NBC

PRIMARY 5 25 QATER PLANE CORRUPT TARGET

no merri

GE owns nbc, world's #1 polluter w/ 86 superfind sites (westinghouse cbs 39 biggest maker of nuke plants and 3rd in weapons 180 (rfk2)

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see sunday talk todd meet the press

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MMA

ABC, CBS, and NBC aired nearly 200 segments about three U.S. heat events without mentioning climate change

08/06/26

CNN and MS NOW consistently connected prolonged power outage in Gary, Indiana, to race and poverty, while broadcast news rarely did, and Fox did not

08/28/26

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JRNL FAIL?

AN 2 26

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump sat down with NBC News reporter Tony Llamas for a wide-ranging interview on multiple subjects. However, Llamas often let the president lie without pushing back. Now, CNN is taking Llamas to task for not doing his job — while debunking Trump's lies.

In a Thursday article, CNN's Daniel Dale did a point-by-point fact-check of Trump's biggest lies, and admonished Llamas for doing little to counter what he called Trump's "rapid-fire dishonesty." The CNN fact-checker observed that while NBC published a fact-check of Trump's claims after the interview, Llamas himself frequently responded to Trump's outright falsehoods with "right" or "yeah," and sometimes "didn’t acknowledge them at all."

"Llamas’ hands-off approach to the president’s falsehoods left people watching the interview on television and through social media clips without immediate corrective information on a variety of pressing subjects," Dale wrote. "An exchange about inflation, for example, was littered with a bunch of inaccurate Trump figures and assertions that Llamas let pass by with the word 'right.' And in one case, when Trump claimed it’s only 'very few' product prices that have stubbornly refused to fall during this presidency, Llamas initially responded with a comment that made it sound like he was endorsing the false claim: 'Yeah, very few. I get it.'"

When it came to Trump's insistence about presiding over an increase in prices of consumer goods, Trump insisted to Llamas that the increases are limited to "very few" items. But Dale wrote that the Consumer Price Index was actually 2.7 percent higher in December 2025 compared to December 2024, and many more products have become more expensive since Trump's second term began than have become cheaper.

Dale also disputed Trump's claim to Llamas that he "inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country." The all-time highest inflation rate of 23.7 percent was actually set in 1920. And while former President Joe Biden saw the inflation rate jump as high as 9.1 percent under his watch in 2022, that was a 48-year high. Dale credited Llamas for telling Trump that Biden had to contend with the Covid-19 pandemic, which was the chief cause of high inflation rates.

Trump also told the NBC reporter that gas prices were "$1.99 a gallon" in 2026, though Dale found that the average price for a gallon of gas was $2.89 per gallon according to data published by AAA. GasBuddy head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan told CNN that out of more than 150,000 gas stations, only 18 to 34 offered gas prices under $2 per gallon. Dale reminded readers that Llamas' only response to Trump's claim was "yeah."

"An average over those dates would be 28 stations over the course of the week, or 0.018% of all U.S. stations. I think I’d rather find the needle in the haystack at that point," De Haan said.

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nbcno pix lnx

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/portland-ice-protest-trump-nick-sortor-andy-ngo-katie-daviscourt-rcna236332

10 25

Portland's anti-ICE protests have become a magnet for MAGA influencers

Right-wing influencers and media figures have flocked to Portland, helping bring national and Trump administration attention to ICE protests in the city.

Trump supporters face off with protesters outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 6, 2025.

Trump supporters face off with protesters Monday outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore.Ethan Swope / AP

Oct. 9, 2025, 1:03 PM PDT

By David Ingram and Jo Yurcaba

PORTLAND, Ore. — Within a week, Nick Sortor experienced the lows and highs of being a MAGA influencer.

Last Thursday, Sortor was jailed in Portland after police arrested him on suspicion of disorderly conduct. A fan of President Donald Trump with 1.2 million followers on X, he had traveled to Oregon’s largest city to document the protest scene outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. Police said he was involved in an altercation with demonstrators but was ultimately not charged.

But six days later, Sortor was back on the upswing: By Wednesday, he was sitting at the White House just a few feet away from Trump, as he and other conservative media figures were invited to participate in a roundtable discussion about the anti-ICE activity they had seen in Portland.

“It was not fun sitting in that jail, but I’m glad to see what has come of it,” Sortor, 27, told Trump during the livestreamed event.

The roundtable was a unifying moment for the alternative, right-wing media ecosystem that is helping shape perceptions of protests against Trump’s mass deportation campaign, showing how the MAGA influencers and the Trump administration are playing off one another in response to anti-ICE protests around the country.

Right-wing podcasters, writers and pundits are flocking to Democratic deep-blue cities to document the scene for their massive audiences but also, in some cases such as Portland, to spar with left-wing demonstrators. Their presence has been praised by the Trump administration and criticized by police for escalating tensions.

Federal agents stand guard on a rooftop to keep protesters away from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 6, 2025.

Federal agents stand guard on a rooftop Monday as protesters gather outside an ICE facility in Portland.Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / AFP - Getty Images

A poll last month from The New York Times and Siena University showed voters deeply divided on the immigration crackdown, with a slim majority, 52%, saying they disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration and 46% saying they approve. The poll showed 51% believe Trump’s immigration actions have “gone too far,” 35% say they have been “about right” and 12% say they have “not gone far enough.”

At least a dozen out-of-town conservative journalists and influencers were on the ground in Portland in recent days, according to interviews with some of them and posts on social media.

“This is now a full-blown information war that we’re in, so being on the front lines is more important than ever,” said Jonathan Choe, who traveled from Seattle to Portland for Frontlines, a project of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA. Choe spoke by phone on Tuesday, a day before taking part in the White House event, with Sortor.

Sortor, whose profile on X says he’s based in Texas and Washington, D.C., did not respond to requests for comment.

In Portland, anti-ICE protests have taken place nearly daily since June, largely confined to a block outside the ICE facility, about two miles south of downtown. The facility, where ICE agents bring people who’ve been arrested and are awaiting processing, was also the site of protests in 2018.

Activists and police say the crowd size and the intensity of the protests in Portland have grown in recent weeks, following Trump’s Sept. 27 announcement that he wants to send in National Guard troops with “full force” and as more influencers have arrived. The crowd sometimes has a circus-like atmosphere, including one anti-ICE regular who wears an inflatable frog costume.

While federal agents protect the ICE facility itself, local police patrol the nearby streets. Portland police say they’ve arrested more than 40 people in the protest area since June, including one man who jumped into the nearby Willamette River on Tuesday night, after police say he stole a tripod from the protest area. Additionally, federal prosecutors say they’ve charged 31 people for federal offenses at the ICE facility, including assaults on officers.

Portland police say that some of the self-described journalists appearing outside the ICE facility are acting more like counterprotesters. In an email made public last week as part of Oregon and Portland’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, Sgt. Andrew Braun named three right-wing journalists or activists who he said were victims as well as a chronic source of emergency calls.

“Despite repeated advice from officers to stay away from the ICE crowd, they constantly return and antagonize the protesters until they are assaulted or pepper sprayed. They refuse or are reluctant to walk away from these confrontations, even when police are in the area trying to meet with them. They even engage in the same trespassing behavior on federal and trolley property as the main protesters,” Braun wrote in the Sept. 21 email.

Among those named was Katie Daviscourt, a writer for The Post Millennial. Daviscourt, who had traveled to Portland from Seattle, fired back on X, disputing the characterization.

“I am beyond pissed. Anyone who knows me, knows that I stand by myself, I am non violent, never approach the crowd, and quietly film,” she wrote. “I cannot wait to see the DOJ absolutely CRUSH this agency,” she added, referring to the Portland police. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Daviscourt said she was hit in the face at a protest last week and was bruised. Police said they were searching for a suspect. Daviscourt was also among the conservative media figures at the White House on Wednesday.

Mike Benner, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau, said the bureau, unlike police in some other cities, does not have a credentialing process for members of the media.

“We recognize the changing landscape of journalism and respect the rights of both traditional and independent journalists to document events,” he said in an email. “We ask all individuals — regardless of media status — to comply with lawful orders and avoid interfering with law enforcement operations.”

Portland Police Chief Bob Day said in a news conference Tuesday that tensions near the ICE facility had risen due to the “influence of social media” and national attention. And in an interview on Monday with Fox News’ streaming service, he criticized influencers’ focus on getting views.

Federal agents, including members of the Department of Homeland Security, stand guard outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 6, 2025.

Federal agents, including members of the Department of Homeland Security, stand guard Monday outside an ICE facility in Portland.Mathiew Lewis-Rolland / AFP - Getty Images

“Their reach is obviously very significant, and so they’re going where they can get the views and create the perception. And our belief is that we are simply managing to the rule of law,” he said.

But the ascendant MAGA influencers have the ears of Trump Cabinet members: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met some of them in person Tuesday during a trip to Portland, and on Wednesday, Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel joined the White House roundtable. At one point during the event, Trump directed Sortor and Bondi to confer about a possible investigation related to one of his videos.

Sortor said on X that he was acting in self-defense prior to his arrest. The Portland-area district attorney’s office declined to charge him with disorderly conduct, saying in a statement that while it believed police had probable cause to arrest him, it did not believe the crime could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Two anti-ICE protesters who were arrested at the same time are now facing criminal charges.

Accounts of the protests in conservative media often emphasize what they see as the rectitude of ICE’s operations, criticizing those who disagree. These accounts often include shaky video taken at night of protesters and counterprotesters facing off. It’s often close-in footage that lacks perspective on the size of the unrest. MAGA influencers also provide steady content for television networks like Fox News, where some of them have appeared for interviews.

At one point, Trump expressed confusion about the true nature of the situation in Portland, telling NBC News in a phone interview on Sept. 28 that he was getting conflicting accounts.

“I spoke to the governor. She was very nice,” Trump said. “But I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? My people tell me different.’ They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place.”

At Wednesday’s roundtable, Trump praised Daviscourt and Sortor, saying he watched a video of Sortor and sent him a note. On X, Sortor said that Trump wrote, “Nick, I saw you on television. Great job. We are behind you 100%. Let us know if there is anything we can do… President DJT”

The influencers descending on Portland fall along a spectrum, with some closer to the role of traditional journalists than others. Choe, the Frontlines reporter, who previously worked in local TV news, said he’s been one of three Frontlines reporters who have been tag-teaming coverage in recent days, posting videos on a common account on X. He’s a Trump supporter and has cheered on Sortor, but he said he personally sticks to reporting facts on the ground.

Some of the MAGA influencers are with established conservative media outlets such as The Post Millennial or The Blaze, while many others are independent. On Tuesday, the gaggle included Florida-based podcaster Benny Johnson, who has nearly 6 million subscribers on YouTube and who flew in to Portland to report on Noem’s visit.

A White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, praised the cadre of right-wing influencers and journalists in a statement, saying: “The White House applauds all journalists who are willing [to] blaze their own trail to report the facts rather than go along with the Fake News Groupthink. The situation in Portland is a prime example.”

But some conservative media figures aren’t in Portland only to broadcast and document.

Some MAGA influencers have initiated confrontations with protesters who have set up camp on public sidewalks, walking through their tents and set-ups and interfering with protests.

Matt Tardio, a podcaster, has posted on X about wanting to “parlay with ANTIFA” alongside Sortor and hold a “PATRIOT MARCH” through a camp of protesters on a sidewalk near the ICE facility. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Sortor has repeatedly confronted anti-ICE protesters in Portland, according to videos that he and other influencers have posted on X.

“I’m going to walk through. I want to give a tour of the camp,” he says in one video, just before he advances into a tent carrying an American flag on a pole. As a protestor stands in his way on a public sidewalk, he responds, “Unfortunately, I’m going. Get out of the way. Get out of the way.”

In another video, he steps in and seizes an American flag that protesters had set on fire. On Wednesday, he brought the flag to the White House and showed it to Trump, who suggested the possibility of a flag-burning investigation. (The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag-burning is generally protected speech under the First Amendment. Trump said Monday that he disagrees and believes that flag-burning is a form of incitement to violence — an idea that the 1989 court explicitly rejected.)

Sortor was best known for commentary regarding Maui wildfires in 2023, for which he was criticized for allegedly politicizing the response, including by actor Dwayne Johnson, who called Sortor’s work “toxic, false clickbait garbage.” Sortor replied to Johnson at the time, saying he was focused on getting the government to provide more aid to Maui and was willing to work together.

Since at least 2017, Portland has been a recurring backdrop for street standoffs that pit the far right against self-described antifascist demonstrators clad in black clothing. Conservative writer Andy Ngo was beaten up at one rally in 2019 and now describes himself on X as a Portland refugee in London. He still frequently posts about his former city and was also at the White House event on Wednesday.

For this round of protests, there’s no comparable group of out-of-town left-wing influencers who have traveled to Portland, although local independent journalists have documented the protests on sites such as TikTok and Bluesky.

Julio Rosas, a national correspondent for The Blaze, a conservative media outlet, said there’s a bond among the right-wing influencers and journalists who’ve parachuted into Portland. He was there in 2021 capturing video of Black Lives Matter protests and this year he has taken two reporting trips to the city, including one within the past few days. He said he considers Sortor a friend and “a great patriot.”

“We’re often out there on our own. We’re independent or come from companies with much smaller budgets than other places,” he said. “It’s good to have someone to watch your back.”

But he said he doesn’t relish the assignment in Portland.

“Who wants to spend hours outside where people are angry?” Rosas said.

David Ingram reported from San Francisco. Jo Yurcaba reported from Portland.

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an 5 25

President Donald Trump called for an investigation into NBC News and the CEO of its parent company after one of the network’s top reporters pressed him on the Pentagon’s Wednesday afternoon acceptance of a $400 million luxury airliner from Qatar—a gift some legal scholars warn may violate the Constitution without congressional approval.

“The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday, as The New York Times reported. “The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States.”

Estimates range as high as one billion dollars for work that would be required to make the luxury jetliner capable of acting as a mission center to not only transport the President but protect them and other top officials in the event of crisis or war.

Experts “said that accepting the 13-year-old jet would likely cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over time, noting that refurbishing the commercial plane would exceed its current value of $400 million,” NBC News reported last week. “The project might also not be completed by the end of Trump’s term in 2029, at which time the plane is expected to be handed over to Trump’s presidential library foundation.”

IFrame Content

But when confronted with a question about the jet, President Trump appeared combative and visibly angered.

“What are you talking about?” Trump asked NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander during an Oval Office meeting with the President of South Africa. “You know, you ought to get out of here.”

“What does this have to do with the Qatar jet? They’re giving the United States Air Force a jet, okay? And it’s a great thing. We’re talking about a lot of other things. It’s NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real — You know, you’re a terrible reporter,” Trump charged.

“Number one, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough, but for you to go into a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing, they also gave $5.1 trillion worth of investment in addition to the jet. Go back, you ought to go back to your studio at NBC because [Comcast CEO] Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated.”

“They are so terrible, the way you run that that. And you’re a disgrace. No more questions from you.”

Moments later, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, jokingly remarked, “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”

“I wish you did,” Trump replied, also saying he would accept it.

HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte remarked: “And there you have it. If Palestinians want their own state, they need to come up with a half billion dollar luxury jet to give Trump. Same with Zelenskyy, if he wants US help.”

Before the announcement that the U.S. has formally accepted the jet, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former constitutional law professor, wrote: “I’ve introduced an amendment to block Trump from accepting his $400 million Bribe Force One from Qatar, a jumbo global scandal. It’s unconstitutional to take a foreign present ‘of any kind whatever’ from a foreign state, but House Republicans won’t even give me a vote. They don’t give a flying Emolument.”

Critics blasted and mocked the President.

“Someone’s getting testy about his Flying Bribery Palace,” wrote civil liberties and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler.

“Donald Trump has put a ‘for sale’ sign on the White House,” charged U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA). “He’s accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar – rubber stamped by AG Pam Bondi, a registered foreign agent for Qatar. He’s accepting $300 million from a company tied to the PRC and TikTok. This is corruption, plain and simple.”

[Bondi is a former registered foreign agent for Qatar.]

Watch the video below or at this link.

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an 5 25

IFrame Content

But when confronted with a question about the jet, President Trump appeared combative and visibly angered.

“They are so terrible, the way you run that that. And you’re a disgrace. No more questions from you.”

Moments later, the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, jokingly remarked, “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”

“I wish you did,” Trump replied, also saying he would accept it.

Critics blasted and mocked the President.

“Someone’s getting testy about his Flying Bribery Palace,” wrote civil liberties and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler.

[Bondi is a former registered foreign agent for Qatar.]

Watch the video below or at this link.

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mma

How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2024

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Evlondo Cooper

Published 03/06/25

2024 was another year of unprecedented or significant climate impacts, including 27 billion-dollar weather disasters, the second-highest number of billion-dollar weather disasters on record in the U.S. And the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022 and allocated a historic $369 billion in climate and energy provisions, continued to help transform the clean energy landscape.

Despite these sweeping investments and the growing urgency of the climate crisis, a Media Matters analysis found that corporate broadcast networks aired 12 hours and 51 minutes of climate coverage in 2024 — a 25% decline in volume of coverage from 2023.

This reduction in climate coverage from ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcast Co. (for its Sunday morning political show only) occurred amid significant political events, economic shifts, and global conflicts, which may have diverted attention from climate issues, despite their escalating severity. But it’s still deeply concerning, especially coming just ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency.

As the Trump administration rolls back climate initiatives and expands fossil fuel production, robust news coverage has become more critical than ever. Corporate TV networks must prioritize consistent, substantive climate journalism that amplifies diverse voices, highlights systemic inequities in climate impacts, demands accountability, and clearly communicates both the dangers of an escalating climate crisis and potential solutions.

Key findings

- The volume of climate change coverage on corporate broadcast morning and nightly news programs, as well as Sunday morning political shows, decreased 25% from 2023 to 2024, from 17 hours and 12 minutes (1,032 minutes) to 12 hours and 51 minutes (771 minutes) across 324 segments.

- Only 9% of climate segments on corporate broadcast news – 28 out of 324 segments – mentioned “fossil fuels.” This is a decrease from 2023, when “fossil fuels” were mentioned in 12% of climate segments.

- For the fourth consecutive year, CBS led network climate coverage, accounting for 50% of total broadcast time, airing 381 minutes across 129 segments. Despite ranking third in broadcast minutes with 184, ABC aired the second-highest number of segments (103), while NBC aired 199 minutes across 88 segments.

- On the nightly news programs specifically, the volume of coverage decreased by only 5% from 2023. In 2024, these programs aired 246 minutes across 115 segments. CBS led with 118 minutes across 48 segments, followed by NBC with 92 minutes across 42 segments, and ABC with 36 minutes across 25 segments.

- - PBS’ NewsHour aired 88 climate segments in 2024 compared to 122 segments aired in 2023. NewsHour, however, is not included in the full data set, as it is publicly funded and the format of the program is different from that of its corporate network counterparts.

- Climate coverage on corporate broadcast morning news programs decreased by 27% compared to 2023.

- For at least the eighth consecutive year, white men were the largest demographic of guests featured in climate segments. On morning news, nightly news, and Sunday morning political programs, 64% of guests — 190 out of 295 — were white men. Women remained underrepresented, making up 27% of guests. Only 7% of guests — 21 in total — were women of color.

- In 2024, extreme weather events drove a significant portion of broadcast climate coverage, coming up in 31% of total segments (102 of 324). This represents a decrease from 2023, when extreme weather was discussed in 37% of segments (160 out of 435).

- Coverage peaked during the months of June through September, a period marked by record-breaking temperatures and severe weather events. The networks aired 46% of their total climate segments during this period, with June leading with 50 segments.

- Solutions or actions to address climate change were mentioned in 23% of segments (75 of 324), compared to 22% in 2023.

- Coverage of climate justice and disproportionate climate impacts appeared in 3% of segments (11 of 324) in 2024, down from 5% in 2023.

## Corporate broadcast news climate coverage continued to decline in 2024

The 25% decrease in corporate broadcast news coverage from 2023 to 2024 (1,032 minutes to 771) is striking, especially during a year marked by the second-highest number of billion-dollar weather disasters on record. The decline underscores the persistent challenges of maintaining consistent climate coverage amid competing news priorities, from political events to global conflicts.
### 2024 climate coverage overview

- For the fourth year, CBS led in volume of climate coverage with 381 minutes across 129 segments, an 11% decrease from 2023, the smallest decline among networks.
- NBC aired 199 minutes of climate coverage across 88 segments, a 36% decrease from the 312 minutes aired in 2023. This was the largest decrease among the broadcast networks.

- ABC aired 184 minutes of climate coverage, a 35% decrease from the 284 minutes aired in 2023. However, ABC produced 103 climate segments, nearly matching CBS' total number of climate stories. This reflects a consistent effort to incorporate climate coverage across news programming, despite shorter average segment lengths.

[long]

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proud boys parade at inaug

List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States - Wikipedia

on January 20, 2025, Trump issued roughly 1,500 pardons and 14 commutations to people charged in connection to the January 6 United States Capitol attack.^[109] This included former leader of the Proud BoysEnrique Tarrio and founder of the Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes.^[110]^

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1 25 no vids

wASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday issued roughly 1,500 pardons and commuted the sentences of 14 of his supporters in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of them stormed the building amid his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.

Trump commuted the sentences of individuals associated with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. He then issued "a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021," a category that included people who assaulted law enforcement officers.

Capitol riot Trump's Jan. 6 pardons face pushback from Republican senators

"This is a big one," Trump said in the Oval Office while signing the document, adding, "We hope they come out tonight, frankly."

The family of Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy, said in a media statement Tuesday that he was released late Monday from FCI Pollock, a medium-security federal prison in Louisiana, and expected to arrive in Miami on Tuesday.

Tarrio was serving 22 years in federal prison after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was speaker of the House during the attack, called Trump's actions "an outrageous insult to our justice system" and the law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol that day.

"It is shameful that the President has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power," she said in a statement. "Despite the President’s decision, we must always remember the extraordinary courage and valor of the law enforcement heroes who stood in the breach and ensured that democracy survived on that dark day.”

The pardons fulfill one of Trump's central campaign promises.

Immediately after the Jan. 6 attack, Trump sought to distance himself from the attack, saying those who broke the law should be held accountable. But over the next few years, a new narrative emerged, and Trump soon began openly signaling his support for Jan. 6 rioters, calling them "hostages."

The unprecedented attack on the Capitol, when the peaceful transfer of power was interrupted, was one of the most significant moments in American history.

It resulted in the largest FBI investigation ever, with criminal charges against more than 1,500 people and criminal convictions against more than 1,100 defendants. Many low-level riot defendants were sentenced to probationary periods after having been convicted of misdemeanor offenses, like unlawful parading inside the Capitol.

But hundreds of others who committed serious felonies, such as assaulting police with deadly or dangerous weapons, got significant prison sentences.

At the time Trump issued the pardons, there were about 700 defendants who either never received prison sentences or had already completed their sentences, meaning pardons or commutations would have little practical impact on them, beyond restoring voting rights and gun rights for those who were convicted of felonies.

More than 600 people were sentenced to incarceration, but only a small fraction of them are still behind bars. Many of those who are in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons were convicted of violent attacks on police officers protecting the Capitol during an assault in which Jan. 6 defendants were armed with firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive “Trump” billboard, “Trump” flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device.

More than 140 police officers were injured and several Trump supporters died during the attack, including one who was shot trying to breach the House Speaker's Lobby and another who died in the middle of a brutal battle at the lower west tunnel, where some of the worst violence of the day took place.

IFrame Content

Trump did not speak about Jan. 6 in his inauguration address, in which he said he hoped he would someday be remembered as a "peacemaker and unifier."

But shortly thereafter, he spoke to an overflow crowd of supporters in the Capitol and addressed the Jan. 6 defendants, once again airing his baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged."

"I was going to talk about the J6 hostages," Trump said in that speech, using the term "hostages" to refer to criminal defendants, including hundreds who admitted to their criminal offenses under oath and others who were convicted by either judges or juries of their peers. "But you’ll be happy because, you know, it’s action, not words, that count. And you’re going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages."

An attorney who worked on Jan. 6 cases as a federal prosecutor told NBC News that it was always possible that Trump would return to power and pardon Capitol riot defendants but that the Justice Department "pressed ahead anyway" because "political considerations should not play any part in the Justice Department’s evaluation of facts and law, which showed that these were crimes — some of them terribly serious crimes — that warranted prosecution.”

The source said that they and, they suspected, many of their colleagues "have no regrets about having pursued these cases" and that the effort remains highly consequential because it created "a definitive, public factual record of what actually transpired" on Jan. 6.

"These cases assured police officers and civilians who were assaulted at the Capitol that there were people, and there was a Department of Justice, who recognized what they endured and sacrificed. These cases led to hundreds of defendants' acknowledging their crimes by pleading guilty in open court and hundreds of others' being found guilty at trial," the source said. "The work is likely be terminated before it can be fully completed, most significantly by the abrupt termination of the special counsel’s work. But the record stands

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an 1 25

Days before he becomes president of the USA — and minutes after the release of a prosecutor’s bombshell report into the Jan. 6 election interference case — Donald Trump took to Truth Socialearly Tuesday to attack a comedian.

“How bad is Seth Meyers on NBC?" the president-elect asked at 1:24 a.m.

It came just minutes after special counsel Jack Smith’s report revealed that he believed he had the evidence to convict Trump.

Trump was reacting to a 10-minute segment on Meyers show Monday in which he mocked infighting in the MAGA movement which has seen allies like Steve Bannon and Elon Musk go head to head.

“Trump is caught in the middle between the MAGA diehards and the rich oligarchs who helped him get elected,” Meyers said. “And he doesn’t even really know what the hell they’re talking about.”

Trump hit back that the comedian was a “moron” and that his network, NBC, was “run by a truly bad group of people.”

ALSO READ:Fox News has blood on its hands as Trump twists the knife

“Remember, they also run MSDNC,” he added.

“I got stuck watching Marble Mouth Meyers the other night, the first time in months, and every time I watch this moron I feel an obligation to say how dumb and untalented he is, merely a slot filler for the Scum that runs Comcast.

“These guys should be paying a lot of money for the right to give these “in kind” contributions to the Radical Left Democrat Party. These are not shows or entertainment, they are simply political hits, 100% of the time, to me and the Republican Party. Comcast should pay a BIG price for this!”

Watch the Seth Meyers video below or at this link.

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Brandy Zadrozny

USEFUL IDIOT

oct 16

The fake whistleblower videos started popping up last fall, the work of a small but prolific Russian group that researchers call Storm-1516.

Much remains unknown about Storm-1516 — one prong of Russia’s propaganda operation — but it has produced some of the country’s most far-reaching and influential disinformation.

The Storm-1516 campaigns rely on faked primary sources — audio, video, photos, documents — presented as evidence of the claims’ veracity. They are then laundered through international news sources and influencers to reach their ultimate target: a mainstream Western audience.

...

At least 50 false narratives have been launched this way since last fall, according to a count NBC News assembled with researchers. The narratives aim to diminish Western support for military aid in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, a contentious issue in Congress. The videos also back the re-election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to halt military aid to Ukraine, while painting the former president as a victim of a “deep state.” And they attack Vice President Kamala Harris.

In one fake video, a Ukrainian troll farm operative reveals the machinations behind a CIA plot to defeat Trump.

In another piece of propaganda, a woman says she was paralyzed as a child — by Harris in a hit-and-run accident.

In a third, a “whistleblower” falsely claims Ukraine’s leaders spent U.S. aid money on yachts.

The claims peddled by the actors and false primary sources in these videos fall apart upon basic inspection. Experts quickly identified Olesya, the Ukrainian troll, as an AI-generated fake. The 2011 hit-and-run never happened, according to San Francisco police, and KBSF-TV, the local news station behind the claims, does not exist.

And the companies that own the yachts told reporters they hadn’t been sold. But the story spread anyway, and this time, far — from small-time right-wing influencers to members of Congress, including Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, now the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Vance did not respond to a request for comment.

“It is very purposeful, very systematic, and it's a process that we see over and over,” said Darren Linvill, co-director at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, whose team uncovered the Storm-1516 campaign last fall.

Russia is the most active foreign threat to the 2024 election, according to U.S. officials. A pair of indictments unsealed in September alleged an expansion of Russia’s influence operation: from crude, fake social media posts and bot networks in 2016 to more ambitious and successful recent campaigns. That includes laundering propaganda through seemingly independent U.S. actors, according to one of the indictments. It was a scheme that entangled several popular right-wing creators, including Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Tim Pool, who all said last month they had been unaware their employer was working with Russia.

“It’s a bigger threat than it ever was,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said of Russia's influence operation at a recent news conference, where federal prosecutors unsealed indictments regarding two alleged state-sponsored propaganda schemes. “Russia has meddled in our society and tried to sow discord for decades. Really what we're seeing is just more tools in the toolbox.”

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Experts fear Storm-1516 and similar groups have the potential to sway public opinion by undermining the credibility of democratic institutions, influencing U.S. policy and diminishing people’s ability to distinguish fact from fiction.

Russia is increasingly leaning on an advancing technology landscape — including artificial intelligence and more sophisticated bot networks — to spread its falsehoods. But Storm-1516’s most valuable quality is persistence, according to Clint Watts, the general manager of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center.

“The danger comes with just the sheer volume of claims that they make, and it only takes one person, one influencer with outsized influence, to grab onto a video and amplify it in the United States,” Watts said. “They may miss 99 times, but the 100th time they may get it just right.”

The dozens of Storm-1516 storylines examined by NBC News offer a window into the disinformation pipeline: where the most successful false claims originate and how they spread.

Stage 1: The video

In February, a Russian man falsely confesses on YouTube that Ukraine promised him $4,000 to assassinate Tucker Carlson while he was in Moscow. The man says he was caught before he could detonate a bomb in the underground parking lot of the Four Seasons Hotel there.

Stage 2: The placement

Like a criminal gang’s ill-gotten cash, this video — and its manufactured evidence — is laundered through Kremlin-linked platforms and websites in a quest for legitimacy. First in Russian, then in English.

Stage 3: The spread

Russian propagandists pick up the story. The anonymous account MyLordBebo, known to researchers as a spreader of false stories about Ukraine, first posts the video to X, with English subtitles. Then, a Q-Anon influencer, KanekoaTheGreat, shares it. The videos go viral. no lnx

Stage 4: The mainstream

Simon Ateba, the Today News Africa reporter known for disrupting White House press briefings, posts the video. Right-wing creators and pundits leap on the story, using it to ask whether U.S. funding for the war in Ukraine is being weaponized to kill an American citizen.

Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk, podcaster Tim Pool, conservative commentator Benny Johnson and comedian Jimmy Dore share the false story with their millions of U.S. followers.

index

videos storm 1516 4 stages

cheap video, 1/2 fail but a few hits/viral

2 picked up by russ sites jrnl fake bio

3 launder thru telegram and local sites that look legit eg duggan mtg shared w 3 mil followers

how-foreign-disinformation-makes-its-way-into-the-american-mainstream-221936709542

mma

NBC spotlights Phoenix weatherization efforts as the Inflation Reduction Act distributes $8.8 billion for home energy improvements

10/25/24

===

an 7 24

In just the first half of Sen. J.D. Vance's interview with "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker, the Ohio Republican waved his hands and snapped at her as she attempted to fact-check him.

During Vance's second outburst, the NBC host resorted to telling him, "I have to hit pause here."

What first set off the Ohio lawmaker, who is reportedly a finalist to be Donald Trump's running mate, was Welker pushing back at his claim that President Joe Biden is siccing the Department of Justice on the embattled Trump.

"The prosecution of Donald Trump in New York, which I think now has fundamentally been thrown in doubt by this immunity case, it was one of the main guys was a Department of Justice official of the Biden administration who jumped ship to join a local prosecutor's office to go after Donald Trump," Vance stated which led her to interrupt, "And yet the DOJ told Congress.." as he rambled, "...the legitimacy of the prosecution. That's a problem."

"Senator, that happens all of the time, people are appointed from Washington. The DOJ told Congress—, she instructed him just before he shouted over her.

"Are you really saying, Kristen, it happens all the time! That the number --," Vance exclaimed with Welker cutting him off and explaining, "Let me just finish this. It [Congress] reviewed all communications since Biden took office and found no contact between federal prosecutors and those involved with that case in New York. Can you stick to the substance of the question, though?"

In the second skirmish, Vance claimed the Biden administration wants to fund abortions up to birth, calling it "crazy," which led Welker to once again talk over him after putting him on "pause" and then explaining, "As you know abortions, very few abortions, take place later in pregnancy almost always because there is a medical emergency."

Watch below or at the link.

---

NBC Nightly News interviewed a woman at CPAC about the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos are legally children. The network did not mention that the woman, Dawn Bancroft, previously pleaded guilty in federal court to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 60 days in prison for her participation in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

During its February 22 edition, NBC Nightly News broadcast two stories about the continuing fallout from the court’s decision, which has imperiled patients’ access to in vitro fertilization treatments in Alabama. In its second story — which connected the ruling to reproductive rights as a broader political issue — NBC’s reporter went to the Conservative Political Action Conference, a major annual right-wing event, to gather reactions from right-wing women. “Women we spoke to were in full support of IVF,” said the reporter.

NBC aired the opinion of only one woman — Bancroft, a convicted January 6 rioter whom a chyron identified merely as “Doylestown, Pennsylvania resident.”

Video file

CitationFrom the February 22, 2024, edition of NBC's NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt

NBC News covered Bancroft’s sentencing in 2022, also noting that she was from Doylestown:

A Jan. 6 Capitol rioter who recorded herself saying that they were looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to shoot her in the frickin’ brain” was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in prison, according to officials.

The attorney for Dawn Bancroft, 59, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, asked for a fine only but a federal judge in Washington sentenced her to the 60 days in prison that prosecutors sought, according to court records.

Prosecutors called her comments about killing Pelosi “among the most graphic statements uttered by any rioter on Capitol grounds that day,” but acknowledged there was no evidence she intended to carry it out.

“Be that as it may, just as Bancroft felt herself caught up in the negative energy of the day, her reckless words could have easily led or inspired others to act violently towards members of Congress or police officers,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Even Bancroft admitted the Alabama ruling was “disturbing.”

NBC has every right to interview CPAC attendees for its political stories. However, the network has a duty to disclose to its audience whether those attendees violently attacked the Capitol and publicly called for the murder of Democrats.

---

both siderism? jrnl fail?

mma 2 24

ALEX WITT (HOST): What is the situation like in Rafah right now? How do you see it?

MATT BRADLEY (CORRESPONDENT): Well, there's a lot of fear but there's also a lot of starvation, a lot of homelessness, people living in tents. We're talking about 1.4 million Palestinians who are living on the edge of the Gaza Strip, right where Gaza meets Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. They are about to be pushed, or many of them fear they are about to be pushed, from the Gaza Strip into the Sinai Desert.

And this is why when you talk to Palestinians there, they keep on bringing up this one word: the nakba. It means "catastrophe" and that happened all the way back in 1948. That's the Arabic word for when the Israeli state was created and Palestinians feel -- and this history is still debated -- Palestinians feel as though they were forced from their homes. And that is exactly what they think is happening right now because the Israelis -- As you mentioned, Benjamin Netanyahu, he has said that he wants his military to explore or draw up a plan for a evacuation of civilians from Rafah. Well most of those people, the vast majority of them, have already been displaced from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip once, twice, three or four times. We were speaking to people who have been displaced more than four times, all of them moving from place to place as Israel's army has advanced right behind them. And that is exactly what we're seeing now.

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'A major mistake': NBC’s partner for tonight’s GOP debate platforms election deniers - Alternet.org

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National TV news coverage of COP28 was sparse and inconsistent | Media Matters for America

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NBC and CBS evening news shows failed to cover a report that Trump’s businesses received millions from foreign countries while he was in office | Media Matters for America

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[Jim Comer decimated by NBC reporter in 'under two minutes' - Alternet.orgJim Comer decimated by NBC reporter in 'under two minutes' - Alternet.orgJim Comer decimated by NBC reporter in 'under two minutes' - Alternet.org](https://www.alternet.org/send/jim-comer/)

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// thom 3 on capt 3 networks

NBC’s GOP debate moderators should have asked about Donald Trump’s plans to install an authoritarian regime | Media Matters for America

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'A major mistake': NBC’s partner for tonight’s GOP debate platforms election deniers - Alternet.org 11 23 3rd

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mma 5 23

Elon Musk's drawn-out search for a new CEO to take over stewardship of Twitter has reportedly come to a close, with the right-wing billionaire selecting Linda Yaccarino, an advertising executive from NBCUniversal, to take the reins of the troubled social media company. Yaccarino's appointment to the post comes after she had spent the past several months providing Musk with strategic advice on how to woo blue chip advertising partners who have been driven away from Twitter by his chaotic management.

On May 12, a day after Musk proclaimed that a new CEO would be starting in roughly six weeks, he announced Yaccarino would be filling the role. Hours earlier, NBCUniversal had announced that Yaccarino, formerly the company’s chairman for Global Advertising and Partnerships, was leaving “effective immediately.”

[twt]

This announcement comes months after Twitter users voted for Musk to step down in a December poll and he promised to resign as CEO “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!"

[twt]

at NBCUniversal, Yaccarino oversaw all of the network’s ad sales and “made a name for herself by helping traditional television hold its ground in advertising in the era of Facebook and Google,” according to The New York Times. After 12 years at the company, NBCUniversal announced Yaccarino was leaving after reports indicated that she was in talks to be Twitter CEO. NBCUniversal’s announcement comes just days before the company’s upfronts presentation to major advertisers, which Yaccarino was slated to give.

Musk’s tenure as CEO at Twitter has been chaotic and plagued with missteps, harmful content, and plummeting revenue. Yaccarino supported Musk throughout his tenure, giving him a platform with advertisers, maintaining NBCUniversal’s relationship with Twitter while other companies fled, and repeatedly interacting with Musk on Twitter.

In April, Yaccarino gave Musk a platform to address advertisers’ concerns and provided him access to major companies

Amid criticisms about harmful content proliferating on the platform, Yaccarino interviewed Musk at a conference in April with some of the biggest advertisers in attendance. During the interview, Yaccarino asked several questions revolving around Twitter's relationship with advertisers, and Musk reportedly “tried to woo the roomful of marketers with some of his messaging” and “took a handful (several overly fawning)” of questions from the audience.

Following the interview, NBCUniversal and Twitter hosted a private dinner between Musk and numerous top chief marketing officers and publishing executives to address their concerns. The group reportedly planned to meet again in the coming months.

NBCUniversal maintained its relationship with Twitter throughout Musk’s chaotic tenure, continuing to advertise on the platform and announcing new partnerships

Since Musk has taken over Twitter, the company has lost nearly 50% of its monthly ad revenue — trending down from $141 million in October 2022 to $71 million in March 2023 — according to a previous Media Matters analysis. Advertisers have fled the company, at least in part because of concerns that their ads would appear next to harmful content after Musk loosened moderation policies and gutted the company’s moderation team.

Despite other companies fleeing, Yaccarino publicly called for advertisers to hear Musk out in the weeks after he took over the company, and NBCUniversal remained an advertiser and top media partner with Twitter throughout his tenure.

During Twitter’s presentation to ad buyers on May 3 — roughly a week before announcing Yaccarino as CEO — the company even announced that it is working with NBCUniversal on expanding their partnership for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Yaccarino has repeatedly interacted with Musk since he took over the platform, liking his tweets about the company and others pushing right-wing talking points

Yaccarino has mentioned Musk in various tweets in recent weeks and she has repeatedly liked his tweets since he took over Twitter, including those about the company and others pushing right-wing talking points.

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/gov-greg-abbott-refused-connect-texas-recent-devastating-rain-and-flooding

no lnx many vids

gov. Greg Abbott refused to connect Texas’ recent devastating rain and flooding to climate change. National TV networks largely stayed silent as well.

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY TED MACDONALD

PUBLISHED 08/25/22

Between August 21 and August 22, nearly 15 inches of rain fell over the Dallas/Fort Worth area, leading to severe flooding and at least one death and marking the second-highest rainfall amount ever recorded at the area's airport. This record-breaking, extreme rainfall event was bad enough for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign a disaster declaration on Tuesday. But he refused to connect the flooding to climate change, and in reporting on the event, national TV networks largely stayed silent as well.

Over a two-day period from August 22 to 23, news shows on TV networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC aired 61 combined segments or weather reports on Texas’ extreme rainfall and flooding. Only 10 of them (16%) mentioned climate change.

This is despite the fact that the event is being talked about as a “1-in-1,000-year flood,” and scientists are linking this event to climate change. According to the Texas Tribune:

The rise in average temperatures brought by climate change can strongly affect extreme precipitation events by increasing the intensity of rainfall during storms, climate scientists have found. Such events could become more frequent in the coming decades as the effects of climate change worsen.

In Texas, rainfall intensity has increased by about 7% since 1960. And the risk of extreme precipitation events across the state is increasing even as the Western half of the state has generally seen a flat or declining trend in precipitation totals over the past century, according to a 2021 report by the state’s climatologist.

Texas could experience 30% to 50% more events of extreme rain by 2036 compared to 1950-1999, the report found.

In general, climate change has helped worsen precipitation and flooding worldwide.

NBC was the only corporate broadcast TV news network to mention climate change while reporting on Texas’ extreme precipitation event

NBC mentioned climate change in 4 of its 9 segments (44%) on Texas’ extreme precipitation event. Of those 4, 3 came on their morning news program Today, and one was on its evening news program NBC Nightly News. A good example came from the August 23 edition of the third hour of Today, where both NBC’s Sam Brock and NBC’s weather anchor Al Roker linked the event to climate change.

Video Citation From the August 23, 2022, edition of NBC's Today

ABC and CBS, meanwhile, aired 9 segments and 6 segments, respectively. None of these segments connected the event to climate change.

Cable news networks CNN and MSNBC aired only a combined 6 climate segments

MSNBC mentioned climate in only 3 of 11 segments (27%). A good example came during an interview with Beto O’Rourke on the August 23 edition of The ReidOut, where he stated, “We're there for those who are undergoing the worst flooding and the worst rainfall that we've seen in a thousand years in this part of Texas. But, Joy, to your point, these are the consequences of our emissions, our inaction in the face of the consequences of climate change, and our inability to take the right steps, the action necessary to confront this before it's too late.”

Video From the August 23, 2022, edition of MSNBC's The ReidOut

CNN mentioned climate change in only 3 of its 26 segments (12%) on Texas’ extreme precipitation event. Of those 3, 2 came on the August 22 and 23 editions of The Lead with Jake Tapper. The other came during the August 23 edition of New Day.

National TV networks do a much better job of connecting climate change to extreme heat and drought events than to other extreme weather

While all extreme weather events are deadly and carry their own climate connections, national TV news has done a much better job this year connecting climate change to extreme heat and drought events than to other extreme weather. Over a five-day period between August 12 and 16, 57% of combined segments on global extreme weather events mentioned climate change. The large majority of these climate mentions came in segments on extreme heat or drought. Additionally, over another five-day period between July 19 and 23, 40% of combined global extreme heat segments mentioned climate change.

Contrast this with extreme precipitation events. Over an eight-day period between June 14 and June 21, these same networks aired 49 combined segments on flooding in Yellowstone National Park. Only 7 of these Yellowstone segments (14%) mentioned climate change.

This discrepancy occurs even though over the past five weeks, there have been five 1,000-year rain events. All of these events have hit abnormally dry areas. Writing in The Washington Post, Matthew Capucci notes that “the weather facing the nation bears the fingerprint of a warming world. While it seems contradictory, both drought and flooding are closely tied to human-driven warming and are altering our environment and how we interact with it.”

These extremely rare precipitation events are not new, either. For example, extreme rainfall in Newark, New Jersey, last year due to Hurricane Ida was a 1,000-year event. Destructive Western European floods in 2020 were a 500-year event. Going further back, 2017’s Hurricane Harvey in Texas was a 1,000-year event. Given these facts, there’s just no excuse for TV news not to be connecting these extreme precipitation events to climate change.

National TV news also shows a bias toward the Northeast legacy media and power corridor when it comes to extreme precipitation events

While these extreme precipitation events are occurring all across the U.S., it’s generally the Northeast U.S., where major media outlets are located, that receives the brunt of coverage. Evlondo Cooper of Media Matters made this point last year while discussing Hurricane Ida:

Unlike coverage of Hurricane Ida’s landfall in Louisiana at the end of August -- which included few climate mentions, discussions about the need to shore up vulnerable infrastructure against the new climate normal, or calls for political action -- national cable news coverage of Ida’s impact on the Northeast was more substantive, and even included in-depth discussions about the need to improve and protect valuable infrastructure on the East Coast.

Cable news coverage on September 2 mentioned that climate change drove Ida’s destructiveness dozens of times, and 26 segments mentioned the storm’s impact on infrastructure or the need for climate resiliency. Throughout the day, cable news hosts featured public officials from impacted communities in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania who made the case for why their areas needed more climate-resilient infrastructure.

It’s the poorest communities, and those that generally have contributed the least to climate change, that will be hit the hardest by climate-fueled weather events. TV networks are willing to make the rain and flooding connection to climate change in places like New York, and they need to do it in places like Texas and the Southeast too.

Greg Abbott is a climate denier. National TV news should not follow his lead on climate silence

Abbott, like many of his fellow Republicans in Texas, is a climate denier. It’s no surprise that he ignored the climate links to the recent flooding event. However, he holds office in a state that, in addition to the recent bout of rain and flooding, has suffered through climate-fueled drought and extreme heat this summer; suffered a polar vortex two years ago that proved that the state's electrical grid is not prepared for climate change; and suffered through the deadly Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

TV networks need to do a better job of linking the climate crisis to extreme weather events and also discussing how we can solve this crisis and better prepare for these events in the future. It should not be following the lead of someone who peddles antiquated climate denial views.

Methodology

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight; CBS’ Mornings and Evening News; and NBC’s Today and Nightly News as well as all original programming on CNN and MSNBC for any of the terms “precipitation,” “storm,” “disaster,” or “weather” or any variations of either of the terms “flood” or “rain” within close proximity of any of the terms “Texas,” Dallas,” “Fort Worth,” or “Tarrant” from August 22, 2022, through August 23, 2022.

We counted segments, which we defined as instances when Texas’ historic rain and flooding event was the stated topic of discussion or when we found “significant discussion” of Texas’ rain or flooding event. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the rain or flooding event with one another. We also included weather reports, which we defined as instances when Texas’ rain or flooding event was the stated topic of discussion by a meteorologist in front of a green screen.

We did not include passing mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker mentioned the rain or flooding event, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the host or anchor promoted a segment about the rain or flooding event coming up later in the broadcast.

We then reviewed each segment or weather report for mentions of the terms “climate” or “global warming.”

IN THIS ARTICLE

Broadcast Networks. cable

National TV networks get better at linking climate change to extreme weather events, but still largely fail to mention solutions

08/18/22 2:42 PM EDT

National TV networks do a poor job of mentioning causes of (and solutions to) climate change in segments on global extreme heat

07/27/22 3:32 PM EDT

National TV networks mention climate change in 32% of segments on global extreme heat

07/19/22 3

National TV networks mention climate change in 32% of segments on global extreme heat

07/19/22

Punishing extreme heat is affecting countries all across the globe this week. Extreme “red” heat warnings were issued in the United Kingdom for the first time, and Wales recorded its highest-ever temperature. At least 1,100 people have died in Spain and Portugal due to the extreme heat, which has fueled wildfires there and in parts of France. The Midwestern U.S. and Central Asia are suffering from extreme heat as well.

The European heat is truly exceptional, and its connections to the climate crisis are unquestionable. As climate reporter Andrew Freedman recently noted on Twitter, “the word ‘unprecedented’ is as overused as the phrase ‘the new normal,’ but the extreme heat event underway in Europe truly is historic. And it would not be as hot without human-caused global warming.”

Despite the clear links between climate change and extreme heat, corporate broadcast and cable TV news programs failed to consistently connect climate change to these global extreme heat events. Out of 62 combined segments and weather reports discussing the historic heat waves on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC, from July 16-18, only 20 (32%) mentioned climate change. The vast majority of extreme heat segments mentioning climate (16) were related to the European heat wave.

News shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC ran a combined 27 global heat segments – 37% of them mentioned climate change

From July 16-18, corporate broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC aired 10 mentions of climate change related to extreme heat, and 7 of those mentions were in the context of reporting on the European heat wave.

Climate change was mentioned in 5 of ABC’s 12 extreme heat segments (42%). Four of those segments were in the context of European heat, and 1 in the context of U.S. heat. The latter mention was by meteorologist Ginger Zee on the July 18 edition of World News Tonight and represented the only climate mention in a weather report on corporate broadcast news.

Meanwhile, NBC aired 9 segments covering the extreme heat, with 3 of them (33%) mentioning climate change – 2 in the context of U.S. heat, and 1 in the context of European heat. CBS aired 6 extreme heat segments, with 2 (33%) mentioning climate change – both came in the context of European heat.

The July 18 edition of CBS Mornings included a good example of how extreme weather coverage can benefit from interviews with experts in the field who can credibly communicate the science and urgency of action to viewers. CBS correspondent Roxana Saberi interviewed Kirsty McCabe of the U.K.’s Royal Meteorological Society, who stated that “climate change has everything to do with the extreme weather that we're seeing at the moment – and it's human-induced climate change, it’s not a natural variation.” She later stated that “if we don't do something now and take drastic action, we will continue to see these things happening.

[vid? the July 18, 2022, edition of CBS Mornings

broken down by region, the corporate broadcast networks aired 11 news segments on the European heat, 10 segments on U.S. heat, and 6 that combined both European and U.S. heat.

In June, these same networks mentioned climate in just 9% of combined segments on various extreme weather events happening around the globe. Last week, they mentioned climate in a combined 38% of segments on the Washburn Fire, which threatened Yosemite National Park and its iconic sequoias.

Cable TV networks CNN and MSNBC ran a combined 31 segments on global extreme heat – 10 of them, or 32%, mentioned climate change

MSNBC aired 10 segments on extreme heat, and 7 of them (70%) mentioned climate change – making them the best-performing network reviewed in this time period. Four mentions came in segments about European heat, 2 on both European and U.S. heat, and 1 specific to extreme heat in Texas. MSNBC also featured the only mention by cable news of climate change in a weather report, which occurred while reporting on the European heat wave on the July 18 edition of Katy Tur Reports.

CNN ran 21 such segments, and only 3 (14%) mentioned climate change. All 3 came in the context of covering European heat. While lacking in climate mentions during its extreme heat coverage, the network featured one segment that did a particularly good job of putting these events within the context of the climate crisis and articulating the high stakes of climate inaction. During the 5 a.m. hour of the July 16 edition of CNN Newsroom, the reporter stated that “the extreme heat and drought fuelling what scientists say is a sign of the effects of climate change,” before going to climate scientist Michael Mann to explain further. Later in the segment, the reporter stated, “As the mercury climbs, scientists again warning [that] without addressing the climate crisis, weather events like this will grow more common and more extreme."

[vid]

broken down by region, these networks aired 19 segments on the European heat, 10 segments that combined both European and U.S. heat, 5 segments on U.S. heat (two of which were specific to Texas), and one segment on the heat wave currently affecting Asia.

In June, these networks mentioned climate in a combined 21% of segments on various extreme weather events. Last week, they mentioned climate in 37% of segments on the Washburn Fire.

Notably, Fox News ran 4 weather reports on extreme heat, and none of them mentioned climate change. Two were specific to U.S. heat, and 2 combined both U.S. and European heat. We did not include Fox’s numbers in the full dataset due to the network's long history of downplaying the severity of climate change.

The heat will only worsen this week (especially in parts of Europe), so these networks have an opportunity to better incorporate climate change in their reporting

Temperatures are expected to remain very high in the U.K. and France through July 19. Numerous record-high temperatures may be set in the Midwestern U.S. as well on this date, giving these networks an opportunity to accurately report on climate change in their extreme heat reporting throughout the rest of the week.

Methodology...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/stealing-2024-election/

there's only one way to stop Republicans from stealing the 2024 election

Amanda Marcotte Salon

May 17, 2021

Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw was pretty angry with NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday's episode of "Meet the Press." Todd was uncharacteristically determined to hold the Republican's feet to the fire, calling him out for his support of Donald Trump's Big Lie.

"Why should anybody believe a word you say if the Republican Party itself doesn't have credibility?" the host asked. When Crenshaw, clearly annoyed at being called out for his B.S., retreated by whining that "the press is largely liberal," Todd was rightly contemptuous, retorting, "There's nothing lazier than that excuse!"

At stake: Crenshaw's support for Trump's false claims that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election, claims that Trump used to justify an attempted coup and to incite an insurrection on January 6. Crenshaw's main role in all of that, as Todd pointed out, was joining a lawsuit filed by Texas' Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton which leveraged false accusations of "fraud" in a failed attempt to get the Supreme Court to throw out the results of the election. During the interview, Crenshaw hid behind a line that is increasingly popular among Republicans who are trying to wave off questions about their support for Trump's attempted coup: "[I]t's time to move on."

Republicans are increasingly circling around this talking point. They insist that the coup is ancient history and that it's churlish to keep rehashing who did and did not join in efforts to overturn democracy. It's the favored justification for the ouster of Wyoming's Rep. Liz Cheney from House GOP leadership, with Republicans claiming it's not that she refuses to support Trump's election lies so much as that she just keeps going on about it. And it was the line that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., trotted out last week, while trying to wave off media inquiries about the GOP's increasingly fierce backing of Trump's Big Lie: "I don't think anyone is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. I think that is all over with, we're sitting here with the President today."

The problem with this "water under the bridge" approach is twofold. First, it should be self-evident that seditious behavior should not be so easily forgotten or forgiven. Second, Republicans themselves have not moved on from the attempted insurrection or the lies that Trump used to justify it. On the contrary, Republican leaders have spent the past four months actively moving not just to turn Trump's Big Lie into GOP canon but to use it to justify laying the groundwork for Trump or some other GOP nominee to successfully steal the 2024 election.

"[I]f the current Republican Party controls both Houses of Congress on Jan. 6, 2025, there's no way if a Democrat is legitimately elected they will get certified as the president-elect," Erica Newland of Protect Democracy recently told Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times. As Goldberg goes on to detail, since the insurrection, Republicans "have systematically attacked the safeguards that protected the last election" — and not just with voter suppression laws, either.

Republican officials or politicians who stood against Trump's efforts to steal the election are being driven out of office and new laws are being passed to allow GOP-controlled state legislatures to invalidate the results of any election that a Democrat wins. Republicans are also passing harsh "electoral integrity" laws that are actually more about using threats of prosecution to intimidate election officials into looking the other way from GOP efforts to steal elections. And, as Goldberg writes, they are clearly lining up to justify it when a GOP-controlled House simply refuses to certify a Democratic winner of the 2024 election.

As Matt Gertz at Media Matters documented last week, the propaganda apparatus for the GOP — especially Fox News — has "responded to Donald Trump's 2020 defeat by institutionalizing his lie that the election was stolen and laying the groundwork to rig the next presidential election in favor of the GOP." Gertz writes:

Fox's propagandists are getting ready. They are cheering on the GOP's purges of officials insufficiently committed to authoritarian rule in the U.S. They are validating and valorizing the Capitol insurrectionists as patriots simply "there to support the president of the United States and defend our republic" rather than a collection of extremists. They are falsely claiming that Democratic pro-democracy legislation before Congress would "destroy the credibility of all future elections," while defending Republican efforts to restrict voting rights in the states.

In a piece at **The Bulwark last month**, Jonathan Last laid out how the GOP has been busy "removing the Republican officials who were not willing to comply [with the coup] last time" and plotting out "how a Republican can win the presidency even while losing the popular vote and the Electoral College," i.e. how to steal the next election. Mona Charen,part of the small and shrinking group of Republicans who still believe in democracy, warned in another piece at The Bulwark last week that "the 2024 mantra" of the GOP "is going to be 'Steal It Back.'"

I got a taste this weekend when I tweeted out Goldberg's piece. I got a vicious reaction, as one conservative tweeter after another retorted by with variations of the argument that they are entitled to steal the 2024 election as revenge for Biden stealing the 2020 election. Of course, this is a lie — Biden won fair and square — but it was a small indicator of how "steal it back" is, indeed, becoming the Republican mantra.

This has all happening a mere four months into Biden's presidency. Republicans still have three and a half more years to keep building the political will and infrastructure necessary to steal the election in 2024, and clearly have every intention of doing so.

Democrats, meanwhile, seem wholly unable to take measures to slow down the coup train, between letting the filibuster kill any hope of passing bills to prevent these Republican manuevers and Biden's unwillingness to unleash the Justice Department to hold Trump accountable for his many crimes, which would take Trump out of the equation in 2024. The only real obstacle to the GOP successfully stealing the 2024 election is the mainstream media continuing to call out Trump's Big Lie and those Republicans who continue to support it. The public's refusal to be complacent is the main reason Trump failed to steal the 2020 election, and if there's any hope of stopping Republicans from pulling it off in 2024, the public must stay alert and ready to fight for their democracy. That's why Republicans are trying to bully journalists into shutting up about the insurrection already.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

chuck Todd slammed for 'malfeasance of journalism' for allowing pro-Trump Republican to spew 'blatant lies'

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

November 23, 2020

Chuck Todd is once again under fire, as calls mount to fire the host of NBC News' once-venerated "Meet the Press."...

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/nbc-news-fires-back-at-tucker-carlson-for-dangerously-and-dishonestly-attacking-a-journalist/

on Wednesday night, Fox News' Tucker Carlson brought on a guest, Darren Beattie — a former speechwriter for the president — toslam NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny for her story on harassment campaigns that Donald Trump supporters have conducted online.And NBC News, in an official statement issued on Thursday, struck out to "vigorously" defend Zadrozny.

NBC News said, "Over the past several years, journalists from news organizations around the world have put themselves at risk in order to shine a light in the dark corners of society and the internet — specifically, in the realm of conspiracy theories and online extremism. Last night on Fox News Channel, Tucker Carlson dangerously and dishonestly targeted one of those journalists: Brandy Zadrozny. Brandy represents the best of investigative journalism and of NBC News. She is relentlessly well-researched and sophisticated in her understanding of disinformation and conspiracy theories on the internet and within some social media communities."

NBC News went on to say, "Fox News has chosen to smear Brandy. In doing so, they have shamefully encouraged harassment and worse. Fortunately, any effort to intimidate Brandy is doomed to failure. NBC News couldn't be prouder of Brandy, and we will continue to vigorously support her work."

Beattie left the White House in 2018 after CNN reported that in 2016, he had attended an event that included white nationalists. The former Trump speechwriter has accused Zadrozny of using "data search engines to dox the personal information of anonymous Trump supporters online." But Ben Collins, one of Zadrozny's colleagues at NBC News, tweeted that Beattie seriously distorted Zadrozny's reporting.

On Wednesday night, Collins tweeted, "Tucker Carlson is devoting an entire segment to attacking my colleague, Brandy Zadrozny, for doing actual reporting, like using public records to confirm identities of people who create harassment campaigns. It's disgraceful. She's the best reporter I know. I'm with her 1000%."

Collins, in a Twitter thread, went on to say, "That was a hideously unethical segment by Tucker Carlson, framing using basic reporting tools like public records searches as some sort of evil act. To do it to a mom, and one of the best people I know, is disgusting. I won't forget it."

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/employees-livid-at-nbc-after-network-rewards-trump-with-solo-town-hall-after-debate-withdrawal-report/

920

were we not seeing progress?

only 4% of wildfire segments on ABC, CBS, and NBC mentioned climate change

August was a turbulent month for wildfire activity in the Western U.S. California alone suffered through two of its largest wildfires in recent history, and there are more than 80 other large, active fires burning in 15 states. Record-breaking temperatures and climate change are playing a role in the size and scale of the fires, and the coronavirus pandemic is complicating efforts to contain the blazes and safely evacuate those in their path.

Media Matters found that ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 114 segments about wildfires on their morning and evening news shows from August 1 to August 31. Only five of the 114 wildfire segments -- just 4% of them -- mentioned climate change.

Tucker Carlson’s wildly deceptive edit of Stephanie Ruhle reveals his contempt for the working class

During his April 9 show, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson raged at NBC senior business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle for purportedly claiming it was “a positive sign” that millions of people are unemployed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. There was just one problem: As noted virtually immediately by my colleague Parker Molloy, the MSNBC footage that Carlson aired took Ruhle dramatically out of context, removing her explicit calls for more and quicker aid to workers and her sympathy for grocery workers who have contracted and even died from COVID-19.

This is part of Carlson’s act. He wants to portray himself as more concerned about workers than his targets are; in his view, they are elites concerned only with their own well-being.

The full context of Ruhle’s comments -- and what Carlson chose to cut -- reveals this deceptive segment as just another Fox News lie. Ruhle actually expressed more concern for the well-being of the workers than Carlson has, calling for more government action to help them during this unprecedented crisis. Ruhle earlier in the day interviewed Zenobia Shepherd, who railed at the lack of protections after her daughter Leilani Jordan, a grocery store worker with cerebral palsy, died from COVID-19.

Rather than engage with Ruhle substantively on policy, Carlson just wants to hurl insults and push workers back into society much more quickly than medical experts recommend -- all while portraying himself as working people’s best friend.

‘A weak man with delusions of competence’: Trump buried for lying his way through the daily pandemic press conferences

Written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story March 21, 2020

In a brutally blunt piece for the New York Times, columnist Jennifer Senior went scorched earth on Donald Trump for his lie-filled performances in the now daily press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic — suggesting the media call them what they are: presidential “propaganda.”

Following a day when the combative Trump attacked NBC reporter Peter Alexander for merely asking what he could say to the public that is living in fear of the pandemic, Senior said enough is enough.

pod save wishes press pundit wd not do TV criticism, different skillset, not qual [and beside the pt?!]

an 1119

...Depending on who your ask, the testimony so far has been either “very damaging” to the president or “the worst show on earth.” It was “substantive, but it wasn’t dramatic.”

The views expressed in that first sentence are courtesy of the two conflicting faces of Fox news, represented by Chris Wallace (“very damaging ) and Sean Hannity (the “worst show” part).

The opinion in the second is the assessment of an analysis posted on NBCNews.com written by Jonathan Allen, a Washington-based national political reporter.

“There’s time for Democrats to tell a more compelling version of the story,” Allen writes, “keeping in mind that the attention span of most Americans doesn’t match that of most C-SPAN viewers.”

....

919 dereg nat

(de)regulation nation

oops

bad

Unless voters evict Trump from the White House in 2020, his fight to strip California’s authority to set its own air pollution standards is almost certain to end up in the Supreme Court.

A duo of legal experts from Yale and San Francisco State universities are arguing that the court’s current conservative majority is so willing to take decisions off the rails of legal precedent, that it might skew environmental and climate cases like that one for decades to come.

“In their challenge to the Affordable Care Act, a challenge that ultimately came within a hair’s breadth of succeeding, conservatives took arguments once considered absurd and beyond the pale ‘from off the wall to on the wall,’” they write.

“If Congress enacts climate change legislation, the Supreme Court could be expected to recycle this playbook, and to rely on implausible legal arguments to evaluate and, in all likelihood, strike down the law.”

better

There has been So. Much. Great. climate-change-related coverage across news outlets large and small this week. Congratulations, Covering Climate Nowand all the news teams who’ve jumped on board. (Now, keep it up.)

My biggest praise for a groundbreaking political report goes to NBC News, for uncovering how the Trump administration ignored and buried research by its own Customs and Border Protection linking the large number of Central American migrants coming to the US southern border with the impacts of climate change on their farms.

CBP found that climate change-driven crop failures are contributing to such intense poverty and near-starvation on Guatemalans, that fleeing home to embark on a difficult and dangerous overland journey to the Mexico-US line seems like a better choice than staying put.

“But inside the Trump White House, that message was largely ignored in both policy decisions and messaging around what should be done to stem the flow of migrants,” NBC News reports. “With evidence of a correlation between acute food insecurity and migration in hand, the Trump administration instead focused on an agreement with the government of Guatemala to stem the flow of immigrants through law enforcement means.”

NBC sent a reporter to Guatemala to witness and confirm the climate-change-driven human desperation that the Trump administration denies and ignores:[vid]

After her fellowship, Cullen joined The Weather Channel, becoming their initial expert on climate change topics. In October 2006 she previewed her 30-minute program, The Climate Code.^[4] In April of the following year, along with a broadband program, The Climate Code would change to an hour format, and be retitled, Forecast Earth; Cullen was part of the creation process of both shows. In November 2008, NBC, the parent company of The Weather Channel, cancelled the program.^[5]

After leaving The Weather Channel, Cullen became the chief climatologist for the not-for-profit organization, Climate Central, where she issues reports on climate topics. In addition to her responsibilities at Climate Central, she lectures at nearby Princeton University, and is a senior research fellow at the Penn's Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center.^[6] In 2010 she authored the book, The Weather of the Future, which gives one perspective of what different locations might look in the year 2050 based upon current climate modeling theories.^[7][8] She also had the capacity of chief science advisor for the Showtime series, The Years of Living Dangerously.^[9][10] She is also currently a member of the Science Advisory Board for NOAA,^[11] and sits on the Council of the American Meteorological Society.^[12]

tip pt? gimmick? follow __ UK?

https://www.ecowatch.com/meet-the-press-climate-change-2624807867.html

NBC’s Meet the Press Devotes Entire Show to Climate Change With No Time for Deniers

In an unusual move for the Sunday talk show circuit, NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd devoted its entire program Sunday to discussing climate change, and only interviewed people who acknowledge that it is a serious threat.

"We're not going to debate climate change, the existence of it," Todd said, as Mother Jones reported. "The Earth is getting hotter. And human activity is a major cause, period. We're not going to give time to climate deniers. The science is settled, even if political opinion is not." T[pix/vid?]his is a departure for Sunday talk shows, and for Meet the Press itself, Mother Jones pointed out. When the Trump administration released volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment over Thanksgiving weekend, Todd invited Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute and Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, who both disputed the science behind climate change.

But this Sunday's show broke with that pattern. It featured full interviews with climate leaders, including outgoing California Governor Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as a panel with experts Dr. Kate Marvel, NBC's Anne Thompson, Craig Fugate, Michèle Flournoy and Florida Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo, the rare GOP member who pushes for climate action.

"We need to stop covering the debate and start covering the story, so that people see that this is real, and so that politicians take a more-pragmatic approach and find solutions that are actually achievable," Curbelo said.

In both of their segments, Brown and Bloomberg, who co-chaired the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco this fall, spoke of the need for the U.S. government to step up its action on climate change. President Donald Trump has denied the importance of the issue and promised to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Brown said he wished the president and Congress would worry more about transitioning away from fossil fuels than tariffs.

"I would point to the fact that it took Roosevelt many, many years to get America willing to go into World War II and fight the Nazis. Well, we have an enemy, though different, but perhaps, very much devastating in a similar way. And we've got to fight climate change. And the president's got to lead on that," Brown said, as NBC reported. [vid] Jerry Brown: Climate change is about inventing, 'not just adapting' | Meet The Press | NBC News]

www.youtube.com

Bloomberg also criticized Trump's stance.

"You know, I've always thought Trump has a right to his opinions. But he doesn't have a right to his own facts," Bloomberg said.

But Bloomberg also put pressure on whoever may challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential race, saying that climate change needed to be a major campaign issue.

"Any candidate for federal office better darn well have a plan to deal with the problem that the Trump science advisers say could, basically, end this world," he said, The Guardian reported. "I can tell you one thing, I don't know whether I'm going to run or not, but I will be out there demanding that anybody that's running has a plan."[vid?]

Bloomberg On 2020: Any Candidate 'Better Have A Plan' On Climate Change | Meet The Press | NBC New

The show also reported that the majority of Americans are starting to take climate change more seriously, pointing to a survey from the the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason Center for Climate Change Communication showing that 70 percent of Americans think climate change is happening and 57 percent think it is human caused. The polling, and the show, follow two years of extreme weather events from hurricanes to wildfires. NBC's Anne Thompson said that more Americans were beginning to believe in climate change because, "We're starting to live climate change in real time," Meet the Press reported on its Twitter feed. AROUND THE WEB

NBC host Chuck Todd blamed Fox News and Roger Ailes for the state of distrust around American media and dinged a Christian broadcaster appearing on "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

“One of the best things going in Donald Trump’s favor — we know this — is the mainstream media,” Christian Broadcasting Network reporter David Brody said. “I hate to say it. I know I’m sitting on a Meet the Press roundtable, but the truth of the matter is 62 percent think the media is biased.”

“The conservative echo chamber created that environment,” Todd interjected. “It has been a tactic and a tool of the Roger Ailes-created echo chamber.”

“So, let’s not pretend it’s not anything other than that,” Todd continued.

“Many Americans distrust the media. It’s not just Republicans," Brody retorted.

“I’m just saying it was a campaign creation, a campaign tactic,” Todd countered. “It’s not based in much fact.”

Watch the segment below:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/11/trump-nbc-broadcast-license-243667

Trump suggests challenging NBC's broadcast license

The veiled threat opens a new front in the president's feud with the media

By LOUIS NELSON and MARGARET HARDING MCGILL 10/11/2017 10:37 AM EDT Updated 10/11/2017 02:51 PM EDT

President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that NBC’s broadcast license should be pulled as punishment for the network's reporting on his national security meetings, opening a new front in the president’s long-running battle with the press.

NBC News published a report Wednesday morning stating that Trump had surprised his national security advisers by proposing a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a July meeting. The meeting was what allegedly led Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to call Trump a “moron” — a comment that NBC first reported last week.

Trump lashed out at NBC, appearing to make a threat that is not even possible, given that the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t directly license networks.

“Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!” Trump wrote on Twitter, equating the two TV news outlets he has most often lashed out against. “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”

NBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FCC had no immediate comment.

"That was just fake news by NBC, which gives a lot of fake news lately," Trump said Wednesday during a brief interaction with the White House press pool ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write. And people should look into it."

Trump also insisted that he had never sought an increase in the U.S. nuclear stockpile, only that the arsenal be kept in "perfect condition, perfect shape." Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a statement released minutes after Trump's media availability ended, said "recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible."

"The press should speak more honestly. I mean, I've seen tremendously dishonest press. It's not even a question of distortion," Trump added. "And then they have their sources that don't exist, in my opinion, they don't exist. They make up the sources. There are no sources."

The president’s willingness to potentially challenge the broadcast licenses of a media outlet whose coverage he objects to marked an escalation in rhetoric for Trump. The president has regularly complained about coverage he views as unfairly critical, labeling stories, reporters and entire outlets “fake news.”

As a candidate, Trump threatened to "open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money." He repeated that threat in a post to Twitter in March. He also floated the idea of canceling the long-held tradition of White House press briefings, which were moved mostly off-camera for weeks last summer.

It is the second time in as many weeks that Trump has attacked NBC News. The earlier attack came after the “moron” report, which also said Tillerson had been on the verge of quitting over the summer.

Tillerson has denied that he ever considered resigning, and a State Department spokeswoman later said the secretary doesn’t use language like “moron.”

Trump, meanwhile, said the network’s news division “is so knowingly inaccurate with their reporting” and had “low news and reporting standards.”

“NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Oct. 4.

It’s unclear exactly how Trump could directly challenge a media outlet’s broadcasting license, if he chose to follow through on his veiled threat.

The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues broadcast licenses to stations and oversees license holders. It does not license networks. NBC is owned by Comcast, which holds broadcast licenses for several stations. NBC also airs on affiliate stations owned by other companies.

Local residents or competitors can file a challenge to a station’s license renewal, but the basis for such a challenge is extremely limited — it must be a case where the station systematically violated the FCC’s rules or lacked the requisite “character” to hold the license. That is usually defined as a felony conviction, said Andrew Schwartzman, a communications lawyer with the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center.

"It’s an empty threat. The last thing that NBC is going to worry about is whether its broadcast licenses are in jeopardy," Schwartzman said.

Schwartzman said the only time he could remember a large broadcaster losing its license was in the 1970s, after a New York station's management was convicted of bribery. The license renewal issue surfaced in 2012, when Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. was facing controversy over a phone-hacking scandal in Britain, but Fox’s U.S. television licenses were not revoked over the issue.

From left to right, Joe Manchin, Bob Casey and Heidi Heitkamp are pictured here. | Getty Images

CONGRESS

Senate Democrats worry Russia could jeopardize reelection bids

By KYLE CHENEY, ELANA SCHOR and CORY BENNETT

Although NBC is currently in Trump’s cross hairs, CNN has most often been the target of Trump's anger with the media. The president has sought to turn the network into something of a foil for him and his supporters, who have chanted "CNN sucks" at rallies. Trump has shared images viewed by some as encouraging violence against CNN, including a professional wrestling clip that shows the president attacking a man with a CNN logo superimposed over his head and a cartoon with a "Trump" train running over a man covered by a CNN logo.

The cable network's White House reporters have sparred often with White House press secretaries Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders during briefings, while the administration has, at times, refused to put its spokespeople and surrogates on CNN.

Trump has lobbed insults and threats at newspapers, too, most often targeting the "money losing" New York Times and The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, the owner of online retail giant Amazon.

Trump angrily lashed out at NBC News over its report that he wanted to dramatically increase the United States’ nuclear arsenal by threatening to go after the network’s broadcasting license.

“With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License?” Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. “Bad for country!”

With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017

The president also said that NBC “made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold” increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal,” which he described as “pure fiction, made up to demean.”

Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017

According to the original NBC report, Trump “said he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a gathering this past summer of the nation’s highest ranking national security leaders.” The president was reportedly incensed by a chart showing that the U.S. has actually been reducing its nuclear arsenal since the late 1960s.

According to NBC’s sources, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron” after this particular meeting. Additionally, the sources claim both Tillerson and the joint chiefs of staff pushed back against Trump, and told him why it would be unwise to start a massive nuclear arms race.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trump-wants-revoke-nbc-license

===

https://www.citizen.org/system/files/case_documents/public_citizen_storm_of_silence_harvey_climate_coverage_2.pdf

Only 43 percent of Americans report hearing about climate change in the media at least once a month.1 Only 19 percent report hearing people they know talk about global warming once a month or more,2 and 28 percent say they never hear people they know talk about it.3 In the words of Yale and George Mason University researchers, there is a “spiral of silence” on climate change in which “even people who care about the issue shy away from discussing it because they so infrequently hear other people talking about it — reinforcing the spiral.”4

....

This report examines media coverage of climate change in the context of a major event—Hurricane Harvey—starting on the day it first made landfall, Friday, August 25, 2017, and ending the following Friday, September 1, 2017. It considers eighteen sources: ten major newspapers, three weekly news magazines, and national programming from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News Network. The relevance of climate change to events like Hurricane Harvey is clear in multiple respects: (1) warmer ocean temperatures lead to stronger winds; (2) warmer air leads to more rain (and therefore flooding); and (3) higher sea levels worsen storm surges.7 This analysis first counts the number of articles that simply raise climate change in the context of Harvey. It then considers whether each piece generally accepts or denies the role climate change (or, if news reporting, gives a platform to deniers) and whether it covers any of seven aspects of the climate issue in the context of disasters like Harvey

...

A few conclusions stand out: 

ABC andNBC did not mention climate change in the context of Harvey at all.8 Only one other news source, The New York Post, failed to clear that minimal hurdle. Climate coverage was highly concentrated among a handful of outlets. The top four outlets by volume of pieces that mention climate (The Washington Post, CNN, The Houston Chronicle, and The New York Times) produced 72 percent of pieces that mention it (98 pieces). The remaining 28 percent of coverage, 38 pieces, was scattered across 10 sources. That figure includes three pieces that deny any connection between climate change and Harvey, as well as two more that give voice to deniers or skeptics. (Again, three sources failed to mention climate change at all.) 

...

===

NBC News is catering to Trumpin part of its ongoing war with the press, the Trump administration has blacklisted and freezed out CNN. Even today, Vice President Mike Pence appeared on four morning shows, but not on CNN's. Rather than asking why this is happening, a better question is why NBC News and MSNBC are catering to Trump. I took a deep dive into how NBC is elevating voices that are accommodating Trump -- and pushing out voices that are not.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/nbc-bed-trump

apprentice cont

Chuck Todd,NBC News Political Director, actually asserted during an appearance on Morning Joe,“It’s not our job to inform viewers when Republicans lie.” This is what journalism has come to -- in the context of one of the most intense disinformation campaigns in history attacking the Affordable Care Act. What do Chuck Todd and NBC think journalists should do?

exxon busted, jrnl fail

http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/11/13/network-evening-news-programs-yet-to-address-wh/206839

In recent months, media investigations have revealed that Exxon Mobil peddled climate science denial for years after its scientists recognized that burning fossil fuels causes global warming, prompting New York's Attorney General to issue a subpoena to Exxon and all three Democratic presidential candidates to call for a federal probe of the company. But despite these developments, the nightly news programs of allthree major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have failed to air a single segment addressing the evidence that Exxon knowingly deceived its shareholders and the public about climate change.

Media Reports Revealed Exxon's Acceptance Of Climate Science Pre-Dated Its Funding Of Climate Denial, Prompting Calls For Investigations

Media Report: Email Shows "Exxon Knew Of Climate Change In 1981 ... But It Funded Deniers For 27 More Years."On July 8, InsideClimate News and The Guardian reported on an email from a former Exxon employee that was highlighted by the Union of Concerned Scientists. InsideClimate News noted that the email showed "Exxon scientists studied the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming as far back as 1981," and that "company's early awareness of climate change and willingness to factor it into business decisions starkly contrasts with the path it took a decade later, when it led efforts to cloud public understanding of climate science and delay action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide." The Guardian similarly reported that ExxonMobil "knew as early as 1981 of climate change -- seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm's own scientists. Despite this, the firm spent millions over the next 27 years to promote climate denial." The Guardian further reported:

NBC

How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2024

Capitol riotTrump's Jan. 6 pardons face pushback from Republican senators

In April, Yaccarino gave Musk a platform to address advertisers’ concerns and provided him access to major companies

NBCUniversal maintained its relationship with Twitter throughout Musk’s chaotic tenure, continuing to advertise on the platform and announcing new partnerships

Yaccarino has repeatedly interacted with Musk since he took over the platform, liking his tweets about the company and others pushing right-wing talking points

News shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC ran a combined 27 global heat segments – 37% of them mentioned climate change

Cable TV networks CNN and MSNBC ran a combined 31 segments on global extreme heat – 10 of them, or 32%, mentioned climate change

The heat will only worsen this week (especially in parts of Europe), so these networks have an opportunity to better incorporate climate change in their reporting

Methodology...

there's only one way to stop Republicans from stealing the 2024 election

chuck Todd slammed for 'malfeasance of journalism' for allowing pro-Trump Republican to spew 'blatant lies'

(de)regulation nation

bad

better

NBC’s Meet the Press Devotes Entire Show to Climate Change With No Time for Deniers

Media Reports Revealed Exxon's Acceptance Of Climate Science Pre-Dated Its Funding Of Climate Denial, Prompting Calls For Investigations

Capitol riot Trump's Jan. 6 pardons face pushback from Republican senators