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP.” A few days later, another encouraging message: “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING—TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!… HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

The protests have since dissipated, without any successful “help” thus far in the form of regime change or US/Israeli military attack, although Trump has dispatched a “massive fleet” to the Middle East “just in case.” The Iranian government, which blames the US and Israel for fueling the bloody upheaval, has put the death toll at 3,117 (Al Jazeera, 1/21/26), including state security personnel. The Canada-based International Centre for Human Rights—aptly described by prominent Mideast analyst Mouin Rabbani as a “faux human rights organization”—claims that no fewer than 43,000 Iranians were killed by government agents. In between those two extremes, all manner of other numbers have also been flung about.

Keep reading

After Trump Declared Gaza War ‘Over,’ Media Lost Interest

Since President Donald Trump declared that “the war in Gaza is over” on October 3, 2025, US news outlets’ interest in the occupied territory has plummeted. In a FAIR search of US-related news sites using Media Cloud, a news media database, coverage of Gaza post-ceasefire agreement averaged just 1.5% of the news hole—significantly less than the level of coverage before the agreement.

From July 2 through October 1, 2025, mentions of Gaza appeared in 2.3% of news stories in Media Cloud’s US–National dataset, which indexes 248 online outlets. Starting October 2, the day before the ceasefire agreement, coverage in the next three weeks jumped to an average of 4.5%. For the following three months (October 23–January 22), that average dropped to 1.5%. That’s less than two-thirds the level of coverage it received prior to the agreement.

It’s also the lowest three-month average at any point since the current crisis began on October 7, 2023.

Keep reading

Media Claim: “ICE Drags Citizen in the Snow in His Underwear,” But There Is More to the Story

On January 18, 2026, ICE arrested ChongLy “Scott” Thao in St. Paul, Minnesota. The incident went viral because of footage showing Thao, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, being led from his home in sub-freezing weather wearing only underwear and sandals with a small blanket over his shoulders.

The Thao family states that ICE agents forced their way in without a warrant, pointed guns at the family, including a 4-year-old, and refused to look at Thao’s ID. They claim he was driven to a remote location, photographed and fingerprinted, and only returned home after agents realized he was a citizen.

The facts are very different from the family’s claims and the media framing. First off, the agents had a warrant. They were using an administrative warrant rather than a judicial warrant, which is consistent with new ICE directives.

Under the directive signed by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, ICE has been instructed that administrative warrants (Form I-205) are now considered sufficient for residential entry. If an individual with a final order of removal is believed to be inside and refuses to open the door, agents are authorized to use a necessary and reasonable amount of force to enter.

DHS described it as a targeted operation for two convicted sex offenders, Kongmeng Vang and Lue Moua. The reason agents used a battering ram to break in was because, according to the Associated Press, a family member alerted Thao that agents were banging on the door, but he told them not to open it.

Agents drew their weapons because the targets were dangerous criminals. Moua is described as “a violent illegal alien sexual offender” and a “child predator,” while Vang is described as a “criminal illegal alien” from Laos with a 2016 removal order and a history involving sexual assault and gang activity.

Because Thao matched the physical description of one of the targets, ICE protocol required agents to use a new mobile biometric app, Mobile Fortify, which captures fingerprints and facial photographs to verify identity. However, Thao refused. Consequently, he was taken into custody, photographed and fingerprinted, and then returned home.

Commenters on social media are outraged that Thao was taken out of the house in his underwear. However, there is no indication that agents stripped him. He was apparently already in his underwear when agents arrived. The half-naked aspect and the use of force are consistent with High-Risk Entry protocols. If agents believe a suspect is a convicted sex offender, they prioritize speed and tactical dominance over the suspect’s comfort.

Keep reading

New York Times Insists ‘No One Knows’ What is Behind ‘Staggering Fall’ in U.S. Murder Rate

The New York Times is dumbfounded as to what could be causing the fall in murder rates across the United States.

The Times was the first to report on the news that the U.S. murder rate had hit a 125-year low after President Donald Trump’s first year back in office.

According to data from the nonpartisan think tank, The Council on Criminal Justice, it is estimated that the homicide rate dropped 21 percent from 2024 to 2025.

“When nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes is reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility that homicides in 2025 will drop to about 4.0 per 100,000 residents,” the organization said.

”That would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record,” they continued.

However, the paper has now claimed that “no one knows for sure” what is causing the massive decline.

While the Times asserted that Trump would try to take credit for the figures because of his tough approach to law and order, it has suggested that the two things are not correlated.

Keep reading

Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino Pulls Out the Receipts to Debunk Fake News Narrative

Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino detailed two recent cases in Minneapolis involving individuals who crossed the U.S. border unlawfully, highlighting what he described as the downstream consequences of border enforcement failures and the impact on local communities.

Speaking about the first case, Bovino described an individual charged with cocaine trafficking and a controlled substance violation, identifying the suspect as someone who had entered the country illegally without being apprehended at the border.

“Charged with cocaine trafficking and a controlled substance violation. This is an interesting one, because this individual was what we would term, term as a golf, which is a gotaway across the border,” Bovino said.

“This individual crossed the border and was a golf, a gotaway, more than likely, over those past four years when we had millions crossing the border unabated, this is what we get in our communities.”

Keep reading