LIBERAL MEDIA BIAS 2
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ESTB 4 25
see bias media
see media consolidation --> corp bad actor --> fascism
see foundational myths
see liberal media mAINstream
see gingrich
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in holy war press conf 3/3? he gestured at fake news
an 3 26
Scathing reactions poured in across social media on Wednesday morning after Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, criticized the "fake news media" for covering American casualties in Iran, with one reaction calling the moment "truly rock bottom."
The U.S. has been engaged in a major joint military operation against Iran with Israel since Saturday, launching a barrage of strikes as the specific goals of the campaign continue to be uncertain. As of Wednesday, at least six U.S. service members are confirmed dead as a result of the Iranian military's counterstrikes.
Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference about the operation alongside Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During his remarks, Hegseth lashed out at the press over reports focused on the six American casualties, accusing them of trying to make Trump bad.
"This is what the fake news misses," Hegseth said. "We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground, but when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front page news. I get it, the press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality."
Reactions to this remark, which appeared to minimize the importance of American casualties, were swift, criticizing the secretary for his callousness and his lack of care for the responsibilities of the news media.
"Hegseth says reporting on American casualties is the 'fake news' trying to 'make the president look bad,'" Tommy Vietor, a former Obama administration National Security Council spokesman and "Pod Save America" co-host, wrote in a post to X. "This is truly rock bottom from the most selfish, arrogant, unqualifed Secretary of Defense in US history."
"Just a thought, maybe SecDef shouldn’t jerk himself off on live television at the thought of casualties in war," Angry Staffer, a prominent political accountant run by a former White House staffer, said in their own post. "War isn’t something to be giddy about. Were the most powerful nation on the planet. We’re supposed to be the quiet professionals, not carnival barking morons."
"To say that the deaths of our troops shouldn’t warrant front page news and that it’s only being reported on to make Trump 'look bad' inspires the kind of rage in me that would get me banned from this app," Joanne Carducci, a prominent online political commentator, wrote in her own post X.
"No, Pete Hegseth," Susan McPherson, an author and businesswoman, wrote in a post to BlueSky. "The media’s job is to tell the truth and report on the good, the bad and the ugly."
"Each thing Hegseth says is more insane, lawless and incriminating than the last," David Kaye, a former special rapporteur for the United Nations, wrote in a post to BlueSky about the press conference overall.
Hegseth also drew intense criticism for his overblown descriptions of military strikes in Iran, including his comments about "death and destruction" raining from the sky and the U.S. "playing for keeps."
"He’s like a really bad actor in a 1980's 'B' action movie that went straight to video," Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and political commentator, wrote on BlueSky.
"More than 1,000 Iranian civilians have been killed already including 160 [plus] schoolgirls," political consultant Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin wrote in her own post to BlueSky. "If and when there is a war crimes trial, Hegseth's prosecutors will have a wealth of evidence."
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MMA
February 9, 2026, edition of Fox News' The Five}:
JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): The game was so bad, everyone's talking about halftime. And halftime was so bad. Now, they say, the halftime was not bad. Okay. Last halftime was Kendrick Lamar, okay? That was also the most highly rated halftime. So is this. We didn't understand what Kendrick Lamar was saying last time, and that was English. Now how do you think we feel?
GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): Jesse, they had a signer for the deaf but no translator for the Spanish. Why do you think that is?
WATTERS: I don't know. I like the Super Bowl not to be an international event. I like it when we kind of all come together as Americans, especially when it feels like the NFL's just using it as a marketing ploy to recruit Latin American audience -- on the heels of Latin America invading this country. 20 million pouring in and that's what you see. You see all these foreigners speaking a foreign language, with foreign flags marching into the camera like a caravan. Too soon!
Listen, this was an open borders moment. Everybody knows it. That's what's going on here. And all the reporters, who are liberal, who don't even watch football, this is the first playoff game they've ever watched, they are saying they loved it? They didn't hear a word. They couldn't understand what the guy said. Of course, they loved it. It was foreign.
Now, a lot of us feel -- Americans, red-blooded Americans -- that it feels like the left is teaming up with large corporations and foreign populations to take our culture away from us. Now, I love Bad Bunny. I thought some of the tunes I could move to, and I love Puerto Rico. That's the thing. Not for Super Bowl halftime. Can you give me at least that? Give me that.
On Fox News, Kid Rock calls Jay-Z “a DEI hire” by the NFL
02/10/26 3:15 PM EST
Laura Ingraham says Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny's halftime show “didn't represent America at all”
02/09/26 7:51 PM EST
Greg Gutfeld launches incoherent rant about a Jewish halftime show with “dancing accountants” and “men slinging pastrami”
02/09/26
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MMA MEDIA PART OF TERROR NETWORK MILLER
Megyn Kelly claims “leftist media” discussion of culture war issues “stirs up hatred”
09/22/25
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Buzz Machine founder and media critic Jeff Jarvis said the right no longer has the justification to call media “liberal media” anymore now that Trump has exercised complete control of the industry.
“We can, once and for all, end the trope of ‘liberal media,” Jarvis told CNN. “There are liberals in media, but the corporations are now either controlled by the right wing or frightened of it.”
Jarvis, who is also an associate professor at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, described “a frightening usurpation of media by Trump and his allies” with the takeover of Viacom, CBS and Paramount by Trump allies Larry and David Ellison.
“We see what they’ve already done with CBS. … The producer of “60 Minutes” quit. The word is they’re going to hire so-called ‘heterodox’ writer Bari Weiss for a major role at CBS. They hired a conservative as ombudsman. So, the path of what they’re doing is already clear,” said Jarvis.
Jarvis said dissenting voices would normally find other places to broadcast, but that’s not so easy either now thanks to massive billionaire purchases of whole online communities.
“We still have blogs, but they aren’t what they used to be, right? We had TikTok, but that could be taken over. We have YouTube, but that’s also owned by a big corporation that will come under pressure shortly. So, it’s really troubling to see where any dissent can be heard in this country anymore.”
CNN reports the TikTok deal Trump announced Friday involves investments from several US-based firms, including the Ellisons and Andreesen Horowitz, a prominent pro-Trump VC firm.
“That troubles me greatly … because TikTok was a potential alternative to old mass media. So, it’s a tremendous consolidation, but it’s not just a business consolidation — it’s a political consolidation of media now at the higher level,” said Jarvis. “… the Trumpist MAGA is taking over a dying institution.
Jarvis added that the internet doomed mass media with its failed revenue mechanics.
“[The] myth, as I always teach my students, is that all readers see all ads, so we charge all advertisers for all readers, that we control their attention. That was never really true, but advertisers had nowhere else to go,” said Jarvis. “Now advertising has fallen off as a support. Instead, we have much of media going to paywalls and subscriptions, but there’s only so many things people are going to subscribe to, and what that does is put reliable, credible, authoritative information behind paywalls for the few who choose to pay for it.”
“Big old media has sacrificed its own influence,” he said.
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kirk 9 25
Jackson Lahmeyer Blames Kirk’s Death on Right Wing Watch, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, and ‘Left-Wing Influencers’
09/11/2025
by
In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump and right-wing activists rushed to place the blame on "the left," despite the fact that very little is known about the person who shot Kirk and who currently remains at large.
In a video released on Wednesday evening, Trump faulted "those on the radical left" for Kirk's death, complaining that they compared conservatives to "Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals."
Trump’s declaration in the same video that “violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree” ignores the fact that Trump himself sets a standard for the MAGA movement’s relentless demonization of its political opponents. More specifically, the right has routinely likened Democratic and progressive leaders and activists to Hitler and Nazis for years, as Right Wing Watch pointed out on social media.
During a Wednesday night livestream, MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer repeated Trump's charge.
"These people on the left have labeled people like Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, they have labeled them as Hitlers, as fascists, as racists," Lahmeyer said. "Let me tell you something: When you call people Hitler and when you call people fascist, if you really mean that, why would you be surprised that somebody goes out to kill a Hitler or to kill a fascist?"
"I believe the blood of Charlie Kirk is on the hands of the mainstream media and left-wing politicians who label Charlie Kirk a Hitler-like figure, a fascist-like figure," Lahmeyer continued. "If the left-wing media, if the left-wing politicians really believe that Charlie Kirk was Hitler and a fascist, they should be celebrating his death right now because Hitler was killed, a fascist was taken out. But they don't believe that. They know he's not Hitler. They know he's not a fascist. Yet they use that rhetoric to stir people up so that now you have a family, you have a wife and you have two children that tonight are going to go to bed without their husband or their father."
"The blood of Charlie Kirk is on the hands of Right Wing Watch, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, left-wing influencers that labeled him Hitler-esque," Lahmeyer declared.
Video URL
Right Wing Watch, of course, never labeled Kirk as Hitler-esque or a Nazi; we generally report right-wing activists’ own words and actions.
But take one guess who has repeatedly likened his political enemies to Hitler and the Nazis and called them fascists:...
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MMA
April 24, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Finnerty
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): The TV sign off. The signature TV sign off was started by that last guy you heard from, Edward R Murrow, one of the first television reporters, in many ways a pioneer in our business, blah blah blah blah blah.
Frankly, I work in this industry — I think Edward R. Murrow is totally overrated.
We always seem to attach this odd reverence to firsts in American culture. Doesn't matter what it is. First case of Covid-19, the first person to weigh 1,000 pounds — we love the first.
And Edward R. Murrow is credited with a lot of firsts in television news. We even hand out the vaunted Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in journalism every year. And if you get one of those, well, my word, you must be really good at journalism.
And by the way, he went by Ed when he was alive, he was just Ed Murrow to his friends like, I'm Rob Finnerty. I don't go by Robert J. Finnerty, the Robert J. Finnerty Award for mediocrity in journalism.
But Murrow was not above the fray. He was just as biased and partisan as Jake Tapper is today. In 1956, Edward R. Murrow worked to get Democrat Adlai Stevenson elected president. Now it didn't work. Stevenson lost to Dwight Eisenhower. But Edward, sorry, Ed, was a Democrat, and he was biased and partisan.
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tdb 4 25
a Trump-supporting podcaster who was allegedly paid massive sums (https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-bombshell-alleges-maga-media-group-is-backed-by-russian-money/) by Russian state media used his time during Tuesday’s White House press briefing to slam the reporters surrounding him.
Tim Pool, who was added to (https://www.thedailybeast.com/tim-pool-was-paid-by-russia-but-will-joins-white-house-press-pool/) the press pool late last month and opted to wear his signature beanie and a zip-up hoodie to the exclusive affair, introduced his question with a lengthy rant about a number of right-wing grievances concerning the mainstream media.
“Many of the news organizations that are represented in this room have marched in lockstep on false narratives, such as the ‘very fine people’ hoax, the Covington smear, and now what’s being called the ‘Maryland man’ hoax, where an MS-13 gang member—adjudicated by two different judges, I believe—is just simply being referred to as a ‘Maryland man’ over and over again," Pool said.
“Now, in an effort from the White House to expand access to new companies, you’ve created this ‘new media’ seat,” he went on.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to admit any wrongdoing in the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, even though a Justice Department lawyer admitted in court that his deportation was an “administrative error.”Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
“So, I’m wondering if you can comment on following this expansion, you’ve had numerous outlets disparage the companies that you’ve had sit here, as well as the reporters,” he said. “I’m wondering if you could comment on that unprofessional behavior as well as elaborate if there’s any plans to expand access to new companies.”
Leavitt replied that Pool is in the briefing room because the administration “welcomes diverse viewpoints.“
Influencer Paid by Russia Added to White House Press PoolWARM WELCOME (https://www.thedailybeast.com/tim-pool-was-paid-by-russia-but-will-joins-white-house-press-pool/)
Janna Brancolini (https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/janna-brancolini)
(https://www.thedailybeast.com/tim-pool-was-paid-by-russia-but-will-joins-white-house-press-pool/)
“We welcome unbiased journalists who really care about the truth and the facts and the accuracy,” Leavitt insisted.
Leavitt also refused to admit any wrongdoing by the administration regarding the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, even though a Justice Department lawyer admitted in court that his deportation was an “administrative error.”
“The president was always on the right side of this issue to deport this illegal criminal from our community, and it is despicable to see the media continue to refer to this individual as someone who is just a peaceful man living his life in Maryland,” she said. “This is, was, and always has been an illegal criminal, an MS-13 gang member, and a designated foreign terrorist; and the administration maintains our position to deport these individuals from our community.”
“So, thank you for being here, Tim. It’s great to see you. Thank you,” she concluded.
MAGA Influencers Say They’re the Real Victims of Russia PlotPUTIN’S PAYROLL (https://www.thedailybeast.com/influencers-tim-pool-benny-johnson-and-dave-rubin-say-they-are-victims-in-alleged-russia-propaganda-plot/)
Dan Ladden-Hall, (https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/dan-ladden-hall)Martha Mercer (https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/martha-mercer)
(https://www.thedailybeast.com/influencers-tim-pool-benny-johnson-and-dave-rubin-say-they-are-victims-in-alleged-russia-propaganda-plot/)
Pool was one of several right-right commentators who worked for Tenet Media, which prosecutors say received $10 million from two Russian media executives. According to The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/09/05/tenet-media-russia-rt-tim-pool/), he earned $100,000 per episode for his weekly show. Pool claimed he was unaware of the source of that money, and prosecutors say some employees were misled about the company’s funding.
“Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims,” Pool wrote (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/04/politics/doj-alleges-russia-funded-company-linked-social-media-stars/index.html) last year in a post on X that was later deleted. “The show is produced in its entirety by our local team without input from anyone external to the company.”
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